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NATO draws Yeltsin’s ire for courting Warsaw Pact nations BUDAPEST, Hungary — Up staging a 52-nation security sum mit, Russian President Boris Yeltsin on Monday accused the United States and its NATO allies of trying to exclude and isolate it. “Why sow the seeds of mistrust? After all, we are no longer enemies —we are all partners now,” Yeltsin said in an uneasy start to the two day conference on reducing ten sions in an increasingly unstable Europe. “No major country is going to live by the laws of isolation,” he said in attacking NATO for agree ing last week to draw up conditions for admitting former Warsaw Pact foes. “Any such country will reject (having) such a game played with it.” The conflict in Bosnia, raging not far from this picturesque Cen tral European capital, also threat ened to upset the summit of the Conference on Security and Coop eration in Europe. Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic heaped scorn on the West for doing so little to stop the carnage that has left 200,000 dead and missing. “What is happening in Bosnia is the weakness of the West,” he said in an address unusual for its bitter ness. “It is nothing more than that.” President Clinton, in his speech, sought to focus attention on fresh moves to end nuclear confrontation on the European continent. Standing side by side, Clinton and Yeltsin formally put in force the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, the first accord ever to re duce long-range nuclear weapons. “Today we herald the arrival of a new and safer era,” Clinton said at a ceremony also attended by lead ers of the former Soviet republics of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. Under the START I accord, long range missiles stockpiled by the United States and the former Soviet Union will be slashed by about one third, and the stage set for U.S. Senate action on the START II ac cord and its provisions for deeper, 50 percent, reductions. At the same ceremony, Ukraine, the world’s third largest nuclear power, renounced its arsenal of nuclear arms inherited from the Soviet breakup. “It’s hard to overestimate the importance of the event that has just taken place,” Ukrainian Presi dent Leonid Kuchma said after sign ing the Treaty on the Non-Prolif eration of Nuclear Weapons. Ukraine will become nuclear-free around the end of the century. Summit participants are search ing for ways to use the CSCE to defuse European tensions. But Yeltsin’s remarks underscored the difficulties in agreeing on security measures in the post-Cold War era. Russia has long sought to make the CSCE the premier security or ganization in Europe. The United States favors a more assertive CSCE, though not at the expense of the 16-nation North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Created in 1975, the CSCE was the only institution in which NATO and the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact came together to discuss security and human rights issues. Speaking ahead of Yeltsin, Clinton sought to head off the Russian’s criticisms ofNATO mem bership plans by saying the alliance “will not automatically exclude any nation from joining.’’ In an obvious reference to Mos cow, he added: “No country outside will be allowed ... to veto expan sion.” With Clinton sitting not far away, Yeltsin thundered, “Europe has not yet freed itself from the heritage of the Cold War (and) is in danger of plunging into a Cold Peace.” In a slap at Washington, Yeltsin said it was a “dangerous delusion” to think the “destinies of conti nents and of the world community in general can somehow be man aged from one single capital.” Gingrich’s allegations anger administration WASHINGTON — Suggest ing a pattern of Republican reck lessness, President Clinton’s top adviser said Monday “we cannot do business” with Newt Gingrich if the new House speaker insists on making unfounded allega tions. From chief of staff Leon Panetta to first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, the administra tion pounced on Gingrich for his charges that up to a quarter of the White House staff had used ille gal drugs. “His charges are absolutely false,” Panetta said angrily. “The time has come when he has to understand that he has to stop behaving like an out-of-con trol radio talk show host and be gin behaving like the speaker of the House of Representatives,” Panetta said. Saying he saw signs of “a trou bling pattern,” Panetta compared Gingrich’s remarks with Repub lican Sen. Jesse Helms’ recent warning that Clinton would need a bodyguard if he ever visited North Carolina. “I think it is so unfair,” the first lady said of Gingrich’s re marks. If any Republicans were both ered by Gingrich’s accusations, there was no sign of it as House GOP members joy fully installed him as the next House speaker, cheering, “Newt, Newt, Newt.” Rep. Bob Walker, R-Pa., a close Gingrich ally, said, “This White House is going to have to learn that they no longer have lap dogs on Capitol Hill.... They’re also going to have to learn there’s a new majority here.” Gingrich ignited the latest flap between Republicans and the White House when he charged in a television interview that up to a quarter of the White House staff had used drugs in the past four or five years. Gingrich, who has admitted smoking marijuana as a youth, said the source of his informa tion was a senior law enforce ment official, whom he did not name. Panetta said that no one in the White House uses drugs. “ I f Newt Gingrich has evidence to the contrary he ought to tell me that, he ought to make it public and I’ll fire them,” Panetta said. The White House seized on Gingrich’s remarks as evidence that Republicans who are taking power in Congress are out of con trol and willing to go to any length to undercut Clinton. rtfp News... __ ipf in a Minute Child mistaken for burglar JACKSON, Miss. — A toddler enthralled by Christmas tree lights tripped an anti-crime motion detector in his living room and was shot to death by his stepmother, who told police she mistook the 3-year-old for a burglar. Jonathan Hicks’ death was ruled an accident. No immediate charges were brought against the stepmother, whom police refused to identify. Police said they were still investigating. On Saturday night, the woman grabbed a 38-caliber semiauto matic handgun and fired when she saw movement. Jonathan was shot in the head as he stood inches from the Christmas tree. The shooting took place in drug-infested west Jackson, where anti-crime