News Digest,— By The Associated Press
Committee hearing closes
WASHINGTON — President
Reagan on Wednesday disputed a
Democratic headcount showing his
f ' 1 1 ■' .
nomination of Robert Bork in trouble
and exhorted the Senate to choose
“statesmanship over partisanship” in
voting on the embattled Supreme
Court nominee.
* Reagan said he is optimistic Bork
will be confirmed, and both he and
White House Chief of Staff Howard
H. Baker Jr. challenged Senate
Democratic whip Alan Cranston’s
tally showing at least 49 senators now
against confirmation.
Baker acknowledged the admini
stration can count only 40 votes for
Bork—the same figure Cranston has
— but the Reagan aid said there are
just 30 sure votes in opposition and
about 300 undecided “souls yet to be
saved.”
Cranston said of Bork on Tuesday,
“I think he’s licked.” But his Repub
lican counterpart, Sen. Alan
Simpson, R-Wyo., predicted on
Wednesday that Bork would be con
firmed.
By his count, Simpson said,
“We’re four up with about 20 to two
dozen undecided.” He said of Cran
ston, “A1 might have cooked his
numbers a bit; that’s not the kind of
trend we see.”
Reagan and top-ranking admini
stration officials, reacting statements
by Bork critics that the nomination is
endangered, took the offensive as the
Senate Judiciary Committee hearing
wound to a quiet close on Capitol Hill
after 12 days and more than 100 hours
of testimony.
Judiciary Committee Chairman
Joseph Biden announced the panel
will vote Tuesday on sending Bork’s
name to the Senate floor.
12 die in Milwaukee fire
MILWAUKEE — One of the
worst fires in the city’s history
swept through an overcrowded
two-story house in a poor neigh
borhood Wednesday, killing 10
children and two adults who were
about to be evicted for failing to
pay rent.
Eleven of the dead were found
on the second floor, trapped there
when flames destroyed the main
staircase, officials said. The ages
of the children ranged from 11
months to 8 years.
Three adults who escaped the
fire also lived in the home, located
on Milwaukee’s North Side, offi
rials said.
“The children were so
friendly,” said Dottie Brewster,
who lived in an adjacent house that
was damaged by the fire. “They
were happy all the time.”
Lt. Charles Grisham of the
Milwaukee Police Department
said the deaths appeared to be
caused by smoke.
The fire, reported at 4:42 a.m.,
started in the first floor of the
house, apparently in the kitchen,
said James Rechlitz, a fire battal -
ion chief. Investigators did not
know the cause immediately, but
tentatively ruled out arson.
Plot to export missiles
to China revealed in court
NEWARK, N.J. — Authorities
have uncovered a plot to export mis
siles and F-14 fighter aircraft plans to
the People’s Republic of China in
volving high-ranking Chinese offi
cials, it was revealed in court
Wednesday.
The disclosure came during a de
tention hearing for businessman
Chang-Yao Chi, 65, of Flushing,
N.Y., who was arrested Sunday. He
was charged with conspiracy to ille
gally export arms.
Chi has links to “high-ranking
members of the United Nations
(Chinese) delegation and the
People’s Republic of China,” said
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark S.
Olinsky.
The F-14 is the U.S. Navy’s pri
mary fighter jet and the United States
has never sold one to China. The,
missiles involved were the TOW and
sidewinders.
U.S. Magistrate Stanley R. Ch
ester ordered Chi detained without
bail after finding him a risk to flee
because of his diplomatic and gov
ernment contacts, who would “have
the capacity and desire” to aid in his
flight
Plane smoking ban close
WASHINGTON — The Senate
transportation subcommittee
Wednesday approved legislation that
would ban smoking on all domestic
airline flights of two hours or less.
“We feel this is the opportunity to
deal with the problem" said Sen.
Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., chairman
of the subcommittee.
The panel unanimously adopted
the measure and the full Senate Ap
propriations Committee is scheduled
to consider it today.
Lauten berg’s restrictions cover 80
percent of all domestic airline flights
and last for three years.
“The worst place of all for non
smoking passengers and flight per
sonnel alike is the cramped confines
of an airline cabin,” Lautenberg said
in a prepared statement. “There’s no
escaping the smoke at 32,000 feet.”
The provision would be part of a
multibillion-dollar measure provid
ing transportation appropriations for
the 1988 fiscal year, which begins
today.
In other action, the House is sched
uled to begin debating a measure
Wednesday that would lay the blue
print for $28.5 billion in spending for
the nation’s airports and air traffic
control system.
Supporters of the smoking ban,
who include about 30 health groups
and two flight attendants’ unions, al
ready have been successful in the
House. On July 13, the lawmakers
approved a measure permanently
prohibiting smoking on flights of two
hours or less. The 198-193 vote sur
prised even the sponsors.
Reagan finds awful lot of fiction’ in booki
W ASHINGTON — President Reagan, after
telephoning the widow of CIA Director Wil
liam J. Casey to offer his support, on Wednes
day denounced as “an awful lot of fiction” a
book that says Casey arranged for a Middle
Eastern assassination attempt.
The president, in an exchange with report
ers, also said he did not and would not authorize
an assassination attempts and does not believe
Casey undertook any covert operations without
his knowledge as related in the book by Bob
Woodward.
Woodward, an assistant managing editor of
The Washington Post, said in an interview
published Wednesday by the Los Angeles
Times that his hospital meeting with Casey, in
which he described Casey as indicating he had
known about the diversion of Iranian arms sale
profits to Nicaraguan rebels, was “not 100
percent conclusive.”
“On the reporter level, 1 don’t have evi
dence. I have a nod,” Woodward said. “I would
not describe Casey as completely lucid.”
