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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 26, 1989)
2 I "%J 3“® \\[ 3 JS "3 O' Associated Press NelSraskan -*■ ^ w W ijf M. kJF lr Edited by Diana Johnson Thursday, January 26,1989 -“-^-51-*n3yWimiim Seagulls are washing ashore by the hundreds at Lake Ioannina IOANNINA, Greece -- More than half the seagulls of Ioannina Lake in northwestern Greece have died and are washing ashore by the hundreds, the Greek Ornithologi cal Society said Tuesday. A spokesman for the society said pesticides used by farmers probably arc to blame. About 500 dead seagulls had been found and 500 more were expected to wash up, said the spokesman, Martin Gaethlich. The seagull population of the lake is estimated at between 1,500 and 2,000. The Ioannina Veterinary Labo ratory said the dead birds showed no sign of disease, and poisoning was being investigated. Gaethlich said other species of birds feeding from the lake, in cluding crows, remained healthy. Ioannina Lake, about seven miles long and two miles wide, is one of the most beautiful natural sites in Greece. “Pesticides are the only re* maining possibility. Farmers use them along with herbicides right after plowing and seagulls follow the tractors to feed from the ground,” Gaethlich said. Farmers started plowing early because of warm weather but a lack of rainfall “didn’t help the toxic substances dissolve,” he said. Ditch to stem drug flow WASHINGTON - A 4-mile-long ditch that a Justice Department offi cial compared Wednesday to a “bur ied Berlin Wall” is planned for a stretch of the U.S.-Mexican border to stem drug smuggling into Southern California. __ iMit tficplan is being criticized as “io«8|Wtt:"lra giwjjrthar ad vogHes ISImamg fences along the border and blasted as repressive by immigrant rights organizations. Associate Attorney General Francis A. Keating II said he pro posed the idea last fall as a way to discourage drug smugglers from driving loads of cocaine, marijuana and heroin across the border near San Die-go. The plan being undertaken by the Immigration and Naturalization Service was approved last month by Attorney General Dick Thornburgh, Keating said. The ditch, which Keating likened to “our buried Berlin Walln will be deep and wide enough to discourage smugglers from driving ducks and cars across the border along a 4-mile stretch of flat desert east of San Ysidro, Calif. The associate attorney general, who is leaving office with the start of the Bush administration, said the desert stretch in the Otay Mesa area east of San Ysidro is a major drug smuggling route. ‘‘This is not intended in any way to interfere with legitimate traffic or U&Je, jt is not intended to stop illegal entry,” ne said in an interview. —"The Border Patrol has tried to stop vehicle traffic across the desert by digging shallow trenches, but smug glers have been able to fill in the ditches to drive through, said Keating, who oversaw law enforce ment agencies in the Justice Depart ment, including the Border Patrol. But the plan has its critics. “The drainage ditch is too little loo late if it is to be taken seriously as a method of deterring illegal entry,” said Patrick Bums, assistant director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform. ‘ ‘There is a serious problem at San Diego of which a very, very small component is high-speed drive throughs” by drug smugglers, said Bums, whose organization is prepar ing to release a study proposing ways to “harden” the U.S.-Mexican bor der. Burns said a barrier of earth rein forced with concrete would be a more effective means of preventing drug trafficking across the desert. Eugene Hernandez, an official of the Mexican-Amcrican Political As sociation in Los Angeles, called it ‘‘a very repressive and a very ill founded idea.” ‘‘Once again, we appear to be obsessed with dealing with symp toms instead of trying to find solu tions” to illegal immigration, said Arnoldo Torres, national political director for the Washington-based League of United Latin American Citizens. Keating confirmed a report in Wednesday editions of the lx>s Ange les Times, which said the 5-feet deep and 14-foot wide ditch was planned for completion by next fall. The isolated Otay Mesa area, a gateway into Southern California for illegal immigrants, is believed to be the most popular crossing spot along the entire 1,900-mile U.S.