Herald and Review from Decatur, Illinois • Page 2

Nation ID A2 Decatur, Illinois Herald Review Monday, September 4, 1 995 mm Li Women's conference to begin after 2 days of protests BEIJING (AP) Its hopes for prestige undermined by a weekend of protests, China held a lavish ceremonial welcome Monday for a U.N. women's gathering amid complaints it is trying to keep private activists away. To the strains of China's national anthem, top Chinese leaders and conference delegates assembled in the cavernous Great Hall of the People, hours before the formal opening of the 181-nation conference. "Full and equal participation by women is indispensable to the fulfillment of the two major tasks facing the present world, namely peace and development," President Jiang Zemin, who is also Communist Party chief, told the gathering. According to the United Nations, 3,000 delegates from its member states have registered, along with 2,500 journalists.

The conference begins officially this afternoon. On Sunday, delegates from a parallel meeting of private groups taking place outside Beijing staged their biggest day of protests yet. The NGO Forum dropped its threat to send its 23,000 delegates home, even though China refused to loosen security that the women said was intended to harass and intimidate them. Complaints that China is trying to si There also were protests by Muslim women whose use of a movie theater was pre-empted and by women from South Asia shouting "Peace now!" The head of the U.N. meeting said Sunday it will have a double goal pushing for equality of the sexes by the 21st century and fighting to keep social gains made in the 20th.

"We must struggle to come out with a document for the advancement of women," said secretary-general Gertrude Mongella. "We must watch out for conservative or backward-looking elements which want to keep the woman in a place where she has always been." lence the activists and limit their contact with delegates to the U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women have overshadowed the official meeting. Tibetan independence activists said one of their members was shoved and chased from a meeting Sunday when she tried to hand out leaflets. Security guards also stopped a march by about 150 anti-nuclear activists.

Delegates also have complained of guards shadowing and photographing them and breaking up meetings. The Chinese did not interfere Sunday with Kuwaiti women demanding that Iraq free Persian Gulf War prisoners or Iraqis protesting the U.N. embargo. V-J Day: 50 Years Later jqjf '-p Associated Press GASSED: A woman sprayed with pepper gas by Sterling Heights, police during a clash Saturday at the Sterling Heights printing plant is helped by fellow pickets on strike against Detroit Newspapers, the agency that publishes the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press. Strikers claim victory STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich.

In a Labor Day weekend show of strength, some 3,000 striking Detroit newspaper workers and supporters blockaded a printing plant, delaying delivery trucks for more than 12 hours. Union leaders claimed a significant victory Sunday in the bitter strike that has dragged on for more than seven weeks. Management condemned the protest and rushed to deliver Sunday's combined editions of The Detroit News and Free Press. "This has to be considered a complete victory," said Al Derey, chairman of the Metropolitan Council of Newspaper Unions. Specter threatens agents GOP to find out how summer rhetoric played WASHINGTON (AP) After a summer recess spent preaching the necessity of putting Medicare on a lifesaving diet, Republicans begin facing hard choices this week about turning their promises into reality.

GOP lawmakers will report to House Speaker Newt Gingrich on how their sales pitch on the need to wring $270 billion in savings from Medicare went over with seniors at home. Then the Republicans will get a look in private at options drafted by staff experts to reach their seven-year savings goal. Beneficiaries are ex WASHINGTON Sen. Ar-len Specter said Sunday he would consider using subpoenas to compel federal agents to appear before Senate hearings on their actions during a deadly standoff outside a white separatist's home in Idaho. Allegations of a coverup at the FBI hangs over hearings that open this week before a subcommittee chaired by Specter, who is running for the Republican pres VI 1 'v Specter Subpoenas? pected to shoulder a third of the cuts in higher premiums; the bulk of savings would come from squeezing providers and encouraging seniors to accept managed care.

