6
University Daily Kansan / Wednesday, September 18. 1991
NATION/WORLD
NATION/WORLD BRIEFSE
Zagreb, Yugoslavia
Heavy fighting in Croatian capital threatens cease-fire
Heavy shelling and a series of loud explosions erupted in Zigaretta briefly as fighting spread to the city. Croatian capital just hours later was attacked by a cease-fire.
Orange tracer bullets lit up the sky and a series of blasts and machine gun fire were audible in the city center.
A huge fire appeared to be burning in on the city's east side in the vicinity of the oil chemical plant.
It wasn't immediately clear who was engaged in the fighting. Earlier in the evening, there was an exchange of gunfire between Croatian forces and federal troops at a barracks in the city.
federal鞍市 a barracks in the city. Zagreb was darkened as a precaution against air raids. Most public transportation was running without lights. City officials told residents to find shelter and remain calm.
The violence seemed likely to doom a cease-fire agreement reached earlier in the day with a mediator of the European Community even before it was scheduled to go into effect at noon today. Previous cease-fires have lasted only days.
There have been sporadic attacks by the federal air force on Croatian positions around Zagreb in recent days, but the exchanges Tuesday night represented by far the heaviest fighting the Croatian capital has seen.
Cairo, Egypt
Baker, Shamir make progress in U.S.-Israeli dispute
Secretary of State James A. B. Baker III told Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir yesterday that the Bush administration would actively support the housing-loan guarantees Israel is vigorously seeking — if Israel accepted a four-month delay and limits on where the money can be spent.
Baker, rejecting a main Shamir demand, said the United States would insist on a condition that none of the money be used for settlements in the disputed territories of the West Bank and Gaza.
Baker's proposal was part of an effort to end an acrimonious squabble that has upset U.S.-Israeli relations and threatened efforts to convene a peace agreement.
Midnight last week, Shamir said after the talks, "We have achieved a certain progress," but he added that the question of the $10 billion in loan guarantees was not yet resolved.
A senior administration official traveling on Baker's plane said the secretary of state believed that if that condition were dropped Arab countries would not come to the table for the talks Baker has been struggling to arrange. "That just is something we are not going to agree to," the said officier.
Washington
U.S. freezes assets of Saudi millionaire in BCCI case
The federal government yesterday froze the U.S. assets of Ghaith Pharaon, a Saudi multimillionaire accused of acting as a front man for the scandal-ridden Bank of Credit and Commerce International.
the Federal Reserve also said yesterday that it was seeking a $37 million civil penalty against Pharaon for his alleged illegal acquisition of Independence Bank in the Encino section of Los Angeles.
The Fed previously accused Pharaon, 50, an entrepreneur with close ties to the Saudi royal family, of serving as a front in BCII's allegedly secret, illegal acquisitions of Independence Bank, the National Bank of Georgia, and with secret part-ownership of the since-failed CentTrust Savings Bank
From The Associated Press
Hearings continue for CIA nominee
Senator questions Gates' contact with Iraq
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Sen. Bill Bradley suggested yesterday that Robert Gates, President Bush's nominee to head the CIA, may have violated the law by providing intelligence to Iraq in 1966 without proper authorization.
Bradley, D-N.J., stopped short of pinning down the issue after David Boren, D-Doka, chairperson of the Intelligence Committee, warned that the questioning was leading into classified areas.
In a brief conversation with reporters afterwards, Bradley said he was seeking to establish whether the administration could demonstrate that all and any activities with regard to Iraq were fully authorized.
He alluded to certain things he knew happened, such as intelligence sharing and the sale of items with potential military uses. But he said he would have to pursue those issues during a later closed-door session with Gates.
Gates acknowledged that intelligence had been provided to Iraq at a
time when the United States was seeking to counterbalance what it viewed as an Iranian advantage in the war between the two countries.
The nominee said that he believed that the law was fairly vague on the subject but that intelligence sharing
was permissible in such circumstances without a for- presidential authorization.
The questions came as Gates ran into renewed criticism over his
the Iran-contra affair when he first became aware of it in 1986.
Sen. Howard Metzenbaum, D-Ohio, questioning Gates in the second day of his confirmation hearings, called him the see-no-evil, hear-no-evil, speak-no-evil nominee who was seeking to
preserve his career by not making waves.
Gates said he negretted saying in 1987 that he had not pursued more information of the affair when he learned of it Oct. 1, 1986.
Metzenbaum asked why Gates should be confirmed. "What is the magical transformation that has placed in Robert Gates?" he asked.
Gates responded that "the record is clear that I learned lessons immediately."
