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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 20, 1993)
s—as. News Digest as^ Security scaled back as Los Angeles remains calm LOS ANGELES — Police on Monday scaled back a heightened street presence and Rodney King's lawyer said his faith in the justice system was renewed after two po licemen were convicted of violat ing King's civil rights. Major crime was down about 25 percent city wide during the week end police alert. “Los Angeles is not a war zone. . .not a city with people fighting each other and afraid of each other,’' police Chief Willie Williams said in a television interview Monday. The7,700-officer police depart ment went on tactical alert Friday afternoon, putting thousands of ad ditional officers on 12-hour shifts, when it was learned jurors had reached verdicts. Full deployment was ordered at dawn Saturday to avert possible rioting. Last April, the acquittals of four white policemen on nearly all state assault charges in the videotaped beating of King, a black motorist, set off three days of rioting in which 54 people were killed. There was no verdict-related crime over the weekend, said Lt. John Dunkin, and police reduced the full deployment. Hundreds of National Guard troops sent to armories began pull ing out Sunday, and the Sheriffs Department went off 12-hour sh i fLs and resumed normal operations. The black community savored the convictions of Sgt. Stacey Koon and Officer Laurence Powell, said King’s attorney, Milton Grimes. “It does something to make one believe that the courts will deliver justice to African-American people,” Grimes said. “There is a renewed hope that justice will pre vail in the courtroom.” The federal juj7 acquitted Offi cer Theodore Briseno and former rookie Officer Timothy Wind. King was stopped in a Los An geles suburb on March 3, 1991, after a high-speed chase, and a resident in a nearby apartment vid eotaped him being clubbed, kicked and shocked with a stun gun by police. The beating raised a furor about police mistreatment of minorities. King hasn’t spoken publicly about the verdicts, but Grimes said - it-— There Is a renewed hope that Justice will prevail In the courtroom. —Grimes King's attorney - -— ft - he was gratified for the convictions and disappointed about the acquit tals. Koon and Powell face up to 10 years in prison at sentencing Aug. 4. Koon’s attorney, Ira Salzman, said the sergeant took the verdict well. “He’s a very strong person,” Salzman said. “He hung in for two years wiui unparaucuxiatniM;, slan der.” Briseno said his two convicted colleagues shouldn’t be impris oned. “The publ ic—they would never understand it,” Briseno said in a Los Angeles Times interview pub lished Monday. “But believe me, we’ve been through two years of living hell.They’vedonc their sen tence, believe me.” A federal official said Monday the trial’s sequestered jury drew up “a dream list” of places they wanted to visit on weekends. “One time they chartered a boat and went out deep sea fishing,” U.S. Marshal Craig Meacham said. Serb guns silent; evacuations continue - TUZLA, Bosnia-Hcrzegovina — Serb guns trained on Srebrenica kept silent Monday while U.N. helicopters flew out hundreds more sick and wounded and U.N. troops sought to cement a truce for the beleaguered Muslim enclave. More fighting was reported be tween nominally allied Muslims and Croats in the central part of Bosnia. The Serbs’ grueling siege of Srebrenica led to the virtual surrender Sunday of the town, one of only three eastern enclaves held by troops loyal to Bosnia’s Muslim-led government. That moved the Serbs closer to their goal of seizihg *11 of eftslCm Bosnia and uniting it with Serbia, and Serb held areas in Croatia to create a “Greater Serbia” French and British hcl icopters flew 469 people from Srebrenica to Tuzla, a Muslim city about 45 miles to the northwest, on Sunday and Monday, U.N. officials said. That emptied the hospital, where patients had suffered for months without adequate medi cine and care. U.N. officials said they planned lo start truck evacuations within a few days for all residents warning to leave the town. Under the cease-fire, the area is to be completely demilitarized within 72 hours, said a U.N. peacekeeper spokesman, Cmdr. Barry Frewer. That could be accomplished either by pull ing out weapons from the area or turning them over lo peacekeepers. Serb militamcn were expected to move out of the Srebrenica zone. Muslim fighters seemed to have no choice but to hand over their arms. After that, U.N. troops would be re sponsible for the towh’s security. “If the Serbs give up their weap ons, we will give up weapons,” said Jakub Salihovic, 35, speaking from a hospital bed in Tuzla. “Our com mander told us the last man will die fighting.” Several of his comrades, all seated on nearby hospital beds after evacua tion from Srebrenica, nodded in agree ment. Even as another U.N. food convoy U.N. peacekeepers arrive In Srebrenica arrived in Srebrenica, the leaders of Gorazdc, the largest Muslim enclave in eastern Bosnia, appealed for relief, Sarajevo radio reported. The message claimed people were dying from hunger, while the Bosnian Serb artillery daily destroyed the Gorazdc region that is still free. It could not be independently confirmed. Italians vote to overhaul system ROME — Disgusted by corrup tion and a half-century of weak gov ernments, Italians voted overwhelm ingly to overhaul their scandal plagued political system. The landslide referendum vote, results of which were announced Monday, paves the way for sweeping electoral reforms and the fall of yet another government, Italy’s 51st si nee World War II. It climaxed 14 months of revela tions that have shaken the country since prosecutors began uncovering systematic corruption reaching the highest levels of politics and finance. “It’s not only a great victory, it is almosta cry of liberation,” said W iller Bordon, an official of the reformist movement Democratic Alliance, which battled for the referendum to be held. Projections Monday from two days -- It's not only a great victory, It Is almost a cry of liberation. Bordon —Democratic Alliance official of voting showed electoral reform received a resounding 82 percent of. the vote while a proposal to end huge government subsidies to now discred ited political parties won approval by * nearly 90 percent. Both figures far surpassed what polls had predicted. Politicians, trying to put the best face on it, immediately promised steps to meet the