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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 18, 1989)
News Digest Edited by Brandon Loomis Panama City tense after American’s death mJ i__a_a PANAMA CITY, Panama - Sol diers in battle gear surrounded U.S. military bases near the tense capital Sunday following the fata) shooting of an American officer in the worst confrontation between Panama and the United States in 25 years. Panamanian soldiers used trucks and buses to block streets leading to Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega’s headquarters. The Panamanian Defense Forces accused U.S, officers of a provoca tion without mentioning the Ameri can’s death Saturday night. According to a U.S. Southern Command statement, the officer was “off duty, unarmed and in civilian clothes when he and three others were stopped by Panamanian soldiers near the Defense Headquarters in the old section of Panama City.” The Panamanians tried to drag the Americans out of their car and the Panamanians fired at them as they drove off, killing one officer, the statement said. His identity was with held, pending notification of rela tives. The U.S. officers were in the area because they made a wrong turn and were lost, said Col. Ronald Sconycrs, a Southern Command spokesman. The Panamanian statement said the U.S. officers had ‘‘broken through checkpoints and fired at the headquarters building, wounding a soldier and two civilians, including a 1-year-old girl.” President Bush was inlormed ot the situation by National Security Adviser Brent Scowcrofl, White House deputy press secretary Roman Popadiuk said in Washington. “We deplore this act of violence. We are presently looking into the circumstances of this incident, Popadiuk said. ‘ ‘The Noriega regime is isolated both domestically and internationally and has been using force and intimidation to thwart the will of the Panamanian people. Acts such as those of last evening arc the consequence of such a regime.” Maj. Shelley Rogers, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney had attended a Pentagon briefing on the confronta lion. Word of ihc death and rumors of U.S. retaliation spread quickly. Sun day morning people at a gas station discussed what the United States might do and spoke of the imminent “arrival of the Americans.” U.S. soldiers mobilized along the perimeters of U.S. installations a few miles northwest of Panama City. Lines of armored personnel carriers and trucks stood at the ready inside the boundary of Fort Clayton. Combat units were not seen at U.S. bases closer to Panama City, including U.S. Southern Command headquarters at Quarry Heights, which borders the capital to the west. The 12,000 U.S. troops stationed in the Panama Canal area were re stnctcd to base and only authorized movement was permitted. A golf course at Fort Amador a base shared by U.S. and Panamanian military units, was deserted Sunday A causeway where Panamanians pic nic near the fort was empty except for a salsa group rehearsing. The nearby Bridge of the Ameri cas across the Panama Canal was open. Panama’s opposition leaders re fused to comment directly about the shooting, saying the information they had received was “confusing.’’ But Christian Democrat leader Ricardo Arias Calderon said the con frontation was the result of other clashes between Panama and the Uhited States in recen? months. • < Brian Shallito/Daily Nabraakan Oregon, Montana compete for Guinness-record river GREAT FALLS, Mont. - Fifth grade teacher Susan Nardinger is rallying the faithful in this river city to defend its short reputation, which has been assaulted once again by river rats in Lincoln City, Ore. Students in Nardingcr’s class touched off the battle two years ago, when they petitioned the Guinness Book of World Records to declare the 201-foot-long Roc River northeast of Great Falls the world’s shortest river. Guinness editors agreed, and the Roc displaced Lincoln City’s D River in the 1988 edition of the record book. But Lincoln City was not about to be sold short. They remeasured the D River iind announced that it was 120 feel, mysteriously smaller than the last measuring. And, Guinness editors notified the Lincoln City Chamber of Commerce recently that the D River would be back in the books by the 1991 edition - unless a shorter river is found. Well, that’s just what students in Great Falls intend to do. and they’ll look no farther than the Roc. Nardingcr said the Roe could claim a length of only 30 feel be cause it has two forks, and the students submitted the longer of the two for consideration of the record. . ‘‘I stand behind the kids 100 percent,” she said Friday. Pilots attempt to rescue family ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Rescuers on Sunday were trying to reach a family trapped at a lodge in the shadow of Redoubt Volcano as it continued to belch ash and steam over much of south-central Alaska. Pilots of Alaska Helicopters Inc. for two days have tried to reach Mike and Sandy Coulter and their 2-year old child at the lodge on Big River Lake, about 20 miles northwest of Redoubt. The efforts were hampered by clouds of ash and poor weather. The family has radio contact with rescuers and apparently is not in immediate danger. The 10,197-foot volcano, located about 115 miles southwest of An chorage and quiet since the 1960s, started erupting Thursday. Ash drifted as far south as Oregon, and was expected to reach California and Arizona by Sunday. The U.S. Geological Survey de scribed the amount of ash sent up this weekend as “low to moderate,” sig nificantly less than Friday, when Redoubt had its largest eruption since emerging from a 23-ycar dormancy. Haze from the volcano on Saturday drifted across Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city, with more than 173,000 people, triggering power outages, health alerts and disrupting air traffic. At midday Sunday, snow was falling with no ash apparent in the city. Poland considers new economic plan to curb inflation and privatize industry WARSAW, Poland - The Solidar ity-led government Sunday intro duced perhaps the most radical eco nomic reform legislation ever at tempted in the East bloc: a shock treatment to break monopolies, cut subsidies, privatize industry and curb 900 percent inflation. Deputy Prime Minister Lcszek Balcerowicz told Parliament the new course would “open new perspec tives of proper living, free develop ment and fruitful and satisfying work.” The government, in the biggest test of its public support to date, intro duced a dozen bills to radically trans form the ailing economy and asked the Sejm, the lower house of Parlia ment, to approve them in time for the program to be implemented Jan. 1. It is expected that the plan will provoke some opposition in the com- , ing days from some Communist deputies and some in the Solidarity , bloc, whose industrial worker con sutucncy will be among the hardest hit, but that it will ultimately pass as a package. With Prime Minister Tadcusz Mazowiecki, the East bloc’s first non-Communist head of govern ment, somberly looking on, Bal ccrowicz outlined a virtual disman tling of 45 years of Marxist-Lenmisl economic policy. i nc pian includes • Instantly balancing the deficit ridden state budget through strict austerity. • Cutting off most stale subsidies to businesses and institutions, includ ing the Communist Party. • Freeing prices. • Limiting wage increases. • Turning the zloty into a convert ible currency, probably in January or February. • Attacking monopolies and be ginning an orderly scllol f of state in dustries to the private sector, proba bly in phases next year. • Reforming the banking and tax systems. • Establishing a social safety net for the poor and jobless, whose ranks arc expected to swell as a result of the new measures. # Referring to the drop in output and inflation of 900 percent that have rocked the Polish economy this year, Balccrowicz conceded Poland is launching its reform in “extremely unfavorable conditions.” The overall program, which Ma zowiecki’s government has been working on since taking office in September, already has met require ments laid down by the International Monetary Fund, which demanded fundamental reforms before it would authorize any loans to Poland. IMF head Michel Camdessus has said a letter of intent for a $700 mil lion standby loan agreement with Poland will be signed in the near future. That, in turn, will open the way to $3.2 billion to $3.5 billion in addi tional loans and liberal rescheduling of Poland’s $40 billion foreign debt by Western nations, which have lined up in recent months to back Poland in its turn toward democracy. Public support of the Solidarity led government has allowed Mazow iccki to propose de<jper budget cuts and greater public sacrifices than previous Communist governments dared. Subsidies for goods and services, which last year ate up 31 percent of public spending, will be reduced to 14 percent. Subsidies will remain, at lower levels, in only a few areas: for housing, public transport,coal, bread and low-fat milk and cheese. Price hikes in the range of 25 per cent to 50 percenf a month arc ex pected in the first stage of the pro gram, as enterprises lose their subsi des and raise prices to survive. Coal and energy prices alone arc expected to rise five to seven times and enough companies will be forced lo cease operating that the economy may face an army of 400,000 unem ployed, officials have said. The price increases and the limits on government spending and wage increases will cut real incomes by 20 percent next year, with a projected 5 percent decrease in industrial output and a 2 percent to 3 percent dropoff in the gross national product. But the government-induced re cession should squeeze inflation down to a few percent a month by mid-1990, planners say. Communist Deputy Stanislaw Gabriclski demanded that Bal cerowicz explain “the scope of soci ety's impoverishment.’’ Other depu ties expressed concern about the need for unemployment, or that the econ omy might not survive a wholesale sclloff of zlotys when the Polish cur rency is made convertible with hard currencies. Company recalls 1.7 million packages of contraceptive pills MORRIS PLAINS, N.J. - Warner Lambert Co. said Sunday it is recall ing about 1.7 million packagcsof oral contraceptives made by its Parkc Davis Division because tablets were misplaced in some boxes. The company is recalling its Loc strin and Norlcstrin contraceptive tablets because brown iron tablets were placed in the first row rather than the fourth row of the 28-pill dispensers. Warner-Lambert said in a news release that the pills were misplaced in less than 100 dispensers but it decided to recall all of the product as a precaution. If a woman took the seven iron tablets before taking the 21 white, yellow, pink or green tab lets, an unwanted pregnancy could r" --- occur, ihc company said. The iron tablets arc placed in the packages to help women get used to 111 4Anybody who’s been on the prod uct would know something is wrong. ’ Cohen taking the pills, said Warner-Lam bert spokesman Barry Cohen. “Anybody who’s been on the product would know something is wrong,’’ Cohen said. Nebraskan Editor Amy Edwards Graphics Editor John Bruca AssdfSs^diffs LlMncS**V*8 Night News*Editors JanJ {Sdenlen assoc News Editors Lisa Donovan Dtana Brayton Editorial Pane Friirrv ij..nn*r „ Art Director Brian Shalllto W?re Fd n Q General Manager Dan Shattll *"tBsf£ SSttr «i£ss; asssr* *"* eSSSE ; *r rJSSJSK K“'y n editor Mlchiil D<hk13 Chairman pim u§in Diversions Editor Mick Dyer na.rman PafnMftin Sower Editor Lea Rood Professional Adviser Don Walton 473-7301 braska Union 34sf^ncoin^MF* '?^published by the UNL Publications Board. Ne weekly duringsummer sessi'onS ^ NE' ****** trough Friday during the academic year. phoningA^l'763between aVm^and ldef * and comments to the Daily Nebraskan by H..u5S!!jSe “un«lf,N?K‘ Un"’ w-1400 R ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1989 DAILY NEBRASKAN