Six. News Digest
Odd storms spawn more twisters; death toll at 25
Tornadoes ripped across North
houses and tossing a school bus full of
kids off a road before a deadly storm
system headed out to sea.
Two people were killed in North
Carolina, boosting the death toll to 25
from the barrageof tornadoes through
12 states.
“Several mobile homes arc just
frames laying in the middle of the
road. . . . It’s pretty extensive,” said
rescue squad member Ray DcFricss
of the damage in Hillsborough, N.C.,
30 miles northwest of Raleigh. He
estimated 40 to 50 homes were de
stroyed.
Ablizzardcloscdschoolsandhigh
North Carolina counties ravaged by late November tornadoes
ways in Colorado and Wyoming, and
avalanches closed canyon roads in
Utah, where the Aim ski resort got45
inches of snow in 24 hours.
Wind gusting lonear40 mph would
lower the wind chill factor to near
minus 30 degrees during the night
around Colorado Springs, Colo.
Other deaths from the unusual
November thunderstorm system in
cluded 15 in Mississippi; five in Geor
gia; and one each in Tennessee, Ken
tucky and South Carolina.
The first tornadoes hit Louisiana
and Texas on Saturday, damaging
about 300homes in Houston bulcaus
ingonly minor injuries. An extension
of the storm system set off tornadoes
in Indiana and Ohio. Alabama also
was struck and a small tornado caused
minimal damage at a Smithsonian
Institution storage and restoration
center at Silver Hill, Md.
The National Weather Service said
at least 45 tornadoes touched down in
the 24 hours up to 7 a.m. EST Mon
day.
Hundreds of people were injured.
More than a do/.cn North Carolina
counties reported damage or injuries
Monday. Tornadoes caused extensive
power outages, snapped Pees, blocked
roads and delayed the start of school
and work for thousands.
In Pasquotank County in the stale’s
northeastern corner, a tornado picked
up a school bus and carried it 20 to 25
feet, said Sheriff D.M. Sawyer.
Twenty-seven children and the driver
were treated ata hospital. All injuries
treated by late morning were serious,
said hospital spokeswoman Diana
Gardner.
Near Wilson’s Mills, about 20
miles southeast of Raleigh, Sandra
Ward saw a twister pick up a
into a field across the road, throwing
a couple and their baby outside.
“It just lifted it up, rolled it in the
air and slammed it down,” Ms. Ward
said. The baby, found in a field, and
his mother were hospitalized, she said.
Federal and state damage assess
ment teams moved into Mississippi
on Monday.
“I t was absolute total devastation,”
Gov. Kirk Fordice said after touring
hard-hit Rankin County, where 10
people died.
Georgia Gov. Zell Miller toured
hard-hit areas Monday and said dam
age caused Sunday was very severe.
Ueorgia runorr
draws Clinton,
GOP cavalcade
MACON, Ga. — Prcsidcnt-cicct Clinton
put his political capital on the line Monday
againstacavalcadcol Republican heavyweights
in Georgia’s Senate runoff, saying he needs
Democrat Wychc Fowler “to break this gridlock
in Washington.”
“You know what they’re saying about this
race ? Clinton said. “If you beat Wychc Fowler
it will be easier for us to block everything
President-elect Clinton wants to do.”
A victory by Fowler would likely give the
Democrats a net gain of one seal in the next
Senate, for a 58-42 advantage.
GOP challenger Paul Covcrdcll, a former
director of the Peace Corps, brought in big
name Republicans on his side, including Senate
Minority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas, Texas
Sen. Phil Gramm, Education Secretary Lamar
Alexander, Labor Secretary Lynn Martin and
others.
More than 2,000 people turned out for Fowler
and Clinton at a city hall rally in Macon.
In his speech, Clinton resurrected his famil
iar campaign pledges for health insurance,
campaign reform, and an end to “trickle-down
economics.”
“There are better things lor him to be doing
today,” Fowler said.
