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News Digest Edited by Diana Johnson Ban urged on riot fences after stadium tragedy SHEFFIELD, England -- Law makers Sunday demanded changes in stadium designs, including a ban on anti-riot fences, after a mad rush at a soccer match trapped thousands of fans behind one of the steel barriers. At least 94 people died. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher visited Hillsborough stadium and promised a public inquiry into Satur day’s disaster, which turned a soccer cup semifinal into a nightmare. Then she visited hospitalized sur vivors and listened to their accounts of Britain’s worst sports disaster. “We were shouting out to (the police) to get us out and they just couldn’t move us,’’ 33-year-old John Davis told her. “It was just sheer bedlam. It was every man for himself. There were people screaming and screaming.’’ Seventeen-year-old Wayne Adams said he was about five rows from the front of the crowd. ‘T real ized it was serious when I saw one of the lasses standing near me just turn blue in the face. She went down. She was dead. That was it,” he said. Police defended the decision to open 16-foot-wide steel gates outside the stadium just as the match between the Liverpool and Nottingham Forest teams began. Last-minute arrivals then poured into a central standing room-only section, pressing those already inside against the steel mesh fence. The sturdy 10-fool-high fence, angled in at the top to stop people from scaling it, prevented them from escaping over the top to the field. Some were crushed to death. Others suffocated or were trampled trying to fight their way out of the crowd or when the barrier finally collapsed. South Yorkshire’s chief con stable, Peter Wright, said a senior officer decided to open the gates “to save people’s lives and to relieve the crush outside.’’ An investigation was expected to focus on allegations that some Ians entered the sold-out stadium, which has a capacity of 54,(XX), without tickets or with forged tickets, and why so many were still outside as the match began. Police Supt. Tony Pratt, asked about the decision to open the gates, said, “Whatever happened there yesterday, there was a demand for police action and action was taken.” Survivor Stephen Dooling, 34, defended the police action. “The police had to open the door because the lads at the front were screaming. They would have died there at the turnstiles instead of in the ground, Dooling said from his hospital bed. Pratt said the casualty toll stood at 94 dead and 170 injured. Many vic tims were teen-agers and children, because the cheap standing-room - only section is favored by young fans. Seventy-one people were hospi talized, many in extremely critical condition. It was the third major soccer trag edy in four years involving English teams, which have been barred from European soccer competition since May 1985 because of rioting by Liv erpool fans. A stampede by Liverpool fans at Hcyscl stadium in Brussels in May 1985 killed 39 people. Eighteen days earlier, 56 soccer fans had died in a fire at Bradford stadium in England. Lawmakers and other survivors demanded changes in stadium dc signs and elimination of anti-rim fences. n(X “People were caged In yesterday -- people who should have bccnaH to escape off those terraces, who Z killed needlessly,” said Livernod LiN^ral lawmaker David Alton He said the fences should come down immediately, a demand echoed by Sheffield Labor lawmaker w Ashton, and Denis Howell, a former Labor sports minister. Bert Millichip, president of the English Football Association, said regulations require fences. ‘‘Nevertheless, in light of the appalling tragedy yesterday, quite clearly we now have to look at the fences and it has to be a very serious consideration whether or not they have to be pulled down,” he said. A disaster fund was set up for families of the victims. Shore cleanup evaluated as workers try out risky steam-cleaning method VALDEZ, Alaska -- Slate and federal officials dissected Exxon’s cleanup plan for hundreds of miles of shoreline Sunday as an environmen tally risky steam-cleaning method was tested on rocks blackened by America’s worst oil spill. Oil from the 10.1 million-gallon spill, mostly in the fonn of tar balls and mousse-like foam, threatened Homer and other ports on fish-rich Cook Inlet. In Kodiak, the nation’s No. 1 fishing port, herring from a closed fishery were examined for contamination. Homer residents complained of delays in placing log booms they have built to protect their town. Exxon officials say the booms are being stockpiled at nearby Port Gra ham to make them easier to deploy when the oil strikes. “People here in Homer are being jerked around,” said Lee McCabe, a resident who was building booms. “If the fishermen in this town fished like Exxon deploys boom, you’d never see a fish on the dock.” Exxon workers on Sunday tested cleanup methods on blackened rocks at Block Island, including high-pres sure, hot-water sprayers. The com pany has about 200 of the sprayers, but they have not been used previ ously with salt water. Cold-water techniques, even those using high pressure, have little impact on microorganisms and small marine life. But the jets of high-pres sure steam upend rocks, strip away sand and gravel and kill beach life. Scientists say it takes up to two years for life to return to the stcrili/.ed ~hore. Adm. Paul Yost, the Coast Guard commandant sent by President Bush to hasten the operations, said he be lieves the steam method is the only one that can cleanse the sound’s shoreline. Yost said Saturday that it might take three weeks to get Exxon’s cleanup plan completely under way. “I wish it was two or three weeks ago,” said Dennis Kelso, Alaska’s environmental chief. Kelso, who has accused Exxon of dragging its feet af ter the wreck of the tanker Exxon Valdez on March 24, indicated he would scrutinize the plan over the weekend and brief Gov. Steve Cowper on it before discussing it in public. Yost said he and his advisers would meet Monday with Exxon offi cials in Valdez and comment on spe cifics of the plan afterward. ‘‘It appears to be a piece of work that’s well thought out, scientifically and operationally, and I’m very en couraged,” he said Saturday. Exxon spokesman Don Cornett said the company would not discuss its plan until after Yost had fully reviewed it. Efforts to contain the oil at sea have been largely ineffective. Exxon, the Coast Guard and the oil pipeline consortium Aiycska all have been accused of moving too slowly in the face of a staggering logistical task. About 3,000 rocky beaches were tainted by oil in Prince William Sound. The 44 beaches targeted by the state for immediate cleanup have at least 240 miles of often rugged shoreline. > STfl1! To/^eP 4. foR ScMcmu/j -"*\/,'\/v\A ttlJI c I X a i s> 1 > 5 Q I o . 