Voice of America, 99-09-14

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From: The Voice of America <gopher://gopher.voa.gov>

CONTENTS

[01] ROMANIA / GREECE MINISTER (S-ONLY) BY STEFAN BOS (BUDAPEST)

[02] ALBRIGHT/KOSOVO (S-ONLY) BY NICK SIMEONE (STATE DEPARTMENT)

[03] SERB MAYOR / CLEAN UP (L-ONLY) BY PHILIP SMUCKER (BELGRADE)

[04] YUGO / ENVIRONMENT (L-ONLY) BY LISA SCHLEIN (GENEVA)

[05] N-Y ECON WRAP (S&L) BY BRECK ARDERY (NEW YORK)

[06] TUESDAY'S EDITORIALS BY ANDREW GUTHRIE (WASHINGTON)

[01] ROMANIA / GREECE MINISTER (S-ONLY) BY STEFAN BOS (BUDAPEST)

INTRO: Greece's deputy foreign minister was killed late Tuesday after the plane he was traveling in suddenly lost altitude. As Stefan Bos reports from Budapest, the incident happened shortly before the plane was scheduled to land in the Romanian capital.

TEXT: The Greece Deputy Foreign Minister Yiannos Kranidiotis was on his way to the Romanian capital Bucharest for a meeting of Balkan countries, when the governmental plane suddenly lost altitude. Greek Officials confirmed late Tuesday that the French made Falcon executive jet he was traveling dropped from about seven-thousand-meters to about one- thousand-meters killing Mister Kranidiotis and five other passengers, including two journalists. The pilot was reported to be alive, and somehow managed to land the plane in Bucharest from where wounded survivors were rushed to hospitals. Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis said that the death of the Minister has shaken his country. Mr. Kranidiotis was one of the architects of a recently launched dialogue between Greece and Turkey aimed at improving relations between the arch rivals. (Signed)
NEB/SB/TVM-T/PT 14-Sep-1999 19:22 PM LOC (14-Sep-1999 2322 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America

[02] ALBRIGHT/KOSOVO (S-ONLY) BY NICK SIMEONE (STATE DEPARTMENT)

INTRO: Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is again warning Kosovo Albanians they must do more to end corruption and revenge attacks against minority Serbs. Correspondent Nick Simeone reports she spoke to a conference of Kosovar Albanian leaders (Tuesday) in Washington.

TEXT: Secretary Albright is widely considered to be the driving force behind NATO efforts to protect Kosovar Albanians from Serb aggression. But she warns revenge, corruption, and criminality will end up hurting Kosovo's cause in the eyes of the international community.

[03] SERB MAYOR / CLEAN UP (L-ONLY) BY PHILIP SMUCKER (BELGRADE)

INTRO: A Serbian mayor has appealed to NATO member states to help his country clean up an environmental mess left by the recent NATO bombing campaign. Mayor Srjan Mikovic says a clean up of some eight tons of mercury is urgently needed to avoid further health risks in Yugoslavia and to avoid permanent damage to the Danube river basin. Philip Smucker reports from the town of Pancevo near Belgrade.

TEXT: Mayor Srjan Mikovic says his town urgently needs the assistance of Western governments to help clean up the environmental damage left behind by NATO weapons. United Nations experts have called his town an "environmental hot spot." The experts concluded this week that Pancevo is in urgent need of help to clean up the Danube River basin. The city has a population of 85-thousand and is controlled by Serbia's opposition coalition. The United Nations team said that Pancevo was of special concern because of pollution of canals leading from petrol and chemical factories. Officials in the humanitarian relief organization, FOCUS, which is coordinating clean up efforts, have warned that delays could lead to irreversible mutations of plants and animals in the Danube basin. Mayor Srjan Mikovic asked Western nations to assist with a Greek and Russian-led project to clean up some eight tons of mercury and other toxic chemicals that seeped into the earth during the bombing campaign.

[04] YUGO / ENVIRONMENT (L-ONLY) BY LISA SCHLEIN (GENEVA)

INTRO: Toxic contamination is spreading throughout Yugoslavia as a result of the conflict in Kosovo. That's according to a new study conducted by the World Wide Fund for Nature, which examined the conflict's environmental impact. We have more from Lisa Schlein in Geneva.

TEXT: A team of six experts examined two of the facilities bombed in Yugoslavia, the Pancevo petrochemical complex and the Novi Sad oil refinery. It also tested the water of the Danube River. The team says it found significant amounts of toxic chemicals released from the facilities. It says samples taken from soil and water contained large quantities of mercury and other highly toxic substances, including dioxin. Philip Weller, who helped conduct the study, says these pollutants are threatening drinking supplies and natural resources in several countries in the area.

[05] N-Y ECON WRAP (S&L) BY BRECK ARDERY (NEW YORK)

INTRO: Stock prices in the United States were generally down today (Tuesday) on renewed interest rate concerns. VOA Business Correspondent Breck Ardery reports from New York.

TEXT: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 10- thousand-910, down 120 points, more than one percent. The Standard and Poor's 500 index closed at 13- hundred-36, down seven points. The NASDAQ index gained almost one percent, reflecting strength in many technology stocks. Both the stock and bond markets dropped in reaction to a government report showing U-S retail sales grew at almost double expectations last month. That renewed fears on Wall Street that the U-S central bank will again raise interest rates in an effort to head-off inflation.

