St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 13

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH NfflONW)RLD FRIDAY, AUGUST 9, 1991 13A briefs Italy Uses Gunfire To Control Refugees Upset By Moves To Deport Them, -w -a -mm WORLD Albanians Kiot In ootball Arena ft v. i 01 Jt C2 Yt I 4 Li Aquino Marcos he had asked for army reinforcements and that 250 soldiers would be on hand when police officers moved into the stadium in the morning. More than 10,000 hungry, exhausted Albanian refugees were on the rusting freighter Vlora that forced its way into Bari on Thursday. Hundreds jumped overboard and swam ashore, said Lt.

Francesco Pa-lumbo of the Bari port authority. "As the ship came into port, as many as a thousand people just threw themselves into the water," Palumbo said. He said a navy frigate, 10 cutters and two tugboats had blocked the harbor entrance. But the freighter ignored appeals to turn back and forced its way into port. The refugees on board the Vlora continued leaping into the water even after it moored.

Others crawled down ropes to the dock. On Thursday, Albania put its ports under military control, and train service remained halted for a second day to try to halt the exodus. On Wednesday, thousands of Albanians stormed the Albanian port of Durres, clambering aboard ships docked there to try to flee to Italy, 80 miles away. Albania's economy is in ruins following decades of harsh Stalinist rule and isolationist policies. Most consumer goods are unavailable in the Balkan nation of 3.2 million people, and many staples are scarce and rationed.

Compiled From News Services BARI, Italy Italian police opened fire Thursday night as thousands of Albanian refugees seeking to avoid deportation tried to break out of a former football stadium where they were being held under guard. Bari hospital workers said three refugees had been brought from the stadium with gunshot wounds. Two were in serious condition, with wounds to the chest and abdomen. The riot broke out as the Italian authorities began ferrying back the 10,000 refugees who had forced their way a few hours earlier into Bari, a southern Italian port, aboard a commandeered Albanian freighter. Security forces said they had fired into the air after the Albanians pelted them with rocks.

The refugees forced open the steel doors of the old stadium and advanced toward police lines before being driven back by baton charges. Ten policemen were taken to the hospital, some with head injuries. "We had to fire," an officer said. "They were going to kill us otherwise. You didn't see the look on their faces." But an ambulance driver said he had driven two of the wounded Albanians to the hospital and that they had been shot inside the stadium before the riot.

Police said other Albanians had fired on the two. A third injured Albanian was taken from the stadium after the clashes. Bari's acting civil governor said that Kf ti. 1 lit AP Thousands of Albanians jamming the dock Thursday at Bari, Italy, after arriving on the freighter Vlora. Hundreds jumped into the water and swam to shore before the ship could dock.

At Acceptance Of PLO Delegates At Talks ft ij. tion included members of the Palestine Liberation Organization or residents of Arab east Jerusalem. But Ben-Aharon denied a report published by the Post on Wednesday that Israel would boycott a conference if the PLO chose the Palestinian delegates. He said talks with the United States had not yet covered that subject, "and it would not be authoritative to say that Israel will not attend." An Israeli government official, briefing foreign reporters, said he also did not believe a PLO announcement would jeopardize the opening of the talks. "I don't think that such a step will be a reason for the conference not to open," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Palestinian representation is the main stumbling block to U.S. efforts to convene a Middle East peace conference in October. The PLO says no Palestinians will attend the conference without its consent and insists the Palestinian delegation must include a representative from east Jerusalem. Israelis and Palestinians both said that Palestinian leaders Faisal al-Husseini and Hanan Ashrawi, who met Secretary of State James A. Baker III when he was In the region, were in Tunis, Tunisia, for consultations with the PLO leadership.

Last week, Shamir's right-wing government gave qualified support to proposals for Arab-Israeli peace talks in October. Shamir calls the PLO "terrorist." And an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman said U.S.-Israeli talks in Jerusalem on a memorandum of understanding were going smoothly. The memorandum would form the basis of Israel's participation in the proposed peace talks. Israel Hints 1991, Reuters News Service JERUSALEM Israel said Thursday that it would not automatically boycott a Middle East peace conference if the PLO announced the names of Palestinian participants. The Jerusalem Post published the statement by Yossi Ben-Aharon, director-general of Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir's office.

It appeared to open a new possibility for the United States to seek PLO agreement to Arab-Israeli talks. Israel has said it would not take part in the conference if the Palestinian delega W. TOO Assorted 3 8-way hand-tied King Hickory occasional chairs. Reg. $701, SALE $299.

