Nation/World
5
Nation/World briefs Washington
University Daily Kansan / Friday, March 29, 1991
Unemployment level stays high
The number of new claims for unemployment benefits remained above the half-million mark for a second consecutive week in March, some 32,000 more than five years, the Labor Department said yesterday.
The department said that 510,000 people filed initial claims for state unemployment insurance in the week ending March 16, after 519,000 claims were filed the previous week.
While the number of new claims can be erratic from week to week, analysts said the high levels suggested that the recession was continuing in March despite other, more favorable reports showing a big jump in consumer confidence and signs of life in the housing industry.
"There is a recovery out there in the not-too-distant future, but it is not in the immediate future," said Bruce Steinberg, an economist with Merrill Lynch in New York. "We still have a few more months of lousy economic numbers to go through."
Washington
U.S. prison population grows
The U.S. prison population has risen dramatically even as the crime rate has dropped to its lowest point in 18 years, a Justice Department statistician said yesterday.
Patrick Langan, author of a study appearing today in the journal Science, said there was a possibility that the size of the prison population — about 610,000 inmates — was the reason a door-to-door survey showed that the U.S. crime rate was dropping.
Since 1973 the U.S. prison population has grown so fast that the nation needs a new, 1,000-bed prison each week just to keep up, Langan said. He also notes that justice system's tougher approach to criminals.
Johannesburg, S. Africa Mandela co-defendant dismissed
A court yesterday dismissed charges against a co-defendant in Winnie Mandela's kidnapping and assault trial, but left charges against another co-defendant intact.
Justice M.S. Stegmann ruled that there was insufficient evidence that Nompumelole Falatt, 18, had participated in any crime. Falatt, who has served in the court and embraced Mandela after the verdict.
But the court left standing a charge against co-defendant John Morgan.
Mandela, wife of African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela, spoke animatedly with her lawyers and friends after the decision. But she hid her face and moved away when reporters tried to question her. Prosecutors also declined to comment.
From The Associated Press
Saddam claims Kirkuk recaptured after attack
City crucial to rebels
The Associated Press
DOHUK, Iraq — Saddam Hussein's forces yesterday launched a massive air, rocket and artillery attack on rebel helib Kirkuk, U.S. and rebel troops. The enemy was claimed to have recaptured the northern oil center.
Rebel fighters in Dohuk, a city of 230,000 in the heart of Iraqi Kurdistan, said fighting was fierce around several Kurdish cities. Dohuk still was firmly in Kurdish hands, despite Iraqi claims to have recaptured the city.
Kirkuk, a city of 200,000 residents, was captured about a week ago by rebel fighters. The city is 150 miles north of Baghdad and is the most important city of Kurdish rebels fighting to topple Saddam.
In Washington, State Department deputy representative Richard Boucher said the Iraqi government had begun a major assault against facilities already had suffered significant damage.
"The Iraqi army ... has started a massive air attack on Kirkuk," said Latif Rashid, a representative in London for the Iraqi Kurdistan Front. He told reporters of casualties, but had no details on the numbers.
Later, the official Iraqi news agency said Kirku had been cleared of rebel forces and pictures of the city were shown on Iraq TV. It said Izaz Ibrahim, a Revolutionary Command Council, toured Kirku.
Kuwait ruling family suspected in killings
The Associated Press
KUWAT CITY — Some members of Kuwait's ruling family were involved in the killings of Palestinians and other people suspected of espionage or occupation, a Western diplomat said Wednesday.
The high-ranking diplomat said he was told by Kuwaitii officials that Crown Prince Saad al-Abdallah al-Sabah 10 days ago threatened to hang six members of the ruling family and their "goon squads" unless random killings and beatings stopped.
The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity.
The report cast doubt on government denials Wednesday that Palestinians and other groups were being mistreated in Kuwait. But Kuwaiti reporting of the crown princess's warning indicting her for responding to pressure by the U.S. and British ambassies to improve its human rights position.
The diplomat said he was told by several Kuwaiti officials that the crown prince, who also is a member of Al-Sabah's former members of the 1,500-strong Al-Sabah family and told them to stop killing Palestinians.
Gun control may toughen
Administration may trade Brady Bill for crime package
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The White House softened its opposition to tighter gun control yesterday, suggesting President Bush might look more favorably on a bill mandating a waiting period for handgun purchases if Congress approved his own anticrime proposals.
White House representative Roman Popaduk said Attorney Gen. Dick Thornburgh would be talking to lawmakers in an effort to work out problems Bush had with the Brady Bill, which bears the name of former President Reagan's administration wounded in the assassination attempt on Reagan.
Reagan endorsed the bill yesterday during a visit to Washington marking the 10th anniversary of the attack. He also met with Bush at the White House on Friday, where he heard the former president's views on the subject.
When asked later whether he had persuaded his former vice president on the issue, Reagan joined the campaign.
However, the administration clearly wasn't ready to embrace the federal legislation, which requires it to be mandated by law.
any handgun purchase.
"We don't support the bill in its current form, but a lot may depend on what Congress does with the proposed law."
He would not directly comment on whether the administration was prepared to trade away its opposition to the Brady Bill in exchange for congressional concessions on Bush's crime package.
However, administration sources said Bush's intent was to open the door to flexibility on the
The administration contends the Brady bill would fall short of its goals, failing to catch the majority of criminals who obtain guns illegally rather than through gunshop purchases.
Instead, Bush is pushing legislation to deter criminals with the prospect of tougher mandated sentences.
"We support action on the bill for the president's crime package," Popaduk said. "We have concerns with specific pieces of the Brady Bill that we will work out with Capitol Hill and the attorney general will work with members on the Hill concerning the issues."
The University of Kansas Theatre and the Department of Music and Dance Present Gilbert and Sullivan's Comic Opera