ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, March 26, 1996 TAG: 9603260068
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
Belarus and Russia to be independent
MOSCOW - President Boris Yeltsin said Monday that Russia and Belarus would have strong ties under their new union, but denied the two countries were forming a single state.
President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus announced Saturday that his country would sign an agreement with Russia next week creating a new union between the two countries.
Some Belarussians feared the union would strip them of their independence. But Yeltsin said each country would remain independent.
``It will not be a treaty on [creating] a single state, not at all. But it will be a treaty on very deep integration,'' Yeltsin told reporters in Moscow before leaving for Norway.
Speaking in Brussels on Monday, Belarussian Prime Minister Mikhail Chigir also insisted that both countries would maintain their independence.
- Associated Press
Permanent artificial heart recipient dies
OXFORD, England - A man who received a permanent artificial heart in a pioneering implant last fall has died, 30 hours after doctors removed the battery-powered device.
Surgeons removed the U.S.-made pump Saturday because bleeding around the device had caused concern. Goodman died Sunday after developing a ``sudden and unpredictable'' change in heart rhythm.
- Associated Press
LENGTH: Short : 38 lines KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB