PRINCE GEORGE
Details page 2
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1994	65	CENTS
INDEX
Tots’ edition
SWITCHBOARD: 562-2441	CLASSIFIED:	562-6666	-	)	CIRCULATION:	562-3301
FlfST NIGHT FESTIVITIES
Parfygoers will usher in 1995 without bubbly
by Citizen Staff
Tonight’s the night.
And while many may be celebrating with friends at home or having a night out on the town, the largest gathering of New Year’s Eve celebrators will be at the Civic Centre for First Night ‘95.
The non-alcoholic, drug-free celebration features live entertainment at the Civic Centre and activities for the kids.
It’s one of many First Night celebrations on the go throughout North America as an alternative to the traditional New Year’s Eve partying.
A $5 button — available at Studio 2880 — gets
you into all the events including free skating at the Coliseum from 1 to 3 p.m. today and free swimming at the pool from 3 to 5 p.m.
Buttons for the event sponsored by Northwood Pulp and Timber, PGTV, Inn of the North, I.C.B.C. and the Internet Cafe will also be available tonight at the Civic Centre. Children three years old and under get in free.
The action at the Civic Centre kicks off at 6 p.m. with live entertainment and music including Kings Ransom, the winner of the 1992 Battle of the Bands. Dancing runs from 10 to 11:30 p.m. Other performers include Ian Johnstone, Jim Raddysh, Shana
Golden, Lil Finch and Tehillah.
The kids’ craft activities begin at 6:30 p.m. and the family play room at 6. There’s a balloon drop at 10 p.m. There’s also concession available at the Civic Centre.
All venues are general seating and on a fifst-come, first-served basis.
The show will go on regardless of weather conditions. All performances are indoors, except for the fireworks.
The fireworks, from the top of Connaught Hill, will go off at the stroke of midnight.
Abortion shootings kill two
BROOKLINE, Mass. (AP-CP) — Police were searching today for a 22-year-old student hairdresser suspected of opening fire in two abortion clinics, killing two women and wounding five other people.
An arrest warrant for John Salvi, of Hampton, N.H., was issued early today after police linked him to a handgun, ammunition and a receipt left at the second clinic after an exchange of gunfire between the gunman and a security guard.
Salvi was being sought on charges of murder and armed assault with intent to murder, said Norfolk County District Attorney William Delahunt.
Salvi was last seen at his home Friday afternoon, Delahunt said.
Richard Griffin, Salvi’s boss at a Hampton beauty salon, described him as “a very odd character” who had told fellow workers he was against abortion and had anti-abortion slogans on his pickup truck as well as a picture of a fetus that they asked him to remove.
Griffin said Salvi was originally from Montreal.
The slayings brought to five the number of people killed in shootings at abortion clinics since 1993.
LjAR OF THE YEARAWARD
Told any tall tales lately?
BURLINGTON, Wis. (AP) — Donald Theisen said his grandfather could sharpen a kitchen knife like no one else.
So, how sharp was it?
Well, Theisen’s grandmother could use it to slice bread so thin a piece had just one side. To apply butter, you had to fold it first.
Or at least that’s the tall tale that won Theisen, 72, of Appleton, Wis., the Liar of the Year award from the Burlington Liars Club.
‘‘I always knew that I would be famous for something,” said Theisen, who received a certificate for submitting the winning lie in the club’s annual contest.
The club also awarded 10 honorable mentions. Some samples:
■ “Every year around Christmas it gets so cold in Rochester (N.Y.) that men with
toupees wear them inside out.” Len Squires, of Rochester.
■ “During the rainy season in Stuart (Fla.), the rain comes down so hard and so fast that automobile dealerships in the area consider oars as standard equipment.” Jearjette La Foret, of Stuart.
■ ‘The potholes in my street are so bad that whenever I play my car stereo, the radio station’s record skips.” Russ Lawson, Racine, Wis.
