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News Digest NATO races to stop ‘genocide’ I BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) - Ordering up more firepower, NATO hurried Sunday to smash Serb military units and head off what it called “geno cide” against Kosovo Albanians. Thousands of ethnic Albanian refugees, accusing Serbs of systematic brutality, fled into neighboring Albania and Macedonia. Officials in both coun tries pleaded for international help to prevent a humanitarian crisis, and Albania called for NATO ground troops to enter Kosovo - something NATO says it has no plans to do. Violence in Kosovo has escalated sharply since foreign observers left the province and NATO began its strikes against Yugoslavia, which is dominated by Serbs. “Genocide is starting,” German Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping said in a television interview with sta tion ZDE For its part, Yugoslavia’s govern ment-controlled news media said Sunday that Serb security forces and civilians were under attack by Kosovo I Albanians. Bratislava Morina, Serbia’s com missioner for refugees, denied Serbs were behind the exodus and said ethnic Albanians were leaving because of the NATO attacks. NATO promised to broaden attacks on Serb ground forces in Kosovo, despite the downing of a U.S. stealth bomber Saturday night. The filth straight night of airstrikes began late Sunday, with about 50 war planes taking off from the NATO air base in Aviano, Italy. “We have to recognize that we are now on the brink of a major humanitari an disaster... the likes of which we have not seen in Europe since the closing days of World War II,” said NATO spokesman Jamie Shea. Shea said more than 500,000 ethnic Albanians, a quarter of the population of Kosovo, had been driven from their homes, 50,000 of them in just the past few days. In Belgrade, thousands of defiant Serbs attended an anti-NATO outdoor i Patient’s family supports Kevorkian PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) - The wife and brother of the man Dr. Jack Kevorkian was convicted of killing say they are disappointed the trial focused on definitions of murder rather than on how Kevorkian helped end Thomas Youk’s suffering. “We weren’t able to give the jurors any kind of picture of who Tom was and what he was going through,” Youk’s brother, Terry, told Time magazine in the issue that hits newsstands Monday. Kevorkian was convicted Friday of second-degree murder and deliv ery of a controlled substance in Youk’s death. He is scheduled to be sentenced April 14. Kevorkian had argued during his trial that Youk’s widow, Melody, and Youk’s brother should be allowed to testify that they wanted Kevorkian to end Youk’s suffering. But Judge Jessica Cooper told Kevorkian, who was acting as his own lawyer, that he couldn’t use the testimony because Michigan law doesn’t recognize the consent of the victim as a defense to murder. Terry Youk told Time that his brother suffered from “the kind of pain that medicine couldn’t help.” He said Thomas Youk, 52, told him that he didn’t want to die, “but I don’t want to live like this.” The Youks say they continue to support Kevorkian. Meanwhile, prison officials say if Kevorkian goes on a hunger strike in prison, as he has threatened, they would use intravenous tubes'to force-feed him. “There haven’t been any (deaths) I can recall, and we have a very effec tive policy in place which would stop a prisoner from starving himself,” Matt Davis, a spokesman for the Michigan Department of Corrections, told The Detroit News in a story Sunday. Kevorkian staged a three-day hunger strike when jailed in November 1993 for refusing to pay bond. He refused all food and accepted only juice and water. In December 1997, Kevorkian and an associate said they would starve themselves to death in prison if ever convicted of assisting a sui cide. Editor: Managing Editor: Associate News Editor: Associate News Editor: Assignment Editor: Opinion Editor: Sports Editor: A&E Editor: Copy Desk Chief: Asst Copy Desk Chief: Photo Co-Chief: Photo Co-Chief: Design Chief: Art Director: Web Editor: Asst Web Editor: Erin Gibson Brad Davis Sarah Baker Bryce Glenn Lindsay Young Cliff Hicks Sam McKewon Bret Schulte Tasha Kelter Heidi White Matt Miller Lane Hickenbottom Nancy Christensen Matt Haney Gregg Steams Amy Burke Questions? Comments? Ask for the appropriate section editor at (402)472-2588 or e-mail dn@uni.edu. 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 Classified Ad Manager: Mary Johnson Fax number: (402) 472-1761 World Wide Web: www.dailyneb.com The Daily Nebraskan (USPS144-080) is published by the UNL Publications Board, Nebraska Union 34,1400 R St, Lincoln, NE 68588-0448, Monday through Friday during the academic year; weekly during the summer sessions.The public has access to the Publications Board. Readers are encouraged to submit story ideas and comments to the Daily Nebraskan by calling (402)472-2588. Subsnrintifln<» arp fnr nnp \/par Postmaster: Send address changes to the Daily Nebraskan, Nebraska Union 34,1400 R St., Lincoln NE 68588-0448. Periodical postage paid at Lincoln, NE. ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1999 THE DAILY NEBRASKAN I « We have to recognize that we are now on the brink of a major humanitarian disaster.” Jamie Shea NATO spokesman concert despite air raid sirens that sig naled continuing missile attacks. It was the 10th anniversary of the day Milosevic, then Serbian Communist Party chief, stripped Kosovo of much of its autonomy, sowing the seeds of the conflict Calls for peace talks continued. In his Palm Sunday address, Pope John Paul II said, “It is never too late to meet and negotiate.” In NATO’s first confirmed combat loss of the campaign, a U.S. F-l 17A stealth fighter jet went down Saturday night about 30 miles northwest of Belgrade. A combat rescue team retrieved the pilot and brought him to safety. The pilot, whose name has not been released, was in good shape and brought to the NATO base at Aviano, officials said. “Night Hawk plucked by Yugoslav air defense,” boasted the state news agency Tanjug, referring to the jet’s nickname. At the crash site, jubilant farmers cut off pieces of the high-tech fighter’s wreckage. U.S. and NATO officials declined to say why the plane crashed or provide details of the rescue. The