Jessies- News digest
Tension continues to build in Moscow
MOSCOW — Thousands of Rus
sians cheered Boris Yeltsin at a con
cert on Red Square Sunday and at
least 10,000 people marched through
downtown in the biggest demonstra
tion of support for the president since
he disbanded parliament five days
ago.
Across town, the
hard-liners who
have defied the
president by refus
ing to leave the par
liament building
dug in their heels.
“If need be, we
will stay here for a
year, said parliament speaker Ruslan
Khasbulatov, leader of the approxi
mately 100 lawmakers who remain
holed up in the building, known as the
White House.
Late Sunday, in a potentially sig
nificant development, the Interfax
news agency reported that a top Yeltsin
aide had agreed to simultaneous par
liamentary and presidential elections.
No date was mentioned, and the pres
ident has not approved the proposal.
Yeltsin has set new parliamentary
elections for December and said pres
idential elections could be held in
June. Khasbulatov’s parliament, elect
ed in Soviet times, wants simulta
neous elections in March.
Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev,
speaking Sunday on NBC’s“Meet the
Press,” said that if there is a “growing
mood" in the country, Yeltsin might
compromise on his plan.
But Kozyrev said he believes si
multaneous elections are “very, very
dangerous,” and could destabil ize the
country. “Someone has to be in of
fice,” he said.
Yeltsin, accompanied by Defense
Minister Pavel Grachev and Moscow
Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, waded into surg
ing crowds on Red Square for a free
concert by the Washington-based
National Symphony Orchestra and its
conductor, former dissident Mstislav
Rostropovich.
The president waved and smiled,
then took his place at the front of the
crowd. He cracked a smile again when
earblasting cannons went off during
Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture.”
An announcer urged “faith in the
president and in Russia’s future," and
the crowd responded “Hurrah! Hur
rah!”
A longtime backer of Yeltsin,
Rostropovich has said he wanted the
concert to give Russians hope and
confidence during the transition to a
post-Soviet democracy.
“Yeltsin is one of us and he must
succeed,” said Nina Shtanina, a 69
year-old pensioner who arrived on
Red Square at 8 a.m., four hours early,
to get a good view of Rostropovich.
Temperatures were near freezing.
“I took part in the Second World
War, and if we won that fight, we can
win this one,” she said.
Later, pro-Yeltsin demonstrators
chanting “Yeltsin! Yeltsin!” linked
arms and marched down broad
Tverskaya Street — Gorky Street in
M + _-__
— tv
If the Communists
return they'll destroy
the economy again,
and freedom, and
peace.
— Beneslavsky, Russian
citizen
-99 ~
Soviet times. A small band headed the
procession.
Marchers carried Russian flags,
pictures of the president and placards
with slogans such as “Shame on the
White House,” “Boris, You’re Right
Again” and “Elections are the Will of
the People.”
Yeltsin has set new parliamentary
elections for December and says pres
idential elections could be held in
June. The hard-line Congress wants
simultaneous pari iamentary and pres
idential elections in March.
Khasbulatov’s parliament, elected
in Soviet times, opposed the presi
dent’s free-market reforms, saying
they were causing undue hardship.
Lawmakers also whittled away at
Yeltsin’s presidential powers.
“This is the moment you have to be
decisive and support Yeltsin because
he’s a democrat,” said Anton
Beneslavsky, a 16-year-old student
marching in the crowd. “If the Com
munists return they’ll destroy the econ
omy again, and freedom, and peace.”
Outside the While House, Yeltsin’s
rebellious vice president, Alexander
Rutskoi, urged 3,000 to 4,000 anti
Yeltsin demonstrators “to stand till
the end.” .
Rutskoi has condemned Yeltsin s
actions as unconstitutional and de
clared himself president.
The demonstrators are a mix of
Communists and extreme national
ists, and are mostly older than Y eltsin’s
supporters. Some diehards stay around
the clock, but most people come and
go past the flimsy barricades thrown
together from assorted debris.
Yeltsin’s riot police, in bulletproof
vests and steel helmets, stand by.
At a news conference, Khasbulatov
said he would not deal with Yeltsin,
saying elections could be held only if
the “formerpresident leaves his Krem
lin office” and the press is relieved of
“political censorship.”
The deputies have little popular .
support in Moscow, and Khasbulatov
said Saturday that they might move to
another city.
