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Politics : Bill Clinton Scandal - SANITY CHECK -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (57590)	7/29/1999 11:11:00 AM
From: one_less	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 67261

Ukraine Offers Russia Bombers To Pay Part Of Debt KIEV, Jul 28, 1999 -- (Reuters) Ukraine has offered to pay part of its energy debts to Russia with 10 strategic heavy bombers, Interfax-Ukraine news agency said on Tuesday. It quoted Defense Minister Olexander Kuzmuk as saying 10 of the 44 Tupolev-160 and Tupolev-95 bombers owned by Ukraine could be transferred to Russia. Kuzmuk said each plane would count for more than $25 million of debt, but did not give an exact figure. Russian Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin failed to fully resolve the issue of Ukraine's estimated $1.8 billion debt to Russia during a visit to Kiev earlier this month. He said a barter deal had been hindered by difficulties in establishing the worth of goods to be exchanged but that the two sides hoped to reach a deal in August. Stepashin said Ukraine owed $1.8 billion for Russian natural gas supplies. Ukrainian estimates have put the figure owed to Russian gas monopoly Gazprom at closer to $1 billion. It would not be the first time the cash-strapped Ukrainian government has proposed to sell the bombers to Russia, although negotiations have to date been unsuccessful. Itar-Tass news agency quoted Russia's minister for relations with the Commonwealth of Independent States, Leonid Drachevsky, as saying on Tuesday that Moscow was ready to discuss Kiev's offer. The 19 Tu-160 "Blackjack" bombers and 25 Tu-95 planes can all carry nuclear bombs and missiles over a long range, but have not flown since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. They are based at Uzin and Pryluky in Ukraine. In line with the 1991 START-1 nuclear disarmament treaty -- confirmed by the United States, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus after the collapse of the Soviet Union -- Ukraine must rid itself of all nuclear bombing capacity by 2001, a process it started last November. The United States has promised Ukraine it will cover the $8 million price tag for destroying the bombers, but Kiev says some are still flight-worthy and that it hopes to earn more from their sale. It also wants to retain some for civilian purposes. The debt question is one of the problems still dogging ties between the two most populous ex-Soviet republics, even though Ukraine and Russia have signed a friendship treaty intended to end years of bickering. Some tensions also linger over the status of Ukraine's Crimean port of Sevastopol and the Black Sea Fleet. ((c) 1999 Reuters)

To: Neocon who wrote (57590)	7/29/1999 11:12:00 AM
From: Les H	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 67261

Albright Sends 'Clone' To Sing Updated 10:26 AM ET July 28, 1999 By Carol Giacomo SINGAPORE (Reuters) - After spirited performances two years running, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright again produced the unexpected for a closing dinner skit at an Asian leaders conference -- a drag clone of herself. Albright actually had to leave Singapore early for Rome so she could visit Kosovo Thursday and Bosnia Friday for a summit on Balkans stability. So Tuesday night's U.S. musical review at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) annual dinner featured a stand-in: Assistant Secretary of Defense Kurt Campbell. He was dressed as Albright singing a spoof called "Lone Superpower" to the tune of an old American classic, "Home on the Range." In a taped video message that opened the skit, Albright apologized for not being there herself. But she said "American technology can achieve miracles ... Before leaving Singapore, I had myself cloned. And I have left behind Madeleine II... who combines the modesty of (ex-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger with the shyness of Madonna -- me." Campbell, posing as Albright and wearing clothes similar to hers, proceeded to playfully exult about American hegemony. Hegemony is something the United States is often faulted for in the post-Cold War era, including an unexpected attack on this very point Tuesday by the Chinese foreign minister during the formal (and serious) part of the ASEAN conference. "Lone, lone superpower/From Pristina to Port Au Prince Haiti," reads one verse of the song, in which Campbell was supported by a chorus of other U.S. officials. "Some countries complain/We feel their pain/But we're sticking with hegemony." As always with the performances during Albright's tenure, the Americans make fun of almost everyone -- themselves included -- and the verses often contain more than a grain of truth. Some other verses: "Oh, give me a home/Where the peacekeepers roam "And the tariffs are lowered each day "Where the people can vote/And the currencies float "And the countries all do what we say "I've met for some time/With the sheriff from China "Our positions they sometimes conflict "But we don't come to blows/As our soccer team knows "We resolve things with penalty kicks" "To my old friends in Asia/From Japan to Malaysia "I dedicate this cowgirl song "And to old North Korea/We really don't fear ya' "Cause your missile is called the No Dong" For many years, the U.S. skit at the dinner was decidedly uninspired. But In 1997 when she became secretary of state, Albright infused originality into the task, winning rave reviews for a performance based on the musical "Evita." In 1998 she teamed up with then-Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov for a spoof on the musical "West Side Story" re-named "East-West Story." U.S. officials briefly considered doing something with the Chinese this year but given the state of their relations, neither side seemed ready for that. >>>I thought the song was in bad taste. Could be taken for gloating >>>over lesser powers.