2A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, April 18, 1996 NATION/WORLD Explosion rocks London district Blast follows warning reportedly from IRA T IC7 .k Now ... ,,.r.. -, ~#,'~p, LONDON (AP) - An explosion rocked an expensive residential district of west London last night, following a warn- ing call attributed to the Irish Republican Army, police and fire officials said. The blast blew out windows at an empty house and neighboring build- ings in a tony street called The >Boltons, but there were no injuries, police said. An anonymous telephone call re- ceived by The Associated Press, and using a recognized code word, warned a bomb was planted about 15 minutes before the blast. Police said the explo- sion probably was the work of the IRA. "There was a vast explosion that shook the house," said Carolyn Seymour, who lives nearby. "The win- dows almost came in." Winnie Strauss, who was walking her dog at the time of the blast, said, "I've still got glass in my hair." Some formally dressed residents, returning from dinner parties, were unable to get past police cordons to their houses in an area that is home to millionaires and diplomats, near Chelsea. It was a small explosion, causing minimal damage, Scotland Yard police spokesperson Steve Park told report- ers. "We've had minimal damage toprop- erty, there was no loss of life and no injuries." He said the blast oc- curred 12 minutes after the warning was re- ceived. "The of- ficers had just started to search the area when at 2154 (9:54 p.m. local time) the ex- plosion took place," he said. There wa vast explosio that shook tl house. The windows am camne in." cease-fire, setting off a truck bomb in east London's Docklands, killing two newspaper vendors, wounding scores and wrecking several office buildings. S a Six days later, po- lice experts defused a small bomb contained in gym bag left in phone e booth in the West End theater district. Phoned warnings lost were given for both of those bombs. On Feb. 18, IRA man Edward O'Brien, n Seymour 21, blew himself up n resident and wounded nine ci- vilians when the brief- case bomb he was car- rying detonated accidentally on a double-decker bus in the West End. A small IRA bomb left behind rub- bish bins in west London on March 9 shattered windows but caused no seri- ous injuries. Buchanan denies third-party candidacy WASHINGTON - Republican presidential candidate Pat Buchanan all but closed the door on a third-party candidacy yesterday but promised to wage..a national issue-oriented campaign aimed at moving his party closer to some of his conservative positions in advance of the GOP convention. Buchanan, who has conceded the nomination to Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, also said he had decided not to campaign in the upcoming Pennsylva. primary - even though he believed he could do well in Philadelphia Pittsburgh - because it might look like he was only trying to weaken Dole. Buchanan's tone and thrust at a news conference yesterday seemed to mark a shift in strategy. Last week, he campaigned in Missouri and was rewarded with I1 convention delegates. But yesterday he declined to draw direct contrasts with Dole - or criticize his viability as the party's standard-bearer - and said he would focus his efforts on using "our influence and voice inside the Republican Party to try to change its direction." Buchanan has sparred with Republican leaders, ignoring their advice to get out of the race for the sake of party unity and holding out the possibility he would run as an independent in the fall. But yesterday he said: "We are acknowledging right now that we're deliberately working on a third-party campaign." - Carolyr Londo The IRA has resumed attacks in Brit- ain, but not in Northern Ireland, in its quarter-century campaign to end Brit- ish rule in the province. On Feb. 9, the IRA ended a 17-month Ford's quarter profits drop, stocks rise DEARBORN - Ford Motor Co.'s costs of launching redesigned vehicles combined with weak U.S. sales for a 58- percent drop in first-quarter profits, the No. 2 domestic automaker reported yesterday. "Overall, it was a horrible quarter," said industry analyst David Healy of Burnham Securities Inc. Ford executives insisted the worst was over and that the outlook for the rest of 1996 was good. Healy and other analysts agreed. The company earned $653 million, or 54 cents a share, in first three months of the year. That compared with Ford's unusually strong showing of$1.55 bil- lion, or $1.44 a share, in the first quarter of 1995. Still, the latest results were better than Wall Street's expectation of 33 cents a share. As a result, Ford stock rose $1.25 to $36.62 1/2 a share in trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The news came one day after No. 3 Chrysler Corp. reported healthy first- quarter earnings of SI billion, more than double its performance from the year-ago period. General Motors Corp. is scheduled to release its earn- ings Monday. Fourth F-14 crashes raises concerns WASHINGTON - A Navy F-14 fighter crashed and exploded in Vir- ginia yesterday, heightening concern about the safety of the aging aircraft that has crashed four times in just the last three months. Although Navy officials have said the crash rate of the F-14 is not signifi- cantly worse than other carrier-baad combat aircraft, safety experts are gry ing increasingly worried that the mis- haps could hamper the Navy's ability to perform its missions. The Navy already has been forced to restrict the speed and use of engine afterburners on the F-14, actions that experts say couldjeopardize confidence in the aircraft. The F-14 is among the oldest of the Pentagon's tactical combat jets. rrrw r ~ i *""The Big FREE showing at State Theater Tonight, 9:30 pm Free gifts will be given out! * Zero Year Reunion Last hurrah for graduating seniors Friday, 3-6 pm Come to the Union for games, sno-cones, and fun! 