News Digest Edited by Jana Pedersen
Gunman in uniform kills four
along Israeli-Egyptian border
EILAT, Israel - A lone gunman
slipped across the Egyptian border
Sunday and fired an automatic rifle at
a bus and three military vehicles, killing
four Israelis and wounding 27, the
army said.
The attack was the third from Arab
territory in two days. At least four
Palestinian guerrillas were killed and
two Israeli soldiers injured in inci
dents in Israel’s self-declared secu
rity zone in southern Lebanon and off
the Mediterranean coast.
The dead in the border attack, three
soldiers and a civilian bus driver,
were shot on a road running along the
Isracli-Egyptian border about 15 miles
northwest of the Israeli Red Sea re
sort of Eilat, the army said. It said
most of the wounded were civilian
workers at an Israeli air base.
The gunman, who was described
as wearing a uniform, escaped back
into Egypt. He was shot by an Israeli
security guard and trailing blood, the
army said.
An Israeli army patrol chased him,
firing, but did not pursue him across
the frontier, the army said.
A senior Egyptian security source
in Cairo said an Egyptian border po
liceman stationed in the area had been
arrested as the suspected assailant.
Israel army radio said the assail
ant’s blood-stained flak jacket with
“Allah” written on it was found in the
area. It said the attack was claimed by
the Moslem fundamentalist group
Islamic Holy War-Jerusalem in a
statement issued in Amman, Jordan.
Israeli and Egyptian reports said
the attacker was armed with the So
viet-designed Kalashnikov assault rifle.
The gunman fired intermittently
for about a half-hour as vehicles drove
along the road, the national news
agency Itim said. Apparently he
remained undiscovered because driv
ers were unaware of what happened
or thought a traffic accident had oc
curred.
Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir
called on Egypt to capture and punish
the assailant and prevent further at
tacks.
In another attack on Sunday, a
Lebanese woman carrying explosives
killed herself and injured two Israeli
soldiers in Israel’s self-proclaimed
AP
security zone in southern Lebanon,
army reports said. The Syrian Social
ist Nationalist Parly claimed respon
sibility for the attack and said 12
Israeli soldiers also were killed.
Mexican president
to bring Bush home
MEXICO CITY - President
Carlos Salinas de Gortari welcomes
President Bush to his hometown
today for a discussion expected to
center on developing closer rela
tions through trade.
The two nations are negotiating
a free trade agreement, which Sali
nas hopes will help Mexico grow
out of the Third World into the
ranks of developed nations.
Bush will arrive in Monterrey
about noon and travel 55 miles by
helicopter to Agualeguas, the Sali
nas family hometown of 5,000
people, where the leaders will at
tend a rodeo and meet privately for
two hours. They plan to return to
Monterrey afterward.
Another private meeting is sched
uled for Wednesday, and Bush will
speak to businessmen in Monter
rey, the country’s industrial capi
tal.
Salinas hopes Mexican indus
trialists can produce more and bet
ter products to compete with an
expected flood of U.S. goods, and
also find markets in the United
States. Yearsof hiding behind high
tariff walls has hurt the competi
tive ability of some Mexican com
panies.
Since Salinas took office in
December 1988, Mexico has low
ered tariffs and joined the General
Agreement on Trade and Tariffs,
which his predecessors had sworn
the country would never do. U.S.
products, from beer to cars, now
can be imported by those who can
pay the lower duties.
“Ten years ago, if a Mexican
president had suggested a free trade
agreement with the United States,
people would have hanged him in
the middle of the main plaza,” a
high government official said, on
condition of anonymity.
“I think Mexican society has
matured,” Granados said. “There
is less fear of the United States, and
we have a more pragmatic vision
of our relationship with the United
Slates.
Which one are you bringinghome
for the holidays?
A. Laundry B.Preteits
Both of the above, right? You’re on your own
with laundry. But as far as shopping goes, you’d be
surprised how much Downtown Lincoln has in
store for Christmas .no matter how much you have
to spend. Get yourself a Downtown Christmas
Guide at the Union and you’ll see what we mean.
