W O R L D	Sunday, July 26, 1998
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2 killed, 1 hurt in US Capitol shootout WASHINGTON, July 25 — Two police officers were killed and a woman visitor was injured when a gunman opened fire in the US Capitol. Nurse charged with 30 murders VERSAILLES, France, July 25 — A 30-year old nurse has been charged with some 30 murders of elderly patients at a hospital west of Paris. China floods kill 1,145 BEIJING, July 25 — Floods have claimed 145 lives in three Chinese provinces since last Friday, raising the toll to 1,145, official reports said today.

Jiang, Yeltsin to tackle sensitive issues BEIJING, July 25 — Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Russian President Boris Yeltsin are preparing to discuss very sensitive issues at their informal summit in Moscow early in September. Clinton's former bodyguard testifies WASHINGTON, July 25 — President Bill Clinton’s former top bodyguard has testified here the President and Monica Lewinsky were seen “alone” in 1996 in the study adjoining the Oval office, but “nothing improper” had taken place.

Two killed, one hurt in US Capitol shootout WASHINGTON, July 25 (PTI) — Two police officers were killed and a woman visitor was injured when a gunman opened fire in the US Capitol spreading panic in the building where Congress was in session. Both officers — Jacob Chestnut and John Gibson - died in hospital soon after yesterday’s shootout in which the gunman, identified as 41-year-old white man Russel Eugene Weston, was also injured. The police today said the attacker has a two-year history in the police records of making death threats against President Bill Clinton. Clinton expressing sorrow over the incident, said he was deeply disturbed by “the bloodshed at the people’s house where visitors and workers should not have to fear violence”. The Capitol, where the House of Representatives and Senate meet and which is open to hundreds of visitors daily, is heavily guarded by Capitol officers. There have been incidents during the 198 years Congress has been meeting there but yesterday’s was the worst. In 1835, a deranged man tried to shoot President Andrew Johnson. In 1890, a journalist shot and killed a former Congressman. In 1947, a former Capitol policeman fired at a Senator and missed. In 1954, three Puerto Rican nationalists sprayed the house chamber with bullets from the gallery and wounded five Congressmen. The spokesman, Sgt. Dan Nichols, told reporters the man was confronted by another policeman, who opened fire, both men were injured, and a woman tourist was hit by a stray bullet as people hurled themselves to the ground. The incident occurred on the first floor of a section of the massive neo-classical complex housing the House of Representatives. House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s office is one floor above the scene of the shooting. The House was in session and business was not interrupted by the shooting. There were few lawmakers in the chamber, which is on the second floor. Senior Republican leader Tom Delay, whose office is on the corridor where the bloody shooting occurred, said he had no doubt that the guard shot outside his door “saved the lives of many people.” Elena Diaz from Ft Lauderdale, Florida, visiting with her two children, took refuge in house majority leader Dick Armey’s office nearby with about 30 other people. “I expected to see history and not shooting,” she said. “US Capitol security has not been compromised, members of Congress have not been injured and the building will be opened for business as normal tomorrow morning, with the exception of the crime scene,” Nichols said. “This is a tough day for the United States Capitol police. This is a tough day for the United States Congress and it is not a good day for the USA,” he added.

Jiang, Yeltsin to tackle sensitive issues BEIJING, July 25 (DPA) — Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Russian President Boris Yeltsin are preparing to discuss very sensitive and highly complicated issues at their informal summit in Moscow early in September, Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov has said. The meeting is aimed at deepening the strategic partnership the neighbouring giants have sought to forge following years of mutual distrust during the Soviet era. Mr Primakov indicated that Jiang said as much during his talks with China’s President and Communist Party chief on Thursday. Jiang emphasised that the bilateral relationship was built on the basis of close, mutual trust, the Russian Foreign Minister told a Press briefing held on Thursday in a glittering hall at the Russian Embassy in Beijing. Mr Primakov said his country was constructing its foreign policy with the aim of closer ties with China into the next century, and said Moscow was not threatened by a similar strategic coupling between China and the USA. Mr Primakov said he and Jiang discussed a wide range of regional, economic, political, defence and humanitarian issues, but would not reveal what thorny topics Mr Yeltsin and Jiang would discuss. Neither side expressed differences on the issue of continued separatist fighting in Serbia’s Kosovo province. Russia continued to support the idea of local autonomy - but not independence - within the framework of the territorial integrity of the Yugoslav republic, Mr Primakov said. “We do not support preserving the so-called status quo in Kosovo, Mr Primakov said. Moscow wants the issue solved by peaceful means and hopes a settlement is reached before President Slobodan Milosovic’s upcoming trip to Moscow. On the recent nuclear tests by India and Pakistan, Mr Primakov said both sides stood against the proliferation of nuclear weapons and that Russia was ready to cooperate with China and other countries to reach a settlement on the issue. All countries should sign the international nuclear test ban treaty under the same conditions, without special privileges, he said. “We are impatiently waiting for the July 26 meeting between India and Pakistan to discuss this,” Mr Primakov said. Mr Primakov’s three-day visit to China follows his country’s financial bail-out by the International Monetary Fund in exchange for promising to initiate basic reforms to tax and budgetary procedures.

