News Digest
Bush OKs $1.4 billion food aid
for Soviets
WASHINGTON — President Bush approved
an additional $1.4 billion in food aid Wednes
day for the Soviet Union, and for the first time
gave the assistance directly to the Soviet re
publics rather than the central government.
The House also voted 350 to 78 to normalize
trade with the Soviet Union by approving the
granting of most-favored-nation status, which
would reduce tariffs to the lowest possible
level. The action also must be approved by the
Senate.
The Senate Finance Committee approved
■
the measure by a voice vote. The measure was
expected to win approval in the full chamber
within a few days.
The administration’s aid package is intended
to help the disintegrating country cope with
food shortages this winter.
Agriculture Secretary Edward Madigan said
there already is “evidence of hoarding” in the
Soviet Union.
In Congress, there were warnings of famine
and political disintegration threatening control
of the Soviet nuclear arsenal.
Intelligence sources likened the current
atmosphere in the Soviet Union to that of the
dismal 1930s and said there was a potential lor
anarchy if food shortages spread during the
winter.
Mindful of the political backlash against
foreign aid, the administration portrayed the
assistance as a boon for hard-pressed U.S.
farmers.
“This is not a foreign program that we’re
talking about here,” Madigan said, announcing
the aid at a White House briefing.
“This is a domestic program that has as its
intent moving U.S. grain out of the U.S. market
to the benefit of American farmers who will
make these sales and then will spend that
money in the American economy buying pickup
trucks and buying other things that arc manu
factured in urban areas,” the secretary said.
The United States has committed itself to
nearly $4 billion in loan guarantees over the
last year for Soviet purchases of U.S. farm
products.
Two of three in AP poll say
economy still getting worse
NEW YORK — With finan
cial news grim and politicians
badly divided on how to re
spond, two in three Americans
in an Associated Press poll say
the economy is getting worse,
but they think the government
can help.
Of throe proposals for changes
to help the nation’s economy,
the most popular is a cut in
federal taxes paid by middle
income Americans, which 79
percent say they want.
A cut in capital gains taxes
paid by investors, which Presi
dent Bush favors, has 41 per
cent support, with 40 percent
opposed and 19 percent unsure.
Cuts in interest rates appeal to
76 percent, with 17 percent
opposed and 7 percent uncer
tain.
Asked whether any of these
proposals would succeed in
helping the nation’s economy,
64 percent say yes, and only 23
percent say no.
For the poll, ICR Survey
Research Group of Media, Pa.,
interviewed 1,012 adults in a
random national sample. The
* margin of sampling error is plus
or minus 3 percentage points.
The poll was conducted from
Friday, when the stock market’s
Dow average suffered its fifth
biggest point decline ever,
through Tuesday, when Bush
tried to allay fears with upbeat
talk.
“Inflation is down,” Bush said.
“Interest rales are way down.
Personal debt is down. Invento
ries arc down. Quality is up.
Exports are up.”
The poll found that 69 per
cent say the economy is getting
worse, 5 percent say it’s getting
better, and 25 percent say it’s
staying the same.
Asking people whether they
think the nation’s economy is
getting better or worse is influ
enced not just by such develop
ments as the stock market plunge,
but by personal experiences such
as knowing someone who has
been laid off, or being unable to
gel full-lime work or a raise.
The results show growing
gloom since the AP poll of June
26-30, when 47 percent said the
economy is getting worse, 18
percent said better and 33 per
cent said it would stay the same.
In a comparable poll in Septem
ber, only two in live thought the
economy was worsening.
- In another poll released
Wednesday, the ABC News
AP
Money magazine Consumer Com fort
Index tied its all-time low, as a record
89 percent rated the economy’s con
dition as “not so good” or “poor.”
Hundreds rescued in
bombed-out Croat city
ZAGREB, Yugoslavia — Relief
workers evacuated hundreds of sick
and wounded Wednesday from a
bombed-out hospital in the Croatian
city of Vukovar, where they were
trapped for weeks by a Serbian siege.
A European Community spokes
man said 19 ambulances and 20 buses
loaded with patients pulled out of the
shattered city and were believed bound
for Sremska Mitrovica, a Serbian town
near Belgrade. About 60 of the 400
sick and wounded remained behind,
apparently too weak to travel.
Officials had planned to evacuate
the wounded, mostly Croats, to Croatia,
but that was deemed unsafe due to the
continuing war between Croatian
forces and Serbs and thcirallics in the
federal army.
More than 2,000 people have died
since Croatia declared independence
from Yugoslavia on June 25.
Croatian and federal army authori
ties had agreed Tuesday to evacuate
those trapped in the shelled hospital
on the Danube River border with
Serbia.
After taking Vukovar, the Serb
dominated army took control of the
hospital, and Croatian and army ne
gotiators declared it a “neutral area”
under the auspices of the Interna
tional Red Cross.
A cease-fire held Wednesday
around the hospital, said the EC spokes
man, Ed Kocstal. But he added that
EC teams reported seeing empty
ambulances and buses being shot at
while heading toward Vukovar. It was
not clear by whom.
Army and Croatian officials met
in Zagreb, the Croatian capital, to
decide on the route of the evacuation
vehicles, which will be accompanied
by EC monitors, Koestal said.