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Marcos. "When we are ready to receive the body, an announcement will be made," she said in a statement in Manila. Lawmakers had asked her to lift a ban on a Marcos funeral, to clear the way for national reconciliation. Aquino fears a Marcos funeral may incite violence. Reuters MADAGASCAR President Appoints New Prime Minister President Didier Ratsiraka appointed a new prime minister Thursday, 10 days after sacking his government amid strikes and opposition protests.

State radio said Ratsiraka had chosen Guy Willy Razana-masy, mayor of the capital city of Antananarivo, and asked him to form a new government. Reuters DOMINICAN REPUBLIC Ex-President Guilty In Corruption Case Former President Salvador Jorge Blanco was convicted Thursday of corruption charges and sentenced to 20 years in prison after a two-year trial. Jorge Blanco, 65, was president from 1982 to 1986. The trial which began in April 1989, frequently was interrupted by Jorge Blanco's bouts of illness. He was convicted Thursday in Santo Domingo of embezzling $5 million from the government by inflating the price of equipment it bought.

AP NATION BATTLESHIP IOWA Navy Is Preparing New Report On Blast The Navy said Thursday that it would release a new report in several weeks on the 1989 explosion aboard the battleship Iowa that killed 47 sailors. Sources say the study may not completely resolve the questions surrounding the blast. In its initial investigation, the Navy concluded the explosion probably had been an intentional act by gunner's mate Clayton Hartwig, whom it said was despondent over a failed relationship. But on Thursday, Navy officials said in Washington that scientists from the Sandia National Laboratories and Navy investigators had been unable to agree on several points in a new technical investigation. AP MAYORS CONFERENCE Meeting Is Sought With President Bush The nation's mayors demanded on Thursday a meeting with President George Bush to discuss urban issues and called for a march on the nation's capital next spring to protest against what they called the government's neglect of cities.

"It's time for mayors and the people of America to take to the streets," said Boston Mayor Raymond Flynn, president of the United States Conference of Mayors. About 30 top officers of the mayors group held more than four hours of closed talks Thursday in Hyannis, Mass. AP TEXAS The 'Robin Hood' Bill For Schools Is Upheld A Texas district judge has upheld the constitutionality of a public-school financing system that shifts money from wealthier districts to poorer ones to equalize funding statewide. The "Robin Hood" bill, which culminates a 23-year battle to equalize school funding, was hailed by Democratic Gov. Ann Richards and people in districts where property values are low, but others have vowed to challenge the plan.

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rNVv Off -VOX OJ measure before the Supreme Court. "It prepares us for the next leg of the race," said state Rep. Sam Theriot, the Democrat who wrote the bill. Duplantier said in his ruling that he personally agreed with Justice Byron White's dissent in Roe vs. Wade.

White held that the court was interfering with matters best left to the states. But Duplantier said he was bound by his oath of office to declare the measure unconstitutional under existing law. Shirley Pedler, head of the American Civil Liberties Union in Louisiana, said: "The only relevant ruling is the one coming down from the United States Supreme Court." Protest In Kansas In Wichita, the leader of an anti-abortion group left town Thursday with two other organizers but said blockades of clinics would resume. Operation Rescue, an anti-abortion group, has laid siege to two clinics over the past three weeks. Police and U.S.

marshals have made more than 1,900 arrests in enforcing a federal judge's order against blockades. Marshals remained outside Dr. George Tiller's clinic, where about 150 protesters gathered but did not block entrances. Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry returned to his hometown of BinghanMon, N.Y., on Wednesday. (M AP Complete 11-piece home office system by Heckman (West store only).

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Reg. $3731, SALE $1899. NEW ORLEANS (AP) Louisiana's attorney general formally began on Thursday the appeal process that he hopes will take the state's abortion law to the U.S. Supreme Court. U.S.

District Judge Adrian Duplan-tier struck down the law Wednesday, declaring that the Supreme Court's decision in Roe vs. Wade in 1973 recognizing the right to an abortion was "still the law of this land." Attorney General William Guste, an outspoken opponent of legal abortion, filed the appeal. He said the case record would be transmitted to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals next door to the district court by Friday. He said he would try to persuade the Supreme Court to take jurisdiction in the case bypassing the appeals court and hear the matter when its new term begins in the fall.

"We are saying that this is of such importance because it deals with the saving of lives of unborn children," Guste said in an interview outside the federal courthouse. The law had been scheduled to take effect next month. It would allow abortions only to save the life of the woman and in promptly reported cases of rape and incest. Doctors who perform illegal abortions could get up to 10 years in prison and a $100,000 fine. Women would not be penalized.

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