You can find fun little presents, Nebraska
souvenirs and lots of creative gift ideas—even
high-end fashions, electronics, jewelry and more if
you want to spend some bucks. There are
interesting shops to explore, plenty of places to
grab a bite to eat and unwind, and none of those
obnoxiously long lines you get at the mall. Collect
free parking stickers with Park ’n Shop and you
can park free on Saturdays at the Centrum and
University Square garages.
When you’re ready to get into the Christmas
shopping mode, stick around Dov/ntown. You’d be
surprised at how much Downtown Lincoln has in
store for you.
Overweight woman fights for education
Court will hear school’s appeal
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - All
Sharon Russell ever wanted to be was
a nurse, but her weight nearly got in
the way.
After siie was kicked out of nurs
ing school in 1985, weighing more
than 300 pounds, she sued the school
and won. Now the case has moved to
the U.S. Supreme Court, and she’s
moved to the forefront in the fight for
dignity for overweight people.
“It’s going to lake time. It’s going
to take patience,” Russell said. “And
it’s going to take people like me who
have the guts to stand up and say, T
was humiliated — this is how I felt.’”
A federal jury last year oidcrcd
Salve Regina College of Newport,
R.I., to pay Russell nearly $44,000 in
damages. An appeals court upheld
the judgment, and the school appealed
its case to the nation’s high court.
The justices this week will hear
arguments to decide a narrow, proce
dural point of law relating to the appeals
court’s standard of review.
Although the decision, expected
sometime next year, will have little
bearing on the legal question of so
called size discrimination, it could
determine whether the award must be
paid.
“The important thing is more people
will understand what I had to go through
to get to this point,” said Russell, now
26 and a pediatric nurse at All Chil
dren’s Hospital in St. Petersburg.
Russell maintains size discrimina
tion was the sole reason for her dis
missal from Salve Regina, but school
officials argue she was unhealthy
_ln the
Supi
Com
because she suffered from an ealing
disorder and was physically unable to
handle patients.
“Wc don’t dismiss students be
cause they’re fat,” Catherine Gra
ziano, Salve Regina’s dean of nurs
ing, said. “We dismiss students if
they have behavior problems that make
them unable to function as nurses.”
Russell said her 5-foot-6,300-pound
body didn’t seem to bother adminis
trators in 1982 when she was ac
cepted at the small college run by the
Roman Catholic Sisters of Mercy.
After earning good grades through
her freshman and sophomore years,
she entered the college’s nursing
program.
In December 1984, faculty mem
bers presented Russell with a contract
to lose two pounds a week or face
dismissal, and signed ii because
“becoming a nurse was all I ever
wanted.”
According to the school, Russell
weighed 328 pounds at the beginning
of her sophomore year, was down to
297 when she signed the agreement
and back up to 303 during the sum
mer of 1985. That was when Salve
Regina notified Russell she would
not be allowed to attend her senior
year.
With that, Russell slapped Salve
Regina and five faculty members w ith
a $2 million federal lawsuit alleging,
among other things, handicap dis
crimination, intentional infliction of
emotional distress, invasion of pri
vacy and breach of contract.
The judge dismissed all claims
except the breach of contract aliega
U0Ik Providence jury sided with
Russell, saying the school broke its
implied contract to provide her with
an education so long as she paid her
tuition, maintained good grades and
wasn’t a discipline problem.
Russell completed her nursing
studies at St. Joseph’s and has been
working in St. Petersburg for 2 1/2
years.
She’s become an active fighter
against size discrimination and was
the keynote speaker for the 3,000
member National Association to
Advance Fat Acceptance. Her mes
sage is simple:
“Accept yourself the way you are,
work with what you have, go for it
and live your life. My attitude is, ‘I
weigh 285 pounds now — get over
it.’’’
--——-i
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