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I News Digest Page 2 Daily Nebraskan Friday, September 22,2000 Court raises anti-NATO sentiments ■ A Yugoslav judge found President Bill Clinton, among others,guilty ofwar crimes in the 1999 78-day bombing campaign against Milosevic. j THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BELGRADE, Yugoslavia - A Belgrade court found President Clinton and other world leaders guilty of war crimes and sentenced them - in absentia - to 20 years in prison for NATO’s bombing campaign . against Yugoslavia The four-day trial was held in an attempt to resur rect anti-NATO sentiment here and win votes for President Slobodan Milosevic ahead of Sunday’s elec tions. Belgrade’s district court pronounced Clinton and 13 other leaders and NATO officials “guilty as charged” and ordered warrants be issued immediate ly for their arrests. Court-appointed lawyers were hired to represent the defendants. As each 20-year sentence was read out separately, the crowd behind a row of 14 empty chairs bearing nameplates of the accused, stood and applauded. "The accused were fully conscious of their actions; they perpetrated the socially most dangerous acts,” presiding judge Veroljub Raketic told about 100 spectators and media at the sentencing. Clinton, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, French President Jacques Chirac, as well as NATO former Secretary-general Javier Solana and retired commander Gen. Wesley Clark, were all accused last month of war crimes connected to the 78-day 1999 bombing campaign. “The accused had been notified and summoned to this trial through their attorneys but they have ignored this court, either because they were afraid of it or they were fully aware of their guilt” Raketic con cluded. The Belgrade judge also ordered the defendants to pay the cost of the trial and pronounced NATO guilty of the deaths of546Yugoslav army soldiers, 138 Serbian policemen and504 civilians - 88 of them chil dren. Yugoslavia suffered heavily in the bombing, launched last year to halt Milosevic’s crackdown on ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. Milosevic has campaigned on a mixture of anti NATO slogans and self-awarded kudos for leading the country’s “heroic reconstruction” after the bombing apparently in the hope this will translate into votes on Sunday. The Belgrade prosecutor said there is no expira tion date for the crimes, and should any of the guilty parties come to Yugoslavia at any time in the future, they would be arrested on the spot The charges, listed in a 120-page indictment, included “inciting an aggressive war and committing war crimes against a civilian population,” as well as use of illegal means of warfare, attempted murder and "violation of the territorial integrity” of Yugoslavia. TODAY Partly sunny high 80, low 59 TOMORROW Showers high 57, low 38 SUNDAY Scattered showers high 48, low 34 C Questions? Comments? Ask for the appropriate section editor at (402)472-2588 or e-mail: dn@unl.edu | Editor: Sarah Baker X Managing Editor Bradley Davis Associate News Editor Dane Stickney New Editor Kimberly Sweet Opinion Editor Samuel McKewon -1 Sports Editor Matthew Hansen WArts Editor Josh Nichols Copy Desk Co-Chief: Lindsay Young Copy Desk Co-Chief: Danell McCoy Photo Chief: Heather Glenboski «Art Director Melanie Falk Design Chief: Andrew Broer Web Editor Gregg Stearns Assistant Web Editor Tanner Graham It General Manager: Dan Shattil ^ g Publications Board Russell Willbanks, Chairman: (402) 436-7226 Professional Adviser Don Walton, (402)473-7248 Advertising Manager Nick Partsch, i (402)472-2589 Assistant Ad Manager Nicole Woita Classified Ad Manager Nikki Bruner Circulation Manager Imtiyaz Khan Fax Number: (402) 472-1761 i/orld Wide Web: www.dailyneb.com The Daily Nebraskan (USPS144-080) jiblished by the UNL Publications Board, 20 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St., Lincoln, NE 68588-0448, ^Monday through Friday during the academic 1 year; weekly during the summer sessions. »The public has access to the % m Publications Board. Headers are encouraged to submit story ideas and comments to the Daily Nebraskan ‘ \ By calling (402) 472-2588. Subscriptions are $60 for one year. >stmaster: Send address changes to Daily Nebraskan, 20 Nebraska Union, ; 1400 R St, Lincoln, NE 68588-0448. iodical postage paid at Lincoln, NE. ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 2000 DAILY NEBRASKAN a . / ^ v Mike Simons/Newsmakers A mailbox rests on the hood of a car Thursday in Xenia, Ohio.The town was hit by a tornado Wednesday, killing one person at the fairgrounds when a tree crushed a car.The victim's name hasn't been released.The woman with him is hospitalized in critical condition. One hundred others were injured. Ohio tornado kills at least 1 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS XENIA, Ohio - A tornado swept through an Ohio city that was devas tated by a twister a generation ago, killing one person and injuring dozens of others. It heavily damaged buildings, overturned cars and downed power lines. Authorities searched through the night for other possible victims of the storm that hit about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. “We are going home by home' to see if everybody is OK," Mayor John Saraga said. In central Ohio, a second tornado that hit about an hour after the Xenia storm