_News Digest
Jugoslavia president
seeks to annul election
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) —
Former Communists lost big in recent
elections in Eastern Europe, and it ap
pears the Serbian republic of Yugosla
via was no exception — even if its
president refuses to admit it.
Slobodan Milosevic’s government
seeks to annul the results of Sunday’s
local elections, which suggest that
people are fed up with economic hard
ship and the aftermath of the Bosnian
war that he helped start.
For the first time since Communists
came to power in 1945, a pro-democ
racy opposition seems to have won sig
nificant power. Tens of thousands of
workers and intellectuals, united for the
first time in years, are fighting what
they say is vote-rigging by the
Milosevic regime.
On Thursday, the fourth day of
demonstrations across Serbia, up to
30,000 people marched through
Belgrade, chanting “We won’t give up
our victory.”
Shouting “Red Bandits,” the crowd
stopped by Milosevic’s state-run
Serbian TV, cursing and booing riot
police deployed around the downtown
building and demanding “liberation”
from the propaganda tool that has been
blasting the opposition.
Similar protests were reported in
several other Serbian towns and cities,
including the second largest city of Nis.
The protesters are angry that the
Milosevic-controlled electoral com
mission on Tuesday night annulled and
called for re-runs of Sunday’s local
elections in several Serbian districts,
mostly in places where the four-party
opposition coalition claimed clear vic
tory.
coalition
pledged to continue their hunger strike
in Serbia’s parliament building and to
stay locked inside until their demands
are met.
The four-party coalition — called
Zajedno, or “Together” — sent the
— m ■
president four demands, including that
he recognize their initial election re
sults and bring criminal charges against
local election officials.
“Our position is crystal clear. We
are defending the law,” Zoran Djindjic,
head of the Democratic Party, told The
Associated Press.
The opposition claims to have won
in 44 municipalities, including
Belgrade and the former Communist
bastions of Nis, Kragujevac, Uzice and
Novi Sad.
Milosevic’s coalition claimed vic
tory in 134 of Serbia’s 189 municipali
ties. Most, however, are small districts
and practically irrelevant compared to
the bigger Serbian towns.
On Wednesday, the opposition
urged supporters in towns where it
claimed victory to seize city halls and
establish their own rule. But police
forces were mobilized in all of Serbia’s
major towns. On Thursday, police con
fiscated Democratic Party equipment,
including loudspeakers, at the Belgrade
rally.
An opposition victory would be a
setback to Milosevic, since much of his
political and economic power, as well
as his control over media, is lodged in
municipal governments,
He still rules firmly on the
republic’s and federal level, and is in
control of his major tools of power: the
police and the army.
“The election results in Romania,
Bulgaria and other countries previ
ously ruled by 'reformed communists’
are a clear sign that economy and day
to-day life have prevailed over ideol
ogy and promises,” said Vuk
Draskovic, an opposition leader.
Bulgaria? voters elected Petar
Stoyanov, an anti-Communist, as their
president. In Romania this past week
end, rural voters joined urban intellec
tuals to replace Ion Iliescu, a former
communist, with moderate reformer
Emil Constantinescu.
!■■■■■■■■■■■■.
Explosion in Puerto Rico shears building, kills 20
Blast tears a 50-foot-wide hole in side of structure
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP)
— An- explosion at a shoe store
sheared the side off a six-story
building Thursday, killing at least
20 people, injuring 82 and leaving
up to IS missing. A gas leak was
believed to have caused the blast.
The 6:35 a.m. explosion ripped
a 50-foot-wide hole up the side of
the building, exposing offices and
apartments. It left a tangle of con
crete and steel beams that filled a
city block and shattered windows in
nearby buildings and cars.
“There were just parts of bodies
lying in the street, torsos, bones,
cars blasted against the building,”
said Ramon Camino, a doctor who
arrived at the scene shortly after the
explosion.
Rescue workers pulled dozens
of survivors, coated with blood and
dust, from the debris. Bodies,
bloody and burned, could be seen
in the rubble.
Rescuers used a nearby church
as a triage center, and helicopters
took the most seriously injured to
the Centro Medico Hospital.
The dead were laid out with
sheets over their bodies on the pave
ment in front of the Iglesia Milagros
Catholic Church. Next door, shards
of glass and concrete blasted
through the windows of an elemen
tary school where about 500 stu
dents were attending classes. None
of the students was injured.
Toledo said a propane gas leak
may have been the cause of the blast
at the Humberto Vidal shoe store in
Rio Piedras, a residential and shop
ping district in San Juan.
Owners of the shoe store said
they reported a gas leak to the San
Juan Gas Co. several days ago, he
said.
Housing secretary seventh
Cabinet member to resign
WASHINGTON (AP) —Housing
Secretary Henry Cisneros said Thurs
day he will leave the Cabinet, depriv
ing President Clinton of a trusted po
litical adviser vexed by lingering per
sonal troubles.
In a letter to Clinton, Cisneros said
he would have liked to have remained
but “I have concluded that I cannot ask
to be considered for service in the next
four years.”
He is the seventh of the 14 Cabinet
members to indicate he won’t be stay
ing for Clinton’s second term.
Cisneros said that he is leaving be
cause he needs to seek a higher-pay
ing job outside government He has one
daughter in college and another in law
school.
, He also has legal bills from the on
going probe into whether he lied to the
FBI about payments to a former mis
tress. The investigation cast a pall over
Cisneros’ ability to remain at HUD
because of the legal bills it continues
to generate.
“Really, I came to do this for four
years. I prayed I could stretch the fi
nances that far,” Cisneros said. “This
is about as far as I can stretch it.”
His salary as secretary of housing
and urban development is $148,400 a
year.
“I have worked the last four years
to advance your hopes for America’s
communities,” Cisneros told Clinton.
“I have constantly grown in my respect
for the clarity of your vision for the
American future, for your judgments
Mid for your tireless dedication.”
Student group
hosts Pow-Wow
this weekend
From Staff Reports
For the seventh-straight year, the
University of Nebraska InterTribal
Exchange (U.N.I.T.E.) will share
the cultural tradition of the Pow
Wow with the community.
The Pow-Wow, scheduled for
'Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 23 and
24 in the Nebraska Union’s Centen
nial Ballroom, is intended to bring
people together and to share the
expression of the arts.
The event will highlight tradi
tional American Indian dance and
drumming. The Grand Entry of
Pow-Wow participants will be Sat
urday at both 1 p.m. and 7 p.m., and
Sunday at 1 p jn.
The price of admission is a
canned food donation.
For more information call 472- *
2027.
11 r" --‘——I
i mi m_e_
441-0222
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EH
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BH
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L_
Editor: DougKouma
472-2588
Managing
Editor: Doug Peters
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Editors: Paula Lavigne
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Opinion Editor: Anne Hjersman
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Copy Desk Chief: Julie Sobczyk
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