News digest Gore, Quayle tangle in spicy Atlanta debate “\X/r>’\rr* ” ATLANTA — With pointing fin gers and insistent interruptions, A1 Gore and Dan Quayle clashed over leadership, abortion and the economy Tuesday night in a vice presidential debate denounced by James Stockdalc as “why this nation is in gridlock.” “I feel like an observer at a ping pong game,” Ross Perot’s running mate said after lis tening to perhaps the tenth or twen tieth time that, Gore and Quayle interrupted one another. _ It was a messy affair that ended on a sharp, negative note, with Re publican Quayle looking into the prime-time camera and referring darkly to the Democratic front-run ner. “The American people should de mand that their president tell the truth. Do you really believe Bill Clinton Stockdale says clash indicative of gridlock will tell the truth, and do you trust Bill Clinton to be your president?” The lines were drawn from the outset on the main issue of the cam paign. - President Bush and Quaylc were like “deer caught in the headlights” when the recession struck, Gore charged — “Blinded to the suffering and pain of bankruptcies and people who arc unemployed.” He pledged that he and Democratic presidential candidate Clinton “stand for change.” Quaylc retorted that Clinton and Gore “will make matters much much worse. He will raise your taxes, he will increase spending, he will make government bigger. Jobs will be lost.” The 90-m inulc debate also touched on environmental, defense and trade policy. The political imperative was clear for each of the three running mates: to boost the fortunes of the man at the lop of the ticket in a race that has exactly throe weeks left to run and shows Clinton with a double-digit lead in the polls. Quaylc atttackcd the Democratic standard -bearer vigorously, persis tently. He accused Gore several limes of “pulling another Qinton,” which he quickly defined as saying one thing in one place and another thing some place else. Several times he said, “Bill Clinton has trouble telling the truth,” referring to the Vietnam draft contro versy and policy positions on school choice and the North American Free Trade Agreement. At one point, Gore responded with a litany of Bush flip flops, starting with “Read my Tips, no new taxes.” Stockdalc erupted at one point af ter Quayle and Gore argued, saying, “I think America is seeing right now the reason this nation is in gridlock, adding that Perot was the man to (ix the system. The heated debate sparked occa sional applause from an audience made up of partisans of the three men — and few hisses, as well. That prompted moderator Hal Bruno of A BC News to say, “There ’ s no cal 11 or that... so knock that off.” The formal—no panel, just Bruno — made it a lively affair. The debate ended with brief closing statements in which each man recapitulated his underlying theme for the evening. Stockdalc said the United States is “in deep trouble,” and Perot alone can “bring out the firehoses” needed to restore the nation. wc vc got locnungc directions, Gore said. “Bill Clinton offers a new approach.” The unknown f gure was Stockdalc, lapped to be Perot’s running mate but with no political experience after de cades in the Navy. He stressed his non-politician’s status, and he stumbled over his words periodically in a demonstration of his inexperi ence at political combat and his lesser familiarity with some of the issues. “Don’t expect me to use the lan guage of the Washington insider,” he said in his opening statement. On abortion, Stockdalc said, “I believe a woman owns her body and what she does with it is her own business. Period.” That was Gore’s position, too, but not Quaylc’s. When the subject turned to health care, Stockdalc seemingly had little to say. “I m out of ammunition on that one,” he said after Gore and Quayle clashed. Baker lobbied for oil interests, group charges WASHINGTON — While House chief of staff James A. Baker III, who has large oil investments, played a role in the administration’s effort to lobby Congress on oil spill liability in 1990 as secretary of state, documents show. The Project on Government Over sight, a liberal research group, said Tuesday the documents raise ethical qucstionsaboutactionsby Baker, who also heads President Bush’s rc-clcc lion campaign. Janet Mullins, a former State De partment official who is now an assis tant to Bush for political affairs at the White House, dismissed the group’s statements as “totally bogus.” -.__ t_ !_. „ uuixv/i iiuu ui/.x/iui^iy iivsuiin^ iw do with this issue,” said Mullins, who worked on the oil-spill liability issue. She co-authored a memo on the sub ject to Lawrence Eaglcburgcr, the acting secretary of state who was then Baker’s deputy. A memo from thcn-Transporla lion Secretary Samuel Skinner to Baker, indicated the two discussed preparing a joint letter urging Con gress to approve international accords limiting oil companies’ liability for spills. The letter to Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell was signed by Skinner and Eaglcburgcr, but not by Baker. That March 1990 letter is one of several State Department documents on the matter obtained by the Project on GovcmmcniOvcrsight, a nonprofit group in Washington that investigates activities of the executive branch and Congress. Baker had promised a month ear lier to abstain from involvement in any issues affecting domestic oil and gas prices in order to avoid a conflict of interest. Baker has a blind trust for his in vestments, but it docs not shield him from federal conflict-of-interest laws because it is not diversified. Cairo earthquake Modfterrmean See j Suez Canal .I ) Alexaftapa . J^\ M^maili [Epicenter < Nv':.'i § EGYPT _J Aswan Dam: Aswan• , No damage Lake Ji^onmiesi reported Nasw # Shubra: Heliopolis: Schools 14-story apartment -| collapse building collapses In Cairo: L$S /£> At least 20 Wf( yM^& sy buildings ■ c*,ro destroyed Airport Universify'1i,/_'^' of Cairo ■$# P V\ ^rr^s I V VO 2.5 km LAv—.. Valley of the Kings: No damage to the Sphinx or pyramids. AP Cairo quake causalities mount; officials try to calm survivors CAIRO, Egypt — Egypt’s earth quake death toll climbed past 400 Tuesday, and officials broadcasted appeals for calm among Egyptians terrified of another temblor. Many prepared for a second straight night under the stars. Authorities blamed the high death loll partly on panic stampedes