Wednesday, October 9, 1935
Page 2
Daily Nebraskan
Rv The Associated Press
Mews
House approves farm bill
r ifi Brif n
WASHINGTON The House approv
ed a 1985 farm bill Tuesday that pins
hopes for recovery of the U.S. agricultu
ral economy on increased export sales,
and meantime offers a safety net of
farm income guarantees.
The vote was 282 to 141.
The five-year, $141 billion bill in
cludes price supports for major crops
like wheat, corn, cotton, rice and soy
beans, a new soil conservation pack
age, money for agricultural extension
and research and new statutory author
ity for food stamps and overseas food
aid.
The Senate is not scheduled to act
on its version of the bill until next
week at the earliest. Prolonged House
Senate negotiations appeared likely
before a final measure can be sent to
President Reagan.
In its key elements crop price
supports and farm income subsidies
the House bill retains the essential
structure of current farm law.
It continues to offer farmers loans on
their crops to allow them to wait for the
most advantageous time to sell, and
bolsters income through direct pay
ments that make up the difference
between the price farmers receive and
a pre set "target price."
Rep. Kika de la Garza, D-Texas,
chairman of the House Agricultural
Committee, said the bill reflected a
congressional consensus that ought to
"let the farmeis of America know we
stand up for them."
Rep. Arlan Stangeland, R-Minn., who
had favored a more unorthodox approach
to solving farm economic problems,
called it "a warmed-over 1985 farm
bill."
The bill did make one change regard
ed as crucial by the Reagan adminstra
tion, which sees increased farm exports
as the only way to restore health to an
ailing rural economy. The measure would
permit the secretary of agriculture to
cut crop loan rates by up to 25 percent
to bring prices down and make U.S.
goods more competitive on world mar
kets. U.S. farm production has far out
paced domestic demand, and exports
have grown to soak up much of Ameri
can farmers' excess production. But
because of high price supports, a strong
dollar and other factors, farm exports
have fallen dramatically in the past
four years.
'Stay away ship's captain pleads
A man who said he was the captain
of a hyacked Italian cruise line in the
Mediterranean pleaded with would-be
rescuers Tuesday to stay away from the
Achille Lauro, on which heavily armed
Palestinian pirates held more than 400
people under threat of death.
He also said everyone aboard was in
good health, which appeared to con
tradict earlier unconfirmed reports that
the hijackers had killed two American
hostages to press their demand that
Israel free 50 Palestinian prisoners.
The Palestinian hijackers were said
to have a large supply of explosives,
and vowed soon after seizing the vessel
Monday night that they would blow it
up if military air or naval forces tried to
interfere. Flotta Lauro, the shipping
line, said 413 people were aboard,
including 331 crew members.
The Italian government said it would
not give in to "terrorist blackmail,"
and also said that the hijackers "seem"
to be demanding freedom for prisoners
in Italy and other countries. Judicial
sources have said 13 Palestinian terror
ists and suspects are jailed in Italy.
Most of the Americans who had been
on the Achille Lauro cruise were among
about 500 passengers who disembarked
in Alexandria, Egypt, before the Pales
tinians seized the ship about 30 miles
west of Port Said. Reports indicated
about one dozen Americans still were
aboard.
The ship sailed west from the Syrian
coast, after it was denied access to
Syrian territorial waters outside the
port of Tartus, a diplomat reported. A
Western diplomat in Damascus said it
was bound for Cyprus, and Beirut port
officials said it was in international
waters off the coast of Cyprus. But a
Cypriot government source said the
ship would not be allowed to dock
there.
In an earlier radio conversation with
Beirut port authorities, the hyack gang's
leader who identified himself as Omar,
demanded negotiations with Israel.
When port officials identified them
selves, Omar said: "I want to negotia
te...I want to negotiate with Israel. I
want you to convey this message. I want
to negotiate with Israel. That's all, I
want to break off now."
He said nothing about hostages hav
ing been killed. Cairo newspapers said
the gang leader identified himself
shortly after the hyack as Omar Mus
tafa, code-named Abu Rashad.
The Beirut port officials and Israeli
radio monitors said the man who said
he was the captain shouted into the
radio later: "I have one message. Please,
please, don't try anything on my ship.
Everybody is in very good health."
Prime Minister Shimon Peres said in
Jerusalem that no government had
asked Israel to free prisoners.
The pirates say they were from the
Palestine Liberation Front. The PLF is
one of the eight guerrilla groups that
makes up the Palestine Liberation
Organization, which split into three
factions during the 1983 revolt inside
the PLO against Chairman Yasser Arafat.
In Tunis, Tunisia, the PLO "vigor
ously condemned and denounced" the
hyacking, and demanded that the hos
tages be freed.
