Show TODAY'S BRIEFING BY: Linda Young and Tom Baldwin A2 MORNING BRIEFING THURSDAY January THE WORLD'S GOOD NEWS GRABBING THE HEADLINES B Chechen Journalists Freed Strom Thurmonds bad cold cleared up and doctors in Columbia SC told him he could go home but Americas longest-servin- g senator decided to stay in the hospital and get some rest a spokesman says The old Republican was admitted to Eisenhower Medical Center at Fort Gordon Ga on Sunday with a mild respiratory infection He wants another 48 hours in the hospital Thurmond spokesman John DeCrosta said Wednesday He sounds great and he says hes doing fine Thurmond had complained of laryngitis and a bad cough He was first elected to the Senate in 1954 Seven Chechen journalists were freed unharmed in Dagestan on Wednesday a week after they were kidnapped while reporting on fighting between Chechen and Russian forces in southern Russia The release of the seven journalists all ethnic Chechens working for Russian and Western organizations followed talks between the abductors and authorities in the southern republic of Dagestan Russian news agencies said Authorities paid no ransom and granted no concessions the reports said A group calling itself the People's Volunteer Corps of Dagestan said it was responsible for the kidnappings The group said it would free the seven only in exchange for seven Dagestam police officers taken prisoner during recent clashes and believed to be held in neighboring Chechnya There was no indication Wednesday that the police officers had been released 95-ye- ar The Associated Press To Be Donor Father Diets A man d Representatives of civic groups ring a bell during a New Year celebration at the Boshin Tower in Seoul South Korea today A wrenching financial crisis overshadowed the celebration in the nation in Cleveland Ohio dropped more than of his weight in order to donate a kidney ear-olto his daughter Doctors say the transplant was a success Randy Learner of North East Pa learned about a year ago he could qualify as a donor for his daughter Megan only if he lost about 100 one-thir- 4-- d d pounds He lost 103 pounds and the transplant was performed Dec 12 Cleveland Clinic officials revealed Tuesday Megan who suffered from complications of kidney disease was sent home on Dec 18 SUMMARY OF TODAYS TOP STORIES THE AMERICAS ASIAOCEANIA A Break Today: Tax changes that kick in today including a credit will give many Americans a break as they plan household budgets retirement savings and invest$400-per-chil- d ments Details: AND THE BAD B -- A Baltimore clothing salesman is getting another chance to try to prove that Andrew Lloyd Webber stole a song in Phantom of the Opera from him Ray Repp who has written dozens of liturgical songs says the British composer plagiarized his song Till You to create The Phantom Song In 1994 a federal judge threw out Repps lawsuit against Lloyd Webber But on Tuesday a federal appeals court said the judge overstepped her bounds by deciding the matter before it went to a jury The appeals court agreed that there was little if any evidence that Lloyd Webber had access to Repps song which was among dozens Repp has written and put out on 11 albums But the court also cited evidence that the Phantom Song is strikingly similar to Till You RINGING IN NEW YEAR E3 1998 1 Weight Worries Is keeping down your weight a New-Year'- s resolution'1 Here's some incentive from the world of medicine One of the biggest studies ever to look at the effects of weight on longevity concludes that thinner is definitely better at almost all ages It found that being too heavy seems to shorten life expectancy up to about age 75 After that being big doesn't seem to make much difference "The weight associated with the lowest mortality was quite low even lower than I had hoped it would be said June Stevens of the University of North Carolina the principal author O Television Violence A football fan killed his son with a shotgun blast for standing m front of the TV during a college game police say James Shivers 00 was charged Tuesday with murdering his son Tony It s said Tracy Shivers 35 the victims brother 1 just can t fathom why he had to shoot him The two men shared an apartment where James Shivers was watching Monday's game between the University of Missouri and Colorado State when the younger man deliberately stood m front of the TV set police said Police said James Shivers fired a