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I I: • • rEMBER 25.1998 Panel to vote on impeachment inquiry House committee will decide whether to start formal proceedings WASHINGTON (AP) - The House Judiciary Committee will vote early next week on beginning a formal impeachment inquiry, committee chairman Henry Hyde said Thursday. He also said he had “no reason to doubt” the truthful ness of Monica Lewinsky’s account of her relationship with President Clinton. Hyde, the Illinois Republican presiding over the House review, also said the committee will release 60,000 more pages of Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr’s evidence next week. Asked about the president’s version of events, which conflicts on some points with that of the young former White House aide, Hyde replied, “We have his testi mony and we have hers. And we’U read it, read both of them, and make our mind up as to who’s the most believable and credible.” The comments at a news con ference marked the first time he had expressed a public opinion about any of the evidence amassed by Starr. Hyde offered his observations at the same time he announced a timetable that calls for the panel to vote Oct. 5 or 6 on a formal inquiry of impeachment and, assuming committee approval, the full House to vote by about Oct. 9. In addition, the committee will release much more of Starr’s evi dence, including grand jury testi mony by presidential secretary Betty Currie, Clinton friend Vernon Jordan and Linda Tripp, who taped conversations with Lewinsky and alerted Starr to her relationship with Clinton. Hyde made it clear the commit tee will not necessarily limit itself to the Lewinsky matter as it decides Clinton’s fate. None of us are interested in casting a very wide net,” he said. At the same time, he said that in addition to the material that Starr has submitted, or may submit in the future, “there may be other matters that we feel bear on the main ques tion of the fitness of the president for this office. I would never say we won’t hear those things.” Gingrich and others have sug gested that any inquiry could expand into questionable fund raising practices by Clinton and his campaign in the 1996 campaign. Hyde made his comments as the White House and congression al Democrats continued to criticize Republican handling of the case. Presidential spokesman Mike McCurry suggested Republicans might suffer a public backlash for dragging out proceedings that the public seems to want wrapped up quickly. “There s not a great deal we can do with (the timing). But I think the American people would then wonder why are we going to be forced to go through this issue, this discussion for what would obvi ously then be a matter of months with no attempt to resolve it, to put it behind us, to move on to deal with it,” McCurry said. For his part, Clinton told reporters he preferred to concen trate on other issues, such as the economy. “It is utterly foolish for people to be diverted or distracted from the urgent challenges still before us,” he said. Democrats on the Judiciary Committee criticized Republicans for saying they did not want to release audio tapes made by Tripp after insisting last week on releas ing Clinton’s videotaped grand jury testimony. Hurricane continues toward Florida Keys SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) - Hurricane Georges charged on its calamitous path toward the Florida Keys on Thursday, leaving rescuers to pull bodies from rivers, collapsed houses and mud slides. At least 110 people have died and hundreds were missing since the sprawling storm began its rampage across the Caribbean on Monday. A hurricane warning was issued for south Florida early Thursday, one day after all 80,000 residents of the Florida Keys were ordered to evacu ate. Officials said 540,000 more peo ple could be asked to leave Miami Beach and other low-lying areas far ther up the coast. At 11 a.m. EDT, the hurricane was centered over Cuba, about 340 miles southeast of Key West, and moving west-northwest at 12 mph. Top winds of 80 mph, extending 35 miles from the center, were expected to increase. The storm dumped heavy rains across eastern Cuba on Thursday, but there were no immediate reports of death or injury. Authorities had evac uated 200,000 people from their houses in eastern provinces. There were early reports Thursday of damages to crops and homes in Guantanamo and Holguin provinces, said Heriberto Diaz, rep resentative of Cuba’s National Civil Defense. Cuban President Fidel Castro told citizens Thursday to prepare for the storm’s fury. “It is necessary to remain alert for flooding and not to relax just because the winds up to now have not been as strong as expected,” Castro said in comments carried by the official Mexican Notimex news agency. As the storm hit Cuba, Dominican President Leonel Fernandez announced that 70 people were dead and hundreds more were missing in his nation alone. The missing included 45 people who dis appeared when a school shelter washed away Wednesday. Officials have not even begun to reach the Dominican Republic’s hardest-hit areas, where many more victims are expected to be found. Fernandez asked for unity and urged people to attend church Thursday, the holy day for the nation’s patron saint, Mercedes. “Pray and ask the Almighty to help the destiny of our people,” he said. The Dominican government asked for international aid to help recover from the disaster, which left at least 100,000 homeless. The U.S. Coast Guard sent a C-130 airplane and helicopter to help search for vic tims. In Puerto Rico, private econo mists estimated damages on the island in Puerto Rico at least $2 bil lion. Electricity was out throughout the island, and die state-owned power company said it could be months before service is fully restored. In the Dominican town of San Cristobal, the Nizao River over flowed its banks and knocked down a part of a school being used as a shel ter, killing five people and leaving 45 missing. After leaving the Dominican Republic, Georges proceeded to Haiti, where flimsy housing in some areas of the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation proved no match for the resulting flash floods, and 27 people reportedly drowned or were killed in Haiti when their homes col lapsed. Nahraakan Qimtloni? Commntg? Ask for the appropriate taction editor at (402)472-2588 or e-mail dn@unHnfo.unl.edu. Editor: Erin Gibson