News Digest -se*
Iranian hijackers charged
• OSLO, Norway—Three men be
lieved to be Iranians were charged
Thursday with hijacking after they
used grenades and other explosives to
commandeer a Russian airliner and
force it to fly to Norway.
Ail 54 passengers and crew on
board the Aeroflot Tu-134 were re
leased unharmed after the hijackers
surrendered early Thursday.
The 11 -hour ordeal came to an end
when four men walked down the air
liner’s stairs with their hands in the air
and were taken into police custody.
Government spokesman Gunnar
Angeltveit said three asked for asy
lum. The fourth was being held as a
possible accomplice, but police said
he might soon be released.
If convicted in Norway of hijack
ing, the men could face up to 21 years
in prison, the Norwegian news agen
cy NTB reported.
Justice MinisterGrete Faremosaid
there was no sign the hijacking was
related to Middle East issues, or to
Norway’s role in brokering an histor
ic agreement between Israel and the
Palestine Liberation Organization.
“No reason has been given to me
for this hijacking other than the fact
that they wanted to come toNorway,”
Faremo said after the drama came to
an end at Gardermoen charter airport,
28 miles north of Oslo.
The Russian jetliner was hijacked
Wednesday en route from Baku, the
capital of Azerbaijan, to Perm, Rus
sia. It was diverted to Kiev, the capital
of Ukraine, where it was refueled, and
then flew to Norway.
Russian, Ukrainian and
Azerbaijani officials have said the
men could be linked to Lebanon’s
Shiite Muslim militia, Hezbollah, an
Iranian-backed group that has called
the Israeli-PLO deal “the crime of the
century” and vowed to wreck the peace
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Police spokesman Stale Svensen
said the three men, all reportedly in
their 30s, were charged with hijack
ing. He said they said they were Irani
an, but this has not been confirmed.
He declined to release their names.
Clinton pushes health care reform
WASHINGTON — Using a per
sonal touch to pick up the drumbeat
for health care reform, President
Cl inton on Thursday heard horror sto
ries from ordinary Americans and said
some people will have to pay more to
fix the system.
I don t want
to pretend that
this is all going
to be easy, but it
seems to me that
it’s a fair thing
to say everyone
in America
should make
" some contribu
tion to hi# or her own hcsdth insurance
and all employers should make some
contribution/ Clinton said.
Opening what promises to be a
tortuous debate spilling into next year,
Clinton talked with people from across
the country who had written the White
House about health care woes.
Aides pitched a large, white cano
py in the Rose Garden after rain threat
ened the made-for-television event
designed to personalize the health
care crisis. Hinton was joined oy
Hillary Rodham Clinton, Vice Presi
dent A1 Gore and his wife, Tipper.
Clinton planned a similar event
today and will hit the road two days
next week after unveiling the plan
Wednesday to Congress.
Mrs. Clinton chaired the health
care task force that received more
than 700,000 letters from angry or
beleaguered Americans, and Mrs.
Gore was a key mental health adviser.
Some of the White House pen pals
were asked to read their letters aloud.
After hearing several stories about
the high cost of coverage, Clinton
said his plan to develop huge insur
ance pools would protect all Ameri
cans from the cost of catastrophic
illnesses that now drain bank accounts.
But he said some people — specifi
cally young, single and healthy Amer
icans—will pay higher premiums to
offset the cost.
They “might have to pay a little bit
more in ... insurance premiums so
everybody in the big pool could al
ways be covered and no one would be
kicked out. I think most healthy single
Americans would oe willing loao mai
to avoid the kind of horror stories
we’ve heard today,” said Clinton, who
shook his head and scrunched his face
while the letters were read.
“The American people will have
to be willing to make some changes.
This is one choice we think a lot of
(young) Americans will want to make
because they’re all presumably going
to be sick some day,” Clinton said.
Hearing complaints from people
who run small businesses, Clinton
said firms that don’t provide coverage
would be required to do so. Subsidies
would be given to small companies
and workers would be required to pay
a portion, too, he said.
