News Digest
Yugoslavia bombing continues
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) -
NATO pounded Yugoslavia for a sec
ond night Thursday, following through
on a pledge to systematically destroy
President Slobodan Milosevic’s mili
tary forces unless he accepts a peace
plan for Kosovo.
Bombs and missiles rained down
on Kosovo’s capital of Pristina shortly
after dark. The sky lit up with bright
flashes as three heavy blasts were
heard from the direction of an army
base next to the airport.
Explosions were also heard north
of Belgrade, in northern Kosovo, and
in Serbia and Montenegro, the two
republics that make up Yugoslavia.
“We’re going to systematically
and progressively attack, disrupt,
degrade, devastate and ultimately -
unless President Milosevic complies
with the demands of the international
community - we’re going to destroy
these forces and their facilities and
support,” said U.S. Gen. Wesley Clark,
supreme commander of allied forces
in Europe.
But mere was no mnt that the
assault was causing Milosevic to
rethink his refusal to end his offensive
against ethnic Albanian separatists in
Kosovo or accept a plan calling for
28,000 NATO troops to enforce the
peace.
His aides scorned the airstrikes as
“a grave crime against the people” of
Yugoslavia, and his forces kept up
their rampage in Kosovo, hunting
down leading ethnic Albanian politi
cians and editors and burning villages.
The Pentagon said Thursday night
that all NATO planes in the day’s raid
had returned safely to their bases.
Belgrade sounded the all-clear siren at
11:37 p.m. (5:37 EST).
Serbia, meanwhile, ordered for
eign reporters belonging to NATO
countries to leave. Most journalists
heeded the warning - and several were
threatened by angry Serbs on their
way out.
Yugoslavia also announced it was
cutting diplomatic ties with United
States, Britain, France and Germany
for participating in the airstrikes.
More than 2,000 people have been
killed and at least 400,000 forced to
flee their homes in a year of fighting
between Yugoslav troops and ethnic
u-—
(Milosevic)
knows how to
get in touch
with us”
Madeleine Albright
secretary of state
Albanian rebels in Kosovo, a province
in Serbia. The ethnic Albanians have
already signed the U.S.-backed peace
plan.
A devastating first round of
airstrikes Wednesday reportedly killed
at least 11 people, injured dozens and
delivered serious blows to
Yugoslavia’s military infrastructure.
Air raid sirens sounded through
out Yugoslavia again Thursday after
dozens of NATO warplanes took off
from bases in Italy and four warships
in the Adriatic Sea launched
Tomahawk cruise missiles on the sec
ond day of the offensive.
NATO commanders say the bar
rage will go on until Milosevic capitu
lates - and Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright said diplomatic
channels were always open.
“He knows how to get in touch
with us,” she said in Washington.
Serbian television reported hits on
a number of taigets north of Belgrade
on Thursday, but gave no information
on casualties.
Ten explosions rattled Kraljevo,
75 miles south of Belgrade, and local
television broadcasts appealed for
blood donors, the independent Beta
news agency said.
Two missiles struck near the cen
tral Serbian city of Nis. The official
Tanjug news agency reported two
explosions in northern Kosovo town
of Kosovska Mitrovica.
Six locations - including army
bases, an airport, and radar facilities -
were hit in Montenegro.
“This will never be forgotten and
the aggressors will never be forgiven,”
Ivica Dacic, a spokesman for
Milosevic’s Serbian Socialist Party,
said in Belgrade.
I More Than You Bargained For "j
I
I
THE THRIFT DEPARTMENT STORE
America’s Favorite thrift store.
4690 Leighton • 467-1991
^Bring this coupon in for a free t-shirt. J
f ..........■i"'. 1
| Study in JVepal-Summer *99
Spend 3 weefcs (May 12^June 2} siucMng in JCatimancJu, capital
ofNepoi 6amacademicaedt LedbyUMfaajRy.
Courses taught in English,
includes a 5 day trek in the magn&icenl Himotayast
t -— * ^
Study Nepalese cu8tfe*fttf^cndrei0on asweB
cBpoiicscrddemxfcrttzalon. dependent study
CMaBabfe.
For more hformalon, contact
International Affairs
1237 R Street, Uncoin, f£
(402) 472-6358
ww.Krffass.yni.edu
Russia says it will not use force
as retaliation against NATO
■ Officials hint that
Russia could provide
Yugoslavia with weapons.
MOSCOW (AP) - Russian lead
ers angrily denounced NATO
airstrikes on Yugoslavia on Thursday,
but President Boris Yeltsin said
Moscow would not use force in retali
ation.
Some top officials hinted that
Russia could provide Yugoslavia with
weapons - flouting an international
arms embargo - and demonstrators
hurled bottles at the U.S. Embassy in
Moscow. But Russia has mostly
responded to the bombings with little
more than harsh words.
“Russia has a number of extreme
measures in store, but we decided not
to use them so far,” Yeltsin said at the
Kremlin. “Morally we are above
America.”
upposition to tne airstrikes is
acute across Russia’s political spec
trum, but there’s little the country can
do to demonstrate its anger. It is no
longer a major military power and it is
pleading with the West for aid to
revive its shattered economy.
Still, Prime Minister Yevgeny
Primakov warned Thursday that
Russia could pose a military threat
“We have different responses at
our disposal. Regarding military
potential, our country is second to no
one,” he said on Russia’s NTV televi
sion. He then added, “But we aren’t
taking those steps.”
Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov on
Thursday condemned die bombings
as an effort to “enforce a political,
economic and military dictatorship by
the United States” - yet he insisted
that wouldn’t herald a new Cold War.
“We aren’t calling for rupturing
relations with the United States, we
treasure those relations,” Ivanov told a
news conference.
When the attacks began
Wednesday, Yeltsin said Russia was
ceasing cooperation with NATO and
recalled Russia’s chief military envoy
to die Western alliance. But the ITAR
Tass news agency reported Thursday
that Russia would keep its mission at
NATO headquarters in Brussels open
and apparently would continue to take
part in other alliance programs.
Ivanov would not say directly
whether Russia would break the U.N.
arms embargo on Yugoslavia, many of
whose weapons are Soviet-made.
Several hundred people demanding
an end to the attacks protested
Thursday outside the U.S. embassy in
Moscow and the U.S. consulate in St.
Petersburg, hurling bottles, eggs and
other objects. Police detained several
protesters in brief scuffles outside the
Moscow embassy.
“We would have liked to use
grenades, but all we had were eggs,”
protester Denis Yasov said in St.
Petersburg.
Letters sent out
using ID numbers
TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) - Who says
that students who go to big colleges
get treated impersonally, like
they’re just numbers?
Truman Bradley, of Boulder,
Colo., for one.
The parents of Bradley, a
prospective Arizona State
University student, recently got a
letter from the school that began:
“Congratulations on 987-65-4321 ’s
admission.” (The number used in
this story has been changed.)
The letter, addressed to
Truman’s father, Jeff Bradley,
added that as a parent “you will be a
partner with the university in
encouraging 987-65-4321 to suc
ceed.”
The father’s reply: “Thank you
for offering our son, 987-65-4321,
or as we affectionately refer to him
around the house - 987 - a position
in the ASU class of2003. His moth
er, 123-45-6MOM, and I are very
happy...”
Tim Desch, director of under
graduate admissions, said the
impersonal letter was a glitch in a
batch of several thousand letters
sent to prospective students.
In the first five, the computer
picked up the student’s Social
Security number instead of the
name. Those were supposed to have
been discarded but inadvertently
were mailed, Desch said.
“We don’t know how it hap
pened,” he said.
The mother of at least one other
prospective student informed the
school that she’d received such a
letter, Desch said. He could not
recall her name.
■ Illinois
Minister who conducted
gay marriage goes on trial
DOWNERS GROVE (AP) - A
Methodist minister who presided at the
“wedding” of two gay men went on trial
Thursday before a jury of 13 pastors in
the first test of a church law banning
same-sex ceremonies.
The Rev. Gregory Dell of Chicago, a
pastor for 30 years, could be defrocked if
found guilty. A verdict is expected
Saturday.
In opening statements, a minister act
ing as a church prosecutor said the cere
mony Dell performed last September
made “a mockery of church law.”
■ Washington, D.C.
FCC will stop regulating
cable prices next week
The Associated Press - Cable TV
customers will have to pay whatever their
cable companies want to charge them
when federal price regulation ends next
week. But even with government con
trols, the rates rose sharply over the past
few years.
Following the directive of a 1996 law,
the Federal Communications
Commission will stop regulating most
cable TV services March 31. Specifically,
it will lift federal price controls for the
expanded basic services that include
CNN, MTV and ESPN.
■ Paraguay
Paraguay’s president goes on
trial for abuse of power
ASUNCION (AP) - Facing abuse of
power charges, President Raul Cubas
went on trial in Paraguay’s Senate
Thursday, proceedings hastened by the
assassination of the vice president
In a tense four-hour session, senators
read opening statements and laid out the
accusations that could drive Cubas from
office.
Cubas is accused of abusing his
powers by freeing former army chief
Lino Oviedo, who was sentenced to 10
years for attempting to oust then
President Juan Wasmosy in 1996.
■Australia
Hijacked helicopter captures
inmate from secured prison
SYDNEY (AP) - A hijacked heli
copter scooped up an inmate in a daring
escape from a maximum-security prison
yard Thursday, carrying him through a
hail of guards’ bullets to freedom.
The helicopter was commandeered
during a tourist flight over the Sydney
Olympic stadium by a female passenger,
who held a revolver to the pilot’s head
and ordered him to land inside the city’s
Silverwater prison, police said. John
Killick, 57, was due in court later that
day.
Question*? Comments?
Ask for the appropriate section editor at (402) 472-2588
or e-meil dn@unl.edu.
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
Editor: Erin Gibson
Managing Editor: Brad Davis
Associate News Editor: Sarah Baker
Associate News Editor: Bryce Glenn
Assignment Editor: Lindsay Young
Opinion Editor: Cliff Hicks
Sports Editor: Sam McKewon
A&E Editor: Bret Schulte
Copy Desk Chief: Tasha Kclter
Asst Copy Desk Chief: Heidi White
Photo Co-Chief: Matt Miller
Photo Co-Chief : LaneHickenbottom
Design Chief: Nancy Christensen
Art Director: Matt Haney
Web Editor: Gregg Steams
Asst Web Editor: Amy Burke
General Manager: Dan Shatdl
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
CTassHIrld Ad Manager: Mary Johnson