News Digest ks-p—
“ ^ V T * ^ ^ V Edited by Roger Price
Plane crash kills sixteen
Air Guard transport
hits Indiana motel
and 24-hour diner
EVANSVILLE, Ind. — A mili
tary transport plane plunged nose
first into the ground Thursday and
smashed into a motel and restaurant,
spewing blazing fuel and killing at
least 16 people, authorities and wit
nesses said.
“It looked like Pearl Harbor,” said
Mark Whitehead, who lives nearby
and rushed to the scene.
The Lockheed C-130 four-engine
turboprop plane crashed into the rear
of a JoJo’s restaurant and the north
side of the Drury Inn motel shortly
before 11 a.m. EST.
Burning fuel was sprayed hundreds
of feet, sending flames 60 feet into
the air and creating a tower of black
smoke that was visible for miles.
At midaftemoon, the fire was out
except for some smoldering spots.
Firefighters soaked debris with foam
to prevent any reignition of fuel-soaked
areas.
Five of the dead were members of
the Kentucky Air National Guard’s
123rd Tactical Airlift Wing. They
were on a pilot proficiency training
mission, Guard spokesman David
Altom said.
Nine people died in the motel and
two others were found dead in the
restaurant, said Rick Woods, chief
deputy coroner for Vanderburgh
Poll: JFK
conspiracy
NEW YORK —Three out of
four Americans believe there
was an official cover-up to keep
the public from knowing the
truth about John F. Kennedy’s
assassination, according to a poll
reported on the CBS News show
“48 Hours.”
In the CBS-New York Times
poll results released Wednes
day, the number of people who
believe in a cover-up increased
from 61 percent in a similar poll
in 1988.
The poll lakers said the in
crease could be attributed to
people who had seen Oliver
Slone’s movie “JFK,” and to
adults under the age of 30 who
are too young to remember the
assassination.
The poll was based on tele
phone interviews Jan. 22-25 of
a random sample of 1,231 adults.
The margin of error was plus or
minus 3 percentage points.
I _
:
CAPACITY:
92 troops or
42,673 lb.
Sources: Jane's World Aircraft Recognition Handbook"; Evansville Regional Airport;
Airguide Publications, Inc.
AP
County. as touch-and-gos, where they touch
No additional victims were ex- down and fly out immediately,” said
pected to be found, Woods said. .. .... __. _
Ai least 19 people were injured. Altom They d.d two touch-and-gos.
Sandy Appier, director of market- And they asked permission for a low
ing and public relations for Evansville approach and were taking off when
Regional Airport, about a mile from ^ey ^ mt0 ••• h0*6'*
the restaurant and motel, said the At least five people were treated
plane’s crew was using the airport to and released Thursday, while 14 people
practice landings. , were admitted to hospitals for bums
“They were doing exercises known and smoke inhalation.
Returned Haitians teartul
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti—The
United Slates resumed its effort to
return more than 10,(XX) Haitian boat
people, delivering two shiploads of
refugees to the capital’s wharf Thurs
day for a bleak homecoming.
The repatriation came amid indi
cations that a U.S.-supported interna
tional push for a negotiated settle
ment of Haiti’s political crisis was
stalled.
Friday marks the anniversary of
the swearing-in of President Jean
Bertrand Aristide, Haiti’s first demo
cratically elected president, but he
was in office less than eight months
before being ousted in a military coup.
Aristide, in a broadcast by the Voice
of America’s Creole-language radio
service to Haiti, said U.S. plans to
loosen a trade embargo imposed in
retaliation for the coup would cause
his backers to “radicalize” their posi
tions. There were signs the sanctions
had been hurting the poor rather than
the powerful at whom they were aimed
At Port-au-Prince’s oily, sun
drenched pier, small groups of Hai
tians gathered to watch 508 of their
compatriots descend from two U.S.
Coast Guard cutters with bundles of
clothing and enter a large concrete
roofed patio for processing.
“To sec them return like this, truly
humiliated, makes me want to give
up my Haitian citizenship,” said 19
ycar-old Nipson Isme, a high school
student.
Most of the refugees were expres
sionless, but a few smiled sheepishly
for foreign news photographers. Some
expressed concern about their I mure
treatment by authorities.
Immigrations Police Maj. Jacquc
Denis said the returnees have noth ing
to fear. He said the fingerprinting and
photographing of each refugee at the
processing site was a routine proce
dure.
“Will we be beaten?” asked Al
fonse Alfred, who is from a village
near the western coastal city of St.
Marc. He said he had fled Haiti for
economic and not political reasons,
but that he feared the reaction of
authorities to international publicity
about the refugees’ plight.
Baker gets tough]
WASHINGTON — Israel owes
its good international credit rating
to U.S. subsidies, Secretary of State
James A. Baker III said Thursday
establishing a hard line on loan
guarantees for the Jewish state.
Echoing that tough stance, the
chairman of the Senate foreign aid
subcommittee vowed that no new
loans will be guaranteed this year
for Israel without a strict provision
that they not contribute to building
or expanding settlements in the
occupied territories.
