Newspaper Page Text
2A
DECEMBER 24, 1998
4
RepoßrT
REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
BY LOUIS OKAMBA -
ASSOCIATED PRESS Writer
BRAZZAVILLE, Republic of Congo
Sporadic gun battles rattled Brazzaville’s south
ern outskirts for a third straight day on Saturday,
and civilians were evacuated by government troops
who fought a rogue militia group with machine
gun and mortar fire.
Police director-general Jean Francois Ndenguec
said the renegades had been forced out of Republic
of Congo’s capital into the southern countryside
bordering the former Zaire, now known as Congo.
“We have finished the war in the capital and we
expect to finish it very soon elsewhere,” Ndenguec
told The Associated Press.
Neighborhoods on Brazzaville’s south side were
largely abandoned and army officers said they
would treat any people remaining in violence
flashpoints as “enemies.”
At least 100 renegade soldiers and 10 govern
ment troops were killed since the fighting began on
Wednesday, Ndenguec said. He did not know
whether civilians had been caught in the crossfire
and his estimates could not be independently con
firmed.
Scattered machine gun and mortar fire could be
heard early Saturday morning in the Bacongo
suburb on the southern fringe of Brazzaville and
later in Madibou, a town about 10 miles south of
the capital. The exact origin of the gunfire was
unclear.
More than 10,000 people are believed to have
fled the Central African country. Fighting be
tween the outlawed “Ninja” militia of former Prime
Minister Bernard Kolelas began Wednesday night
and has continued sporadically ever since.
Although earlier in the week many people pan
icked in downtown Brazzaville, believing the Ninjas
had launched an all-out attack, by Saturday shops
re-opened and commuters returned to the streets.
Electricity remained off and working telephones
were scarce, although officials promised power
would be restored by Saturday night. ;
from page one
the drugs, a “generalized ooze”
from her abdominal wall.
“It was something not antici
pated,” Kirshon said, but her con
dition was “stabilizing.”
“Mom is a remarkable woman,”
Kirshon said. “She would go to
any lengths to prolong this preg
nancy.”
Mrs. Chukwu had been taking
fertility drugs. She conceived trip
lets last year but lost them mid
way through her pregnancy. The
couple has no other children.
Until the first child was born
naturally on Dec. 8, doctors were
unsure how many fetuses Mrs.
Chukwu was carrying because her
uterus was so crowded, Kirshon
said.
Giving birth to the first baby
probably bought the other seven
valuable time to mature. The
littlest of the seven born Sunday
might not have survived much
longer in the womb, he said.
Mrs. Chukwu entered the hos
pital in early October and was
confined to bed for six weeks. For
the past 2 1/2 weeks, her bed was
inclined with her head toward the
floor in order to keep pressure off
her lower body.
Mrs. Chukwu also was fed in
travenously latein the pregnancy.
“She was willing to forgo eating to
allow extra room for the babies to
grow,” Kirshon said.
Doctors had discussed with her
the possibility of aborting one or
more fetuses to help the others’
chances for survival, but Mrs.
Chukwu declined.
“The human being was meant to
haveonebaby,” Kirshon said. “When
you get up to these high-order mul
tiple pregnancies, the uterus gets so
large, it’s so unusual to be able to
keep a pregnancy to the point where
you deliver and the babies are able to
st Culadons ek o
According to
was nine babies in Sydney, Austra
lia, in 1971. All the children died.
Three other cases of octuplets
have been recorded in the past 13
years. In two cases, all the babies
died.
AUGUSTA FOCUS
American Peace Corps
worker slain in Gabon
®Karen Phillips, 37,!was the
first Peace Corps worker to be
killed in the o ization’s 31-
year hictory in the lush, oil
rich country.
LIBREVILLE, Gabon
(AP) U.S. diplomats and aid workers in
Gabon attended a merorial service Satur
day in the capital to mourn a slain Peace
Corps worker.
Karen Phillips, who worked as a
fundraiser for the CARE relief organiza
tion in Atlanta for five years before joining
the Peace Corps, is the first volunteer to be
slain in the Central African country.
