European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 23, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Vol. 50, no. 254 35cmonday, december 23,1991 body believed to be Higgins remains dumped at morgue possibly slain hostage Beirut Lebanon apr a decomposed body was delivered to the morgue of american University Hospital and police and Hospital sources said sunday they believed the remains were that of slain american hostage it. Col. William r. Higgins. A Hospital administrator who spoke on condition of anonymity said the body was brought to the Hospital saturday night. He said there was a suspicion Quot the body was that of Higgins but officials were not yet certain. . Ambassador Ryan Crocker said he had not been contacted about the body some 20 hours after it was brought to the Hospital. However police officers said the embassy had been notified. Higgins of Danville ky., was a member of the . Peacekeeping Force in Southern Lebanon. He was kidnapped in the Region on feb. 17, 1988. His abductors the organization of the oppressed on Earth claimed on july 31, 1989, to have executed him in retaliation for israelis abduction of a shiite Muslim cleric Sheik Abdul Karim Obeid three Days before. He said officials would not know More Antil the Coroner or. Ahmed Harati examined the body. The official did not say when that would be. Hair still on the head showed the victim was fair and had a Crew Cut. The facial features appeared to be those of a Westerner. Flesh still covered most of the body. There were Black Marks around the neck and a morgue attendant said these were blood stains. He said he believed the Corpse was dug up after about a year in the  s Days As Leader dwindle army Soldier Jacqueline Bridges left of Dallas and an unidentified soviet truck Driver pose at a Moscow Airport on sunday. The two were atop a truck at the Airport where american food and Medicine Are being unloaded from two c-141 transport planes. Moscow apr eleven former soviet republics have replaced the soviet Union with a new Commonwealth and president Mikhail s. Gorbachev a left without a country to Lead a has indicated he May resign within Days. At the Summit meeting in the Kazakhstan capital of Alma Ata on saturday russian president Boris n. Yeltsin declared that by forming the Commonwealth of Independent states its members broke the chains that bound them to the Kremlin dictatorship for seven decades. The leaders established a joint command by Russia Kazakhstan byelorussian and the Ukraine Over the estimated 27,000 nuclear weapons on their soil appointed former soviet defense minister Yevgeny Shaposhnikov As interim head of All nuclear and conventional armed forces and agreed that Russia would inherit the soviet unions seat in the . Security Council. It did not however give any one Leader exclusive control Over the a nuclear Button Quot a an Issue that continues to Divide Russia and Kazakhstan. The 11 Commonwealth leaders will meet on dec. 30 in Minsk the ceremonial capital of the Commonwealth to establish a Council to run a joint military command. Yeltsin has said that All republics except Russia will become nuclear free. But Kazakhstan president Nur Sultan Nazar Baev has said his Republic would retain its nuclear weapons if Russia does. The leaders urged Gorbachev who has ruled the soviet Union since March 1985, to resign with dignity and they said they would assure him of a Good pension. A the Fate of Gorbachev As a politician is in his own hands. We shall treat with great respect All the constructive things he did a Russia s state Secretary Gennady Burbulis told the russian information Agency on sunday. Gorbachev the charismatic reformer whose policies led to the collapse of the 74-Ycar-old communist state had no immediate reaction. A spokesman for the see Leader on Page 226 die 4 Hurt in crash of Vintage air plane Heidelberg Germany a a Vintage dc-3 air plane crashed sunday into a fog shrouded Hill killing 26 people. Four people survived the Accident authorities said. One survivor with slight injuries walked from the wreckage to a residential area about three Miles away and alerted authorities police said. Police first said that one of the survivors had died in route to the Heidelberg University clinic but later corrected their statement and said the Man was alive but in critical condition. Another Man and a woman survived with serious injuries police said. Police said Rescue teams had trouble reaching the site. Officials said Many people were walking in the Woods at the time but no one on the ground was injured. The plane usually chartered by aviation buffs for so called a a nostalgia flights took off from Frankfurt and crashed about noon into a wooded Hill Northeast of Heidelberg 60 Miles South of Frankfurt police said. Police said a film Crew was aboard the plane apparently shooting a movie about Vintage dc-3 crashes a amps Peter Jaeger old planes. A spokesman for classic wings the company which operates the plane said the two engine aircraft took off from Frankfurt with 27 passengers and three Crew members. Hans Ulrich Ohl a spokesman for see crash on Page 2 an unidentified German firefighter checks the wreckage of the crashed dc-3. Is Oava Stdio