XT P WC D 1 PPSt Associated Press
JL ^1 w w -I—^ JL C|^\^ w Edited by Eric Pfanner
Landslides kill thousands in Philippines
TACLOBAN, Philippines —
Landslides unleashed by a tropical
storm roared down mountains in the
Philippines, sweeping screaming
victims into the sea. More than 2,300
people died and 1,500 were missing
and presumed dead, officials said
Wednesday.
The landslides hit the central is
lands of Leyte and Negros on Tues
day, burying coastal shantytowns under
mud, debris and flood waters.
“The water suddenly rose. Cars
and trucks were being flushed into
Ormoc Bay like toys,” said Ruby
Gemale, a Red Cross official in Ormoc,
a city on Leyte that was hardest-hit by
the furious landslides.
“People were being carried by the
waters, crying out for help. But wc
were helpless,” she said. “The current
was so strong.”
One horrific landslide that hit the
Ormoc area swept over shantytowns,
crumbling the flimsy shacks undei
the weight of mud and debris. Many
of those killed were children, and
workers were digging mass graves
Wednesday for the victims.
The disaster came during Tropical
Storm Thelma’s sweep over the re
gion, 450 miles southeast of Manila.
The national government in Manila
only became aware of the scope of the
disaster on Wednesday, however,
because of poor communications with
the area.
It was the fourth major natural
disaster to strike the Philippines since
a devastating earthquake killed nearly
1,700 people on Luzon island in July
1990.
Aurora Ladoy of the Leyte Provin
cial Disaster Coordinating Center said
the death toll on Leyte, 250 miles
south of Manila, stood at 2,337.
Officials said another 52 people
died on the island of Negros.
Provincial officials in Tacloban
said the death toll was based on body
counts. But Vilma Tan, a regional
civil defense worker, said authorities
were so overwhelmed by the calam
ity that they were having problems
compiling complete, accurate casu
alty figures.
The storm forced former first lady
Imelda Marcos, whose hometown is
on Leyte, to cancel a planned trip to
the island Wednesday. It was not known
whether Marcos, who pledged to visit
victims of previous disasters follow
ing her return from exile earlier this
week, would reschedule the visit.
Thelma, a relatively weak storm,
struck Samar island on Tuesday with
winds gusting to 46 mph before pass
ing over Leyte and Negros. There
were no reports from Samar, third
largest of the 7,100 Philippine islands
but among the most primitive.
Most of the dead were in Ormoc,
the coastal city of about 160,000,
which is about 45 miles southwest of
Tacloban, the provincial capital. Ladoy
said the death toll in Ormoc stood at
2,002, many of them children.
The disaster occurred five months
after the devastating eruptions of the
Mount Pinatubo volcano, which caused
the deaths of about 700 people, left
more than 300,000 homeless and forced
the U.S. Air Force abandon Clark Air
Base, a few miles east of the slopes.
In November 1990, Typhoon Mike -
passed through the central Philippines,
killing at least 335 people and sinking
more than 30 ships in Cebu harbor.
AP
Netfraskan
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I
Interest rate hits 18-year low
as Fed tries to buoy economy
WASHINGTON — The Federal
Reserve pushed a key interest rate to
an 18-year low on Wednesday in a
fresh effort to jump-start the national
economy and keep it from sliding
back into recession.
Major banks followed immediately
with a cut in their prime lending rales
to a five-year low of 7.5 percent.
Analysts questioned whether the moves
would be enough. ,
President Bush .said he was con
cerned about slipping consumer con
fidence but suggested hopefully that
-1
Americans “will suddenly wake up,”
notice rales are down and go out and
buy cars and houses.
Private economists were far more
pessimistic as they surveyed a glut of
weak economic statistics showing
rising unemployment and plummet
ing confidence.
The Federal Reserve announced
that it was slashing its discount rate
from 5. percent to 4.5 percent, the
lowest level Since January 19.73.
Later in the day, the central bank
signaled that it was lowering its target
for the federal funds rate by a quarter
point to 4.75 percent.
It marked the 13th time the Fed
has nudged the funds rate lower and
the fifth time it has cut the discount
rate since the recession began in July
1990.
Many analysts said they doubted
that the latest round of rate cuts would
do much to get jittery consumers ,
spending again, given the huge over
hang ofeonsumerdebtfrom the 1980s
and fears about further job layoffs.
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Curtain Rises
On New Nato
Alliance leaders formally end Cold War standoff
KUMti — ina i vj leaders will herald the
end of the Cold War today by formally calling
a halt to decades of enmity with the Soviet
Union and its one-time satellites and offering
them an unprecedented voice in alliance ai
fairs.
President Bush and other leaders of the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization, conven
ing their 11th summit, will open the post-Cold
War era with a new military strategy based on
fewer soldiers and a spare nuclear arsenal.
“I’m going to be meeting with the NATO
leaders in Rome to talk about the challenges of
security in the post-Cold War world and the
opportunity for partnership with former adver
saries,” Bush said in a pre-departure news
conference.
The NATO meeting will acknowledge the
virtual disappearance of the Soviet military
threat but will caution about risks posed by
upheavals in Eastern Europe and instability in
the Middle East and North Africa.
In doing so, the 16 leaders will try to justify
the continued existence of an alliance formed
in 1949 to thwart the military threat from Josef
Stalin’s expansionist Soviet Union.
The giant superpower, undergoing enormous
political turmoil, no longer is the feared foe of
the past. But it’s still a powerful military might.
Indeed, the United States has suggested that
the leaders urge Moscow to guard against the
spread of its nuclear weapons. American offi
cials are worried the weapons might be used by
the various republics as political bargaining
tools in their efforts to gain power from the
Kremlin.
NATO Secretary-General Manfred Woemcr
insisted in a recent interview that the alliance
“will be the main pillar of stability (in Eu
rope).”
“Nobody could replace it,” he said. “It is the
only functioning collective security organi/a
tion.”
Instead of shutting down, the alliance will
undergo a revamping to give it a more political,
less military, look.
The centerpiece of the efforts will be a new
cooperation council with the Soviet Union and
eight nations in Eastern Europe, making for
mal their recent, casual tics.
Democrats bask m Pennsylvania win
Democrats savored Sen. Harris Wofford’s
smashing victory in Pennsylvania on Wednes
day as evidence of increasing strength heading
into the 1992 campaigns for the White House
and Congress. A chastened President Bush said
“we’ll try even harder” to repair the economy
and expand health insurance.
The sensitive issue of race vied with pocket
book concerns in post-mortems on the off-year
elections. Bush hailed the surprise victory of
Republican Kirk Fordice in the Mississippi
governor’s race after a campaign that stressed
opposition to racial quotas.
At the same time, the president sharply
attacked Republican David Duke, the former
Ku Klux Klansman running in next week’s
gubernatorial runoff in Louisiana. Bush said
he’d vote for the Democrat in the race if he had
to choose.
Sponsors of term limitations for members of
Congress licked their wounds after suffering a
surprising defeat in Washington state, but vowed
that the i&sue would re-emerge in a dozen states
or more next year.
“Mark another one up for the ruling class of
career politicians,” said Ann Best, executive
director of Citizens for Congressional Reform.
Said seven-term Rep. Vic Fazio, D-Calif-:
“1 don’t think any of us should underestimate
the frustration and anger that people feel.”
While the term-limitation measure failed in
Washington, incumbents were turned out ol
office in striking numbers — Gov. Ray Mabus
in Mississippi and Mayor Kathy Whitmire m
Houston among them.
