============================================================
===== AIM Morning NEWS for Friday, September 22, 2000 =====
============================================================

==========================
ELECTION SILENCE HAS BEGUN
==========================

BELGRADE, September 22, 2000 (Blic)

Election silence in Yugoslavia began at midnight due to
elections that will be held on September 24.

Election silence will last till closing of polling stations at 8
p.m. on Sept. 24. Citizens of Yugoslavia are going to vote for the
president of Yugoslavia and deputies for both houses of Yugoslav
Parliament. Citizens of Serbia will go to local elections to vote for
deputies for municipalities. Elections for deputies for Vojvodina
Parliament will also be held.

"It is not allowed that media show photographs, articles and
adds about candidates, public opinion surveys, broadcast foreign
media programs, give statements by foreign officials and other
persons speaking about elections in Yugoslavia", president of
Elections 2000 Supervising Board, Ivan Radosalvjevic said.

Only officials in charge for elections are allowed to give
explanations important for election process using media.


=======================================
CLOSE TO 8 MILLION VOTERS IN YUGOSLAVIA
=======================================

BELGRADE, September 22, 2000 (Beta)

Exactly 7,861,327 registered voters in Yugoslavia will be able
to vote in federal presidential and parliamentary elections on Sept.
24. The Federal Election Commission announced the total number of
voters on Sept. 11, saying that there are 7,417,197 voters registered
in Serbia and 444,130 voters in Montenegro.

Voters will cast their ballots for one of five presidential
candidates: Slobodan Milosevic (Socialist Party of Serbia-Yugoslav
Left-Socialist People's Party of Montenegro); Vojislav Kostunica
(Democratic Opposition of Serbia); Tomislav Nikolic (Serbian Radical
Party); Vojislav Mihailovic (Serbian Renewal Movement); and Miodrag
Vidojkovic (Affirmative Party).

Candidates from 21 political parties and coalitions from Serbia
and seven from Montenegro are running for both houses of federal
parliament.

Montenegro and Serbia are each a single election district for
electing members of the Yugoslav parliament's upper house. Serbia is
divided into 26 election districts for electing members of
parliament's lower house, while Montenegro is a single district.

According to the Federal Election Commission, the election
districts of Prokuplje and Vranje, which were expanded to include
three election districts from Kosovo, now have more than 1.5 million
registered voters.


================================================
EUROPEAN OBSERVERS READY TO LEAVE FOR YUGOSLAVIA
================================================

PARIS, France, September 21, 2000 (Free Serbia)

A delegation of twenty election observers from European Union
countries were ready to go to Yugoslavia to monitor Sunday's
elections, the French Foreign Ministry said today. "Of course our
members of parliament would have to be able to complete their mission
entirely freely and without obstacles," a ministry spokesman said
today, adding that visa applications for the observers had been
lodged in Yugoslav consulates in EU countries.


===============================================
TREPCA EMPLOYEES GATHERED IN FRONT OF THE PLANT
===============================================

ZVECAN, September 22, 2000 (RTS)

Trepca employees gathered in front of the plant entrance to
express protest against occupation of Trepca, conducted by so cold
international peacekeeping forces on Kosovo and Metohija. Meeting of
Trepca board and syndicate is scheduled for tomorrow as well as
opening of the new pits in the mine of Crnac in Leposavic commune.


===================
GENERAL FRAY IN SNV
===================

GRACANICA, September 22, 2000 (Blic)

Brigade General of KFOR multinational brigade called Center,
Robert Fray, visited the Monastery of Gracanica and representatives
of the Serb National Council /SNV/. In discussion with Rada
Trajkovic, Randjel Nojkic and Dusan Ristic, General Fray said that
almost 2 kilos of explosive, detonators and related equipment had
been found with six Serbs arrested in Gracanica.

Rada Trajkovic said that "after retreat of Yugoslav Army and
Police from Kosovo many army and civilian representatives from other
countries have come, so it is sure that there are many secret
services in Kosovo'.

"Since Thaci and Rugova have their own secret services, it would
be normal that the state that retreated from this province has its
own secret service, too", Rada Trajkovic said. "However, the problem
is when a secret service starts dealing with subversive activities.
If some service has explosive, that is not good for my country or for
the Serbs in Kosovo. The possible victims are probably Serbs 'out of
control', KFOR soldiers, somebody of the international organizations
or even ordinary people in the streets. So that explosive was for
killing of people", Rada Trajkovic said.


====================================
GUNMEN RELEASE HOSTAGE IN S. RUSSIA
====================================

LAZAREVSKOYE, Russia, September 22, 2000 (The Associated Press)

Gunmen holding several people hostage in a southern Russian town
released one of their captives on Friday, but were demanding a
helicopter and weapons before freeing the others.

Security officials said at least three gunmen were holding as
many as four people hostage in a small hotel in the town of
Lazarevskoye, 40 miles west of the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

The gunmen seized the hostages early Thursday and demanded $30
million or the release of all Chechens held in Russian jails, as well
as talks with President Vladimir Putin. Later Thursday, they demanded
a helicopter, and seemed to have dropped the demand to release
Chechen prisoners.

