Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

« i Hijacked plane leaves Moscow by Barry Renfrew Associated Press MOSCOW — The Afghan passenger airliner forced by hijackers on a tense journey across Cen tral Asia and Europe left Moscow early Monday af ter nine passengers were freed. The plane flew across Belarus, Poland and into Germany, but officials said they did not know where it was headed, the German Interior Ministry said. The Ariana Airlines plane was seized earlier Sun day while on a domestic flight from the Afghan cap ital, Kabul, to the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif. The plane made stops in Uzbekistan, Kazakstan and Russia before flying to Europe. ' Russian security service spokesman Alexander Zdanovich told reporters at Moscow’s Shereme tyevo- 1 airport that the hijackers released nine pas sengers, but made no political demands. He said the hijackers had asked only for food, for the plane’s toi lets to be cleaned and for refueling while in Moscow. None of the people aboard the Boeing 727 had been harmed, Zdanovich said, although it remained unclear how many people were aboard. Russian news reports said there were 131 passengers and nine crew before the release in Moscow, but other sources said there were as many as 160 aboard. The passengers included 20 women and 23 or 24 children, said Zdanovich. All the passengers re leased in Moscow were male. An emergency official in Kazakstan said there were 20 hijackers, but three passengers who were released in Kazakstan said eight to 10 hijackers were aboard. The identity of the hijackers remained unclear. A diplomat familiar with the negotiations in Moscow said the hijackers were seeking the release of a pris oner from the Afghan city of Kandahar. Afghan media speculated that the hijackers want ed the release of opposition figure Ismail Khan, a former regional governor who has been held since 1997 by Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban movement. But a spokesman for the alliance fighting Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban militia denied that the Afghan opposition was responsible for the latest hi jacking. “We condemn any act of terrorism,” the spokesman, identified only as Abdullah, said. Ten passengers were also released in Uzbekistan, the hijacked plane’s first stop, Abdullah said The hijacking comes six weeks after an eight day hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane ended peace fully in southern Afghanistan. The hijackers in that case freed their hostages after India released three pro-Kashmiri militants from jail. After being seized over Af^ianistan Sunday morn ing, the Afghan plane was flown to Tashkent, Uzbek istan and then landed in the northern Kazak city of Aktyubinsk because of a leak in its right fuel tank, the Kazak spokesman said It was not immediately known whether the leak was fixed. The Afghan state-run airline is under interna tional sanctions and is not permitted to fly interna tional routes. Ariana has four aging Boeing 727 aircraft and five Russian-made Antonov aircraft. Maintenance conditions are considered extremely poor in the country, which is bankrupt and has been battered by more than 20 years of war. Hie Taliban, who rule 90 percent of Afghanistan, are fighting their north ern-based enemies on several fronts. The United Nations imposed sanctions against Afghanistan’s state-owned airline in November to punish the ruling Taliban movement for its refusal to extradite suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden, who has been living in Afghanistan for the past few years. r _ The Taliban say they won’t turn over bin Laden because Afghan culture and tradition make it im possible to hand over a guest to his enemies. » victory in Grozny BY Lyoma TURPALO V . associated Press w Gehki, Russia—Federal troops liave seized the last rebel stronghold in Grozny, acting President Vladimir Putin said Sunday, pronouncing an end to Rus sia’s months-long drive to take the Chechen capital Russian forces, meanwhile, tried to head off rebels heading south to their mountain strongholds, shelling villages where rebels had taken shelter. Russ ian planes and helicopter gunships blast ed militant positions in the \%deno and Argun gorges, key $ebel routes to ward the mountains. Putin said federal troops had tak en control of the western Zavodskoi distiictofthe capital and raised the Russ ian flag over an ackninistration building there. • ---I—I— — “A short while ago, the terrorists’ last bastion of resistance was seized,” Putin said in an interview with state controlled ORT television. “So, we can say the operation to liberate Grozny is over.” The claim could not be indepen dently confirmed, and Russian forces have previously claimed to control parts of the Chechen capital, only to be pushed back by rebel ambushes. It was unclear how many rebels re mained in Grozny, where they have tak en refuge in the shattered remains of buildings and moved freely through un derground pipes. ‘About 3,000 broke out of die capital last week, rebels said, and the military reported that small groups were still putting up stiff resis tance to Russian troops all week, in cluding Sunday. Hillary Rodham Clinton announces Senate run by Marc Humbert Associated Press Purchase, N.Y.