CBS Evening News open - 1999-05-15

Channel: malgent

Transcript

Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

[0:03] Down but not out. Russian President

[0:05] Boris Yeltson survives a bruising series

[0:08] of impeachment votes. NATO on the

[0:10] defensive after the latest air strike

[0:12] that killed civilians. The showdown over

[0:15] gun show sales moves from Congress to

[0:17] the shows. And the cancer fighting drug

[0:20] that's saving more lives than first

[0:22] thought.

[0:25] This is the CBS Evening News

[0:29] with John Roberts.

[0:32] >> Good evening. John Roberts is on

[0:33] assignment in Bgrade tonight. I'm Cheryl

[0:36] Atkinson. In a year in which both the

[0:38] president of the United States and now

[0:40] the president of Russia have faced

[0:42] impeachment threats. Boris Yeltson did

[0:44] today what President Clinton could not.

[0:46] He managed to prevail on his impeachment

[0:49] vote. David Hawkins tells how it

[0:51] happened and what it means. He beat them

[0:53] again. Boris Yelson's communist

[0:56] opponents accused him of treason and

[0:58] murder, but didn't have the votes to

[1:00] make the charges stick. After 3 days of

[1:03] fiery debate, the Russian Duma voted

[1:05] down all five impeachment charges

[1:07] against the president. It was a close

[1:09] call on only one count, blaming Yeltson

[1:12] for starting the war in Cheschna. It

[1:14] fell just 17 votes short of the two/3s

[1:17] majority needed for impeachment despite

[1:20] the support of liberal Democrats like

[1:21] Gregori Yavlinski.

[1:23] >> It's a pity. I'm sorry about that.

[1:26] >> Communist Party leader Gennady Zuganov

[1:28] said legislators who voted against

[1:31] impeachment betrayed Russia and would

[1:33] pay with their jobs in the next

[1:35] election.

[1:37] The news deflated communist protesters

[1:40] who had hoped they'd finally be rid of

[1:42] the man they hold responsible for

[1:43] Russia's economic problems.

[1:46] But just an hour from Moscow, ordinary

[1:49] Russians are too busy planting the crops

[1:51] they depend on for survival to worry

[1:54] about the political fuss in the capital.

[1:58] >> What happens there doesn't really

[1:59] concern us, says Valentina Sergea. My

[2:02] biggest worry is the cold weather. No.

[2:05] >> Yeltson also spent the day out of town

[2:07] at his summer house and offered no

[2:09] public reaction to his acquitt. A

[2:11] Kremlin spokesman said the president

[2:13] took the news calmly, but there's little

[2:15] doubt here that Yeltson, who's a

[2:17] notorious sore winner, will attempt to

[2:19] settle the score with his enemies. David

[2:22] Hawkins, CBS News, Moscow.

[2:25] >> Serbia today left little doubt that its

[2:28] so-called withdrawal from Kosovo earlier

[2:30] this week was just a ploy. Those troops

[2:32] are now headed back. Meanwhile, NATO

[2:35] spent the day defending yet another

[2:36] attack on civilians, saying the Serbs

[2:39] may be using refugees to turn the

[2:40] bombings of military targets into public

[2:43] relations fiascos. John Roberts in

[2:45] Belgrade.

[2:47] >> In its 13th Mia of the campaign, NATO

[2:50] said it deeply regretted the civilian

[2:52] casualties from Thursday night's attack,

[2:54] but the allies defended their actions.

[2:57] We identified a military camp and

[3:00] command post at this site. NATO may have

[3:04] identified a military camp and command

[3:06] post, but what it hit was a group of

[3:08] refugees in Cishia, a village in

[3:10] southern Kosovo. As seen in this Defense

[3:13] Department bomb site video, pilots

[3:15] dropped a total of 10 bombs on the

[3:17] center of the village and artillery in

[3:19] the surrounding fields. Western

[3:21] journalists who toured the area

[3:22] described it as nothing less than a

[3:24] horror.

[3:27] >> This man lost most of his family. It's

[3:30] my brother, my son, my sister-in-law,

[3:32] two or three girls, he says. In the

[3:34] hospital, 70 more people with injuries.

[3:37] Seven needed amputations.

[3:41] >> They were blast injuries. According to

[3:43] this doctor, second and third degree

[3:45] burns, broken spines, and limbs.

[3:48] It's not clear why some 500 refugees

[3:51] were among the armored personnel

[3:52] carriers and artillery that NATO

[3:54] targeted. Yugoslav army sources say the

[3:57] Albanians were returning home after

[3:59] hiding in the nearby hills. NATO

[4:01] suggested they were being kept there as

[4:03] a potential propaganda weapon. We are

[4:05] aware of continued reports that the

[4:08] Mallosvich regime uses human shields.