Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • Page 1

fit ifeff0tfjp Established 1764, Daily Edition. Vol. CUV No. 10 Thursday, January 10, 19917 Sections 2 Copyright 1991, The Hartford Courant Co. Newsstand 50 prepare itor war i -t i Accord still seen as possible U.S., Iraq fail in peace talks News analysis out success, their first high-level" talks on the gulf crisis.

After 6 hours of discussions in a hotel conference room in Geneva, Secretary of State James A. Baker III and Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz agreed only that the deadly Please see Nations, Page AC By OWEN ULLMANN Knight-Ridder Newspapers WASHINGTON Not since the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 has a single event propelled the world to the brink of war as swiftly as the failed diplomatic talks between the United States and Iraq. By SUSAN BENNETT and MARTIN MERZER Knight-Ridder Newspapers GENEVA Preparations for armed conflict swept the Middle East as the United States and Iraq moved closer to war Wednesday when high-level diplomatic talks failed to resolve any aspect of the 5-month-old Persian Gulf crisis. U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar said Wednesday he will go Baghdad to meet Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in a last-minute peace mission before the deadline Tuesday for Iraq to leave Kuwait The United Nations chief made his announcement hours after Iraq and the United States ended, with But even as fears heightened Wednesday that war is inevitable, faint hopes were being raised that there still is time for the Persian Gulf crisis to end as the missile crisis did: at the last minute, and without a shot fired.

"It's not too late" for a peaceful settlement, President Bush said. But he ruled out further efforts at direct diplomacy between the United States and Iraq. That leaves two other courses for war to be averted. Diplomats from other countries and the United Na- Please see Other, Page A7 Reuters Reuters Wednesday's key events Talks between Secretary of State James Baker and Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz end in a stalemate. U.N.

Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar says he will go toBaghdad on a last-minute peace mission. The Pentagon seeks authority to call up 1 million more reservists. Israeli and Jordanian troops gather on high alert on opposite sides of their tense border. tt We have prepared ourselves for the worst from the very beginning, 99 Iraqi Foraiga MWstar Tariq Aziz Iraq will be choosing a military confrontation which win have devastating consequences for Iraq, 99 Secretary of State Jmh A. Baker III Sacrifices Reeded, Weiclto says Ice gets blame for accidents Says solving fiscal crisis to be painful i By MICHELE JACKLIN Courant Political Writer Tough, if non-specific talk overshadowed the pageantry of Inauguration Day as Gov.

Lowell P. Weicker Jr. warned residents Wednesday that closing the state's huge budget gap will require pain-, ful sacrifices. Standing in a chilly downpour, Weicker, the state's first minor-foarty governor since the Civil War, took the oath of office on the north steps of the Capitol. He was sworn in by former U.S.

Supreme Court Justice Lewis Pow--ell. Shortly after, Weicker, i 59, delivered his first State: of the State Address to a joint session of the General Assembly. "Let the? message of this day be simple and bold: No Inside Inaugural ceremonies are a time for family, friends and farewells. Page A8 Text of Weicker's state of the state address. Page B13 By EDWIN SALAZAR and RAY ROUTHIER Courant Staff Writers For a small storm, Wednesday's mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain caused some big problems.

Although the snow amounted to only 1 to 3 inches, the sleet and rain left a coating of ice that was blamed for scores of accidents, including one in West Hartford that killed a teenager and one in Farmington that knocked out power to 1,073 customers in the area. It also gave thousands' of schoolchildren a day off and made getting around difficult "The storm was relatively small," said Mel Goldstein, director of the weather center at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury. "It was more of a nuisance than a major storm." The storm began around midnight Tuesday and dusted the Hartford area with an inch of snow by mid-morning. Goldstein said the area hardest hit was northwestern Connecticut, where a snowfall of 2 to 3 inches combined with icy roads to close most schools. Temperatures ranged from 18 to Please see Storm, Page A7 Regulator has regrets in BNE case By DAVID LIGHTMAN Washington Bureau Chief WASHINGTON The nation's top national bank regulator said Wednesday he wished he had "fired a few more shots" at Bank of New England Corp.

years before it collapsed. Pleas see related stories on Page CI. The comments of Robert L. Clarke, comptroller of the currency, came as Congress began a detailed autopsy of the $23 billion bank holding company seized by the government Sunday in the nation's third' largest bank failure. Members of both the House and Senate banking committees not only dissected what happened at BNE, but discussed what lessons there were for the future.

