WTWO, Tara Hote.
Good morning, I'm Tom Donovan and this is NBC Nightside.
President Clinton is moving ahead with plans for U.S. forces to airdrop food and supplies
into Bosnia.
This morning, the President has important political support.
On a White House visit Wednesday, British Prime Minister John Major made it clear the
airdrops are welcome.
But as Sandy Gilmore reports, Major also reiterated that his government will not take an active
role in the operation.
The President and the Conservative British Prime Minister were all smiles despite the
fact that John Major openly supported President Bush even as the British government searched
for dirt on Clinton's student days in Britain.
I told the Prime Minister today that I was just grateful that I got through this whole
campaign with most of my time in England still classified.
There are tensions.
Clinton has outraged the British by calling for a special U.S. envoy to intervene and
try to settle the conflict in Northern Ireland where British troops remain.
The British are concerned about Clinton's tough talk at the Boeing plant earlier this
week, blaming lost American jobs on competition from Europe's aerobus partially subsidized
by Britain.
In Bosnia, the main topic here, the British government will support but not join Clinton's
plan to airdrop supplies into eastern Bosnia.
Britain feels it's done enough already with 3,000 ground troops there.
The U.S. plan now calls for airdrops at a safe, if inaccurate, high altitude without
fighter jet protection.
They will drop supplies not just to the starving Bosnian Muslims cut off by Serbs, but to Serbs
and Croats too, to keep everyone happy and move the peace talks forward.
It would be a great mistake to read this humanitarian relief operation as some initial foray toward
a wider military role.
There's a twin-track approach.
We're providing aid by land.
The President has in mind aid delivered by air to areas where we can't reach it by land.
If nothing else, the U.S. airlift symbolizes the Clinton administration's new involvement
in Bosnia.
Members hope it will come in time for the latest round of Bosnian peace talks at the
U.N., which could start as early as Monday.
Sandy Gilmore, NBC News, Washington.
The two world leaders wrapped up their day with a working dinner at the White House Wednesday
night.
Both the President and the Prime Minister say their visit is aimed at reaffirming the
special relationship between the U.S. and Britain.
Major is scheduled to return to London later today.
The United Nations Wednesday called for a revival of peace talks between the Bosnian
Serbs and the Croats.
The negotiations stalled more than two weeks ago.
Both Serbs and Muslims were dissatisfied with the territorial boundaries drawn by Special
Envoy Cyrus Vance and Lord David Owen.
Earlier this week, President Clinton and Secretary General Butros Butros-Ghali met in Washington
calling for the Serbs, Muslims, and Croats to resume the talks.
Some of those hoping to escape the violence in Bosnia are in the U.S. this morning.
Three Muslim families arrived in Houston Wednesday.
The U.S. government helped arrange their trip.
About 200 families from the former Yugoslavia may eventually immigrate to the U.S.
It's unclear whether they hope to settle permanently in the United States.
Somalia was shaken by a second day of bloody violence between U.S. forces and local warlords.
Witnesses in Mogadishu say at least nine people were killed by American troops during a riot
on Wednesday.
But U.S. military leaders say American forces are not responsible for those deaths.
Tuesday's riots and one on Tuesday are the worst violence in Mogadishu since allied forces
arrived in Somalia in December.
And just ahead on Nightside, dramatic details of kidnapping in Little Rock, a stockbroker's
wife held for one million dollars in cash, and later living the reality of war will have
one family's tragic story from Sarajevo.
Welcome back to Nightside.
I'm Tom Donovan along with Kim Hindrew.
Opening statements are set for later today in the trial of four L.A. police officers
accused of violating Rodney King's civil rights.
Three alternate jurors were selected Wednesday despite defense requests for a mistrial.
The motion was centered around possible bias of a black juror.
Steve Handelsman reports on the mistrial motion and the impact the jury's final verdict could
have on Los Angeles.