She was raped and stabbed to death
Thursday in the northwest part of Gabon.
Ms. Phillips, 37, was discovered in the
forest about 200 yards from her home in
the logging town of Oyem, a police spokes
man said on condition of anonymity. Oyem
isabout 190 miles northwest of the capital.
Three people were arrested Friday in
connection with her death. Their identi
ties had not been released, and it was
unclear if they knew the victim.
Ms. Phillips, a former charity worker in
Philadelphia, arrived in Gabon in June on
a two-year assignment as a volunteer ag-
Angolan rebels move to crack
federal hold on provincial town
LUANDA, Angola
(AP) Rebel forces eased their offensive on
a strategic central Angolan city and report
edly moved south Sunday, hoping to crack
the government’s hold on another provin
cial town.
UNITA rebels were heading from Kuito to
Chitembo, about 400 miles southeast of
Luanda, the capital of this southwest Afri
can nation. The rebels may be planning an
attempt to seize Chitembo, the last town in
central Bie province under clear govern
ment control, state radio RNA reported.
The strategic city of Kuito, 80 miles north
of Chitembo, has been the target of fierce
battles since fightingbetween UNITA rebels
and government forces flared up again ear
lier this month.
Kuito was quiet Sunday, according to
RNA radio. ;
% y . a 7 o
Don’t Pay Too Much
For Car Insurance!
Premiums vary greatly between companies, so before you buy or
renew your car insurance, be sure to get prices from at least two
other sources.
Phone Quotes are FREE - Call Us Soon!
i@ I "4V ).
& :g ! >
- “For Really & Truly Affordable Insurance”
#1
790-4381
3084 Deans Bridge Rd.
Across from
Wendy’s
#4
736-1006
2022 Gordon Hwy.
Across from
Bob Richards Chevrolet
TODAY!
#2
722-9444
453 Broad St.
Old Town Plaza
Across from Augusta Hotel
#5
737-6060
3217 Wrightsboro Rd.
Across from
Pizza Hut
ture project management officer and
time English teacher, according to
Paulette Korazemo, who manages Peace
Corps cperations in this country of 1.2
on.
e are shocked and horrified to see
t someone who came to this country
to work for the people was killed by some
of the people,” Ms. Korazemo said.
It was the first killing in the Peace
Corpe’ 31-year history in the lush, oil
rich country.
re are several dozen Peace Corps
workers, and two remain in Oyem. The
P Corps has no immediate plans to
te its volunteers or take other
tective measures, Ms. Korazemosaid.
e are waiting for the result of the
police investigation,” she said. “There is
sadness and shock surely, but no one has
expressed the desire to leave.”
vernment officials and ordinary
Gabonese people “who knew Karen or
knew of her” have flooded the Peace
Corps office with expressions of sympa
thy and regret, she said.
' response has been overwhelm
ing. Gabonese people are as shocked as
fim,' Ms. Korazemo said.
Ms. Phillips is survived by her mother
and father in the Philadelphia area.
The army launched an attack in the
central highlands Dec. 4 to regain control
of the towns where UNITA’s leadership is
based, Andulo and Bailundo, 300 miles
southeast of Luanda.
But the rebels were able to secure their
strongholds and then counterattacked in
an offensive to seize two other key central
highland towns, Kuito and Malange, 200
miles east of Luanda.
Angola has been plagued by war since
before the country’s independence from
Portugal in 1975. The latest fighting
threatens to bury a 1994 peace accord that
sought to end a two-decade civil war be
tween the government and UNITA.
The fighting was initially halted by a 1991
peace deal, but that agreement collapsed a
year later after UNITA refused to accept its
defeat in the country’s first elections.
#3
560-0350
2603 Tobacco Rd.
Windsor Spring Rd.
Across from Video Whse.
#6
863-0060
3836 Washington Rd.
In front of
K-Mart Pharmacy
RHATIONAL o 2
Bl
g F -4".4 ”’.x;‘f& "
-’ R<. k b : » ’7‘: g i
e 7.‘7‘ ‘;""I/’;"'j: s"“ b ] P
P » § / ' s}, %‘ iy
O RP b Vot T ' .
