'V:2
Chechen rebels free
all 2,000 hostages
iviud^uw — uiecnen rebels
freed all 2,000 hostages they seized in
southern Russia, a news agency re
ported Wednesday.
The Interfax news agency said the
rebel guerrillas released the captives,
which included men, women and chil
dren held all day in a hospital, then left
Kizlyar in the neighboring Dagestan
republic on 11 buses bound for
Chechnya.
No further details were immedi
ately available on the end of the siege,
which had left scores dead in fighting
Tuesday. Last June, a similar rebel
hostage-taking siege in another south
ern Russian town left more than 100
people dead.
Earlier Tuesday, the Chechen
rebels demanded a full Kremlin with
drawal from their secessionist repub
lic where Russian troops had been for
13 months in exchange for the hos
tages’ freedom.
It was not clear why they decided
to drop that demand though on Tues
day some Kremlin officials threatened
to use force against the guerrillas if
talks between the hostage-takers and
Dagestan authorities failed to produce
results.
The negotiations in Kizlyar, just
outside Chechnya in Dagestan, re
sumed early Wednesday, said
Dagestan’s deputy interior minister,
Gennady Shpigun.
In talks earlier, the rebels had de
manded buses and passage to
Gudermes, the second-largest town in
Chechnya, Shpigun told Interfax.
Officials in Dagestan said Tuesday
night that rebel demands were chang
ing constantly, except that of a Rus
sian withdrawal. Other demands were
said to include direct talks between
the Kremlin and rebel leader Dzhokhar
Dudayev and the resignation of the
Moscow-backed government in
Chechnya.
Tuesday’s raid on Kizlyar was a
copycat version of the June attack in
which Chechen separatists seized hun
dreds of hostages in a hospital in the
southern town of Budyonnovsk.
At least 100 people died before
negotiations won the hostages’ re
lease in exchange for the guerrillas’
free passage out and peace talks in
Chechnya, which have since col
lapsed.
Moscow poured troops into
Chechnya in December 1994 to re
claim the small southern republic from
Dudayev. The war has killed up to
30.000 people, most of them civil
ians, and uprooted more than 600,000.
The overwhelming military might
has given the Kremlin nominal con
trol, but the Russians and their Chechen
allies are still facing rebel attacks in
and around the borders of Chechnya.
The rebels in Kizlyar were led by
28-year-old Salman Raduyev,
Dudayev’s son-in-law and once a se
nior official in Gudennes^
“We can turn this city to hell and
ashes,” the bearded Raduyev, who
sported a green Islamic war band
around his forehead, said in an inter
view broadcast Tuesday evening by
Russian TV.
“Budyonnovskand Kizlyar will be
repeated again until Russia recognizes
Dudayev and the Chechen republic.”
Raduyev said his fighters ar
rived into Kizlyar, a town of
44.000 people about 60 miles
northeast of the Chechen capital,
Grozny, aboard five trucks and one
bus “absolutely without any prob
lems,” Interfax reported.
News
- in a ill
V %
Minute1
I-1
Violence hinders South African voting
PIETERMARITZBURG, South Africa — The main rivals in vio
lence-wracked KwaZulu-Natal province agree the bloodshed requires
urgent attention prior to local government elections scheduled for May.
Officials of the African National Congress and the Inkatha Freedom
Party told a news conference Monday that intolerance and easy avail
ability of guns made for a volatile combination.
Inkatha official Philip Powell accused the ANC of using violence to
drive away opponents, while an ANC official, Zweli Mkhize, said
KwaZulu-Natal appeared to be “sliding into a state of undeclared war.”
Inkatha is a Zulu nationalist group that seeks autonomy in the
province, which includes' the traditional Zulu kingdom, from ANC
control. The ANC heads the national government and wants elected
governing bodies to replace tribal chiefs as local governing structures in
the region.
Clinton case may go to trial
WASHINGTON — An Arkansas sexual harassment case against
President Clinton can go to trial, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday,
setting the stage for a Supreme Court battle.
