The Sacramento Bee from Sacramento, California • 1

Mr IN0 11 SCENE TICKET SPORTS i Fl Jim TROTIER A2 ik4 41 Magic night for Kings Sacramento soars to big lead then holds on to defeat Orlando Success carries big price Dance-pop diva Paula Abdul finds big tour almost as tough as career Give hope for Christmas Children's center provides a chance for badly hurt kids dok FitIAL Szczonento Bce 17 1140 4A ()9 I THE SACRAMENTO BEI SACRANIINTO BE I FRIDAN DECLMBIA 13 1991 OUNDI 1) 1857 VO1 UNIF 27(1 46(! End tin lion 5tellID5 at land I 9 US issues urgent plea to allies to aid emerging ex-Soviet states 5 republics join commonwealth Gorbachev speaks of quitting 1 Bee News Services assistance and to map a blueprint for sustained political and economic aid Secretary of State James Baker warning that "we again stand at history's precipice" said the United States must put aside "fearful isolationism and political paralysis" and assemble a worldwide coalition to strengthen democratic forces in the "former Soviet Union" If democratic leaders of the Soviet republics can retain power the West can end a centuries-old menace posed by czarist autocracy and later Russian legislature for the commonwealth Gorbachev had said Thursday he will resign his post if Russia and other Soviet republics establish a cornmonwealth an experiment he predicted could end in disaster and the complete disintegration of a 1000- year-old state Facing growing calls to agree to a peaceful transition of power the 60- year-old president summoned a group of Soviet journalists to his Kremlin office and delivered a defi With Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev seemingly on the way out the White House said the West will not allow the Soviet people to starve in the next few months President Bush invited European countries Japan South Korea Australia Canada and oil-rich Persian Gulf states to a Washington conference in early January to set up coordinating machinery for humanitarian By Leo Rennert Bee Washington Bureau Chief WASHINGTON The Bush administration fearing vast chaos in a disintegrating Soviet Union called Thursday for an urgent international effort to speed food deliveries this winter followed by a global rescue package to provide long-term aid to republics committed to democracy Kirgizia Tadzhikistan Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan made the decision during a meeting in Ashkhabad the Turkmen capital the Tass newS agency reported The decision of the conservative republics effectively removed the last remaining political prop to the old Soviet Union Their decision came a day after Yeltsin won landslide approval in the Five Central Asian republics agreed today to join the new Commonwealth of Independent States organized by Russian President Boris Yeltsin to replace the Soviet Union and Mikhail Gorbachev appeared on the verge of resigning The leaders of Kazakhstan and the predominantly Muslim republics of See AID hack page A26 See SOVIET back page A26 Two Koreas sign accord to reconcile 17-: 1 1 -'-7 t' dt--- BAY AREA RAIL LINK RESTORED Bee News Services Just like in the old-time movies a man in an overcoat waits on a foggy platform as a train headed for San Jose from Sacramento pulls out of the Martinez station BeeLois Bernstein SEOUL South Korea The premiers of North and South Korea today signed a historic accord calling for reconciliation and non-aggression on the tense peninsula that has been one of the last theaters of the Cold War INSIDE Before the signing the two nations issued a state- In agreeing to the reconment pledging to work to- ciliation both Koreas ward a nuclear-free Korea are hoping for a finanIt was hoped that a formal cial boost reconciliation treaty could Page A21 be concluded by the end of the month after talks in the border village of Panmunjom In signing Fridays agreement North Korea for the first time officially recognized South Korea's existence The accord reached in breakthrough talks late Wednesday calls for the Communist North and capitalist South to put a formal end to their four-decade-old war In 1950 North Korea invaded the South triggering three years of fighting The United States and other Western nations intervened for South Korea while China aided the North An estimated 24 million soldiers and 44 million civilians were killed or wounded "Today the tide of reconciliation and cooperation flowing worldwide has reached this land" said South Korean Prime Minister Chung Won-shik For the United States which sustained 54000 deaths and 10:3000 injuries before a truce was signed with North Korea on July 27 1953 the new reconciliation and nonaggression pact raises a host of questions The most critical is whether the new North-South relationship will undercut the rationale for keeping 40000 1 I i i I 1 --t 7 7' vtt' 6 'II '14 'I -T i 1' 4 '7 -(' '''-'--4-'t 4- A4 -'14100 I 1 r1 i 1 Pozii1 1 A St 1 i 4' i oe 1 -i '1 4 7 'N i 7 7 1 1 I See KORFA page A21 GOP opener may test Bush New Hampshire primary threat By Lawrence O'Rourke Bee Washington Bureau BeeLois Bernstein Four-year-old Adam Soares of Sacramento took the train to the Bay Area with his grandparents on his grandfather's 70th birthday New route serves variety of passenger needs GREENLAND NH Walt Sailers a welder and a Republican is frightened by the condition of the US economy and may take it out On President omilorornuarom Bush in this states first-in-the-nation CAMPAIGN '92 presidential primary in February Sailers is among those Republicans here described by Gov Judd Gregg as "concerned and frustrated" and potential protest voters for conservative commentator Patrick Buchanan The people of New Hampshire Gregg said Wednesday in an interview in his Concord office "have been through tough times" "They might want to send a message and they're looking to use the Republican primary to do it" That is bad news for Bush and good news for Buchanan the columnist and broadcaster who this week entered the Republican primary against Bush Buchanan hopes to become the magnet for the anger and frustration felt by people like Walt Sailers Sailers is 21 When he voted for the first time in a presf By Doug Dempster Bee Staff Writer recording my thoughts This way I can get a little work done" Miller works in Rancho Cordova part of the week He lives near the Davis Amtrak station so he can use the new trains to reach the home office of his company Woodward-Clyde geology consultants above an Oakland BART station "This is kind of a dream come true Thursday The last daily local train the Senator died in 1962 "This is cool I'm enjoying the heck out of this" said Kelly Berg a Hewlett-Packard employee looking up from his personal computer Berg who lives in Roseville must report to company headquarters in the Silicon Valley a few times a week "I can't afford to move" he said "I like to drive and think but there's no way of student was bound for San Jose to take an admission test for junior college Riding in the other direction Tobias Bodine who lives in Berkeley but studies geography and German at the University of California Davis was buried in his books All five showed the range of reasons travelers rode the first runs of the new Capitol trains that began rolling between Sacramento and the Bay Area on Rather than chance another auto accident Alan Miller was riding the rails Thursday from Davis to his company's home office in Oakland Rob Johnson of Loomis was taking his 21'2-year-old son Pete to see Santa in downtown San Francisco Chris Triburzi a Fairfield high school See TRAIN back page A26 See BUSK page A23 Audit: County pays high price for carelessness INSIDE Auto Business By Kathryn Eaker Perkins Bee Staff Writer Di Fl Scene 4 82 Sports Television Weather GI after state-mandated audits" Irish said "If I had another 10 auditors our confidence level that we have everything covered would be higher" Many of the problems uncovered by the audits were related to the county government's burgeoning growth he said referring to a budget that increased by 71 percent over the past five years to $11billion "Administratively we don't have the money to put in every single check and balance we would desire and that is our last line of defense" Irish See AUDIT page A4 D10 El 06 Scene 8 D25 Scene 9 B10 Dll Ticket 28 managers in the departments of airport courts and sheriff In some cases part or all of the money is recoverable and in one instance a $400000 loss was averted barely by an auditor's catch But the picture drawn by the audits suggests they represent only a portion of the tax dollars lost or misspent every year "Certainly there could be more" said Dave Irish chief of the Audit Division at the auditor-controller's office "We give it our best shot identifying activities at greatest risk that go to the top of the priority list bib ip Classified Comics Crosswords Editorials Jumble Movies At a time of desperate efforts to close budget shortfalls at least $1 million slipped through Sacramento County's fingers last year because of carelessness criminality incompetence and plain old human error according to investigations by the auditor's office Most of the losses reported in the annual summary of significant audit findings were dis covtred through inquiries requested by concerned 1 1 I i FOG Today: high 48 low 34 Yesterday: high 48 low 33 Obituaries 138.