Friday, November 15, 1985
Pago 2
Daily Nebraskan
News Digest.
The Associated Press
Colombian volcano erapts;
nap to 209000 are feared dead
BOGOTA, Columbia A volcano
that had been rumbling to life for
months erupted early Thursday, melt
ing its snowcap and sending down tor
rents of mud that buried four sleeping
towns and may have killed more than
20,000 people.
Blazing volcanic ash cascaded into
the Andes valleys. lava began flowing
from the cone Thursday afternoon.
The Langunilla River became a rush
ing wall of mud that destroyed at least
85 percent of Armero, a coffee-farming
town of 50,000 people 30 miles from the
Nevado del Ruiz volcano and 105 miles
northwest of Bogota.
"Armero doesn't exist anymore," Red
Cross rescue worker Fernando Duque
said in an interview from the scene on
Todelar radio.
The three other towns, on the moun
tain river between the volcano and
Armero, had a total population of about
20,000.
Caracol radio said the ash fall was so
heavy at 1 p.m. Thursday that "it
looked like it was night time." It
quoted national university geologists
as saying the lava flow had begun. They
did not say how large the flow was or
give its direction.
A Civil Defense spokesman, Maj.
Hugo Ardila, said at a noon news con
ference in Bogota that about 10,000
people had been found alive in Armero
up to that time.
One of them, Edeliberto Nieto, told
IRCN radio: "We heard a frightening
noise, and then a blast of wind hit us
and we saw fire falling from the sky. It
was horrible, so horrible! My wife was
killed. My mother was killed. My little
girl who would have four years tomor
row died. One of my sisters was
killed and one of my little nephews."
He said there was so much fiery ash
in the street that it "burned my feet."
Ambulances and rescue workers had
trouble reaching the town because the
avalanche destroyed the highway and
five bridges leading to it, Caracol radio
said, quoting Civil Defense workers.
Dublin, London OK historic deal
DUBLIN, Ireland Ireland and Bri
tain approved a historic agreement
Thursday giving this Roman Catholic
nation a formal voice in governing the
troubled, Protestant-dominated British
province of Northern Ireland.
Protestant hard-liners immediately
condemned the accord as "a recipe for
war" and vowed to withdraw support
for the Northern Irish administration.
The pact was endorsed at separate
meetings of the Irish and British
Cabinets and is expected to be signed
by Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher
of Britain and Garret FitzGerald of Ire
land at a summit today in an undis
closed location.
It is the most important initiative on
Northern Ireland since 1974, and is
designed to help pacify a strife-torn
region where more than 2,450 people
have been killed since a centuries-old
'Catholic-Protestant conflict flared
anew in 1969.
In the latest violence, a member of
the mainly Protestant Royal Ulster
Constabulary was shot and seriously
wounded as he drove to work Thursday
morning near the Irish border. Police
.blamed the Irish Republican Army,
which is trying to wrest the province
from the United Kingdom to unite it
with the Irish Republic.
Officials in Britain and Ireland have
refused to disclose more than the out
lines of the plan. But it appears largely
to formalize a relationship that has
existed in practice for years.
It gives Ireland a consultative role
thus far not publicly defined in
Northern Ireland's affairs. Irish and
British press reports said the repub
lic's government would maintain an
office in the area of Belfast, Northern
Ireland's capital, where members of
the Catholic minority can bring their
grievances against the Protestant-led
administration.
Ireland, in return, is to acknowledge
British sovereignty over Northern Ire
land as long as the Protestant majority
so wishes.
The southern republic's constitution
calls for reunification of the two Ire
lands, but the Dublin government has
stressed repeatedly it does not want
union against the Protestant's wishes.
Reagan: Summit 'mission for peace'
WASHINGTON President Reagan
told the nation Thursday evening he is
going to Geneva and his first summit
meeting with a Soviet leader to search
for "undiscovered avenues" of coopera
tion and to propose broad cultural
exchanges of American and Soviet stu
dents, sports teams and musicians.
"My mission, stated simply, is a mis
sion for peace," Reagan said in a
speech prepared for national broadcast
from the Oval Office.
"Despite our deep and abiding dif
ferences, we can and must prevent our
international competition from spilling
over into violence," Reagan said. "We
can find as yet undiscovered avenues
where American and Soviet citizens
can cooperate, fruitfully, for the
benefit of mankind."
Like the "Open Skies" proposed by
President Eisenhower at a similar
summit conference three decades ago,
Reagan called for an "Open World"
where communication between the two
nations can increase and "we can
lessen the distrust between us, reduce
the levels of secrecy."
