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Show V M i fi RLE) A4 --4J- i THE DAILY HERALD (www.heraldextn.com) SUNDAY. JANUARY 16. 2000 Feared paramiiiteB'y leader sSioi, GLOBAL BRIEFING Chinese quakes Associated Press Writer Two earthquakes BEIJING (AP) BELGRADE, Yugoslavia Masked gunmen opened fire in a hotel lobby Saturday, killing a feared Serb paramilitary leader indicted by the U.N. war crimes tribunal for alleged atrocities in Bosnia struck southwest China 1 12 hours apart Saturday, killing at least four people, injuring 400 others and collapsing thousands of buildings, officials said. A quake hit Yao'an county in Yunnan province, about 900 miles west of Hong Kong, at 6:09 a.m. local time, sending people running from their homes. An even stronger aftershock with a magnitude of 6.5 struck 90 minutes later, according to a county seismologist who gave just his surname, Su. Four people were killed, 29 were seriously injured and 371 were slightly hurt, government seismologists and state-rutelevision said. The State Seismology Bureau in Beijing said 4,000 buildings collapsed, but state-rutelevision said up'to 10,000 buildings had fallen or were seriously damaged. and Croatia. Zeljko Raznatovic, better known as Arkan, was shot in the Belgrade Intercontinental Hotel and rushed to a hospital for emergency surgery, There was no word of arrests, suspects or a motive. Witnesses differed on the number of assailants. Some said that Arkan was shot by a group of masked attackers. Others spoke of one gunman. The independent Studio B television network reported two attackers. A in source the Intercontinental Hotel, who asked not to be named, said the gunmen escaped after at least one bullet hit Arkan in the eye while he was sitting in a sec- - police said. The official Tanjug news agency By MISHA SAVIC 4 kill later firmed con- that Arkan had died-an- that two others with him had been shot, including a bodyguard who was also killed in the attack. Other media reports said that his sister-in-lawas wounded. EiiflDed in Serbia part of the lobby. Arkan, 47, and his paramilitary forces have been accused of involvement in atrocities during Serbia's war with Croatia. Reputedly one of Serbia's wealthiest individuals, Arkan was a longtime ally of Yugoslav President began in March. His paramilitary forces also have been tioned-of- f Slobodan Milosevic. Arkan was indicted for war in in crimes Bosnia September 1997, but the indictment was kept under wraps until the NATO air campaign in the Balkans accused of involvement, 4in atrocities during the CroatUm war, which broke out in 1931. Arkan's forces sided with Serb rebels in both wars. :a Full details of the charges have not been released, jbOt former British DefenSe Minister George Robertslsrh said last year that Arkan wfts e indicted for the 1991 of 250 men taken from a hospital- in Vukovdr, ) Croatia. mag-sacr- - f(l n J n X'" rvnn mitim Pinochet's survival surprising '.0 LONDON (AP) The independ-en- t medical team examining Gen. Augustb Pinochet concluded he would die "long before" the expected 18 months needed to complete his extradition to Spain on torture '. ' i """"- i - ' ,- , , ,.. ' i :- - . , DlHKBS! :) t.-- vV Technology ma solve mystery of gap in tape By DEB RIECHMANN Associated Press Writer j. f The key conclusion in the confidential medical report was that the former dictator would hot live to ; stand trial in Spain, the newspaper said. ' if charges, The Sunday Telegraph reported. Last week, Home Secretary Jack Straw said he was inclined to stop extradition proceedings against Pinochet after four specialists unanimously found the general unfit to stand trial. Pinochet requires a pacemaker and has reportedly suffered from two mild strokes, diabetes, heart disease and InWMinnlrtH i . ALAN OIAZThe Associated Press Limelight: Elian Gonzalez, center, with "his cousin Marisleysis, left, and great uncle Lazaro Gonzalez, right, enjoys the clowns Barnum and Bailey Circus at the Miami Arena Saturday. at the Letterman upbeat in hospital NEW YORK (AP) Television David Letterman was cracking jokes in his hospital room Saturday as he recovered from emergency quintuple bypass surgery the ;day before. t "I feel fantastic. In addition to fun-nyma- - passes. Among the cards from were flowers from President Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton, who appeared on his show Wednesday. rs Death rate jumps in 2000 : Delays in U.S. heat up Cuban protests n Z well-wishe- The city's NEW YORK (AP) death rate jumped in the first week of January, suggesting to experts that some terminally ill patients held onto life just long enough to see the year 2000 arrive. The will to live can be pretty powerful," said Robert N. Butler, founder and president of the International Longevity Center. Preliminary numbers from New York's Department of Health show 1,791 people died in the city in the first week of 2000 - a 50.8 percent increase from the 1,187 deaths for the same period last year ands46 percent more than the 1,226 deaths in the first week of 1998, The New York ' Times reported Saturday. By ANITA SNOW Associated Prcsi Writer HAVANA frustrated "How long? How Jong do have to waitr shouted actor Julio Casanova, one among a group of speakers who addressed the crowd. He referred to the Miami relatives sheltering Elian as "the torturers of his innocence." While a march of tens of thousands of mothers on Friday appealed to familial sentiment, Saturday's gathering at the spot where Fidel Castro declared the socialist character of his government almost four decades ago was we . , . ; a strident political meeting. Because of the historical a significance of tjie site street corner in 'the heart of Havana's Vedado neighborhood because of the political nature of the gathering, many demonstrators had Cuban e, are rally was broadcast live on becoming increasingly impatient with the delays, which they say only increases the psychological suffering of a small boy who lost his mother at sea and is now separated from his father and grandparents in Cuba. Elian was found clinging to an inner tube Nov. 25 off the coast of Florida after his mother, stepfather, and others --- and thought the Cuban leader would attend. Ultimately Castro did not show. The gathering came one day after the deadline the U.S. and Immigration Naturalization Service had set