Selection of alternate jurors went ahead after Judge John Davies refused a request by one
of the accused officers for a new lawyer and refused a motion for mistrials centered on
the only black woman who's already been sworn as a member of the jury.
Lawyers for the accused cops say she's privately indicated bias against them.
I may have nothing to worry about.
I may not.
But since I don't know, my duty requires me to be thorough on behalf of Stacy Kuhn and
investigate this issue.
I believe in the jury system.
I believe in it last time.
I believe it in this time.
These issues that arise about this other juror, whatever the number is, the female and the
male that brought the issue to our attention, we don't know if it is a real problem.
Meanwhile, hovering in the background here are memories of the deadly riots that followed
not guilty verdicts by a jury in the state case last year.
In South Central LA, leaders like Reverend Cecil Murray are working with youngsters and
worried about the federal case.
What's the possibility of another riot if all of these cops are not convicted?
The answer depends on the jury.
If there is fairness, it is well.
If there is perceived unfairness, the flashpoint is almost predictable.
Former gang member Tony Bogart knows the potential for violence here.
He's been shot eight times.
Now he's joining with other former gang leaders and urging calm.
It's a universal thing.
It's not just a black thing.
It's a universal thing because we want peace all the way around the board.
All we're saying is keep the peace in the streets and whatever happens with the brothers,
it's going to happen.
Back here at federal court, Judge Davies could call in the black woman juror and ask her
if she's biased against the accused cops, but he might not.
Steve Handelsman, NBC News, Los Angeles.
Also in Los Angeles, teachers are voting on a proposal which would cut their salaries.
The school district's 27,000 teachers originally planned to strike in response to a 12% pay
cut, but instead they are voting on a proposal which would slash their salaries by only 10%.
The move would avert a strike.
The voting began Wednesday and concludes later today.
The results are expected Friday.
In Little Rock, Arkansas, a man who allegedly kidnapped a woman from her home is in jail
this morning.
And after a two-day game of cat and mouse, the FBI recovered $1 million in ransom money.
NBC's Jim Cummins reports.
The police and FBI agents around Little Rock were not taking any chances during their intensive
manhunt for James Slack, a 38-year-old bricklayer with a history that made the authorities nervous.
We have information his military training would be of a survivalist type nature.
We heard he's an instructor in martial arts, so all of those type of things altogether
would make you think he is a survivalist.
Slack is accused of breaking into this luxurious home Monday.
He hogtied the owner, Alex Leblon, a high-profile stockbroker who earns millions of dollars
in commissions and was featured on the cover of Town & Country magazine only last month.
Leblon says the kidnapper confronted his wife, Joanne, when she arrived home.
I said, Joanne, do whatever he says.
I said that he's treated me relatively well and he's promised me he's not going to hurt
you.
But he did kidnap the woman and for the next 26 hours negotiated a swap.
Mrs. Leblon for $1 million cash at a country store.
After the exchange, the kidnapper fled, crashed his pickup truck into a ditch and ran away,
leaving the money behind.
There was a massive manhunt today with military helicopters.
Late today, Slack turned himself in.
Mrs. Leblon is okay.
Her husband's reaction to all this?
I'm going to get my increased security for my family, but I'm not going to change my
lifestyle any more.
James Slack has been charged with two counts of kidnapping.
Jim Cummins, NBC News.
In Arizona, dangerous floodwaters have residents scrambling for safety.
Residents and merchants near Yuma prepared Wednesday night for the expected overflow
of the Yuma Dam.
At least one produce plant shut down and evacuated workers as floodwaters came dangerously close.
The high water could land a $10 million blow to Arizona's produce farmers.
Millions of dollars worth of crops already have been destroyed.
Five skiers rescued from Colorado's bitter cold on Tuesday are starting to take a hard
look at how their pleasure trip went wrong.
Wednesday, they admitted their five-day ordeal began with simple mistakes.
In hindsight, we're a little bit complacent about our trip to the hut.
It was going to be a fun time.
It was a party.
