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Scir-u, News digest Arabs, Israelis resume Mideast peace discussion WASHINGTON—Mideast peace talks resumed Wednesday with the Bush administration supporting Is rael on a key issue and raising the possibility of a post-election round of shuttle diplomacy by White House Chief of Staff James A. Baker III. Taking a more vigorous approach toward the negotiations, the State Department told the Palestinians they should defer their demand for an Is raeli commitment to withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza. Palestinians hope to build a stale on that land, which the Arabs lost to Israel in the Six-Day War of 1967. The Palestinians have demanded an Israeli commitment to U.N. Secu rity Council resolutions calling for territorial withdrawal in exchange for peace. Israel has refused. The dispute slow ed the pace of negotiations in the last round, which ended Sept. 24. Trying to get the negotiations mov ing, the administration told the Pales limans that security Council resolu tion 242 did not apply to negotiations over Palestinian autonomy, a U.S. official told The Associated Press. Instead, the adm in istration told the Palestinians, the matter should be dis cussed in the final stage of negotia tions, after Palestinians elect an ad ministrative body and run their day to-day affairs for an interim period. “The Palestinians finally under stood that, and we’ve been stressing that we have a unique opportunity with the new government in Israel and the Palestinians and Israelis should define and agree on spheres of author ity in the territories,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of ano nymity. -~r— However, Hanan Ashrawi, a spokeswoman for the Palestinians, called the land-for-pcace resolutions, adopted in 1967 and 1973, “a basic step, a basic foundation.” Israel has proposed holding a May election among the 1.7 million Pales tinians within its borders. AP Strife halts Sarajevo relief flights SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Hcrzcgovina — Fighting Wednesday between Croats and Muslims, nominal allies in Bosnia’s civil war, halted relief flights to the besieged capital, U.N. officials said. Bozo Rajic, a senior Croat leader, said at least 22 Croats were killed and as many wounded in the clashes north west of Sarajevo. No estimates of Muslim casualties were immediately available. A British and a Canadian plane delivered supplies to the capital in the morning. But the fighting, in territory below the air corridor leading to the airport, prompted the U.N. High Com missioner for Refugees to cancel the 12 remaining shipments, said Michacl Keats, an agency spokesman in the Croatian capital, Zagreb. Surrounded by Serb rebels for six months, Sarajevo could suffer tens of thousands of deaths from starvation and exposure this winter unless hos tilities cease enough for supplies to arrive by plane and truck, aid officials say. A French U.N. soldier was shot through the shoulder and through the head Wednesday while escorting a relief convoy through the city’s Ncdzarici district along a front line. He was evacuated to Croatia, the French military information office said. It was not clear what started the fighting that began Tuesday night in the mixed Muslim-Croal towns of Travnik, Novi Travnik and Vitcz, about 35 miles north of Sarajevo. Bosnia’s Muslim president, Alija Izctbcgovic, blamed radical Croat factions for starting the fighting. “.Some radical forces on the Croatian side are trying to provoke a conflict there, some radicals who arc trying to make a state within a state,” he said in Geneva, where ongoing U. N. and European Com m un ity peace talks are being held. Bosnian and Croatian radio reports quoted Muslim forces as saying Croatian Defense Council troops started the fighting. The defense coun cil is the military arm of the ethnic Croatian administration that controls about 30 percent of Bosnia. Word of the clashes between Mus lims and Croats came after an eight person U.N. relief crew in Vitez said it was trapped by the fighting and called for help. The workers reported shelling and heavy street fighting, with at leastonc bullet striking the UNHCR warehouse complex, said Marc Vachon, an offi cer with the U.N. agency in Sarajevo. President says Clinton ‘little league’ Bill Clinton panned for electoral gold in the West on Wednesday, of fering traditionally Republican vot ers a “new Democratic party” rather than the lax-and-spend habits of the past. President Bush 1 ikened his young rival to a “struggling Little League manager” not ready for the Oval Of fice. His presidency