Clinton, aides ponder Iraq report
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Clinton on
Monday predicted that Iraq’s announced decision
to stop all cooperation with U.N. arms inspectors
will backfire and only stiffen the international
community’s resolve to compel Iraqi disarmament
He pointedly left open the possibility of a military
response.
“Saddam Hussein’s latest refusal to cooperate
with the international weapons inspectors is com
pletely unacceptable,” Clinton said at a White
House event on his proposal for a patient’s bill of
rights.
“Once again, though, it will backfire,” Clinton
said of the Iraqi president’s action. “His obstruc
tionism was immediately and unanimously con
demned by the United Nations Security Council. It
has only served to deepen the international com
munity’s resolve.”
Clinton said his national security team would
be consulting with allied nations to consider how to
respond
“Until inspectors are back on the job, no
» ' . v - . • > -*>; : ' * v ■; ^ -
options are off the table,” he said without explicitly
mentioning military force.
“For Iraq, the only path to lifting sanctions is
through complete cooperation with the weapons
inspectors - without restrictions, runarounds or
roadblocks,” he added.
The State Department, meanwhile, said
Monday that despite Iraq% announcement, it was
halting all cooperation with U.N. weapons inspec
tors, the search for illegal weapons is proceeding
and Iraq has not made a move to expel the inspec
tors.
Clinton made his remarks shortly after meeting
with his top national security aides.
Defense Secretary William Cohen dashed back
to Washington on Sunday, cutting short a planned
Asia trip in order to huddle at the White House for
a series of crisis-response meetings. Also meeting
with Clinton were Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright and CIA Director George Tenet
There was little indication the Clinton adminis
tration was moving toward a quick military
response.
At the State Department, spokesman James P.
Rubin said a technical team has tended to a moni
toring camera and groups of inspectors have gone
to suspect sites for a second consecutive day.
Iraq’s announcement Saturday is regarded as “a
very serious matter,” Rubin said. “Iraq has con
fronted the international community with an esca
lation by refusing to cooperate.”
The spokesman again raised the threat of force
to compel Iraq’s compliance, and said the United
States reserved the option of acting alone, if need
be.
The administration appears ready to let the
U.N. Security Council take the lead in confronting
Iraq over the country’s refusal to permit inspec
tions for weapons of mass destruction.
Iraq banned U.N. inspection teams from work
ing in the country Saturday after the Security
Council renewed its refusal to lift economic sanc
tions against Iraq. The council then demanded
unanimously that Iraq reverse the ban.
in
in
br
s “We are spending a lot of money. It cannot continue,” said econo
- i Mmneapohfr-^a^w^-gi
g mgs rate doesn t augur very well for economic: growth in the juture.” ?
The Savit^srate ^savings as a'pefceritage bfafter-tax income - was‘
minus 0.2 percent, die worst performance since f959, when the govern
ment began tracking the rate on a monthly basis, the Commerce
Department said Monday.
Negative saving occurs when people finance their spending through
credit cards, home equity credit lines and other loans, by selling stocks
or other investments or by using past savings.
On an annual basis, the rate hasn’t been negative since the
Depression year of 1933. But the latest rate is not as bad as it looks:
Stock market gains and money taken out of home equity during refi
t nancings don’t count as income but they’ve given people more money
^si*nd
savings rate has been running at a positively percent, down from 2 1
percent in 1997 and 2.9 percent in 1996.
“There is an issue of concern here,” Shapiro said. “Not everyone has
financial assets, and there are reasons to be concerned that Americans
are not saving enough for retirement”
The drop in the savings rate in September came as personal incomes
rose an unexpectedly modest 0.2 percent and spending increased at a
robust 0.5 percent, on a seasonally adjusted basis.
It was the biggest increase in spending in four months. But there
hasn’t been a weaker income gain sinee November 1994.
FMm&Ihhi
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ttmuibson Aik for th* wproortate asctlon editor at
Ch*4 Lorenz Try.” WU*IWI *
ssar cJitesu.
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SamMcKewon PeMteathwe Bsard Jessica Hofmann,
Bret Schulte Chairwoman: (402)466-8404
Diane Broderick Professional Adviser: Don Waited,
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TIE DAILY NEBRASKAN
Mudslides follow
Hurricane Mitch
CHINANDEGA, Nicaragua (AP) -
Overwhelmed by death and chaos,
Central American officials on Monday
estimated more than 7,000 people died
in floods and mudslides triggered by
SiViAiXrJ
r‘ As Nicaraguan officials here strug
gled to account for 1,500 peoplefeared
buried by a mudslide, Honduran
President Carios Flores Facusse made
an emotional appeal for international
aid and announced he was declaring the
equivalent of a state of siege to combat
looting.
“There aie corpses evoywhete,vic
tims of landslides or of the waters,” the
president said in a nationally broadcast
speech. “The most conservative calcu
lations of the dead are in the thousands,
not in the hundreds
*1 ask die international community
for human solidarity,” he said.
The same was true across tiie bor
der: As many as 1,500 people were
buried near this town in northwest
Nicaragua when the crater lake of the
Casitas Volcano collapsed, sending a
wall of mud and debris onto villages
below.
“It looked like a line of helicopters
flying really low and coming at us. You
could see houses, trees, everything
being covered,” said Ricardo Antonio
Garcia, a 23-year-old farmer whose leg
was amnntateH after heino mihIimI in
the mudslide.
