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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 10, 1987)
Daily Nebraskan Tuesday, February 10, 1987 By The Associated Press Pago 2 T T T7 O News u In Brief Coroner: Liberace died of AIDS related disease INDIO, Calif. Liberace died of a disease caused by AIDS, the Riverside County coroner said Monday, and he accused the entertainer's doctors of covering up the cause of death. Microscopic tissue analysis showed that Liberace died because of cytomegalovirus pneumonia due to human immunodeficiency virus disease, Coroner Raymond Carrillo said. "In layman's terms, Liberace died of an opportunistic disease caused bv acquired immune deficiency syndrome," he said. In addition to the fatal pneumonia caused by the cytomegalovirus, Carrillo said the contributing causes of Liberace's death included lung and heart disease and a hardening, or calcification, of the valve in the heart. It was first reported Jan. 24 by the Las Vegas (Nev.) Sun that Liberace was suffering from AIDS. Plane crash in Afghanistan kills 30 MOSCOW A Soviet-made plane crashed after it was hit by a rocket while taking off from an airport in Afghanistan, and 30 people were killed, the Tass news agency said. The brief Tass dispatch identified the plane as an Antonov-2b but did not sav if it was being used by the Soviet Union or by Afghanistan. Tass gave no indication whether the plane was being used for military or civilian purposes, although it said the dead included women and children. Six crew members were among the dead, the Soviet news agency said. KMnappers extendi deadline BEIRUT, Lebanon Moslem kidnappers said at their Monday midnight deadline for killing three American hos tages and an Indian that they had extended it "until further notice." A handwritten statement in Arabic signed by Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine described the decision as a response to pleas from the hostages, their families, Lebanese organizations and the Indian government. But the statement also said the group would retaliate for the "insult" by U.S. Secretary of State George P. Shultz, who said the people of kidnapping-beset Beirut "have a plague." It did not indicate what form the action might take, or whether it could involve the hostages. The statement was delivered to the Beirut office of a Western news agency with a pic ture of Robert Polhill, one of the hostages. Polhill, frail-appearing and bearded, wearing a T-shirt and spectacles, was pictured looking into the camera with a faint smile. Hostage Alann Steen had said in an earlier message Monday that the hostages would die unless Israel freed 400 Arab prisoners. He said the captors would not reconsider the death verdict or extend the deadline. "We will be executed at midnight," Steen, 47, of Boston, said in the letter to his wife. It was accompanied by notes to their wives from the two other kidnapped American college teachers. "Until then if you do love us and your hearts beat for us, put pressure on Israel to show good will. Let Israel promise 'Until then if you do love us and your hearts beat for us, put pressure on Israel to show good will. Let Israel promise the organization to show good will.' Steen the organization (of the kidnappers) to show good will," Steen wrote. "Let Israel promise the organization plainly and officially that 400 Palestinian mujaheds (holy warriors) will be free. Otherwise, we won't be alive after midnight." The hostages include: Steen, a communications instruc tor; Robert Polhill, 53, of New York City, lecturer on accounting; Jesse Turner, 39, of Boise, Idaho, a visiting professor of mathematics and computer science; and Indian-born Mithileshwar Singh, GO, a legal resident alien of the United States, is a visiting professor of finance. Steen's three-page letter was delivered 8 12 hours before the kidnappers' deadline to the Beirut office of a Western news agency with a photograph of Steen. It implied that an Israeli promise would do and that the 400 prisoners would not actually have to be released Monday. Author outlines nuclear war problems Bulemia Eating Disorder Treatment Group A group approach to treatment beginning February 19, 1987. For further information, con tact the Psychological Consultation Center in room 111 Burnett Hall or call 472-2351. Book: Nuclear weapons systems dangerous WASHINGTON The U.S. atomic weapons command system has become one of the largest, as well as one of the most important, targets for a possible Soviet strike, according to a book published Monday by Harvard and the Brookings institution. An attack on any of more than 1,500 key points in the system might be misinterpreted as an attack on