News Digest
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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.
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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.