University Daily Kansan / Wednesday, December 4, 1991
NATION/WORLD
9
NATION/WORLD BRIEFS
Miami
Twelve tons of cocaine seized by customs agents
Federal agents seized almost 12 tons of Colombian cocaine they said was hidden inside concrete fence posts in the second largest cocaine seizure in U.S. history.
*Before they started bringing this in the country they established a corporation to do business as a special agent William Rosenblatt.
The posts were shipped from TRANCA C.A. a, company in nenezuelan, the INCA Inc., a post office post company, federal ailments said Monday.
Eleven people were arrested in Texas and Venezuela, officials said
Information obtained during two arrests in Texas led customs and
Drug Enforcement Administration agents to warehouses minutes from the agencies' Miami offices.
On Nov. 26, they began breaking open the concrete and found 23,641 pounds of cocaine, about 13 pounds a post.
The seized cocaine cost trafficfears about $48 million, officials estimated. Rosenblatt said the street value was "incalculable."
Kilo and half-kilo bricks of cocaine had been wrapped and slipped inside metal tubing, then encased in concrete resembling concrete fence posts, said DEA special agent Thomas V. Cash.
Tokyo
The nation's largest cocaine seizure, 21.4 tons, was made near Los Angeles in September 1989.
Japan considers creating military to send overseas
Nearly 50 years after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, lawmakers yesterday passed a controversial plan allowing Japan to send ground forces overseas for the first time since World War II.
Legislators, meanwhile, considered drafting a formal apology in time for the anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack on Saturday.
who pushed the bill through a special committee.
The bill creating a peacekeeping corps of up to 2,000 soldiers must be approved by the upper house.
Last week, a brawl in Parliament erupted between opposition lawmakers and Liberal Democrats
Lawmakers worry about the West's criticism that Japan avoids its global responsibilities by sending money but few personnel in world crises such as the Persian Gulf war.
Opponents say the bill violates Japan's postwar pacifist constitution, which renounces the use of military force overseas. About 3,000 anti-military demonstrators rallied against the bill in Tokyo after it was passed by a 311-167 vote.
San Diego
Quake measuring 5.3 shakes southern California
An earthquake and aftershock centered in Baja California rumpled northward yesterday through San Diego County.
The first earthquake occurred at 9:54 a.m. and measured 5.3 on the Richter scale. It was followed five minutes later by a 2.9 magnitude aftershock, said Robert Finn, an associate of Technology representative.
The quakes, felt by residents throughout San Diego County.
were centered 51 miles east-southeast of Ensenada, Mexico, said Finn.
"Asfar weknow it'snotrelated to any other earthquake in the recent past," he said. "We don't know which fault these occurred
Though earthquakes with a magnitude of 5 can cause considerable damage, no major damage or injury is reported on either side of the border.
From The Associated Press
Gorbachev decries union split
The Associated Press
MOSCOW — President Mikhail Gorbachev warned yesterday that the disintegration of the Soviet Union would lead to misfortune, catastrophe and war, but Russia has hastened the breakup by recognizing Ukraine's new state-
Gorbachev said the country was experiencing a destructive "crisis of statehood." He urged lawmakers across the Soviet Union to approve his
proposed Union Treaty — a plan to hold the nation together as a loose confederation.
"The breakup of such a multiethnic community will bring misfortunes upon millions of our people, which will out-
balance all possible temporary benefits from secession," Gorbachev said in a statement distributed to lawmakers in all 12 republics, not just those seven who have said they will sign the treaty.
MikhailGorbachev
"A breakup is fraught with interethnic, interrepublic clashes, even wars," he said. "That would be catastrophe for the entire global community."
Kremlin's role to foreign affairs, strategic nuclear arms and coordination of economic policy. It also would establish a five-year, directly elected government, which judges civil justice, and allow the republics to introduce their own currencies.
