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Monday, February 7,2000 i p“*e2 Editor: Lindsay Young (402)472-1763 GEKHI, Russia (AP) - Federal troops'have seized the last rebel stronghold in Grozny, acting President Vladimir Putin said Sunday, pronouncing an end to Russia’s months-long drive to take the Chechen capital. Russian forces, meanwhile, tried to stop rebels heading to their moun tain strongholds, shelling villages where rebels had taken shelter. Russian planes and helicopter gun ships blasted militant positions in the Vedeno and Argun gorges, key rebel routes toward the mountains. * Federal troops took control of the western Zavodskoi district of the cap ital and raised the Russian flag over an administration building there, Putin said. “A short while ago, the terrorists’ last bastion of resistance was seized,” Putin said in an interview with state controlled ORT television. “So, we can say the operation to liberate Grozny is over.” The claim could not be indepen dently confirmed, and Russian forces have previously claimed to control parts of the Chechen capital, only to be pushed back by rebel ambushes. It was unclear how many rebels remained in Grozny, where they have taken refuge in the shattered remains of buildings and moved freely through underground pipes. About 3,000 broke out of the capital last week, rebels said, and the military reported that small groups were still showing stiff resistance to Russian troops all week, including Sunday. The situation was stable enough to begin deploying regular police in the city, said Col. Gen. Ivan Golubev, a deputy interior minister. Several dozen officers have already arrived to prepare offices and patrol parts of the capital, he said. Russian leaders have put a huge emphasis on the operation to take Protests mar start of new government VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Right wing populist Joerg Haider said Sunday the new Austrian government in which his party shares power will take appropriate measures to com pensate Holocaust victims. In a televised interview, Haider also promised to moderate his tough talk and refrain from meddling in the coalition Cabinet. He will not hold a Cabinet post. Haider’s comments came two days after the new government - made up of his far-right Freedom Party and the center-right Austrian People’s Party - was sworn in by a stone-faced President Thomas Klestil. The coalition came together despite a wave of protests and moves by the European Union and other nations to isolate Austria diplomati cally. Haider’s remarks Sunday were relatively conciliatory compared to the verbal salvos he has fired recent ly against foreign leaders. He told his interviewers that the previous government led by Austria’s Social Democrats had not really dealt with the Nazi past, including issues like the compensation of forced laborers. He said the new govern ment would seek to redress their grievances and those of Holocaust victims. “Where we have inflicted great injustice on our Jewish fellow citi zens or wiped out their families, we must take pertinent measures,” he said. Haider won international notori ety for statements praising Adolf Hitler’s “orderly employment” poli cies and praising veterans of the WafFen SS as “decent people of good character” - comments for which he has since apologized. The rise to power of his party has polarized a society with dark memo ries of defeats in two world wars. Referring to his past vitriolic attacks on other Austrian leaders, Haider s.aid his party would refrain from “oppositional reflexes and unnecessary sharpness ... and prove that, factually, we can reason very well.” Sunday, Israeli Interior Minister Natan Sharansky announced that Haider is banned from entering ■ s* m mmr w nn»-.-7- w » ip.shs^ «ssas» Partly cloudy - Fair high 38, low 21 high 57, low 37 Nebraskan Manaoino Rrfilnr- r^M^Ym.na Questions? Comments? AssociateNews Editor: DaneStkkney Ask for the appropriate section editor at Associate News Editor: Diane Broderick ' V “Zr , . Opinion Editor: J.J. Harder or e‘mai dn@unl.edu. Sports Editor: Sam McKewon A&E Editor: Sarah Baker General Manager: Daniel Shattil Copy Desk Co-Chief: Jen Walker Publications Board Jessica Hofmann, Copy Desk Co-Chief: Josh Krauter Chairwoman: (402) 477-0527 Photo Chief: Mike Warren Professional Adviser: Don Walton, Design Co-Chief: Diane Broderick (402)473-7248 Design Co-Chief: Tim Karstens Advertising Manager: Nick Partsch, Art Director: Melanie Falk (402) 472-2589 Web Editor: Gregg Steams Asst. Ad Manager: Jamie Yeager Asst. Web Editor: Jewel Mlnarik Classifield Ad Manager: Nichole Lake Fax number: (402) 472-1761 World Wide Web: www.dailyneb.com The Daily Nebraskan (USPS 144-080) is published by tne UNL Publications Board, Nebraska Union 20,1400 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. Subscriptions are $60 for one year. Postmaster: Send address changes to the Daily Nebraskan, Nebraska Union 20,1400 R St., . ' Lincoln NE 68588-0448. Periodical postage paid at Lincoln, NE. ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 2000 THE DAILY NEBRASKAN f{ A short while ago, the terrorists’last bastion of resistance was seized. So, we can say the operation to liberate Grozny is over.” Vladimir Putin acting Russian president Grozny, the key political prize in the war in the breakaway republic. But the militants have stressed their intention to carry on a long-term, guerrilla war, and the fall of their cap ital would not spell the end of the conflict. Rebels who broke out of Grozny last week were regrouping in villages southwest of Grozny on Sunday for the journey south to the mountains, where thousands of other militants are believed to be based. About 2,000 rebels arrived overnight in the villages of Valerik, Zakan-Yurt and Gekhi-Chu - all about 15 to 18 miles from Grozny, local residents said. They were met by other militants who came from the mountains to lead them back to rebel strongholds in the southern Argun and Vedeno gorges. After