“All the employers in the country
who don’t provide any insurance to
[heir employees (are) basically get
ting a free ride from the rest of you,”
Clinton told the group. “Until every
one is willing to make some contribu
tions to his or her health care and until
we get all employers in the system,
even at a modest rate, we won't have
a fair health care system,” the presi
dent said.
-SPORTS WIRE
Pirates help baseball s realignment get geographical touch
r 11 1 juuiNun-rui iiiw mat
time since divisional play began in
1969, the National League map
will accurately reflect Rand
McNallv’s. The Pittsburgh Pirates
saw to that.
The Pirates avoided a possible
confrontation with the Atlanta
Braves over NL East membership
Wednesday by moving to the new
NL Central, thereby creating a new
Braves-Marlins regional rivalry in
a big market-dominated East.
The move strips the NL East of
its most successful franch ise—the
Pirates have won nine titles in the
25 seasons of divisional play—but
more closely aligns teams by size,
geography and economics.
The new alignment, unlike the
current lineup that relocates Atlan
ta in the West and Chicago and St.
Louis in the East, could have been
drawn up by a fifth-grade geogra
phy student:
— NL East: Atlanta, Florida,
Montreal, New York, Philadelphia.
— NL Central: Chicago, Cin
cinnati, Houston, Pittsburgh, St.
Louis.
-rNl> W Cal. \~UIUI dUU, LA» /\ii
geles, San Diego, San Francisco.
And, more importantly to team
president Mark Sauer, it al igns Pitts
burgh with other small-market fran
chises with similar economic inter
ests, like the Cardinals, Astros and
Reds.
“This was the logical thing to
do. This just made sense,” Sauer,
said. >
The Pirates didn’t analyze
whether moving would help their
won-lost record, Sauer said.
“This is such a long-term issue,
it would be foolish to handicap any
perceived competitive factors,” he
said. “We’re a small-market fran
chise and we’re going to remain a
small-market franchise."
And they would have been a
small fish in a big pond had they
stayed in the East, with big-market,
big-payroll teams like the Braves.
Mets and Phillies.
The Pirates were initially op
posed to leaving the East, but Sauer
dropped his opposition when Amer
ican League owners won a contin
uation of the current balanced
aHivuuic uuuug idM a uwu
ers meetings in Boston. AL West
franchises such as Texas and Oak
land want to retain the twice-a
season visits by the big Eastern
drawing cards,New York and Bos
ton.
“From a balanced schedule
standpoint, it really won’t affect
any rivalries,” Sauer said. “Our
main concern about the realign
ment was the start of television
games and playing too many games
in the Central time zone. That part
really doesn’t matter now.”
Phillies president Bill Giles was
initially disappointed at losing the
cross-state rivalry with the Pirates
and the arrival of the Braves, cur
rently the NL’s strongest team.
“It’s tougher next year, but in
the long run, it’ll be all right,” he
said.
If the 1994 alignment were cur
rently in place, Atlanta, St. Louis
and San Francisco would be the
division leaders and the Phillies,
the season-long NL East leaders,
would be the wild-card team.
Jones opens wallet to help Smith end holdout with Cowboys
IRVING, Texas — Emmitt
Smith and Jerry Jones ended their
contract feud Thursday. The cost:
millions of dollars out of Jones’
pocket and two lost football games.
Smith, who had watched on tele
vision while the defending Super
Bowl champion Dallas Cowboys
lost both games they played with
out him, reached an agreement with
Jones that could make him the high
est-paid running back in the game.
Smith’s agent, Richard Howell,
scooped Jones on releasing the
news.
Cowboys public relations direc
tor Rich Dalrymple finally con
firmed “there has been an agree
ment in principle but the contract
has not been signed.”
Cowboys coach J immy Johnson
responded: “I’ll believe it when I
see it.”
No contract terms were imme
diately divulged, but Smith had
said he wouldn’t sign unless Jones
paid him “Thurman Thomas mon
ey.”