Another survivor says the ski party did not take along their best wilderness equipment
because of overconfidence.
Two of the skiers remain in the hospital with severe frostbite.
Skiers say they'll need to undergo special medical treatments to heal the frostbite damage.
And lawmakers in Michigan are trying to put a ban on assisted suicide into immediate effects.
The ban isn't scheduled to take effect until March 30th, but some lawmakers fear a last-minute
flurry of people killing themselves with the help of Dr. Jack Kaborkin.
And still to come, Russian authorities uncover the biggest illegal drug shipment in that
country's history.
And later, the winners and losers from the 35th annual Grammys.
A year of fighting in the former Yugoslavia has left at least one million families without
homes.
The journalist Jeremy Bowen illustrates the tragedy with a look at one family and the
death of an innocent child.
The latest attack on the old town of Sarajevo seemed so trivial that the United Nations didn't
include it in this morning's report of military activity.
The current ceasefire and the snow seem to have stopped most of the shelling.
But only one shell can wreck many lives.
Senadine Sheta's two-and-a-half-year-old daughter was killed just after five o'clock yesterday
evening.
I'll never wash her blood from my clothes, he said, so I'll never forget the crimes of
the Serbs who did this.
Mr. Sheta wasn't injured, but he said he might as well be dead.
His brother wept for the dead girl.
His own wife and family are safe refugees in Croatia.
The doctors treated him for shrapnel wounds.
They said the injuries weren't serious.
Super Sheta was close to her daughter when she was killed.
Shell fragments tore into her lower abdomen.
She'll have to have a series of operations.
The doctors doubt she'll be able to have any more children.
Her husband tried to comfort her.
She wasn't interested in her own pain.
What God has given us, she said, has gone.
This morning, the name of their daughter, Almedine Sheta, born in 1990, had been added
to the list of casualties in Sarajevo Hospital.
Her body was lying in the mortuary next to the soldiers who were killed in last night's
fighting.
At the family's home, their friends were calling to pay their respects.
They're all people who've tried to keep some decency in their lives despite the pain and
suffering caused by the siege.
Almedine's grandfather said that she'd come in from playing in the snow a few minutes
before the shell landed.
She'll be buried in the city's overflowing graveyard tomorrow.
Official reports say the ceasefire still seems to be holding.
Jeremy Bowen, BBC News, Sarajevo.
In Russia, police have uncovered the largest drug shipment in that country's history.
2400 pounds of cocaine were found hidden in cans of food.
Police discovered the drugs after opening 26,000 cans of corned beef hash shipped from
Colombia.
The shipment was addressed to a company in St. Petersburg, Russia, but authorities believe
that location was only a transit point for the coke.
Russian police are holding an Israeli citizen in connection with the bust.
And an orange mess in the Belgian town of Beech.
The town streets are littered with orange rind after a giant food fight on Tuesday.
It's part of an ancient celebration in which members of the city's traditional clown group
throw oranges at each other as they dance through the streets.
This year, the clowns used some 300,000 oranges in the festivities.
Looks like it'd be very painful if you get beamed in the head.
Yes, maybe that's why they call it Beech.
Here's Night Sides weatherman Jerry Brown.
Nightside Weather is brought to you by Dollar Rent-A-Car.
Right on the airport.
Right on the money.
Well, good morning.
It seems appropriate that on the first day after the drought, there should be a chance
of rain in California's forecast.
And there is.
Best bet for showers from the San Francisco Bay area up to the north in San Diego and
LA.
You'll get in the act on Friday with some light to moderate rain.
Big storm system moving across the central part of the country.
Atlanta, a very messy morning rush hour with mixed wintry precipitation.
Same forecast, Chattanooga and Nashville accumulating snow.
Chicago down to St. Louis over to Kansas City and a chance for some snow up in Minneapolis
as well along this frontal system.
High pressure will keep it sunny over New England down through New York City, but increasing
clouds.
Charlotte, you're looking at some snow by later this afternoon, partly cloudy skies
over Florida and some pretty good thunderstorms from Houston over to New Orleans.
