Indiana Gazette from Indiana, Pennsylvania • 13

TO! jlnbiaim (gatetlt Thursday, August40-agel 3 Criticism mounts Clinton's message to Africa mixed over sub country has survived a lot." "We will overcome it aU and restore it all, the military and the navy and the state," he said. The nation lowered flags to half staff and prayed in Orthodox churches Television interrupted some pro-gram niing, and Russia's most popular Web site, anekdot.ru, displayed an empty black screen throughout the day. Putin promised that the bodies would be recovered, and said the divers might air a hole in the ship or lift it to shallower waters. He said "I take a full sense of responsibility and sense of blame for this tragedy, he said in an interview with Russia's RTR television. Many observers expected Putin to respond by firing top brass as his predecessor.

Boris Yeltsin had often done. In a country where a history of authoritarianism runs deep; Putin's commentstdemonstrat'ed an unusual sensitivity 'to- public opinion and eagerness toiregain the nation's confidence. 'lt'-' Putin's interview came a day after he sat through a harrowing three-hour meeting with the sailors' families at the submarine's home base of VidyayevQ. "The conversation was very heartfelt. He admitted his guilt and inactivity, and he said the main thing is a lack of funds," said Oksana Dudko, whose husband Sergei was the ship's deputy commander.

Speaking firmly and somberly in the television interview, Putin defended his initial silence and the slow response to foreign offers of rescue help, saying the navy acted as quickly as it could given how little was known about the submarine's condition. He also promised to restore the honor of die beleaguered military and the nation. "It grieves me, the theory lately that together with the Kursk the honor of the navy also drowned, tlie honor of Russia," Putin said. "Our By JIM HEINTZ Associated Press Writer MOSCOW Grieving relatives of the sailors who died an a sunken nuclear submarine sailed out to sea Thursday to lay flowers on the cold gray waters where the ship went down after a shattering explosion. A boat carrying about 150 relatives headed out into the Barents Sea, bearing flowers including a wreath from President Vladimir Putin, news reports said.

Many relatives of the 118 dead sailors declined to join in a national day of mourning Wednesday, demanding that the bodies of their sons and husbands be retrieved from the sea floor first. Their bitter stance underlined widespread criticism of the government's slow and confused response to the Aug. 12 sinking of the Kursk. Much of the criticism centered on Putin, who remained on vacation during the first days of the crisis and made his first public statement four days after the Kursk sank. Putin on Wednesday said he felt responsible and guilty in the disaster.

Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev and navy chief Adm. Vladimir Kuroyedov submitted their resignations over the loss of the Kursk, one of Russia's most advanced submarines. Putin said he would not accept die offers. Seeking scapegoats, he said, would be "the most mistaken response." Free Hearing Test We Manufacture and Repair Most Hearing Aids in one to two days Money Back Guarantee (a lab fee applies on some orders) Payments as low as 543.00 per month 551 HETf PITTSBURGH PXRATES deaths talks were under way with Norwegian and Dutch divers. But Mikhail Kuznetsov, commander of the Vidyayevu submarine garrison, said the work couldn't begin until after next spring's thaw.

The Kremlin promised compensation to the families, who had relied on the sailors' meager salaries for subsistence. The federal government promised a one-time payment equal of an average of $7,000 per family equal to 10 years of pay for a submarine officer, said Deputy Prime Minister Valentina Matviyenko. -pits fCNcWNAT GAME GAME SAY GOODBYE TO 3-RIVERS STADIUM By SONYA ROSS Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON By paying Africa more attention than any other occupant ot the White House, President Clinton has earned himself a place in history and a lion's share of grief. Clinton will make a second journey to Africa this weekend to pay a visit to Nigeria, the oil-rich nation that the White House lias sought to groom into a great African stabilizer, and Tanzania, where Nelson Mandela has been negotiating peace in Burundi, the scene of seven years of civil war that has left 200,000 dead. Clinton's aides proudly note that the way Nigeria eased out of a dictator's grip into an elected government in just two years proves that his African policies are yielding fruit and serve as a harbinger for what those policies will generate in other countries.