Nurse charged with 30 murders VERSAILLES, France, July 25 (AFP) — A 30-year old nurse has been charged with some 30 murders of elderly patients at a hospital west of Paris, judicial sources said today. The nurse, who was not identified, was freed under strict bail conditions after being charged with the deaths at the hospital at Mantes-La-Jolie, which go back to January, 1997. Her alleged victims, aged between 72 and 88, were all in the terminal phase of incurable lung diseases, and had apparently been put to death at their own request or that of relatives. The sources said the nurse was questioned as the result of an inquiry by hospital officials surprised at the abnormal number of deaths in the Pneumology Department of the hospital. They established that some 30 unexplained deaths occurred while the same nurse was on duty.

Clinton's former bodyguard testifies WASHINGTON, July 25 ( PTI) — President Bill Clinton’s former top bodyguard has testified here the President and Monica Lewinsky were seen “alone” in 1996 in the study adjoining the Oval office, but “nothing improper” had taken place there. Secret agent Larry Cockell, who along with Clinton’s former top aide Harold Ickes appeared before the grand jury yesterday, said he and Ickes went to the Oval office but did not find the President there. “We then realised the President is in the study with Lewinsky,” CBS radio quoted Cockell as saying. Ickes, who is a former Deputy White House Chief of Staff, however, denied the agent’s version. Cockell had headed Clinton’s secret service detail until recently and is viewed as a key witness in the case for his close proximity to the President. The two former White House insiders appeared before the Federal Court house yesterday to testify before the grand jury probing the sex and perjury case against Clinton. LITTLE ROCK (AP): Paula Jones said that letters written to her by her previous lawyers should not have been made public in her sexual harassment lawsuit against US President Bill Clinton. The letters were released last month when US District Judge Susan Webber Wright, who dismissed the lawsuit, entered them into the public record. Mrs Jones asked Wright to vacate her order that made the letters public, saying the letters were addressed to her, dealt with legal issues and included advice in the lawsuit. Therefore, on their face, these are attorney-client privileged communications”, her motion said. Why these letters were in the possession of the court is unknown to Mrs Jones”. The letters were written by Joseph Cammarata and Gilbert K. Davis last year during negotiations for a possible settlement of the lawsuit. They told her a settlement for $ 700,000 and a vague apology would be a complete victory” even if Mr Clinton admitted no wrongdoing. Mrs Jones turned down the offer, saying she wanted a full apology, according to the letter. The lawyers said the refusal was a shift in her original intentions.

Floods claim1,145 lives in China BEIJING, July 25 (PTI) — Floods have claimed 145 lives in three Chinese provinces since last Friday, raising the toll to 1,145, official reports said today. The latest casualties were reported in Hunan, Hubei and Jiangxi in southern and central China, the provinces worst hit by torrential rains this year that came earlier and fell harder than usual, flooding the Yangtze river. Swirling waters have forced emergency relocation of 9,00,000 people in one week and have destroyed 250,000 houses and damaged another 780,000, the official newspaper said adding that 1.1 million people have been affected by the floods. The floods also affected one million hectare of cultivated land and the direct economic loss is estimated to be about 9.2 billion yuan (1.1 billion US dollars). The newspaper said that the international committee of the Red Cross had appealed for 4.5 million US dollars to buy rice, wheat, medicines and water purification tablets for the affected people. Meanwhile, Japan and France have announced liberal aid to help the flood victims.

Global monitor 13-year-old made consultant KINGSTON (Jamaica): Jamaica has appointed a 13-year-old computer whiz kid with an illustrious family history as a consultant on technology. Minister of Commerce & Technology Phillip Paulwell this week named Makonnen David Blake Hannah as youth technology consultant to his ministry, making him the youngest government adviser ever. Paulwell said Hannah would be “responsible for putting forward the valued perspectives of the new generation” and will inform the minister on new trends in computer technology. He will receive an honorarium for his efforts. — Reuters New pistol BONN: A German company, TWM, is perfecting a new pistol with a “smart” fingerprint identifier which can prevent anyone but its owner using it, the engineering giant Siemens said on Friday. A statement said the pistol would be provided with a pick-up system developed by Siemens and already used in the identification of owners of portable telephones, credit cards and computers. —AFP Secchiaroli dead ROME: Photographer Tazio Secchiaroli, acknowledged as the father of all paparazzi, died at his Roman home on Friday aged 73 after a long illness. Secchiaroli had been the model for the society snapper called paparazzo in Frederico Fellini’s famous movie La Dolce Vita in 1960. Secchiaroli defended the profession which was to become increasingly spurned down the years. — DPA Champagne salvaged HELSINKI: Some long-awaited and costly champagne came out of storage but the service wasn’t exactly elegant. Instead of tuxedoes, the servers wore dripping frogmen suits after salvaging the bubbly from a Baltic shipwreck. The champagne, along with barrels of cognac, has been lying on the seabed off the southwest coast of Finland since 1916, when a German U-boat torpedoed the schooner carrying an order for the Russian Army. —AP Internet MOSCOW: Russian Prime Minister Sergei Kiriyenko on Friday joined the growing ranks of web-friendly world politicians by giving an interview on the Internet. During the 90-minute question and answer session Kiriyenko addressed topics as wide-reaching as Russia’s economic crisis, industrial espionage and medical care. — AFP

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