It'll be sunny over the southwest, partly sunny over California with the increasing
clouds off the Pacific.
Some localized snow over the Wasatch of Utah and sunny skies over the big sky.
Chilly up there.
30s and 40s out to the northwest.
Teens in northern New England to the 70s in southern Florida.
Have yourself a great day.
I'm Jerry Brown for NBC Nightside.
We'll be right back.
In touch with the Wabash Valley 24 hours a day.
This is TV2 Eyewitness News.
Here now are Tom McClanahan and Jesse Walker.
Good morning, everyone.
Just we'll be along with a look at the snow and the forecast in the news at this hour.
You may not know it, but both Indiana and Illinois has millions of have millions of
dollars waiting for its rightful owners to claim every night here on TV2.
We have brought you a list of people in the Wabash Valley who are on that money list and
we have some new names.
Tonight's list includes Cleopatra Burris of Tarot, Indiana, a little over $400 coming
to her.
The house of Route 1 Dugger has $88 coming and Mary Mills of 404 North Central in Paris
has $250.
If you say your name, see your name on tonight's money list, call us here at TV2 at 232-9504
and we'll tell you how to get your money.
A Washington, Indiana man says he warned his son he would be killed if he continued to
be a drug informant for the state police.
That warning came from Cole Bauer's father just months before he was found dead in Monica
Bateman's home in Washington, Indiana back in 1989.
In a tearful testimony, Bauer's mother said dates of what happened are confusing, but
the one day she remembers clearly is the day her son died.
The trial continues later on this morning.
And a Clinton, Indiana man is behind bars for intimidating public officials.
37-year-old David Wynn apparently threatened Judge Don Darnell of Vermillion County Circuit
Court with acts of violence at the courthouse in Newport.
Details are sketchy at this time, but state police tell TV2 that Wynn was arrested but
has not yet been formally charged.
Police also say Judge Darnell is currently hearing a case against Wynn but would not
give any more details.
Now with details of that snow coming, here's Jess.
Oh, Big Mac, this is what we're looking at.
Later on today, the low pressure will swing down into the Memphis, Tennessee area, bringing
a band of snow across most all of Indiana and Illinois.
The heaviest snowfall, though, from this system should be in the southern portions of the
two-state area, and we have a winter storm warning from around Sullivan South, from Sullivan
North to north of Terre Haute and back into central Illinois.
We have a heavy snow warning.
North of that is snow advisory.
So the heaviest snow is probably going to fall in this band right in here.
As a matter of fact, this is what I think will happen.
You go from around Effingham to just north of Sullivan to about Spencer and south, six
to maybe as much as 10 inches, and the heavier amounts will probably fall in the southern
portion of this area.
Then across the Terre Haute region over to Green Castle, Brazil, then back into Marshall,
probably about four to seven inches.
And again, the heavier amounts to the south, up to the north of that, about three to five
inches.
So the heaviest snow is going to stay in the southern portion of the viewing area, and
that's where we have it developing down to the south, becoming heavy 15 to 20.
Later today, snow heavy at times with an east wind, a high between 28 and 32.
And tonight, the snow will end in cold down to 20.
So we take a look then into Friday, mostly cloudy, snow flurries and cold, a high of
30.
And the weekend right now doesn't look too bad, partly sunny with highs in the 30s.
Tom?
Thank you very much, and thank you for tuning in to our cut in.
Now back to NBC Nightside.
Well, I want to tell you about the big winner at the 35th Annual Grammy Awards.
It is Eric Clapton.
The Rock Legend won six Grammys, including album, record, and song of the year.
David Sheehan wraps up the night's events.
Clapton's touching lament tears in heaven, not only one song of the year, but record
of the year as well.
And the album it came from, Unplugged, took the grand prize album of the year as Grammy
Night turned into Eric Clapton Night.
The winner is Eric Clapton.
Eric Clapton.
