News Digest
Serb troops move into Albania
Milosevic’s forces seize border town; no casualties reported
BAJRAM CURRI, Albania (AP) - Igniting
fears of a widening conflict, Serb forces pushed
into northern Albania on Tuesday, fought an hour
long skirmish with Albanian troops, seized a bor
der hamlet and torched homes before withdraw
ing, Albanian officials and international observers
said.
With Albania a major staging ground for
NATO forces, even Tuesday’s incident - short
lived, small-scale, with no reported casualties -
brought a warning from Washington that
Yugoslavia would make a grave mistake in
expanding the fighting.
In Belgrade, Yugoslav officials denied any
incursion into Albania. The chief of the army infor
mation service, Col. Milivoje Novkovic, said on
state television that Yugoslavia’s defense of its own
borders was “being fabricated as an alleged inva
sion.”
Albania, in turn, said the Serb push into its ter
ritory would carry consequences. Sokol Gjoka, an
Albanian Foreign Ministiy official, said his coun
try would take necessary steps to defend itself, “in
close coordination with our allies.”
These days, that means NATO, which has taken
over Albania’s airfields, airspace and military
infrastructure. In coming weeks, a force of Apache
attack helicopters and thousands more allied
troops will be based in Albania.
White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said
Washington had received “credible reports” of a
Serb incursion, as well as past instances of Serb
Crisis in Kosouo
forces crossing the border or shelling Albanian ter
ritory. v
The warning came as NATO moved to more
than double its air armada. In Brussels, Belgium,
the supreme allied commander in Europe, U.S.
Army Gen. Wesley Clark, said he had requested
300 more U.S. aircraft as well as additional air
power from other NATO allies.
The Albania border clash, by the account of
international monitors watching from nearby,
began when about 50 Serb infantrymen advanced
on lightly manned Albanian border posts early
Tuesday afternoon.
Listening in on the Albanian border police
radio frequency, international monitors say they
heard police urgently ask Albanian soldiers sta
tioned a few miles away what to do. They were told
to stand and fight, but soon reported they were sur
rounded and retreating.
After an exchange of fire - possibly light
artillery, according to the monitors - the Serbs
pulled back, but not before torching several hous
es.
Artan Jakupi, a translator with the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe, which monitors the border area, watched
from the village of Bajram Curri, seven miles
away, as a cluster of houses burned in Kamenica,
including his own.
In the three weeks since NATO began airstrikes
aimed at forcing Milosevic to pull his forces out of
Kosovo, agree to a peace deal and end the mass
expulsions of ethnic Albanians, Yugoslavia has
scorned any compromise.
On Tuesday, however, deputy Prime Minister
Vuk Draskovic hinted Yugoslavia might find “cer
tain preconditions for agreement,” claiming the
alliance had “abandoned key goals regarding
Kosovo,” including a NATO-led force in the
province and “independent-like” status for the
Kosovo Albanians.
NATO, meanwhile, said its bombardment of a
passenger train in southern Serbia on Monday was
“an uncanny accident ” The alliance said the target
was the bridge the train was crossing.
The refugee drama also continued Tuesday, as
more ethnic Albanians reported systematic Serb
atrocities. Before dawn, 4,800 more refugees
entered Albania and hundreds more crossed into
Macedonia. They said Serbs had methodically
emptied their villages near Pristina, Kosovo’s cap
ital, and taken up positions in newly vacated areas.
In Yugoslavia, a night of airstrikes continued
into the daylight hours Tuesday. Four big detona
tions were heard at midmorning.
The allies hope to reduce the movement of
Yugoslav troops, particularly in and out of Kosovo
by cutting off military fuel supplies.
Clinton likely will have to pay penalty
■ The fine was imposed in
a contempt-of-court ruling
about Lewinsky testimony.
WASHINGTON (AP) - President
Clinton probably will pay a financial
penalty imposed in a contempt-of
court ruling that he gave “intentional
ly false” testimony about his relation
ship with Monica Lewinsky, a top
adviser suggested Tuesday.
Officially, the White House
declined to comment on whether or
not Clinton would appeal the ruling
and referred questions to Robert
Bennett, Clinton’s private attorney.
Bennett did not return calls.
Clinton was held in contempt of
court Monday by U.S. District Judge
Susan Webber Wright, who presided
in the sexual harassment suit brought
by Paula Jones. Wright found that
Clinton gave “false, misleading and
evasive answers” in a January 1988
deposition in which he denied having
sexual relations with Lewinsky.
" Wright ordered Clinton to pay
“any reasonable expenses,” including
legql fees incurred by Jones as a result
of Clinton’s false testimony. The
judge also directed Clinton to reim
burse the court $ 1,202 for her travel to
Washington to preside over taking the
deposition. She referred the matter to
the Arkansas Supreme Court’s
Professional Conduct Committee,
which has the power to revoke
Clinton’s law license or to impose
other sanctions.
