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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 14, 1994)
2ssr.sTS“"» News Digest Friday, October 14, 1994 Page 2 Hussein to comply with U.N. resolution Sanctions may be lifted if Iraqi leader fulfills cease-fire conditions BAGHDAD, Iraq — Saddam Hussein offered early Friday to recognize Kuwait as a sovereign state with the understanding it would lead to the United Nations casing a stifling embargo after six months. The proposal came in a statement issued after a meeting between the Iraqi leader and Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev, who arrived in Baghdad Thursday to try to defuse tensions between Iraq and a U.S. led coalition backing Kuwait. Shortly after the statement was issued, senior U.S. military officials in Washing ton said some Iraqi units that had been head ing away from the Kuwait border halted their retreat Thursday. The officials said that prompted the Pentagon to rethink a hold it had put on the flow of U.S. troops to the After that test period, the Security Council should lift the sanctions on Iraqi oil sales without any additional conditions. There was no immediate comment on Saddam’s offer at the United Nations. Kozyrev was expected to brief the Security Council next week on his meeting. On Wednesday, Iraqi UrN. Ambassador Nizar Hamdoon told The Associated Press Iraq would recognize Kuwait “provided that Iraq gets assurances that there will be a lift ing of the sanctions within a short, clear cut period.” France has also expressed support for a six-month probation period for Iraq once it recognizes Kuwait’s borders. Both France and Russia had strong com mercial ties to Iraq in the past and recently have signed lucrative trade pacts to become effective once sanctions are lifted. Iraq also owes billions of dollars to cash-strapped Russia for arms purchases during the 1980 88 Iran-Iraq war. i nc u it mu oidies> auu dim,im nave uccn against setting a specific time limit and have said Iraq must also improve its human rights record before the oil embargo is lifted. Baghdad claims the United States and its Gulf allies want the sanctions maintained because they fear a drop in worldLoiLpriccs when Iraqi oil returns to the market. Before the Gulf War. Iraq produced 3 million barrels of oil a day. Russia would only support the lifting of other sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait when Iraq complies with other U N. resolutions, the statement issued in Baghdad said. Those conditions include returning hun dreds of Kuwaiti prisoners of war and Ku waiti properly. In Friday's statement. Iraq also “stressed its willingness to cooperate” with the Red Cross and other international agencies “to probe the fate of missing Kuwaiti citizens.” New dinosaur species found WASHINGTON — Bones from two new species of dinosaurs — a fleet-footed hunter and a long-necked grazer— have been found in Africa. They lived 130 million years ago in a lush, tropical paradise that is now the Sahara desert. The new hunter dinosaur, about 27 feet long, was named Afrovcnator abakcnsis, or “African hunter from In Abaka,” referring to the area of Niger where the bones were found. The second newly discovered Af rican species was a 60-foot-long plant-eater that is still unnamed. It was a sauropod — akin to the bron tosaurus — with a long neck and tail and a massive body. It was so big that its thigh bone was six feet long. Paul C. Sereno. leader of a Uni versity of Chicago team, said the di nosaur species were the first found in Africa that date from the Creta ceous. the second half of the age of dinosaurs. The newly found species arc similar to animals that lived dur ing an earlier time in North America and Asia, he said. “All of these types of dinosaurs went extinct in the north, but thejr survived (much longer) in Africa.' said Screno A report by Screno and his col leagues on studies of the new dino saurs is to be published Friday in the journal Science: Screno said Afrovenator was a type of predator known as an allosaurus. It was smaller than TVr annosaurus Rex. the killer king that lived during a later era in the Ameri can West, but was bigger than the Vfelociraplor that was featured in the film “Jurassic Park.” “Afrovenator ran on two back legs and had very strong forelimbs with sickle-shaped claws,” said Sereno. “The whole skeleton is more slender and has a lighter weight and a faster running ability than allosaurs. It seems to have been designed to kill live prey.” And yet, the much smaller Afrovenator was apparently such a fearsome hunter that it preyed on the far bigger sauropod. “At every place we found the sau ropod we did find traces, such as teeth, of the theropod," said Sereno. “It is very likely that they were prey and predator." But it apparently was not an easy task for the Afrovenator. The size difference would be comparable to a collie attacking an elephant. PLO increases errorts to rind soldier captured by extremists Gulf. Saddam's offer, broadcast early Friday in Iraq, echoed one made by his U.N. am bassador on Wednesday. The statement did not specify when Baghdad would recognize Kuwait, which it has long maintained was part of Iraq. The 1991 Persian Gulf War cease-fire