Edited by Jennifer Mlratsky News Digest
Monday, February 27,1995 Page 2
U.S., China reach trade agreement
BEIJING — China and the United States
averted Sunday a maj or trade war by signing an
agreement strengthening Chinese laws pro
tecting copyright, trademarks and patents.
The agreement capped 20 months of “often
very difficult negotiations,” said Deputy U.S.
Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky.
Barshefsky, speaking at a news conference
in Beijing, called the accord “the single most
comprehensive agreement we have ever nego
tiated with any country,”
It spells out measures to enforce laws China
wrote after similarly tense talks that went down
to the wire in 1992. In those negotiations, the
United States demanded stricter legal protec
tion for its copyrights, patents and trademarks.
The steps include establishing a nationwide
task force to raid businesses engaged in piracy,
review business records, destroy goods and
equipment, and order closure and criminal
prosecution.
Beginning Wednesday, China is to begin a
six-month special enforcement period during
which it is supposed to raid all suspected
pirates, particularly those engaged in illegal
production of compact discs, laser discs and
CD-ROMs.
Chinese customs agents will be granted
greater powers, including border seizure and
destruction of pirated goods.
In the first year, China is to make quarterly
reports on its progress, followed by semiannual
reports in following years.
The agreement also gives American pro
ducers of intellectual property greater access to
the Chinese market. American movies will no
longer be restricted by quotas, and audio-visual
firms can enter into Chinese joint ventures to
produce and distribute their products.
“This is a win-win agreement,” Barshefsky
said, noting that an end to piracy will bring
more foreign investment to China and increase
business confidence there.
Gambling busts British bank
LONDON — Baring Brothers
& Co., one of the oldest and most
prestigious British investment
banks, went broke when a trader
lost more than S800 million, it was
announced Sunday.
The Bank of England sought
over the weekend to rescue Barings
PLC, the holding company for the
bank, but a consortium of the top
banks in Britain gave up on the
idea. The loss stemmed from gam
bling in Asian futures markets.
“They had a rogue trader who
concealed what he was doing from
the management, and he busted
the bank,” a source said Sunday.
The Barings trader made huge
bets on the direction of the Nikkei
225, the benchmark Japanese stock
index, on the Singapore Mercan
tile Exchange, the source said,
speaking to The Associated Press
on condition of anonymity.
A number of Nikkei futures and
options contracts taken out by the
Barings trader are still open, mean
ing that ifthe Japanese stock mar
ket falls, the losses at Barings will
be greater.
The Barings investment bank,
founded in 1762, financed the
Napoleonic wars and lists Queen
Elizabeth II among its clients.
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News...
in a Minute
Pilot dies from blimp fall
HAYWARD, Calif.—A pilot fell about 200 feet from his blimp and
died, leaving the 90-foot craft floating at the whim of the winds for
about two hours before it finally landed itself Sunday.
The pilot fell as he was attempting to land at Hayward Air Terminal,
about 20 miles southeast of San Francisco, said Federal Aviation'
Administration spokesman Fred O’Donnell.
Terry Bar, an airport technician, said the blimp’s owner-pilot was
giving a lesson w'hen the craft came in too low for a landing and hit a
berm at the end of the runway.
The student was able to escape, but the pilot somehow ended up
hanging outside the craft and lost his grip. Bar said.
After the pilot’s fall, the blimp floated up to about 10,000 feet, where
a helicopter monitored it and air traffic was diverted around it until it
finally settled to earth about two hours later in a field in Orinda, about
14 miles northeast of San Francisco.
Russian forces hit Chechnya
SHALI, Russia — Using the same tactic that pushed rebel fighters
out of Grozny, Russian forces pounded southern Chechnya on Sunday
with heavy artillery and rockets.
Also Sunday, a newspaper reported the discovery of two open mass
graves in the capital of the breakaway republic. The Observer of
London said the graves contained the bodies of more than 100 Chechens,
most of them civilians, including women and children.
Bodies of the newly dead lay among a far larger number of
decomposing corpses in open trenches between Grozny’s central
graveyard and a main road, the newspaper said. Some were clearly
victims of exploding shells while others looked relatively unscathed.
There was no suggestion that the victims had died in a mass killing,
rather the graves were an indication of lack of burial space in the
devastated Chechen capital.
Radios tuned to O.J.
LOS ANGELES — If a television is out of reach while the O J.
Simpson case is in session, trial enthusiasts turn to AM radio for a quick
fix.
Whether they’re on the road or in the office, the trial is never more
than a twist of the knob away in this Simpson-saturated city.
While all-news station KNX in Los Angeles scraps its usual
programming the moment Judge Lance Ito opens proceedings, radio
stations across the nation satisfy the appetite for live coverage with
feeds and commentary provided by radio networks.
“This one’s got me fascinated,” said Los Angeles taxi driver Noel
Akametu, who like a soap opera fan can’t bear to miss a single plot turn.
“The case is too complicated, and it’s too interesting.”
Aftershock jolts desert area
YUCCA VALLEY, Calif. — An aftershock to a 1992 earthquake
jolted the Southern California desert Sunday. No damage or injuries
were reported.
The 3.2-magnitude temblor hit at 12:02 p.m. and was centered about
100 miles east of Los Angeles,-said seismologist Robby Robb at the
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
The quake was an aftershock to the June 28, 1992, Landers quake
that measured 7.6 and was followed a few hours later by a magnitude
6.7 quake in the nearby San Bernardino Mountains. One person died,
400 were injured, and damage costs totaled nearly $100 million.
Nebraskan ~
Editor Jeff Zeleny
472-1766
Managing Editor Jeff Robb
Assoc. News Editors DeDra Janssen
Doua Kouma
Night News Editors Ronda Vlasin
Jamie Kart
Damon Lee
rai namorecm
Art Director Kai Wilken
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