NATO raids are intended to force Milosevic to agree to a peace deal that calls for NATO troops to be based in Kosovo to enforce the accord. American embassy attacked in Russia MOSCOW (AP) - Gunmen with rocket launchers and an assault rifle opened fire Sunday on the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, the site of three days of protests against NATO airstrikes on Yugoslavia. Police firing pistols drove the attackers away from the embassy, which was hit by several bullets but suffered minimal damage. No one was hurt . Protesters in other world capitals demonstrated Sunday against the ongoing NATO operation, directing most of their anger at the United States. No one claimed responsibility for the Moscow attack. Russia fiercely opposes the NATO bombings, and ral lies have been held at the U.S. Embassy since Thursday. Russian news agencies cited police sources as saying three people had been arrested in the attack, but police officials would not confirm any arrests. A white jeep pulled up in front of the embassy and two of the occupants aimed rocket launchers at the building, as shown in footage filmed by a passer by that was aired on Russia’s NTV tele vision network. One gunman in a ski mask and camouflage fatigues, who had climbed out of the jeep to aim a launcher, jumped back in the vehicle when police opened fire. One attacker then opened fire from inside the jeep with a semi-automatic rifle, sending police and bystanders diving for cover. The two rocket launchers were left on the road as the jeep sped away from the 10-story, mustard-colored building on a major Moscow street. The jeep, which police said had been stolen, had special police force license plates, and was found aban doned near the embassy. An embassy spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said no one in the embassy had been injured and that security was being tightened. Nonessential embassy personnel had been told not to come to the embassy over the weekend because of the protests. The government condemned Sunday^ attack. President Boris Yeltsin’s spokesman Dmitry Yakushkin said tfre. shooting “throws a shadow on Russia, which is now making titanic efforts to mediate the crisis in Yugoslavia.” Scores of police and troops with automatic weapons ringed the embassy after the attack. A few hundred protest ers also remained. In September 1995, a masked attacker fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the embassy that exploded in an empty office. No one was injured and there was no claim of responsibili ty, but the attack came a day after the Kremlin accused NATO of genocide against the Bosnian Serbs. Bombings, shootings and gangland killings have become commonplace in Moscow, and weapons are readily available. Alumnus’death at fraternity house leads to ban on alcohol at Penn PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The University of Pennsylvania has banned alcohol at undergraduate campus par ties after a partygoer died at a fraternity house. The ban, expected to last at least until a task force at the Ivy League school takes up the issue in about six weeks, applies to registered campus parties, typically those held at fraterni ties and attended by nonmembers. The ban follows the death last weekend of alumnus Michael Tobin, 26, of Pittsford, N.Y. He was found dead outside the Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity house, where he was a member, and apparently fell from a balcony after a night of heavy drinking at a reunion party. Besides the alcohol ban, Phi Gamma Delta has been suspended by its national organization, University President Judith Rodin and Provost Robert Barchi said in a letter announc ing the ban on Wednesday. About 25 percent of Penn’s 20,000 undergraduates belong to 49 campus fraternities and sororities. ■Paraguay President Cubas resigns after Argana assassination ASUNCION (AP) - Paraguayan President Raul Cubas has resigned and plans to turn- over power to the leader of the Senate, Luis Gonzales Macchi, a ruling party lawmaker said Sunday. A special session of Congress was called for Sunday evening, said Martin Chiole of the ruling Colorado party. The reports capped two weeks of deepening political crisis that includ ed the assassination ofVice President Luis Maria Argana and stepped up efforts to impeach Cubas. ■ Great Britain Northern Ireland accord requires IRA to disarm BELFAST (AP) - The Irish Republican Army and other outlawed groups must disarm as part of Northern Ireland’s peace accord, said George Mitchell, the.former U.S. senator who led negotiations on Sunday. The issue threatens to unrav el the agreement. Mitchell said the accord achieved last April on Good Friday was kept deliberately vague on this and other points, otherwise key parties would have refused to accept it. ■ Israel Israel not required to with draw, official says JERUSALEM (AP) - In a sharp change of emphasis, a U.S. official said Sunday that Israel does not have to resume troop withdrawals in the West Bank until the Palestinians meet their commitments under the Wye agreement US. Embassy spokesman Larry Schwartz stressed that the United States still expects Israel to act on other aspects of the U.S.-brokered Wye River accords. Until recently, Washington had blamed Israel for the current deadlock. ■Washington, D.C. Bush leads Republicans in campaign fund-raising The Associated Press - Seeking an early edge in a crowded GOP field, Texas Gov. George W. Bush has raised at least $3 million so far this year for a possible presidential bid, according to Republicans familiar with his fund-raising. Bush’s take for the first three months of 1999 is expected to put him ahead of several potential rivals for the Republican presidential nom ination when their first fund-raising reports come out April 15. ■New Hampshire Gore campaigns in former mayor’s home CONCORD (AP) - Vice President Al Gore on Saturday took his presidential campaign to a living room that helped launch Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton into the White House. Gore greeted about 70 people in the home of Democratic activist and former Mayor Martin Gross. As he did throughout his two-day stay in New Hampshire - site of the first presidential primary in 2000 - Gore stressed saving Medicare and Social Security, the environment, and edu cation.