Woodward’s four-minute hospital inter
view with Casey, disclosed in his new book,
“Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA, 1981
1987,” has brought denials from Casey’s
widow, Sophia.
Mrs. Casey said Sunday, “That is untrue. It’s
a lie. He never got in to see my husband.”
Woodward said he was barred from visiting
Casey on Jan. 22, but was admitted on a later
occasion.
White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater
said Reagan telephoned Mrs. Casey, who lives
in Roslyn, N.Y., Monday night. “He called her
to offer his support,” Fitzwater said.
Reagan was asked about Woodward’s alle
gations after a ceremony in the White House
Roosevelt Room, where he celebrated the
Administration’s privatization of government
loans. At the ceremony, the president received
a mock-up of a $3.45 billion check representing
profits from the sale of government loan port
folios.
“I think that there’s an awful lot of fiction
about a man who was unable to communicate at
all and is now being quoted as if he were doing
nothing but talking his head off,” the president
said.
Woodward reports in the book that Casey
circumvented normal CIA channels and per
sonally arranged for three covert operations,
including an assassination attempt that went
awry and resulted in the death of 80 people
when a car bomb exploded in a Beirut suburb on
March 8,1985.
The object of the alleged assassination at
tempt was Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlal
lah, the leader of a Shiite Moslem faction
known as the “Party of God.”
Correction
In Wednesday’s Daily Nebraskan
KFOR-AM radio station was incor
rectly said to be located in Omaha.
KFOR is a Lincoln station.
Nelnalskan
Editor Mlko Rollley
472-1766
Managing Editor Jon Ooselmi
Assoc News Editors Jann Nyflalor
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Editorial
Page Editor Joanne Bourne
Wire Editor Linda Hartmann
Copy Desk Chief Joan Rozic
Sports Editor Jeff Apel
Arts & Entertain
ment Editor Bill Allan
Asst Arts &
Entertainment Editor Charles Liauranca
Graphics Editor Mark Davis
Asst Graphics Editor Tom Lauder
Photo Chief Ooug Carroll
Night News Editors CurfWagnor
Scott Harrah
Art Director Brian Barber
General Manager Daniel Shattll
Production Manager Katharine Pollcky
Publications Board
Chairman Don Johnson.
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In Brief
Blue Hill fire station goes up in flames
BLUE HILL — When the fire whistle sounded, Blue Hill Volunteer
Fire Department officials didn’t realize the blaze they were called to
fight would be at the fire station.
The fire destroyed a 1,200- to 1,500-gallon tanker truck and the
department’s safety equipment
“It’s the first time we’ve had a fire in a fire station,” Fire Chief Dean
Karsting said.
Butte woman named Ag Woman of the Year
KEARNEY — Helen Mohr of Butte has been named Ag Woman of
the Year by the Women in Agriculture group.
This is the first year for the award that recognizes the skills women
have in farm-ranch management Fasten au and her husband, Keith, raise
cattle, irrigated corn and hay on their farm near Bertrand.
Audience spends nearly half a day at one play
LOS ANGELES — The “Mahabharata,” a nine-hour play in three
parts that has been playing to sellout audiences during the Los Angeles
Festival, became even longer when a performance was interrupted by
a 2 1/2-hour power failure.
The lights went out 4 1/2 hours into the production that hits the high
points of a 19,000-page, 3,000-year-old story from India. But when the
play ended at 12:30 a.m. Sunday, 11 1/2 hours after the audience first
sat down, fewer than 20 people had left
Dow Chemical Co. recalls mite pesticide
WASHINGTON — Dow Chemical Co. is recalling its pesticide
cyhexation because of the risk of birth defects, the Environmental
Protection Agency announced.
Laboratory tests show the chemical, used to control mites on fruits
and nuts under the trade name Plictran, causes birth defects in rabbits
and could pose a risk to the unborn children of women exposed to it, the
EPA said.
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Dukakis aide source
of damaging tape
BOb TON — Two days after issu
ing a denial, Gov. Michael S. Dukakis
said Wednesday he had learned that
his campaign was the source of a
videotape that showed Sen. Joseph
Biden lifting part of a speech from a
British politician.
Dukakis, a candidate for the
Democratic presidential nomination,
at first refused to accept the resigna
tion of campaign manager James
Sasso, who distributed the tape, but
Sasso and another staffer resigned
Wednesday afternoon.
The disclosure came two days after
Dukakis said he had interviewed all of
his paid staff members and was as
sured none was the source of a vide
otape showing that Biden had bor
rowed, without attribution, a moving
and apparently personal passage from
speech by British Labor Party leader
Neil Kinnock.
“Although I had no knowledge o
this, as a candidate in this campaign
accept full responsibility for it, ’ <
grim Dukakis said at a morning new:
conference.
Dukakis called Sasso’s action “<
very, very serious error in judgment,’
but had added, “I think his contribu
tions as a public servant outweigh th<
mistake.”
Sasso told reporters later, however
that he persuaded Dukakis to accep
his resignation. Dukakisalso accepter
the resignation of Paul Tully, th«
campaign issues director who wa
aware of the video distribution, Sasst
said.
Leslie Dach, a campaign commu
nications specialist, was appointet
acting manager of the campaign.
Women’s roles focus of synod!
VATICAN CITY — Roman
Catholic officials from around the
world will discuss giving women a
greater role in church affairs — but
not as priests — when a monthlong
bishops’ synod opens today.
Pope John Paul II called the synod,
a consultative body that advises the
' pope on various issues, to examine
* \ \ < * <,' * I * *,*
the role of the laity in church and
society.
In a Sunday blessing Aug. 16, John
Paul noted that the history of the
church “is rich with the presence of
women” and said the contribution of
women has increased in recent years
in the fields of evangelism, cate
chism, liturgy and theology.