2 News Digest
De Klerk declares beaches open to blacks
CAPE TOWN, South Africa --
President F.W. de Klerk on Thursday
declared all beaches open to blacks,
and he promised that the law allow
ing racial segregation of public facili
ties would be repealed as soon as
possible.
' ‘There is no alternative for South
Africa but the road of reconciliation,
of creating opportunities for all the
people of this country in a way which
is fair, just and equitable,” he said.
‘‘The time has arrived to repeal
this act,” he said, referring to the
Separate Amenities Act which his
National Party put into law in 1953,
allowing while local governments
across the country to bar blacks from
parks, libraries, swimming pools,
civic centers, buses and public toi
lets.
The act cannot be repealed for
mally until Parliament reconvenes
Feb. 2. De Klerk’s declaration “that
all beaches will henceforth be acces
sible to all members of the public”
also requires action by municipal and
provincial authorities.
In many communities, most or all
public amenities are open to all races.
But whites-only facilities persist in
the capital, Pretoria, in many rural
towns, and in several small industrial
cities where the far-right Conserva
tive Party took power in municipal
elections last year.
The proposed repeal of the Sepa
rate Amenities Act “is the beginning
of the end of a separate white commu
nity life,” said Koos van dcr Merwe,
chief spokesman for the Conserva
tives, who urged whites to oust dc
Klerk.
“Mr. de Klerk is placing South
Africa on the road of a totally racially
mixed South Africa, which will in
evitably be governed by a black ma
jority.”
The repeal would still leave major
areas of segregation in South Africa
- residential neighborhoods, medi
cal care and public education. It also
would leave intact the political sys
tem that gives the 5 million whites
domination over the 32 million
blacks, Asians and people of mixed
race.
De Klerk, who took office in
August, said his announcements were
“in line with our stated goal to elimi
nate discrimination.”
They were the latest in a series of
moves aimed at enhancing the pros
pects for black-white negotiations on
a new constitution that would extend
political rights to blacks while pro
tecting white interests.
The government is in the process
of designating certain neigh borhoods
as multiracial, although it says whites
will retain the option of living in
segregated areas.
Dc Klerk has given no signal that
public schools and hospitals will be
integrated, nor hinted at repeal of the
Population Registration Act, which
officially classifies all South Afri
cans by race.
“For the white group, clinging to
power means accepting the risk of -
more than that, of facing - a revolu
tion,” dc Klerk warned.
I
I Andy ManharV Da tty Nebraakan
10-year-old advises Bush i
WAUSAU, Wis. — Ten-ycar
old Hillary Schaefer guarantees
that if President George Bush lis
tens to her advice, the number of
fish he catches “will shoot up like
a rocket.”
The fourth-grader was selected
from 5,400 write-in essay entrants
to appear on a national public tele
vision program for students,
“What’s In The News,” to relate
advice she would give the presi
dent.
Hillary’s essay was inspired by
Bush’s lack of fishing success
during a vacation at his home in
Maine. She donned a fishing hat,
grabbed a pole and clutched a fish
ing net while she read her essay
during a videotaping session at a
local television station Tuesday.
Bush needs to "keep those
Secret Service guys out of your
way,’ ’ her essay said. He should go
walleye fishing and use two baits —
throw crayfish in the lake to attract
fish and worms on a hook to catch
them.
Bush also should make sure his
pole is twice the length of his arm,
Hillary advised.
Eight mutilated in El Salvador
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador -
Armed men killed and mutilated six
Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and
her daughter Thursday after bursting
into their house at a leading univer
sity. A witness said uniformed gov
ernment troops were involved.
The government denied responsi
bility, condemned the slayings as
‘‘savage and irrational” and said an
investigation was under way.
The killings were committed
“with lavish barbarity,” said the
Rev. Jose Maria Tojcira, the Jesuit
Provincial for Central America. “For
example, they look out their brains,”
Tojeira said.
Roman Catholic Archbishop Ar
turo Rivera Damascompared the kill
ings to the slaying of his predecessor,
Oscar Amulfo Romero. That 1980
assassination marked the beginning
of years of killings and kidnappings
by right-wing death squads.
“If this spiral of violence contin
ues, death and destruction will sweep
away many, especially those who arc
of most use to our people,” said
Rivera Damas after leading a prayer
over the mutilated bodies.
The slayings came on the sixth day
of fierce combat in and around this
capital following an attack by leftist
Farabundo Marti National Liberation
Front guerrillas.
Seven school children killed from storm
NEWBURGH, N.Y. - A glass
wall blew in on a school cafeteria
during a severe thunderstorm Thurs
day, killing seven children and injur
ing 18, authorities said.
“It was a very quick thing and
there wasn’t anything anybody could
do about it because it happened all at
once,” said Mayor Donald Presutti.
Rescue workers dug through the
debris with a backhoc at East Colden
ham Elementary School. State
Trooper Robert Gillespie could not
say whether mo^c victims were be
lieved to be in the rubble.
It was not known how many stu
dents were in the cafeteria when the
storm blew in a wall of windows
during lunch.
The storm system was the same
one that moved through the South on
Wednesday, spinning off tornadoes
that killed 17 people in Alabama.
State Police and survivors said
they believed the school was hit by a
tornado, but the National Weather
Service said it could not confirm that
until investigators went to the scene.