—With the president beside her and 2,000 supporters chanti ng her name, Hillary Rodham Clinton formally launched her campaign Sunday to be U.S. senator from New York, a state she has lived in only a month. The race for the seat being vacated _ by fellow Democrat Daniel Patrick Moynihan is likely to pit Clinton against New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in what could be one of the most flam boyant political campaigns in memory. No other first lady has ever run for public office. “Iam honored today to announce my candidacy for the U.S. Senate from New York,” Clinton said as shouts of “Hillary! Hillary! ” rang through a university gym nasium not far from her new homein the suburbs north of New York City. “I may be new to the neighborhood, but I’m not new to your concerns,” she said, while President Clinton; her moth er, Dorothy; and daughter Chelsea sat beaming behind her. The president is said to be one of his wife’s top advisers as she resumes the career she put aside to help him cap ture the White House. Recalling a speech she made at her college commencement at Wellesley in 1969, Clinton said: “I often return to one thing I said back then, that politics is the art of making possible what appears to be impossible. I still believe that today. We can do what seems impossible if we have the vision the passion and the will to do it together.” Clinton described her commitment to better schools, better health care and gun control. But she also took pains to describe herself as a “new Democrat.” Clinton unveils $1.84 trillion farewell budget by Martin Crutsinger Associated Press Washington — President Clinton is sending Congress a $ 1.84 trillion farewell budget with burgeoning surpluses that the president proposes using to wipe out the government’s public debt, provide modest tax cuts and greatly expand government health care. Clinton’s final budget, for the 2001 fiscal year that begins in October, pro jects that the surpluses will total a gigantic $2.9 trillion over the next decade with $746 billion of that coming from non Social Security sources, according to bud get documents obtained by The Associ ated Press. Clinton’s baseline budget projections include a $ 179 billion surplus for the cur rent fiscal year, then dipping slightly to $171 billion in the 2001 budget, before beginning to rise and hitting $457 billion in fiscal 2010, the documents showed. But Clinton’s policy changes would actually increase the surplus for the year 2001 to $184 billion, mainly by push ing some spending into the current year to undo some budget gimmicks employed last year to appear to meet strict spend ing limits. “Our budget is trying to clean out the gimmicks from last year,” said Jack Lew, head of the president’s Office of Man agement and Budget. “Wfe’re on a course that’s a very positive direction for the budget and the economy.” Delivery of the budget to Capitol Hill on Monday will kick off a bruising bat tle that promises to be a replay of last year’s fight as Democrats and Republi cans put forward vastly different plans on how to use the surpluses. Both sides would use two-thirds of the surplus, the portion generated by So cial Security, to begin wiping out the $3.7 trillion of publicly owned debt within the $5.7 trillion national debt. Clinton’s new budget says this goal can be reached by 2013. But it is the other third of the surplus where big disagreements will occur with Republicans pushing for much larger tax cuts and less government spending that Clinton seeks. Neither side can even agree on the size of the non-Social Security surplus. The $746 billion surplus being project ed by Clinton is less than half the $1.9 trillion best-case figure the Congressional Budget Office projected last month. The difference is that the CBO as sumes less government spending than Clinton, who in his budget will formal ly propose loosening the tight spending limits that were enacted as part of the 1997 balanced budget agreement. Clinton would devote all of the $2.17 trillion surplus from Social Security to paying down debt plus almost half— $350 billion—of the $746 billion in non Social Security surpluses. Other parts of the non-Social Secu rity surplus would be used to expand health care coverage by $91 billion, pro vide prescription drug benefits through Medicare and supply a modest range of tax cuts. By expanding the spending lim its, Clinton would provide for increased spending for a host of government pro grams ranging from education to pro tecting the environment. Republicans in Congress have pledged to fight for more generous tax cuts and have attacked Clinton’s budget for propos ing billions of dollars in new government spending. Clinton’s budget will offer $351 billion in tax relief to low- and middle income taxpayers while proposing $96 billion in tax increases, including a re newed attack on closing corporate loop holes that Congress has rejected before. In