pistol at his son and missed The son grabbed tin gun and beat his father over the head with it breaking the weapon Then James Shivers allegedly got a shotgun and fired mind-numbin- Today's Highlights at: wwwsltribcom Tnb-Tal- Head-bon- Chinas Role: World citizen China or world threat China? At the conclusion of a year marked by milestone events the death of a powerful leader the repatriation of Hong Kong a crucial Communist Party meeting and a historic summit in the United States some diplomats and scholars contend that China is showing signs of a new maturity and engagement in world affairs Details: E-- l EUROPEAFRICA Recounting Sheep: The US Army had proof for years that a nerve gas agent VX was found in western Utah where 6000 sheep died in 1968 according to a report obtained by The Tribune Details: A-- l A Year of Weather By the num1997 was your ordinary year bers e wet but not too wet cold but not too cold and so on It was also a year of weather tragedies Details: B-- l weather-wis- Bill in A Look Back: As a new millennium draws near most Americans look back on the 20th century as a time of progress but we are not so kind to the leading figures of the past 100 years Details: A-- 5 IRA Tunnel Found: The Irish Republican Army dug a tunnel for months at the Maze prison in Belfast and got caught only when a guard fell into the hole Details: A-- Millennium Profits: Two years from now the year 2000 will belong even to the penniless beggar Meanwhile there is money to be made So let the Clues in Diana Case: Four months after the crash that killed Princess Diana a new police report on Wednesday appeared to provide more clues about the mystery car possibly involved in the Paris accident Details: A-- l 7 prophets and scholars debate about what the millennium will mean This era already obsessed with consumption and numbers seems destined to dissolve in a welter of televised spectacles and official sponsors Details: A-5 Optimistic Outlook: Stocks are up and down Consumer confidence surges but holiday sales are tepid Murder's down but the news is full of crime Americans take in these mixed signals and most come away optimistic about the new year Details: E-- 2 9 Kenyan Vote: Early results from Kenya's presidential election indicated Wednesday that President Daniel arap Moi the authoritarian leader in power since 1978 is headed to victory in a vote fraught with confusion and irregularities Details: 7 A-1- SPORTS Dow Slips Into 1998: Blue-chishares faltered as 1997 drew to a close but most stocks rose on Wednesday m an uneventful conclusion to a bittersweet year on Wall Street The Dow Jones industrial average slipped over the final hour and fell 772 to 7908 25 trimming 1997's gain to 145998 points or 22 6 percent p B-- 5 Years Winners: While according The Index Utah publicly held companies were not able to keep up with the Dow Jones they did increase in value by just under 21 percent for another respectable financial finish for the year Details: B-Tnbune-Bloomber- g Letter carrier Jay so hopping mad at mail Mail: Atkinson is thieves and mailbox vandals he asked his legislator to propose a bill making those crimes felonies under Utah law The actions now are only punishable under federal law Details: B-- l Troopers Troubles: Icy roads in the state have been treacherous not only for motorists but also for Utah Highway Patrol troopers A delivery van slid out of control in Parleys Canyon narrowly missing two troopers helping a stranded motorist damaging their patrol cars Details: B-- l Grabbing Gobblers: Brady Jones age 10 spent most of New Years Eve day trapping wild turkeys in Diamond Fork Canyon east of Spanish Fork The birds will be transplanted to areas in Juab and Wasatch counties Details: B-- DAYBREAK ana- g BUSINESS the 2 A Tough Call: Figure-skatinlyst Dick Button describes the 4 wwwsltribcom Today's Click Here features give you more information on new federal tax law changes and 1997 the year m weather Visit wwwsltribcom newest addition to Utah OnLine for a debate on a nen e agent found in Western Utah near 6 000 dead sheep in 1968 The Army has had proof for years Air your views Games kids S wwwsltribcom chat cartoons and more in the Zone Utah OnLine s new colorful fun and area for youngsters Take Groovy Gravy" on concert tour and w m big a wwwsltribcom Utahs Xo 1 website for delivery of news UTAH 4 to St l Hostages Freed: Riot troops stormed a prison