News Digest
Yeltsin encourages Russians to endure
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia —
Boris Yeltsin said Wednesday that
Russians are suffering their worst
economic crisis since World War II.
He praised them for enduring the
painful times “with their teeth clenched
hard.”
During a visit to St. Petersburg,
the Russian president promised to push
through privatization of state-con
trolled industries and sympathized with
shoppers who have been gouged by
soaring prices.
At practically every stop, he en
countered angry citizens and work
ers. But he also found some support
among the crowds that pressed around
him to shout questions or comments.
St. Petersburg Mayor Anatoly
Sobchak, who accompanied Yeltsin
throughout the day, wasn’t so lucky.
He was heckled and shouted down.
At one point, a sympathetic Yeltsin
look the microphone from Sobchak
and tried to rescue him, saying: “You
are here all of the time. I’m just here
today, so let me talk.”
Yeltsin told the people what they
wanted to hear. He criticized high
prices while strolling through crowded
markets, and he told them Russia was
a proud country that eventually would
no longer need aid from foreign coun
tries.
“Russia is free,” he said.
Yeltsin summoned memories of
the hard times during World War II,
when this city - then called Leningrad
- nearly broke under a 900-day Nazi
siege that caused mass starvation. One
of his first stops was to lay a wreath at
a war memorial.
“Not counting the Great Patriotic
War, this is the hardest time for ev
eryone who lives in Russia,” he said.
“For seven years, Soviet leaders could
not bring themselves to start such a
reform.
“If we had started them at least
two or three years ago, we would
have been out of this deep pit which
we have dug for these 74 years.”
But Russians will persevere, he
said.
“On the whole people are sticking
it out with their teeth clenched hard,”
he told reporters. “They tell me that
they will wait another six or eight
months. By the end of the year, we are
sure, economic stabilization will
begin.”
Yeltsin has been stumping for his
economic reforms since freeing price
controls on most goods Jan. 2. De
spite the hardship, he has vowed not
to back away from the changes and
has urged patience. He says his free
market policies need six to eight months
to produce results.
In the meantime, he has gotten an
earful of anger and frustration from
shoppers. He also has been criticized
AP
by some economists and the head of
the Russian legislature, Ruslan Khasbu
latov, for freeing prices before privat
izing industries that still have a choke
hold on the economy.
Smoked sausage 35 5 ^^2.7 113 6 22.4 20.7
per pound __
%*£_1S5 ■ 26.8 34.1 4.9_6 2
~J3!Smi** 23.6 54.5 4,3iO.O
Maearonl 1 1 7 $ 27.3 1.4 5
per pound ' __
White bread 0.6 2.6 >W.5 —
per loaf __
1-1 mmmm 34.1_—_6.2
ffu,_ 0-7 18 70.8-3129
%V£uT_5.5 11.4 54.5 2.1100
^?S<Cl9ar*"“ -55 7.0 10.0 1.3 1.8
WW«n'> dress shoat 42() 2,000 2,500 365 456.2
Mw^drnsshoM 260 IlflfSWW8 2,200 — 401.5
<£“£dr—,h0aa 16 m 80 2^2 1469
P£?i£i'09* 15 75 90 13.7 16.4
Women* skirt 200 900 780 164.2 142.3
Gasoline per gallon
92 octane 1' 4.0 11.0 2.1 2.1
The average Russian worker earns about 960 rubles a month as ot Jan 1, according to the Russian Ministry of Labor. That is equivalent to
about $9.60 at the floating exchange rate, calculated on the basis of ruble auctions.
Nelson unable
to fire persons
on parole board
LINCOLN — Gov. Ben
Nelson said Wednesday he can’t
fire three Parole Board mem
bers who rejected his request to
step down but he can urge the
Legislature to change the way
the board does business.
A special report from hear
ing officer Ed Perry said there is
no cause to remove Marlene
Cupp, Mike McLaughlin or
Leland Oberg from the five
member board. Nelson sought
their removal after they voted to
parole a convicted murderer who
was charged with another kill
ing a month after his release.
Meanwhile, Parole Board
Chairman Ronald Bartcc oi
Omaha resigned effective Feb.
21.
He said the resignation had
nothing to do with the contro
versy but was simply a career
advancement opportunity.
In September, Nelson sought
ihn r/'cinnulinnc r\f lhr» thmp
parole board members - two of
whom he had appointed only
months earlier. When they re
fused, he asked for an adminis
trative hearing.
Nelson said Perry determined
there were no legal standards
that the Parole Board ignored or
failed to comply with when it
voted to parole Ronald Fort of
Omaha. He said the board failed
to do certain things but these
were not “contrary to law.”
“While I still wish they would
resign, and I believe public
confidence has been lost in them,
it doesn’t look like they’re going
to,” Nelson said.
Cupp, Obcrg and McLaugh
lin were at a parole hearing in
York and unavailable for com
ment.
