By The
Associated Press
Edited by Todd Cooper
News digest
.Nebraskan
Thursday, February 28,1M3
British balk
Major endorses American airlift but won’t join effort
President
Bill Clinton
Scott Maurer/D
WASHINGTON — British Prime
Minister John Major said Wednesday
that President Clinton’s decision to
airdrop relief supplies into Bosnia
was “thoroughly welcome,” but reit
erated that his government would not
join the operation.
In the first meeting between the
two leaders, Major said his country
was content to help distribute aid on
the ground in Bosnia. Major said he
and Clinton discussed the possibility
of tighter sanctions against Serbian
forces in the forma- Yugoslavia.
Clinton described the airlift as
purely a relief operation and said
Serbian warnings that it was the be
ginning of a greater American mili
tary role in the region were ground
less.
“It would be a great mistake to
view this humanitarian operation as
an initial foray to a wider military
role,” Clinton said.
The president said the Pentagon
K* ! would “minimize risk to our
’ ’ by having U.S. planes fly above
the range of antiaircraft fire. He ac
knowledged that dropping supplies
from high altitudes would cause some
to drift off target, but he still predicted
that the operation would succeed.
Major endorsed what he called a
“twin-track” approach of British,
French and other troops helping de
liver relief supplies on the ground in
Bosnia while Americans drop food
and supplies to starving Bosnians in
areas where ground deliveries are dif
ficult or impossible.
Both leaders also called on the
Bosnians to rejoin peace talks. “The
United States feels very strongly that
this agreement much be just that, an
agreement It must not be shoved
down the throats of the Bosnians if it
is going to work.”
Speaking with reporters in the
White House’s ornate East Room,
Major and Clinton both offered words
of support to embattled Russian Presi
dent Boris Yeltsin and fond words of
farewell to Canadian Prime Minister
Brian Mulroney, who stepped down
Wednesday.
The leaders said economic issues
were a major focus of their talks, and
both stressed the importance of reviv
ing stalled global trade talks now un
der way in Geneva.
Clinton said that he hoped for a
meeting with Yeltsin “very soon,”
though no date had been set. The
president said he believed Yeltsin
could withstand the political chal
lenges from conservatives in Mos
cow.
“We are putting a lot of effort into
trying to support democracy and try
ing to support economic recovery
there," Clinton said of Russia.
Major added: “I expect President
Yeltsin to be there and continue. I
think he is the best hope for the Rus
sians.”
Judge refuses to block King beating trial
LOS ANGELES—A judge refused to block
the Rodney King beatifig trial Wednesday over
defense allegations that a black juror could be
biased and a defendant’s claim of attorney
conflict.
After intense questioning, three men were
sworn in as alternate jurors and U.S. District
Judge John G. Davies set opening statements
for Thursday.
Davies also ordered the remaining handful
of prospective jurors to return, indicating out*
side their presence that he might decide to
question the challenged black woman juror
before opening statements. If she were ex
cused, a new juror would have to be selected.
An undertone of racial tensions came into
the open when an excused white juror accused
a black woman accepted for the jury of making
racially based remarks detrimental to the de
fense.
U.S. District Judge John G. Davies rejected
a defense motion for a mistrial after question
ing the accusing man in secret and concluding
that “there was no appropriate showing” of
bias. The judge said he would consider ques
tioning the black juror briefly after he reviews
legal precedents.
Four white policemen are charged with vio
lating the civil*rights of King, a black motorist
who was beaten after a highway chase on
March3,1991.
A state trial a year ago in suburban Simi
Valley ended in acquittals on most charges
against the officers, sparking three days of
deadly rioting in Los Angeles.
In another key ruling Wednesday, Davies
found that defendant Timothy Wind previously
agreed to accept attorney Paul DePasquale
even though Wind knew the lawyer could nave
a conflict of interest.
DePasquale was part of a law firm that
represents codefendant Laurence Powell and
may have been privy to confidential informa
tion about Powell’s defense.
The judge held a half-day hearing on the
issue in secret and said he considered it so
important that he would issue a written order
explaining his reasons for ruling against Wind.
He suggested that Wind’s effort to retract his
waiver of conflict came too late.
“It’s obvious there was a conflict,” attorney
Harland Braun said outside court “It’s prob
ably a practical decision (saying) let’s plunge
forward and if Wind is acquitted, which he will
be, it won ’ t matter,” said Braun, who represents
defendant Theodore Briseno.
---WORLD WIRE-;-;—
Economy leads to Mulroney*s resignation
OTTAWA — Prim© Minister
Brian Mulroney, whose popularity
plunged because of staggering eco
nomic problems, said Wednesday
that he is resigning.
Mulroney, prime minister since
1984, made the announcement in a
letter to Gerry St. Germain, the
president of the governing Conser
vative Party.
“It is time for the party to elect
a new leader," he said.
“We have governed decisively
in challenging times," Mulroney
said. “I am confident that in regard
to our major initiatives, the verdict
of history will be a supportive one.”
He is expected to stay in office
until Conservative Party leaders
meet to elect a new prime minister.
Sources told the news agency Ca
nadian Press that a leadership con
vention will probably be held in
June.
Among the possible contenders
to replace him: Defence Minister
Kim Campbell, Trade Minister
Michael Wilson, Communications
Minister Perrin Beatty and Envi
ronment Minister Jean Charest.
Others include Constitutional Af
fairs Minister Joe Clark and Em
ployment Minister Bernard
Valcourt.