damaged about 15 homes north of Columbus in Delaware County. There also was damage to homes and businesses in neighboring Licking County, including damage to 12 bams at a large egg producer, Buckeye Egg Farm. The Xenia storm - confirmed as a tornado by the National Weather Service - was a frightening reminder of a twister that struck the southwest ern Ohio city in 1974, leaving 33 peo ‘This was a major tornado, but it’s nowhere near the area the ’74 tornado covered Charlie Leonard __assistant city manager in Xenia, Ohio pie dead and millions of dollars in damage. Authorities said the storm moved on a parallel path Wednesday, but the damage, while significant, was far smaller. “This was a major tornado, but it’s nowhere near the area the 74 tornado covered,” said Charlie Leonard, assis tant city manager. Still, at least 115 people were injured, and 14 were admitted to hos pitals. One woman was in critical con dition, and three people were in seri ous condition Thursday. The man who died and the critical ly injured woman were in a car that was crushed by a tree near the Greene County fairgrounds, authorities said. Their identities were not immediately released. Ruby Godfrey was in the Dayton Avenue Baptist Church when she heard hail pound the roof, which was eventually tom off. “We’re hitting the floor, getting under pews. You heard the roar. You saw the roof flying off, and then it was gone,” Godfrey said. Gov. Bob Taft issued an emergency declaration for Xenia, and he toured the area Thursday. About 75 percent of Xenia remained without power at daybreak, the city manager said. Schools were closed in the city of nearly 25,000 peo ple about 20 miles southeast of Dayton. The tornado that swept through Xenia and southwest Ohio on April 3, 1974, was one of a series of storms over two days that killed more than 300 people in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio. It was one of the worst outbreaks of torna does in the last 75 years. London attack triggers alarm ■ A grenade launcher was found near the attack on a secretive intelligence service, raising fears that terrorist groups may have such technology. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS LONDON - Police on Thursday found part of a rocket-propelled grenade launcher near the scene of an attack on the headquarters of Britain’s MI6 intelligence service, which they believe may have been the work of IRA dissidents. No one was injured in the Wednesday night attack, and damage was limited to one window and two wall panels on the eighth floor. But it raised fears of a renewed spate of terrorist attacks in London and dealt another blow to the security of the secretive spy agency. The grenade launcher was found in a nearby park on Thursday afternoon, but police did not yet know whether it had been fired from the same spot. Tests were being carried out to determine its make. Earlier, ponce had said the attackers may have used a type of rocket launcher readily available to the Irish Republican Army and the hard-line splin ter groups that reject a cease-fire. Deputy Assistant Commissioner Alan Fry, head of Scotland Yard’s anti-terrorist branch, told reporters that the missile may have been fired from a range of 200 to 500 yards. Similar devices had been found in republican arms caches and may have been used in attacks in Britain, he said, adding that the weapons are freely available from arms traders operating in Russia and the former Yugoslavia. Fry said police are keeping an open mind, but “clearly the sort of weapon we believe was used in this attack is known to be in the hands of certain groups. “They will be uppermost in our minds.” No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, which came without warning. The IRA has observed a cease-fire since 1997. Defectors are believed to be responsible for recent explosions in Northern Ireland and England, including a small bomb that exploded on London’s Hammersmith Bridge in June and a bomb planted on railway tracks in west London in July and later detonated by police. The high-tech MI6 building has an extensive closed-circuit television system and bomb- and bulletproof walls and windows. Because of an editing error, the former dean of agriculture and natural resources was misidentified in Wednesday’s Daily Nebraskan. Donald M. Edwards is the retir ing dean. Swimmer's chance at gold thwarted THE ASSOCIATED PRESS SYDNEY, Australia - How’s this for a cruel twist of fate? Jenny Thompson, across three Olympiads, earned more medals than any woman swim mer. She just couldn’t win the one she want ed most. BA former U.S. boxer Huskerswimmer Dante Craig, hpinpdimvt knocked out ™pedJjpset 0f the Jenny Thompson s Olympics in mission for gold, just his sec- Seestoryon ond fight, page9 knows how she feels. i ne i nompson saga was me most dramatic tale Thursday at the Aquatic Center, but it wasn’t the only one. The United States, led by Lenny Krayzelburg’s sec ond Sydney gold, collected eight medals on the sixth night of swimming competition. Thompson, 27, took a bronze medal in the 100-meter freestyle, giving her a career total of nine - adding that one to her seven relay golds and one individual silver. But she failed to get the indi vidual gold medal she’d been trying for. Thompson post poned her retirement in 1996 to chase her personal white whale, although it came in a different color. "The individual