Security forces surrounded the hotel, but Gherman Ugryumov, a
deputy director of the Federal Security Service, said Thursday that
agents were not planning to storm the building.

After one hostage was released, the Interfax news agency
reported early Friday that there were two hostages and five gunmen in
the building. Officials gave varying reports of the number of people
involved in the hostage taking.


=============================================
FRENCH PLANE HEADS FOR IRAQ DESPITE SANCTIONS
=============================================

PARIS, France, September 22, 2000 (Reuters)

A plane chartered by French anti-embargo activists left Paris
bound for Baghdad on Friday despite objections from the United States
and Britain that it may be violating United Nations sanctions against
Iraq.

A spokesman for Paris Charles de Gaulle airport said the
184-seat Boeing 737, chartered from the Euralair-France airline, took
off at 8:35 a.m. (7.35 a.m. London time).

Some 80 doctors, young artists and other activists were aboard
the direct flight to the Iraqi capital.

Paris notified the U.N. Security Council's Iraqi sanctions
committee about the flight late on Thursday without asking for
permission.

The United States and Britain said agreement by all members of
the sanctions committee was needed for such flights.

Both Russia and France want the sanctions, imposed when Iraq
invaded Kuwait in August 1990, eased and eventually lifted. But they
have adhered to them over the past decade.

No one is certain how far the United States and Britain will
take the dispute with France.


=================================================
PLANE CRASH CUBANS CLEARED TO STAY IN THE STATES
=================================================

MIAMI, US, September 22, 2000 (CBC)

All nine Cubans who survived a plane crash at sea will be
allowed to stay in the United States and seek residency.

U.S. Immigration officials have already released six of them
from the Krome Detention Center west of Miami.

They're getting a medical checkup before being turned over to
family members in Miami.

They can start the process of applying for residency next
September.

The rest of the survivors, who include a six-year-old boy and
his currently hospitalized parents, are expected to be likewise
paroled to the United States.

Their crop-duster plane crashed in the Gulf of Mexico near
Florida on Tuesday after it ran out of fuel. One of the men aboard
was killed.

The rest were picked up by a cargo ship and taken to Florida.

Cuban President Fidel Castro says they hijacked the plane and
wants them returned as criminals. The United States has returned
hijackers to Cuba in the past, but the FBI says this was not a
hijacking.


======================
IRAN TEST-FIRES ROCKET
======================

TEHERAN, Iran, September 22, 2000 (BBC)

Iran says it has test-fired a new version of its medium-range
missile, as part of events commemorating the start of the Iran-Iraq
war 20 years ago.

Iranian state television showed footage of the launch in what it
said was a remote area: The updated Shahab-3 missile was shown rising
vertically from a mobile launcher.

Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani said that the solid-liquid fuel
missile had been designed to put satellites into orbit and not for
military purposes.

However a US intelligence official said Washington did not view
the Shahab-3 as a space-launch vehicle, but as a missile.

Admiral Shamkhani said that Iran's defense industry did not
produce offensive weapons: "No military use has been forecast for
Shahab-3".

He did not mention the capability of the missile, but Iran has
previously said it had a range of 1,300km.


============================
TEENAGE HACKER GOES TO JAIL
============================

MIAMI, US, September 22, 2000 (CBC)

A teenager who hacked into NASA and Pentagon computers is going
to jail.

The 16-year-old, who is known on the Internet as "Comrade,"
illegally entered NASA computers at the March Space Flight Center in
Huntsville, Ala. in 1999.

Over a two-day period he downloaded nearly $2 million worth of
software that supports the international space station. A three-week
shutdown for repairs cost the U.S. government $41,000.

Known on the Internet as "Comrade,'' he also twice hacked into
the Defense Threat Reduction Agency computers, which the Pentagon
uses to monitor, among other things, the threat from nuclear and
biological weapons. He also admitted to intercepting 3,300 e-mails
and stealing passwords.

He was 15 when he committed his crimes.

The case marks the first time a juvenile will spend time in jail
in the United States for computer crimes.

The hacker, whose name was withheld by the Justice Department
because of his age, will spend the next six months in a Florida
detention center - and he has to write letters of apology to the
secretary of defense and the administrator of NASA.

An adult doing these things could be charged with wire-tapping
and computer abuse crimes.


===================================
MOTHER TERESA NUN TORTURED CHILDREN
===================================

CALCUTTA, India, September 22, 2000 (BBC)

The charity set up by the late Mother Teresa in the Indian city
of Calcutta has now admitted that one of its nuns was guilty of
torturing four children.

The head of the Missionaries of Charity, Sister Nirmala, said
one of the order's nuns, Sister Francesco, had "clearly overstepped
her limits" while punishing four girls who were accused of stealing.

Both Sister Nirmala and Sister Francesco appeared before a
Calcutta court earlier this week after a woman sued them over the
torture of her daughter.

The court granted them bail on Wednesday.


========
THE NEWS
========

Morning News edited by Aleksandar Stan

AIM, Belgrade, September 22, 2000 11:45


===================================================================
For more information visit our Academic Information Network site at
http://www.aim.ac.yu/
Please send us Your comments to news@... or comment@...
Please send us information You consider valuable to feed@...
To unsubscribe, e-mail us at unsubscr@...