Clinton’s strategists acknowledged the risk
of putting his prestige on the line for a candidate
who might lose.
Clinton press secretary Dec Dec Myers said,
“He risked a lot throughout the campaign and
he didn’t stop on Election Day. He’s going to
continue to take chances to promote his agenda.
Change requires risk.”
Arriving in Albany lora sccond rally,Clinton
toldreportcrsailhcairpori,“I think he (Fowler)
is going to win but... I will go on regardless.
But if he wins, it’ll be easier and better for us to
bring about the kinds of changes I was elected
to make.”
Asked if it wouldn't be a setback for him if
Fowler lost, Clinton said, “No, and I won’t
deserve the credit if he wins, cither. I’m just one
more person trying to help bring this thing
about.”Clinton told the rally audience,“I know
Wychc Fowler will vole to break the strangle
hold of special interests.”
Clinton portrayed Fowler as an essential ally
in winning congressional approval of an eco
nomic-stimulus program, health insurance
changes and campaign-finance reform.
U.N. to lead Bosnian food convoy
. ..■*.-. . .....|
A
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzcgovina —
U.N. officials said Monday they will send
armored vehicles to escort food convoys to
two of the most food-starved cities in Bosnia
Her/egovina.
Fighting at Sarajevo’s airport forced U.N.
officials to suspend operations Monday af
ternoon and cancel the day’s last two relief
flights.
“Every week we arc attacked, shelled,
back, diverted,” Jose Maria Mendiluce said.
He is the U.N. High Commissioner for Refu
gees’ special envoy to Bosnia. “We have
assumed a very important responsibility. We
will do it.”
Western warships cnforc ing a naval block
ade of Serbia and Montenegro stopped and
searched two ships in the Adriatic on Mon
day, following a U.N. Security Council vote
last week to tighten the sanctions.
Both vessels — one from Ecuador, one
from Syria — were allowed to continue
when no contraband was found.
The Security Council imposed the em
bargo in May to punish Serbia for fomenting
the Bosnian war.
U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said in
Geneva that Yugoslav Premier Milan Panic
would go to Geneva on Wednesday to meet
p with Cyrus Vance and Lord Owen, co-chair
men of the peace talks sponsored jointly by
the United Nations and the European Com
munity. Eckhard said the talks were likely to
be general.
U.N. officials said relief convoys would
leave Wednesday for Gorazdc and
Srebrenica.
They said the convoys would lest new
commitments by commanders on all sides to
let U.N. relief workers go where needed and
the control the commanders exert over their
forces.
Only two earlier convoys reached the
100.00 people still in Gorazdc, and
Srebrenica has not been reached at all. The
80.000 people in Srebrenica “arc at the very
limit of their survival capacity,” Mendilucc
told reporters. Earlier this month, a relief
convoy headed for Srebrenica was turned
back by Serb militia commanders.
Mendilucc said his agency was intent on
getting through this lime and would seek
world denunciation if Serb leaders reneged
on a new promise to allow access.
Ham radio operators in Croatia said
Hajrudin Avdic, chief of the Srebrenica
defense staff, radioed an appeal to the Bosnian
government, army, the United Nations and
humanitarian agencies to evacuate 17,(X)()
civilians from the town.
Inquiry rejects claims of Reagan-Iran deal
WASHINGTON —The l980Rcagan-Bush
campaign probably did not strike a hostage deal
with Iran but was on "the outer limits of propri
ety in its dealings on the issue, congressional
investigators concluded Monday.
The investigators said there was insufficient
credible evidence to suggest that the campaign
negotiated a delay in the release of 52 American
hostages to ensure Ronald Reagan’s election.
The great .weight of the evidence is that
there was no such deal,’’ concluded the report,
issued by the Senate Foreign Relations sub
committee on the Near East after a seven
month investigation.