the rebels left Valerik for the mountains, Russian forces moved Sunday into conduct mopping-up operations. They also shelled the nearby village of Katyr-Yurt, which the rebels had also left, residents said. Photo By FDB/Newsmakers WHILE AUSTRIAN President Thomas Klestil is swearing in the new govern ment in Vienna, Austria, on Friday, Several thousand people demonstrate against OVP (People’s Party) leader Wolfgang Schussel’s coalition with rightist Joerg Haider’s FPO (Austrian Freedom Party). Israel. The ban is the latest formal Israeli protest against the Freedom Party’s inclusion in government. Israel recalled its ambassador from Vienna as soon as the Austrian coalition was approved. Sharansky said Haider has expressed an interest in visiting Israel, and that his party tried unsuc cessfully to hire a local public rela tions firm to spruce up his image there. On Sunday, about 300 demon strators gathered outside the Austrian embassy in Paris, shouting “Haider, fascist, collaborator.” And on Saturday night, anti Haider demonstrators scuffled with police in downtown Vienna for a sec ond night, despite appeals for calm from Klestil. First lady launches campaign for Senate PURCHASE, N.Y. (AP) - With the president beside her and 2,000 supporters chanting her name, Hillary Rodham Clinton formally launched her campaign Sunday to be U.S. senator from New York, a state she has lived in only a month. The race for the seat being vacat ed by fellow Democrat Daniel Patrick Moynihan is likely to pit Clinton against New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in what could be one of the most flamboyant political campaigns in memory. No other first lady has ever run for public office. “I am honored today to announce my candidacy for the U.S. Senate from New York,” Clinton said as shouts of “Hillary! Hillary!” rang through a university gymnasium close to her new home in the suburbs north of New York City. “1 may be new to the neighbor hood, but I’m not new to your con cerns,” she said, while President Clinton, her mother and daughter Chelsea sat beaming behind her. The president is said to be one of his wife’s top advisers. “I often return to one thing I said back then, that politics is the art of making possible what appears to be impossible. I still believe that today. We can do what seems impossible if we have the vision, the passion and the will to do it together,” Clinton said, recalling a speech she made at her college commencement at Wellesley in 1969. Clinton described her commit ment to better schools, better health care and better gun control. But she also took pains to describe herself as a “new Democrat.” “I don’t believe that government is the source of all our problems - or the solutions to them,” she said. Recent polls have shown Giuliani with a slight lead over Clinton and tied with her among women voters. Giuliani has not made a formal campaign announcement, but he came close on ABC’s “This Week,” one of the five TV talk shows he appeared on Sunday. When asked if he planned to run, he said: “Looks that way.” ■ Nevada Alaska Airlines jet returns to airport after motor problem RENO, Nev. (AP) - An Alaska Airlines MD-80 jet returned to Reno’s airport shortly after takeoff on Saturday night alter its pilot reported problems similar to those under inves tigation in last Monday’s crash off the California coast, officials said. The Seattle-bound flight left Reno/Tahoe International Airport at about 7 p.m. and returned about eight minutes later when the pilot reported motors controlling the plane’s hori , zontal stabilizer were operating improperly, said Jack Evans, an Alaska Airlines spokesman. The Saturday night flight made a rough landing, but none of the 140 people aboard were injured, airport officials said. On Tuesday, an American Airlines MD-83 reported trouble with its hori zontal stabilizer after takeoff"and safe ly returned to Phoenix. ■ Germany Express train derails near Cologne, nine killed BRUEHL, Germany (AP^-An overnight express train derailed at a switch south of Cologne early Sunday, killing at least nine passengers and injuring more than 100, authorities said. Police said the train may have been speeding. The sleeper train carrying about 300 passengers had been traveling j from Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to Basel, Switzerland, when it hurtled off the tracks in the small town of ’ Bruehl, German railways spokesman Manfred Ziegerath said. One car flipped onto its side, and another was crushed against a steel post. ■ Russia Passenger airliner hijacked MOSCOW (AP) - A passenger airliner hijacked from Afghanistan and sent on a tense, meandering trip across Central Asia and Europe land-: i ed Sunday night at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport complex, offi cials said. The plane, carrying at least 140 people, including an estimated 20 hijackers, landed about 9:20 p.m. as trucks and buses loaded with Russian commandos, police and rescue work ers converged on the airports. Sniper teams moved into the Sheremetyevo-1 terminal, and securi ty was heavy in the area. Russian news reports said the plane intended to land in Moscow only to refuel, but that could not be immediately confirmed. The hijackers’ identities remain unknown, and their demands and final destination was unclear. ■ Washington Clinton prepares final budget of his eight-year term WASHINGTON (AP) - As President Bill Clinton prepared to reveal a $1.84 trillion farewell budget full of politically popular programs from health care to education, the administration warned Sunday that Republican efforts to pass big tax cuts would face another presidential veto. Clinton’s final budget coming out today covers the 2001 fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. It promises a replay of last year’s battle with the GOP-con- | trolled Congress over what to do with the $3 trillion or more in surpluses the booming economy is projected to pro vide over the next decade. - -- V'-* ' .fir ■ - i.-V. ..j