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Monday, February 21, 1994
NATION/WORLD UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WASHINGTON
Backers of amendment for a balanced budget have support for vote
backers of a balanced budget constitutional amendment have enough support to assure a vote in the Senate, but not necessarily the two-thirds majority to pass it, the measure's chief sponsor said yesterday.
"We have 60 votes to block a filibuster; I don't know that we have the 67 votes to pass it," said Sen. Paul Simon, Democrat of Illinois, in an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press."
An Associated Press survey of the Senate's 100 members last week showed 60 of them saying they supported or would probably support the amendment. Twenty-seven said they would reject or were leaning against it. Twelve senators said they were undecided. The amendment would require balanced federal budgets beginning in the year 2001 unless three-fifths of the House and Senate voted to allow a deficit. It fell one vote short of passage, 66-34, the last time the Senate debated it in 1986.
Even with Senate passage, the amendment would still
require a two-thirds vote in the House and ratification by 38 of the 50 state legislatures before it would become part of the Constitution.
Because ratification could take up to seven years, Sen. Bill Bradley, Democrat of New Jersey, called the amendment a sham, saying it would do nothing to reduce the government's annual deficits.
SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico Rebels arrive for peace talks
Maya Indian rebels came out of the jungle yesterday to the city where their uprising started on New Year's Day, this time hoping to achieve their goals of land and liberty through peace talks.
Hundreds of Red Cross workers, civilian peace workers and military police armed only with clubs surrounded the cathedral in San Cristobal where the talks will begin today
The government's peace negotiator, Manuel Camacho Solis, and Bishop Samuel Ruiz traveled to the rebels' Lacandon forest stronghold east of the city yesterday morning and escorted their representatives back.
At least 18 rebel negotiators, all wearing ski masks or bandanas to disguise their faces, arrived at the main plaza in three caravans of Red Cross vehicles.
Among the rebels was the group's chief representative, "Subcommandante Marcos," who appeared to have an automatic weapon strapped to him.
In interviews published yesterday in The New York Times, Marcos said the Zapatista National Liberation Army did not expect a quick agreement.
Marcos, who has kept his identity a secret, said rebels would lay down their arms only if profound changes were made in Mexico's political and economic system. He said the rebels wanted political autonomy for Chiapan Indians, the resignation of President Carlos Salinas de Gortari and the establishment of a transitional government until the August presidential election.
MANHATTAN
MANHATTAN Closed bridge creates worries
A bridge that has been closed since July's flooding has some residents worried that emergency vehicles won't be able to get to them in case of a fire or an accident.
The Barnes Road Bridge was closed after the Big Blue River ripped a 10-foot-wide hole in it during flooding last summer.
Residents of Rocky Ford Trailer Park, who live a half-mile from the bridge in Pottawatomie County, are worried about the bridge being closed because trailers are vulnerable to fires and natural disasters.
Last December, about 300 residents of the area signed a
petition asking the commissioners of Pottawatomie and Riley counties to expedite the bridge's repair or provide some temporary alternative.
Riley County Public Works Director Dan Harden said the reconstruction project was proceeding at record pace. Officials expect to start construction in July.
STOCKHOLM, Sweden 64 Kurdish refugees rescued
Crew members on a ferry bound for Stockholm pried open a shipping container yesterday and discovered 64 Kurdish refugees near suffocation.
The refugees, including 26 children, were discovered when a crew member heard them pounding on the walls of the metal container, three hours after the boat left the Estonian capital Tallinn on Saturday evening, Sweden's national news agency TT said.
"They had been locked up in the trailer for nine hours and were running out of oxygen," ferry superintendent Marlene Andersson told the news agency.
The group of mostly Iraqi Kurds told police they had paid $2,500 each to be smuggled to Sweden.
They were taken to refugee centers in Sweden.
Compiled from The Associated Press
THE END TIMES
The League of Nations was established in 1920 to pursue international peace and security. In 1945 the organization was replaced with the United Nations. Since the founding of these organizations there have been hundreds of wars on this planet... like the war in Yugoslavia. Can the UN Peace-Keeping Forces ever establish a world peace that lasts? According to the Bible it will never happen. However, Bible prophecy points to a coming one world order...a "New World Order" that will be directed primarily by a multi-nation federation in the old Roman Empire. (See Revelation 17 and Daniel 2). Are NAFTA and GATT tools through which the world will be unified for the last great conflict? Is the European Common Market the headquarters for this new order? Remember...48 specific prophecies were completely fulfilled at the first coming of Christ. The odds of that happening were 281,474,976,710,656 to one*. Should you be concerned with the more than 300 specific prophecies about the second coming of Christ? Something to think about. To be continued..
* The law of compound probability doubles with each detail added.
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