Issues arise on health plan
WASHINGTON — Fearing that
insurers might dump sick patients,
President Clinton will ask Congress
to impose strict, regulations on the
insurance industry during the transi
tion to his new health care system.
“We want to make sure that the
insurance market doesn’t go crazy
during the interim period," Ira
Magaziner, the president’s senior
health care adviser, said in an inter
view.
The reforms would bar insurers
from cutting off anyone’s health in
surance if he or she became sick and
would allow workers to stay insured
when they switched jobs, even if they
or their children have chronic health
problems.
Clinton hopes to have a universal
health care system in place by mid
1997, with a new rating system mak
ing insurance more expensive for the
young and healthy and cheaper for the
older and sickly.
His advisers expect many small
companies to get out of the health
insurance business when they are
forced to compete on the basis of
managing care rather than avoiding
risks.
“A lot of insurers might look at (the
future) and say, ‘Well, I’m not going
to be able to be around two years from
now, so I’m just going to raise mjr
prices or drop all my sick people.’”
Magazincr said. “We’ve got to make
sure that doesn’t happen.”
Insurance and health executives
expressed alarm at the prospect of
tighter regulations.
“If insurers want to withdraw from
a whole line of business, they ought to
be able to do that,” said Ed Neuschler,
director of policy development and
research at the Health Insurance As
sociation of America.
Whatever the fate of Clinton’s
Health Security Act.Congress is like
ly to pass legislation next year forcing
changes on the insurance industry and
making it easier for consumers.
How coverage is paid for
Under Onion's proposal the employer
pays 80% of the a mo§ monthly
pnmkjm, regardless of what plan the
►Individual chooses, and the employee
pays the remaining amount Here the
average plan costs $100 a month.
S3 Employer's coat ■ Employee's cost
Average monthly premium
I
%
-1
| SPORTS WIRE
Kickers instrumental once again in Sunday fsNFLmatchups
In what is fast becoming the
Year of the Kicker, the field goals
kept coming Sunday.
Kickers made 29 of 34 attempts
during games on Sunday. And not
only were the kicks going straight,
they were going far.
Steve Christie of Buffalo hit
from 59 yards, Greg Davis of Phoe
nix struck from 54, A1 Del Greco of
Houston from 52 and Fuad Reveiz
of Minnesota from 51. Christie’s
was the third-longest in NFL histo
ry.
“When you’ve got the wind,
you’ve got the confidence to say:
‘Oh, why not,’” he said.
Reveiz made five field goals
against Green Bay, including the
winner from 22 yards with 6 sec
onds to play, as the Vikings beat
Green Bay 15-13.
Jason Hanson of Detroit was 4
of-5, connecting from 44, 22, 33
and 38 yards in the Lions’ 26-20
victory over Phoenix.
Kevin Butler made all four of
his attempts, from 33,40,32 and 31
yards, in Chicago’s 47-17 rout of
Tampa Bay.
In other games, Miami beat Buf
falo 22-13, Indianapolis downed
Cleveland 23-10, the Los Angeles
Rams defeated Houston 28-13,
Seattle stopped Cincinnati 19-10
and New Orleans beat San Fran
cisco 16-13 on a last-second field
goal.
In one of Sunday’s most excit
ing games, the Vikings were able to
rally from behind to beat their divi
sion-rival Packers.
Reveiz’s winning kick came one
play after Jim McMahon complet
ed a 45-yard pass to Eric Guliford
to put the ball at the Packers’ 5. The
Green Bay secondary blew the cov
erage on the third-and-10 play.
“It was a mirage,” said Green
Bay safety LeRoy Butler, who was
responsible for deep coverage on
the play. “HOw we’re playing right
now, we might never win. We ve
been giving away more gifts than
Santa Claus.”
The five field goals were a ca
reer high for Reveiz, who had been
bothered by an ankle injury. His
other kicks were from 35, 19, 29
and51 yards.
U.S. asks about POWs
WASHINGTON — The U.S.
government has confronted Mos
cow for the first time with evidence
that hundreds of U.S. Korean War
prisoners were secretly moved to
the Soviet Union, imprisoned and
never returned.
The allegation, supported by new
information from a variety of Amcr
. ican and Russian sources, was made
in a detailed presentation by a State
Department official at a meeting
with Russian officials in Moscow.
