Belgrade Blues
Events in Turkey again capture front page headlines, but only USA Today leads with it.
The official body count nearly doubled in the last 24 hours to 7,000, and
conditions for the living have begun to deteriorate rapidly--no electricity,
little food and water. The Washington Post leads with Gov. George W. Bush's response
to questions about his rumored drug use. Bush admitted to youthful mistakes but
indicated that he has been drug-free for at least 25 years. The New York Times leads with
a mass demonstration in Belgrade calling for Slobodan Milosevic's prompt
resignation. The Los
Angeles Times goes with a local story on a national issue: The state
assembly approved a ban on "unsafe" handguns, making California the second
state to do so (after Massachusetts). The guns are considered unsafe if they do
not meet standards designed to prevent misfiring.
Yugoslavia's fragmented opposition pulled together for an evening of
anti-Milosevic fervor before, er, a lot of demonstrators--more than 50,000 in
the NYT , 100,000 in the LAT and the Wall Street Journal , and 150,000 in the Post .
Neither bomb threats nor the isolated explosion of a tear-gas grenade early on
could scare them away. Speakers called for the president's swift exit but
disagreed on how best to approach it. After swearing he wouldn't show up, Vik
Draskovic, leader of the largest opposition party, matched the president's
suggestion for elections in November and was booed by the crowd: The
opposition's bickering and Milosevic's control of the media and police would
benefit the latter in the elections. The WP fronts the story, the
LAT reefers it with an above-the-fold picture.
Gov. George W. Bush suggested that he would easily have passed strict
government background checks into drug use at any time during Clinton's or his
father's administrations. Checks under the Bush (Sr.) administration reached
back 15 years, and that was ten years ago at the earliest. So, simple
arithmetic yields that Bush has not used drugs in at least 25 years. The
comments came after a journalist's inquiry into whether or not Bush could pass
a background check that might be given to members of his administration. The
LAT , which also fronts the story, writes that Bush's comments sparked
curiosity into his activities as a young adult and debate over the press'
interest in probing such issues.
USAT leads with conditions in Turkey for the first time. The story
cites a U.N. official in New York who said that up to 35,000 people may be
buried in the rubble. The Post carries this figure as well but
attributes it to an official government estimate made after flights over the
region. Unburied bodies pose great risks to public health as a source of
disease, the papers report. The fire at Turkey's largest oil refinery, which
the LAT led with yesterday, was brought under control after fire
fighting planes dumped 75 tons of chemicals on it. Insult to injury: The
NYT reports that in Golcuk relief workers now outnumber residents. They
brought with them more bread and water than locals could consume, but no
portable toilets, tents, or generators. The Turkish government opened a
criminal investigation into contractors who built the apartment complexes that
crumbled so quickly and thoroughly on Tuesday, according to a LAT
front-pager.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church voted yesterday to unite with the Episcopal
Church, two years after dismissing a similar measure. The two churches will
recognize each other's membership rolls and sacraments, and work together on
missionary and social programs. The pact will have great resonance abroad, as
related churches in Europe and Africa also start to bridge gaps in practices
and programs. The Episcopal Church is expected to approve the union at its
convention in July. The Post says in its headline that both groups have
been losing members, but the NYT emphasizes cost-cutting needs: The
churches can now combine resources and clergy in cash-strapped areas. Together,
they have a combined membership of about 8 million. The LAT, WP , and
NYT all front the story.
Three Japanese banks announced a possible merger that would create the
world's largest financial institution, worth $1.26 trillion. (Deutsche Bank AG
holds the current title, weighing in at $868 billion.) The WSJ carries
predictions that smaller competitors will lock arms as well, thereby reducing
the industry's dead weight.
The NYT prints two corrections and a short news item to clear up a
story and editorial from earlier in the week. On Tuesday, the paper's lead
story suggested that $1 billion in foreign aid had been stolen in Bosnia. As it
turns out, $20 million of that sum is foreign aid, the rest was taken from
Bosnian public funds or resulted from failed tax collection. At a press
conference on Wednesday, a State Department spokesman said the story was
misleading.
History textbook or today's front page?: "The revolt of the serfs
has sparked a backlash by the landlords, who are moving to crush the rebellion
before it gets out of hand." Both. The LAT "Column One" article reports
that the drive for freedom is rattling the world's largest remaining holdout of
feudal serfdom. Thousands of slave laborers in southern Pakistan are rising up
against landlords who have shackled and sold them for hundreds of years.