in Sorocaba Brazil where inmates were holding hundreds of hostages Wednesday quickly endrebellion ing a three-da- y apparently without firing a shot Details: A-- Stocks: Utah OnLin A-- MILESTONES sports scoring system as convoluted and impossible to understand All those 5 8s and 59s do not add up easily The safe part of the 1998 figure-skatin- g forecast is predicting what will not All in all judghappen fashion-wis- e ing figure skaters is not easy Details: D-- l Long Drought: Tradition s one thing but when it comes to winning national championships Michigan Coach Lloyd Carr wants no part of it It's been a long time Carr said Fifty years to be exact That's the last time Michigan won a national title and today the Wolverines (11-0- ) have a chance to write their own history when they face No 8 Washington State (10-1- ) in the Rose BowL Details: D-- l d Millennium Bug: Will computers crash airplanes fall from the sky ATMs stop spitting out cash at the stroke of midnight when we enter the year 2000? Experts say they can't say for sure what will happen in all cases but they do make educated guesses Details: C--t OPINION A Civil Yean As Utahns mg in the New Year maybe they can wring out the whines and shouts that punctuated the old Utahns should call upon their heritage and usher in a new year of civility devoid of road rage and with a prevalence of patience Editorial: A-- Died: Bill Crouch who won a Pulitzer Prize for photography at The Oakland Tribune for his 1950 picture of a near collision between two aircraft he was 02 Died: Floyd Cramer who played piano on Elvis Presleys Heartbreak Hotel and popularized the distinctive slip note style on instrumental hits such as Last Date he was 64 Died: Simone Ovide the wife of former Haitian dictator Francois Papa Doc Duvalier she was 83 Died: Danilo Dolci a sociologist who organized Sicilian peasants in their fight against the Mafia for water rights of a heart attack he was 73 Todays Birthdays: Former Sen Barry Goldwater Author JD Salinger is 79 Jazz musician Milt Jackson is 75 n Don Novello is 55 is 89 Writer-comedia- ON THIS DATE In 1797 Albany became the capital of New York state replacing New York City In 1863 President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation declaring that slaves in rebel states were free In 1892 the Ellis Island Immigrant Station in New York formally opened In 1901 the Commonwealth of Australia was proclaimed In 1945 France was admitted to the United Nations In 1953 country singer Hank Williams Sr 29 died of a drug and alcohol overdose In 1958 treaties establishing the European Economic Community went into effect In 1959 Fidel Castro led Cuban revolutionaries to victory over Fulgencio Batista In 1979 the United States and China held celebrations in Washington and Beijing to mark the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries In 1984 the break-u- p of AT&T took place as the telecommunications giant was divested of its 22 Bell System companies under terms of an antitrust agreement In 1990 David Dinkins was sworn in as New York City's first black mayor In 1994 the North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect In 1988 President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev exchanged optimistic New Year's greetings expressing mutual hope they would reach an arms control treaty within six months yo January January is a month named after Janus - the Roman god of doorways aid gates Janus had two faces one for looking back and another for looking forward tt NON SEQUITUR u WoE CoMPte4loNfOE I if lK4 8 e 9 ft m o brain-team- L a dexirwery looking f to whee he came from and afesa seeing ahead to M where he's jpmg That Mounds lci Ike Ibe end of Jastj'esr and foe beginning of $ year You can almost imagine him in k Vll eljf jlalt Calff eribunr usps SUBSCRIPTION RATES CIRCULATION NUMBERS NEWSROOM NUMBERS ub-ds- Published dair Siodaj in the Kos-Tr-bui- e Corporaurai 143 South Mam St SaltUieCm U tali 84111 Periodicals postage paid at Salt LakeClT L tab POSTMASTER Send address changes to The Salt Luee Tribune a the above address 4irj 35 1871 and 3 oSt k THE HEW 1 f Bt Mail k period) DaJv Sunday fl'tah Ida Wvo DaJr Only (i'tah' Sunday Onl il'tahi Daily k Sunday lOutside of Region) i Carrier Delivery 114 00 IS 50 $12 00 $25 80 $$?$ Daly and Sunday $924 Sundays Only TTanksginng $7 00 Member Audi! 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