* . ..- _- _....
News Digest
U.N.’s sanctions
start against Libya
UNITED NATIONS — The U.N.
Security Council on Tuesday rejected
a last-minute appeal and prepared to
cancel all arms salesand airline travel
to Libya because of its refusal to turn
over suspects in the
bombing of Pan
Am Flight 103.
Following an
earlier World
Court rejection of
Libya’s effort to
bar U.N. sanctions,
the Security Council said sanctions
would go into effect at midnight to
day.
White House Spokesman Marlin
Fitzwater earlier said the sanctions
would take effect at midnight Thurs
day, but U.N. officials denied that
statement.
After the deadline passes, the offi
cials said, there should be no flights
to or from Libya, nor sales of any
military equipment. The Security
Council’s first discussions on enforc
ing the sanctions were to begin today.
The Security Council has demanded
the surrender of two men indicted for
the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103
over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988.
The attack killed 270 people.
The council also says Libya mu
provide proof it has renounced terror
ism and must cooperate with France
in the investigation of four other
Libyans suspected in the bombing of
a French airliner that killed 171 people
in 1989.
Col. MoammarGadhafi’s govern
ment appealed to the World Court,
the U.N. judicial arm, in an indirect
attack on the U.N. sanctions.
The court hears only cases be
tween sovereign stales, so Libya sought
orders barring the United Stales and
Britain from taking any military or
economic action to force Tripoli to
give the two men up for trial.
- Brian snelllto/DN
Although the court’s panel of inter
national judges refused by an 11-5
vote to block military attacks, there
was no indication cither nation planned
such actions.
“We’ve been working for a politi
cal solution all along and we’re very
pleased that there’s no interference
with that,” Edwin Williamson, legal
adviser to the U.S. State Department,
said.
The World Court’s decision was
delivered by its acting president,
Shigeru Oda of Japan. Speaking to a
standing-room-only crowd of diplo
mats, dignitaries and reporters, he
said Libya could not be protected
from sanctions by the 1971 Montreal
Convention, which governs interna
tional air travel.
Oda said Libya, the United States
and Britain all arc obliged to carry out
the decisions of the U.N. Security
Council, so “the obligations of the
parties in that respect prevail over
their obligations under any other inter
national agreement, including the
Montreal Convention.”
The court has never conflicted with
the Security Council.
_ ..:—_— Michelle Paulman/DN
Firestarter
Lincoln Parks and Recreation employee Dave Allder burns a field of grass at Pioneers Park.
District Supervisor Jerry Shorney said burning kept weeds and stray trees from growing and
helped the soil.____
Russian reforms to continue
MOSCOW — Russia’s Commu
nist-dommated parliament backed
down Tuesday from a week-long clash
with President Boris Yeltsin and passed
a declaration that will allow him to
continue his frec-market reforms.
The declaration preserves YelLsin’s
power to rule by decree and directs
the government to continue the pain
ful reforms that the lawmakers op
pose.
It apparently averted one of Rus
sia’s most serious political crises since
the collapse of the Soviet Union last
December.
On Monday, Yeltsin’s Cabinet
threatened to resign, claiming parlia
ment’s attempts to trim the presi
dent’s powers would cripple reforms,
raise inflation and block Russia’s entry
into the world marketplace.
After the 530-236 vote by the
Congress of People’s Deputies,
Yeltsin’s ministers happily clapped
each other’s shoulders and his parlia
mentary supporters burst into applause.
Yeltsin was not present for the vote.
“This eliminates the need lor our
resignation,” Yeltsin’s right-hand man,
State Secretary Gennady Burbulis,
told reporters.
Lawmakers will have a chance to
change their minds and amend the
document Wednesday.
Yeltsin had been at an impasse
with the Congress since the legisla
tive body opened April 6 in the Grand
Kremlin Palace.
The declaration was approved
without debate at the climax of a
second day of raucous cheering, bit
ter name-calling and sudden walk
outs in the Kremlin.
Mayor fires official blamed for flood
CHICAGO — Mayor Richard M.
Daley on Tuesday fired an official he
said failed lo heed a warning that
probably could have prevented the
flooding that has paraly/cd much of
Chicago’s business district.
“This morning I have requested
and received the resignation ol acting
transportation commissioner John
LaPlantc,” Daley said at a news con
ference at City Hall.
LaPlantc ignored a memo April 2
that warned him lo immediately re
pair a crack in a tunnel under the
Chicago River, Daley said. “The memo
said the wall should be immediately
repaired, citing the danger of flood
ing the entire freight tunnel system,”
Daley said.
On Monday, the tunnel burst send
ing water through the tum-of-lhc
ccntury freight tunnel network and
flooding basements under the city’s
Loop district with millions of gallons
of water.
Phones went unanswered at LaP
lante’s office Tuesday afternoon.
Daley said that after the memo
came in, LaPlante’s department be
gan getting cost estimates from a couple
of construction companies, decided
they were too high and was weighing
further action when the collapse oc
curred.