Ahmed Abdel-Rahman, chief spokes
man for the PLO, said: "There is no
relation between the PLO and this
operation. So-called Palestinians took
control of the boat but we, the PLO,.
have nothing to do with this affair."
Cruise line operators
re-examine security
By Lawrence Kilman
The Associated Press
NEW YORK - When a TWA airliner
was hyacked in Greece last June, many
Mediterranean travelers decided it
would be safer to travel by cruise ship.
But as the hyacking Monday of an
Italian luxury liner showed, even the
most far-fetched movie plot can become
reality in a troubled world.
"This is not something we were pre
pared for, it came as a surprise to every
one," said Diana Orban, a spokeswo
man for the Cruise Line International
Association, which represents 85 per
cent of the cruise lines that operate out
of the United States.
On Tuesday, CL1A began polling its
members about their security proce
dures, Orban said. The group repres
ents 26 cruise lines and 80 ships. The
Italian line that operates the hyacked
Achille Lauro is not a member.
About 1.6 million North Americans
took cruises last year.
It was not immediately known how
the hyackers got aboard the Achille
Lauro, which was on its way from the
Egyptian port of Alexandria to Port
Said when it was hyacked.
Although it was unlikely that the
hyackers could secure the entire ship,
they have threatened to blow it up if
they are attacked.
"That is the big question. Do they
have the explosives on board to do
that?" said Kohler. "It takes a lot more
to blow up a ship than an airliner. A
passenger liner is like a small town."
Cruise ship security varies from port
to port, but Alexandria has one of the
best security systems in the Mediter
ranean, Kohler said.
Passengers who sailed aboard the
Achille Lauro in the Mediterranean
earlier this summer reported Tuesday
there was little visible security on the
ship.
"It would have been easy for anyone
not on the passenger list to get on the'
ship," said Tomas Castelo, a Santa Bar
bara, Calif., attorney who sailed on the
Achille Lauro in August.
But security officers were on the
ship, as they are on all ships, said Harry
Haralambopoulos, executive director
of Chambris, Inc., the general sales
agents for Lauro in the United States.
In Alexandria, the government pro
vides security, but elsewhere includ
ing most US. ports the steamship
lines are responsible for their own
protection.
Passengers are generally issued
identity cards when boarding or leav
ing the ship. Many ships no longer
allow visitors for "boh voyage" parties.
Those that allow visitors generally issue
passes that must be returned when the
visitor leaves, Orban said.
Passengers, however, say that board
ing passes are often not checked.
At least two movies involved the
hyacking of cruise ships "Jugger
naut" in 1974 and "Assault On A
Queen" in 1966. A real hyacking
occurred in January 1961, when oppo
nents of Portuguese dictator Antonio
de Salazar hyacked the Portuguese
liner Santa Maria as it cruised the
Caribbean with 607 passengers, includ
ing 44 Americans.
ft!
ewstnaliers
A roundup of the day's happenings
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Studs Terkel says
he would like to be invited to Wauzeka, Wise, to debate
the school board's cancellation of a play based on his book
"Working." The student production of the play was can
celed last month after some parents contended the lan
guage in it as unsuitable for a high school play. The book
consists of interviews with people ranging from prosti
tutes to business executives on how they view their work.
Lawyers for actress Vanessa Redgrave have asked
the U.S. 1st Circuit court of Appeals to restore the
$100,000 ajury awarded her for damages allegedly done to
her career after the Boston Symphony Orchestra canceled
an appearance by her. The actress sued the orchestra after
it canceled her 1982 appearance to narrate "Oedipus Rex"
because of complaints about her sympathy for the Pales
tine Liberation Organization. She was awarded only
$27,500 the amount of her contract.
Protests by one state lawmaker, two dozen parents
and a fundamentalist minister didn't deter sex therapist
Ruth Westheimer from preaching her philosophy to a
sell-out audience at Oklahoma State University. Billy Joe
Clegg, a fundamentalist Baptist minister and announced
candidate for governor, vowed to place Westheimer under
citizen's arrest should she publicly condone sodomy,
which is illegal in Oklahoma. After the speech, he tried to
approach her but was escorted away by security guards.
Innocent pleas entered in Rulo deaths
FALLS CITY, Two men and a teen-ager pleaded innocent Tuesday to
charges of murdering two people whose bodies were found on a farm
where a radical religious group lives.
Michael Ryan, 37, his 16-year-old son Dennis, and Timothy Haverkamp,
23 will be tried separately beginning Jan. 28, Richardson County District
Judge Robert T. Finn said. Finn ordered that the three defendants
continue to be held without bond.
Attorney's for Haverkamp and Dennis Ryan requested and were granted
psychiatric evaluations for their clients. Victor Faeser, attorney for Dennis
Ryan, said his client later might plead innocent by reason of insanity.
