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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 27, 1992)
l^T DTA7C DlCXPiif Associated Press JL ^1 w w JL Ia ^ Edited by Roger Price More rocks roll under California SCOTIA, Calif. — A pair of powerful aftershocks followed a major earthquake along Northern Califor nia’s “Lost Coast,” touching off fires and fear Sunday of more seismic shaking. The National Guard trucked in drinking water to four communities hardest hit by the quakes in this rug ged region, where redwoods outnum ber people and mountains drop straight to the sea. About 50 people were injured in the string of quakes that began Satur day with one that registered 6.9 on the Richter scale, centered about 270 miles north of San Francisco. Two strong aftershocks early Sun day touched off a fire that ravaged a strip shopping center, destroying a lumber yard, a pharmacy, a coffee shop and a grocery store. Flames shot 100 feet into the air and explosions were heard. The first serious aftershock struck at 12:41 a.m. and measured 6.0 on the Richter scale. A second, at4:18 a.m., measured 6.5. They were among thousands of aftershocks in this re mote area known for lots of seismic activity. People as far away as Fresno, 460 miles south, felt the aftershocks. A bridge connecting Scotia, a dairy town of 1,200 people, with Rio Dell was closed Sunday while officials looked for damage. Another bridge near Rio Dell showed gaps in con crete from the first aftershock, but wasn’t closed. The epicenters of both aftershocks were in the area of the first quake, centered just onshore near Rio Dell, a town of about 3,000 people. "The typical pattern with a big quake is to sec a couple of fairly large aftershocks and then smaller ones with decreasing frequency,” said John Minsch of the U.S. Geological Sur vey in Golden, Colo. “So far, it’s pretty typical, but these things don’t always do what you expect.” After the aftershocks, David and Joanne Paine, their neighbors and their five children camped outside in Fcmdalc. “Things that didn’t fall in the first two quakes fell in the third one,” said Powerful aftershocks \ follow earthquake Two powerful aftershocks followed a major earthquake along the Northern California’s “Lost Coast." The epicenters of both after shocks were in the area of the first quake, centered just on- | shore near Rio Dell \ | Eureka ' ‘-if f Femdale 11 Rio Dell 11 Scotia „ ’v 40 miles If Pacific \ g Ocean Paine, who feared his century-old, The state s “Lost Coast runs from salmon-colored house might topple the town of Shelter Cove 50 miles from its foundation if more after- north to Cape Mendocino, the west shocks struck emmost point in the Lower 48 states. Rebels vie for control of capital in Afghanistan Fundamentalists, moderates battle in Kabul streets KABUL, Afghanistan — Rival rebels fought over Afghanistan’s fallen capital on Sunday, and the followers of a moderate leader gained the upper hand with help from troops of the collapsed communist government. The Red Cross said it had treated 50 wounded rebels since the Muslim guerrilla swarmed into the capital by the thousands on Saturday, and that at least seven had died. With 14 years of civil war appar ently coming to an end, Kabul was jubilant and peaceful when the rebels began arriving, and rival groups even cooperated in taking over govern ment buildings. But by Saturday night the fighting among the rebel factions began. Gunfire, rocket and lank shells shook the city of 1.5 million Sunday. The central bazaar, normally bus tling, was nearly empty on the sunny day. By nightfall, streams of red trac ers stitched the sky, and white and green flares flashed on the horizon. Most of the fighting was at the presidential palace and other slrate gic spots, and was between radical guerrillas under rebel leader Gulbud din Hekmatyar, leader of the funda mentalist Hczb-e-Islami, and those led b/ moderate commander Ahmed Shah Masood, of the Jamiat-e-Islami. Masood’s men, fighting alongside remnants of the military, drove Hekmatyar’s men from the presiden tial palace and some suburbs of Kabul. But Hekmatyar still held the Interior Ministry building and pockets of the city with anti-aircraft weapons. U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, whose plan to restore peace collapsed with President Najib ullah's ouster earlier this month, pleaded for all sides lo end the blood shed. “Now is the time for healing, tol erance and forgiveness,” he