the whole, triggering a devastating Amer ican response, said Ashton Carter, a Harvard professor who helped edit the book and contributed two chapters. The book, "Managing Nuclear Oper ations," finds good and bad in the' intricate systems devised to manage superpower nuclear arsenals. The good news, said contributor Donald Cotter, is that in 40 years of handling nuclear arms, neither the Soviet Union nor the United States has accidentally launched an interconti nental ballistic missile or exploded a nuclear bomb by mistake. The bad news, and the heart of the issue, the book says, is that although the weapons can be tested underground without breaking treaties or endanger ing lives, the operating systems cannot be tried out in conditions resembling war. -see- Contributor Paul Bracken wrote that the superpowers have not woven ideas on how to end a war "into the fabric of military organizations." That could exacerbate two possible wartime problems: breakdown in communications between U.S. and Soviet leaders or breakdown of com munications between the leaders and their own nuclear forces, wrote Bracken, a Yale professor. 31WaysTbSay "I Love W . .t v. &. t r' - fit? V-.' Ice Cream Valentines from Baskin-Rohhins Melt a heart this Valentine's Day with a sweetheart of a cake from Baskin-Robbins. Available in 31 heart-stopping flavors at your favorite ice cream store. Order early for best selection. mm fil.liy 12ft & XT St 7C2i&Vin3 toDcrnfea 474-G253 437-2247 4S3-7332 Report: Sandinistas, Contras violating human rights WASHINGTON U.S.-backed rebel forces in Nicaragua carry out "selective but systematic killing" of perceived Sandinista government sympathizers and routinely kidnap civilians, including significant numbers of children, a human rights group said Monday. The Nicaraguan government, meanwhile, although it generally respects the laws of war, mistreats prisoners, does not guarantee due process and has imposed unwarranted limits on press and religious freedom, the group reported. The 166-page study was prepared by Americas Watch, a liberal New York-based human rights monitoring group, on the basis of a series of fact-finding missions to Nicaragua last year. NsiSaiskan The Daily Nebraskan (USPS 144-080) is published by the UNL Publications Board Monday through Friday in the (all and spring semesters and Tuesdays and Fridays in the summer sessions, except during vacations. Subscription price is S35 for one year. Postmaster: Send address changes to the Daily Nebraskan. Nebraska Union 34. 1400 R St.. Lincoln. Neb. 68588-0448. Second-class postage paid at Lincoln. NE. ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1987 DAILY NEBRASKAN 0 ! r D),tM,V IT In FOR" 50 DISCOUNT AMT? STORE USE Community Blood Bank Elood Doners cro GIVE BLOOD February 10 9-1 at Cornerstone Call 476-0355 for appointment or just stop in. Drug BMiiiggler held Reputed 'narco-terrorist' pleads not guilty to drug charges JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - A man prosecutors say is among the world's leading and most dangerous cocaine traffickers pleaded innocent Mon day to drug charges ranging from conspiracy to importingcocaine, cocaine distribution and racketeering. Carlos Lender Rivas, 37, was ordered held without bond on 11 drug-smuggling counts. The drug ring authorities say he is responsible for 80 percent of the cocaine imported into ths country, according to prosecutors. Lender is "among the premier if not the premier drug trafficker in the world," U.S. Attorney Robert Merkle said at the detention hearing. Lender has admitted publicly to "unprecedented violence," said Merkle, who called him "the per sonal embodiment of a narco-terrorist." U.S. Magistrate Harvey S. Schle singer scheduled a March 23 trial and appointed counsel for Lender, who said he was broke. "I have been hounded by the Colombian army for the last four years," Lender said. "I've been in the jungle for the last four years disconnected from civilization." He said his funds had been frozen by the Colombian government, which also was acting to freeze his Baham ian assets. The U.S. Internal Revenue Service on Monday slapped a $70 million lien on Lender's earnings estimated at up to $300 million in the early 1980s. In a broader Miami indictment, he is accused of being a leader of a cartel that used bullets, bombs and bribes to build the world's largest cocaine-smuggling ring. He eluded capture for more than two years after Colombia ordered his extradi tion in 1984. He was arrested Wednesday in Colombia and whisked out of the country within hours on the Jack sonville indictment. Authorities need permission from Colombia before Lender can be arraigned on the Miami indictment.