SA 5 R
\“ e e / s
|
; a? : LY
: A
ANTI-AMERICAN : Some several thousand Sudanese
protesters burn American, British and Israeli flags during a
demonstration in Khartfoum, Sudan Monday, Dec. 21, 1998,
against U.S.-British airstrikes on Iraq. Presidential advisor
Abdul-Basit Sabdart addressed the crowd, saying that “by
striking Saddam Hussein, the western powers are targeting
islam.” (AP Photo/Raouf)
Clinton won’t resign
From page one
chiefof staff John Podesta said on
CNN'’s “Late Edition” Sunday.
Clinton’s defense will be led by
White House Counsel Charles F.
.C. Ruff, with political guidance
from people such as former Demo
cratic Senate Majority Leader
George Mitchell.
“Wehave been talkingtoa num
ber of different senators includ
ing Senator Mitchell to get advice
and counsel on how to deal with
the Senate,” Greg Craig, coordi
nator of the White House impeach
ment defense, said on “Fox News
Sunday.”
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah,
urged the current Senate leader
ship to take a quick head count
and determine whether there is
anything near the 67 votes re
quired to convict Clinton. On Sat
urday, the House of Representa
tives approved two articles of im
peachment, one charging the
,v &E :A ":.a 4 .l‘:')} 3 "»..:q ;.q_j,:-;. £\ a i
White House intern.
The matter was then referred
to the 100-member Senate. The
last time the Senate held such a
trial for the nation’s chief execu
tive, in 1868, it acquitted Presi
dent Andrew Johnson by a single
vote.
Hatch said on Meet the Press
that if there aren’t many more
than 55 votes against Clinton —
the number of Republicarns in the
Senate — “then there has to be
some consideration to what do
you do that is the best under the
circumstances to resolve this
matter and in the best interests of
the country.”
While that should include the
start of a trial, said Hatch, chair
man of the Senate Judiciary Com
R S
P
z/ & & : " s
AYON S \\\& o
%;f/' g
RSy
L%
;'% . \4& e OYSTER PERPETUAL
e A, LADY DATEJUST
vy ) CHNOMETE BTB T o
%» PRESSURE-PROOF TO 330 FEET /100 M.
_ ...
e ——
J EW%ERS
J v
C T:lll Frve : until 9 p.m.
N.Augusta: 738-7777 Monday — Saturday
Rolex, W, Oyster. Oyster Perpetual and Datejust are tracermarks
mittee, there are other options,
“where everybody could vote on -
this and vote their conscienceand '
it would be fair.” He refused to
offer details. .
Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., »
said the Senate was obligated to
hold a trial, but it could be tamed '
by taking testimony from some .
witnesses in private. .
“This will not be a spectacle,” he,
said. “It will not demean the Sen-,
ate.” &
Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-,
Conn., said he backed censure,
because a trial would “tie up three;
branches of government for the
next four months.” William,
Rehnquist, chief justice of the:
United States, would preside over :
a Senate trial presented by mem-,
bers of the House. -
“In many ways, the Senate’s on,
trial here in a way, too,” Dodd
said. “We're the court of last re-’
sort, of trying to restore some ci-’
vility here.” .
Leahy added: “The determina-;
i nmadg in the House,
L A
peachment, come hell or hi%h‘
water. I think that the Senate, wel
can restore political sanity in th
Senate.” . '}
Senate Majority Whip Do
Nickles, R-Okla., agreed but salg
a trial was not an optional mat
ter. »
“The Constitution says if you
receive these articles you'll have
a trial,” Nickles told Fox. “I think,
it can be done very quickly. (Sens
ate Majority Leader) Trent Lott
has said originally maybe three
days to three weeks. I think he
has it about right. I think it could
bedonein three weeksifthe White
House wanted to.” ;
Former Senate Majority Leader
Howard Baker, R-Tenn., also
warned against any abbreviated
action. .