EVENTS
DOLLARS SOUGHT FOR BENEFITS EXTENSION The Clinton administration is searching for ways to pay for a new $1.6 billion extension of unemployment benefits for people who have been out of work more than half a year. Labor Secretary Robert Reich proposed a six-month renewal of the program to a House panel on Wednesday. The plan allows people who use up the standard 26 weeks of unemployment coverage to receive up to 13 weeks of additional benefits. Unless a new extension is enacted, jobless workers depleting the regular benefits beginning Oct. 3 will be unable to seek extra coverage. People already receiving extended benefits on Oct. 3 would continue getting weekly checks. Extended benefits have existed since November 1991. Federal air for sale
The Federal Communications Commission was deciding yesterday how opening up licenses for government radio waves to private use would be sold and how large a claim could be staked by any single company. The license must be used for wireless services that will enable consumers to send and receive written messages, faxes, and video and audio transmissions.
The FCC had to decide how best to encourage development of new products, foster competition, and make sure small entrepreneurs aren't trampled by giant companies. The government hopes to raise $10.2 billion from the sales. UN troop withdrawal
The United Nations Security Council says that life is returning to normal in most of Somalia, and that the UN peacekeeping forces should be able to pull out by March 1995. In a resolution approved Wednesday, the council called for rebuilding Somalia's shattered police, court, and jail systems. It unanimously approved a program to recruit and train police nationwide, with the goal of establishing a 10,000-person police force by March 1994. Croats attack
The UN said yesterday that the bodies of 66 Serbs had been recovered following a Croatian Army incursion into a rebel Serb enclave in Krajina. UN spokeswoman Shannon Boyd said it was impossible to determine whether they were civilians or soldiers because of their condition. The Croatian offensive was an attempt to recapture territory lost to ethnic Serbs when they proclaimed the Republic of Serb Krajina on Croatian territory in 1991.
Meanwhile, Bosnian Croat forces heavily bombarded the Muslim quarter of Mostar yesterday, forcing the UN to postpone an emergency aid convoy to the besieged ghetto, UN relief officials said. Egypt's courts questioned
Amnesty International yesterday urged Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak to quit sending civilians before military courts and to stop his police from extracting confessions through torture. Military convictions for scores of alleged Muslim extremists should be thrown out, and they should be retried, the London-based human rights watchdog group said. Mubarak turned to military courts late last year after restive religious extremists targeted foreign tourists in a campaign to rid Egypt of his government in favor of an Islamic one. Despite quick and harsh judgments by military officers, the country's vital $3 billion tourism industry remains far below normal. Nicaraguan strike
Hundreds of bonfires blazed throughout Managua yesterday as a nationwide strike that some fear is a precursor to a national uprising entered its fourth day. At least two people have died in the strike, which began when about 30,000 bus, truck, and taxi drivers went off their jobs to protest a new vehicle tax. The government suspended the tax on Tuesday, but the strike has continued as Nicaraguans vent their frustration with the staggering economy. Triassic Park
Paleontologists in South Africa have unearthed a rare complete skeleton of a dinosaur that lived in the Triassic Age, more than 200 million years ago. Johann Welman, head of Bloemfontein National Museum's paleontology department, said Wednesday he believed the remains were the first of a complete Euskelosaurus to be found. The Euskelosaurus was a four-legged, barrel-shaped animal that grazed on leaves and grass.