but mainly on the many weak, old or poorly constructed buildings in the Cairo area. Countries pledged millions in aid. A security official told Cairo Tele vision the search for survivors was called off Tuesday at all the scores of collapsed buildings in the capital area except for one: a 14-story apartment complex in the affluent suburb Heliopolis. Dozens of people were believed to be buried in the rubble. Relief work ers were using their bare hands to sift through dust and stones, and drills to cut through steel construction rods. Many workers said they had little hope of finding anyone alive. Police Maj. Gen. Nadir Noman, director of civil defense, said 11 bod ies were pulled from the debris by early afternoon. As many as 15 people were found alive in the debris shortly after the quake. Witnesses reported two people died Tuesday as three quake-weakened structurcscollapscd in the poor Sayeda Zeinab neighborhood. Life was generally back to normal elsewhere, but hundreds of aftershocks didn’t help. Almostall were loo feeble to be felt but not to be imagined: “Now I know what hell is like,’’ said Nadia E/.zeddin, a housewife in Cairo’s residential Zamalck Island. In hopes of calming the public, the official Cairo Radio and Television broadcast a statement by Subhi Freiha, deputy director of the government’s Helwan Observatory. “All the observatory’s reeprdings indicate that the situation is stable,’’ Freiha said. “There is no need to worry.” On TV, Information Minister Safwalcl-Shcrifanswered a reporter’s question about the rumor of another strong quake by chastising Egyptians to watch their own media instead of believing the foreign press. The “second quake” rumor was rampant, and intensified as telephone service neared normalcy Monday -« Now I know what hell is like. — Ezzeddin Cairo housewife night. Sometimes the rumors went be yond a simple prediction of another big quake. One reported being falsely told by a crowd of people gathered in a park that the American, British and Italian embassies had been evacuated in expectation of another temblor. Government officials said 409 bod ies have been found and 3,369 people were injured in the quake. Dr. Mamdouh Gabr of the Egyp tian Red Crescent told The Associ ated Press that his agency, the Islamic equivalent of the Red Cross, believes 1,000 people are dead, missing or homeless because of the quake. He said hospitals reported 10,000 injured, although only about 400 remain hos pitalized. Scores of blood donors were re portedly turned away from hospitals, where officials said they already had enough blood. Surprise: College cost rise outpaces financial aid BOSTON—The cost of attending public colleges and universities has increased al a double-digit rate for the second straight year, far ahead of state and federal financial aid, the College Board reported Tuesday. Thecostof higher education ranges from S321 a year al the public, two year College of the Mainland in Texas City, Texas, to S24.380 at private Sarah Lawrence Col lege in Bronxvillc, N.Y. The highest-priced state school is the University of Vermont, which charges in-state students SI0,006 for tuition, housing and a meal plan. - Average tuition and Ices al four year public universities and colleges rose 10percent to $2,315 this fall, the College Board reported. Room and board brings the total to $5,841. At two-year schools, the average in creased to $1,292. “A lolof students have been driven from public colleges and universities and people are also having trouble affording community colleges at this point,” said Stacey Leyton, president of the U.S. Student Association. Thisfall’s 10-pcrccnt hike follows an increase of 13 percent last year. The increase In the cost of private institutions has been slowing, partly in response locompciition fora dwin dling number of Iradilional-agc stu dents. At four-year private universities and colleges, tuition and fees now average $10,498, and at private two year colleges, $5,621 — increases of 7 percent and 6 percent. Room and board adds an average of $4,575 to the cost at private four-year schools. “Given the stale of the economy and its impact on stale budgets, many pcoplccxpccted much larger increases this year, particularly in the public sector,” said Donald M. Stewart, presi dent of the College Board, a New York-based association of 2,800 higher education institutions. Many col leges and uni versi lies arc culling programs, laying off some faculty and staff, and deferring main tenance of buildings and equipment “Even with the big tuition increases, they ’ re sti 11 losing ground,” sa id Da v id W. Brcncman, former president of Kalamazoo College and a visiting professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Colleges and universities are also being squeezed by falling public bud gets for financial aid. Gunshot incident sparks safety talks By Sarah Scalet Staff Reporter Student leaders arc looking at safety and security at the Nebraska and East Campus unions because of a Sept. 20 incident at the Culture Center when gunshots were fired, an official said Tuesday. Daryl Swanson, ♦director of the Nebraska Union, told Union Board members that al though the inci dent was not di rectly related to the Culture Center because it occurred outside, students already had discussed safety concerns at two meetings. The Culture Center is part of the student unions. Students will continue discussion Oct. 22, Swanson said. Suggestions at previous meetings included having police on duly at certain functions at the unions, re quiring advisers to be present and limiting events to University of Ne braska-Lincoln students with identi fication cards, Swanson said. In other business, Union Board members discussed a study about the Nebraska Union’sacccssibilitytodis ablcd students. - » The study’s suggestions include: • Raising two tables in the food court so wheelchairs without trays can maneuver under them. • Making the door near the north revolving doors accessible to students who cannot maneuver through revolv ing doors. • Moving second and third floor elevator buttons so they arc more accessible. ,-—— • Installing flashers on fire alarms for students with hearing disabilities. Union Board members will dis cuss recommendations after board adviser Frank Kuhn researches the cost and lime needed to implement the changes. 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