The comments came on the eve
of a key meeting on the guarantees
between Baker and Israeli Ambas
sador Zalman Shoval, who just
returned from consultations on the
matter with Prime Minister Yitzhak
Shamir.
Israel is seeking U.S. guaran
tees for $10 billion in commercial
loans over the next five years to
pay the costs of absorbing a flood
of Soviet Jewish emigres.
When Rep. Ben Gilman, R-N.Y.,
pressed him to go ahead with the
guarantees and cited Israel’s ex
cellent repayment record, Baker
responded.
“Generally speaking, that is
because we appropriate the money
up here with which to repay our
selves,” Baker said, with an obvi
ous edge in his voice.
He was referring to a provision
in U.S. foreign aid law since 1985
that declares it U.S. “policy and
intent” that economic aid payments
to Israel each year be at least equal
to Jerusalem’s interest and princi
pal owed for that year to the United
Stales.
Baker also referred repeatedly
to the “generous” $3 billion or so
the United States routinely pro
vides Israel each year, and said
further aid to help absorb emigres
would come only if Israel makes
changes in its settlements policy.
I_ I
Quayle visits Baltics
RIGA, Latvia — Baltic leaders
appealed Thursday to Vice President
Dan Quayle for U.S. help in getting
an estimated 130,000 former Soviet
troops out of their newly independent
republics.
Officials in Estonia and Latvia
repeatedly raised the issue during the
first day of Quaylc’s whirlwind two
day tour of the Baltic states. Quayle
meets with Lithuanian leaders on
Friday.
Quayle is the highest-ranking U.S.
official to visit the Baltic states since
they achieved independence from the
Soviet Union in September.
He delivered tens of thousands of
pounds in medical aid and promised
another SI8 million in U.S. assis
tance, underscoring Washington’s
continuing support for the Baltic na
tions.
In Latvia, some people lining
Quayle’s route held signs demanding
that all aid to Russia be halted until
the troops issue is settled.
“Down (with) colonization and
occupation,” said one hand-lettered
placard in English. “All war bases out
of Latvia.”
“The independence of no country
can be real and lasting if foreign troops
remain on its territory,” Estonia’s prime
minister, Tiit Vahi, said during a joint
news conference with Quayle in the
Estonian capital of Tallinn.
Quayle said at another news con
ference in Riga, the Latvian capital,
“It is a challenge, but a challenge
being addressed with objectivity and
fairness on both sides.”
Factory orders drop
WASHINGTON — Factory or
ders plunged 3.8 percent in Decem
ber, contributing to the steepest an
nual loss since the previous recession
nine years ago, the Commerce De
partment reported Thursday.
“The sharp decline reinforces the
expectation that a
broad-based im
provement in the
economy is not
under way and not
likely to begin until
spring,” said Larry
Meyer, head of
Laurence H. Meyer & Associates, a
Si. Louis economic forecasting serv
ice.
In a second report that analysts
said provides more cvidcnccofastag
nant economy, the Labor Department
reported little improvement in the
number of initial claims for jobless
insurance in late January.
TheCommerce Department report
said factory orders were slashed by
2.6 percent last year, to S2.8 trillion.
It was the largest decline since a 3.5
percent plunge in the recession year
of 1982 and the first decrease since a
0.3 percent loss in 1986.
.—. ——---1
U.S. infant mortality rate drops, rises for blacks
ATLANTA — The United Slates
recorded its lowest infant mortality
rate ever, but black babies still die at
more than twice the rate of whites,
and the nation trails much of the
developed world, federal researchers
said Thursday.
The rate for 1989, the most recent
year for which statistics are available,
was 9.8 deaths by age 1 for every
1,000 live births, the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control said. That surpasses
the record of 10.0 set the previous
year.
Japan has the world’s lowest in
fant mortality rate, 5.0 for 1987, the
latest year for which complete inter
national statistics have been compiled.
Sweden was second at 5.7. The United
Slates that year was 24th at 10.1, just
behind New Zealand and just ahead
of Israel.
“Our international ranking has
slipped,” said Dr. Marian F. Mac Dor
man of the CDC’s National Center
for Health Statistics. “In 1980, we
were ranked 20th in the world, and
now we’re 24th.”
The CDC said increased use of
prenatal care would have the greatest
impact on infant deaths from every
cause other than birth defects.
The U.S. infant mortality rate has
dropped significantly throughout the
20tn century, although the decline
has slowed in the last decade.
For 1989, the black infant mortal
ity rate in the United Stales was 18.6,
compared with 8.1 for whites. The
leading cause of death for white in
fants was birth defects; for black in
fants, it was prematurity or low birth
weight.
And the disparity is increasing, the
CDC said. The white infant mortality
rate dropped 4 percent from 19X8 to
19X9, from 8.5 to X. 1, while the black
rate actually increased slightly, from
17.6lo 17.7.
The federal government has set
goals of a while infant mortality rate
of 7 and a black rate of 11 by the year
2(XX). Whites are on track to make it;
“however, for the black population,
the year 2000 objective for infant
mortality is unlikely to be met if cur
rent trends continue,” the Atlanta
based CDC said.
In 1989. t
deaths pc
50- --,,
45
40
35
. • * -vS 4
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