Wednesday, March 3, 1999

THE POST

Athens, Ohio * An Independent Daily Newspaper * Ohio University


Briefly

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Daniel Morel/AP
A student pleads with Haitian riot police as he is detained during a protest outside of his school in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Hundreds of students protested in the streets yesterday, demanding the government negotiate with their teachers who have been on strike for more than two months.

Yugoslov forces target ethnic Albanian refugees

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia - Yugoslav forces pounded southern villages with tank and mortar fire yesterday, targeting ethnic Albanian refugees camped in the hills along the border between Kosovo province and Macedonia.

In some of the heaviest fighting since U.S. peace talks were suspended last week, border attacks in recent days have driven about 5,000 people from their villages. Those with passports have fled into Macedonia.

Western observers fear the sporadic violence could explode into a resumption of full-fledged war before peace negotiators meet again on March 15.

About 2,000 people have been killed and 300,000 driven from their homes in a year of war for control of Kosovo, a southern province in the Serb republic that dominates Yugoslavia. The ethnic Albanian majority favors independence.

Getting Albanian negotiators to sign the agreement would give NATO a green light for air strikes against the Serbs.

Plane hijacked over Paris; hostages released

ROISSY, France - A former Italian police officer hijacked an Air France jetliner carrying 76 passengers yesterday and forced it to detour to a different Paris airport, where a dozen people were held hostage for three hours.

The hijacker, who originally had threatened to blow up the plane, turned himself over to police after releasing the final 12 people - seven crew members and five passengers.

All the other passengers had been released shortly after landing at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport, north of Paris.

Police said the hijacker belonged to an independence movement, but police Chief Bernard Boucault described his demands as "unclear and confused."

News reports in Italy said the hijacker, a 26-year-old, claimed to belong to an unknown movement called "Vitalunismo," which wants a more united Europe.

A special crisis unit and terrorist specialists negotiated with the man who they identified as Stefano Savorani, a former police officer from Bologna, Italy.

The plane, an Airbus A-320 traveling from Marseille in southern France, was due to land at Orly airport, south of Paris. But the hijacker insisted it head to Roissy-Charles de Gaulle, where it landed safely.

Rwandan rebels abduct eight foreign tourists

KAMPALA, Uganda - Rwandan rebels kidnapped and slaughtered eight foreign tourists, including two Americans, turning their gorilla-watching expedition into a forced march of terror and death deep in a rainforest, survivors and witnesses said yesterday.

The dead also included four Britons and two New Zealanders, according to diplomats. At least a half dozen other tourists survived the nightmarish rampage, which began with rebels systematically raiding campgrounds at a national park, killing rangers and rounding up foreigners.

Some of the victims were killed because they couldn't walk fast enough, he said. At least one woman victim appeared to have been sexually assaulted.

Buchanan announces his third White House bid

MANCHESTER, N.H. - Pat Buchanan, the pugnacious conservative whose campaigns hobbled Republican front-runners in 1992 and 1996, launched a third White House bid yesterday with a pledge to fight "a moral deficit that has become America's great enemy within."

Suggesting that the Clinton administration has contributed to "a polluted and poisoned" culture, Buchanan delivered a full-throated attack on the Democratic White House.

He promised to stand against unfettered imports, freewheeling immigration, abortion, euthanasia, a shrinking American sovereignty and, at times, his own party - all familiar themes of a Buchanan candidacy.

Though he has a history of exceeding their predictions, many GOP strategists and conservative activists believe Buchanan's third race won't be charmed. Working against him this time: a swelling field of like-minded candidates, a greater demand for money and a relatively late start.

Professor disputes Miami's thong-ban at campus pool

OXFORD - A Miami University teacher says the state school violated his rights when it forbid him to wear his thong bathing suit at the campus swimming pool.

G. Roger Davis sued university officials and the school's board of trustees Monday. He asked U.S. District Judge Herman Weber to order the university to let him wear the swimsuit and to pay him unspecified compensatory damages, plus attorney fees.

Davis, an associate professor of music at Miami, was joined in the lawsuit by the Naturist Action Committee Inc., of Oshkosh, Wis. The organization says its members promote acceptance of the body and "clothes-optional lifestyles."

Davis said he began wearing the thong in the fall of 1996 for his swimming workouts and the following October, Miami's administration presented him with a dress code banning the skimpy suit. The dress code has not been publicly posted or presented to anyone else, Davis said in his lawsuit.

House Education Committee passes speech bill

House bill 43, which calls for limiting the restriction of student expression at Ohio's public colleges and universities, is one step closer to becoming Ohio law after being passed through the House Education Committee at its Feb. 16 meeting.

The bill, introduced earlier this month by Rep. Bill Schuck, R-Columbus, would create an avenue for students to sue their university if they feel their right to free expression was violated.

At the Education Committee meeting, the bill passed 16 to 2 and has moved on to the House Rules Committee, where Schuck said he thinks the bill also will pass.

The bill stems from a concern that students are not able to express their views because of political correctness restrictions on Ohio college and university campuses, Schuck said.

Housing code petition to be presented to Auditor

A revised housing code could be put in the hands of voters if signatures for a referendum are verified by the Athens County Board of Elections.

Tom Ramage and Andrew Cooper, both Ohio University students, along with Scott Hooper, an OU assistant professor of neurobiology, will present the Auditor's Office with the collected signatures today at 3 p.m., followed by a press conference, Ramage said.

The three men are responsible for starting the referendum that would put the housing code on the November ballot. The revised housing code was passed 6-1 by Athens City Council February 1.

The signatures will be available for public inspection before they are sent to be verified against public records.

Two lanes on Route 32 reopen to traffic today

By noon today, state Route 32 in Jackson County will be reopened to traffic following a nearly 13-week project to excavate and fill abandoned underground mines beneath the roadway, according to a press release from the Ohio Department of Transportation.

The route will be reopened to traffic one lane in each direction. Eastbound motorists will be diverted into the eastbound passing lane. Westbound motorists will drive in the westbound passing land. Both driving lanes will be blocked off with construction barrels, according to the release.


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