Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 3, 1999)
News Digest 2_______- g Rebels murder tourists in Uganda KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) - Eight tourists tracking rare mountain gorillas were killed and six others were rescued after being kidnapped by Rwandan rebels. An American survivor said Tuesday that the rebels brutally hacked some victims to death with machetes. In Washington, State Department spokesman James Foley said two Americans were murdered as they were being marched away by their captors. The remaining six victims were killed the same way, he said. Foley said the victims cannot be identified until their relatives are noti fied. The six released hostages were returned to Kampala and taken to a safe location, he said. Mark Ross, a tour operator and pilot who was bom in Arkansas but has spent years in Africa, told reporters the rebels rounded up tourists from several jungle camps in southwestern Uganda. Ross said he was among those taken captive, but was freed later with a political mes sage from the rebels. The rebels - who came to Uganda after Rwanda’s 1994 genocide - marched their captives through the rain forest, where Ross said some were hacked to death Monday. Some cap tives were freed before Ross, who later came upon their remains. “We came across the first set of bodies. The women that we’d been told Would be escorted back had been killed on the spot It looks like one was raped prior to being killed,” he said Ross said he saw five bodies, and “the ones that I saw had their heads crushed in and deep slashes.” His account clashed with that of Ugandan police spokesman Eric Naigambi, who told The Associated Press there was a shootout and that the rescue operation was carried out this morning in a mountainous rain forest made famous in the film “Gorillas in the Mist” The “tourists were killed in the crossfire during the rescue operation,” Naigambi said But another Ugandan, Hussein Kivumi, manager of a rain forest camp, said the rebels targeted Americans and Britons. “They killed four women and four men with knives, machetes and axes. There were no gunshots.” Three Americans, six Britons, three New Zealanders, an Australian and a Swiss woman were among those kid napped, Ugandan officials said. A Canadian citizen also was taken. British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said four of the six Britons kid napped in Uganda were among the dead. u The ones that I saw had their heads crushed in and deep slashes.” Mark Ross tour operator and pilot Clinton officials call for letting law expire ■ The independent counsel statute has not done what it was meant to do, administrators say. WASHINGTON (AP) - The Clinton administration withdrew its support for the independent _ counsel law Tuesday, saying the Watergate-inspired investigations statute “has failed in its goal of removing politics from the process.” Congress should let the law expire June 30, officials said. “The act was supposed to increase trust in our government; unfortunately, it has diminished it,” Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder told the House Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law. “The climate of politicization pervades the process regardless of which way a specific decision, investigation or prosecution comes out,” he said in prepared remarks. Less than three weeks after the Senate acquitted President Clinton of perjury and obstruction of jus tice impeachment charges that were approved by the House on the recommendation of Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr, Holder’s remarks underscored crumbling support for the act among both Democrats and Republicans. It was the first time the Clinton administration had gone on record against the statute. The president and Attorney General Janet Reno successfully lobbied for its renew al five years ago. At the White House, spokesman Barry Toiv said Clinton “concurs with the judg ment of the Justice Department that the statute should not be renewed - that its flaws outweigh its benefits.” Toiv said Clinton’s judgment was “a policy decision based on his observation of how the law’s been implemented.” Under questioning from sub committee chairman Rep. George Gekas, R-Pa., Holder told the panel that he first secured Reno’s approval, then submitted his testi mony to White House Counsel Charles Ruff late last week. “He indicated to us that we proceed,” Holder said. The law provides for an inde pendent counsel selected by three judges to investigate allegations against specified administration officials. Reno has had seven inde pendent counsels appointed in Clinton’s six years in office, more than any other attorney general. Battered by Starr’s probe, how ever, Clinton’s allies plan a sus tained attack against the law. After Holder’s remarks, Clinton’s per sonal attorney, Robert Bennett, was expected to make a similar case today before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. Reno is to testify to the same panel later this month. They will speak to a Congress already hostile to the law’s renew al. Angered for years over indepen dent counsel investigations of President Reagan and then of Clinton, lawmakers of every stripe agree the act cannot be renewed without at least a major overhaul. - __ Editor: Erin Gibson iTlWihfjManaging Editor: Brad Davis f) ILWalMv/ m :.r Associate News Editor: Sarah Baker Associate News Editor: Bryce Glenn A&E Editor: Biet Schulte Questions? Comments? Copy Desk Chief: Tasha Kelter Ask tor the appropriate section editor at (402) 472-2588 Asst Copy Desk Chief: Heidi White ore-maildn@uni.edu. Photo Co-Chief: Matt Miller Photo Co-Chief: Lane Hickenbottom Design Chief: Nancy Christensen Art Director: Matt Haney Web Editor: Gregg Stearns j summer sessions 1 Asst Web Editor: Amy Burke ons Board General Manager: DanShattil and comments to the Dairy Nebraskan Publications Board Jessica Hofmann, I AnMPi Chairwoman: (402) 466-8404 - 1402)47 •88- Professional Adviser: Don Walton, >the C Nebraskan, Nebraska Union 34 1400 (402)473-7248 . Periodical postage paid at Lincoln, Nt' ^ Advertising Manager: NickPartsch, ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1999 - ( (402) 472-2589 THE DAILY NEBRASKAN Asst Ad Manager: Andrea Oeltjen Classified Ad Manager: Mary Johnson --- - i- nS - - .