News Digest
Czech premier talks with opposition leaders
PRAGUE, Czechoslovakia - The Commu
nist premier held unprecedented talks with
opposition leaders Sunday, then joined bold
reformer Alexander Dubcek at a pro-democ
racy rally before 300,000 elated, flag-waving
demonstrators.
Even the armed forces and riot police, who
just nine days ago beat peaceful protesters,
indicated backing for the growing reform
movement. ‘‘We support the democratic
changes,” a riot policeman told the crowd,
which braved freezing weather and snow.
Premier Ladislav Adamee became the first
top official in 20 years to share a platform with
Dubcek, the former Communist Party leader
who spent two decades in political exile after
Warsaw Pact tanks crushed his “Prague
Spring” reform movement in 1968.
Adamcc also held his first talks with leading
dissident Vaclav Havel and independents in an
effort to find a way to end the political crisis
and propel Czechoslovakia toward democracy.
The talks seemed intended to clarify the
situation as the Communist Party’s policy
making Central Committee began its second
emergency session in three days Sunday.
New party chief Karel Urbanek, addressing
the meeting, said the Central Committee will
make further personnel changes lollowing a
major shakcup in the ruling party last Friday.
He also proposed an extraordinary party con
gress on Jan. 26 which would have the power to
elect an entirely new Central Committee.
Urbanck also asked the Czechoslovak pre
mier and the premier of the Czech republic to
submit proposals on changing the functions of
their interior ministries - which arc respon
sible for the police — in the wake ol police
brutality against peaceful Prague demonstra
tors Nov. 17 that touched off the past nine days
of mammoth anti-government rallies.
The powerful Prague Communist Party, in a
narsn conucmuauuu ui pany icaucrsmp, de
manded that Adamcc, dumped from the Polit
buro along with six others Friday, be restored
to the panel.
“Dialogue has begun!” Havel declared tri
umphantly at the rally, which capped a week of
pro-democracy demonstrations and hectic
moves by the Communists to regain control.
Demonstrations also were reported in Brati
slava, Brno, Plscn, Hradcc Kralovc, Ceskc
Budcjovicc, Kosice and other cities.
State-run television reported 800,(XX)
people at the rally, but reporters estimated no
more than about 300,000.
—i_mmm__* > » *_mi » ■
Andy Manharty Daily Nebraskan
Massachusetts man develops
contact lenses for chickens
WELLESLEY, Mass. - Ran
dall E. W isc had it all - a Harvard
M.B.A., a profitable computqjt.
software company. But he sold his
firm to follow a dream, a dream to
one day supply contact lenses to all
the world’s egg-laying chickens.
Wise’s red contact lenses arc
already on 100,000 chickens na
tionwide, and his company, Ani
malcns Inc., is growing.
Oh, sure, people laughed at
first. “We’d talk to investors.
They’d say: 'Sounds neat. Good
luck,’” Wise recalls.
But while Wise is willing to
joke a little about his enterprise,
he’s all business when it comes to
discussing the future, which he
says looks sunny side up.
Before writing Wise off as a
cuckoo, understand that there is a
sound idea behind his scheme.
Chickens become positively mel
low when they see the world
through rose-tinted glasses - or
better yet, fire-engine red contact
lenses.
Scientists aren’t sure why, but a
rosy outlook eliminates the peek
ing order among chickens, which
normally tend to be pretty ornery
critters. Red-eyed birds spend less
lime fighting and more time laying
eggs. They also cat less.
According to Wise’s calcula
tions, that translates into an annual
savings of at least 50 cents a
chicken, or 2.5 cents per dozen
eggs. With 1.2 billion laying
chickens multiplied by the 20
dozen eggs each yields a year, the
savings could be $600 million.
With such benefits, Wise is sure
farmers will soon flock to buy his
contact lenses, which go for a
modest 20 ccntf a pair, or 15 cents
if bought in bulk. The lenses can be
put in place in seconds and slay in
place for the life of the bird, or
about a year.
“The challenge is to go out and
sell the product, especially when
it’s new and different,” Wise says.
‘‘This certainly falls into the cate
gory of being new and different.”