3 . k. :ffl : C r ■o • T Army gets soft for couch potatoes NEWARK, N.J. - The increas ing numbers of “couch potatoes’’ enlisting in the Army are getting injured so often that the brass has instructed drill sergeants to add some “low-impact” exercise to basic training. “It’s our opinion that the young people coming into the military now have spent more time in front of the TV than on the tennis court or a softball field,” said Lt. Col. John Anderson, an Army podiatrist who says he can’t remember re cruits being in worse condition in his 20-year career. A new Army directive says the third week of boot camp, when oul-of-shape recruits apparently become particularly vulnerable, will consist of low-impact aero bics, which are exercises that in volve constant movement but not running and jumping. “The third week was standing out as the place where most of those avoidable injuries were showing up,” said Richard Dowl ing, a spokesman for Fort Dix, one of the Army’s eight basic training posts. “I’ll say that naturally every one had sore muscles, beginning with day 2. But the accumulation over two weeks, and especially the accumulation into the third week, would lead to relatively more seri ous injuries,” he said. Anderson, stationed at Fort Dix’s Walson Army Hospitalvat tributed the injuries to inactivity among the Army’s prime pool for recruits, high school students. 4 ‘They really arc in poor condi tion,” he said. “Nationally, many school systems are not making physical education a mandatory course, or it’s being dropped back to once a week. That certainly has had an impact on the general con dition of the incoming trainee.” Besides Fort Dix, the Army posts affected by the dircc .ivc arc Fort Jackson, S.C.; Fort L '‘onard Wood, Mo.; Fort Knox, K>.; Fort Benning.Ga.; Fort Sill, Okla.; Fort Bliss, Texas; and Fort McClelland, Ala. Col. Margarete DiBenedetto, a physician whose rccommenda lions led lo the directive, said re search shows stress fractures af fected as many as 10 percent of the recruits at some posts, although most posts showed fracture rates ranging between 2 and 4 percent She said that even a 1 percent sick call by recruits is too costly. DiBenedetto said research within the last year show that re ducing running and jumping in the third week lessened associated in juries. The studies also showed better physical conditioning and faster running times for a group whose workouts were reduced in the third week, compared with a control group. And should it be called bool camp anymore, with new soldiers required to wear Army-approved running shoes when they run? ‘ ‘They used to, years ago, wear from the lime they arrived until the time they left combat boots, Anderson said. But running shoes have made some difference in the number of foot injuries the Army is treating, Anderson said. Wright prepares for committee report WASHINGTON - House Speaker Jim Wright, along with other players in the political drama unfold ing around him, readied themselves Sunday for the formal curtain raising of a long-awaited ethics committee report on his finances. Wright, who launched his public defense with a long presentation Thursday that was beamed via live television into millions of homes, remained out of public view Sunday. But his chief understudy - House Majority Leader Tom Foley, the man who would succeed him should Wright be forced to step down - was on a live television interview show trying to keep the waters calm. Republican Rep. Vin Weber of Minnesota, meanwhile, was charac terizing the pending ethics commit tee report as raising much more sub stantive questions than the kind of technical violations that he acknowl » .**••••••••••*•. •••••»•#••*••••••••• edged would not be enough to force a House speaker to descend from the powerful position. In fact, the likely contents of the report have been so thoroughly leaked in recent days -- including Wright’s own point-by-point defense of what he said he understood to be the major charges against him - that few surprises were likely. ‘There is an ex amination here that is going on.’ —Foley The panel, made up of six Repub licans and six Democrats, scheduled a morning news conference to issue the document. The document will represent a kind of informal “indictment” ac cusing Wright of breaking or skirting various House rules having to do with reporting of outside income from different sources to the speaker and his wife. Foley, D-Wash., sought to empha size Sunday that the report, its offi cial status notwithstanding, will be nothing more than a list of allega tions. b Asked on ABC’s “This Week With David Brinkley” whether Wright would be politically crippled even if eventually exonerated of rules violations, Foley said: “No, I don’t believe that and I think we have to be terribly careful that we don’t let accusation bring about its own taint of guilt. There is an examination here that is going on. Netfraskan Editor Curt Wagner 472-17f>6 Managing Editor Jane Hlrt Assoc News Editors Lee Rood Bob Nelson editorial Page Editor Amy Edwards Wire Editor Diana Johnson Copy Desk Editor Chuck Green Sports Editor JeflApel Arts & Entertainment Editor Mlckl Haller Diversions Editor Joeth Zucco Sower Editor Klrstln Swanson Supplements Editor Deannc Nolson Graphics Editor Tim Hartmann Photo Chief Connie Sheehan Night News Editors Victoria Ayotte Chris Carroll Librarian Anne Mohri Art Directors John Bruce Andy Manhart General Manager Dan Shattll Production Manager Katherine Pol » Advertising Manager Robert Ba,es Sales Manager David Thieman Circulation Manager Eric Shanks Publications Board Chairman Tom Macy 475-9868 Professional Adviser Don Walton 473-7301 hr J£® y Nt'braskan(USPS 144 080) is published by the UNL Publications Boa'd N wLa.*KlUn,?n 34 1400 R St ■ *-inco,n. NE. 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