News Digest
IRA-allied party leader praises Clinton
NfcW YORK — The leader of
the IRA-allied Sinn Fein party urged
the British government Sunday to
recognize his U.S. fundraising trip
as a step toward peace in Northern
Ireland.
Half a world away, British Prime
Minister John Major criticized the
St. Patrick’s Day meeting between
Gerry Adams and President Cl inton,
the first between an ally of the Irish
Republican Army and a U.S. presi
dent.
Adams, who arrived in the
United States on Saturday, said that
being allowed to raise funds would
legitimize Sinn Fein in the eyes of
Americans.
“The president of the United
States did the right thing, again,
when he accorded Sinn Fein equal
ity of treatment,” he told a cheering
crowd of about 400 Irish-Ameri
cans at a rally in New York City.
“That’s what we need to see in
our own country.”
Adams says any money raised
during his 10-day trip would be
used for political activities.
Major was in Jerusalem as part
of his pledge to contribute to Mid
east peace through closer trade ties
to Israel and aid to the Palestinians.
He was asked why he would not
welcome a meeting between Clinton
and Adams, if he was willing to
meet with PLO Chairman Yasser
Arafat.
“Terrorism has now been re
nounced by Chairman Arafat. I’ve
not seen it comprehensively de
nounced by Mr. Adams,” he said.
“I’m afraid the Sinn Fein is directly
associated with a fully formed ter
rorist organization.”
Adams said Sinn Fein was look
ing for a British government that
“instead of being petulant, seems to
be progressive... generous and flex
ible.”
“The British government sees
this visit as a victory for Sinn Fein
and a defeat for them, but I don’t
think that’s the way they should be
looking at it,” he said. “This isn’t
keeping score-one up, one down.”
The IRA began a cease-fire Sept.
1, in its campaign to end British
rule of Northern Ireland. Rival pro
British gunmen began their own
truce in mid-October.
All parties are studying peace pro
posals offered by the governments of
Britain and Ireland as a basis for talks
on Northern Ireland’s future.
Flooding paralyzes
California cities,
claims at least eight
SAN FRANCISCO — Floods
washed out all roads into the Monterey
Peninsula on Sunday as waterlogged
California struggled to recover from
storms that battered two-thirds of the
state.
At least eight people died in five
days of flooding, and five more are
missing after driving into a rain-swol
len creek when an Interstate 5 bridge
collapsed in central California.
In Monterey County, thousands of
people left their homes overnight as
the Salinas and Pajaro rivers inun
dated some of the nation’s richest farm
lands, the site of John Steinbeck’s
“The Grapes of Wrath.”
The flooding cut off the communi
ties around Monterey, about 100 miles
south of San Francisco.
“At this point all roads are closed
the Monterey Peninsula is literally
isolated,” said county emergency of
ficer A1 Friedrich.
California Highway Patrol officials
said roads may remain closed until
Monday.
Many people were rousted from
their homes early Sunday as flood
waters rushed into low-ly ingriverside
communities overnight.
“Police went down the streets with
their sirens telling people to please
leave,” Friedrich said. “It’s a scary
thing to hear in the dark.”
In the farming town of Pajaro, resi
dents were in shock.
“People walked in here in tears.
They looked like they were caught
completely off-guard,” said Salvation
Army Maj. Joan Souders. “We saw
people walk in here with no shoes, no
socks or with water lines up to their
thighs.”
From the Oregon state line down to
Mexico, rain, wind and snow wreaked
havoc across 40 of California’s 58
counties.
“It’s the most widespread geo
graphic storm in California in this
century,” said James Bailey of the
state-federal Flood Operations Cen
ter in Sacramento.
The storms may also be the most
expensive in California history, he
added, costing up to $2 billion in a
state already burdened with January’s
Pacific storms, as well as a series of
earthquakes, fires and mudslides.
Sunday was rain-free for most of
California. The National Weather Ser
vice said showers were expected again
Monday, but not the downpours of
last week.
In Coal inga, about 50 miles west of
Fresno, teams were back at the scene
of a fatal 1-5 road bridge collapse on
Califomia’smain north-south freeway.
Four cars drove into a rain-swol
len creek Friday night when the over
pass suddenly dropped into the wa
ter. One man was rescued, but six
people were believed to be in the
other three cars.
Rescue crews pulled the body of a
teen-age girl from one car Sunday,
said highway patrol spokeswoman
Karen Barrows. Searchers found the
last two cars.
We don t know yet whether there
are bodies inside,” she said.
Survivor Wayne Johnson, 45, said
he saw too late that something was
wrong. As he approached the span in
the rain and darkness, he saw a flash
light waving.
“I thought that perhaps the road
was flooded so I started to slow down
... then I went up and down at an angle,
and I was airborne, Evel Knievel
style,” he said.
He got out of his truck, but was
stuck in a tree for several hours before
being rescued.
A chain-link fence was being
erected around the entire Ventura
County town of La Conchita, where a
collapsing coastal bluff that destroyed
nine homes a week earlier survived
the latest onslaught of rain.
Mud flowing through the streets
may have made a mess, but damage
wasn’t significant.
“Residents are returning little by
little to their homes to see what’s left,”
said sheriffs Deputy Patti Dreyer.
“It’s a beautiful day here except for
the mud.”
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5
Nation of Islam owes debt to IRS
CHICAGO — The Nation of
Islam’s financial empire is saddled
with debt, failure and fraud alle
gations, yet leader Louis
Farrakhan and some of his rela
tives live lavishly, according to
an investigation by the Chicago
Tribune.
