News Digest tssw&R—
Victorious Edwards asks for another chance
NEW ORLEANS — Louisiana Gov.-eleci
Edwin Edwards, who turned fear of ex-Klans
man David Duke into landslide victory and an
unprecedented fourth term, appealed to his
skeptics Sunday for the benefit of a doubt.
Duke, meanwhile, looked to a national agenda.
“I hope this time people will look at me less
with a jaundiced eye and recognize from time
to time I may have a good thought,” said
Edwards, who has become known as a woman
izer and gambler deft at skating on the edge of
ethics and the law.
Unofficial returns gave Edwards 61 percent
of the vote in Saturday’s election. Nearly 1.7
million of the state’s 2.2 million registered
voters went to the polls, a statewide record 78
percent turnout.
Duke, a state representative and maverick
Republican, won a majority of the while vote
despite his past leadership of a Ku Klux Klan
group and support of Nazism.
“The people were told they would lose jobs,
lose tourism,” Duke said. “They were threat
ened with the loss of their livelihood if .they
dared to vote for me. At the end, they weren t
prepared to undergo the sacrifices they d have
had to make or thought they’d have to make.
Black leaders rejoiced at church services
Sunday, as did business executives who had
warned in television ads and letters to employ
ees that a Duke election would cripple tourism,
convention business and future major sporting
events.
“I’m delighted when I think of what he
•* —
could have done to our economy,” said French
Quarter antiques dealer David Dixon, who
spent $45,000 for his own radio and television
ads. “But I think the way he was defeated—the
big margin — we emerge as a kind of knight in
shining armor around the country.”
Edwards’ first three terms were marked by
scandals, so much so that the voters shunned
him in 1987, giving the job to Buddy Roemcr.
But Roemcr finished third in the Oct. 19 open
primary.
Forced interest-rate cut attacked
Bankers: Millions would lose credit
WASHINGTON — As many as
60 million Americans could lose their
credit cards and the economy could
return to recession if Congress forces
a reduction in credit card interest rales,
bankers say.
“Something like this gels to every
consumer’s pockclbook,” said Mark
Ricdy, president of the National
Council of Community Bankers. “Is
it the straw that breaks the camel’s
back and leads us back into another
recession? If it goes through, it cer
tainly could.”
Based on a spot check of a dozen
major card-issuing banks, the Ameri
can Bankers Association estimates
that nearly half the nation’s 120 mil
lion MasterCard and Visa users would
lose their cards.
Those who keep them could face
sharply reduced credit limits, higher
annual fees and loss of the standard
25-day grace period before interest is
applied, the group said.
‘The Congress that bounces checks
at its own bank should not try to tell
real banks how to run their business,”
said Philip Corwin, the group’s direc
tor of operations and retail banking.
A plan to impose a floating ceiling
on rales won overwhelming endorse
ment in the Senate last week, a day
after President Bush suggested that
banks bring down the rates on their
own.
Friday, the Dow Jones average ol
industrial stocks plummeted 120.31
points, the steepest drop in two years.
Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady
blamed the fifth-worst decline On the
Senate legislation and predicted that
the market would rebound.
“I don’t expect that legislation ever
to see the light of day and I think the
market will understand that,” Brady
said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet The
Press.” “This is wacky, senseless
legislation.”
Brady said the legislation would
®‘rcsult in credit cards which are elit
ist; the only people who would have
credit cards would be the rich people.”
Sen. Alfonse D’Amato, R-N.Y.,
sponsor of the legislation, said on the
same program that it was “ridicu
lous” to say the legislation precipi
tated the stock market decline.
“If there was competition, this
legislation wouldn’t be necessary,”
he said. “It’s not elitist legislation.
Working-class taxpayers are being
called on to bail out the banks for the
bad loans that they have made.”
Progress slignt in talks
with China, Baker says
BEIJING — Secretary ol Slate
James Baker headed back to Wash
ington on Sunday after a mission to
China that he said produced some
progress on human rights, trade
and arms control, but not as much
as had been hoped for.
“I did not come here expecting
a dramatic breakthrough,” he said
after a five-hour session with For
eign Minister Qian Qichcn. “The
gulf is too wide to accomplish that
in one trip.”
Baker was the highest-ranking
U.S. official to visit China since
the bloody 1989 crackdown in
Tiananmen Square that set back
Sino-American relations.
President Bush has sought to
maintain a dialogue with China,
but has run into criticism from some
members of Congress.
Baker, w inding up three days of
talks with Chinese officials, said
there had been “some gains... but
not as much as we would have
hoped.”
The state-run Xinhua News
Agency quoted Qian as saying: “To
restore and develop Sino-U.S. re
lations is the common goal of the
two sides, for which both sides
have made efforts.”
The Chinese Foreign Ministry,
also quoted by Xinhua, said the
talks led to “progress on some is
sues of common concern.” The
Xinhua report did not mention
human rights, although Baker said
that was the subject of most of the
discussions.