devices such as motion detectors and burglar bars are common in many homes. The largest city in Mississippi, Jackson had the 12th-highest homicide rate among U.S. cities last year, according to the FBI. The city of nearly 200,000 people has surpassed its 1993 record of 87 slayings with 89 so far this year. Man gets life for levee sabotage KIRKSVILLE, Mo. — A man who prosecutors said sabotaged a levee during the 1993 Midwest floods to strand his wife so he could have affairs was sentenced Monday to life in prison. James R. Scott, 24, of Fowler, HI., got the maximum for his November conviction on charges of causing a catastrophe. Scott admitted to police that he removed sandbags from the levee, opening a breach that allowed the swollen Mississippi River to flood 14,000 acres of farmland and destroy scores of buildings in West Quincy. The breach also shut down for 71 days a bridge that was the only link between Missouri and Illinois for 200 miles. Prosecutors said Scott, an arsonist and burglar, told a friend he wanted to make sure his wife couldn’t return home across the river from her Missouri job, so that he could have affairs and party. Americans’ pension deficit climbs WASHINGTON — The shortfall in money that companies set aside to pay for Americans’ pensions climbed to $71 billion last year. “Millions of Americans still are in danger of not getting their pensions,” Labor Secretary Robert Reich said Monday. “Underfunding has gone up to $71 billion from $53 billion in 1992 and $27 billion in 1987.” The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. said underfunded single employer pension plans at the end of 1993 had assets of just $316 billion to pay $387 billion in benefits. The announcement came just four days after Congress approved legislation requiring companies with pension deficits to reduce their underfunding by more than two-thirds within 15 years. Reich said President Clinton will sign the bill on Thursday. Bentsen planning to resign Treasury Secretary position WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen is plan ning to resign early next year to return to Texas, administration of ficials said Monday. The Cabinet departure would cost President Clinton one of his most respected policy-makers. Robert Rubin, who has headed the president’s National Economic Council for two years, is widely believed to be in line for Bentsen’s job. The administration officials, who all spoke on condition that their names not be used, said that Bentsen has long wanted to return to Texas and believed that now was a good time given that Congress has fi nally passed the world trade agree ment, the last unfinished economic business from Clinton’s first two years in office. These officials said that while Bentsen and Clinton have discussed Bentsen’s desire to leave the Cabi net, no formal resignation letter has been submitted yet and the exact timing was still up in the air. Speaking on Monday at the Na tional Press Club, Bentsen sought to make light of the resignation rumors although he did not deny them. “Paraphrasing Mark Twain, the news is premature. I will let you know,’’ he promised the room full of journalists. “You will be among the first to know when it is news.” Rumors of Bentsen’s imminent de parture have circulated around Washington ever since he purchased a townhouse in Houston earlier this year for more than $1 million. When he does leave the Cabinet, Bentsen, 73, said he doesn’t plan to retire. “I think you rust out before you wear out,” he said. Associates expect Bentsen, who made millions of dollars in insur ance before he beat George Bush for a U.S. Senate seat in 1970, will become active in business again, possibly with his son. The administration has so far floated only one name as a possible successor to Bentsen — Rubin, a multimillionaire who resigned as chairman of Goldman, Sachs & Co., the giant Wall Street investment firm, to become head of Clinton’s National Economic Council. Rubin, 57, who spent nearly three decades at Goldman Sachs, is well regarded on Wall Street and has also won praise for his ability to coordinate economic policy inside the administration. “Rubin’s selection as Treasury secretary wouldn’t cause any prob lems. Wall Street would be getting one of its own,” said Bruce Steinberg, an economist at Merrill Lynch in New York. “Rubin would be the obvious choice either for Treasury secretary or Federal Re serve chairman.” But some analysts expressed con cerns that in losing Bentsen, the administration was losing a re spected go-between with Congress at a critical time when the adminis tration will have to deal with a Republican-controlled House and Senate. “If ever Bentsen was needed, he is needed now to be able to work effectively with a much more con servative Congress,” said David Jones, an economist at Aubrey G. Lanston & Co. Others also worried that Rubin would be difficult to replace as head of the NEC although some sug gested that he could very well take some of the NEC’s powers along with him to Treasury, much as Henry Kissinger did when he moved from National Security adviser in the Nixon administration to Secretary of State. In his press club appearance Monday, Bentsen let it be known that he is still actively engaged in the administration’s efforts to put together a 1996 budget, which the administration hopes to use to de pict Clinton economic policies as more responsible than the Republi cans’ “Contract with America.” Nebraskan Editor JeffZeleny 472-1786 Managing Editor Angie Brunkow Assoc. News Editors Jeffrey Robb Rainbow Rowell Opinion Page Editor Kara Morrison Wire Editor Deb McAdams Night News Editors Chris Hain DougKouma Heather Lamps Sean Green Art Director James Mehsling General Manager DanShattil Production Manager Katherine Policky FAX NUMBER 472-1761 The Daily Nebraskan(USPS 144-080) is published by the UNL Publications Board, Nebraska Union 34,1400 R St., Lincoln. NE 68588-0448, Monday through Friday during the academic year; weekly during summer sessions. Readers are encouraged to submit story ideas and comments to the Daily Nebraskan by phoning 472-1763 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The public also has access to the Publications Board. For information, contact Tim Hedegaard, 436-9258. Subscription price is $50 for one year. Postmaster: Send address changes to the Daily Nebraskan, Nebraska Union 34.1400 R St.,Lincoln, NE 68588-0448. Second-class postage paid at Lincoln, NE. ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1994 DAILY NEBRASKAN