"Most Americans believe the Medicare program faces serious financial problems," said Drew Altman, president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a non-profit health care philanthropy that has polled public attitudes. "It's not something the Republicans have to talk people into believing." Gail Wilensky, a former Bush administration official who took part in forums with GOP law W. afc. 3L, Associated Press PALM-TO-PALM: President Clinton, sporting a cap that reads shakes hands after viewing a parade in Honolulu's Waikiki Beach area. Clinton said the war showed that people will fight to reject repression and prejudice in favor of freedom.

Gingrich GOP House speaker will listen to ways to reform the ailing Medicare program when Republican lawmakers reconvene this week. idential nomination. Asked on CBS' "Face the Nation" if he would force federal agents to testify, Specter said: "I hope they'll come voluntarily but if they don't, they don't. They'll be subpoenaed." France denies nuclear test WELLINGTON, New Zealand The French army denied it ended its 3-year-old nuclear moratorium Monday, hours after a New Zealand ship cruising the South Pacific recorded sounds it said could have been nuclear blasts. The Tui, which is accompanying a protest flotilla off Mururoa Atoll, where France plans the tests, detected seven sounds about 3:46 a.m.

Monday New Zealand time (10:46 a.m. Sunday CDT), said Lt. Steve Gibson, spokesman for the Tui. The Australian Seismological Center said it detected no sign of nuclear testing. Labor to Jackson: Don't run 1 ma i WASHINGTON AFL-CIO President Thomas Donahue urged Jesse Jackson on Sunday not to challenge President Clinton in 1996, saying that a Jackson campaign would prove divisive.

John Sweeney, who is challenging Donahue for the leadership of the 13.3-million-memer labor federation, also indicated that a Jackson campaign would be unwelcome. "We would consider all the Buddhist and Hawaiian prayers and sang "Amazing Grace" and "America the Beautiful" on the hillside amphitheater lined by palm trees. More than 2,500 people attended the non-denominational services, held in steamy weather at the Waikiki Band Shell. On Sunday, he touched again on a theme he used throughout the weekend, saying, "Whatever differences that are among us, we have more in common." That point, he said, "better be the ultimate lesson we learn from the tragedy of World War II." Col. Harry Fukuhara, a Japanese immigrant in U.S.

Army intelligence during World War II, had two brothers in Japanese suicide units as the war drew to a close. Their mission never carried out targeted sites near Fukuhara's unit. The wrinkled war hero told a hushed crowed, "Thanks to a higher power, meeting my two brothers on the battlefield was avoided." Sen. Howell Heflin, a decorated World War II veteran, read from the Bible, then concluded: "The prayer of the veterans of World War II is there will never be a World War III." The service marked the end of several years of WWII observances. Former President Bush came to Pearl Harbor Dec.

7, 1991, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Japanese attack that brought the United States into the war. makers on both coasts, said attitudes have changed. "Before, the predominant attitude was, 'This is mine. I paid for it. You touch it and I'll tear your heart she said.

"Now, they accept the program will have to be changed. The real question is how much, how fast, what it will cost them and will they be able to keep choosing their own doctor?" Republican staffs of the House Ways and Means and Commerce committees have been toiling to prepare a list of options for GOP lawmakers to consider before Gingrich unveils his reform plan in mid-September. Similar work is under way at the Senate Finance Committee. The committees' deadline of Sept. 22 to produce a bill is virtually certain to slip.

Lobbyists say the battle could last until Christmas Eve. "There's just no consensus now in either the House or Senate on how to do this," said Frederick H. Graefe, a lawyer for health industry clients. The $178 billion Medicare program covers 33 million elderly and four million disabled Americans. Its hospital trust fund will be depleted by 2002.

