Pt'gC KJpWQ niaPQt Assodated Press Nebmskan
2 IMLWl) UlgCSl Edited by Bob Nelson Thursday, March 3,1988
. NATO condemns Warsaw Pact
conventional force superiority
BRUSSELS, Belgium —NATO
leaders on Wednesday demanded
huge cutbacks in Warsaw Pact tanks
and artillery, and endorsed President
Reagan’s efforts to negotiate strate
gic arms reductions with the Soviet
Union.
Defining strategy for a new set of
East-West negotiations, NATO lead
ers said Soviet conventional forces
pose the threat of a surprise attack
■ and must be slashed to rectify an
imbalance in military strength.
The Soviet cutbacks would entail,
for example, “the elimination from
Europe of lens of thousands of War
saw Pact weapons relevant to sur
prise attack, among them tanks and
artillery pieces,” a NATO communi
que said.
Meeting behind closed doors at
alliance’s heavily guarded headquar
ters, the leaders of the 16 alliance
countries attempted to accentuate
agreement. They did not want to
highlight differences about the pace
of modernizing short-range nuclear
missiles left in Europe after theelimi
nation of longer-range weapons cov
ered by a new U.S.-Soviet arms
treaty.
According to his spokesman,
Reagan quoted Benjamin Franklin,
telling the NATO leaders, “If we do
not all hand together, we will as
surcdly hang separately.”
Security was so strict that a NATO
guard attempted to eject a reporter
who asked Reagan a question as the
leaders posed for a “family photo.”
Emphasizing alliance unity, Re
agan said, “There arc no great funda
mental differences there. I have
never seen such harmony and togeth
erness as we have.”
Reagan mixed NATO summitry
with Middle East peace efforts. He
ordered Secretary of State George P.
Shultz to make a return to the Middle
East after the summit windup Thurs
day night to continue h is efforts to set
• up Arab-Isracli peace talks.
Robertson dropping libel suit
W AorlirNVj 1 UlN — Kat KoDcrt
son’s lawyer said Wednesday the
GOP presidential candidate is ready
to “pay a substantial amount of court
costs” in dropping his libel suit
against a former congressman who
accused Robertson of avoiding com
bat duty in the Korean War.
Former Rep. Paul McCloskcy, R
Calif.,said Robertson’s effort todrop
the case meant “he’s chickening out
of the trial just like he chickened out
37 years ago.”
Robertson has repeatedly de
clined McCloskcy’s offer to settle the
suit if Robertson would pay his
accuser’s legal defense bills, which
McCloskcy estimated at $4(X),000.
► As recently as last Thursday, the
former television evangelist de
clared he was “ready to go to court”
and “wouldn’t pay a nickel to some
body who is a patent liar.”
The court costs would cover such
items as tnc taking ot depositions,
however, some of that money appar
ently would go to McCloskey.
Robertson, in South Carolina, said
Wednesday he wanted to press ahead
with the suit but couldn’t be in court
and out campaigning for the Repub
lican presidential nomination at the
same time.
“If the judge will give me about
another month, 1 ’d love to go into it,”
Robertson said.
U.S. District Court Judge Joyce
Hens Green has declined to change
the Tuesday start-of-trial date, and
Rigler said of that stance, “I can’t
understand why a respected judge did
it.”
The suit is scheduled to go to trial
next Tuesday, the delegate-rich Su
per Tuesday of the primary season.
But in Washington, Robertson’s at
torney, Rigler, said the court will be
formally asked for dismissal.
McLiosKcy, commenting
Wednesday of CBS-TV, said, “The
courtroom’s a great place to learn the
truth. Now that he’s up with he truth
to be told and testimony under oath,
he’s backing off.”
“I think the truth ought to be told.
I don’t know any better place to get
the truth than in the courtroom. He
invoked the process, he ought to go
through with it,” McCloskcy said.
The lawsuit was filed in 1986
following publication of
McCloskcy’s allegations that
Robertson used the influence of his
late father, Sen. A. Willis Robertson,
D-Va., to avoid combat duty in the
Korean War.
A number of former Marines have
come forward since the lawsuit was
filed to support McCloskcy, though
other witnesses deny that temporary
reassignment to a special training
unit in Japan.
Troops fire tear gas in West Bank hospital
RAMALLAH, Occupied West Bank — Israeli troops fired tear gas
inside an Arab hospital Wednesday, forcing doctors to don gas masks
and sending dozens of choking patients fleeing with their faces covered
by .Arab headdresses.
Soldiers clubbed a Palestinian teen-ager suspected of throwing rocks
at troops from a barricade erected about 10 yards from the hospital’s
emergency room.
.An Associated Press photographer saw soldiers throw the youth head
first down a flight of stairs, then sit on his stomach while beating him
with a wooden truncheon.
Troops detained 20 Arabs suspected of participating in demonstra
tions in Ramallah, Israel radio said.
Four wounded as gunmen opens fire near the Alamo
SAN ANTONIO, Texas — A man with a gun in each hand jumped
out of a taxi near the Alamo on Wednesday and opened fire, wounding
four people at random before being shot by lawmen, authorities and
witnesses said.
“He just started shooting. All hell broke lose,” said Todd Tarble, 20,
who was waiting for a bus about three blocks from the historic site.
“He had two guns in his hands, Tarble said. “The guy was acting like
John Wayne.”
The gunmen was in reported in good condition at a local hospital, j
One victim was in serious condition and the other three suffered
relatively minor gunshot wounds.
FDA commissioner warns against aspirin claims
ROCKVILLE, Md. — The Food and Drug Administration chief on
Wednesday warned aspirin manufacturers against making advertising
claims that their product is beneficial in the prevention of a first heart
attack.
FDA Commissioner Frank E, Young met for over an hour with the
nation's leading aspirin manufacturers and told them that ads making
such claims would constitute “mislabeling.”
Study says 1 in 500 young women have AIDs virus
BOSTON—A study of Massachusetts women who gave birth found
that one in 500 was infected with the AIDS virus, and researchers
projecting their findings nationwide say several thousand AIDS-in
fected babies couid be bom in the United States each year.
Most surveys of AIDS infection have concentrated on male homo
sexuals, drug addicts and others at high risk of catching the disease.
Estimating the prevalence of the virus in the general population has been
difficult
• ..
Can you be religious
and wonder if there really is a god?
Can you be religious
and think Jesus was a good man but only a man?
Can you be religious
and live only for this life?
Can you be religious
and ask why bad things happen to good people?
YOU BET!
f *•
The Unitarian Universalist Church supports and encourages free
thinking and each individual’s search for truth.
Come join us for lively
discussion and learn more
about Unitarian Universalists
Sunday nights — UNL Student CAWfl — 6:00-8:00 pm
March 6tli "Thehumanist Alt&mativIS^ ''
by Rev. Charles Stephen
ministry of the
The Unitarian Church in Lincoln
Pizza & Pop provided.
March 13th Heterosexism"led by
Karl Olson & Amie De Frain
March 20th “Living Will & Euthanasia"
led by Bill Heule
(meeting at 1117 H St. Apt. B-4)
March 27th "What is Religion "
led by Scott Whilhite
For further information: The Unitarian Church,
6300 A St, Lincoln, NE 68501, Phone: 488 2213
Consolidation bill gets first-round nod
Lawmakers gave first-round approval
Wednesday to LB940, a significantly watered
down school consolidation proposal sent to the
floor by the Education Committee.
Committee Chairman Sen. Ron Withem of
Papillion, who headed an ad hoc task force
which drafted the original bill, said the
amended bill “is a different approach, one that
faces some rocky roads ahead.”
The amended version represents a compro
mise from the original bill which would have
required all elementary only (Class I) districts
to merge or affiliate with a district that offers a
high school, or combine with others to form a
new high-school-only district by July 1994.
Withem said the significantly amended
proposal answers the major objections of oppo
nenis while keeping alive efforts to compro
mise on the issue.
The amendments would:
• Remove the July 1994 deadline for taking
action; instead declaring it the intent of the suite
to work towards that goal.
• Put a two-year expiration date on nonresi
dent tuition. Under current sUttutes, students in
the elementary-only districts pay the district
where they attend high school.
• Drop requirements that all schools be ac
credited by 1992. The Department of Educa
tion is encouraged to revise its accreditation
rules to give more flexibility to small districts.
• Modify the bill’s provisions for the forma
tion of new high-school-only districts.
House passes landmark bill
WASHINGTON — The House overwhelmingly
passed a landmark civil rights bill Wednesday that
would broaden protections for women, minorities, the
elderly and the handicapped. President Reagan has
vowed to veto the measure.
The Civil Rights Restoration Act, considered by
many lawmakers the most significant civil rights
measure in 20 years, was sent to the White House on a
315-98 vote. The Senate passed it by an equally
lopsided 75-14 vote in January.
Both chambers passed the bill by the two-thirds
margin needed to override a presidential veto, but it <
was unclear whether the huge margins would bold up "
following Rcdgan’rs vow Wednesday to *cjoct< thd
measure.
The restoration act was designed to reverse a 1984
S upreme court decision that narrowed the scope of four
major civil rights laws meant to prevent taxpayer
financing of discrimination.
Supporters of the act said hundreds of discrimina
tion complaints had been dropped or restricted since
the decision.
“We have suffered far too long in waiting for this
great and important day,” said Rep. John Conyers, D
Mich.
In letters delivered Wednesday to several House
Republicans, Reagan said flatly he will veto the meas
ure “if it is presented to me in its current form.”
In the letters, sent from Brussels, Belgium, where
Reagan is attending a NATO summit, the president
said the bill “dramatically expands the scope of federal
jurisdiction over state and local governments and the
private sector” and “poses a particular threat to relig
ious liberty.”
Editor Mike Rellley
472-1766
Managing Editor j.n Deselms
Assoc News Editors Curt Wagner
_ Chris Anderson
Editorial
Page Editor Diana Johnson
Wire Editor Bob Nelson
Copy Desk Editor Joan Rezac
Sports Editor j*ft A pel
Arts & Entertain
ment editor Geoff McMurtry
Asst Arts &
Entertainment EditorMickl Haller
An ui rector John Bruce
Circulation Manager Eric Shanks
General Manager Daniel Shattll
Production Manager Katherine Pollcky
Advertising
Manager Marcia Miller
Asst Advertising
Manager Bob Bates
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