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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 4, 1999)
Delta Sigma Phi presents Ms. Greek A&M ‘99 Tonight 8 pm at Rudder Auditorium With J J. Walker of Goodtimes Tickets $ 8.00 @ Disc-go-round The Post Party. w/ Better Than Ezra Rodeo 2000 Friday Night Drink Specials all night long! $ 12.00 in advance • $ 15.00 / door Benefiting Phoebe’s home CABLE TV <2oupe ^^eville COMMiW * PERFORMiflQ' OUT B JSkC K STEAKHOUSE’ R010 - m Hilton A2<1> www.aggielandmovies.com Page 10 • Thursday, February 4, 1999 W( ORLD - Y2K Russian style ie Battalion I Officials ask for $3 billion to update S) 1 ! MOSCOW (AP) — Russia needs up to $3 billion to tackle the Year 2000 computer glitch — six times the original esti mate — a top offi cial announced Wednesday as he appealed to the lii YELTSIN United States and NATO to help fix computers that control Russia’s nu clear weapons. While many countries have been working on the so-called Y2K “mil lennium bug” problem for years, some key players, including Russia and China, have been slower to ad dress it. Last month, U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre acknowl edged “some nervousness” in Washington about potential com puter problems in Russia. “They don't seem to have the same level of urgency that we have had over it,” he said. The man leading Russia’s efforts to solve the Y2K finally responded Wednesday by asking NATO and the U.S. Defense Department for advice — and money. Russia wants all sides to “speak the same language,” Alexander Krupnov, chairman of the Central Telecommunications Commission, said Wednesday. “We’re in a critical situation in several areas” — in cluding the Defense Ministry. The problem arises because ear ly programmers trying to save mem ory space used only two digits to identify the year — meaning that 2000 looks the same a; 1 ing off calculations in- Russia has alread’.. NATO ex pens invest^ tial danger to Russian terns. While an errann brought on by a coup ure would be hi;" puter snags could: and telecommunicate that are the backboned system to detect foraM Radar screens cotiliS and the bug could throj clear systems into, which is apparentlyd making the computet? cessible. “It’s not that nuclei going to pop off outo Paul Beaver, an analjt Information Group! 1 / m Kosovars demand vote on region independence # Iraqi mem 4 # benefittii DRAGOBIUE, Yugoslavia (AP) — Separatists in Kosovo de manded a guarantee Wednesday that a vote on independence for their province would be part of any peace accord with Serbia — a move that dimmed prospects for this weekend’s peace talks in France. The rebel Kosovo Liberation Army has accepted the U.S.-Eu ropean summons to the talks. And in Belgrade, the government gave its strongest signals yet that Serbia — Yugoslavia’s dominant republic — will also join the ne gotiations. Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic’s Socialist party hinted at attendance, saying that Yu goslavia supported solving the Kosovo issue “through political means.” Serbia’s hard-line Parliament, under Milosevic’s de facto con trol, is due to decide Thursday whether to accept the summons to talks scheduled to start Satur day in Rambouillet, France, out side Paris. NATO is threatening to attack if the Serbs and ethnic Albanians don’t start talking by Saturday and strike a deal by Feb. 19 to end ll months of fighting. The allies are pushing a peace deal providing for a three-year pe riod of autonomy for Kosovo — where ethnic Albanians make up some 90 percent of the popula tion — followed by talks between the two sides on the province’s future. Most of Kosovo’s Albanians demand independence, a goal that the allies have opposed for fear of stirring up the Balkans’ volatile ethnic mix. Kosovo’s moderate Albanian leader, Ibrahim Rugova, an nounced through a spokesman that he would attend the talks. Serbia’s state-run television al lowed hours of air time lliesday evening to a moderate who sup ports participation in the talks, in dicating leaders could be prepar ing the public for a “yes” by parliament. However, even the moderate, Deputy Premier Vuk Draskovic, said Serbia will never agree to al lowing Kosovo to become either independent or a third republic within Yugoslavia, along with Serbia and Montenegro. Envoys Christopher Hill of the United States and Wolfgang Petritsch of the European Union were pressing Serb leaders Wednesday for a positive re sponse to the talks. A commander in the Kosovo Liberation Army said Wednesday his side was joining talks with lit tle faith they would resolve the conflict. Independence “will come with war and not talks,” said com mander Remi, who like most top- ranking KLA officials identified himself only by one name, speak ing in northern Kosovo. “The Serb side knows only force.” from emfen S, E , „ iSs in the m BAGHDAD, Iraq (AF - stone mansions with coir with orange trees dot Bap borhoods, evidence oft class that has grown rick lions aiul is a new sourcf for Saddam Hussein’s re? C A not h In the countryside,ne« . far mere drive Mercedesse®!. -Vgrini gled from Jordan in defu -se words a economic sanctions the-podium VA most Iraqis so poor that tdy to tell tl has become a struggle, out the higl The U.N. embargoiorJwho hac Iraq’s 1990 invasion of s ot intent, isolated Iraq and crushes The Aggies class. But it has also crevty ers on sig for merchants who imp? the best re< gle goods across thepora j n school h In some cases, the new ^ ^ ■ jactc chants are simple war pro: th 6 ^ plying a country in ^ R,,, others, Saddanu ■ But in regime regime has encouraged^ , , hom key families andtnW cement their backing, (' analysts say. The patronage is cle*| areas, where the goverr land, seed, fertilizers andii chinery to tribal leaders,v patrol the countrysidefortl ment. The farmers alsoji merit price supports. “The regime is trying!] those who are not openlyo it and get them undertheirfij Moraiwid Tell, a professors versity of Jordan. “Thefai they can’t do anything! regime, so they live witltit'l Aes over th r Ifu A TANKING n •jr ASK HOW TO tan** $ 95 /MONTH NO ANNUAL CONTRACT The BIGGEST, most POWERFUL beds in town... Featuring the JET POWER 6000 Aggieland’s only European ultra Sun Beds... 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