-Mexico border. About one :hird of the 1.2 million illegal immigrants captured along the b< Jer last year .v ere apprehended at Otay Mesa. Up to -400 vehicles are believed to cross the oorder illegally into San Diego each month, officials said. warneads reportedly removed trom tive missile sites after accident last year WASHINGTON - The Air Force removed the warheads from five of its 50 MX nuclear missiles late last year after a summertime accident in which one missile came loose and fell to the bottom of its underground silo, ac cording to a published report. The five missiles were part of the same production lot and Air Force investigators discovered a common problem that forced the safely action, the Washington Post said. The service is still trying to decide how to repair the five missiles, each of which is designed to carry' 10 war heads, the paper added, quoting un identified sources. The Air Force refused to confirm the account on Wednesday, acknowl edging only that a single MX missile had been taken off alert last June following an accident. That accident previously had been reportadhirnewspapers in Wyoming, where r!f. Warren Air Force Base is located. The nation’s MX, or PeactkMpM'.' nuBilfel' a«"airdell ployed at F.E. Warren. The Air Force also insisted Wednesday, without elaborating, that the nation’s entire MX force of 50 missiles was on alert “at this time.” “We have 50 missiles that are deployed and operational at this time,” said Lt. Col. Don Christian son, a spokesman at F.E. Warren. Christianson refused to say whether any problem missiles had been replaced with new missiles in order to maintain 'he alert force. The spokesman agreed, however, that one MX missile had been taken off alert, its warheads removed and its components broken down as part of a safety investigation after an inci dent last June. “Last summer, we received indi cations of an electrical disconnection with a Peacekeeper (MX) missile inside its silo,” Christianson said. “An investigation was conducted, and a structural failure in a support sktH WaVfourthtoUe tHdtetife MUM» was no safely threat. The reports of the investigation are classified, how ever, so I can’t go further.” The Post said Wednesday the missile had fallen between six inches and a foot when it came “unglued” from its underground launch canister. The canister envelops the missile and is used to propel the four-stage MX from its silo before the main rocket motor is ignited. The newspaper said the fall of the 195,000-pound missile was suffi cient to cause “grave damage” and to require “extensive repairs.” And when the Air Force further rnvesti gated the matter, it concluded the missile was one of a batch of five that had been subject to a particular pro duction problem, the paper said. Air Force officials responded by ordering removal of the 10- warhead packages atop each of the other four suspect missiles to relieve die weight and pressure on their canister bonds Death brings relief to victims’ families SEATTLE - Ted Bundy’s execu tion Tuesday ended an ordeal lor some families of his victims, while others found it hard to comprehend that a moment they had sought for years had finally arrived. “Good,’’ sighed Vivian Ran court, mother of Bundy victim Susan Rancourt, when reached at her La Conner home and told of Bundy’s early-morning execution at Starke, Fla. “The only thing I can say is, thank God, it’s finally over.’’ Elcanore Rose, whose daughter, Denise Naslund, was slain by Bundy, was taken aback . “I feel kind of numb in a way. My daughter’s murderer was taken care of. He paid for what he did,’’ she said. “It seems like I was sentenced to a lifetime of waiting. Now there’s re ally nothing to wait for.” In Grand Junction, Colo., the fa ther of a woman believed to have been murdered by Bundy said he was relieved, although investigators said Bundy did not confess to the slaying. “U/<»’rn inct konm; hn’c ki'on nvn. ” v - w y - — cuted because it should have hap pened a long time ago,” said Robert Nicholson, father of Denise Oliver son. “It’s been a nightmare for 14 years and he’s devastated too many families and manipulated the justice system into a three-ring circus,” Nicholson said. In his final hours, Bundy. 