The evidence is spelled out in a
government report titled “The
TransferofU.S. Korean War POWs
to the Soviet Union.” It was given
to the Russians at the Moscow
meeting but the Clinton adminis
tration has refused to release it.
A copy of the report was ob
tained by The Associated Press.
“The Soviets transferred sever
al hundred U.S. Korean War POWs
to the U.S.S.R. and did not repatri
ate them,” the report said. “This
transfer was mainly politically
motivated with the intent of hold
ing them as political hostages, sub
jects for intelligence exploitation
and skilled labor within the camp
system.”
It asserts that the evidence gave
a “consistent and mutually rein
forcing description” of Soviet in
telligence services forcibly mov
ing U.S. POWs to the Soviet Union
at a time when the Soviet military,
including anti-aircraft units, was
1___
active in North Korea.
It does not assess how long the
American servicemen — mostly
Air Force aviators — may have
lived, or whether any might still be
alive in the chaotic former Soviet
Union.
Russian President Boris Yeltsin
said last year that Soviet records
showed 59 captured U.S. service
men in Korea were interrogated by
' Soviet officials, and that 12 crew
members ofU.S. aircraft shot down
in reconnaissance missions unre
lated to the Korean War were trans
ferred to Soviet territory. But the
Yeltsin government has yet to con
cede that Americans were taken
from Korea.
The 77-page U.S. report on U.S.
Korean War prisoners delivered to
Russia gives no specific figure but
the analysis seems to indicate it is
fewer than 600.
The report describes a program
of the Soviet KGB to capture Amer
ican fliers and other U.S. and allied
technical specialists in Korea, in
terrogate them, and then transfer
them into Josef Stalin’s notorious
gulag system of slave labor camps
in Siberia and other parts of the
Soviet Union.
“The range of eyewitness testi
mony as to the presence of U.S.
Korean War POWs in the gulag is
so broad and convincing that we
cannot dismiss it,” the report said.
> STATE WIRE
Omaha man becomes hero in train wreck
MOBILE, Ala. — In the predawn
bedlam of a burning bayou, Michael
Dopheide clung to a bridge timber
with his left arm and lifted fellow
passengers out of a window of a half
submerged Amtrak train with his right.
“He should get a medal for what he
did,” said Gus Maloney, whose in
jured wife was among 30 passengers
Dopheide rescued. “He’s a real hero.
If there was any way to reward him, I
would. We’ll be forever grateful.”
Dopheide, 26, of Omaha, had just
removed his shoes and eyeglasses to
get some sleep after the Sunset Lim
ited left Mobile.
A jolt knocked him from his seat
and into action. The train plunged into
Bayou Canot and was half-submerged;
its 30 dazed occupants choked on
smoke from a crew car burning near
by.
“Everybody was moaning and
groaning. Someone yelled, ‘Oh my
God, we’reall going todie,’” Dopheide
said.
In the inky blackness and minus
his glasses, Dopheide borrowed a fel
low passenger’s key ring flashlight.
The tnin stream oflight was all he had,
but it led him out.
A piece of timber from the railroad
bridge protruded through a window
near the emergency exit at the rear of
the car. Dopheide clambered outside.
and in a clear, calm voice, oraerea me
others to follow.
Qinging to the timber, Dopheide
extended his right hand to help pas
sengers squirm through the window
and lowered them feet-first into the
water—a drop of about six feet. Each
had to swim about 10 yards to a bridge
piling. For those unable to swim,
Dopheide placed them on flotsam
perches or cradled them as he swam
them to shore.
“1 held their hand and kind of led
them to floating debris they could
hold onto. Some of them hooked onto
my neck as I swam,” said Dopheide,
a former water safety instructor.
One of those who couldn’t swim
was Sister Adele Maessaro of San
Antonio, Texas. Dopheide pulled her
to something she could stand on ami
left her in the care of another passen
ger.
“The only thing that kept me going
was his calm voice. I just followed his
voice to safety,” she told the Mobile
Press Register.
Dopheide never found hiseyeglass
es or shoes, although he did return to
the coach to retrieve bags and purses
‘There was no time to think,
Dopheide said. “I just did what any
body else would nave done in that
situation. I just couldn ’t leave 30 peo
ple in there to die.”
----
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