Nelson said he asked Sen.
Jerry Chizek of Omaha to carry
a bill that would require all five
members to attend a parole
hearing for inmates convicted
of first- or second-degree mur
der. Cupp, Oberg and McLaugh
lin decided to release Fort at a
hearing that neither Bartec nor
the board vice chairman attended.
Israeli policy on West Bank settlements stalls peace talks
WASHINGTON — Israel extended its
negotiations with the Arabs on Wednesday but
the talks were marred by wrangling over West
Bank settlements and an emerging political
crisis in Jerusalem.
The right-wing Tchiya party, fearing the
advent of a Palestinian stale, said it will quit the
Israeli government. If the like-minded Moledet
party bolts as well over the issue of extending
limited autonomy to the Palestinians, the nego
tiations could shudder to a hall because the
Likud government no longer would have a
majority.
Israeli negotiators postponed their planned
Wednesday night departure for a day. This will
permit a third round of talks with Jordanians
Thursday morning and perhaps with other Arab
delegates.
The Palestinians are pressing Israel to cease
settling Jews on land Jordan and Egypt held
until Israel’s victory in the 1967 Six-Day war.
They proposed on Tuesday that Israeli military
forces withdraw from Palestinian population
centers as part of a plan for self-government.
“The Israelis did nol have an agenda to
offer,” Hanan Ashrawi, spokeswoman for the
Palestinians, said. “They didn’t have any writ
ten proposals to offer.”
The 45-year-old professor said, the negotia
tions focused on the settlements “which are the
central item.”
“We will not enter into discussion of any
agenda item until the settlement issue is re
solved,” Ms. Ashrawi said Tuesday night. “We
cannot.”
Israel’s Ambassador to Washington Zalman
Shoval insisted the settlement issue “is not
something which is going to be negotiated
now.” He added: “We are negotiating one thing
only with the Palestinians, interim self-govern
ment arrangements. With the Arab states we
are discussing, obviously, peace treaties.”
Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians look
their cases to Secretary of Slate James A. Baker
III. While he offered what spokesman Richard
Boucher called “various ideas and suggestions,’
the Bush administration remained basically on
the sidelines.
American spy plane lost at sea oft Korean coast
WASHINGTON — An American U-2 spy
plane on a reconnaissance mission was lost al
sea south of the demilitarized zone between
North Korea and South Korea, Pentagon offi
cials said Wednesday. The fate of the pilot was
unknown.
The incident “was not due to a hostile act,”
Pentagon spokesman Pete Williams said in a
brief interview.
The planes, which carry sophisticated pho
tographic and electronic reconnaissance gear,
routinely monitor troop movements north of
the demilitarized zone between North Korea
and South Korea, said a Defense Department
official speaking on condition of anonymity.
The missing plane was on such a mission.
“We’re interested in monitoring activity
around the DMZ,” the official said.
The plane dropped out of radio and radar
contact with U.S. military trackers over the Sea
of Japan, U.S. officials said. The high-altitude
jet went down off the country’s east coast at
5:30 a.m. EST, which is early evening in Ko
rea.
Military officials said search and rescue
operations were launched at dawn Thursday.
Chairman of revenue committee offers new tax plan
LINCOLN — A key legislator Wednesday
proposed a bill to eliminate personal property
taxes and establish a new system of levies and
fees.
Sen. Tim Hall of Omaha, chairman of the
Legislature’s Revenue Committee, said his plan
(LB 1120) was designed to meet future needs of
local governments for funding and to get away
from the controversial personal property tax
system.
Hall’s plan would take effect for the 1993
lax year. He offered a second measure (LB 1121)
that he said would extend a temporary personal
property tax plan now in place.
The Legislature last year suspended per
sonal property taxes, except for those on motor
vehicles, for the 1991 tax year. If no action
were taken by the 1992 Legislature, a host of
personal property would go back onto local lax
rolls.
Hall’s plan would:
•Raise an estimated $65.1 million in sales
tax revenues. Some of the changes would ex
tend the lax to agricultural pesticides, repair
services and make permanent an earlier reduc
tion in the amount retailers arc allowed to keep
for collecting sales tax.
•Put a sales tax on energy for power genera
tion and manufacturing, interstate toll charges
and 900 services, management and public rela
tions, detective and security work and lobby
ing.
•Generate an estimated $50 million from
changing income taxes.
Nebraskan
Editor Jana Pedersen, 472-1766
Managing Editor Kara Wells
Assoc News Editors Chris Hopfensperger
Kris Karnopp
Diversions Editor Dionne Searcey
Photo Chief Michelle Paulman
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Production Manager Katherine Pollcky
Advertising Manager Todd Sears
Sales Manager Eric Krlngel
Publications Board Bill Vobejda, 472-2588
Chairman
Professional Adviser Don Walton, 473-7301
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