for Elian to be returned to his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, who lives in Cuba. But last week, Attorney General Janet Reno lifted the deadline to give Elian's relatives in Miami a chance to fight in federal court to keep the boy with them in the United States. Elian's great-unclLazaro Gonzalez, says he can give the child a better life off the communist island. authorities , government television. The broadcast included b! ick and white film clips of the day Castro' stood on the same site in April 1961 and defined the Cuban revolution as socialist. During that same speech, Castro announced that invasion force was headed toward the island. The following day, troops launched the disdied in a failed attempt to astrous Bay of Pigs invasion. The angry political tone of reach U.S. shores. Cuba insists Elian was Saturday's rally seemed aimed "kidnapped" and is being at letting Washington know "held hostage" by enemies of that Cuba was getting fed up. Ricardo Alarcon, president Castro's communist government in Miami. Elian's Miami of the National Assembly and Castro's point man on U.Srelatives and the exile leaders who constantly" .Cuban relations, told The visit the family there are typ- Associated Press on Friday ically referred to here as that Cuban authorities are "criminals," "mafia members," frustrated by Reno's failure to set a new deadline and the "terrorists" and "wolves." Like most other such INS's failure to enforce its demonstrations, Saturday's decision. a U.S.-backe- d anti-Castr- o v ymav edipee to Eie vosilbSe a&rc&ss 4 die when plane hits house A SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) plane carrying 20 people crashed into a house in Costa Rica's capital Saturday, killing four people and injuring 15, including one person in the house, emergency officials Baid, e The plane had just taken off from Tobia Bolanos Airport in San Josq when it crashed at 1:10 p.m., Red Cross spokesman Guillermo " Arroyo said. LED 410 The plane,' a Czech-buil- t ' teased by Taxi Aero Centro ' Americano; was bound for the Tortuguero national park on the Atlantic Coast of northern Costa Rica. The plane carried 17 passengers and three crew members. Increasingly by Elian Gonzalez's extended stay in the United States, tens of thousands of protesters rallied to demand the child's return in the angriest gathering so far in six weeks of demonstrations. .... twin-engin- WASHINGTON National Archives is exploring whether new technolo could solve an enduring mystery of Watergate: What was said during the infamous 18 gap on one' 6f President Nixon's tapite recorded three days after thfe 12-minu- te ; rerouting the arteries, they also installed an Pass," Letterman, 52, said, joking about the commuter toll E-- OB BY PAUL RECER AP Science Writer ATLANTA The full moon is expected to turn brick red for more than hour Thursday in a lunar eclipse visible throughout the Americas. The celestial event, the first lunar ellipse since September 1996 that will be visible throughout the continental United States, kicks off a busy eclipse year in the nation. A second total lunar eclipse will be visible July 16 over the U.S. West Coast. And a partial solar eclipse will be visible over all of North America on Christmas Day, with about 60 percent of the sun briefly blotted out by the moon's shadow over Canada. The degree of eclipse will decrease south . , ward, and only about 5 percent of the will be eclipsed to viewers in Texas. sun Thursday night, the moon will be covered by the Earth's shadow starting at 11:05 p.m. EST; an eclipse phase known as totality. v "We expect this eclipse to" be very bright, with the moon probably glowing a bright brick red," said Bradley E. Schaefer, a Yale astronomer. He presented a talk on the eclipse Saturday at a meeting of the American Astronomical. Society. Totality begins at 10:01 p.m. when the Earth s central shadow, the umbra, takes its first nibble out of the moon. Over the next hour, the moon progresses deeper into the shadow until it is covered and assumes the reddish hue. The totality phase will last until 12:22 dJ.3. a.m., when the silvered moon emerges from the deep shadow. By 1:25 a.m., the moon will have moved completely out of the umbra and appear whole again. The full moon normally, glows from reflected sunlight. An eclipse occurs when the moon passes through the long shadow cast by the Earth. Normally, the moon's orbit carries it either above or below this shadow. Schaefer said the reddish color is caused by an effect of the Earth's atmosphere. As sunlight reflects around the edge of Earth, the atmosphere scatters blue light. Only' red light strikes the moon, giving it a crimson hue. Unlike solar eclipses, a lunar eclipse and requires no special is risk-freequipment to protect the eyes. e . "We ' "JJ break-in- are interested ' .rfi examining the possibility :bf retesting the 18 gap in the Watergate tapes'tfa ascertain whether or nit there is any recoverable conan internal versation," archives memo obtained by The Associated Press said. "All of us believe it is doubtful there is anything recoverabfe, but the last testing of t&e 'gap' occurred in the late 12-minu- , '70s." The memo was written Jan. 7 to schedule a meeting to review the idea and report back to John Carlin, archivist of the United States, on "whether or not it would be feasible and prudent to teJt again, and if so, how should proceed." As heard on the tapetife gap is a series of clicks, hissefs and buzzes. It is part of 'e recording made Jurie 1972, in the old Executive Office Building as Nixtfh chatted with his chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman. Public disclosure of tb?e erasure, late the following year, eroded Nixon's credibility at a time when his presidency was unraveling 0vfer the'June 17, 1972, break-iriP- t the Democratic Nation&l Committee headquarter&,r4h ' the Watergate. Nixon's secretary, Rdfte Mary Woods, testified thjft when a phone rang, she must have pushed the wrong button and left her foot oxTti pedal, accidentally recordin ? over part of the original cor versation. A panel of expert 3 set up in the 1970s by fedei al judge John Sirica, presided over the Watergat a criminal trials, conclude i that the erasures were dbf a in at least five and pe haps as many as nine separate and contiguous se; -- -- w-h-s -- ments. . , |