Religious ceremony puts a finishing touch to commemoration of V-J Day. HONOLULU (AP) Paying a final tribute to America's aging warriors, President Clinton attended solemn religious services Sunday in a search for lessons of "the tragedy of World War II." In brief remarks capping V-J Day commemorations, Clinton said historians looking back centuries from now will say the war showed that people will reject repression and prejudice to fight for freedom. "I believe the lesson will be that people, when given a choice, will not choose to live under empire; that citizens, when given a choice, will not choose to live under dictators; that people, when given the opportunity to let the better angels of their natures rise to the top, will not embrace theories of political or racial or ethnic or religious superiority," he said. On a day filled with hymns and hallelujahs, Clinton spoke for less than five minutes allowing the poignant words of veterans to resonate. The president and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton parted after the services.

Clinton headed to California for a two-day trip. Mrs. Clinton left for China, where she will address an international women's conference. During the Sunday commemorative ceremony, participants delivered moving speeches, listened to MM i. Donahue Divisive U.N.

hands Serbs another deadline More air strikes are threatened if heavy weapons aren't removed candidates who are in the race for president, but we firmly believe that President Clinton has done a great job as president and deserves our support," Sweeney said on NBC's "Meet the Press." Hurricane nears Caribbean SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico Hurricane Luis gathered speed in the open Atlantic and headed Sunday for the Caribbean, where islanders boarded up windows, pulled boats onto shore and stocked up on supplies. Luis, with sustained winds of 140 mph, was 400 miles east of Puerto Rico and moving west at 14 mph. The National Weather Service said it could strike the Caribbean within two days. A hurricane watch was issued for Antigua, Barbuda, St. Kitts, Nevis and Montserrat.

Rafael Mojica, deputy director of the National Weather Service office in San Juan, said Puerto Rico and other islands in the northeastern Caribbean probably would be placed on hurricane watch today. Foster depressed, widow says NEW YORK Vincent Foster's widow investigated his death and is certain he committed suicide out of depression and Whitewater had nothing to do with it, she told The New Yorker. In her first interview since the White House deputy counsel died on July 20, 1993, Lisa Foster said, "I never thought he'd been murdered. The worst possible thing had happened, but it was like everything came together." From wire reports would bring an immediate NATO response. "The letter made clear to Gen.

Mladic what needs to be done," Gunness said. Mladic had earlier rejected similar demands, saying he would not negotiate until NATO stops its flights over Bosnia, and would stop attacking U.N. "safe areas" only when government forces stop attacking the Serbs from within the enclaves. But the U.N. demands are non-negotiable, Adm.

Leighton Smith, the commander of the NATO air campaign, said Sunday on NBC-TV's "Meet the Press." Richard Holbrooke, an assistant U.S. secretary of state, said in Geneva that airstrikes were suspended to give U.N. officials time to meet with Mladic. But because Mladic refused to meet their demands, he said, NATO was ready to resume bombing. IT INFOTOUCH: U.N.

waits on Serb withdrawal. Call 475-7000, Category 5078. SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) The United Nations reopened a crucial route into Sarajevo on Sunday and gave the Bosnian Serbs a deadline to remove heavy weapons and ease the capital's 40-month siege or face renewed NATO airstrikes. But the Serbs showed no signs of with- drawing, and Western leaders said the air-strikes could resume after 4 p.m. CDT today, when they will assess Serb compliance with their demands.

The United Nations also demanded that the Serbs halt all attacks on Sarajevo and three other U.N. "safe areas," reopen Sarajevo airport and restore complete freedom of movement for aid agencies and U.N. personnel. "Failure to meet these demands will immediately result in airstrikes," said U.N. spokesman Chris Gunness.

The demands were sent in a letter to Bosnian Serb military commander Gen. Ratko Mladic on Sunday. The letter also said any attacks on Sarajevo or the three other "safe areas" Tuzla, Gorazde and Bihac Associated Press RESTLESS SLUMBER: A Serb refugee sleeps Sunday in a crowded gymnasium at a refugee camp housing more than 750 Serbs at a United Nations base in Knin, Croatia. Thousands of Bosnian Serbs fled their homes when the Croatian army reclaimed areas of land occupied by Bosnian and Croatian Serb forces..