The idea for the lenses goes
back to Wise’s childhood on the
chicken farm his father managed
in northern California in the early
1960s.
Wise’s dad, Irvin, tried to pro
duce lenses for chickens after a
salesman told him about a farm
whcrcchickcns afflicted with cata
racts behaved belter than those
with normal sight.
“But the technology didn’t
exist at the lime for the lens to
work," explains Wise, 41. ‘‘The
early lenses blinded the chick
ens.”
The elder Wise’s fledgling
company folded. His son went off
to college, worked in the shipping
industry for a lime and then
founded a computer software firm
in Boston eight years ago that pros
pered.
But the chickens and the lenses
were still on his mind Three years
ago he sold his company for sev
eral million dollars and set out to
pursue his dream.
‘ ‘ I got out of computers because
of this,” Wise says. “And I still
don’t miss computers. I’ve be
lieved in this fora long time.”
Not that everything has flown
smoothly since jumping from
computer software to chicken
eyewear.
The lenses had to be painstak
ingly designed so they wouldn’t
distort the chickens’ vision or irri
tate their eyes.
Eventually, a usable lens was
developed. Wise contracted with
several small plants around Massa
chusetts to produce the lenses, and
field tests were conducted on
farms around the country.
Now, Wise says, the testing is
over and it’s time for his dream to
fly.
Lebanese president warns Aoun
CHTOURA, Lebanon -- Newly
elected president Elias Hrawi said
Sunday he will replace Christian
Gen. Michel Aoun with a new army
commander within 48 hours if Aoun
continues to challenge the fledgling
government.
The warning came after Parlia
ment approved a new Cabinet that
pledged to extend its control over all
Lebanon, including the Christian
enclave controlled by Aoun.
“If he (Aoun) persists ... 1 must
say with much regret that he will have
to bear the consequences,” Hrawt
told reporters in this Bekaa Valley
town, where he has established tem
porary headquarters while Aoun re
fuses to leave the official presidential
palace.
“He still is the general of the
army, perhaps for no more than 48
hours, after which, if he slays, he will
become an officer of this army,”
Hrawi said, “You will know the
name of the new commander of the
army by Wednesday morning.’’
Some parliamentarians specu
lated Hrawi would resort to military
means if Aoun was not forced out by
diplomatic pressure.
Hrawi, a 64-ycar-old Maronitc,
was elected Friday to succeed Presi
dent Rene Mouawad, who was assas
sinated Nov. 22 only 17 days into his
term.
Hrawi pul himself on a collision
course with Aoun by dismissing the
general’s military Cabinet before
dawn Saturday and forming a na
tional unity government with mem
bers from Lebanon’s seven major
sects.
Aoun, asked Sunday on French
television whether he would surren
der territory controlled by his 20,0(X)
troops, said: “No, I will defend my
self.’’
During the interview at his bunker
in the presidential palace at Baabda,
Aoun speculated that Mouawad was
killed because he refused to order an
attack on Aoun’s forces.
He denied responsibility for the
assassination and said he sent a letter
to U.N. Secretary-General Javier
Perez dc Cuellar “to help us discover
who is the author’’ of the killing.
Gorbachev supports reform in E. Europe
MOSCOW - Mikhail S. Gor
bachev displayed solid support Sun
day for reform in Eastern Europe by
endorsing socialism with a “human
face” — the slogan used by the
Czechoslovak progressives toppled
by a Soviet-led invasion in 1968.
In the Czechoslovak capital, Al
exander Dubcck, leader of the ill
fated “Prague Spring” reforms of 21
years ago, read Gorbachev’s remarks
at a rally as proof of the Soviet presi
dent’s backing for change.
Two days earlier, the Czechoslo
vak Communist Party dumped party
chief Milos Jakes and some other
leaders associated with hard-line
policies in an attempt to stem the
political crisis that has rocked the
country.
With the East bloc in upheaval, the
Soviet Communist Party daily
Pravda published a 2 1/2-pagc com
pilation of Gorbachev’s thoughts on
the future of socialism and his own
program lor * ‘perestroika,” or recon
struction of the economy and society.
Pravda said the article was a syn
thesis of recent remarks by Gor
bachev.