House members vote for $30,000 pay raise
WASHINGTON — House mem
bers voted Thursday to raise their pay
by more than $30,000 a year over the
next 13 months - to above $120,000
a year - while revising ethics rules to
put new limits on outside earnings.
The bill was passed 252 to 174,
just 10 months after intense public
criticism forced the House to reject a
larger pay increase.
The new proposal sped through
the House with strong support from
the leaders of both parties and an
endorsement from President George
Bush. A slight majority of Rcpubli
cans voting opposed the bill despite
Bush’s stance.
The Senate was expected to con
sider it today .
“lean understand and sympathize
with people in my district who make
15 and 20 and $30,000 a year who
would have trouble understanding
why this kind of pay level is needed,”
said House Majority Leader Richard
Gephardt, D-Mo.
‘ But,’ ’ he told his colleagues, “in
your heart and in your mind you know
it’s the right thing to do.”
Rep. James A. Traficant, D-Ohio,
took a different view.
‘‘I understand the game -- we
come with ethics reform and we
sneak in a pay raise,” he said.
The complex 100-page pay and
ethics package was announced by
Democratic and Republican leaders
Wednesday, but copies were not
made available to the public until
debate was well under way Thursday.
The bill would increase salaries in
the House, for federal judges, and lor
top executive branch officials by at
least 35 percent and often by closer to
40 percent.
b. Oermans to give one-third seats to non-Communists
WEST BERLIN -- The East Ger
man leadership agreed Thursday to
give more than one-third of the scats
in the new Cabinet to non-Commu
nists, who now have only four,
sources involved in the negotiations
reported.
Sources in the Liberal Democrats,
one of four small parties that have
been allied with the Communists,
said Premier Hans Modrow would
reduce the Cabinet from 44 members
to 26 or 27 and assign at least 11
ministries to non-Communists.
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Chancellor Helmut Kohl of West
Germany said people of East Ger
many must decide on German reuni
fication, but the top Kremlin adviser
on German affairs ruled it out.
Nikolai Portugalov said in an
interview with the Soviet news
agency Novosli there will be two
German slates “for the foreseeable
future and also in the long term.”
Mass emigration and pro-democ
racy protest have created great pres
sure for reform in East Germany. The
Liberal Democrats have said they
will ask Parliament on Friday to
eliminate the constitutional provi
sion of a “ leading role’ ’ that guaran
tees supremacy to the Communist
Party.
Liberal Democratic sources said
late Thursday that Communist Party
chief hgon Krenz had agreed to sup
port a Cabinet with more than one
third of the seals held by non-Com
munists.
That would allow the ruling party
to retain its dominant role while ap
pearing to respond to demands for
more democracy. Previous govern
ments have dutifully carried out the
wishes of the ruling Politburo.
Non-Communists in the Cabinet
still arc likely to share many of the
party s views, which leaves little
hope that the demands of New Forum
and other unofficial pro-democracy
groups will be addressed.
New Forum and the others have
pressed lor legal status and inclusion
in government affairs, and arc not
expected to settle I or mere redistribu
tion among existing political groups.
Immigration rule ease may cause tariff end
WASHINGTON — Commerce
Secretary Robert A. Mosbacher said
Thursday a historic casing of travel
restrictions in the Soviet Union
would clear the way for the removal
of U.S. tariff barriers "if all condi
lions are met.”
Mosbacher said President George
Bush would recommend that Con
gress approve a one-year grant of
lower tariffs on Soviet imports after
the new Soviet legislation clears final
passage.
The emigration legislation estab
lishes the right of all Soviet citizens
visUs^ abr?ad " Permanently oron
visits - and reduces or eliminates
most restrictions in effect nmlz
Judge orders Reagan to turn over diaries
WASHINGTON ~ A federal
judge Thursday approved a subpoena
that would compel former President
Ronald Reagan to produce diaries
and other records by next Wednesday
for the Iran-Contra criminal case of
John Poindexter.
U.S. District Court Judge Harold
Greene granted a petition by lawyers
for Poindexter, who was Reagan's
national security adviser. They have
requested portions of Reagan’s dia
ries and notes he took at key meetings
with Poindexter.
In a two-paragraph order, Greene
said Poindexter “may serve upon
ormcr President Reagan and upon
the archivist of the United Stales the
subpoenas ... submitted to the court.
Poindexter now is accused of
.he chroSoTotr8C°nntXU°" wilh
Seventeen dead,
1,000 homeless
from tornadoes
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. - Na
tional Guardsmen stood watch
against looting Thursday while
work crews dug at the debris of a
tornado that struck virtually with
out warning, leaving 17 people
dead and about 1,000 homeless.
No bodies were believed left in
the rubble, but portions of the city
resembled a bombing target. A
shopping center and clusters of
apartment buildings were leveled.
Cars were piled atop each other.
Utility poles had been snapped like
twigs. |
“It's like taking six to 10 city
blocks and pulling them in a
blender and putting it on liquefy,”
said rescue worker Bob Caraway.
The storm system that struck
Huntsville — a violent clash of
unusually warm and cold air ~
continued its march north on
Thursday, leaving seven school
children dead in Newburgh, N.Y.,
and collapsing homes in New Jer
sey.
Tornadoes were reported
Wednesday in Mississippi, Ala
bama, Georgia, South Carolina,
North Carolina, Kentucky and
Indiana.