expectations. In the next few days. Premier Giuliano Amato is expected to resign to pave the way for a stronger, more authoraiive government to lead the f? country into elections with the re vised voting system, Amato met with President Oscar Luigi Seal faro immediately after the polls closed and said his government’s “task is over” though Amato has not ruled out forming another governing alliance. Italians voted for a measure that would require three-quarters of the 315- seat Senate to be elec ted directly, lather than apportioned according to the percentage of votes received by each party. Experiment may lead to cure tor disease WASHINGTON — Researchers have begun transferring normal genes ink) cystic Fibrosis patients in an ex I I disease in the United Stales. The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute announced Monda\ tint a pioneering effort using a modi fied cold virus to treat cystic fibrosis wilhatype of gene therapy started last Saturday, .the day after the experi mental nrocedure was aDoroved. *C A version of an adenovirus, a com mon cold virus, modified toxapy a normal human gene was dripped into ihoitose and aiht*y»of aZi Jew-old snanwbohascysut fibrosiy,.;^ “The patient is fine. There were no adverse effects. No fever,** said Dr. Ronald Crystal, a Cornell University researcher who developed the gene therapy technique while working at the National Institutes of Health. Crystal said identification of the patient was being withheld. A second patient is in isolation awaiting a sec ond try of the technique in about a week, he said. The NIH and the Food and Drug ‘Administration on Friday approved Crystal’s application to treat 10 cystic fibrosis patients with the experimcn , tal technique. The experiment is be ing conducted at the NTH clinidl center. t "This pioneering research marks dhe first use of gene therapy for p common genetic dfsOrtfcr.” said Dr. ClaudeLenfant, director of the Na ' i tional Heart, Lung and Blood Insiilute. For the experiment, a cold virus was disabled so it could not cause infection and then was modified to contain a normal of the human gene which is defective in cystic fibrosis patients. A solution of the virus was put into the nose of the CF patient and then dripped into his left lung using a bronchial tube. Cystic fibrosis patients inherit $ defect in what is called the cystic transmemberane conductance regu lator gene. This flawed gene inter feres with production of a protein that controls the flow of sab through cells lining the airways Heavy mucous builds up m fhb lungs, leading to inflammation, progressive lung tfete rioration and eventually death. S. Africans boycott work; violence resumes JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Millions of blacks across Soulh Africa boycotted work Monday to honor slain leader Chris Hani, who was buried in an emotional ceremony as police clashed with enraged youths. At least 26 people wcrckilled Sun day night and Monday, nearly all in Johannesburg’s black townships, in cluding two people whose charred bodies were found in a house near the stadium where the funeral was held. More than 80,000 grieving blacks honored Hani at a peaceful ceremony in the stadium. Thousands of mourn ers, unable to get into the packed stadium, stood outside. Police fought running balllck oui sidc Bid* stadium with hundreds of youths who fired guns, hurled rocks and set fire to several buildings. At least 10 people were wounded, offi cials said. Business groups said at least half the country's six million black work ers stayed away from work Monday, the second major one-day strike to mourn Hani in a week. Johannesburg and other city cen ters were largely deserted. Nineteen people were killed Sun day night in drive-by attacks by black gunmen in the Scbokcng black town ship, and three people were killed Monday in Vosloorus as they went to the funeral, police said. Also Mon day, police said they found the body of a man who had been shot to death in the Katlchong township out of Johannesburg. It was not clear if the deaths were linked to the funeral. Police fired shotguns and rubber bullets at protesters blocking a road near Cape Town on Monday, injuring five people. Hani, head of the Communist Party and a lop African National Congress offic ial, was one of the country ’ s most popular black leaders. Despite scattered violence since Hani was killed by a white gunman April 10, reaction to the death of one of the country’s major black leaders has been fairly restrained. Violence has been confined to a few areas with relatively few deaths in a country where dozens die monthly in political violence. 50 years later, survivors hail courage of uprising WARSAW, Poland — As survi vors and world leaders hailed the cour age of the Warsaw ghetto uprising in 50th anniversary ceremonies Mon day, the rebellion’s last living leader questioned whether its lesson had been learned. The struggle we pul up half a century ago in Warsaw reminds me of what is going on now in the former Yugoslavia. The main analogy is the passiveness of the world.” Marck Edelman told the Zycie Warszawy newspaper. < Israeli President Yitzhak Rabin, U.S. Vice President Al Gore on his first foreign trip and Polish President Lcch Walesa led the commemora tion. The official events were only a backdrop to the excruciating memo ries, miracles of survival and hope for [ future generations ofTered by the Jew ish ghetto survivors reluming from around the world. * “Most of my family was killed I during rite uprising and their memory • is precious to mc,n mid Australian Boris Kaplon. That is why I came.** “No words can explain,” said Waller Cykiert of Detroit, seeing for the first time since World War II the place where his three brothers and two sisters died. He escaped the upris ing to the shelter of a Catholic woman and spent weeks in a closet. As day dawned 50 years ago Mon day, German soldiers surrounding the barbed-wire and brick walls of inc Jewish ghetto prepared for its final liquidation. Instead, within hours, a pitched battle was under way, the first armed civilian uprising against the Nazi occupiers in Europe. The courage of those 1,000 or so Jewish fighters who held out against the German tanks for nearly a month in the name of400,000 Warsaw Jews already murdered and another 40,OOU condemned was honored Monday. Rabin stood solemnly atop ihc bunker that became a grave for the leaders of the rebellion and he saw Umschlagplatz, the railroad siding where the Nazis crammed the Jews aboard trains to death camps.