Thirty-six hours before leaving for
Geneva and two days of summit talks
next week with Soviet leader Mikhail
Gorbachev, Reagan said the two sides
"are close to completing a new agree
ment" to resume and expand the cul
tural and educational exchange pro
grams that President John F. Kennedy
initiated and Jimmy Carter suspended
following the Soviet military push into
Afghanistan in 1979.
Waite reports progress but warns
'wrong move ' could mean death
BEIRUT, Lebanon The archbishop
of Canterbury's troubleshooter said
Thursday he was in contact with the
kidnappers who are holding at least
four Americans hostage. He warned
that if anything goes wrong, he and the
hostages might be killed.
''They're taking a risk, obviously, in
meeting me, just as much as I'm taking
a risk meeting them...A wrong move
and people could lose their lives, in
cluding myself," said Terry Waite.
Waite, 46, stressed that his efforts to
free the Americans have "reached a
critical and dangerous stagc.I have
been in touch (with the kidnappers),
progress h?.s been made and we are
moving forward."
He would not identify the kidnappers,
who are believed to be Shi'ite Moslem
fundamentalists. "I want to protect
them as much as I want to protect
myself," he said. "I really do have to
just drop out of the picture. I'm pre
pared to go anywhere, having got this
far within reason.
He came to Beirut after four of the
six missing Americans sent a letter to
the Anglican Church archbishop, Dr.
Robert Runcie, last week.
The letter was signed by Terry And
erson, chief Middle East correspondent
of The Associated Press; the Rev. Law
rence Jenco, a Roman Catholic priest;
David Jacobsen, director of the Ameri
can University Hospital in Beirut, and
Thomas Sutherland, the university's
dean of agriculture.
Waite, a burly, bearded laymen who
stands 6-foot-7, turned up unannounced
at west Beirut's Commodore Hotel, the
base for foreign journalists. He made
his second appeal in 24 hours that
reporters not hound his path while he
seeks face-to-face meeting with the
kidnappers.
Waite arrived from London on Wed
nesday night and found a crush of tele
vision crews at the airport. He was
driven to a west Beirut hotel by armed
militiamen.
He vanished from the hotel just
before midnight, driven by two men in a
blue car to an undisclosed destination
in the Moslem sector of the capital.
He told the journalists Thursday that
he "spent the night peacefully," but
would not say where he was staying.
W eWS ETIclEtGrS A rounduP of the day's happenings
A do-it-yourself course on how to make a nuclear
bomb will be offered at The University of New Haven early
next year. However, Professor Richard Morrison, who will
teach the class, says he's not concerned any of his stu
dents will actually succeed in the task because plutonium
or uranioum 235 isotope, necessary ingredients for an
atomic bomb, are federally regulated and cannot be read
ily acquired.
Indian guru Bhagwan Shreee Rajneesh has agreed to
plead guilty to federal charges of arranging sham mar
riages to help his foreign disciples remain in the United
States illegally, the U.S. Attorney's Office says. Rajneesh
had pleaded innocent to 32 counts of arranging sham
marriages, one count of conspiring to arrange fake mar
riages and two counts of lying to federal authorities.
A mother who contracted polio from her recently
vaccinated daughter has settled her lawsuit against a
pediatrician and Lederle laboratories for $350,000. Linda
Adubato, 36, of California, claimed she was infected by her
daughter, Danielle, after changing diapers and touching
contaminated feces.
Ariel Sharon gave Prime Minister Shimon Peres an
apology of sorts for criticizing his policies, thus ending a
crisis that nearly brought down the coalition government.
The prime minister said Wednesday he intended to fire
the outspoken Sharon, who had accused him of conduct
ing secret peace negotiations with Jordan and Palestinians.
0
Congress OKs higher debt limit
WASHINGTON The government's latest fiscal mess was temporarily
up Thursday after the House gave final congressional approval to
iistat.irtn refsine federal borrowing authority tha natinnai
:3 priest, the House,
cleaned 1
Jrnfsriim 1
(pht limit to 41.9 trillion.
With no debate sud only about fcvo dzzzn rr.er;.!:
An vtfeAtmtft. wwftd the kriskttcn tlzt ccctrcr.n a credit enmrh
through Dee. 6 tyralsircg the governicr.t's $LOH:;I!;.;:i Is,r.a cf credit by
ISO billion. It new goes to the Whito Housa kt iitdient Reagan's
expected signature.
The Senate passed the measure on a voice vote Wednesday night.
Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole, R-Kan., said! the action would
"relieve the president of any burden while he was at the summit" next
week with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
Without action, the government would have been in default. The
president had ordered federal agencies to stop issuing new checks
starting Friday if congress had not increased the debt limit.
Attached to the legislation is an extension until Dec. 15 of the 16-cent-a-pack
federal tax on cigarettes. Congress has not completed action on
pending legislation making the 16-cent tax permanent and without the
extension the tax would have dropped to 8 cents per pack after midnight
Thursday.
Health Service issues AIDS guidelines
WASHINGTON The Public Health Service, unveiling new guidelines
to prevent the spread of AIDS by food service and other workers, called
Thursday for increased awareness of existing sanitary precautions, but
said that in general, no new special restrictions are needed
James O. Mason, acting assistant secretary for health in the Health and
Human Services Department, said the guidelines "represent no change in
the basic message about AIDS that the Public Health Service has been
conveying all along that AIDS is a bloodborne, sexually transmitted
disease that is not spread by casual contact."
In general, the guidelines say AIDS patients can remain in virtually any
occupation without special restriction, as long as their cases do hot
include symptoms such as open sores that would be grounds for rem .ving
them whether they had AIDS or not.
In response to a question, Mason said the only exception might be
surgeons, dentists and related health care professionals who actually work
inside the body. Their status remains under study, he said, and further
guidelines will be issued.
Yurchenko denies defection, KGB post
MOSCOW Vitaly Yurchenko, denying he defected end scorning
questions about his connection to the KGB, made his first public appear
ance in the Soviet Union Thursday and insisted he was kidnapped and
drugged by the CIA.
Flanked by Soviet officials, Yurchenko appeared at a news conference
in a Foreign Ministry auditorium packed with Western reporters and
Soviet journalists.
Yurchenko left the United States on Nov. 6 in a surprise ending to what
the State Department said was a defection three months earlier by one of
the KGB's senior spies.
The Soviets frequently broke into laughter as Yurchenko derided the
CIA, its director William Casey and some of the Western correspondents
who asked questions.
Yurchenko said he was abducted Aug. 1 cn C 3 it:; 3 cf St. Peter's
Basilica in Rome and taken to Washington, ivhcro 1. 3 v, .' 1 ;:t kept in a
hospital and then in a CIA "safe house" in the sulurb cf Fredericksburg,
Va.
Yurchenko, flatly denying that he defected, said CIA agents gave him
drugs and tried to convince him he was a traitor to his homeland.
But Yurchenko would not say directly whether he worked for the KGB
secret police and intelligence agency. U.S. officials say Yurchenko ran the
KGB's Washington office from 1975-80 while workir.3 zX the embassy there.
FCC approves record transfers
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission on Thurs
day approved the largest broadcast transfers ever, giving Capital Cities
Communictions permission to merge with ABC and allowing publisher
Rupert Murdoch to buy six Metromedia television stations.
In all, the FCC approved the transfer of 32 big-city broadcast licenses.
About a third of U.S. residents are served by one or more of the stations
involved in the transfers.
In approving the deals on separate 4-0 votes, the FCC gave Murdoch two
years to sell his New York and Chicagjo newspapers, and Capital Cities a
waiver to operate overlapping TV stations based in New York and
Philadelphia
FCC chairman Mark S. Fowler criticized those, including members of
Congress, who opposed Murdoch's purchase of the six Metromedia TV
stations as an attempt to limit the newly naturalized-American's freedom
of speech.
Marcos, opposition to delay elections
MANILA Philippines Members cf President Ferdinand E. Marcos'
party and his political opposition screed Thursday to postpone a special
. presidential election proposed by Marcos for next Jjr.urv. A new date
was not set.
lonardo Perez, Marcos' political afIrs minister, said representatives
of the rudng New Society Movement and the opposition agreed to the
postponement in a negotiating session
,&re?said the Presidential election, proposed by Marcos for Jan. 17,
Ibdo, wid probably be held "not later than the Erst week cf February." The
National Assembly, controlled by Marcos' party, is to te'in debate Mon
day on the election and when to hold it.
Marcos' opponents had asked that the election bs held on March 17 to
give them more time to prepare, but Marcos' party sdd that date was too
close to May elections for provincial governors and town and city mayors.
rerez also said negotiations were continuing on whether the election
should include the vacant vice presidency.
Marcos said in announcing the special election last week that he
wanted to restrict polling to the presidency, but he later agreed to include
the vice presidency.