"We have been able to go from a very minimalist, very difficult and fraught bilateral relationship (with Nigeria) to a very strong one," said Susan Rice, assistant secretary of Mate for African affairs. "We view Nigeria as an indispensable partner to pursue our shared goals of democracy and stability and conflict resolution, not only in West Africa and on the African continent, but globally." Critics, however, say this relationship with Nigeria underscores a flaw in Clinton's overall approach to Africa: eight years' worth of mixed signals. "In 1998, President Clinton both visited and bombed said Salih Booker, director of The Africa Policy Information Center. "American policy was muddled. The increasing, militarization of U.S.-Nigerian relations, Washington's official silence on the brutal repression of environmental protesters in the Niger Delta, and its refusal to provide 'debt relief belies a genuine U.S.

commitment." When Clinton toured Africa in 1998, the first sitting U.S. president to take an extensive tour, his goals were more, symbolic than substantive. He wanted to shine a spotlight on Africa's beauty as well as its problems and launch "anew African renaissance" of democracy and prosperity. r. Back home, on Capitol Hill, GOP lawmakers criticized Clinton's tour as the actions of an aging hippie.

On the African continent, the president's lofty goals proved difficult to achieve, creating an ongoing foreign policy headache. During his trip, Clinton vowed that "never again" will the United States move as slowly on an African crisis as it did on the 1994 Rwandan genocide that killed half a million people. Within months, however, conflict broke out all around: in Liberia and Sierra Leone, between Eritrea and Ethiopia, between Rwanda, Uganda and Congo. Terrorism reared its head, in the form of deadly twin bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, leading Clinton to order air strikes on Afghanistan and Sudan.

AIDS infections in Africa reached pandemic proportions and the United States found itself monitoring a feud over AIDS drug prices between South Africa and pharmaceutical companies. Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation-and a major supplier of U.S. oil, began shouldering a peacekeeping responsibility so huge that the cost posed a crippling burden for a poor country. The United States tried to nudge Nigeria toward democratic rule; Clinton even told reporters that a military ruler was acceptable to him if that ruler took off his uniform and ran as a civilian. In the end, It was the bad timing of the death of dictator Gen.

Sani Abacha and that of Moshood Abiola, who was imprisoned shortly after being elected president in 1993 that provided the breakthrough. "They dont want to appear to be domineering, neo-colonial in their approach, dictating to Africans how they must change," Booker said. "But in terms of economic policy, the United States and the West had no reluctance at all in dictating. There is a very significant hypocrisy here." AND YOU COULD WIN FREE TICKETS TO PIRATES VS CINCINNATI REDS GAME ON SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 9th! As you know.3 Rivers Stadium will close fop the Pittsburgh Pirates at the end of this season and many Indiana County residents have memories of this 30 year old put in writing in 100 words or less YOUR MEMORIES OF 3-RIVERS VICENTE FOX Mexico's president-elect Lead er wants open border By GEORGE GEDDA Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON Mexican president-elect Vicente Fox is using a two-day visit to the United States to outline his vision for a freer flow of people and goods across the border. After a morning meeting Thursday with Vice President Al Gore, Fox planned an Oval Office visit with President Clinton and a luncheon with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

He will meet with Gov. George W. Bush in Dallas on Friday. FoxJs proposal for an eventual opening of borders with the United Slates has been greeted with skepticism by U.S. business and labor groups, but Clinton said Wednesday he wants to hear more before making a judgment.

"The devil is always in the details here, so I want to talk to him about it and sec what he has in mind," Clinton said In Canada on Wednesday, Fox spoke to Prime Minister lean Chretien about his goal of an integrated North America modeled in some respects after the European Union. Chretien said he doesn't think it is feasible. He said Canada wanted to maintain its own currency and refused to consider a common currency like the Fox said his goal was to promote prosperity. "We are not proposing a common currency here he said. "We're proposing to work together work on human development, economic development to narrow the differences." being made from the paper, plastic, metal and glass that you've been recycling.

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My Memories of zip 3-RIVERS Entries must be RECEIVED BV SATURDAY, AUGUST 26th at 12 NOON! Mail entries to The Indiana Gazette "Goodbye Stadium 899 Water KSSSSss PMTy 1 P.O. Box 10, Indiana, PA 15 Al, or drop ott entry at our office. (fi Gazette forms are eligible. Additional entry blanks available at The Indiana Gazette office! No copies accepted! No Purchase Necessary! rTST VV Transportation and other expenses are the responsibility of the winners! Gsf A The Gazette is not responsible for any injuries or problems incurred on your trip. Submission of entry grants permission to The Indiana Gazette to use entry for I pJs23a fflhttbiana (gazette I ADVERTISING I I DEADLINE For Thursday's 3 Edition is MONDAY 5 p.m.

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