Clinton’s attorney argued that Clinton should not be questioned
under oath on such matters while serving as president. But an appeals
panel in St. Louis decided on a 2-1 vote that the case brought by a former
Arkansas state employee, Paula Jones, can proceed.
Jones, a former Arkansas employee, alleges that Clinton sexually
harassed her during an encounter in a Little Rock hotel suite in 1991. She
has said she rejected Clinton’s suggestion that they engage in sex.
“The president, like all other government officials, is subject to the*
same laws that apply to all other members of our society,” the court ruled.
Woman In coma for decade raped
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A woman comatose since a 1985 car crash
was raped at a nursing home and is five months pregnant, her family’s
lawyer said Tuesday. The family wants her to give birth, a source said.
Police said several of the nursing home’s employees were being
investigated forthe rape of the woman sometime last August.
They would not say whether they include John Horace, 51, a nurse’s
aide who is charged with sexually abusing a 49-year-old female resident
in September.
Abortions of females banned In India
NEW DELHI, India—India has banned abortions of healthy female
fetuses, an attempt at eliminating the widespread practice of aborting
female fetuses in this male-dominated culture.
For first offenders, the law prescribes imprisonment of three years
and a fine of $300 — two months of an average middle-class salary.
Subsequent offenses will draw up to five years in prison and a fine of
$1,500.
- Most Indian families prefer sons because they bring parents wealth in
the form ofdowry. In Hindu families, sons inherit family wealth and light
their parents’ funeral pyre, opening the way for their souls to go to
heaven.
Grenade hits
streetcar
in Sarajevo
SARAJEV O, Bosnia-Herzegovina
—A grenade blamed on Bosnian Serbs
landed in Sarajevo’s notorious Sniper
Alley on Tuesday, tearing a hole in a
streetcar and in Bosnia’s tentative
peace. One man was killed and at least
19 people were wounded.
The attack was the worst cease-fire
violation since an Oct. 12 truce by
Bosnia’s warring factions, which
signed a U.S.-brokered peace agree
ment Dec. 14.
The White House announced Tues
day that President Clinton would travel
to Bosnia this weekend to visit Ameri
can peacekeeping troops who arc part
of the 60,000-member NATO-lpd
force enforcing the peace accord.
The attack may have been designed
to test the resolve of troops that re
placed U.N. forces in the Bosnian
capital three weeks ago. It also marred
modest celebrations marking the end
ofoncofthe few U.N. successes of the
Bosnian war—the longest aid airlift
in history.
Maj. Peter Bulloch, a spokesman
for the NATO-led Implementation
Force, or IFOR, confirmed that the
lethal grenade was fired from a Serb
held position above the central city.
“The firing came from within
Grbavica,” a Serb-held suburb,
Bulloch said.
The Bosnian Serb news agency,
SRN A, denied Serbs were to blame. It
cited sources close to rebel leader
Radovan Karadzic.
American soldiers traveling in a
passing vehicle at the time escaped
injury by sheer luck. Their four-scat
unarmored Humvee was hit by a frag
ment of the grenade as it exploded,
NATO spokesman Maj. Simon
Haselock said late Tuesday.
The 12-inch section, including the
grenade’s entire tail fin, embedded
itsel f in the left-hand front splash guard
of the vehicle, Haselock said. The
vehicle was returned to base. He
provided no other details.
~ Bosnian Vice President Ejup Ganic
said the government expects “a swift
and significant reaction” from NATO.
“This is a lest for (NATO). Now is
the time to react,” Ganic said in a
statement to Bosnian state television.
Budgetneg<
suspended
WASHINGTON —- President
Clinton and Republican congres
sional leaders broke offbudgct talks
Tuesday, adding a new element of
doubt to their hunt for a compro
mise for eliminating the federal
deficit by 2002 and cutting taxes.
After nearly two weeks of face
to-face White House negotiations,
the two sides said their sessions
would pause for a week or more.
But they offered divergent inter
pretations of what the suspension
means, bringing new confusion to a
year-long battle between Republi
cans and the administration over
paring the size and scope of gov
ernment.