Mulroney, 53, led the Conser
vative Party for 10 years and took it
to two consecutive majority gov
ernments — a feat only two other
Conservative leaders in history had
managed.
But high unemployment, record
bankruptcies, massive debt and no
clear policy for recovering from a
three-year recession have hurt
Mulroney’s standing among Cana
dians.
Middle East peace talks close lndeiimtely
JERUSALEM — Secretary of
State Warren M. Christopher
Wednesday concluded a week of
talks in the Middle East without
setting a date for resuming Arab
Israeli negotiations.
“There was a strong desire
throughout the region to recon
vene, he said after final, separate
meetings with the Palestinian del
egation and with Israeli Prime Min
ister Yitzhak Rabin.
“Before I came here, I said I
didn't think we could establish any
date, and that was right," Christo
pher said.
His chief hurdle apparently was
the festering controversy over
Israeli s aeponauon 01 raies
tinians to Lebanon and the Pales
tinians’ refusal to accept a compro
mise worked out with Rabin on
Feb. 1 for a phased repatriation.
Christopher said he hoped to be
able to set a date for resuming the
negotiations in Washington over
the next several days or weeks.
TV tip leads to Nebraska fugitive’s arrest
DELAND, Fla. — A former Ne
braska police chief charged with kill
ing his girlfriend six years ago was
ordered held without bail Wednesday
until another hearing this week.
Gregory Jon Webb, 42, who was
the police chief in Lyons when Anna
Anton was killed in 1986, made his
first appearance Wednesday in
Volusia County Circuit Court.
His extradition case was continued
until Friday.
Webb disappeared from Lyons just
before being charged with murder. He
i
was arrested Tuesday in Holly Hill
after a tip based on a television pro
gram.
Authorities found Webb after a
man in Florida called the Nebraska
State Patrol after watching a segment
of “Unsolved Mysteries” that featured
Webb’s case.
He was picked up by FBI agents,
Volusia County Sheriffs deputies,
and Holly Hill police at a construction
site where he worked installing un
derground cable and pipe, said George
Wisnovsky, a spokesman for the FBI
in Jacksonville.
Webb was charged in an arrest
warrant with murder in the death of
the 34-year-old Mrs. Anton. He also
was charged in a federal warrant as a
fugitive from justice, but that charge
was dropped after his arrest,
Wisnovsky said.
Webb was living in Osteen, about
30 miles north of Orlando. He was
working as a subcontractor and was a
crew foreman.
Nebraskan
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" 1993 DAILY NEBRASKAN
Erie Clapton cleans up
LOS ANGELES — Eric Clapton,
virtually ignored by Grammy voters
for much of his career, and the music
from ***' Beauty and the Beast” won a
leading four honors each Wednesday
at the 35th Annual Grammy Awards.
Clapton’s acclaimed “Tears in
Heaven,” a song through which he
dealt with the accidental death of his
young son, won song of the year and
best male pop vocal performance.
Clapton, who led with nine nomi
nations, also was favored to win record
of the year for his acoustic “Un
plugged” album, which won the male
rock vocal performance Grammy. A
stripped-down version of his classic
“Layla” earned best rock song honors
for Clapton and co-writer Jim Gor
don.
“I don’t think I deserve to win this,
there were better songs,” the typically
self-effacing guitarist-singer said af
ter winning one of his awards for
‘Tears in Heaven.”
James Brown, the godfather of soul,
took the suspense out of Clapton’s
pop vocal performance victory by
inadvertently ripping open the enve
lope and reading ‘Tears in Heaven”
before the other nominees were an
nounced.
Mutual solution sought
for Danube argument
By Steve Smith
Senior Editor
A permanent solution hopefully
will be created within the next year
between the governments of Slovakia
and Hungary concerning the diver
sion of the Danube River, a Hungar
ian government official said Wednes
day.
Gyorgy Samsondi Kiss, a repre
sentative of Hungary’s Ministry of
Environment and Regional Policy,
spoke to a group of about 60 students,
faculty ana administrators gathered at
the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s
East Campus Union.
He said that when the Gabickovo
Nagymaros barrage project was com
pleted on the Danube River in 1989,
Slovakia had violated Hungary’s sev
ere' y.
seminar was part of the 1993
Water Resources Seminar Series,
which gives global perspectives on
water and the environment.
The series is co-sponsored by the
UNL water center and environmental
programs and the “Environment and
Politics” program of the departments
of civil engineering and political sci
ence. It has featured such speakers as
Sen. Bob Kerrey.
The original course of the Danube
served as a borderline between the
nations of Hungary and Czechoslova
debate between the two countries and
also gave a presentation using an over
kia for years, Kiss said.
He said that when a 7-kilometer
navigation channel was built in 1989
in Czechoslovakia to prevent flood
ing, improve navigation and increase
electrical output for the region, it
diverted the Danube’s water flow.
The river then flowed from the origi
nal river bed to the channel inside
Slovakia, Kiss said.
Only 5 percent of the Danube’s
water now flows through the original
river bed. Kiss said, with the other 95
percent of the river going into the
navigation channel.
A solution to the problem is needed
because the communities around the
original river bed are “drying up,” he
said.
The diversion of water inside
Slovakia’s borders has caused much
unrest in Hungary, he said, and has
had the two governments at odds in
recent years.
That unrest is not needed, Kiss
said.
“Historical scars from World War
1 and II need to be forgotten," Kiss
said. “We need to putaside our differ
ences and come together with a joint
effort for a mutual solution to this
problem.”