Michael Ryan, the reputed leader of the tjroup, is charged with two
counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of James Thimm, 26, and
5-year-old Luke Stice. Dennis Ryan is charged with first-degree murder
and first-degree assault against Thimm. Haverkamp is charged with
first-degree murder in Thimm's death.
The bodies of Thimm and the boy were found in unmarked graves
during a search of a farm near Rulo Aug. 18. Authorities said the Stice boy
died March 25 and Thimm died April 30.
Innocent pleas were entered to all five charges at Tuesday's arraignments.
Government checks may bounce today
WASHINGTON The Reagan administration Tuesday warned the
senate that government checks will begin bouncing sometime today
unless the lawmakers restore Uncle Sam's borrowing power.
Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole, who conveyed the warning to the
Senate, said the Treasury was juggling its books to maintain solvency into
todsy
That may be enough time, he said, for Congress to negotiate an end to
the stalemate that has blocked action on a bill raising the national debt to
more than $2 trillion because of a controversial amendment designed to
force balanced budgets by fiscal 1991.
Nebraska MIA's remains identified
WASHINGTON The Defense Department said Tuesday it has identi
fied nine Vietnam War veterans, including a Nebraskan, from among the
26 sets of remains turned over by Vietnamese authorities on Aug. 14.
Air force Capt. Monte L Moorberg of Grand Island had been missing
since Dec. 2, 1966. He was 27 when reported missing. Identification was
made at the Army's identification laboratory in Honolulu. The identifica
tion process continues.
Before the identifications, 2,464 American military personnel and civ
ilians were listed as missing in Southeast Asia, 1,375 of them in Vietnam
and the remainder in Laos and Cambodia.
The 26 sets of remains given to an American delegation in Hanoi on Aug.
14 brought to 99 the number the communist government has turned over.
66 dead in Puerto Rico mudslides
PONCE, Puerto Rico Hundreds of residents of a devastated shanty
town watched anxiously Tuesday as National Guardsmen and U.S. Army
engineers dug through tons of wood and mud in search of their relatives
and neighbors missing in mudslides and flooding. Sixty-six people are
known to have been killed.
Authorities said hundreds of people were missing and thousands were
in shelters after the tropical deluge.
Gov. Rafael Hernandez Calon called it "the worst tragedy ever to hit our
island."
Some 400 wood-and-tin homes came crashing down the hillside in a
wave of mud early Monday, after a tropical front dumped seven inches of
rain in a 10-hour period on the south coast
National Guard officers at the scene said they were moving slowly in the
excavation because they didn't want to trigger more mudslides.
"There could be up to 500 people under these tons of wood and mud,"
National Guard Col. Johnny Rosado said.
2 kidnapped women freed in Beirut
BEIRUT, Lebanon Two British women who were kidnapped in
Moslem West Beirut 13 days ago, were released Tuesday. They appeared
shaken, but apparently unharmed.
The women, 28-year-old Amanda McGrath, a teacher at the American
University of Beirut's intensive English program, and Hazal Moss, 45, a
former restaurant manager, were freed near the Commodore Hotel in
Moslem West Beirut late in the evening.
The two said they did not know who their captors were.
Still missing are a British journalist and 1 1 other Westerners, all men,
kidnapped in West Beirut since March 1984 Six are Americans, four are
French and one is Italian.
The Moslem group that has claimed responsibility for holding the
American and French hostages, Islamic Jihad or Islamic Holy War, said
last Wednesday that one of the Americans, U.S. Embassy employee Wiliam
Buckley, was killed in captivity.
Fourteen other foreigners have been kidnapped and released since
January 1884, and two others have been found slain.
Tutu talks of letting rioters prevail
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa Police said Tuesday that five more
blacks were killed in anti-apartheid violance, and Bishop Desmond Tutu
said he wondered if advocates of peaceful change should "sit down and
shut up" and let the rioters prevaiL
Tutu, the black Anglican bishop of Johannesburg and Nobel Peace
laureate, though frustrated by persisting violence, said he would not
abandon his advocacy of peaceful protest "because we love this land."
Jolice battled rioters around Johannesburg, Pretoria, near Cape Town
n!,d" Elizabeth on the Indian Ocean coast
ouc wpe iown, a wind-swept fire believed to have been started vj
tvl!f?'S out f contro1 for about three hours Tuesday in
tne overcrowded Cross Roads smi9ttr n tr hirir witnesses said
the overcrowded Cross Roads sauatter camn for blacks. Witnesses said
it 100 shacks, leaving about 1,000 of the estimated
hnmelnco Tlin 1 4JaI fonts
j
LHP. II TP liactrmmA 1 i.
nnnY J . , Ul lw snacks, leaving about 1,000 or tne esi
?u,000 camP residents homeless. The government provided tents.