Much of the Loop remained closed
Tuesday, as city workers struggled to
plug the leak and drain the water that
stood more than 40 feel deep in the
bowels of some high-rises.
Hotel queen headed for federal prison
NEW YORK — Former hotel queen
Leona Hclmslcy said Tuesday she
was prepared to serve the four-year
prison term she received for lax eva
sion now that it has been upheld by an
appeals court.
Hclmslcy had been ordered to report
Wednesday to a federal prison hospi
tal in Kentucky.
“I accept the judgment and I’m
prepared to abide by the law,” Hclmslcy
said through publicist Howard Ruben
stein.
Earlier Tuesday, the 2nd U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously
rejected arguments from Hclmslcy’s
lawyers that the sentence should be
reversed.
They said the sentence may have
been fair when imposed in 1989, but
the “dramatic change" in her health
since then has turned it into a virtual
life sentence.
"We’re arguing not that the origi
nal sentence was wrong, but that
circumstances have changed," said
defense attorney Alan Dershowitz.
Prosecutors argued that the 71
year-old hotel queen remains an ac
tive woman and allowing her to avoid
prison would “make a mockery of the
law.”
Hclmsley was convicted in 1989
of evading SI.7 million in taxes by
billing personal expenses to compa
nies the Hclmslcys owned.
She has remained free on S25
million bail, but the appeals of her
conviction ran out in February when
the U.S. Supreme Court refused to
hear the ease. _
Saddam shuffles leaders
to prevent military coup
NICOSIA, Cyprus — Saddam
Hussein has moved several trusted
generals into key positions in a
command shuffle that reflects his
constant efforts to forestall a coup,
informed travelers from Iraq say.
The sources, who include
Baghdad-based western diplomats
and knowledgeable Iraqis, say there
is no sign that Saddam’s regime is
in any immediate danger.
But the feeling is that these
changes in the hierarchy, the latest
in a long line of shuffles over the
past 18 months, reflect Saddam’s
insecurity more than a year after
his Gulf War defeat.
The sources spoke to The Asso
ciated Press in Nicosia and Am
man, Jordan, on condition of ano
nymity.
They said the Iraqi leader has
ringed Baghdad with three of his
five elite Republican Guard divi
sions to ensure his regime’s secu
rity amid the continuing threat of
Kurdish and Shiiic Muslim unrest.
They said Saddam has named
Gen. Hussein Rashid, a former chief
of staff and hero of the 1980-88
war against Iran, the commander
of the Republican Guard Corps, a
pillar of the regime.
Rashid, who was chief of staff
throughout Gulf crisis, commanded
the Republican Guard in 1984-85
and oversaw its expansion from a
brigade-size formation into an army
within-an-army of seven divisions
with 120,000 men.
Saddam’s command shuffle is
the seventh major reorganization
he’s made in his military and po
litical hierarchy since he invaded
Kuwait Aug.2, 1990. Rashid is the
Guards’ fourth commander in that
period.
Kamel Yassin, a member of the
ruling Baalh Party’s command, has
been appointed to oversee party
branches and security in the mili
tary, the sources reported.
Nebraskan
Editor Jana Pedersen, 472-1766 Publication* Board Chairman Bill Vobejda, 472-2588
Professional Adviser Don Walton, 473-7301
FAX NUMBER 472-1761
The Daily Nebraskan(USPS 144-080) is published by the UNL Publications Board. Nebraska Union 34, 1400 R St..
Lincoln. NE, Monday through Friday during the academic year; weekly during summer sessions
Readers are encouraged to submit story ideas and comments to the Daily Nebraskan by phoning 472-1763 between
9 am. and 5 p.m Monday through Friday The public a(so has access to the Publications Board. For information, contact
Bill Vobejda, 472-2588
Subscription price is $50 for one year
Postmaster; Send address changes to the Daily Nebraskan, Nebraska Union 34,1400 R St.,Lincoln, NE 68588-0448
Second-class postage paid at Lincoln, NE
ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1992 DAILY NEBRASKAN
Arrests solve stereo-theft cases
rrom &ian nepons
I ---—
A joint effort between the UNLand Lincoln
police departments has cleared up 38 eases of
stolen car stereos on campus and in surround
ing areas, a university police official said.
Ll Mylo Bushing of the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln Police Department said $4,000
worth of stolen stereo equipment had been
recovered and returned to owners.
The arrests of three individuals solved 18
auto larceny cases reported to the UNL Police
Department, Bushing said.
Li. Albert Maxey of the Lincoln Police
Department said 20 cases in the department
were solved by the arrests.
The investigation, which lasted about one
month, has solved cases as far back as Feb. 3
and as recent as March 19, Bushing said.
The arrests cleared up 12 percent of the total
campus cases reported since August of 1991.
The individuals arrested are minors and will
be tried in juvenile court.