resolution calls for lifting the oil embargo after Iraq had eliminated its weapons of mass destruction and a monitoring program is in place to make sure Iraq doesn't try to rebuild them. U.N. weapons inspectors told the Secu rity Council on Tuesday that the sophisti cated monitoring system was ready. The Iraqi-Russian statement said Iraq “has agreed to resolve the issue of Kuwait's sovereignty” as the U.N. Security Council has demanded. Once it does so, Russia said it would sup port activating a six-month test period for the monitoring system, the statement said. GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Fac ing intense U.S. and Israeli pressure as a deadline approached for Islamic militants to kill a kidnapped soldier. Palestinian police combed the Gaza Strip on Thursday, arresting scores of suspects. The unprecedented crackdown by 9,500 members of PLO leader Yasser Arafat’s police force was a major showdown with the fundamentalist Hamas movement. Hamas leaders angrily accused the Palestine Liberation Organization of doing Israel’s “dirty work" and threatened violence. A leaflet issued Thursday by the group's underground military wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, re newed the threat to kill 19-ycar-old Cpl. Nachshon Waxman if Israel didn’t release the group’s founder and 200 other prisoners by 9 p.m. (3 p.m. EDT) Friday. “The soldier will be immediately executed” if the imprisoned Palestin ians, including Sheik Ahmed Yassin, arc not released, the leaflet warned. A videotape of Waxman released Wednesday showed the soldier im ploring Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to save his life by answering his captors’ demands. He is the 1 Oth Israeli kidnapped by Islamic militants since 1989. All the previous captives were killed. Both Rabin and Secretary of State Warren Christopher warned Arafat Thursday that he would be held ac countable for the safe return of the soldier, a dual U.S.-lsracli citizen. The United States has “empha sized to chairman Arafat his respon sibility for the resolution of this mat ter,” Christopher said Thursday. News... in a Minute Ruble regains ground MOSCOW - The wildly fluctuating ruble recouped its losses Thurs day after a confidence-jarring crash, but only after a costly blitz by a government bank with fast-dwindling reserves. The Central Bank spent an estimated $100 million Thursday to prop up the ruble on the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange The ruble closed at 2,994 to the dollar, up 742 points from Wednesday’s finish of 3,736. It was the currency’s strongest single-day showing on the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange and fully made up for a shocking 27 percent loss two days earlier on what is already referred to as “Black Tuesday.” The ruble’s three-week slide began when the bank sat out trading on Sept. 22 because of dwindling reserves. By the time the currency bottomed out Tuesday, the ruble had shrunk 60 percent. The bank has spent a quarter-billion dollars in three days to prop the ruble back up. Analysts say the bank will run out of money by year’s end if it keeps up that pace. The bank's hard-currency reserves , are estimated at less than $6 billion. Japanese novelist wins Nobel TOKYO — Novelist Kenzaburo Oc. whose dark musings on moral failure came to symbolize an alienated generation in postwar Japan, won the Nobel Prize in literature on Thursday, only the second Japa nese author ever to do so. The Swedish Academy, announcing the award, cited the 59-year old author for his often disturbing works of fiction, in which "poetic force creates an imagined world where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today.” In Japan, news of the award to Kenzaburo Oe (pronounced Kcn za-boo-roh OH-eh) led evening newscasts and spawned banner head lines, and the prime minister himself issued congratulations. The only other Japanese to win a Nobel in literature was Yasunari Kawabata. in 1968. Cedras goes to Panama PANAMA CITY, Panama — Haiti's deposed army ruler slept off a pre-dawn flight into exile Thursday, trading his mansion at home for an airport hotel in Panama normally favored by stranded passengers and trysting lovers. A handful of armed police drifled around the Riande Continental Hotel, shooing away reporters and photographers seeking a glimpse of Raoul Cedras. Cedras presented himself with his wife and three children for a two-minute statement before being whisked in a heavily guarded mo torcade to the hotel. “We arc a family that is passing through very difficult times.'' Cedras said. He was accompanied on a chartered flight by his top general, Philippe Biamby, No. 3 man in Haiti's former military regime. Nebraskan FAX NUMBER 472-1761 „ . w. The Daily NebraskanOJSPS 144 080) is published by Ihe UNL Publications Board, Na *" braska Union 34, 1400 R St.. Lincoln. NE 68588 0448, Monday through Fnday during tne academic year; weekly during summer sessions . _ hu Readers are encouraged to submit story ideas and comments to the Daily Nawaskari oy phoning 472-1763 between 9 a m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The public also access to the Publications Board. 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