The panel also found that the Republican
campaign team, headed by William Casey was
intensely interested in the hostage issue and
came dangerously close to improper interfer
ence in U.S. foreign policy in its monitoring of
- *4
The great weight of the evi
dence is that there was no
such deal.
— Senate subcommittee report
ihc situation. ^ ^
“In so doing, they were operating on the
outer limits of propriety, considering their sta
tus as private citizens without authority to
interfere in the conduct of the foreign relations
of the United States,’’ the report said.
The subcommittee said numerous questions
remain unanswered, including the extent of
hostage dealings by Reagan operatives be
tween the election and his inauguration. Reagan
himself still has not cooperated fully with the
investigation and key documcnlsof Casey, who
later became thcdircctor of central intelligence
and died in 1987, remain unaccounted for, it
said.
7 he Senate panel found many of the story’s
central witnesscs“wholly unreliable,”and many
events and meetings they recounted either were
disproved or were riddled with holes.
The 156-page document also suggests that
several witnesses lied to investigators and raises
the question of whether the Justice Department
should pursue perjury charges against some of
them.
The story, which has persisted since Jimmy
Carter’s 1980 loss to Reagan, contends that
Reagan operatives cut a deal with Iran to retain
until after the election the 52 Americans taken
hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, helping
ensure Carter’s defeat.
Hunger gnaws at Thanksgiving celebration
T«V * _ ff + A
It s not official like a government
statistic, but you don’t need an econo
mist to sec that what might be called
the Hunger Pain Rate is rising across
America.
Food pantries and soup kitchens
from Hawaii to Florida are prepared
to set many more places at Thanks
giving tables for entire families.
“Wq arc seeing an increase in the
number of families coming into our
dining rooms,” Laura Knox said. She
is the spokeswoman for St. Vinccnt dc
Paul in Phoenix, which expects more
than 4,000 people Thursday,—
The Census Bureau reported that
poverty reached a 27-ycar high in
1991 while household incomes fell.
Requests for emergency food aid in
creased 26 percent in major American
cities last year, according to the U.S.
Conference of Mayors.
The estimate of more than 30 mil
lion Americans going hungry came
- (ft —
There are a lot of people out here with jobs who
also need assistance. They’re living right at the
poverty line.
— Stewart
Little Rock, Ark., reverend
If "
Irom the l ults University Center on
Hunger, Poverty and Nutrition.
A line began forming before6a.m.
Monday at the Northwest Harvest’s
food bank in downtown Seattle. By
the time it opened at 9 a.m., several
hundred people were wailing. Each
received a turkey hindquartcr and
small sack of rice.
Salvation Army major Chris
Buchanan in San Francisco, where
three dining rooms plan to serve 5,00C
people, observed with alarm “the ab
solute panic of people expecting to be
in serious trouble.” Some people arc
already asking about Christmas meals.
On Hawaii’s hurricane-ravaged
Kauai Island, the Salvation Army,
hotels and the county will be hosts of
a Thanksgiving Day meal, with free
toys for children. _ *
“There’s a stigma about asking for
help,” Bill Carey, director of the
Missoula Food Bank in Montana, said.
“There’s a frontier spirit here. Some
times people will come and ask for a
friend or a family member, ‘Can we
have some food to take?’ because
they won’t come in.”
The FrccStorc-F(xxlBank in Cin
cinnati estimated 3,(XX) families would
request bags of Thanksgiving dinner
fixings, a 500-lamily increase over a
year ago.
In south Florida, people still trying
to put their lives back together after
Hurricane Andrew are straining the
usual providence.
“The agencies arccalling and want
ing food, and we don’t have it to
give,” Mary Fairbanks said. She is the
coordinator of Food For Families,
where contributions were down about
half from last year.
In New York City, where an esti
mated 90,(XX) people have no home, a
court recently ordered four top city
officials to sleep in offices with the
homeless until they find places for
them. The lam il ics had been forced to
sleep on city office floors, in chairs
and on tables because there’s no room
at city-run shelters.
I