told re porters in Islamabad, Pakistan. Hckmalyar has demanded the for mation of a strict Islamic state, and opposes Masood’s vision of a moder ate state in place of the old commu nist government. Most of the other rebel groups have allied with Masood, and their political leaders say the military commander is in charge in Kabul until a multiparty interim government arrives from Pakistan. Explosions blamed on oil firm GUADALAJARA, Mexico — Authorities Sunday blamed city lead ers and the Pemcx state oil monopoly for sewer blasts that k i 1 led at least 190 people last week. Charges could in clude negligent homicide. The nation’s attorney general said officials were negligent for not evacu ating the area after residents reported strong gasoline fumes coming from sewers. He also said they should have acting quickly to repair the problem. Pcmex has denied a broken gaso line pipeline caused Wednesday’s explosions, claiming the pipes were ruptured by the blasts. A secretary at Pcmex’s press office in Guadalajara said no spokesmen were available for comment Sunday. The attorney general, Ignacio Morales Lcchuga, said nine public and Pcmex officials and two private citizens he did not identify faced various charges related to the deaths, injuries to 1,470 people and property damage. No formal charges were filed on Sunday. Mexicans, who repeatedly have suffered environmental and natural disasters in recent years, have harshly criticized officials for the disaster and blamed both Pcmex and lax govern ment precautions. Friday, when the last known vic tim was removed from the rubble of Guadalajara’s Reforma district, the dead child’s father, a policeman, screamed: “It’s the fault of Pcmex!” Morales Lcchuga said the leaked gasoline mixed with other volatile chemicals in the sewers, especially the strong industrial chemical hex ane, to produce the disaster. He said three cooking-oil companies that use hexane in the manufacturing process would be investigated to determine if they were the source of the hexane. Crime rates still growing WASHINGTON — Violent crime reports to police increased 5 percent last year while reported property crimes rose 2 percent, government figures showed Sunday, and experts blamed drugs and the nation’s economic troubles. The total rose 3 percent, continuing a trend of increases dating back to 1985, according to preliminary figures from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports. The 5 percent increase in violent crime — murder, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault—is less than half the 10.6 percent hike from 1989 to 1990, but it is in line with increases since the mid 1980s. The FBI’s figures did not include population estimates for 1991 and thus, the rale of crime per capita. However, calculations by The Asso ciated Press indicate there were about 5,880 crimes reported per 100,000 resi dents last year. That is the second-high est rate in the past three decades, sur passed only by 1980, when there were 5,899.9 crimes per 100,000 U.S. resi dents. The violent crime rate was about 750 per 100,000 residents, the highest in the past three decades, according to the AP’s calculations, and it continues an upward trend that followed a dip in the early 1980s. Meanwhile, the rate of property crime — burglary, larceny-theft and motor vehicle theft — was about 5,090 per 100,000 people, the AP found. Like the overall crime rate, that’s the highest since 1960 with the exception of 1980« The AP’s calculations were based on the FBI’s broad percentage changes in reported crime as well as the Census Bureau’s estimate of the 1991 U.S.popu lauon. Perot aims sharpest attacks at president DALLAS — Ross Pcrol says he harbors no ill will toward either parly. But the Texas billionaire has been aiming his sharpest barbs at President Bush while sometimes seeming to go out of his way to praise Democrat Bill Clinton. Perot’s blunt rhetoric may reflect what many longtime Perol-watchcrs say is a deep-seated enmity toward Bush, raising the question of whether win ning or driving Bush from office may be uppermost in the fellow Texan’s mind. Recent polls suggest Perot draws support about equally from Democrats and Republi cans. But his victory in certain key states like /I Texas could pose a substantial obstacle to Bush’s re-election. Perot has a history of difficult dealings with Bush over the years, culminating in the Dallas businessman’s all-out opposition to Bush’s conduct of the Persian Gulf