Across the Nation

Senate approves China trade status

WASHINGTON - The Senate yesterday resoundingly approved legislation meant to expand trade between the United States and China, culminating a lengthy congressional debate with a major victory for U.S. business interests.

Passage of the landmark bill marks the most significant step in U.S. policy toward China since the two countries opened diplomatic relations in 1979.

The measure now heads to President Clinton, who strongly supports it. His signature will make it law - and cement his presidency's free-trade legacy. In 1993, the first year of his first term, Clinton won congressional approval of the North American Free Trade Agreement that created a common market with Canada and Mexico.

The bill to permanently normalize trade relations with China passed the Senate Tuesday 83 to 15, with eight Republicans and seven Democrats opposing it. The House approved it in May in a more closely contested vote, 237 to 197.

The measure helps set the stage for China's upcoming entry into the World Trade Organization, the Geneva-based group that polices global trade rules. The bill will grant China the open-door trade status that the United States extends to most other countries.

Business leaders hailed the policy shift as sending an important signal at a time when economic globalism and its effects have come under increased criticism from some quarters.

Hijacked airplane crashes near Florida

KEY WEST, Fla. - A plane taking off from Cuba was hijacked yesterday morning and crashed in the Gulf of Mexico, authorities said. One body was recovered and nine people, including three children, were rescued, the Coast Guard said.

It was not clear if the plane had run out of fuel.

The Russian-made Antonov AN-2 Colt took off from Herradura Airport in Pinar del Rio, Cuba, and was believed to have gone down about 90 miles southwest of Key West and 75 miles northwest of Havana, U.S. officials said.

The survivors were rescued in the Gulf of Mexico more than 200 miles west of that area, the Coast Guard said. It said the hijacked plane was heading west when it went down.

"Apparently it was hijacked, and the pilot indicated they only had 1 1/2 hours fuel," said Lauren Gail Stover, associate director of Miami-Dade County Aviation Department.

A Coast Guard jet carrying rafts reached the area yesterday afternoon, as did a Coast Guard cutter and two Florida Air National Guard fighter jets. A U.S. AWACS plane on a training mission from Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina picked up an emergency beacon in the area, U.S. officials said.

The Coast Guard said one body was recovered and nine survivors - three men, three women and three children - were pulled from the wreckage by the crew of a passing cargo ship, the Chios Dream.

One man suffered severe head and neck injuries and was to be flown by a Coast Guard helicopter to Key West for medical treatment, Coast Guard Rear Adm. Thad Allen said.

A Coast Guard cutter headed to meet the freighter and pick up the other survivors. Their conditions were not immediately available, and Allen said it was too soon to say whether they would be brought to shore for medical treatment or remain on board.

Cuban officials initially reported that as many as 18 people were on the plane, but Allen said the survivors told the ship's crew that only 10 were aboard.

The plane disappeared from U.S. radar shortly before 11 a.m., Stover said.

The long-range single-engine bush plane is used for passenger flights, crop-dusting and forest fire suppression.

Air traffic control in Havana notified the air traffic control center in Miami at 8:45 a.m. that an aircraft was being hijacked and flying northwest out of Cuba, said Kathleen Bergen, a Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman in Atlanta.

The FAA had no voice or radar contact with the aircraft, Bergen said.

Jose Zavala, a supervisor at Cuba's Institute of Civil Aeronautics in Havana, said by telephone that the plane was used for agricultural work. He declined to provide other details.

A similar aircraft was stolen by its pilot and four other Cubans and flown to Miami on June 19, 1991. That plane landed safely at Miami International Airport, directed in by air-traffic controllers who had both radar and radio contact with the pilot after he began his flight to Florida.

Firestone tire death toll reaches 103

WASHINGTON - Fifteen more deaths were reported yesterday in the federal government's investigation into defective Firestone tires, bringing the total number of reported fatalities linked to accidents involving the tires to 103.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has received about 800 additional reports of tire tread separation, blowouts and other problems with Firestone tires since the government last updated the numbers on Aug. 31, the agency said.

It said there now have been reports of more than 400 injuries.