Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Nation & World Opposition takes early lead in Peruvian elections by Monte Hayes The Associated Press Lima, Peru — In elections over shadowed by allegations of fraud, Pe ruvians voted Sunday on whether to give iron-handed President Alberto Fu jimori a controversial third five-year term. Fujimori, 61, popular for years for having crushed leftist insurgencies and ending economic chaos, was fighting for his political life against 54-year-old Alejandro Toledo, a U-S.-trained econ omist. Moments after the voting ended Sunday afternoon, an exit poll by the independent polling firm Apoyo gave Toledo 45.2 percent of the votes to Fu ^jmori’s 43.6 percent The rest of the vote was split between other candi dates. But the poll did not take into ac count isolated rural areas not accessi ble by road, where Fujimori is ex pected to be strong. If the numbers hold up it would mean a runoff will be necessary, since a candidate needs to obtain more than 50 percent of valid votes to win out right. Apoyo director Alfredo Torres said the exit poll figures were based on in terviews with 35,000 voters from 3,500 voting tables in 70 provinces around the country. There were more than 80,000 voting tables in all. Torres said the margin of error was 5 percentage points. Apoyo’s exit polls have proved high ly accurate in past elections. But Tor res said last week they would not in clude samples from the remote rural areas where 10 to 15 percent of the vot ers five. Toledo, who grew up in poverty, has capitalized on the country’s deep two-year recession and high unem ployment to cut into Fujimori’s sup port among the poor. “People don’t know much about him, but we know who we’re not sup porting. He is sure to be better than Fu jimori,” said Eduardo Vasquez, 24, one of Peru’s many unemployed, after vot ing at a school set amid shack-cov ered desert hills on Lima’s southern outskirts. But Fujimori still enjoys widespread support and had a lead of 6 to 7 per centage points in several public opin ion surveys going into the election. • Graduation 2000 • • A Celebration • - • for Students • !BEACH. I iPARTY.i HOUSES. • Beach Week • • Classic Cottages • l Myrtlebeach ; • tours* com Student Beachline • •1.800 7IU XAX7* — - w — I w ••••••••••••••••• | I *1 -i .1 ■ Ji J l1! n H M Cheaper than Tuition... more fun than Body Piercing ■ * Special Student Airfares Great Travel Products Adventure Holidays Beds on a Budget Travel Insurance * Eurail Passes Contiki Tours Student ID's ■ . m 800-777-0112 1 I I travel] WE’VE BEEN THERE. I I U.S. spokesman denies plans to remove airmen from Saudi Arabia by Abdullah Al S h i h r i The Associated Press Riyadh, Saudi Arabia — The chief Defense Department spokesman said Sun day night that no reduction of Ameri can airmen in Saudi Arabia is planned and that the Saudi defense minister wants to keep U.S. forces at their current level. Ken Bacon, who is accompanying Defense Secretary William Cohen on a tour of the Middle East, issued the state ment after a U.S. military official in Sau di Arabia, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said that the Americans planned to move some of their 4,000 airmen out of the kingdom. The military official said Cohen had discussed the logistics for such a move with U.S. commanders at the Prince Sul tan Air Base in the Saudi desert on Sun day. Bacon flatly denied that. “The U.S. is not moving some of its airmen out of Saudi Arabia and it has no plans to do so,” Bacon said in a statement telephoned to The Associated Press in Washington. “Secretary Cohen did not discuss the logistics of such a move with American commanders at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia today,” Bacon said. “Dur irtg his visit to the base, he addressed troops and had no discussions about future force levels.” Bacon also said: “Secretary Cohen did not discuss any plans to reduce force levels at Prince Sultan Air Base when he met with Saudi Defense Minis ter Prince Sultan tonight (Sunday night). “At that meeting, in fact, Prince Sul tan expressed a strong preference for maintaining U.S. air forces in Saudi Arabia at their current levels,” Bacon added. Saudi officials were not available for comment. There has been growing unease in the Saudi government about hosting U.S. troops nine years after the end of the Gulf War, when a U.S.-led coalition forced Iraq to abandon its occupation of Kuwait. The Iraqis had also lobbed missiles into Sau di Arabia and made short-lived forays at the Saudi border during the Gulf War. But Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other Gulf states have increasingly been criti cized by some of their own citizens and by other Muslim nations for hosting U.S. military bases. In addition to the 4,000 airmen, an other 1,000 U.S. troops are based in Sau di Arabia. Tens of thousands of U.S. troops were part of a multinational force that was gath ered in Saudi Arabia for the 1991 Gulf War. Some U.S. troops were left behind after the war to keep the pressure on Iraq, but since 1996 Saudi authorities have re fused permission to allow their territo ry to be used for attacks on Iraq. In 1996, then U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry said the United States in tended to move between 3,000 and 4,000 troops stationed in Saudi Arabia for mon itoring the “no-fly zone” over Iraq. But it was never publicly announced whether such a movement actually took place. Cohen met with King Fabd and Prince Sultan, the defense minister, in the Red Sea port city of Jiddah on Sunday after visiting the U.S. troops. Cohen and Sul tan discussed a $504 million deal for . the sale of more than 12 F-15 fighters to Saudi Arabia to replace older ones, a Western diplomatic source said, speak ing on condition of anonymity. * Riyadh’s discomfort about its close ties with Washington started after a June 1996 bomb attack on a U.S. military bar racks in eastern Saudi Arabia killed 19 American servicemen. Anti-American Muslim extremists are believed to have been behind the attack. During his meeting with the Saudi of ficials, Cohen also talked about cooper ation on a defense system that would en sure preparedness against attacks with weapons of mass destruction, the Wfest em diplomatic source said. The proposed defense initiative would include an early warning system to link Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other nations to sophisticated U.S. intelligence satel lites that can spot a missile launch in stantly. No price tag on the system, known as the Cooperative Defense Initiative, has been discussed publicly, and acceptance of the deal among the Gulf states is un certain. Cohen’s tour also has taken him to Nigeria, Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and Kuwait. He is scheduled to leave Saudi Arabia for the United Arab Emirates on Monday. ■■prr#,^r—. | M pp i |gg| | . ■ jmmmm iwuM-fiiiHP) _! I * * t i! 11».«i liiLS ( Never pass up a great offenj lil WBEEKBSEP (1) Payment deferral not available in PA and limited in Ml and DC. Offer not available on lease contracts. 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