Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.news From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: news Mon, Aug 10 1992 Date: Mon, 10 Aug 92 04:17:59 EDT Message-ID: DECISIONLINE: News USA TODAY Update Aug. 10, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network U.N. MAY APPROVE FORCE MONDAY: The United Nations - under pressure from the Bush administration and U.S. allies in Europe - could decide as early as Monday to approve the use of military force in Yugoslavia. At issue: Whether to use primarily air strikes if needed to safeguard the flow of humanitarian supplies to embattled Bosnia-Herzegovina, one of four republics to declare independence from Belgrade. ISRAEL LEADER TO MEET WITH BUSH: President Bush and Israel's new prime minister Yitzhak Rabin Monday talk Mideast peace and U.S. financial aid. Rabin's government, in office less than six weeks, gave the talks a lift Sunday by announcing intentions to legalize contacts with the Palestinian Liberation Organization. Israel still would bar the PLO from peace talks. TICKET CHANGE COST MAY DOUBLE: Soon it might cost $50 - not $25 - to change your mind on airline travel. Delta, Northwest, and America West say they'll raise the fee Sept. 1. The fee will affect non-refundable tickets, bought most often by vacation travelers. But the higher fee probably won't stick if American Airlines, the USA's largest airline, and United don't match it. U.S. HELICOPTER CRASH KILLS 2: A U.S. helicopter crashed during joint military exercises with Kuwait, killing its two-man crew, the Navy said Sunday. No names were released. The AH-1W Cobra helicopter crashed over the weekend at a training site eight miles south of the Kuwaiti-Iraqi border. U.N. ALLOWED TO SEARCH: The U.N. arms team, barred by Iraq from entering Baghdad ministries to hunt for military secrets, began a first day of searches Sunday with no problems. Also: Iraq, banned by the United Nations from exporting oil, said it had completed repairs to its southern al-Bakr terminal, restoring its pre-Gulf War loading capacity of 1.6 million barrels per day. QE2 PUT ON DRYDOCK: The Queen Elizabeth 2 is expected in a Boston drydock Monday, after the luxury liner hit an underwater obstruction Friday that ripped six gashes in the hull and forced evacuation of 1,815 passengers at sea off Cape Cod. No one was hurt. A U.S. Coast Guard spokeswoman said the 66,000-ton ship is believed to have hit Buzzards Ledge. MOST FIRES ARE UNDER CONTROL: Firefighters have contained most of the big forest fires that burned at least 384,000 acres in six western states last week. Still out of control: A signal fire, started by three lost hikers, grew to 900 acres near Big Sur, Calif. Says Arnold Hartigan of the Boise Interagency Fire Center: "It's still hot and dry and we're a long way from winter." POSTMASTER TO MAKE PITCH: New Postmaster General Marvin Runyon pitches his plan to save a bloated U.S. Postal Service to employees and customers meeting separately in Louisville Monday. The message: Improve service and regain public trust. "We've got very good people who know what to do and how to do it," he says. "But we're working with this 19th-century structure." NEW YORK FARMERS WANT HELP: Record rainfall in New York is leaving many fields waterlogged. Vegetable farmers are especially hard hit with stunted lettuce, rotting potatoes and yellowing green beans. Muddy conditions make it difficult to operate harvesting and spraying equipment, adding further to the woes. Eleven counties in northwestern New York have requested federal disaster assistance because of the rain. KUWAIT SERVANTS ARE RAPED: Female domestic servants in Kuwait are routinely subjected by their employers to rape, violence and near total isolation, a human rights group said in a weekend report issued in Washington. Middle East Watch says that since the liberation of Kuwait in March 1991, nearly 2,000 Asian maids "have fled the homes of abusive Kuwaiti employers and sought refuge in their embassies." GOP GROUPS TRY TO PUSH IDEAS: Republican squabbling continues Monday, one week before the GOP convention in Houston. A group of conservative supporters is urging Bush to call for tax cuts and a "very bold restructuring of the federal government" in his acceptance speech. Monday, Barbara Mosbacher, sister of Bush campaign chairman Robert Mosbacher, holds a meeting to explain "the need for a pro-choice platform." CHEAP BUS FARES OFFERED: Passengers are lining up in New York and Washington, D.C., to take advantage of $5 one-way bus fares offered by competitors Greyhound and Peter Pan Trailways until Sunday. Each has added buses to accommodate more passengers. "We're ecstatic," said Peter Pan's Paul Picknelly. Said Greyhound spokeswoman Liz Dunn: "Response has been phenomenal." Normal one-way fare: $25. HOT TO BE THE RULE FOR USA: There'll be a hot time in most of the nation Monday, with 80-degree heat in the Northeast and still hotter weather in parts of the South and the West. Sweltering heat bakes the central and southern Great Plains, with similar weather stretching through Texas and the Southeast. Thunderstorms and afternoon showers will form along the Texas and Louisiana coasts. DOW JONES OPENS ON DOWNSWING: The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials opens Monday at 3332.18 after closing down 8.38 points Friday. The New York Stock Exchange composite opens at 230.79, down 0.71. The American Stock Exchange market value opens at 390.13, up 0.36. The NASDAQ OTC composite opens at 573.74, down 0.28. News Editor: Ed Kelleher. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM