News Digest. By The Associated Press
Poland's voters reject
economic reform plan
^ WARSAW, Poland — Voters
rejected economic and political
reforms, including painful price
increases, that Poland’s commu
nist leaders said were needed to
revitalize an ailing, debt-ridden
economy, the government said
Monday.
The results of Sunday’s bold
and unique referendum dealt a
stunning blow to the government
of Gen. Wojcicch Jaruzclski,
which strongly campaigned for
passage of the two questions put to
the voters.
It was Poland’s first referen
dum in 41 years and the first time
in the nation’s communist history
that the authorities suffered a loss
in nationwide elections.
Government spokesman Jerzy
Urban put a positive face on the
outcome, noting that many more
people voted in favor of the ques
tions than against them. By law, a
majority of eligible voters had to
approve for them to pass.
He said the voters’ failure to
approve the questions was “an
answer to all who maintained our
democratic institutions are a fa
cade and that the democratic trans
formations are not true.”
Leaders of the outlawed Soli
darity free trade union movement
had called the plebiscite a charade
and urged Poles to ignore it. The
powerful Roman Catholic church
did not take a stance.
“I want to confirm the determi
nation of the authorities to con
tinue reforms and the democratic
procedure of consulting the opin
ions of voters on issues vital to
everyone,” Urban said.
The government has, however,
previously said that if it lost the
referendum, reforms would con
tinue, but at a slower rate. It has
already made moves to streamline
its economic planning.
Urban gave these results:
To the first question, on eco
nomic reform, 64 percent of those
voting said “yes” and 27.7 percent
said “no,” with the remainder of
the ballots blank or otherwise in
valid. To the second question, on
political reform, 69 percent said
“yes,” 24.6 percent said “no.”
Final figures showed that 67.2
percent of the eligible voters par
ticipated. The government said it
was the lowest percentage turnout
of any election in the nation’s post
war history.
Solidarity leaders have dis
puted turnout figures in past gen
eral elections when only govern
ment-sanctioned candidates have
run.
Frightened Haitians clear streets
PORT-AU-PRINCE — Haitians
stayed home in fear Monday, desert
ing the deadly streets where men with
machine guns and machetes killed at
least 34 people in a weekend of terror
that destroyed the first free elections
“ in 30 years.
Most presidential candidatcscould
not be reached at their homes or of
fices. The independent Electoral
Council’s nine members were in hid
ing.
Most businesses were closed. Few
cars or public minibuses could be
seen,and the city’s industrial park was
virtually deserted. Small groups of
men could be seen in some neighbor
hoods.
Scores of people were wounded
Sunday by roving bands who attacked
voting stations and people at random
in the streets, w hile the army did noth
ing to slop it. Gunmen shot up the
Electoral Council headquarters.
The military-dominated National
Governing Council postponed the
first election of a president and legis
lature since 1957, when Francois
“Papa Doc” Duvalier began the fam
ily dictatorship that ended Feb. 7,
1986.
Chicago mourns Washington
CHICAGO — The city bade a
tearful farewell Monday to Mayor
Harold Washington with prayers and
praise as dignitaries, family and
friends gathered at his luneral and
thousands mourned outside under
wet, gray skies.
Ministers, politicians and relatives
eulogized the city’s first black mayor
before his flag-draped casket as a
scrappy political fighter with a warm
sense of humor. He died Wednesday
of a heart attack at the age of 65.
Several speakers vowed to carry on
Washington’s scIf-proclaimcd reform
administration and surmount the po
litical struggle now swirling around
who will be chosen acting mayor.
“The death angel can make the
very important irrelevant in the wink
ing of an eye.” said the Rev. Jesse
Jackson, his eyes misty with tears.
“How could he take Harold, we ask?
We are hurt, we need hint so much.
“We’ll miss you, buddy ... we w ill
not let you down,” Jackson pledged,
drawing applause inside the non-dc
nominational Christ Universal
Temple.
Couple, children slain by rebels
HARARE, Zimbabwe — Mozam
bique rebels axed to death a couple
and five of their six children in a
northeast Zimbabwe border village,
the national news agency said Mon
day.
The Ziana news agency said the
seven were killed Thursday, the same
day anti-government rebels hacked to
death 16 whites, includingtwo Ameri
cans, on two mission farms in south
west Zimbabwe’s Matabcland prov
ince.
The Matabcland attack was
blamed on Zimbabwe’s notorious
rebel leader, Gayigusu, who is ac
cused of hundreds of slayings in
Matabcland province.
The Matabeland attack was
blamed on Zimbabwe’s notorious
rebel leader, Gayigusu, who is ac
cused of hundreds of slayings in
Matabcland province. His real name
is Morgan Sango. The band of 20
killers remained at large.
The Mozambique National Resis
tance was responsible for the attack
Thursday in Joromani village in the
Mudzi district, Ziana quoted police as
saying. The area is 6 miles from the
Mozambique border.
Fifteen men hacked the victims to
death and burned the bodies, Ziana
U.S. is unprepared
for Soviet 'breakout'
president says
WASHINGTON — President
Reagan said Monday the Soviet Union
may be planning “a breakout” from
the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty that
the United Slates would be “totally
and dangerously unprepared for”
without his Star Wars missile defense
plan.
Reagan made his statement in a
speech to conservatives a week before
his summit meeting with Soviet lead
ers Mikhail Gorbachev in Washing
ton. His remarks undcrscoicd
Reagan ’ s delcrm inat ion to push ahead
with the Star Wars program despite
objections from Moscow and con
gressional attempts to restrict it.
Meanwhile, the White House said
it was unlikely the summit will pro
duce any breakthrough in U.S.-Sov iet
negotiations for a 50 percent reduc
tion m strategic nuclear arms, the most
potent weapons in the superpowers*
arsenals.
Presidential spokesman Marlin
hl/water said, “The progress of the
START talks (strategic arms) is at
such a state that it seems unlikely that
we w ould want toextend (the summit)
for any reason.”
Beginning next Tuesday, Reagan
and Gorbachev w ill hold three days of
talks in Washington. Their meeting
w ill open with the signing of a treaty
to ban intermediate-range nuclear
missiles — the first accord ever to
eliminate an entire class of atomic
weapons.
quoted police as saying.
Police said the victims were Jim
and Agnes Mwanawamhane and chil
dren ranging in age from 1 to4,Ziana
said. It described the man and woman
as peasants.
Their deaths raised to 48 the num
ber of Zimbabweans allegedly slain in
cross-border raids in the past two
months by the Mozambique Resis
tance, known by its Portuguese acro
nym Rcnamo.
Rcnamo has been fighting
Mozambique’s Marxist government
for 10 years and declared war on
Zimbabwe because its prime minister,
Robert Mugabe, supports the Mozam
bique government.
About 20 civilians have been
wounded in recent Rcnamo attacks,
and 50 have been abducted and
marched at gunpoint into Mozam
bique.
On Nov. 21, Rcnamo guerrillas in
the far southeast of Zimbabwe axed to
Christina Geiger/Daily Nebraskan
death five children after abducting a
group of 20 from a school. Seven other
children were taken across the border
and freed after the guerrillas hacked
an ear off each of them.
In Brief I
Major earthquake hits offshore from Alaska
PALMER, Alaska—A major earthquake jolted south-central Alaska
on Monday, knocking out power to one community and prompting
authorities to urge the evacuation of low-lying coastal areas because of
a possible sea wave.
The quake struck at 10:23 a.m. Alaska Standard Time and measured
7.4 on the Richter scale. It was centered 300 miles southeast of
Anchorage in the Gulf of Alaska.
Mary Beth Whitehead weds for second time
RAHWAY, N J.—Mary Beth Whitehead, fighting to regain custody
of the child she bore under a $10,000 surrogate contract, has remarried
in a private, civil ceremony.
Whitehead is fighting a March 31 decision by Superior Court Judge
Harvey R. Sorkow that awarded custody of a 20-month-old girl to
William and Elizabeth Stem. She sparked the emotional legal battle
when she reneged on an agreement to bear the Stems a child by being
artificially inseminated with Stem’s sperm.
France, Iran swap diplomats for normalization
PARIS — France and Iran ended their 4 1/2 month embassy standoff
by trading a pair of diplomats on Monday, days after pro-Iranian captors
in Lebanon freed two Frenchmen.
Officials called the events a coordinated effort to mend a rift between
the two nations.
Several inmates prevent settlement, officials say
ATLANTA — A “small but aggressive minority” of Cuban inmates
blocked the release of 90 hostages from a federal penitentiary Monday,
officials said, while hundreds of Cubans who surrendered in Louisiana
were sent to other federal prisons.
The same 100 Cubans, out of a total population of 1,118, earlier
blocked the release of 50 hostages in Atlanta, said Patrick Norton, of the
Justice Department. Riots by Cuban detainees in both slates followed
a government announcement that 2,500 Cubans — mostly criminals or
mentally ill — would be returned to their homeland
Broderick Thomas fined after no contest plea
University of Nebraska football player Broderick Thomas pleaded
no contest in Lancaster County Court to one count of hindering arrest
and was lined $ 100.
Thomas was booked into the Lancaster County jail and then released
on Aug. 24 alter he fought with four officers who were trying to arrest
him on a bench warrant for failure to pay a traffic fine. After he entered
his no-contest plea Monday, Judge Jim Foster found him guilty of the
charge and ordered him to pay the fine.
V_/
FA A plans tighter plane maintenance rules
WASHINGTON — The Fcdcial
Aviation Administration is planning
lighter rules on when airlines may
postpone maintenance amid finding
that work at Eastern Airlines - and
possibly other carriers — often has
been delayed to keep planes to their
schedules, FAA officials said Mon
day.
They said the agency has been
looking at 10 airlines to determine
i
whether federal maintenance require
ments are being abused. Except for
Eastern, none of the other airlines was
named, but sources said the review
included virtually all the major carri
ers.
The broader investigation was
prompted by the findings last summer
at Eastern. An FAA report made pub
lic this week concluded that Eastern
had interpreted FAA maintenance
requirements so broadly that it
amounted toa “misuse”of the latitude
given to air carriers on repairing items
that do not in themselves pose a dan
ger to flight.
Such items arc allowed to go unre
paired until a proper repair station is
available because their failure nor
mally docs not affect the air
worthiness of the aircraft. But avia
tion safety experts have said an accu
mulation of a large number of such
unrepaired items on a plane could
pose a hazard.
FAA regulations require such re
pairs to be made when an adequate
repair station is available. In the case
of Eastern, the repairs routinely were
delayed even at airports with major
repair stations because the airline said
it did not have enough “ground lime”
to make the repairs.
Plane crashes
on freeway
LONG BEACH, Calif. — A
light plane crashed onto a freeway
crowded with holiday travelers,
killing a passenger, critically in
juring tire pilot and causing a live
car pileup, authorities said.
Traffic was backed up for 10
miles after the single-engine plane
smashed into the concrete center
divider on Interstate 405 at 6:43
p.m. Sunday. But authorities
marveled that the plane missed
cars and there weren't any serious
injuries reported among the mo
torists involved in accidents.
"1 knew we were going to get
hit," said Beth Kuccker, 35, of
Laguna Beach, who was a passen
ger in a car damaged either by bits
of wreckage or the force of the
fireball that erupted from the
l
plane.
"I looked up to the right and saw
the plane turn sideways," Kuccker
said. "...I put my hand up in front
of my eyes. I thought we were
going to die."
Kuccker and the driver, Sandra
Sisson,46,escaped unharmed, and
another driver doused the flames
with a fire extinguisher.
Nebrayskan
Editor Mike iUUioy
472 17
Managing Editor Jen Da ms
Assoc News Editors Mika Harter
Mary Man Wattbraak
Editorial
Page Editor Joanne Bourne
Wire Editor Linda Hartmann
Copy Desk Chief Jean Rem
Sports Editor Jed Apal
Arts & Entertain
ment Editor Diana Johnson
Graphics Editor Mark Davis
Photo Chief Doug Carroll
Night News Editors Curl Wagner
ScaO Harrah
Art Oirector Brian Barter
General Manager Daniel Bluttll
Production Manager Katharine Pollcky
Publications Board
Chairman Don Johnson
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