Israel blasts Palestinian base
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — Is
raeli warplanes turned to a new tar
get in Lebanon on Monday, attack
ing the heavily fortified base of a
Palestinian group in hills outside
Beirut after 11 days of focusing on
Hezbollah guerrillas.
U.S. Secretary of State Warren
Christopher pressed ahead with ef
forts to broker a cease-fire, meet
ing again with Syrian President
Hafez Assad to present a peace pro
posal.
As Lebanon’s Muslims memo
rialized victims of last week’s Is
raeli bombing raid on a U.N. base
in south Lebanon that killed scores
of refugees, peace remained elu
sive.
On the 12th day of fighting, Is
raeli air force jets hit a fresh target
— a command base for the Popu
lar Front for the Liberation of Pal
estine. Like Hezbollah, the Popu
lar Front opposes the Middle East
peace process. The Syria-based
group has frequently attacked Israel
over the years but has not been di
rectly involved in the recent fight
ing.
The choice of targets suggested
growing Israeli frustration over ef
forts to pin down the elusive
Hezbollah guerrillas, who are
largely invisible in the valleys of
south Lebanon.
The raid was the first in or near
Beirut since Israeli warplanes rock
eted Hezbollah strongholds in the
southern suburbs last Tuesday.
Fighter-bombers fired at least
eight rockets into the well-fortified
Popular Front base in the coastal
hills of Naameh, just south of the
capital, sending pillars of smoke
into the sky. There was no immedi
ate word on casualties.
The Palestinian radicals are
well-protected in Naameh by a con
crete tunnel network that periodic
Israeli airstrikes over the years have
failed to destroy.
Hezbollah said it fired 30
Katyusha rockets into northern Is
rael on Monday, and the group
threatened to introduce new weap
onry into the conflict.
“Hezbollah possesses weapons
which it has not used yet,” said
Sheik Nabil Kaouk, the group’s
southern commander. He did not
elaborate.
Lebanese President Elias Hrawi
was en route to New York to address
a special session of the U.N. Gen
eral Assembly on Tuesday, while
Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik
Hariri traveled to Damascus, Syria.
The plan Christopher presented
to Assad does not call for Israel’s
withdrawal from the Israeli-occu
pied zone in southern Lebanon,
“It's not a secure position. One is nervous
about it, but there's nothing ive can do."
LT. COL. WAME WAQANIVAVALAGI
Commander of U.N. Qana base
Bums said. That topic, he said, is
reserved for peace discussions be
tween Israel, Syria and Lebanon.
Following his talks with Assad,
Christopher was to fly to Israel to
meet with Prime Minister Shimon
Peres.
Since the fighting began be
tween Israel and Hezbollah guerril
las, at least 137 people have been
killed, most of them Lebanese ci
vilians. Although no Israelis have
been killed, more than 300 have
been wounded on both sides. The
attacks have forced 400,000 Leba
nese and 20,000 Israelis from their
homes.
Fighting in the main battle zone
in south Lebanon has abated in the
last couple of days.The Israeli army
told residents of two towns near the
Lebanese border that they could
come out of bomb shelters, and
educators planned to reopen
schools there Tuesday.
Amid rain and gray skies, Israeli
warplanes mounted eight air raids
on suspected guerrilla strongholds
in eight villages near the market
town of Nabatiyeh and 12 others
close to the port of Tyre.
And Israeli artillery shelled ar
eas just north of an Israeli-occupied
border enclave, from which guer
rillas have been trying to drive Is
raeli troops for more than a decade.
Shortly after midday, Hezbollah
responded with rocket fire that the
Israeli army said injured two
people.
At the U.N. base in the south
Lebanese village of Qana, the
whoosh of outgoing Katyusha rock
ets could be heard, followed shortly
afterward by the thud of incoming
Israeli shells.
“It’s not a secure position,” said
the commander of the U.N. base,
Lt. Col Wame Waqanivavalagi.
“One is nervous about it, but there’s
nothing we can do.”
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Democrats put
squeeze on Dole
to raise wages
WASHINGTON (AP) — The
Clinton administration and leading
Democrats turned up the pressure
Monday on Senate Majority Leader
Bob Dole to schedule a vote promptly
on legislation to raise the minimum
wage.
“It’s time for Senator Dole to lead,
follow or get out of the way,” Labor
Secretary Robert B. Reich said.
“Let the majority rule. Let the
Democrats and Republicans who sup
port a higher minimum wage have a
vote,” Reich told the spring meeting
of the AFL-CIO Building Trades
Council. “The time for talk is over.”
Senate Democratic Leader Tom
Daschle of South Dakota also urged
Dole, the Kansas Republican virtually
certain to face President Clinton in the
election next November, to move
quickly.
Senator Dole says he is a doer,
Daschle said. “The time has come to
stop talking and start doing. ... Let’s
do it. Let’s pass it.”
In a speech on the Senate floor, Sen.
Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., said he
would offer a minimum-wage provi
sion to other legislation as early as this
week. He urged Dole to reconsider his
plans to take up the issue only within
a larger package of job-related matters.
“There is no reason to delay or
saddle the minimum wage with other
controversial measures,” Kennedy
said. “Senator Dole says it’s politics,
but it’s hard to believe that this kind of
inside-the-Beltway politics will work
to his advantage.”
Democrats are seeking a 90-ccnt in
crease in the wage floor, spread over
two years. They contend that when
adjusted for inflation, the current
S4.25-an-hour minimum, adopted in
1991, will by next January result in the
least buying power of any minimum
wage in almost 40 years.
Dole and many other congressional
Republicans contend raising the mini
mum wage will result in a loss of jobs.
Some businesses, they say, would have
to lay off workers if they had to pay
more.
Somebody is going to lose their
job because somebody else gets an in
crease," Dole said Sunday on CBS’
“Face the Nation."
Dole and House Speaker Newt
Gingrich acknowledged an increase is
likely this year, possibly as part of a
package deal that includes tax-cut and
work-rule legislation.
In his AFL-CIO speech, Reich too
called for “a simple, up-or-down, yes
or-no vote. ... No riders, no amend
ments, no back-room deals on anti
union, anti-worker provisions."
Reich, who has led the Clinton ad
ministration crusade for a higher mini
mum, contended a raise is “an issue of
basic fairness.”
“The CEOs of America’s major cor
porations got a 23 percent raise last
year — an average compensation of
nearly $4.5 million dollars each," he
said. “Why can’t we give 90 cents
more an hour to millions of our
nation’s lowest-paid workers?"
NetJraskan
Editor J. Christopher Haln
f 472-1766
Managing Editor Doug Kouma
Assoc. News Editors Matt Waite
Sarah Scalet
Opinion Page Editor Doug Peters
Wire Editor Michelle Gamer
Copy Desk Editor Tim Pearson
Sports Editor Mitch Sherman
Arts & Entertainment
Editor Jeff Randall
Photo Directors Scott Bruhn
Travis Heying
Night News Editors Rebecca Oltmans
' Melanie Branded
Anne Hjersman
http://www.unl.edu/DailyNeb/
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