\ " Ne\Sra&kan
Editor Jens Pedersen Night News Editora Chris Hoptensperger
472-1766 Cindy Kimbrough
Managing Editor Clans Brayton Alan Phelps
.Assoc. News Editors Stacay McKsnzIa Dion ns Searcey
Kara Walls Art Director Brian Shelllto
Opinion Page Editor General Manager Dan Shattll
& Wire Editor Eric Planner Production Manager Katharine P otic Icy
Assistant Sports Editor Chuck Or sen Classified Ad Manager Annette Sue par
Arts i Entertain- Publications Board
ment Editor John Payne Chairman BIN Vobejda
Diversions Editor Bryan Peterson 476-2855
Photo Chief Shaun Sartln Professional Adviser Don Walton
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Croatia bargains for civilians
after military loss of key town{
ZAGREB, Yugoslavia — Croatia
resigned itself Sunday to its most
damaging loss in nearly five months
of war and bargained frantically to
save thousands of trapped civilians
“waiting for death” in the town of
Vukovar.
The Yugoslav army and allied Serb
insurgents have taken 6vcr nearly all
of the strategic Danube River town in
a week of fighting with tljc Croatian
rebels, and its capture would seal
' control of a slice of eastern Croatia.
The Belgrade-based Tanjug news
agency reported from Vukovar that
some Croatian defenders were trying
to negotiate a surrender. Others fought
on despite a cease-fire that went into
effect Saturday.
A senior Croatian government
official in Zagreb, the secessionist
republic’s capital, said there wasliule
hope that the defenders could hang
on.
The official, who spoke on condi
tion of anonymity, said the govern
ment was most concerned now with
trying to stop the suffering of the
remaining 12,000 to 15,000 residents
and that would probably mean evacu
ation or surrender.
The Croatian government told the
army that if it permitted harm to civil
ians, “no one will be able to guarantee
the security of officers and soldiers of
the Yugoslav People’s Army on
Croatian territory.”
U.N. envoy Cyrus Vance arrived
in Yugoslavia on Sunday to work on
details of a possible peacekeeping
mission. But the United Nations has
said it will not send troops unless a
firm cease-fire is established.
Fighting slowed in most of Croatia,
including around the Adriatic port of
Dubrovnik, when the 13th European
Community-sponsored cease-fire in
the civil war went into effect Satur
day.
But the Serb-led forces choking
Vukovar battled on for a victory in
their three-month siege of the city.
EC spokesman Ed Kocstal said any
improvement of the army’s position,
regardless of whether fighting was
involved, was a cease-fire violation.
Croatia has been tom by civil war
since it declared independence June
25. More than 2,000people have been
killed, and Serb-led forces have cap
tured a third of the republic’s terri
tory. Serb nationalists want to make
Vukovar the capital of an new au
tonomous region carved out of Croatia.
Serbia claims that Croatia’s 600,000
ethnic Serbs would be persecuted if
the republic became independent.
Croatia says Serbia is using the mi
nority issue to seize territory as Yu
goslavia disintegrates.
Isolationism threatens to curb foreign aid
WASHINGTON — A tide of iso
lationism is sweeping Capitol Hill,
andlhcanti-forcign-aid frenzy threat
ens to slam the door on loan guaran
tees for Israel and help for the Soviet
Union.
With the economy struggling,
American politicians have turned
inward. In the last two weeks, the
House overwhelmingly killed a for
eign aid bill and Democrats were forced
to back down from a plan to send $ 1
billion in humanitarian aid to the Soviet
Union.
The flames were fanned by Senate
Majority Leader George Mitchell, D
Mainc, who proposedpaying for new
unemployment benefits for Ameri
cans by cutting future foreign-aid
spending.
Mitchell and other Democratic
leaders, notably House Majority Leader
Richard Gephardt of Missouri, have
flayed Bush for focusing most of his
attention on foreign policy and ne
glecting the home front, a theme that
proved its electoral appeal in this
month's Pennsylvania Senate elec
tion.
There, Democrat Harris Wofford
decisively beat Bush’s former attor
ney general, Dick Thornburgh, by
playing on fears of losing American
jobs overseas and emphasizing do
mestic issues, pledging to “lake care
of our own.”
With Congress about to adjourn
for the year and elections looming
less than a year away, the^utlook for
foreign aid is dismal, according to
lawmakers, lobbyists and administra
tion officials. That includes the $10
billion in loan guarantees Israel needs
to help absorb Soviet Jewish emigres,
as well as whatever aid might be
contemplated for the unraveling Soviet
Union.
“It’s going to be virtually impos
sible for the White House to win
passage of any foreign-aid bill in4he
next six months to a year,” said Rep.
David Obey, D-Wis., chairman of the
House subcommittee that controls aid
spending.
“The American public is going tc
say, ‘To hell with all this interna
tional stuff,’” Obey said in an inter
view. “And everything in the foreign
aid bill will be a casualty.”
“Mitchell has unleashed a mon
ster,” said one senior administration
official, speaking only on condition
of anonymity.
“Every 15 minutes, somebody s
going to be solving their domestic
funding problems by taking it out of
foreign aid. We’ve got our armor on.
Victories are going to be measured
for the next 12 months by what bul
lets we can dodge,” the official said.
Bush acknowledged the difficulty
in private remarks last week to U.5.
Jewish leaders in New York. Accord
ing to the notes of one participant, the
president said, “There’s just no con
stituency for foreign aid.”
And he expressed frustration with
the Democratic attacks.
“I help America with my efforts in
the foreign arena. I help exports. Can
you believe that Gephardt, criticizing
me for being in Madrid (at the Middle
East peace talks)?... We need to do
the things that are right for those who
need our help.”