Managing Editor: Chad Lorenz Associate News Editor: Bryce Glenn AmodateNews Editor: Brad Davis Editor: Kasey Kcrber Editor: Cliff Hicks Editor: Sam McKewon A&E Editor: Bret Schulte Copy Desk Chief: Diane Broderick Photo Chief: Ryan Sodedin Matt Miller Design Chief: Nancy Christensen Art Director: Matt Haney Online Editor: Gregg Steams Asst Online Editor: Amy Bute General Manager: Dan Shattil Publications Board Jessica Hofmann, Chairwoman: (402) 466-8404 Professional Adviser: Don Walton, (402)473-7248 Advertising Manager: Nick Partsch, (402)472-2589 Asst. Ad Manager: Andrea Oeltjen ClawHleld Ad Manager: Mami Speck r; i ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1998 THE DAILY NEBRASKAN India signals it may sign nuclear test ban 44 nations must ratify weapons treaty before it can go into effect UNITED NATIONS (AP) - India’s prime minister pledged Thursday that India was prepared to sign onto the nuclear test ban treaty but had to complete negotia tions before it did so. Atal Bihari Vajpayee told world leaders gathered for the U.N. General Assembly debate that India wanted the treaty to go into force no later than September 1999. India is one of the 44 coun tries that must ratify the treaty for it to go into effect. On Wednesday, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said in his General Assembly speech that his country was ready to adhere to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, even as he warned that compliance would depend on whether rival India resumed its tests. India had been participating in discussion in Geneva on the CTBT through 1996, when it refused to continue, claiming the treaty dis criminated against the countries with nuclear potential. India wants the declared nuclear powers to agree to a dead line to destroy their arsenals before India signs on. The five declared powers - the United States, Britain, France China and Russia - refused, and India pulled out of the talks. Vajpayee said India conducted its nuclear tests in May because of the “deteriorating security envi ronment which has obliged us to stand apart from the CTBT in 1996.” Now that India’s security inter ests are settled, India wants to con tinue to cooperate with the interna tional community and is in discus sions with key countries on a range of issues, including the test ban treaty. “We are prepared to bring these discussions to a successful conclu sion, so that the entry into force of the CTBT is not delayed beyond September 1999,” Vajpayee said in his speech. “We expect that other countries ... will adhere to this treaty without conditions,” he said. The United States and other nations imposed economic sanc tions after India and Pakistan car ried out nuclear tests in May. The tests sparked fears of a nuclear arms race in South Asia. States that sign on to the CTBT must refrain from testing nuclear devices and preventing any such nuclear explosion on its territory. It must be signed and ratified it We expect that other countries... will adhere to this treaty without conditions” Atal Bihari Vajpayee prime minister of India by 44 countries with nuclear pow ers before it can go into effect. Forty-one of those 44 have signed: India, Pakistan and North Korea have not. Of those 41 signatures, 10 have ratified the treaty: Australia, Austria, Brazil, Congo, France, Germany, Japan, Peru, Slovakia and Britain. Sharif and Vajpayee met for nearly two hours Wednesday but achieved no breakthroughs over Kashmir, a simmering territorial dispute that took a perilous turn since both countries carried out nuclear tests last May. Vajpayee said there would be further talks on Kashmir when the foreign secretaries of both sides meet in Pakistan for a three-day meeting beginning Oct. 15. - NATO prepares for air strikes on Yugoslavia VILAMOURA, Portugal (AP) - NATO instructed its generals Thursday to begin preparing for air strikes on Yugoslavia unless President Slobodan Milosevic ends his attacks on ethnic Albanians in , Kosovo. The big question now: Will the tough Yugoslav president be intimi dated? The difference between this action and previous NATO tough talk is the tone and the timing, NATO officials asserted. A tough U.N. reso lution Wednesday, combined with NATO’s “activation warning” Thursday of phased air strikes and cruise missile attacks, takes the 16 nation alliance to the brink of shoot ing. “Today, NATO sent a clear mes sage to President Milosevic that it is time to stop the killing and destruc tion in Kosovo,” said U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen after a meeting of allied defense ministers. “Our patience is running out” Census Bureau reports U.S. incomes rise, poverty falls WASHINGTON (AP) - The number of Americans living in poverty dropped for the third year in a row, led by a decline in black poverty to the lowest level on record, the Census Bureau reported Thursday. The annual report found income up and poverty down across ages, races and regions last year, as a strong economy pushed American paychecks to levels not seen since before the recession of the early 1990s. Median family income edged up 1.9 percent after inflation to $37,005, giving families an extra $700 in 1997. Half the nation’s fam ilies earned less than the median, half earned more. A total of 35.6 million Americans lived below the poverty line, or 13.3 percent of the nation, down slightly from 1996. The most dramatic changes came for black families. Their median incomes jumped 4.3 percent last year after inflation to $25,050, | meaning the typical black family had an extra $1,000 in 1997. French doctors attempt hand transplant surgery LYON, France (AP) - The first hand transplant attempted in years raises hope for people who have lost limbs through birth defects or disfig uring accidents, doctors said Thursday. Although such operations have never met with success, the doctors who performed this one gave it a 50 percent chance. Using a new procedure made possible by advances in micro surgery, the doctors attached the right hand and forearm of an anony mous donor to the arm of a 48-year old Australian man whose own hand 1 was amputated after a 1989 accident. The 13-hour operation was per formed Wednesday at the Edouard Herriot Hospital in the southeastern city of Lyon. The doctors attached “all the arteries, veins, nerves, tendons, muscles and skin after setting the two bones of the forearm,” the hospi tal said in a statement.