Clapton's 20 year old bluesy favorite, Layla, took best rock song while he was also voted
best male pop and best male rock vocalist.
An avalanche of awards that had Clapton feeling just a little bit uneasy.
I just feel incredibly guilty.
I don't know why I feel so guilty about taking so many of these.
I don't know what to say.
I want to thank a lot of people, but the one person I want to thank is my son for the love
he gave me and the song he gave me.
The evening's other highlight was a special Grammy Legend Award presented to Michael Jackson
by his sister Janet and bringing the newly talkative Michael to the podium for a speech.
In the past month, I've gone from where is he to here he is again.
David Sheehan for NBC News.
A lot of good music this year.
Yes.
You're watching NBC Nightside, a production of NBC News Channel in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Fourth and another upset in college basketball that has some volunteers exceptionally happy
and some Kentucky fans feeling cheated.
Yeah, probably so.
It was kind of a strange finish last night to that game, but it was exciting.
That's for sure.
On the heels of top ranked Indiana's loss to Ohio State on Tuesday night, number two
Kentucky found itself on the short end last night against unranked Tennessee.
Jamal Mashburn turned in a stellar effort for Kentucky with 26 points, but with five
seconds to go, Tennessee turned this deliberately missed free throw into a three point play
by Corey Allen and the volunteers rallied to upset the Wildcats 78 to 77.
Elsewhere in college basketball last night, we had Duke getting 16 points from Bobby Hurley
as they beat Florida State.
It was Vanderbilt in overtime over Georgia and Clemson got a steal from Chris Whitney
in the final seconds to hold off Wake Forest and Iowa was big winner over Penn State.
Now after getting pummeled by the Hornets on Tuesday night in Charlotte, New Jersey
went searching for better luck in Boston last night and they didn't find it.
Kenny Anderson got his shot blocked twice here in the Celtics start the fast break.
Reggie Lewis finishes with two of his 31 points and then in the second half, Sherman Douglas
runs the break the other way.
Allie Oop, he sends it to Xavier McDaniel and Boston beat the Nets 1-0-3-2-88.
Elsewhere in the NBA, we had the Supersonics over the T-Wolves.
It was Atlanta 1-32-1-0-7 over the Sixers and the Bullets were winners over the Pacers.
Now Jazz coach Jerry Sloan was not a happy man last night.
He watched his team drop their second straight game and he was ejected in the process.
Coach Tim Hardaway put down 29 points as Golden State beat Utah.
There goes the shot, 1-20-1-0-8.
The rest of the finals in the NBA, we had the Knicks getting by the Bucks.
Again, the Jazz fell to the Warriors.
The Heat beat the Blazers.
It was the Nuggets over the Mavericks and the Lakers were winners over the Kings.
In hockey last night, plenty of misbehaving between the Flyers and the Whalers.
29 penalties totaling 97 minutes were handed out in this one.
One of those penalties, a five minute one to the Whalers, Nick Kiprios.
Watch him level the Flyers.
Gary Galley.
Galley knocked out by that elbow, had to be carried from the ice, but Philadelphia capitalized
on the penalty, Eric Lindros with the power play goal, his second of the night, and the
Flyers beat Hartford 5-2.
The rest of the finals in the NHL, we had the Sabres over the Red Wings 10-7 and the
Canucks were 5-4 winners over the Rangers.
And finally, we may not have heard the last of the Giants, Lawrence Taylor on the football
field.
He met with new coach Dan Reeves yesterday and indicated an eagerness to come back next
season following this Achilles tendon injury he suffered last fall.
He said before the injury that he was going to retire after the season, but I guess leaving
on a stretcher is not quite the way that he envisioned his career ending.
So it looks like we could see him playing again for the Giants.
He's a free agent so he could go to another team, but he says if he comes back, he wants
to be with the Giants.
The good news, great player.
Yeah, he is.
All right, thanks Mark.
And Nightside continues in just a moment.
WTWO, Tara Holt.