A top adviser to Clinton, speaking
on condition of anonymity, said the
“most likely course” being discussed
by the president’s lawyers would have
Clinton pay the penalty without con
testing it, provided that Jones’
demand for reimbursement was rea
sonable.
This adviser said Clinton was
interested in keeping his law license
and that his attorneys might contest
any regulatory effort in Arkansas to
revoke it.
White House press secretary Joe
Lockhart refused to answer questions
about the case. Lockhart said he was
not aware that the White House was
considering its own appeal on the con
stitutional point of separation of pow
ers.
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Starr to explain opposition
to special prosecutor law
WASHINGTON (AP) -
Independent Counsel Kenneth
Starr, whose investigation of
President Clinton revived a
debate over special prosecutors,
will tell Congress on Wednesday
he opposes renewing the law that
put him in power, The Associated
Press has learned.
Starr, scheduled to testify
before the Senate Governmental
Affairs Committee, submitted
prepared remarks Tuesday laying
out his rationale against renew
ing the Independent Counsel
Act.
The officials, who spoke only
on condition of anonymity, said
Starr opposes renewing the law
on several grounds, including
that it violates the constitutional
separation of powers between the
executive and judicial branches.
Star^also raises concerns
about the costs and delays
incurred by many independent
counsel investigations, and the
relentless political attacks
against the special prosecutors,
the officials said.
His testimony Thursday
before the Senate panel will offer
Democrats the first chance to
question Starr since the Senate’s
Feb. 12 acquittal of President
Clinton on House impeachment
charges arising out of Starr’s
investigation.
The Whitewater investigation
that Starr inherited in 1994
expanded to include the Vincent
Foster suicide, White House
travel office firings, alleged mis
uses of FBI files and Clinton’s
Oval Office affair with Monica
Lewinsky.
The investigation has cost
taxpayers at least $46 million
through the end of last year.
Starr’s probe has produced
more than a dozen convictions of
Arkansas figures, including
then-Gov. Jim Guy Tucker in
1996 and both of the Clintons’
Whitewater business partners, as
well as the referral that prompted
the president’s historic impeach
ment in December by the House.
Clinton’s supporters have
relentlessly attacked Starr, alleg
ing that his staff used abusive
and unfair tactics with witnesses
and pressed the investigation into
areas outside his jurisdiction.
They also have questioned
Starr’s motives.
Starr is a former federal
appeals court judge and
Republican solicitor general who
argued President George Bush’s
cases before the Supreme Court.
With his testimony, S-tarr
joins lawmakers of both parties
who widely oppose renewing the
law without at least major
changes in it.
■ Washington, D.C.
Inspectors again declare
meat unfit to eat
The Associated Press - Federal
food inspectors declared unfit for
human consumption 21 million
pounds of meat and poultry produced
by the same Arkansas plant from
which 30 million pounds of meat
products were recalled three months
ago.
The meat, products of the Thom
Apple Valley’s Forrest City, Ark.,
plant, was being housed in warehous
es and waiting to be shipped to dis
tributors, officials with the
Agriculture Department’s food safety
and inspection service said.
In January, Thom Apple Valley
recalled 30 million pounds of hot
dogs and luncheon meats produced at
the same Arkansas plant. That recall
was because of possible contamina
tion with the listeria bacteria.
■ Great Britain
Glenn Miller fan shells
out money for logbook
LONDON (AP) - An American
fan of bandleader Glenn Miller paid
$35,000 Tuesday for a military log
book that holds a clue to Miller’s mys
terious disappearance aboard an air
plane during World War II.
“I’ve never done anything like
this in my life,” said William Suitts, a
76-year-old businessman from
Boulder, Colo., who bid for the book
by telephone to Sotheby’s auction
house.
Glenn Miller led one of the most
popular “swing” bands of the 1930s
and ’40s, which had huge hits with
songs like “In The Mood,”
“Kalamazoo,” and “Pennsylvania 6
5000.” He was at the height of his
fame when an airplane carrying him
disappeared over the English Channel
on a foggy December day in 1944.
■ Washington, D.C.
Government approves
nonsurgical stress test
The Associated Press -
Thousands of heart disease patients
may soon be taking a “super stress
test.” The government approved the
first nonsurgical test Tuesday to pre
dict who is at risk of sudden cardiac
arrest in time to prevent death.
The device, made by Cambridge
Heart Inc. of Bedford, Mass., works
by enhancing one of the world’s old
est heart tests, the electrocardiogram.
■ Washington, D.C.
U.S. defends decline
of China’s trade offer
The Associated Press - The
administration today defended its
decision to walk away from a Chinese
offer to lower its trade barriers to a
wide range of American products, v
U.S. Trade Representative Charlene
Barshefsky said the deal simply did
not measure up in several critical
areas.
Barshefsky told a congressional
committee that China had been will
ing to make a number of trade con
cessions last week during high-level
meetings between President Clinton
and Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji.
She said the offers were not sig
nificant enough, especially in the area
of enforcement. The United States is
insisting that China give it the right to
impose unilateral trade sanctions on
China even after the country joins the
World Trade Organization.