Clinton was upbeat, telling re
porters at a news conference, “A
final agreement is clearly within
reach.”
He said the bargaining would
halt until next Wednesday at the
latest, and said he had made a new
offer to Republicans that narrowed
their differences further. But he
conceded, “It will require some
additional steps to bridge the gaps.”
Republicans were less encour
aging.
senate iviajoruy Leader bod
Dole of Kansas and House Speaker
Newt Gingrich of Georgia said the
talks would recess for about seven
to 10 days and said they would
await a new offer from Clinton.
“I think it’s the president’s
move,” said Dole. “We have some
fundamental differences. We have
not ironed those out. So they are not
narrow differences. They are wide
differences. ... If the president or
somebody suggests that we come
back, we’ll be here.”
Republican congressional aides,
speaking on condition of anonym
ity, were even more negative, say
ing the effort to craft a compromise
now seemed likely to fail.
“It’s a breakdown,” said one.
Wall Street agreed. Prices of
Treasury bonds tumbled nearly a
point and yields soared in late after
noon trading. Regular trading hours
in the stock market had ended be
fore the news broke.
The suspension will allow
Clinton, Dole and Gingrich time to
make political trips as the 1996
election campaigns move into more
serious phases. Participants on both
sides said that was a factor in their
decision to put the bargaining on
hold.
In a last-gasp effort to strike a
bargain, Clinton offered to cut $37
billion deeper into Medicare, Med
icaid, welfare and the earned in
come tax credit over seven years,
bargainers said, speakingon condi
tion of anonymity. But that still left
Republicans seeking about $100
billion more in savings from those
programs than Clinton wants.
GOP participants said Clinton
also proposed boosting the size of
his tax cut offer. But they said the*
latest offer still left the president
seeking tax cuts roughly half the
amount of the latest Republican:
proposal. - ' - - " -
White House chiefof staff Leon
Panetta said “the point of greatest
friction” in Tuesday’s discussion;
was the size of the tax cuts.
Another failure to reach a com
promise would raise the possibility
of a third partial federal shutdown
starting Jan. 27, when temporary
spending authority for many pro
grams lapse and hundreds of thou
sands of workers could face yet
another furlough. The latest three
week shutdown ended over the
weekend, and there was a six-day
closure in November.
“It is our hope not to” have an
other shutdown, Gingrich, R-Ga.,
told reporters, but he shed no light
on what Republicans would do to
avoid one. A GOP congressional
aide said it seemed unlikely that
another closure and furlough of
workers would occur, saying,
“There is a sense that strategically
it didn’t help us much.”
A permanent breakdown of the
talks would all but ensure that this
year’s election campaigns would
be dominated by battling over the
budget and each party’s vision of
government. The GOP would ac
cuse Clinton of blocking a balanced
budget in defense of bloated, use
less programs, and Democrats
would countercharge that Republi
cans heartlessly tried to slash aid to
the elderly and needy in order to
award tax breaks to the rich.
The last Republican offer was to
trim $328 billion in projected
growth from Medicare, Medicaid
and welfare over the next seven
years, an easingof $72 billion from
their previous offer.
Clinton vetoes
Republican
welfare bill
WASHINGTON — President
Clinton, just as he promised, on Tues
day vetoed a Republican plan to over
haul the nation’s primary welfare pro
grams and end the federal guarantee
of aid to the poor.
Clinton complained in his veto
message that the Republican bill “doos
too little to move people from wel fare
to work,” but said he was willing to
work with Congress on a new version
“to enact real, bipartisan reform.”
But Clinton waited until two weeks
of White House talks with Republi
cans broke down Tuesday over end
ing federal deficits by the year 2002
and simultaneously cutting taxes be
fore taking out his pen for the welfare
oill veto.
Republicans saw the bill as restor
ing the work ethic and binding fami
lies closer together. Democrats said
[hey also support those values but
complained that the GOP measure took
away too much at the expense of chil
dren.
Netfiraskan
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Asst. Advertising Mgr.
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