News Digest sSsaH— Federal army responds to Croat attacks , _ Widespread fighting breaks Yugoslav truce ■ _a of tor'll BELGRADE, Yugoslavia — Fierce and widespread fighting broke the 9-day-old truce in secessionist Croatia on Tuesday as the Serb dominated Yugoslav army went on the offen sive in response to Croat attacks on its bases. Statements from Croatia and the Yugoslav army said Tuesday’s battles were among the worst since fighting began three months ago. At least 600 people have been killed. “All indicators ultimately point toward a military solution to the problem,” said Mario Nobilo, spokesman for Croatian President Franjo Tudjman. - . . , The army seemed intent on seizing the rew remaining Croat positions in eastern Croatia before it gets bogged down by wet fall weather and low morale that has caused desertions by thousands of reservists. There was widespread speculation that the federal presidency, which was meeting Tues day in Belgrade, would order a general mobili zation to fill the depleted army ranks. Army troops and Serb rebels fought Croats in hand-to-hand combatoutsidc Sisak, 30 miles south of the Croatian capital of Zagreb, Belgrade radio reported. Naval bombardment, air attacks and artil lery shelling were reported around the Adriatic ports of Dubrovnik and Zadar. The outskirts of Dubrovnik were hit by mortars. Navy gunboats had imposed a naval blockade on Dubrovnik. Fighting raged at the southern tip of Croatia, some 20 miles outside Dubrovnik, with army reservists from Serbia’s ally, Montenegro, poised to strike,1 the Yugoslav news agency Tanjug said. Tank and infantry attacks'were reported around the towns of Vukovar and Vinkovci in eastern Croatia. Zagreb radio said the outcome of the fighting there would be crucial. Heavy fighting reportedly raged around Vukovar on Croatia’s Danube River border with Serbia. Croatian Information Minister Branko Salaj said Vukovar was “under absolutely horrible pressure.” Belgrade radio said the army suffered more than 100 casualties around Vukovar in recent days. AP photographer Srdjan I lie said at least one soldier died Tuesday in a Croatian mortar auaiK. Several convoys of at least 640 military vehicles passed through Belgrade, the Serbian and federal capital, on Monday and Tuesday cn route to the front lines in Croatia. The army seemed intent on engaging Croatian forces before the Croats could deploy 130 armored vehicles captured when the besieged federal garrisons of Varazdin and Bjelovar surrendered. It was the collapse of the 400 defenders of the Bjelovar base on Sunday that apparently prompted the sternest army warning yet to Croatia. The troops reportedly blew up the turret rings on some 30 tanks in the base and sabotaged many other vehicles. President sends plea to Haiti Ousted leader says army chief ‘mad’ PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aris tide sent impassioned appeals to his countrymen Tuesday, warning of a bloodbath and describing the army chief who sent him into exile as “power mad.” Brig. Gen. Raoul Cedras overthrew Aristide, the first democratically elected president in Haiti's nearly two centuries as a nation, on Monday. Aristide and his family were put on a plane to Caracas, Venezuela. The loll from the uprising, staged by rebel soldiers opposing Aristide’s leftist policies, rose sharply Tuesday. The Caribbean Human Rights Network, based in Barbados, said preliminary counts indicated that more than 1 (X) people died. Frantz LaMothc, a photographer who visited the General Hospital morgue in central Port-au-au-Prince, said authorities reported 140 bodies at that facility alone. American tourists holed up in the Olaffson Hotel, the setting for Gra ham Greene’s famous Haitian novel “The Comedians,” said soldiers were still shooting Tuesday and that they feared for their lives. The international airport has been closed since Monday afternoon, when rebel soldiers seized Aristide at the National Palace. Aristide, 38, was a parish priest who mobilized Haitians to vote him the country’s first freely elected presi dent since the former slave colony gained independence from France in 1804. On Tuesday, in a message to* the Haitian people, the exiled president accused Cedras, the nation’s acting army chief, of mounting the coup and warned of worse ahead. Haiti Chronology '..| \. o.g 1 '.WAW.MAW |iJ % Oct. 22 Francois “Papa Doc" Duvalier becomes president. < | --I.[..~. 8 I April 1 Duvalier is proclaimed president for life. ,-cm April 21 Duvalier dies, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc" Duvalier becomes president. Feb. 7 Duvalier flees into exile following % violent popular uprisings; Lt. Gen. Henri Namphy takes power. j——| March 29 Voters approve a new constitution; elections for president and National Assembly in the hands of an independent Electoral Council. \ Nov. 29 Election day, Assassins kilt at least 34 voters and confiscate ballots; I Election is called off and Electoral Council dissolved. _i .a.' Jan. 17 Leslie Manigat, a university professor, is elected president in army-controlled elections. June 19 Troops depose Manigat and replace him with Namphy Sept. 17 Namphy is ousted in a coup and exiled; Lt. Gen. Prosper Avril, chief of the Presidential Guard and a former Duvalier adviser, becomes president a day later. Jan. 20 Avrii declares a state ot siege after the killing of an army colonel; fifty opposition leaders are arrested, jailed and reportedly beaten and tortured; seven political leaders are exiled. March 10 Avrii steps down after anti-government demonstrations. March 13 Supreme Court Justice Ertha Pascal Trouillot takes office as president j of provisional civilian government to govern jointly with 19-member Council of State and lead nation to democratic elections Dac. 5 Seven people are killed in a grenade and bomb attack at a campaign rally for the Rev. Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Dac. 16 Aristide wins Haiti's first fully democratic election .a..i Jan. 7 An attempted military takeover by Dr. Roger Lafontant, former Duvalier aide, fails. Fab. 7 Aristide sworn in as president, retires most of Army High Command. March 22 The U S announces first direct aid since aborted elections of 1987. Sapt 25 Aristide addresses the United Nations, urging massive foreign aid. Sapt 30 Aristide overthrown by military, goes Into exile the following day. “They have a very long list of people they plan to kill still, Aristide said in a statement to the Haitian Embassy in Washington. ‘They will kill them like flics. Do everything AP possible to stop people from dying.” “It’s Gen. Raoul Cedras who mounted this coup d’etat,” Aristide added. “He started killing everyone. They’re going to kill everyone still.” Iraq dears 3 U.N. helicopters for use in weapons searches MANAMA, Bahrain — Baghdad gave final clearance Tuesday for three U.N. helicopters to enter Iraq for use by inspectors tracking down Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, a U.N. official said. Alastair Livingston, head of the regional office of the U.N. Special Commission overseeing the search, said the helicopters would make the four-hour trip to Baghdad today. He said they should be ready for surveil lance flights beginning Thursday. ■"The Iraqis gave in to U.N. de r mantis last week and agreed to allow the three helicopters, supplied by Germany, to be used by U.N. inspec tors for unrestricted flights to sus pected weapons sites. The inspection teams are operat ing under terms of the gulf war cease fire, which calls for elimination of Iraq’s long-range Scud missiles and chemical, nuclear and biological weapons and production facilities. A U.N. team that went to Baghdad on Tuesday will be the first to test v/hether Iraq will live up to the agree mcni for use of the helicopters. Previous U.N. weapons teams have had to restrict their work to the Baghdad area because they had no way to get to f other parts of Iraq. The inspectors also say they need their own helicop ters so they can make surprise visits. Douglas Englund, an American who leads the 20-member missile team, said he would use the helicopters to search western Iraq and supervise destruction of 28 known fixed-site Scud launchers used to attack Israel during the gulf war. Congress Uks oenerit extension for jobless WASHINGTON — Congress on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved legislation providing up to 20 extra weeks of benefits for the long-term unemployed, pushing the lawmakers toward a new veto showdown with President Bush. The House sent the $6.4 billion legislation to the White House on a 300-118 vote; a few hours carl ier, the Senate voted 65-35 to approve the bill. “Feel their pain, see their suffer ing, put aside the question of parti sanship,” Rep. Thomas Downey, D N.Y., one of the measure’s chief sponsors, said in remarks aimed at the president. “Recognize one plain and simple face that the people who elected you president of the United States need your help.” The victory margiq in the House was 11 votes beyond the 289 support ers would need to overturn a Bush veto, should all 433 House members vote. Fifty-five Republicans joined 244 Democrats and one independent in voting for the measure; 11 Demo crats and 107 Rcpubl icans opposed it. Republicans declared the bill dead because its Senate supporters fell two votes short of the 67 they would need should all 100 senators participate in a veto-override vole. They urged Democrats to accept a less expensive, GOP-wriltcn proposal Bush supports. The legislation is aimed at helping the 300,(XX) Americans who use up the standard 26 weeks of jobless benefits every month without finding new jobs. It would provide them with seven, 13 or 20 weeks of additional checks, depending on the unemployment rate in their state. The benefits would be paid for by federal borrowing, which would add to the budget deficit. God Squad’ Panel to consider spotted owl exemption U/ A CUIMCTHM r„.—: »_ . ..... .. . i iiivvi ivyi aw retary Manuel Lujan Jr. on Tuesday convened a special panel with the power to exempt some Pacific North west logging from Endangered Spe cies Act protection of the northern spotted owl. In a statement announcing that he was selling up what is known as the “God Squad,” Lujan said he ‘‘regrets that no solution to this problem could be found short of this action.” The move is designed to free raw materials for timber-starved mills that have witnessed dramatic logging cutbacks over the past 18 months, in pan because of measures taken to protect the threatened owl. Bureau of Land Management Di rector Cy Jamison asked Lujan to convene the Cabinet-level commit tee last month so that some limber on BLM lands in Oregon could be sold despite the threat to owl. Lujan emphasized Tuesday that the exemption, if granted, would apply to only 4,570 acres included in Jami a uiiu nui dii me iiuiiiuii't of acres of Northwest forests inhab ited by the owl. Lujan, who will serve as chairman of the seven-member committee, has 140 days to hold a hearing and exam ine evidence on the matter. He then will have 30 days to make a report to the committee, which will have 30 days to approve or deny the request. The exemption committee is known as the “God Squad” because of its authority to allow a species to go extinct due to the economic cost of saving it. Sens. Bob Packwood, R-Orc., and Slade Gorton, R-Wash., are among those who have been urging Lujan to initiate the exemption process. “I strongly endorse the secretary’s decision to convene the God Squad and will be urging him and others on the committee every step of the way to look at what has happened to the people of my state,” Packwood said in a statement. — n 1 Nebraskan E ditor ^na PedsrMn Night News Editors Chris Hoplansperger ManagingEOiKy SSi’SL,*, E ditorial Page Editor General Manager Dan ShaftII „_ral°f £rtc,fL*nn4r Production Manager Katherine Pollcky Copy Desk Editor Paul Domelar Advertising Manager Todd Seers f**3!18|8l,or Jflfk Sales Manager Eric Krlngel Assistant SDorts Editor Chuck Green Classified Ad Manager Annette Sueper “ „ Publications Board Editor John Payne Chairman Bill Vobe|da Diversions Editor Bryan Peterson 476-2856 Photo Chief Shaun Sartln Professional Adviser Don Walton ^ . 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