During later questioning, Gates said he believed former CIA officials who had acknowledged wrongdoing in the killing of 17 American men that they were doing the right thing.
"But," he added, "that kind of thing will be tolerated at the agency"
Yesterday's hearing opened with a charge from Metzenbaum that Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee are bent on confirming Gates without regard to his record on Iran-contra.
"It has now turned into a political
confirmation hearing, where none of the Republicans seem to be interested in hearing the questions or the answers," Metzenbaum told a reporter as the hearings entered their second day.
Metzenbaum said he remained not convinced of Gates' fitness for the job. "It's just impossible to believe that this man was so close to what was going on in Iran-Contra and he didn't know. It's just not credible."
Gates breezed through his first day of hearings Monday, shielded in part by an admission that he had used poor grammar in some of his handling of the affair.
Gates, now Bush's deputy national security adviser, began his testimony Monday with an admission about the misjudgments that he made and the lessons he learned from the covert program to sell arms to Iran and aid Nicaragua's contra rebels.
"It takes a big person to step up and say, 'Look back on my past actions I feel I should have done things differently,'" said Boren, an early backer of Gates.
House nears approval of unemployment bill
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The House moved toward approval yesterday of a Democratic bill providing new benefits for the long-term unemployed, despite a White House threat to veto the costy, counterproductive measure.
Barely a month after President Bush effectively killed similar legislation, the House prepared to vote to furnish up to 20 weeks of extra compensation to people who have exhausted the standard 26 weeks of payments.
Sponsors said 3 million U.S. citizens stood to benefit. The sponsors chastised Bush for what they said was his willingness to provide aid to the Kurds and other troubled peoples while denying help to the jobless at home.
"If your benefits have run out, your kids need clothes, the bank is ready to take your house, it is an emergency and you shouldn't have to move to Kurdistan to get help," said Rep. John Olver. D-Mass.
Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, chairper
son of the House Ways and Means Committee, planned to offer a proposal that would pay the $6.4 billion cost of the measure by increasing the tax on employers that finance the unemployment system. He said he expected his
plan to be careful
by lawnmakers
 reluctant to raise
taxes of any sort
lawmakers, said it would urge Bush to veto the legislation because it was costly and would add to the deficit. The office also argued that making benefits more generous would actually increase unemployment.
Rostenkowski, D-III., said his amendment would improve the overall bill by avoiding a boost of the federal deficit. But he said he supported extending benefits win or lose because the continuing re
ne proposed bill would give the jobless at least five extra weeks of unemployment payments.
the continuing recession made it mandatory to help the jobless.
"Millions of unemployed workers have waited long enough," he said.
"There's a lot of pain in America today."
"When you subsidize something, you get more of it, whether it's corn or unemployment," said Rep. Fred Grandy, R-Iowa.
The Office of Management and Budget, in a statement delivered to top
The office statement also said that the recession was ending and the recovery was under way.
But Democrats were insistent that it was time to act. They cited August's 8.8 percent unemployment rate, the 8.5 million U.S. citizens who are out of work, and the 16 percent regular 26 weeks of benefits every month without finding a new job.
"Talk to people who are unemployed." Rep. Thomas Downey, D-NY, a chief sponsor of the bill, told Republicans. "See the fear in their faces, sense the knots in their stomachs ... The unemployment system ... is broken."
The bill would add 10, 15 or 20 weeks of benefits for people who have used up the first half-year of payments, with an additional rate for the unemployment rate in each state.
The jobsbess in every state would get at least five extra weeks of payments as long as the national unemployment rate was at least 6 percent.
People who exhausted their regular benefits on or after Jan. 1, 1991, would qualify.
The House approved a similar bill on Aug. 2 by a 375-45 vote, and the Senate sent it to Bush on a voice vote the same day.
Fifteen days later, Bush signed the measure but then effectively killed it when he refused to declare an emergency to make money available, as budget laws require.
Student Rebate Payments Begin
Thank you for your continued patronage during our renovation project last spring. Your support exceeded our expectations! To display our appreciation the Union Board of Directors has designated a special 9% rebate for KU Bookstore purchases from the Spring 1991 Semester.
Receipts should be designated "Period 89" and be dated between January 1, 1991 and June 30, 1991. Cash or check purchases are eligible for the Student Rebate Program. Your KU student I.D. is required. Receipts may be redeemed during normal business hours at the Customer Service counter of either the Kansas Union or Burge Union stores between September 17th and December 30th, 1991. Some restrictions apply.
The KU Bookstores
The Kansas and Burge Unions
Serving the University Community for 45 years
The store that shares it profits with the KU student