Ukraine's newly elected president, Leonid Kravuch, previously pledged not to sign the treaty. Russian Federation President Boris Yeltsin said in a statement that Ukraine did not sign the treaty, his republic would not sign either.
Yeltis yesterday recognized Ukraine as an independent state, Soviet news media reported. The move could seal Ukrainian secession and remove a diplomatic hurdle for nations considering the step.
The proposed treaty would limit the
Poland, which borders Ukraine, already recognized Ukraine's statehood, and the United States. Canada, Denmark announced similar plans.
Gorbachev's appeal to national and republic lawmakers on the Union Treaty did not mention Ukraine. But his representative, Andrei Gracev, said the referendum results "were quite predictable."
Trying to put the most positive face on the blow that Ukrainians dealt the Soviet leader, Gracevie said the vote would now allow the government in Kiev to work out its future relations with other republics.
Bush praises Ukraine formal relations near
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Although President Bush congratulated Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk yesterday by telephone for Ukraine's secession from the Soviet Union, there still was no timetable for formal recognition by the United States.
Noting that Poland already has recognized Ukraine as an independent nation and Canada appeared ready to do so, White House press secretary Marlin Fitzwater said, "We think we're on the right track."
But he added, Gorbachev believes
In August, Bush visited the Ukrainian capital of Kiev and
warned against pursuit of a "hopeless course of isolation."
But last week, the president met with Ukrainian-Americans and said the United States would move toward diplomatic recognition.
On Monday, Ukrainians voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence. The Bush Administration swiftly applauded "this expression of democracy" but also made clear that it needed answers to some questions concerning nuclear arms in the republic before granting diplomatic recognition.
that a most effective means to resolve the accumulated problems of the union lies not through separation, but through the outdated central government.
Gorbachev warned that further disintegration of the union would bring bloodshed, economic collapse and stifled development in science, technology and culture. "Things are going from bad to worse." he said.
President Mikhail Gorbachev has said that without the Ukraine there can be no Soviet Union.
In a separate speech on Soviet television last night, Gorbachev spoke to the nation on the need for a new union.
"You know what happens to a building when its foundation is destroyed," Gorbachev said.
Israel adamant in delaying Mideast talks
Palestinians and delegations from Syria, Lebanon and Jordan issue challenge to attend
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — New Mideast peace talks yesterday headed toward an uncertain opening round. With Israel still insisting on a delay, Arab negotiators will likely confront empty chairs.
The standoff persisted as Secretary of State James Baker arranged for the talks to open at 10 a.m. in Washington on Thursday.
Delegations from Syria, Lebanon and Jordan joined with Palestinians to challenge the Israelis to attend, but the Israeli Cabinet decided Sunday its needs needed until Monday to prepare for the talks.
"We were invited to come for bilateral talks in Washington," said Hana Ashrawi, representative
Ashriwai said the Palestinians could not promise that they would still be here Monday, the day the Israel delegates said that they would attend. That day, she said, comes a day after the fourth anniversary of the occupation of the Palestinian uprising in the occupied territories, and her group has other commitments on that day.
Israel also wants to stagger the talks so that there would be an interlude between its negotiations with the Arab delegations. Israel officials said that they had proposed to start the talks with the Palestinians. In days later, they would meet with the Syrians. The State Department has arranged simultaneous talks.
Meanwhile, the United States and the Soviet Union, working together as Mideast peacemakers, called for an international conference in Moscow at the end of January to ease Arab-Iraeli tensions.
The Moskoy talks, scheduled for Jan. 28-29, will seek to build confidence between Arabs and Israelis by addressing such concerns as scarce water resources and threats to the environment.
Other topics to be discussed are the arms buildup in the region, to which both the United States and the Soviet Union have contributed, and Palestinian refugees.
A Saudi source said 32 nations were expected to attend. But Syria, rejecting several appeals by Baker, is boycotteting the session until it succeeds in getting Israel to yield territory lost in the 1967 war.
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