The newspaper reported in its
Sunday editions that the Internal
Revenue Service has filed $354,588
in liens against a Nation-linked se
curity company based in Washing
ton.
The IRS also is trying to collect
$93,000 in taxes from a Nation
linked soap-distribution company,
which, the Tribune said, owes an
other $15,000 to creditors.
Furthermore, the Chicago build
ing that Farrakhan calls his Sales
and Office Building owes more than
$1 million in property taxes, and
three other Chicago buildings carry
an additional $50,000 in unpaid
property taxes, the Tribune re
ported.
The newspaper-which based its
findings on land and court docu
ments, government contracts, cor
porate records and interviews-said
Farrakhan, his aides and family did
not respond to more than a dozen
requests for interviews and infor
mation.
Although Farrakhan has said he
personally owns nothing, the Tri
bune said records show he and his
wife own Chicago property, includ
ing a mansion and luxury cars.
The Nation of Islam shares at
least five separate financial accounts
and has other ties with a half-dozen
private security firms, three com
panies that sell soap and cosmetics,
a publishing company and two
clothing firms.
The paper said two of the most
lucrative Nation-affiliated ventures
- the clinic and the security compa
nies - have won federal contracts
worth more than $15 million since
1991.
Farrakhan named the soap pro
gram POWER Inc., an acronym for
People Organized and Working for
Economic Rebirth.
It was launched in 1985 with a
$5 million loan from Libyan dicta
tor Moammar Gadhafi, and
Farrakhan pledged to use POWER
profits to create jobs and invest in
black hospitals and universities.
Croatia agrees to keep U.N. force
COPENHAGEN—Facing strong
international pressure, Croatia’spresi
dent agreed Sunday to keep a U.N.
peacekeeping force to prevent another
war, but said he wants its size cut by
more than half.
President Franjo Tudjman said he
wants the 12,00(>-member force re
duced to 5,000 soldiers. U.N. officials
say the final number could be closer to
6,000.
Mediators were worried that
Tudjman’s order for the peacekeep
ing force to leave when its mandate
expires March 31, would result in
renewed warfare with rebel Serbs who
have held a third of Croatia since a
1991 civil war.
“This is very good news,” Vice
President A1 Gore said at a joint news
conference with Tudjman. “The de
parture of the U.N. presence from the
scene now would lead to full-scale
war between Croatian Serbs and gov
ernment forces.”
Croatia claims the U.N. force has
created a permanent partition of the
country.
Gore pledged “full U.S. support”
for restoring Croatian control over
land lost to the Serbs, but he provided
no details for ways to dislodge them.
Despite the optimism, difficult ne
gotiations lie ahead on deciding just
what the U.N. peacekeepers’ role will
be.
Croatia’s Serbs might try to pre
vent any new agreement, especially
since Gore indicated U.N. troops could
be placed on Croatia’s borders with
Serbia and Bosnia.
The Serbs said that would be equal
to recognizing Croatian authority over
Serb-held regions.
Cutt ing the force ’ s size in half rai ses
questions about its effectiveness in
the tense region.
The Croatian government and U.N.
officials have started talks on a new
mandate for the peacekeepers.
Chris Gunnes, a U.N. spokesman
in the Croatian capital of Zagreb, said
the Security Council “is expected to
consider the issue next week.”
For the past two months, U.S. and
European officials had been shuttling
between Croatia’s capital,Zagreb, and
the Yugoslav capital, Belgrade, to
defuse the crisis over the peacekeep
ers.
The Serbs already have said they
won’t accept any changes in the U.N.
orders defining the peacekeeping op
eration in Croatia.
Tudjman’s announcement tempo
rarily stole the spotlight at the world
poverty summit, where he and Gore
joined national leaders from around
the globe.
Haris Silajdzic, the prime minister
of Bosnia-Herzegovina, used his
seven-minute speech at the world fo
“The departure of the
U.N. presence from the
scene now would lead to
full-scale war between
Croatian Serbs and
government forces. ”
■
AL GORE
U.S. Vice President
rum to invoke again the tragedy ol
former Yugoslavia.
“How can we talk about reaffirm
ing human dignity after concentration
camps, rape camps and cattle wagons
full of living skeletons were displayed
on our (television) screens?” Silajdzic
asked.
He said that 17,000 children have
been killed in Bosnia in three years ol
fighting.
“Those living, some with gray hair
and eyes and hearts of old men, are
hardly children any more,” Silajdzic
added.
Tudjman said U.N. troops could stay
in Croatia for a “limited period of time’
but did not specify how long. He said
there was no deadline for a new agree
ment regarding U.N. peacekeepers.
Gasoline prices continue to fall
LOS ANGELES — Gas prices at
the nation ’ s pumps dropped one-fourth
of a cent a gallon during the past two
weeks, continuing a decline that be
gan in early January, an oil industry
analyst said Sunday.
The average price of gasoline, in
cluding all grades and taxes, was
117.33 cents per gallon on Friday,
according to the Lundberg Survey of
10,000 stations nationwide.
Altogether, prices have fallen 2.25
cents since early January, analyst
Trilby Lundberg said. Still, she said,
the price is 7.5 cents higher than the
same time last year.
Nationwide average retail prices at
self-serve pumps were: 110.58 cents
for regular unleaded, 121.04 cents for
mid-grade unleaded, 129.53 cents for
premium unleaded and 115.84 cents
for regular leaded.
At full-service pumps, the average
prices were: 146.87 cents for regular
unleaded, 155.51 cents for mid-grade
unleaded, 162.86 cents for premium
unleaded and 141.79 cents for regular
leaded.