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Show THE NATION U.S, DIGEST OWNERS OF BANK WITH TIE TO 1990 CLINTON GUBERNATORIAL CAMPAIGN INDICTED: Two bankers were indicted yesterday on charges they misused bank money in connection with political contributions to several campaigns including Bill Clinton's 1990 run for Arkansas governor. Herby Branscwn Jr., Robert Hill and Neal Ainley are accused of using bank funds to reimburse themselves, their relatives and bank employees for $13,216.70 in contributions made to political campaigns between May 1990 and November 1993. The indictment also alleges that Hill delivered $7,000 to Clinton a month after he won the election. PROSECUTOR: MENENDEZ BROTHERS MADE UP ABUSE STORY: Erik and Lyle Menendez invented the story that they were sexually abused by their parents as a clever defense that could not be challenged, a prosecutor said yesterday in closing arguments at their murder trial. "There was no reliable evidence in this case that the defendants were ever sexually abused by their parents. There were no eyewitnesses. There is no David Conn corroborating medical evidence," Deputy District Attorney David Conn told jurors as the brothers' second murder trial headed toward a close. The entire defense, Conn argued, was "a 100 percent fabrication." G.M. TO MERGE PONTIAC, G.M.C. DIVISIONS: General Motors Corp. said yesterday it is combining its Pontiac and GMC marketing divisions as part of a plan to streamline its dealer network and sharpen the images of its car and truck brands. "When Pontiac and GMC are together, they generally are more effective than when they are separate," Ronald L. Zarrella, GM vice president and group executive for North American sales, said at a news conference. New Hampshire shears-GOP field of a front-runner CONCORD, N.H. (AP)- New Hampshire's indecisive vote leaves the ra Republicans a field without a frontc.: runner. Instead, it sends three candidates . to struggle on - a toughened Pat § Buchanan tackling the GOP 8 establishment, a hobbled Sen. Bob Dole, ~ and Lamar Alexander, who says he's the !i! real alternative. 1-Both Dole and Alexander said it was a Presidential hopeful Pat Buchanan raises his arms two-man race now, each claiming it at his election headquarters after winning the New would be him versus the conservative Hampshire primary late last night, in Manchester, Buchanan. N. H. At left is his wife Shelley. But unless Dole, toppled from his longtime lead, can revive his campaign with the candidate they doubt.could beat President convincing wins in the contests just ahead, Clinton; most New Hampshire voters Republican leaders may well be in the market interviewed outside the polls said they thought for another option to stop Buchanan. Buchanan would be a losing nominee, even Alexander came close enough to validate his while he was winning their primary. claim to be the real alternative to Dole. Dole's allies insisted he could withstand the Not since Barry Goldwater, one of Buchanan's New Hampshire results - even though he'd early political heroes, 32 years ago, has a said all along he could win the first primary Republican lost the New Hampshire primary state - on the strength of a national and then won the nomination. Goldwater was a organization his rivals could not match. More landslide loser that fall. money, more endorsements, all the trappings of Claiming a tremendous victory, Buchanan the longtime leader. told supporters that "all the forces of the old But that will fray if he keeps stumbling in the order are rising'' against him, that they will try crowded crop of GOP primaries just ahead. to find a consensus candidate to deny him the Alexander needed a convincing run to nomination. establish his credibility as a front-rank His fiery style and hard-right lines make him contender, and he got it. g THE WORLD WORLD .DIGEST MIR PASSES 10-YEAR MARK IN SPACE: The world's only operational space station glided into its second decade in orbit yesterday, its journey now at 1.5 billion miles and counting. Proud Russian officials said there's life - and a few thousand orbits - left in the old Mir yet. Space officials ticked off the Mir's accomplishments at a news conference touting its IO-year anniversary in orbit: 57,157 revolutions; 56 space visitors; 78 spacecraft received; 30 experiments a month; several endurance records for cosmonauts. The decade mark was reached at 12:29 a.m. Moscow time yesterday. Some experts think the Mir won't make it to the year 2000, saying it was only supposed to last until the early 1990s. TEST LAUNCH OF NEW MISSILE IN ISRAEL A SUCCESS, DEFENSE MINISTRY SAYS: Israel conducted a test launch yesterday of a U.S.-financed missile intended to knock down incoming rockets. The Arrow 2 missile was launched westward into the sky off Israel's Mediterranean coast at 3:05 p.m. and was to destroy itself a minute after the successful launch. "The preliminary results of the test indicate that all systems of the missile operated well," said a Defense Ministry statement. A statement from Israel Aircraft Industries, which developed the missile, said it was "a festive day" for Israel. U.N. CHIEF CALLS OIL-FOR-FOOD TALKS POSITIVE STEP FORWARD: The United Nations chief considers oil-for-food talks with Iraq "a positive step forward" even though the negotiations ended without agreement, the U.N. spokesman said yesterday. Iraq's deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, also called the talks positive, and said the negotiations, which ended Monday in New York, will probably reswne next month. But Aziz stressed that many technical aspects must be worked out before a "satisfactory formula" is reached, according to the Iraqi News Agency, monitored in Nicosia. I Serbs order • evacuation SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) - Bosnian Serb leaders failed to unleash a mass flight of their people from Sarajevo yesterday, although a ~ line of cars, trucks, tractors and even :S horse-drawn carts carrying fearful Serbs ~ trickled out of the snowy capital. ~ Playing to Serbs' fears, the leaders prodded them to abandon their homes A Bosnian-Serb family locks the tailgate of a truck in areas that are to be handed over to loaded with possessions as they prepare to leave the the Muslim-led government. Serb-held Sara;evo suburb of Hadzici yesterday. Bosnian Serb television and radio repeatedly broadcast messages that in the capital. Serb authorities would provide buses, The U .S-brokered peace accord, which seeks food and fuel for those wishing to leave. to end 3 1/2 years of war, partitions the Roads into Serb-held districts of Sarajevo country into two entities - one Serb, the were clogged with empty buses and trucks struggling through heavy snow, apparently en other a Muslim-Croat federation. route to pick up Serbs and their belongings. In the northern Sarajevo suburb of Vogosca, But the organized exodus, perhaps hampered Serbs removeq piles of documents from the by the snow, never materialized. town hall yesterday and set them ablaze. Most Serb leaders vehemently oppose the Workers stripped the building of everything of value, down to doors and old chairs. provision in the Bosnia peace accord that reunites the country's symbolic heart, The move appeared designed to scare Sarajevo, under Bosnian government control by residents by underscoring an absence of Serb authority in the neighborhood, which is to be March 19. NATO plans to begin a gradual handed over to the government on Friday. transfer on Friday. Kris Janowski, a spokesman for the U.N . Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serbs' refugee agency, angrily accused Bosnian Serb political leader who has been indicted by an leaders of trying to trigger mass flight for their international war crimes tribunal, insists that Serbs cannot coexist with other ethnic groups own ends. ! |