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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 11, 1988)
News Digest By the Associated Press Edited by Bob Nelson Main line faiths launching TV Network I NEW YORK — America’s main line faiths are launching a new, un precedented ecumenical network on the nation’s cable TV systems. Plans for it were confirmed in interviews this week, with a partial start-up expected in midsummer, expanding to 18 to 20 hours daily in the fall. “A fresh, new wind is coming across the country’s television screens,” said the Rev. Daniel Paul Matthews, a Manhattan Episcopa lian and board chairman of Vision Interfaith Satellite Network. Called “VISN,” it will shun solic iting money, as typifies individual TV religious preachers. But it has financial backing of the industry, and projects sustaining commercial sponsorship. “It’s an idea whose time has come in market need and consumer need,” said David Ochoa of Nashville, Tenn., a United Methodist and presi dent and chief executive officer of the enterprise. “For years, the mainline denomi nations have been on the sidelines, but they’ve finally got off their duffs and arc doing something.” Ochoa, who owns a cable channel in Los Angeles and who also is communications chief for United Methodism’s board of higher educa tion and ministry, added: “It’s the first time mainline faith groups, Protestant, Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Jewish, have worked together to create a new TV programming service for people of faith nationwide.” “We’ve been getting personal pietism exclusively slanted toward a narrow perspective,” Matthews said. Matthews, with extensive TV experience in Knoxville, Tcnn., and Atlanta, before becoming rector of Manhattan’s Trinity Church, said the new network would reflect historic faiths that have been the “backbone of America.” Actively involved arc most major Protestant and Eastern Orthodox denominations, plus some evangeli cal and Jewish bodies. Officials said Roman Catholicsarc expected to join through decisions of bishops late this month. House demands ouster or Noriega WASHINGTON—The Houscon Thursday overwhelmingly de manded the ouster of Panamanian strongman Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega, and the opposition ambas sador to the United Stales predicted Noriega’s overthrow “within a few days.” At the same time, the Reagan administration was considering the imposition of further sanctions, in cluding the withholding of about $7 million in payments to Panama due by March 15 for canal-related opera tions. The money would go into an escrow account. The House voted 367-2 for a non binding resolution that noted allcga lions of drug trafficking, murder, money laundering and racketeering against the Panamanian Defense Forces, which Noriega heads. It also called upon Noriega to comply with an order tv/o weeks ago by Panamanian President Eric Arturo Delvalle, dismissing him as com mander of the defense forces. In stead, Noriega dismissed Delvalle a few hours later. The United States recognized Delvalle, who has been forced into hiding in Panama, as the legitimate head of government. Members on both sides of the political spectrum lashed out at Nori ega and gave the administration vir tually carte blanche to impose addi tional sanctions. Rep. Mel Levine, D Calif., said “the government of Pan ama is in the hands of a thug, a common criminal.” The House vote was a strong ges ture of support for the administration’s efforts to pressure Noriega, who has been indicted by two grand juries in Florida on drug trafficking charges, to leave. Secretary of State George P. Shultz, testifying before a House Appropriations subcommittee, said President Reagan was convening a meeting later in the day to decide on further action against the Panama nian regime. Nebraskan Editor Mike Reilley 472-1766 Managing Editor Jen Deselms Assoc News Editors Curl Wagner Chris Anderson Editorial Page Editor Diana Johnson Wire Editor Bob Nelson Copy Desk Editor Joan Rezac Sports Editor Jett Apel Arts & Entertain ment editor Geoff McMurtry Asst. Arts & Entertainment Editor Mickl Haller Graphics Editor Tom Lauder Asst. Graphics Editor Jody Beem Photo Chief Mark Davis Night News Editors Joeth Zucco Kip Fty Art Director John Bruce General Manager Daniel Shattil Production Manager Katherine Policky Advertising Manager Marcia Miller Asst Advertising Manager Bob Bates Publications Board Chairman Don Johnson, 472-3611 The Daily Nebraskan (USPS 144-080) is published by the UNL Publications Board, Nebraska Union 34, 1400 R St., Lincoln, Neb (except holidays), weekly dunng the summer session. Subscription price is $35 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, Neb. ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1968 _DAILY NEBRASKAN_ Family of musicians hijack jet MOSCOW — A family of musi cians from Siberia who hijacked an Aeroflot jet hid their weapons inside their instruments, then opened fire and set off a bomb when an army assault team stormed the grounded plane, Soviet media said Thursday. Five of the hijackers, who were led by two brothers and their mother, died in the assaultand subsequent fire aboard the jell incron Tuesday, as did three passengers and a stewardess, Tass said. Two of the sky pirates committed suicidcand the matriarch, once honored as a Hero Mother of the Soviet Union, was shot dead by family members, the official news agency said. Deputy Civil Aviation Minister Ivan Vasin told the government newspaper Izvestia that the hijacking was the most dramatic he could recall in his long career. Eleven hijackers commandeered the Tupolev -154 jet as it was en route to Leningrad after a fueling stop in the Ural Mountains city of Kurgan, and they told the pilot to fly to Lon don, Tass said. It identified them as the Ovechkins, a family musical group from Irkutsk, the southern Siberian city where the flight origi natcd. “Eyewitnesses pointed to three leaders among the criminal team — Vasily and Oleg Ovechkin and their mother Ninel Ovechkin, a plump, fashionably dressed woman of over 50,” Tass said. “They had brought the weapons and explosives aboard the plane in their musical instruments,” Tass reported. It gave no details of the Ovechkins’ background and did not say how they managed to elude air port security. Pre-flight checks at airports in the Soviet Union arc not uniform, and range from screening by metal detec tors, friskings and a meticulous search of carry-on baggage to a per functory glance at passengers’ tick ets. About 3 p.m. Moscow time, while the Tu-154 with 76 passengers was over the Vologda region cast of Leningrad, the hijackers sent a note to the cockpit, Tass said. Izvestia, in its report on the hijack, j quoted the note as saying: “Fly to a capitalist country (London). Don’t fly any lower. Otherwise we’ll ex plode a bomb.” Compact Discs At Our Smallest Prices Ever. Just $11.99 Only At pickles RECORDS-TAPES COMPACT DISCS 17 th & P » 237 S 70th « 3814 Normal Blvd : Company tok return $90 million in settlement WASHINGTON— Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. has agreed to return $90 million to the government to settle allegations it fraudulently overcharged the Army on helicopter spare parts, Pentagon sources said | Wednesday night. The agreement was believed to be the largest settlement of a defense contracting fraud case to dale. A Pentagon official speaking on condi- i tion of anonymity said it is to be announced Friday by federal prosecu tors in Fort Worth, Texas. The settlement marks the end to a four-year dispute between Bell helicopter and the Army that grew out of findings by Pentagon auditors of numerous accounting and inventory irregularities at the Fort Worth \ company. The Pentagon source said there had never been any evidence of intentional fraud on the part of the company. “This was an accounting problem,” he said. However, during the investigation, there were allegations that Bell Helicopter officials shredded documents, altered computer entries and covered up evidence of deliberate ovcrbilJings to the government. Armenian groups claim 1,500 killed in clashes N1COSIA, Cyprus—Armen ian nationalists said Thursday that more than 1,500 Armenians were killed in ethnic clashes in the southern Soviet republic of Azerbaijan. The Armenian Revolutionary Federation made the claim in state ments issued by its headquarters in Athens and an office in Nicosia. There was no way to verify the report. Soviet officials have said the death toll in the unrest last week was 32. Armenian nationalists in Moscow have said the toll was much higher. Foreign correspondents based in Moscow have not been allowed to travel to the region. The group said that, based on information it has received from the Soviet Union, “the violence against the Armenian population has reached the scale of a massacre. ’ Andy Gibb dies, cause of death unannounced LONDON — Pop singer Andy Gibb, younger brother of the Bee Gees rock group, died Thursday in an Oxfordshire hospital after developing stomach pains, his record company said. He was 30. A spokesman for Island Records Ltd. who asked not to be identified said he could not release the cause of death. “He died in an Oxfordshire hospital this morning,” the record company said in a statement “He was 30 years old. He was taken ill with stomach pains on Monday and was admitted to hospital for observation and then he died this morning. “The reason for death has yet to be announced.” The spokesman said Gibb signed contract with Island Records two months ago and was due to work on a new album this spring. Last October, court papers filed in connection with his bankruptcy proceedings in Miami showed Gibb earned only $7,755 in 1986 and lived rent-free while playing guitars loaned him by his brothers. suddenly, time stood sttu. aers feu. s*tNt. CO-EDS QU\ft«D in ANTlClUMlON SHfcLDCN- THE ZENITH COMPUTER NERD HAD STEWED OFF THE BUS Here’s Sheldon the Computer Nerd... the hottest new hunk on your campus! He's hip. He’s cool. He’s the new wave nebbish. Now you can discover Sheldon’s secret to Computer Nerd success with this special offer from your Zenith Data Systems Campus Contact. Sheldon gives it a big thumbs up! 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