NicaragUta Vice President Enrique
Bolanos said the slide apparently killed
1,000 to 1,500 people and that some
600 other people died elsewhere in the
country.
“We perhaps will never know how
many people died,” he said.
In neighboring Honduras, “more
than 5,000 people” probably died,
Dimas Alonzo, operations chief for the
National Emergency Committee, told a
local radio station. He said the exact
number would never be known.
Many parts of Honduras remained
cut off almost a week after Mitch bar
reled into the Bay Island of Guanaja
with 180wnph winds. The storm pound
ed across the isthmus, dropping up to 25
inches of rain in a six-hour period,
before dissipating Monday in southern
Mexico.
landslides erased from the map many
villages and households as well as
whole neighborhoods of cities.”
“We have before us a panorama of
death, desolation and ruin throughout
u-—-—
We perhaps will
never know how
many people died.”
Enrique Bolanos
Nicaraguan vice president
the national territory,” the president
said.
He announced a “state of excep
tion” suspending constitutional Ubdties
that allows authorities the right to seize
property, detain suspects and unlimited
searches to he^> officials fight looting
and vandalism. j|gl!
Virtually all of Honduras suffered
flooding, from the lowland marshes on
the Atlantic Coast to the mountains,
hills and plateaus of die interior
In Chinandega, about SO miles
northwest of the Nicaraguan capital,
Managua, Garcia said relatives pulled
him from the debris after the mudslide
Friday. He and 40 others were taken to a
one-room, hilltop shack overlooking
die village of Rolando Rodriguez.
“We thought that help would come,
but it never did,” Garcia said.
He said a 3-year-old girl beside him
«... koJi.. _i .k._u_4.
* * «V 1UJIUVW 0UV VVU1U UVi
move. “When she asked me for water, I
would drink some and give it to her
from my mouth.”
By the time rescuers finally arrived
Sunday, three of die injured had died.
But the 3-year-old girl survived.
Miguel Rostran Laguna, 42, who
was inahospital bed beside Garda, said
that from the door ofthe shack, “all you
could see was mud where the village
had been. Nolhing is left of Rolando
Rodriguez.”
It was unclear how many residents
of Rolando Rodriguez and nearby vil
lages had escaped. By early Monday,
soldiers had found 360 bodies, army
spokesman Capt Milton Sandoval said.
The international Red Cross on
Monday tripled its appeal for assistance
to those hit by Mitch, to $7.4 million.
At least one rescue effort led to
additional deaths: The mayor of the
Honduran capital and three others died
Sunday in a helicopter crash while sur
veying flood damage. Tegucigalpa
Mayor Cesar Castellanos, 49, had been
seen as a likely presidential candidate in
the 2001 elections.
. .. .. ■
.. •
1 ,
Arafat, Netanyahu delay
fulfillment of agreement
JERUSALEM (AP) - In a surpris
ing show of good will, Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian
leader Yasser Arafat agreed Monday to
delay the implementation of the new
Mideast peace agreement
Netanyahu promised Arafat that
their land-for-security agreement
would be carried out as efficiently as
possible. Specifically, Israel said it
would attempt to meet the target date of
Nov. 16 for the initial troop pullback
from die West Bank.
But an overdue Palestinian action
plan to fight terrorism could knock
back implementation even further.
Israel said the plan, at the heart of the
new acconl needed to be stitxmtted by
today so the Cabinet could ratify the
deaL
International warrant issued
far Chilean leader’s arrest
PARIS (AP) - A French judge on
Monday issued an international arrest
warrant for former Chilean leader
Augusto Pinochet on charges of
“sequestrations followed by torture,”
judicial officials said.
The officials, who requested
anonymity, sajdParjs Judge linger Le
Loire had issued the request, a neces
sary step before Fiance can officially
ask for Pinochets extradition.
Last week, a lawyer, representing
three French families whose relatives
disappeared in Chile after Pinochet
took power in 1973, filed a complaint
with a French court, asking for
Pinochet^ extradition to face charges of
crimes against humanity
Pinochet, 82, is under police guard
at a hospital in north London.
Eiffel Tower workers strike
over lack of personnel
PARIS (AF)-TheEiffel Tower, the
most visited monument in the City of
Light, stood empty again Monday
.while striking workers refused to relent
(Hi their demand for more personnel
The press office fbrtheEiffeLTower
declined to predict whenthe “grande
dame” of Paris monuments would
reopen.
Workers, mainly hosts and host
esses, went on strike late Friday after
noon, shutting out up to 35,000 visitors
over the All Saints Day holiday week
end and an expected 8,000 visitors
today, the press office said v
Striking workers are demanding
that seven more people be hired.
Report: Car Diana crashed in
had no mechanical problems
PARIS (AP) - A chief judge inves
tigating the car crash that killed
Princess Diana received two key
reports Monday, one on the driver’s
blood and another showing that the
vehicle had no mechanical problems,
judicial sources said.
The reports, which bring the probe
closer to completion, were not made
public.
Ifro sources cfose to the investiga
tion told The Associated Press 10 days
ago that the results of tests on the
Mercedes in which Diana was riding
show die car was mechanically sound.
They also show that the car was going
slower titan originally believed and that
it brushed against a Fiat Uno, the
sources said, speaking on condition of
anonymity.