addition to the $96 billion in the main group of tax increases, the admin istration will propose that the cigarette tax be boosted by 25 cents per pack and that tobacco companies be fined $3,000 for each teen smoker, measures that would raise an additional $66 billion for what the administration classified as “health policy” rather than tax increases. “If the president forces us to choose between his raising taxes or raid ing Social Security to fund his expansion of government, his budget is dead on ar rival,” said House Budget Committee Chairman John Kasich, R-Ohio. “A lame duck president should not be able to de rail us on the way toward retiring the na tional debt, tax relief and saving Social Security.” Republicans are putting together a ri val tax-cutting strategy that seeks to pass a variety of smaller targeted tax cut bills instead of the huge $792 billion tax cut package that Clinton vetoed last year. John Podesta, the president’s chief of staff, said on “Fox News Sunday” that the GOP strategy apparently was “just take the tax bill that the president vetoed last year, take the staples out of it and try to pass it one page at a time..:. It was a bad bill last year, and doing it that way is a bad thing this year.” While Clinton declared after the Re publicans took control of Congress in 1994 that the “era of big government is over,” his final budget, perhaps with a view to his legacy, pushes an activist agen da. It also provides a number of issues that Democrats are likely to campaign on in the fall, especially if Republican votes keep them from being enacted. ‘If the president forces us to choose between his raising taxes or raiding Social Security to fund his expansion of government, his budget is dead on arrival.' . Rep. John Kasich House Budget Committee chairman News Briefs ■ Cohen says tests confirm Russian ship carried Iraqi oil Washington (AP) — Tests confirm a Russian tanker seized by the U.S. Navy in the Persian Gulf was carrying Iraqi oil in violation of the U.N. economic em bargo, Defense Secretary William Cohen said Sunday. The Volga-Neft-147 was being taken to Muscat, the capital of Oman, and the ' Omani government will determine the fate of the merchant vessel and its crew, Cohen told reporters while flying back from Germany, where he attended a con ference on European security. Cohen also disclosed that an Iraqi naval officer was on board the ship when it was seized by U.S. Navy SEAL com mandoes. The tests were completed Sunday on samples of oil from the tanker that was seized Wednesday on suspicions it was carrying Iraqi oil. “They do reveal that the oil was from Iraq,” Cohen said. “But the government of Oman will make adetermination as to what they will do with the ship itself. That’s up to the Omanis at this point.” He said the Russians were informed of results of the tests but was unaware of any immediate response from Moscow. Asked what effect the development might have on U.S.-Russian ties, he said; “I don’t think it will have any impact on relations.” ■ Gore wins Delaware primary comfortably Wilmington, Del. (AP) — Vice Pres ident A1 Gore won the Delaware presi dential primary Saturday, outdistancing Bill Bradley in an election neglected by the Democratic campaigners, in voting that drew a turnout as spaise as the stakes. Gore won comfortably in a primary that was only a popularity contest, a state run straw poll. The vice president captured 57 per cent of the vote; the former senator from New Jersey, 40 percent. Gore, taking a day off in Washington, telephoned a union leader his thanks for the victory. “He said we took him over the top,” said Mike Begatto, executive director of the AFL-CIO Public Em ployees Council. “ A1 Gore and the Gore campaign ap preciate the support of the people of Delaware today,” said spokesman Chris Lehane. “Wfe hope to also earn that sup port caucus day.” ■ Bombing in North Ireland injures no one Belfast, Northern Ireland (AP) —Suspected Irish Republican Army dis sidents bombed a rural hotel Sunday — an attack that caused no reported injuries but gave Northern Ireland a bitter re minder of the days the province is strug gling to leave behind. It was the first such attack here since 1998. A caller claiming to be from the Con tinuity IRA, a small dissident group op posed to the IRA’s 1997 truce, told the BBC in Belfast that bombs had been left at two hotels in rural County Fer managh. Police evacuated both hotels shortly before a bomb, apparently inside a car, went off at the rear of Mahon’s Hotel in the village of Irvinestown. Police said they couldn’t find any suspicious devices at the other threatened hotel. * v?B| , ^ ^;i€:|pMs^flipi4|HViiMnplPfep^^R ro c $119 / Gets you: K *an eye exam & *2 six packs of disposable or *an eye exam & * 1 pair of daily wear lens< Corner of Gervais St. and Gadsden i Across from Jillians | 715 Gervais St. I 799-2020 / Dr. C, Earl Loftis Jr. Office hours: M-Th 9am-6pm ;s Fri. 9am-4pm f^AY GRADUATION FAIR I ORDER NOW AT THE RUSSELL HOUSE BOOKSTORE or \ [\ sim i The Balfour Co., 1609 Blossom St. IpBpglTilltJ [VililjN a for orders call: 254-5330 >}usc]