gold medal wasn’t in the cards, I guess,” Thompson said. “I'm just com pletely satisfied with how I did. I know I did the best I could.” The numbers back her up: Nine medals made her the most decorated female swimmer in history. Thompson also broke a tie with American swimmer Shirley Babashoff for most Olympic medals by an American woman. There’s just that one that got away ... Inge de Bruijn of the Netherlands won the 100 freestyle for her second gold, a complement to her victory in the 100 butterfly. Unlike Thompson, nothing escaped Krayzelburg. ‘The individual gold medal wasn’t in the cards, I guess." Jenny Thompson American swimmer The Ukrainian immigrant turned-U.S. swimmer set an Olympic record in taking the 200 backstroke to complete a Sydney sweep. Krayzelburg’s earlier victory in the 100 back stroke made him just the fourth man to win both events in a sin gle games. Americans Rick Carey (1984) and John Naber (1976) and German Roland Matthes (1968, 1972) were the others. Krayzelburg’s precocious teammate Aaron Peirsol, just 17, won the backstroke silver. America earned two more medals in the 200 individual medley, where Tom Dolan won the silver and Tom Wilkens took the bronze. By the end of competition Thursday, the United States led the games with 31 medals (11 gold, 10 silver, 10 bronze). Host Australia followed with 25 (8-9 8), while France (7-9-4) and Russia (4-8-8) had 20 apiece. In the boxing ring, the 147 pound Craig, after watching his teammates take 11 straight bouts, stepped into the ring brimming with confidence. By the second round of his second fight, he was down on the can vas and his medal hopes were shot. “I'm mad, because I believed before I went into the ring I was the better man," Craig said after his 9-4 defeat to Bulent Ulusoy of Tlirkey. “It’s just hard to be the first one to lose.” Earlier, U.S. 119-pounder Clarence Vinson outpointed Taalaibek Kadiraliev of Kyrgyszstan 12-7 in a tough bout that he clinched with a fourth-round left hook and a right to the head. It was Vinson’s second straight win. A The Associated Press ■ Maryland Bush rips Gore's call for tapping oil reserve HOLLYWOOD - Facing growing concern over the threat of high heating costs, A1 Gore proposed tapping the govern ment’s emergency petroleum reserve to force down oil prices before winter arrives. The Democratic presiden tial candidate also urged Cdlngress to provide $400 mil lion in additional energy assis tance for low-income families and tax credits to oil distribu tors to help build up dwindling heating oil stocks. He also said foreign produc ers must live up to promises to increase supplies, declaring: “It’s time for OPEC to get serious about the supply and price of oil.” Republican rival George W. Bush objected to Gore’s propos al, saying, “The strategic reserve should not be used as an attempt to drive down oil prices right before the election... for short-term political gain at the cost of long-term security.” ■ England Airlines break off long-planned merger talks LONDON - British Airways PLC and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines broke off talks about a long-planned merger Thursday, blaming intractable commer cial and regulatory issues. The collapse is a major set back for both companies, which have struggled to find their place amid the accelerating consolidation of Europe’s air line industry. Relations between the two companies “remained amica ble,” they said. Netherlands-based KLM and British Airways disclosed June 7 that they were in negotia tions to combine and form the world’s third-largest airline behind UAL Corporation’s United Airlines and AMR Corporation’s American Airlines. British Airways is the fourth-biggest airline in terms of passenger traffic, and KLM ranks 12th. A previous merger attempt in the early 1990s broke down over how to value the two carriers. ■ Washington, D.C. Report: Laws meet racism guidelines; acts don't The laws of the United States meet the requirements of an international treaty on elim inating racism, but American society has not achieved that goal, a federal report released Thursday concludes. In its first analysis of U.S. compliance with the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the U.S. government admitted that racism remains a stubborn problem. Researchers cited recent incidents as reminders of the need to eliminate racism: the 1991 police beating of black motorist Rodney King; the shooting death of African immi grant Amadou Diallo by police in New York; the burning of syn agogues, mosques and black churchesjand the dragging death of James Byrd Jr. in Texas. A shift in the racial and eth nic composition of the country also is an exacerbating factor, the report indicated. ■ Russia Technology deal with Iran frozen MOSCOW - Russia has frozen a deal to sell laser technology to Iran - equipment the United States said could be adapted to a nuclear-weapons program. Yuri Bespalko, chief of the Atomic Energy Ministry’s press service, said Russia was suspend ing deliveries to Iran of laser tech nology for scientific and medical purposes.Iran maintains the technology it seeks from the Yefremov Scientific Research Institute of St. Petersburg would be used for peaceful purposes. Boris Yatsenko, director of the Microtechnology Center at the Yefremov Institute, said his insti tute’s lasers were meant exclu sively for scientific and medical purposes.