lNJ OTA7 C D"1 O' ^ Cf* Associated Press
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Mandela cheers two-thirds vote
against aparthied in South Africa
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa
— Nelson Mandela and other blacks
welcomed the stunning endorsement
by whites for sharing power, but they
said Wednesday that South Africa
has a long way to go to become a
democratic nation.
Mandela, leader of the African
National Congress, the biggest black
group, said apartheid is “very much
alive” despite the overwhelming vote
in a whites-only referendum Tuesday
to support political reforms.
Whites voted 68.7 percent to 31.3
percent to forge ahead with talks that
would end white rule and give South
Africa’s 30 million-member black
majority voting rights for the first
time. Nearly 86 of every 100 eligible
voters turned out.
The margin of support for Presi
dent F.W. de Klerk’s reforms was
much higher than expected and was a
jolt to pro-apartheid white conserva
tives. De Klerk won in 14 of the 15
electoral districts.
The vote was the most solid step
taken toward ending apartheid in South
Africa, a nation branded for decades
as an intractable stronghold of ra
cism. Major issues remain to be re
solved between de Klerk and black
leaders, and there is not likely to be
any swift transfer of power.
“Today, we have closed the book
on apartheid,” said de Klerk, who
celebrated his 56th birthday Wednes
day. “Today, in a certain sense of the
word, is the real birthday of the real,
new, South African nation.”
The election gave de Klerk the
decisive mandate he needs to con
tinue negotiations with the African
National Congress and other black
groups on writing a new constitution.
Mandela, who with de Klerk has
been the central figure in those talks,
said the referendum must be the |
“absolute last” whites-only vote.
“Apartheid is still very much alive. |
I still cannot vote in my own coun- |
try,” Mandela told reporters.
A radical black group, the Pan |
Africanist Congress, denounced the §
vote. “The all-white referendum is an
obscenity and an insult to the dispos
sessed masses of our country,” it said.
Andries Treumichl, leader of the r
pro-apartheid Conservative Party,
conceded defeat. But he said de Klerk 1
“will be the victim of his own re- ,
form.” ‘
e
“Mr.de Klerk has won his referen- <j
dum, just like Gorbachev won his.
Gorbachev is today out of power... a
and Mr. de Klerk is negotiating his t
own government out of power,” Treur- e
South Africa
apartheid
referendum
"Do you support continuation of
the reform process which the
state president began on Feb, 2,
1990, and which is aimed at a
new constitution through
negotiation?”
South African
white voters
said:
icht said.
The nation faces an uncertain fu
iire.
Right-wing groups say they will
ight rather than accept a black gov
mment, although their credibility was
amaged by the referendum result.
The government and ANC are far
pan on many key issues in thenego
lations, and there are sharp differ
nces among black groups.
U.S. may bomb Iraq
Officials create
a plan for raids
to attack facilities
WASHINGTON — The Bush
administration has drawn up plans
for a bombing strike that could be
carried out against Iraqi weapons
facilities if Saddam Hussein keeps
blocking U.N. destruction of his
arsenals, U.S. officials say.
The plans also call for possible
seizure of Iraq’s bank assets in the
United Stales and in other allied
countries, expansion of the ban on
Iraqi helicopter flights in northern
Iraq, and an increase of U.N. in
spections in Iraq to include moni
toring human rights violations.
Money from the seized assets
could be used to keep the finan
cially pressed U.N. inspection and
destruction team going.
The contingency plans are part
of a broader strategy — likely to be
announced within weeks— to fur
ther erode the Iraqi president’s
standing in his beleaguered coun
try, said the officials. They com
mented only on condition of ano
nymity.
A decision to bomb would de
pend in part on the outcome of a
trip by a U.N. team to Iraq this
Saturday to destroy equipment for
building Scud missiles. Iraq pre
vented the team from carrying out
its mission last month, prompting
the Security Council to warn that
further defiance would result in
serious consequences.
“This next inspection could be
the trigger,” said one official.
By agreement with U.N. allies,
any U.S. action “would be a lim
ited, specific strike,” said another
official who is familiar with the
administration’s thinking. Iraq
would be given notice of the raid to
avoid harm to civilians, he added.
Helmsley sent to prison
NEW YORK — Hotel queen Leona
Helmsley, convicted of evading $ 1.7
million in taxes, lost her bid to stay
out of prison and was ordered Wednes
day to begin serving her four-year
sentence on April 15.
The 71-year-old wife of billion
aire Harry Helmsley was dressed in
black for her resentencing.
She begged for mercy from U.S.
District Judge Thomas Griesa, main
taining that separating her from her
sickly, 83-year-old husband would
kill them both.
“He has nobody in the world,” she
sobbed. “All he’s got is me.”
She satstoically, shaking her head,
as the judge refused to eliminate or
reduce the prison term imposed after
her 1989 conviction.
She almost collapsed as she left
the Manhattan federal court building
by a side door. An aide caught her and
helped her into a waiting limousine.
Throughout the hearing, the judge
stressed that Mrs. Helmsley was not
being treated more favorably because
of her wealth.
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Bomb kills 12 in Argentina
Islamic group
claims explosion
at Israeli embassy
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — An Islamic
fundamentalist group in Beirut claimed re
sponsibility Wednesday for the Israeli Em
bassy bombing that killed 12 people, injured
more than 250 and reduced the building to
chunks of concrete and twisted metal.
The death toll seemed likely to rise. Rescu
ers who worked slowly all night with picks and
shovels, eventually switched to cranes and
front-end loaders as the possibility of finding
survivors faded.
An embassy spokeswoman said five Israelis
were missing and believed dead in the rubble.
Tuesday’s explosion at the French-style
embassy near the city’s central business dis
trict was caused by a car bomb containing 220
pounds of explosives, said Interior Minister
Jose Luis Manzano.
The blast instantly collapsed the four-story
structure into a pile of concrete, metal pipes,
wood beams, brick dust, broken glass and bodies.
Heavily damaged buildings nearby may have
to be knocked down rather than repaired.
In Beirut, the pro-Iranian Shiite Muslim
group Islamic Jihad said an Argentine convert
to Islam carried out the attack to avenge the
Feb. 16 killing of a Shiite leader and his family
in an Israeli air attack in Lebanon.
It identified the man as Abu Yasser and said
he died in the attack.
“We hereby declare with all pride that the
operation ... is one of our continuous strikes
against the criminal Israeli enemy in an open
ended war which will not cease until Israel is
wiped out of existence,” a communique said.
Drug helps cystic fibrosis patients
Dwaiuix — c,ysuc norosis paueni ian
Ferguson says he usually would become winded
running up a flight of stairs. But after receiving
a genetically engineered protein, he could bound
up three flights without losing his breath.
Ferguson, a 27-year-old architect from
Rockville, Md., was one of 16 people who
tested the new medicine researchers say is the
first drug to effectively break up the infected,
lung-clogging mucus that is a major hazard of
cystic fibrosis.
About 50,000 Americans have the inherited
illness, which is often fatal by age 30. Until
now, it has been treated mostly by giving
antibiotics to prevent infections and pounding
on patients chests to loosen mucus buildup.
The medicine, deoxyribonuclease, or DNase,
is a copy of a natural human protein and ad
ministered in a nasal spray. Researchers from
the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute in
Bcthesda, Md., conducted the first test of the
medicine’s effectiveness. They reported their
findings in Thursday’s New England Journal of
Medicine.
“It’s not a cure, but there is no question it
works,’’ said Dr. Ronald G. Crystal, who di
rected the study.