The army and Serb militants ap
peared almost totally in control of the
eastern Croatian town, which fell over
the weekend after a three-month siege.
An army officer in Belgrade, speak
ing on condition of anonymity, said
2,000 to 2,500 Croatian fighters had
either surrendered or were captured
in the past two days.
About 5,000 people have report
edly been evacuated from Vukovar
so far. More than 10,000, including
2,000 children, were reported to have
been there when it fell.
U.N. special envoy Cyrus Vance,
in Zagreb, met the Croatian foreign
minister and premier Wednesday to
discuss deploying a peacekeeping
force.
Vance visited Vukovar on Tues
day, and said later that the trip con
vinced him of the need to deploy
peacekeepers as soon as possible.
Vance, a former U.S. secretary of
state, said the devastation and human
suffering were “worse than anything
we could have expected.”
Prospects for remaining hostage releases ‘brighter’
BEIRUT, Lebanon — In another sign that
the hostage saga is drawing to a close, the
umbrella group for the hostage-holders said
Wednesday that the three remaining American
captives will be released soon. Iran indicated
that one, Joseph Cicippio, could be let go next
week.
In Washington, the White House said pros
pects for freedom for the remaining U.S. hos
tages “look brighter than they have for a long
time.”
American Thomas Sutherland, one of the
two hostages freed Monday after an exhaustive
diplomatic effort by U.N. Secretary-General
American possibly could be freed in the next week
Javier Perez dc Cuellar, recounted his ordeal to
reporters at the military hospital in Wiesbaden,
Germany, where he is recuperating.
“I could almost say it’s been worth wailing
for, but it was a heck of a long wait — 2,347
days,” said Sutherland, 60. He described being
kept in chains and in dark cells, and of once
being beaten until he screamed in pain.
The other hostage freed Monday, Church of
England envoy Terry Waite, spent a quiet day
Wednesday with his family at a British air
base.
Waite's family said he wanted to respond to
suggestions that Waite’s own efforts to free
hostages were compromised by his contacts
with former White House aide Oliver North,
who was at the center of the Iran-contra arms
for-hostages affair.
The family indicated that Waite would spend
more time recuperating before making public
statements about the matter.
In Beirut, Abbas Musawi, secretary-general
of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah, or Party of God,
said fulurc hostage releases would not be linked
to the release of Arabs detainees held by Israel
or an accounting of missing Israeli servicemen.
Since Perez dc Cuellar’s mediation drive
began in August, hostage releases had been
part of a complex overall deal involving the
Arab detainees and Israeli servicemen. That
has changed, the secretary-general told report
ers on Tuesday.
“As the kidnap factions have clearly stated,
the issue of the Western hostages is heading to
a final solution in the coming few weeks,’’
Musawi said at a news conference.
Quindlen
Continued from Page 1
home.
Quindlen said she took “a quan
. turn leap in her psyche” and became
one of the first columnists to
regulate her work “based on pre
school eligibility.”
“It has always seemed necessary
to shape my work life around my
family,” she said earlier in an inter
view.
' But Quindlen said choices to
shape career and motherhood are
not available to all women. Shaping
career and motherhood has been
possible for her with “some diffi
culty and a good deal of money,”
she said.
With all the societal changes for
women, she said a lot of effort to
help families lies with the men.
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Multicultural channels said needed
By Kim Spurlock
Staff Reporter
A need for multicultural program
ming on television exists in Lincoln,
a spokeswoman for Black Entertain
ment Television told about 100 UNL
students, faculty and Lincoln resi
dents Wednesday.
Angela Scott, affiliate marketing
manager for BET South Central re
gion, addressed an eight-person panel
at the Lincoln Public Schools admini
stration building, 5901 O St., about
the need for BET in Lincoln and other
cities.
“I believe the cable industry can
not be totally diversified without the
presence of Black Entertainment
Television and other cultural net
works,” she said.
Scott said that 31.6 million people
throughout the United States, Puerto
Rico and the Virgin Islands subscribed
to BET and that 60 percent of the
subscribers are not African-Ameri
can.
BET provides some of the cultural
diversity needed today, Scott said.
It is th is kind of programming “that
promotes the positive images of Afri
can-American people as they relate
to society,” she said. “And if our
society is to grow and prosper, we
need this type of programming for all
cultures.”
Other members of the panel in
cluded representatives from the Lin
coln Public School Board, the mayor's
office, the cable advisory board, City
Counciland Cablevision.
Although panelists agreed that BET
would help increase the knowledge
of different cultures, Jeff Jarccke sales
and marketing manager for Ca
blevision, said that adding BET to
Cablevision’s offerings may take
several years.
Jarcckc said that Cablcvision is in
the process of doubling its channel
size and that BET has met the criteria
for Cablevision and is being consid
ered as an addition.
“We ran into some time limita
tions. ... That’s not to say that we re
never going to have BET,” Jarcckc
said.
“I guess my message to you an
right now is to bear with us as we try
to proceed forward,” he said.
Some UNL students complained
of being “forced” to subscribe to
Cablcvision to have belter reception
on their televisions. And, students
said, Cablcvision is supposed to please
its subscribers, and it’s not pleasing
those who want BET.
Some members of the audience
said that if Cablcvision continued to
fail to meet their needs, they might
cancel their subscriptions.
