S»cu,ea M Nebraskan
Edited by Jennifer O'Cilka Wednesday, April 24,1991
Costa Rica ravaged
by major earthquake
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica - Rescuers
searched the rubble of buildings and
international aid began pouring in
Tuesday for victims of a powerful
earthquake that killed at least 79 people,
injured more than 800 and left thou
sands homeless.
The Monday night quake, which
measured 7.4 on the Richter scale.
Officials said there were at least
50 confirmed deaths in Costa Rica
and 29 in Panama’s remote Atlantic
province of Bocas del Toro, which
l^d not registered an earthquake since
1916.
Panamanian President Guillermo
Endara declared a “state of national
emergency’’ and designated the Bo
cas del Toro province a disaster area
eligible for government aid.
The government Civil Protection
Agency said a preliminary survey
showed at least 29 people died from
the earthquake in Bocas del Toro, 300
were injured and about 730 homes
were destroyed.
Bridges and roads throughout Costa
Rica were destroyed or damaged by
the earthquake, making it difficult to
assess the extent of deaths and dam
age. Neighboring Nicaragua sent
helicopters to fly over areas cut off by
landslides and road damage.
President Rafael Angel Calderon
appealed for medicine and other
humanitarian aid, and help quickly
began arriving.
The epicenter was near Puerto
Limon about 75 miles east of this
Costa Rican capital.
Red Cross spokesman Miguel
Orozco said hospital patients and those
injured in the earthquake w ere being
treated in a tent set up in the street
near the hospital.
Thousands of people, fearful of
aftershocks, slept in the streets around
bonfires rather than go home.
When the quake hit, the sea re
ceded 100 feet and some terrified
Puerto Limon residents fled for higher
ground, fearing a tidal wave. Similar
scenes were reported in Panama.
In Panama, radio reports said freight
cars derailed, blocking railroad ac
cess to the area reachable only by rail,
air and sea. The Pan American High
way linking Costa Rica to Panama
reportedly was cut by damage to a
bridge.
Capt. Eduardo Sanchez of the Red
Cross said by telephone from Puerto
Limon that the death toll was still
rising. He said about 400 homes and
other buildings were reported de
stroyed.
On the port’s outskirts, a gasoline
tank exploded, sending up a huge
fireball at a government-owned re
finery, the fire department said.
San Jose also suffered extensive
damage, but there were no reports of
deaths. The quake knocked out power
for about four hours.
Acting on a hunch I
Court ups police power
WASHINGTON - An increasingly
conservative Supreme Court gave
police significant new power Tues
day to chase and apprehend people
when officers have a hunch a crime
was committed.
By a 7-2 vote, the justices rein
stated the drug-possession conviction
of a young California man identified
as Hodari D., who fled at the sight of
police and dropped crack cocaine
during the chase.
The court ruled that the cocaine
may be used as evidence because he
had not been “seized” by police at the
time he dropped the drug.
The Constitution’s Fourth Amend
ment, which protects against unrea
sonable searches and seizures, does
not apply until an individual has been
physically restrained or submits to
police authority, Justice Antonin Scalia
wrote for the court.
Justice John Paul Stevens, in a
strongly worded dissent, said the rul
ing could “encourage unlawful dis
plays of (police) force that will frighten
countless innocent citizens into sur
rendering whatever privacy rights they
may still have.”
But Scaha said, Street pursuits
always place the public at some risk,
and compliance with police orders to
stop should therefore be encouraged.”
James Lozenski, the Berkeley,
Calif., lawyer who represented Hodari
D., said, “It’s a very sad day for civil
rights in this country.” He said the
ruling gives police “an awful amount
of authority to harass people.”
In another decision, the court
unanimously upheld a federal labor
rule requiring hospitals to let their
employees organize into eight sepa
rate collective bargaining units, ac
cording to their jobs.
The rule adopted by the National
Labor Relations Board in 1989 ap
plies to more than 4,000 acute-care
hospitals nationwide.
The police-chase ruling is the lat
est in a series of decisions bolstering
police powers and limiting the rights
of criminal suspects and defendants.
A week ago the court narrowed the
right of death row inmates to make
repeated appeals in federal court, a
ruling that could hasten many execu
tions.
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Meeting to put heat on irorbachev
MOSCOW - Tens of thousands of
striking workers filled the streets of
Minsk on Tuesday, the eve of a
Communist Party meeting to make
Mikhail Gorbachev account for the
popular discontent in the nation.
The strike in the capital of the
southwestern republic of Byelorussia
came amid labor unrest that began
March 1 with a walkout by coal min
ers who want Gorbachev to resign as
president.
The working-class anger at Gor
bachev over the Soviet Union ’ s cr urn -
bling economy is certain to be taken
up at the Communist Parly Central
Committee plenum in Moscow on
Wednesday.
Gorbachev, who also heads the
party as general-secretary, will be
asked to give the 410-member Cen
tral Committee an account of his
handling of the economic collapse
and other issues troubling the nation.
The criticism is expected to be
stinging, and there may be calls for
his resignation as party leader. The
plenum cannot remove him from ei
ther of his posts, but it could convene
a party Congress and recommend his
departure as general-secretary.
“I think the general-secretary will
receive very harsh criticism but will
preserve his post,” said Alexei Pri
garin, a Central Committee member,
in an interview with The Associated
Press.
“There will be a real fight,” said
Zoya Krylova, another Central Com
mittee member. “The plenum will be
very heated. It’s a huge country under
going change and now we need to
decide which way to go.”
Iran painting insignia on Iraqi jets
TEHRAN, Iran - Iranian crews
have begun painting their air force
insignia on some of the Iraqi war
planes that were mysteriously flown
into the Islamic republic during the
gulf war, diplomats said Tuesday.
The claim, which could not be
independently confirmed, indicates
Tehran plans to keep at least some of
the military aircraft that sought ref
lr... 1 1
uge from the allied air offensive in
neighboring Iran.
In another sign that Tehran plans
to hold on to the planes, Foreign
Minister Ali Akbar Velayali said
Sunday that only 22 aircraft, includ
ing some airliners plundered from
Kuwait, “would be returned when the
crisis is over.”
The rest, he said, either crashed or
were shot down by allied jet fighters
.Hi
before they could land.
He did not specify which types of
aircraft were among the 22 cited, but
stressed the fate of the planes would
be decided by Iran and Iraq with the
help of the United Nations.
Iraq insisted April 12 that 148 of
its military and civilian planes had
flown to Iran. U.S. military spokes
men said 137 Iraqi planes were in
Iran.
-n
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1991 DAILY NEBRASKAN