September 23, 1995
Web posted at: 10:45 a.m. EDT (1445 GMT)
WASHINGTON -- President Bill Clinton has nominated fellow southern Democrat James Sasser to be the U.S. ambassador to China. Now the former three-term Senator from Tennessee must return to his former colleagues for confirmation.
"I think we (China and the United States) have an opportunity to put our relations back on a mutually beneficial level," said Sasser. Those relations have been strained recently by disputes over Taiwan, human rights and other issues.
Sasser, who has never been to China, said he is studying Chinese history and language. He would replace Stapleton Roy, who left the post three months ago.
ANKARA, Turkey -- A coalition government in Turkey seemed further from reality Saturday, following talks between caretaker Prime Minister Tansu Ciller and Mesut Yilmaz, leader of the opposition Motherland Party (ANAP).
Ciller resigned from her post on Wednesday, and was asked by President Suleyman Demirel to form a new government. But Yilmaz was not optimistic after his meeting with Ciller.
"Ciller has not given us a coalition proposal," he said, "and she did not accept any of our proposals."
Ciller, hoping to avoid early elections by shoring up support for a coalition, was to meet next with social democrat leader Deniz Baykal, and leaders of the Islamist Welfare Party, the nationalists and the Democratic Left Party. Ciller's resignation was prompted by domestic security disagreements with Baykal.
TOKYO -- After killing at least four people and wreaking general havoc in Taiwan and the Philippines, Typhoon Ryan headed toward Japan.
Raging winds and torrential rains began on Kyushu, Japan's southernmost island, and its neighbor Shikoku Saturday. The typhoon's winds have been clocked at up to 230 kilometers (143 miles) per hour.
Power outages and minor flooding have already occurred in Okinawa, about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) southwest of Tokyo.
Three Filipino fishermen drowned earlier this week in typhoon-churned seas, and a Taiwanese man died when his car was blown off the road into a ditch.
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