War. Perot denies bad blood and says he doesn’t consider his prospective independent candi dacy a grudge match with Bush. His words and actions speak differently. Even though he has spread several hundred thousand dollars in political contributions over the past 15 years to Democratic and Republi can candidates alike, much of it to Texans, he has given nothing to Bush, who lived in Texas for 20 years and represented the state in Con gress. And in a gesture that must irritate the presi • • A I dent’s family, Perot volunteers arc operating a busy drive-in petition-signing booth in north Dallas just a few blocks from the home of the president’s eldest son, George W. Bush. Perot’s rhetorical venom against Bush has intensified the closer Perot gels to formally announcing an independent candidacy. Listen to recent Perot on Bush: - “When you’ve got an incumbent saying, ‘ I will do anything it lakes to win’... then when you know what he did in the last campaign, look at what they’re doing now, it’s kind of all time new low,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press last week. - On domestic policies: “I’m talking about two-day education summits . . . these little video events set up to say, ‘I am the education president.”__ Chinese derby tirst in 4.5 years CANTON, China — This soulhem city on Sunday hosted China’s first public horse races since the Communist revolution of 1949 with an eclectic mix of cash prizes, American beer ads and the “William Tell Overture.” And the winner was — capitalism, going away. A sold-out crowd of 5,000 sometimes scream ing Chinese packed the Huangcun Racetrack, a recently converted military airfield, for six races. Betting was prohibited, but that didn’t slop many from playing the ponies for fun. :‘I wouldn’t be surprised if people bet among themselves,” said Wu Zhiwei, a Canton banker attending the event. “I would pick horses from Inner Mongolia because they have more expe rience.” He must have had a tip. A Mongolian horse named “Suddenly” won the last and most important race of the day, the “Horse of China” derby. Such an event wouldn’t have been possible 10 years ago, said Wu. But with a recent drive towards economic reform leaving a capitalist hue in the prosperous south, China’s leaders sec the sport as a higher form of entertainment for an increasingly wealthy population. Banners advertising Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, Pepsi-Cola and other American products lined the track. No one played “My Old Kentucky Home” but organizers blasted a taped medley of thumping local pop songs and a remix of Rossini’s “William Tell Overture.” The races were partly sponsored by the Guangdong provincial government, of which Canton is the capital, and broadcast live by two local television stations. Even the official Xinhua News Agency published a guide to the meet. Zhang Tao, a spokesman for the provincial government, said the government wants “to give the people more activities to enjoy. This is not betting, this is fun.” All forms of gambling were banned in China after the 1949 revolution and criticized by the government as being elements of “bourgeois capitalism.” Chinese officials are also gung-ho about the races because 40 percent of the profits will go to funding construction projects in the prov ince. Nebraskan Editor Jana Pedersen 472-1766 Managing Editor Kara Walls Assoc. News Editors Chris Hoplsnspargsr Kris Karnopp Opinion Page Editor Alan Phelps Wire Editor Roger Price Copy Desk Editor Wendy Navratll Sports Editor Nick Hylrek Advertising Manager Todd Sears Sales Manager Eric Krlngel Classified Ad Manager Annette Sue per Publications Board Chairman Bill Vobejda 472-2588 Professional Adviser Don Walton, 473-7301 FAX NUMBER 472-1761 The Daily Nebraskan(USPS 144-060) is published by the UNL Publications Board, Nebraska Union 34,1400 fi St., Lincoln, NE, Monday through Friday during the aca demic year; weekly during summer sessions. Readers are encouraged to submit story ideas and comments to the Daily Nebraskan by phoning 472-1763 between 0a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The public also has access to the Publications Board. For information, contact Bill Vobejda, 472-2588. Subscription price is $50 for one year. Postmaster: Send address changes to the Daily Ne braskan, Nebraska Union 34, 1400 R St.,Lincoln, NE 68588-0448. Second-class postage paid at Lincoln, NE ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1992 DAILY NEBRASKAN