'NOUND MEw .,s 1 MIN) Russian soldiers reported killed in C echnan ambush MOSCOW - Separatists in Chechnya ambushed a column of Rus- sian tanks and trucks, killing 26 sol- diers and damaging President Boris Yeltsin's effort to wind down the war by election day, Russian news media reported yesterday. The clash was the bloodiest since Yeltsin offered a peace plan for the unruly southern republic March 31. It occurred as Russian troops were with- drawing late Tuesday from Shatoi, a mountain town in Chechnya abandoned earlier by separatists guerrillas. Reports from Chechnya said at least 100 separatists hiding outside the town staged the ambush with grenade launchers and automatic rifles, destroy- ing 23 of the convoy's 27 vehicles and wounding 51 soldiers besides those who died. Yeltsin's 16-month-old war to pre- vent Chechnya's secession is a major liability of his re-election campaign against Communist leader Gennady Zyyuganov, front-runner on the June 16 ballot. More than 20,000 people have died in the worst fighting in Rus- sia since World War11. Mine blast kills 2 soldiers, injures 2 TUZLA AIR BASE, Bosnia- Herzegovina - Two soldiers from the NATO-led peace-enforcing troops in Bosnia were killed yesterday and two were injured when their vehicle hit a land mine. NATO said the troops were part g brigade made up of soldiers from Den- mark, Sweden, Norway, Poland. Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia. NATO withheld the names and na- tionalities of the victims pending noti- fication of next of kin. The deaths are the second and thirs mine-related fatalities since NATC forces arrived here in December. Sgt 1st Class Donald Dugan of Ridgeway Ohio, was killed by a mine on Feb. 3 - From Daily wire serve The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday during the fall and winter terms by students at the University of Michigan. Subscriptions for fall term, starting in September, via U.S. mail are $85. Winter term (January through April) is $95, year-long (September through April) is $165. On-campus subscriptions for fall term are $35. Subscriptions must be prepaid. The Michigan Daily is a member of the Associated Press and the Associated collegiate Press. ADDRESS: The Michigan Daily, 420 Maynard Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1327. PHONE NUMBERS (All area code 313): News 76-DAILY; Arts 763-0379; Sports 747-3336; Opinion 764-055 Circulation 764-0558; classified advertising 764-0557; Display advertising 764-0554; Billing 764-0550. E-mail letters to the editor to daily.letters@umich.edu. World Wide Web: http://www.pub.umich.edu/daily/. EDIT**A STAF Ron * *sseg Edto 8nCh NEWS Amy Klein, Managing Editor EDITORS: Tim O'Connell, Megan Schimpf, Michelle Lee Thompson, Josh white. STAFF: Patience Atkin. Erena Baybik, Cathy Boguslaski, Matt Buckley. Jodi Cohen, Melanie Cohen, Lisa Dines, Sam T. Dudek, Jeff Eldridge, Kate Glickman. Lisa Gray, Jennifer Harvey. Stephanie Jo Klein, Marisa Ma. Laurie Mayk, Heather Miller, Rajal Pitroda, Anupama Reddy, Alice Robinson, Matthew Smart, Ann Stewart, Carissa Van Heest, Christopher Wan, Katie Wang, Will Weissert, Maggie Weyhing. CALENDAR: Matt Buckley. EDITORIAL Adrienne Janney, Zachary M. Raimi, Editors STAFF: Kate Epstein. Niraj R. Ganatra, Ephraim R. Gerstein, Joe Gigliotti, Keren Kay Hahn. Katie Hutchins. Chris Kaye, Jim Lasser, Erin Marsh. Brent McIntosh. Trisha Miller. Steven Musto. Paul Serilla, Jordan Stancil, Ron Steiger. Jason Stoffer, Jean Twenge, Matt Wimsatt. SPORTS Nicholas J. Cotsonika, Managing Edi EDITORS: John Leroi, Brent McIntosh. Barry Sollenberger. STAFF: Donald Adamek. Paul Barger, Nancy Berger, Susan Dann, Darren Everson, John Friedberg, Jiten Ghelani. Alan Goldenbach, James Goldstein, Jeremy Horelick, Jennifer Houdilik, Chaim Hyman, Kevin Kasiborski, Andy Knudsen, Marc Lightdale, Will McCahill, Chris Murphy. Sharat Raju, Pranay Reddy. Jim Rose, Michael Rosenberg, Danielle Rumore, Richard Shin, Mark Snyder, Dan Stillman. Doug Stevens, Ryan White. ARTS Dean Bakopoulos, Joshua Rich, Editors WEEKEND, ETC. EDITORS: Kari Jones. Elan Stavros. S-JB.EDITORS: Melissa Rose Bernardo (Theater). Brian A. Gnatt (Music), Jennifer Petlinski (Film), Ted Watts (Fine Arts). James Wilson (Book s). STAFF: Colin Bartos, Eugene Bowen. Jennifer Buckley, Neal C. Carruth. Christopher Corbett. Jeffrey Dinsmore. Tim Furlong, Lise Harwin, Emily Lambert. Bryan Lark, Kristin Long, Elizabeth Lucas, James Miller. Greg Parker, Heather Phares, Ryan Posly, Michael Rosenberg, Dave Snyder, Prashant Tamaskar. Alexandra Twin. Kelly Xintaris, Michael Zilberman. PHOTO Mark Friedman, Jonathan Lurie, Editors STAFF: Josh Biggs, Jennifer Bradley-Swift. Tonya Broad, Diane Cook. Nopporn Kichanantha. Margaret Myers, Stephanie Gra Lim, Elizabeth Lippman, Kristen Schaefer, Sara Stillman. Joe Westrate, Warren Zinn. COPY DESK Elizabeth Lucas, Editor STAFF: Matthew Benz, Amy Carey. Jodi Cohen, Lili Kalish, Jill Litwin, Heather Miller, Matt Spewak. ONLINE Scott Wilcox, Editor STAFF: Dennis Fitzgerald, Jeffrey Greenstein, Charles Harrison. Travis Patrick. Victoria Salipande, Matthew Smart, Joe Westrate, Anthony Zak. UIEDS AV 1AF Pe nB.. sne ..Mangeu ..: : N 1.