"I lived through one depression with bank runs, and I don't want to live through another," said Rep. Chalmers R-Ohio, a member of the House panel that plans a Please see Regulator, Page A10 Tony Baoewicz The Hartford Courant Former Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell congratulate Lowell P. Weicker Jr. Wednesday. Weicker's wife, Claudia, looks on.

Speech raises questions on budget more sacrifices postponed, no more decisions ducked, no more lowest-common-denominator solutions," Weicker told the packed House Chamber. Weicker's remarks, although straightforward and blunt, provided few clues to how he intends to resolve the state's growing budget crisis. The details of his budget-balancing plan will be laid out Feb. 20. "We don't have any further indication today than we did yesterday as to where we may be going.

He suggested, though, that the solution that will be brought in will be very hard," said Senate Majority Leader Cornelius O'Leary, D-Windsor Locks. Weicker, a lifelong Greenwich Republican elected as the candidate of A Connecticut Party, also urged lawmakers to set aside partisan allegiances and join him in a spirit of cooperation. "The inference from the election of 1990 is that partisanship and political partnership had best recede even further. People are sick of partisan games and want results not scorecards," he said, repeating a central theme of his campaign. Please see Inauguration, Page A8 By LARRY WILLIAMS Capitol Bureau Chief Gov.

Lowell P. Weicker first speech to the legislature was intended to be inspirational, but what it inspired most was speculation about what he will do about the budget crisis. "At best, we got some hints of what will happen in his speech in February," said House Majority Leader Robert F. Frankel, D-Strat-ford. The Feb.

20 message will be the governor's plan to solve a $2.2 billion budget gap projected in the next 18 months. That gap includes a $670 million deficit for the current fiscal year, and some legislators thought Weicker might announce measures Wednesday to deal with at least that part of the budget problem. Instead, Weicker managed to make the fiscal crisis a central theme of his speech without offering new insights into how he will solve it. "There were a lot of words," Frankel said. Please see First, Page A9 Shana Sureck The Hartford Courant The O'Neills and the Weicker stand outside the J.P.

Morgan Hotel in Hartford after lunch Wednesday as the band with the Governor's Foot Guard plays "The Star-Spangled Banner." Maj. Gen. John T. Gereski, adjutant general, far right, salutes during the song. Opinion Calendar Business Weather Inside Health Science tj lamenli Am Landers E4 Bridge C2 BMawee CI AlC.Ce Classified CORW k3 Nation, world Section A Previously unknown van Gogh painting turns up in Wisconsin home.

Page A2. Confrontation between Kremlin, Soviet republics deepens. Page A18. Bl Cuanectlcat El Editorial: 'Nothing short of total Page B12. Other opinions: Columnist George F.

Will says there is no credible threat to Iraq. PageB13. Connecticut Section Census may have missed thousands of Hartford residents, costing city millions of dollars in aid, officials say. PageBl. DA group of 25 bank employees wins $2.5 million in the lottery.

PageBl. Video releases of filmmakers' early efforts may shed light on their most recent movies. Page 13. Weekend's best bets include concerts by Maryfyn Muhey and the Hartford Pops. Page 12.

ES Section DA new study looks at the causes of insolvency among property-casualty insurers. Page CI. Financial markets swing wildly in trading keyed to talks on the Middle East crisis. Page CI. ..12 Editorials Section Genetic engineering raises ethical questions about tampering with nature.

Page El. Medics aboard the Mercy stage a grim dress rehearsal for war. Page El. Hopmcqp Partly cloudy Highs in the 30s Lows in the teens. Legal Nonces i Lottery A2 Obituaries Sports Television.

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