[06] TUESDAY'S EDITORIALS BY ANDREW GUTHRIE (WASHINGTON)

INTRO: East Timor is back at the top of many U-S newspaper editorial pages this Tuesday, while the big domestic story drawing comment is yet another attempt in the House of Representatives to enact campaign finance reform. Other topics in the spotlight include: Signs of progress in relations with North Korea; inconsistency on terrorism; the danger of drug- resistant germs; a monster hurricane threatens Florida; and a new heroine on the tennis court. Now, here is __________ with a closer look and an excerpt or two in today's Editorial Digest.

TEXT: News that Indonesia's President B-J Habibie has agreed to an international force of United Nations peacekeepers to restore order on East Timor has received a lot of comment in today's U-S press. The Chicago Tribune says:

VOICE: This is no time to ease the pressure and it is certainly too early to contemplate resuming arms sales and international financial aid to Indonesia. /// OPT /// It was the loss of those that wrung from [President] Habibie his concessions. /// END OPT ///

TEXT: The Forth Worth [Texas] Star-Telegram justifies potential American military participation in a peacekeeping force, noting that, on occasion, the U-S must act where its direct national interest is not involved.

VOICE: Sometimes . moral imperatives come into play that transcend material and strategic considerations. The bloodletting in . East Timor raises that kind of challenge .

TEXT: Not so, says The Detroit Free Press, worrying:

VOICE: /// OPT /// The impulse for America to get involved in . East Timor is strong, but it should be tempered by the very real possibility of making matters worse. /// END OPT /// By rushing in without carefully considering the ramifications for . President B-J Habibie, the United States could destabilize the world's (most populous) country . /// OPT /// Before making further military or economic commitments . the United States must exhaust every diplomatic effort to persuade Indonesia to rein in its thugs and restore order. /// END OPT ///

TEXT: The Boston Globe agrees with criticism, found in other papers, of the United Nations:

VOICE: Indonesia's belated acceptance of . peacekeepers . illuminates the blunder U-N officials made last May, when they signed an agreement . for the . referendum on independence without insisting on a foreign security presence to prevent a foreseeable calamity.

TEXT: Lastly, The Washington Times says the peacekeepers first urgent task will be to avert starvation for the thousands of people hiding in the island's barren mountains.

TEXT: Domestically, the House of Representatives votes today on the Shays-Meehan campaign finance reform bill that hopes to limit so-called "soft money" campaign contributions to presidential and other candidates. Soft money, which is unregulated, is given for "institutional" support to the political parties, but is often illegally diverted to individual candidates. Ohio's Akron Beacon Journal says the bill would:

VOICE: . crack down on so-called issue ads that are really independent ads for candidates. Critics have raised constitutional concerns about infringing on free speech. True, too, is that these ads have been used to bend campaign rules, penalizing those candidates who play straight. . Now Congress should . [close] loopholes that further risk public confidence in political life. The effort begins today in the House.

TEXT: In Connecticut, home state of one of the bill's Republican sponsors, Christopher Shays, The Hartford Courant suggests:

VOICE: Nothing short of a soft-money ban qualifies as acceptable reform. But an end to soft-money gifts . should be only a starting point in cleaning up the filthy system of financing campaigns that has corroded politics and robbed it of the public's trust.

TEXT: Today's Washington Post, noting the latest agreement between North Korea and the West, suggests that the "evil" regime in Pyongyang is not at all irrational promoting its own best interests. The Post refers to North Korea's agreement not to test fire its new, long-range missile, in return for more aid from the U-S, Japan and South Korea. The New York Post, meanwhile, jumps on what it considers the hypocrisy of the Clinton administration for granting clemency and releasing several Puerto Rican terrorists Monday, while a spokesman made this comment.

VOICE: "Acts of terror in all their forms have no place in a democratic society," State Department spokesman James . Rubin said late yesterday morning, at about the same time that the FALN [Puerto Rican] terrorists set loose by President Clinton last week were getting acquainted with their new surroundings.

TEXT: Today's St. Petersburg [Florida] Times frets about the discovery of a deadly, drug-resistant germ, Staphylococcus aureus, in Minnesota and North Dakota that has left four children dead and 200 ill, and says:

VOICE: The discovery . should be setting off alarm bells in the scientific community. It is another warning that the world must stop abusing antibiotics.

TEXT: A massive hurricane named Floyd is threatening the southeastern United States as it churns across the Bahamas, drawing this comment from The Miami Herald:

VOICE: When you consider that some five million people in south Florida alone are supposed to be prepared for this tropical monster, the last two days were fairly orderly. At least we are paying attention: more of us prepare in advance.

TEXT: And, finally, plaudits for Serena Williams, winner of the U-S Open Tennis championship at Forest Hills, New York. She's the younger sister of another player, Venus Williams, as The Orlando Sentinel notes.

VOICE: Serena Williams struck a blow for younger siblings this past weekend, playing her way to the U-S Open women's singles championship.. Most fans thought that if a Williams were to win [it] it would be Serena's powerful bib sister, Venus. ///OPT /// In victory Serena Williams exuded maturity, good sportsmanship and good humor. ///END OPT /// . Little sisters everywhere must love it.

TEXT: On that note, we conclude this sampling of editorial comment from Tuesday's U-S press.
NEB/ANG/KL 14-Sep-1999 12:24 PM EDT (14-Sep-1999 1624 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America

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