42, called his mother, Louise Bundy, twice at her Tacoma home. “He kept saying how sorry he was, that ‘there was another part of me that people didn’t know,’” she said afterward, adding that he sounded ‘‘very much at peace with himself.” At me conclusion oi me second call, she told him: “You’ll always he my precious son.” In the days before his death, Bundy ended years of proclaiming his innocence and admitted finally to 20 deaths in Western stales, includ ing 11 in Washington. He did not own up to the crime he was executed for, the 1978 rape and murder of a 12-year-old Lake City, Fla., girl, nor to the bludgeoning deaths that year of two Florida Stale University sorority sisters, for which he also was convicted. His death left more questions still for some. Beverly and Donald Burr, whose 8-ycar-oId daughter, Ann Marie, dis appeared from a Tacoma home near Bundy’s nearly 30 years ago, had hoped Bundy could have shed light on their mystery. Bundy was 14 when the girl disappeared Aug. 30, 1961. But Bundy denied killing the girl, said Robert Kcppcl, a Washington attorney general’s investigator to ii ikrvrvi D urtAltr /'AMlTni'CAH thn 1 1 \l/ inglon killings. Belva Kent, of Bountiful, Utah, said that although she had not been told if Bundy admitted responsibility for her daughter’s disappearance in the mid-1970s, “I’m glad it’s over, and that’s about all.” The mother of Shelley Robertson, 24, of Denver, who disappeared June 30,1975, said she remains opposed to the death penalty. “Killing Ted Bundy won’t make me feel better and it won’t bring back Shelley,” Roberta Robertson said. “A lot of people seem to want it out of a vengeance. But, it gives people a false sense of sec urity and it’s terribly expensive.” Armed forces chief assassinated by six gunmen in Honduras, according to reported witness IfcUUCIUALPA, Honduras - A former armed forces chief who helped the Reagan administration organize the Nicaraguan Contra rebel forces in Honduras was ambushed and killed Wednesday, officials and witnesses said. Salvador Lobo, director of emer gencies at the State Hospital School, told reporters Gen. Gustavo Alvarez Martinez died of gunshot wounds near his home in the capital s Florcn cia district Witnesses said six gunmen wailed for Alvarez Martinez outside his home and poured submachine-gun fire into his car. The driver was also killed and Alvarez Martinez’s son-in law was wounded, police said. One witness, Alba Luz Guzman, told The Associated Press the men ‘ * intercepted me and forced me to get i oul lo I lee altcrwards in my automo bile.” Radio America, a local station, said anonymous callers claimed re sponsibility on behalf of the Popular Liberation Forces, a leftist group. Police found Guzman’s car four miles away. Alvarez Martinez, 56, waschiefof the armed forces from 1982 to 1984 under the government of President Roberto Suazo Cordova. He was once considered the most powerful figure in Honduras and worked closely with the Reagan administration to set up the opera tions of U.S.-supported Nicaraguan rebels in Honduran base camps. A fanatic anti-communist, Al varez Martinez frequently dc nounccd the leftist Sandinista gov ernment of neighboring Nicaragua. -1 Nebraskan Editor Curt Wagner Night News Editors Victoria Ayotte 472-1766 Chris C*rroM Managing Editor Jane Hlrt Librarian Anne Mohrt Assoc News Editors Lee Rood Art Directors JSSlKice Bo^i No!♦.<>» Andv Uinhnit Editorial Kugt Editor Amy Edward* General Manager Dan Shaltll Johnson Production Manager Katharine Pollcky C°Py«iStS.^ °,r**n Advertising Manager Robert Bates ArK a ^ Ap4j „ Sales Manager David Thiemann Arts & Entertainment Circulation Manager Eric Shanks Editor MIckIKaHer Publications Board i“'.,?Z^cco Chairman Tom Mac/ Sower Editor Kirilin Swaneor 475-MS8 phiI" 9r*nun* N***0" Professional Adviser Don Walton Graphics Editor flm Hartmann 473-7301 f ttcto Chief Connie Sheehan ^ ^^»SPS 144-000) IS Published by the UNL Publications Board. 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