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This day in 1998, as reported by The BBC World Service Newsdesk Program with focus on Bosnia and the ongoing war in the embattled region.
With tensions already high, the deaths of several more Kosovo Albanians were bound to further damage relations between Serbias government and the province. Despite the unrest, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic remained firmly opposed to foreign mediation in the talks. This referendum is for Serbia to decide about Serbia, said Milosevic in an emphatic message after casting his ballot. I believe we can solve all these current worries of ours. Milosevic is seeking public backing for his defiant policies over Kosovo.
The vote will be valid if more than half of Serbians 7.2 million voters cast ballots. Officials said initial reports showed about 75 percent of eligible voters turned out.
Meanwhile – China and Taiwan opened their first talks in three years on Thursday, making plans to hold a higher-level meeting that would mark a significant easing of tensions. The meeting would also mark the first time that top Taiwanese negotiator Koo Chen-fu would go to China to meet his counterpart. A Koo aide said the mainland dropped a demand that political talks aimed at eventual reunification be arranged before Koo visits.
And Paul McCartney’s publicist said Wednesday that Linda McCartney died in a place “that was private to her and her family,” hinting that it was not in Santa Barbara, Calif. People magazine reported on its Web site Wednesday that the 56-year-old Linda McCartney died at the family’s ranch in Tucson, Ariz. The American-born wife of the legendary rock star had been suffering from breast cancer, which had spread to her liver. Geoff Baker, the former Beatle’s publicist, did not say where Linda McCartney died, but suggested in a statement to Press Association, the British national news agency, that it was not the California coastal city. “When Linda died last Friday with her family around her it was in a place that was private to her and her family,” he said. The Santa Barbara County Sheriffs Department said Wednesday it was investigating why no death certificate had been filed for Linda McCartney. “We would like nothing better than to call off this investigation,” said Lt. Deborah Linden of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department. “But we need official confirmation of the location of her death, and the family spokesman is not enough. Baker said that Santa Barbara was named as the place of death for the sake of the family.
And along with the developing story about Serbia, that’s just a sample of what happened, this April 23,1998 as reported by The BBC World Service Newsdesk.