> ---- u • • . ‘ Buchanan announces presidential candidacy MANCHESTER, Nil (AP) - Pat Buchanan, the pugnacious conserva tive whose insurgent campaigns hob bled Republican front-runners in 1992 and 1996, launched a third White House bid Tuesday with a pledge to fight “a moraPdefkit that has become America’s great enemy within.” Suggesting that the Clinton admin istration has contributed to “a polluted and poisoned” culture, Buchanan delivered a full-throated attack on the Democratic White House. “This temple of our civilization has been desecrated, used to shake down corporate executives, to lie with aban don to the American people, a place to exploit women,” he said. He promised to stand against unfettered imports, freewheeling immigration, abortion, euthanasia, expanded judicial powers, shrinking American sovereignty and, at times, his own party - all familiar themes of a Buchanan candidacy. Though he has a history of exceed ing their predictions, many GOP strategists and conservative activists believe Buchanan’s third race won’t be charmed. Working against him this time: a swelling field of like-minded candidates, a greater demand for money and a relatively late start “I love Pat and agree with much of what he stands for, but I can’t construct a scenario where he has a chance to win,” said Paul Weyrich, a leading con servative intellectual from Washington. Buchanan was hearing none of it “We need a new patriotism in America that puts country first, a new conservatism of the heart that puts people first, and a new set of priorities where our party stands for something higher and greater than the bottom line xra a balance sheet” he said. A crowd of at least 300 yelled, “Go Pat go!” “It is our calling to recapture the independence and lost sovereignty of our republic, to clean up all that pol lutes our culture and to heal the soul of America. And, to that end, I declare my candidacy for president of the United States.” Closing with his traditional battle cry, Buchanan grabbed the hand of his wife, Shelley, and shouted: “As we say, mount up and ride to the sound of the guns!” Buchanan is trying to overtake the early GOP front-runngrs, Bush’s son, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, and Dole’s wife, former Red Cross presi dentBlizabeth Dole. Lewinsky apologizes in interview WASHINGTON (AP) - Monica Lewinsky is finally getting her say: about President Clinton (“a very sensu al man”), Linda Tripp (“I pity her”) and her regret for hurting Hillary and Chelsea Clinton (“I am very sorry”). In a two-hour interview to be tele vised tonight, the woman whose trysts with the president led to the Senate impeachment trial offers the nation her apology “for my part in this past year’s ordeal.” “I wouldn’t dream of asking Chelsea and Mrs. Clinton to forgive me,” she says. “But I would ask them to know that I am very sorry for what hap pened and for what they’ve been through.” Barbara Walters of ABC News won the first interview with Lewinsky since the former intern burst into the head lines Jan. 21, 1998. Lewinsky was pro hibited from speaking publicly until Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr’s office gave the go-ahead. On Tuesday, ABC released brief excerpts from the interview. “Is Bill Clinton a sensuous, pas sionate man?” Walters asked the 25 year-old woman. “Gosh, I’ll probably get in trouble for saying this,” Lewinsky began \before describing the president as “a ' very sensual man” who feels conflicted because of his “strong religious upbringing.” Lewinsky had stinging words for her former friend, Linda Tripp, who secretly tape-recorded their telephone conversations about the president and turned them over to Starr’s investiga tors. “I pity her,” Lewinsky said. “I would hate to be her.” ■Washington, D.C. U.S. agents reportedly spied on Iraq military The Associated Press - US intelli gence agents operating under the guise of U.N. arms control inspectors spied on the Iraq military for three years, The Washington Post reported Tuesday. Citing unidentified government employees and documents, the news paper said the U.N. \Special Commission was not aware it had been infiltrated. White House spokesman David Leavy acknowledged Tuesday that intelligence was gathered by the United States, but refused to comment directly on the allegation that UNSCOM was kept in the dark. ■Yugoslavia Albanian refugees targeted in violent Yugoslav attacks PRISTINA (AP) - Yugoslav forces pounded southern villages with tank and mortar f re Tuesday, targeting ethnic Albanian refugees camped in the rocky hills along the border of Kosovo province and Macedonia. Heavy weapons, armored person nel carriers and trucks loaded with Serb police and Yugoslav army troops lined 9 miles of border road, more evi dence of President Slobodan Milosevic’s military buildup in defi ance of NATO airstrike warnings. ■China Albright says Clinton may * choose China for WTO BEIJING (AP) - Secretacy of •State Madeleine Albright, wrapping up her trip to China, said Tuesday that there is a “good chance” the Clinton administration and Beijing will make progress toward allowing China to join the World Trade Organization after years of difficult negotiations. ; U.S. and Chinese officials are working to complete a WTO deal in time for Premier Zhu Rongji’s visit to Washington in April. ■ France Jetliner hijacked; passengers held hostage ' ROISSY (AP) - A former Italian police officer hijacked an Air France jetliner carrying 76 passengers Tuesday and forced it to detour to a different Paris airport, where 12 peo ple were held hostage for three hours. The hijacker, who originally had threatened to blow up the plane, turned himself over to police after releasing the final 12 people - seven crew and five passengers. All the others, including two babies, had been released shortly after landing at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport, north of Paris. ■ Iraq U.S. warplanes hit centers that control Iraqi oil flow AIN ZALA (AP) - About half of Iraq’s oil exports are in jeopardy after U.S. warplanes hit two communica tions centers that controlled the flow of oil through a key pipeline, an Iraqi official said Tuesday. The damage from the strikes Sunday and Monday is so extensive that it will take a “long time” to resume pumping oil through the pipeline to Turkey, Hussein al-Fattal, head of operations for Iraq’s Northern Oil Company, said.