The Soviet leader’s major theme
seemed to be that socialism must
modernize — even adopt traits of
capitalism if necessary - or risk be
coming irrelevant. He offered no
quick answers but said the process
would take years, ‘ * into the 21 st cen
tury.”
He also said achievements at
tained under capitalism, like “equal
ity of all before the law” and general
prosperity, should not be dismissed
because of ideology.
“In the hullabaloo of our constant
confrontation with capitalism, we
clearly underestimate the importance
of much that has been done by hu
manity over the centuries,” the
Kremlin leader said.
On the need for Soviet reform,
Gorbachev said: “The people arc
tired of wailing.
“Many words have been spoken
about the interests of man, but they
have been little reinforced with mate
rial resources and genuine deeds. As
a result, in becoming a great and
mighty power, the country did not
create for the masses of the people the
conditions of life that arc natural for
any civilized slate.”
“The new face of socialism is its
human face, this fully corresponds to
the thought of Marx,” Gorbachev
said. “Because its creation is the
chief goal of restructuring, we can
with lull justification say we arc
building humanitarian socialism."
For Communists, the phrase
“socialism with a human face" is
inseparably linked to Dubcck and his
ill-fated reform movement. Gor
bachev has previously supported
economic and social reform in East
ern Europe and pledged the Soviets
would not interfere there, but by
appropriating Dubcck’s words, he
made his point dramatically.
Some in Prague even took Gor
bachev’s comments as a public ad
mission that the 1968 intervention,
which led to Dubcck’s overthrow,
was a mistake. The Soviet Union has
not yet renounced the 1968 interven
tion, as it has the 1979 invasion of
Afghanistan.
In the Pravda article, Gorbachev
sounded a note of alarm about social
ism by contrasting its present woes
with the adaptibilily of capitalism.
Karl Marx was wrong, Gorbachev
acknowledged, when he predicted
capitalism’s imminent demise.
Gorbachev defended the 1917
revolution that brought the Commu
nists to power in the former Russian
Empire as a “world-historical break
through to the future," but said so
cialism has often been perverted
since.
Indian opposition parties edging
out Gandhi’s Congress Party
Ntw DfcLHI - barly returns
Sunday showed opposition parlies
edging out Prime Minister Rajiv
Gandhi’s Congress Parly in parlia
mentary elections that will determine
the fate of the world’s only demo
cratically elected dynasty.
Following the bloodiest vote in
modem India’s 42-year history, tal
lies showed the governing Congress
Parly leading in more races than any
single opposition party but trailing
the combined total of opposition par
ties. It was falling short of enough
scats to form the next government
without entering a coalition.
Voting started Wednesday in most
of India’s 25 slates and seven feder
ally governed territories. By the time
polling ended Sunday in the states of
Punjab, Bihar and liny Sikkim, at
least 136 people had been killed in
election-related violence.
The election also was marred by
widespread ballot-rigging, voter in
timidaiion and murderous assaults
that prompted the election commis
sion to order re-votes today in one
fifth of the country’s 590,0(X) polling
booths - including about 18 percent
of the booths in Gandhi’s own con
stituency of Amethi.
According to state run televi
sion’s “trend reports,” based on in
complete counting in 365 of 524 par
liamentary constituencies, Congress
was ahead in 158 races while major
opposition parties led in a total of
“The Congress Party is no longer
going to be the majority in the next
government,” the television de
clared.
While the Congress Parly was
expected to sweep the southern
states, it appeared to be in serious
trouble in the north, its traditional
stronghold. It also was losing ground
in the cast and west.
Nebraskan
Editor Amy Edwards
472- 1768
Managing Editor Jane Hlrt
Assoc News Editors Brandon Loomis
Ryan Steeves
Editorial
Page Editor Lee Rood
Wire Editor Victoria Ayotte
Copy Desk Editor Deanne Nelson
Sports Editor Jett Ape!
Arts A Entertain
ment Editor Lies Donovan
Diversions Editor Joeth Zucco
Graphics Editor John Bruce
Photo Chief Eric Gregory
Night News Editors Eric Ptanner
Darcle Wlegeri
Professional Adviser Don Walton
473- 7301
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