in peril, Bush was asked point blank if anyone had told him his re-election race was already lost. “Not anybody I trust,” he replied to _ his CNN inter viewer. “Not any one 1 trust,” he added with emphasis. With less than two weeks remain ing until Election Day, it wasn’t so much what the candidates said that counted; it was where they said it. Clinton’s chartered jet was touch ing down in Colorado, Wyoming and Montana as he bid for victory in a region of the country that has voted Republican each year since 1964. By contrast, Bush had his ticket punched aboard a chartered train across North Carolina, a state Repub licans usually have locked up m the race for the White House. Ross Perot was back home in Texas, pursuing his independent bid by now familiar unconventional means. His campaign has purchased 30-minute network slots for commercials Thurs day, Friday and Saturday. Am idst the political back and forth, the polls made Clinton the leader nationally by roughly 15 percentage points. Both sides were watching closely for new figures to sec whether Bush had gained from his aggressive performance in the third and final presidential debate Monday night. His aides expressed satisfaction that he had articulated sharp differ ences with Clinton over leadership, Bush served waffles, riddles . SPARTANBURG, S.C. — When Bush and his son, Marvin, satdown for break fast at the Waffle House restaurant here Wednesday, it was supposed to underline his claim that Bill Clinton lakes both sides of every issue and that he shouldn’t be allowed to turn the White House into the Waffle House. But the Bushes were served as many riddles as waffles. After watching the president from a booth, a man dressed in jeans and a plaid lumberjack-style jacket, A.C. Wilson, showed Bush a frayed scrapbook with pictures of his trick horse. It seems the horse lies on the ground and allows people to lie on top of it. Wilson also said the horse licks young ladies’ hair, and he had a picture to prove it. “That’s how we comb her hair,” Wilson said of a picture showing the horse’s hair styling technique on a woman. Two women — Doris Hass and Wendy Mergcenghalcr — then en gaged Bush in a lengthy game of riddles, some of which dealt with 20 sick sheep and a horse named Friday. Bush seemed to figure them out quickly or knew the answers outright. character and taxes, and the president spent his day in North Carolina stress ing them. HesaidClinton had been “pathetic” when it came to deciding whether to commit forces to a Persian Gulf War, expressing both support and opposi tion. “This one didn’t happen 23 years ago,” Bush said in a reference to his rival’s draft record. “This one hap pened a year and a half ago.” Vietnamese photos could reveal American MIAs’ fates WASHINGTON — As officials studied photographs of Americans from V ietnam, skep tical relatives of missing servicemen wondered on Wednesday if Hanoi was just trying to better relations with tfie United States and end an 18 year U.S. trade embargo. Officials who returned Tuesday evening from a weekend trip to Vietnam brought with them some of the 4,000 to 5,000 photos in archives being made available by the Vietnam ese. “In a lot of cases, it’s clear who’s in the picture,” said Deborah DeYoung, a spokes woman for the Senate Select Committee on POW-MIA Affairs. When the servicemen can he identified, the infromation will be turned over to their families, she added. All the photos are of dead bodies, said a source who requested anonymity. “I think this is the big break we’ve been working towards,” said Louise Van Hoo/.er of Savannah, Mo., whose brother, Air Force Maj. James E. Booth, was shot down over North Vietnam in 1968. “I'm trying to be very opti mistic and I’m trying not to get too elated over it because I’ve been disappointed before.” But Maureen Dunn of Randolph, Mass., said the new information will be agonizing for some MIA family members. Although the body ol her husband, Navy Cmdr. Joseph P. Dunn, has never been recovered after he was shot down ovcrChina,“I have a picture of how hedied. ...I wouldn ’ t want to sec a picture of how he looked at the last minute.” Retired Gen. John Vesscy Jr., President Bush’s special emissary for POW-MIA affairs, led the team, which included officials from the Defense and Slate departments; Ann Mills Griffith, head of the National League of Fami lies; and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a former Vietnam prisoner of war and a member of the Senate Select Committee on POW-MIA Af fairs. Vcsscy, McCain and others planned to brief Bush on Friday. While officials suggested that the informa tion could