St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 1

3-MAY3H996 CLIFF REARING UP FOR CIRCUS FLORA BUSINESS Mac Union Sets Contract Vote ic REGION 1 Doughnut Landmarks Closing ib SPORTS Cards Ask Leading Question id ma inev Miees Of Justice SPAT 1 1 ii FRIDAY, MAY 31, 1996 (6) 3-STAR mw Leader In Israeli Vote Awaits Absentee Ballots To Seal Win Copyright 1996 Ml 1 US Compiled From News Services TEL AVIV, Israel Benjamin Netanyahu, who appeared to be near-ing victory in a breathtakingly close election, sought to calm a nervous world Thursday by pledging to honor the peace commitments made to Arabs by the man he would replace, Prime Minister Shimon Peres. Peres refused to concede defeat, apparently clinging to the unlikely hope that the last absentee ballots, many of them cast by soldiers, would save his premiership. With 99.9 percent of ballots counted, Netanyahu (net-an-YAH-hoo), the rightist Likud bloc's leader, was ahead by 21,399 votes 1,416,280 votes to 1,394,881, or 50.3 percent to 49.7 percent, the Central Election Commission said. The count of 154,000 absentee ballots will begin today. Most absentee voters are soldiers, who traditionally lean to the right.

In Gaza City, Palestinian officials expressed concern but said the Likud leader could not reverse the autonomy accords. "The situation is going to be a bit more complex, but we are not in a panic," said Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestinian legislative council elected in January. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was described as disappointed but VOL. 118, NO. 152 Health Agency Doctors Residency Rule Cuts Care In City By Carolyn Tuft 01 the Post-Dispatch Staff Enforcement of the city residency requirement has left the St.

Louis Health Department with only one doctor in the field. Five other physicians have left the city payroll in the last year. Last December, the Civil Service Commission canceled the doctors' waivers to the residency requirement. The commission gave the doctors who cared for school children, sexually transmitted disease patients and lead-poisoning victims until April 29 to move into the city. About 150 people a day use health department services.

The city is scrambling to hire five doctors. Two doctors retired last year about the time they were notified their waivers would not be renewed. The city fired two more; another was forced to retire in April. All five doctors had been granted' waivers when they were hired, which allowed them to live outside St. Louis.

Then the commission began cracking down on the residency requirement as stated in the city charter. Mayor Freeman Bosley Jr. has emphasized enforcement of the residency requirement. On Wednesday, a Missouri appellate court overturned the commission's firing of a municipal jail worker in 1992, the year before Bosley was elected. The court ruled that the See DOCTORS, Page 10 Losing I li nearing glum in a Chuck Berry Crowd sings along build enthusiasm for elec-elections are the first since split from Slovakia in 1993.

See BERRY, Page 12 -I 1 4 Peres refused to concede defeat. He hopes that the last absentee ballots, many of them by soldiers, would save his job. would not comment until the count was completed. President Bill Clinton took a similarly cautious approach Thursday, pledging that U.S. policy would remain constant.

"If Israel is prepared to take risks for peace, we are determined to do our best to reduce the risks and increase the security of those who do that," Clinton said. Netanyahu met with Likud leaders throughout the day, but aides said he would not begin efforts to form a government until the final vote tally was in. "Netanyahu is committed to the achievement of peace with security between Israel and its neighbors, including the Palestinians," Dore Gold, Netanyahu's policy adviser, said in a news conference. For many Israelis, the question was whether Netanyahu would make good on campaign promises that seem to conflict with the peace process. In particular, Netanyahu' has vowed to block formation of a Palestinian state which the Palestine Liberation Organization clearly expected to be the end-result of the 1993 peace accord that granted Palestinians limited autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza.

Netanyahu also has said he would build more Jewish settlements in the West Bank, refuse to negotiate any return of Jerusalem to the Arabs and See ISRAEL, Page 6 Peace still the objective, local Jewish leaders say 7A Netanyahu rose quickly to the top in Likud 7A i i ap: victory in Israel, acknowledges visit with supporters. ABOVE: Benjamin Netanyahu, who appeared to be cheers. RIGHT: Prime Minister Shimon Peres appears Czechs Kick Up 'Blue Suede Shoes' At Rally Featuring Chuck Berry out in the chilly evening Wednesday against the gray town hall and the bun-dled-up crowd. Berry was the featured performer after three Czech bands and lengthy pplitical sloganeering. The daylong rally in the country's second-largest city was sponsored by the Civic Democratic Alliance to tions today and Saturday.

The Jeffrey Brown Special to trie Post-Dispatch BRNO, Czech Republic What was rock 'n' roll legend Chuck Berry doing at a political rally for a pro-business party in the Czech Republic? "Roll Over Beethoven," for starters. Playing with a pick-up band of Czech musicians, the St. Louis-area bluesman followed with "Johnny B. Goode," "Down By the Bayou" and "My Ding-A-Ling." Neither the audience nor the band appeared to understand much of Berry's patter between songs. But the crowd at Dominican Square sang the lyrics with enthusiasm on the choruses.

Clad in bright red slacks and red satin shirt and playing his trademark red'Les Paul-model Gibson, Berry stood the Czech Republic INDEX Officials Pledge To Get Driver In Deaths Hit-and-run Accident Killed 3 Young Girls CRETE, 111. (AP) Investigators spent Thursday visiting repair shops, studying license' registrations and checking out tips in the hunt for the driver of a pickup that ran down and killed three sixth-grade girls. "We will find you," Will County Undersheriff Keith Kostelny declared as families prepared to bury the children who died on a narrow road Sunday night after sneaking away from a slumber party to see a boy. More than $8,500 has been posted in rewards by outraged residents of this community near the Indiana border, about 30 miles south of Chicago. But statewide statistics show that many drivers who flee accidents involving death or injury elude justice.

Illinois Department of Transportation figures showed 3,988 such accidents in the first half of last year, for an annual rate of about 8,000. But data from the Secretary of State's Office, which licenses drivers, showed an average of See DRIVER, Page 9 WEATHER Cloudy, Mild FORECAST Today Becoming mostly cloudy. High 78. Mostly cloudy tonight. Low 62.

Saturday Chance of storms. High 79. Other Weather, 8B EaceToGo POST-DISPATCH WEATHERBIRO ngP. jl PAT. OFF.

Business 1-8C Classified 1-34F Commentary 7B Everyday 1-1 OE Movie Timetable 9E NationWorld 3A News Analysis 5B Obituaries 4B Reviews 3.5-6E St. Louis IB Sports 1-8D Television 8E EDITORIAL PAGE Clinton Releases Papers On Firings In Travel Office; Lawmaker Exults WASHINGTON (AP) The House called off a contempt-of-Con-gress vote Thursday after President Bill Clinton's aides turned over 1,000 pages of papers and a long-sought list of documents in the travel office firings. The 11-page list of 2,000 pages of withheld documents refers four times to the president and Hillary Rodham Clinton and contains 34 references to the late Vincent Foster, primarily in the handling of papers from Foster's White House office after his suicide. Providing the list is "the beginning of a victory for the House," said Rep. See TRAVEL, Page 14 No Clear Mandate In Israel Clearner Air Ahead Maybe 6B Jason Noll (left), 13, and his brother, Mike, 14, visit the scene where three girls were hit and killed Sunday night by a driver on a rural road in Crete, III.

Jason was with the girls. 100 IN..