■ “There was this lady on a tour of the Endless Mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania. Upon visiting a mink ranch, she asked the rancher how often could he skin the mink. 'Well, not more than twice,’ he said.
“ 'They get pretty damned mean after that.’ “ Rupert Turrell, New Milford, Pa.
■ “Last year, when the old
sheep farmer finished shearing his big flock of sheep, he ended up with a very sore back. The next day he went into town and bought a big bag of buttons. He then went home and sewed four or five buttons on the belly of each one of his sheep. This year, when it came time to shear, all he had to do was unbutton their new wool coats and remove them, just like a pair of long-handled underwear.” Jack Sorensen, Kenosha, Wis.
The Liars Club was started in 1929 by local newspaperman Otis Hulett.
Theisen is the third winner from Appleton in the last seven years but John Soeth, Liars Club president, said that fact is pure coincidence.
“We pay no attention whatever to where the lies come from,” Soeth said.	*	.
Robbery
suspects
nabbed
by Citizen Staff
Prince George RCMP quickly arrested two suspects following an armed robbery of a Mr. G’s convenience store Friday night.
The police searched a group home on a warrant and both cash and a handgun were found.
Two youths robbed the Mr. G’s on 15th Avenue and Spruce Street at about 8:30 p.m. and fled with the cash.
Look inside today’s Citizen for a peek at the new kids in town. The eight-page Tots ‘94 edition features the new offspring of proud Prince George parents and is enclosed as a bonus in today’s newspaper.
Farcus
Citizen photo by Dave Milne
City cells have plenty of room for Prince George drivers who mix drinking with their operation of a motor vehicle tonight. With alcohol-free First Night celebrations at the Civic Centre, good buddies willing to act as designated drivers and free New Year’s Eve bus service in the city, there’s scant excuse for drinking and driving.
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SUPERPOWER THREALALL BUT VANISHED
Religion Sports ,
Year closes on world torn
WASHINGTON (AP) — The year drew to a close on a world riven by violence.
Intelligence gatherers counted some 70 conflicts in 1994, ranging from the much-publicized war in Bosnia to obscure ethnic battles in West Africa and drug-related violence in Latin America.
The threat of superpower conflict has all but vanished, replaced by conflicts in Haiti, Rwanda, Somalia, Bosnia and the Persian Gulf.
Just how many wars are going on at any one time is a subject of some disagreement.
The National Defence Council Foundation, a research group based in Alexandria, Va., is about to send U.S. intelligence agencies , an analysis citing 70 conflicts in 1994, up from 62 in 1993. -
Some are far from the headlines: tribal conflict in Afghanistan; ethnic fighting in Burundi; religious conflict in Ethiopia; political battles in Malawi; insurgency in Sierra Leone. And the list is not limited to outright war — included is: “The United States — drug violence.”
Other groups are more conservative in their count, refusing to include drug wars, for example.
The Centre for Defence Information, another Washington-area think tank, says there are 29 ongoing conflicts, the largest group of them concentrated in the politi-
cal and cultural cauldron of central Asia including India, Pakistan, and Tajikistan.
Jane’s Defence Weekly, the authoritative British-based publication, counts among dozens of lesser conflicts around the world, five “flash points:” Bosnia; Congo, beset by ethnic violence; Russia with the civil war in breakaway Chechnya; the Solomon Islands, where the government is concerned about an expanding revolutionary army; and the Sudan, where fighting continues between government forces and southern rebels.
The United Nations has peacekeeping operations under way in ^Rwanda, Cyprus? Western Sahara, Haiti, Liberia, the former Soviet republic of Georgia, Angola, Lebanon, India, El Salvador and Kuwait.
Andy Messing, a retired U.S. Army officer who compiles the world conflict list for the National Defence Council Foundation, sees an upward trend.
“We’re going to see new things emerge,” Messing said, citing particularly worries about the rise of “narco-democracies” in Latin America in which governments will be controlled by wealthy drug interests. And he predicts a shift in world power and conflict to Asia.
You better watch out
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