resolve hundreds of MIA cases, Dolores Apodaca Alfond, national chairwoman of the National Alliance of Families for the Return of America’s Missing Servicemen, said. “What they’re doing is taking our eye off the fact thaiwc left Americans behind after the war by focusing on photographs” of dead service men and the possibility that their fates could be resolved, she said. Odd election year confounds prediction Analysts hesitant to forecast resounding Clinton landslide WASHINGTON — Bill Clinton is ahead in so many states that the 1992 election seems to be shaping up as a landslide. But wait. President Bush is furiously trying to solidify support in states that — m backed him in the past. And presidential races have a tradition of tightening up in the final days. - And then ! 'VybAiyCV* there’s the - LI ~ question of what impact Ross Perot’s indepen dent candidacy will have in close — stales. There’s no generally ac cepted definition of a landslide in a three-way race. “A landslide in a presidential race is an ambiguous thing ... except that, like pornography, you know it when you see it,” said Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political scientist, Generally, political analysts and operatives agree, any margin over 55 percent in the popular vote and or 350 of the 538 votes in the Electoral College signifies a landslide. Ronald Reagan won a clear landslide victory in 1980 over President Carter — with, only 51 percent of the popular vote. But he got 489 electoral votes to Carter’s 49. In 1988, Bush buried Democrat Michael Dukakis by a 426-111 margin in the Electoral College, and with a 54 percent to 46 percent popular-vote margin. By any account, the polling numbers' 13 days before this year’s election point to a resounding Cfinton electoral victory. The Arkansas governor is ahead in polls in dozens of states, include ing many where Republicans usually coast to victory. Bush is ahead only in a handful. But analysis like to add a caveat: It’s been a year of shifting loyalties and of surprises. “It’s too early. There’s still too much time and too much uncer tainly to call it a landslide,” said Democratic pollster Peter Hart. Republicans assert Bush can still shore up his Support in the South and the Rocky Mountain states; and should manage to carry both Texas and Florida and some of the industrial battleground states. And, if Perot gains in strength rather than fading, his presence on the ballot could help determine the outcome in stales that would otherwise be within a few percent age points. It is still not completely clear whether Perot hurts Bush or Clinton the most. Still, the odds just under two weeks out seem to favor a Clinton win of landslide proportions, many analysis agreed. He remains 15 points ahead in most national polls. “I’m still assuming a 10-12 point Clinton win, which to me is a very substantial win,” said Stuart Rothcnberg, a political newsletter publisher who has been predicting a C Union landslide for more than a month. "When we see Clinton compel!-, live in Oklahoma and Texas, close to even in Florida, ahead in Mon tana and Nebraska, when you see he s 20 points ahead in Ohio, you're talking about a big landslide,” said Norman Omstein, a political analyst at the American Enterprise Institute Nebraskan Editor Chrl» Hoplensperger 1 472-1766 Managing Editor Kris Karnopp Assoc News Editors Adeana Lenin Assoc News Editor/ Wendy Navratll Writing Coach Editorial Page Editor Dionne Searcey Wire Editor Alan Phelps Copy Desk Editor Kara Wells Sports Editor John Adklsson Arts i Entertain- Shannon Uehllng ment Editor Diversions Editor Mark Baldridge Photo Chief William Lauer Night News Editors Kathy Stelnauer Mike Lewis Kimberly Spurlock Kara Morrison Art Director Scott Maurer General Manager Dan Shattll Production Manager Katherine Pollcky Publications Board Chairman Tom Massey 488-8761 Professional Adviser Don Walton 473-7301 FAX NUMBER 472-1761 The Daily Nebraskan(USPS 144 080) s published by the UNL Publications Board. Nebraska Union 34,1400 R St., Lincoln. Nf Monday through Friday during the academic year; weekly during summer sessions Readers are encouraged to submit story ideas and comments to tne Daily Nebraskan by phoning 472-1763 between 9 a m and 5 pm. Monday throughFriday T he public also has access to the Publications Board For information, contactTom Massey, 488 8761 Subscription price is $50 for one year Postmaster; Send address changes to the Daily Nebraskan, Nebraska Union 34. 1400 R St .Lincoln. NF 68588 0448. Second class postage paid at Lincoiri, NE ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1992 DAILY NEBRASKAN