The contract was expected to be
a four-year deal for approximately
$ 13.6 million, which would be more
than Buffalo pays Thomas. Smith
also has the advantage of not hav
ing to pay state income tax, where
as Thomas does. j
NEWS BRIEFS
I Mother Teresa recovering from surgery
CALCUTTA, India — Mother
Teresa was in stable condition
Thursday after doctors cleared a
blocked blood vessel in her heart.
, The procedure was successful
and the 83-year-old Roman Catho
lic nun was back in her room under
close observation, the B.M. Birla
Heart Research Institute said in a.
statement.
Dr. Patricia Aubanel of the Unit
ed States, Mother Teresa’s cardiol
ogist for the past two years, insert
ed a tiny balloon into the blood
vessel and inflated it to expand the
clogged vessel and ensure free flow
of blood.
Mother Teresa underwent a sim
ilar operation in La Jolla, Calif., in
1991.
She entered the hospital on
Monday but the operation was de
layed when she developed a fever.
This is the fourth time Mother
Teresa has been in a hospital this
year. The last time was Aug. 20,
when she developed malaria.
Mother Teresa won the 1979
Nobel Peace Prize for dedicating
her life to the world’s poorest and
the most destitute people.
Astronauts have successful spacewalk
SPACE CENTER, Houston —
Two spacewalking astronauts in
bulky white suits powered up a
socket wrench Thursday and tested
other tools to help NASA prepare
for the important Hubble Space
Telescope repair mission.
Discovery crewmen Carl Walz
and James Newman wasted no time
evaluating equipment and compar
ing their water tank training on
Earth with the real thing. They
worked so fast that NASA had to
think up additional tasks.
The only snag came near the
end, when the astronauts had prob
lems closing the jammed door on a
portable tool box.
By the time they got it closed,
/the planned six-hour walk had
stretched to almost seven hours.
They capped off the walk by posing
for the camera next to a sign saying
“Ace HST Tool Testers. NASA
dubbed the walk a success.
| Some of the astronauts’ chores.
such as pulling themselves hand
over hand along a ledge and wire,
were easier in space. Others were
tougher. As busy as they stayed,
however, they couldn’t help stop
ping to admire the view.
“Boy is that beautiful down
there,” Walz said as Discovery flew
184 miles over the Atlantic Ocean
toward Africa.
Thursday’s spacewalk was the
third and final one preparing for
that mission. One of its goals was to
keep astronauts warm in tempera
tures down to minus 270 Fahren
heit. Space walkers in June com
plained about be ing extremely cold.
Walz and Newman reported
feeling fine, even a little too warm
at times. At times they held their
hands close in front of a floodlight
to see how much heat they would
absorb.
“Definitely picked up some
warmth there. It’s not really fast p
and it’s not intense.” Newman said. -
-:-STATE WIRE
Trio sentenced to prison terms for abuse
HARTINGTON — Two men
accused of child sexual abuse in
Belden have been sentenced to pris
on terms, authorities said.
Richard G. Sitton, 45, of Kelso,
Wash., had pleaded guilty to two
counts of sexual assault of a child
and was sentenced by Cedar Coun
ty Distr^t Judge Darvid Quist.
Sitton was sentenced to 10 years
to 20 years in prison on one count
and one year to three years on
another count, to be served consec
utively.
Ronald J. Grove, 26, of rural
Carroll, had pleaded guilty to two
counts of sexual assault of a child
and was sentenced on Monday from
one year and eight months to five
years in prison.
Authorities said Sitton and Grove
spent time in the same house in
Belden and sexually abused chil
dren who lived in the house. Sitton
pleaded guilty to incidents that
authorities said occurred between
September 1989 and January 1992.
Grove pleaded guilty to incidents
that authorities said occurred around
November 1991.
One other man who lived in the
house in Belden, Dale R. Evans,
38, had pleaded no contest to two
counts of sexual assault of a child
and was sentenced to two consecu
tive prison termsof 18 months to 30
months.
Exeter man guilty of abusing keno rules
GENEVA—A Fillmore Coun
ty District Court jury Thursday took
less than two hours to find a former
keno operator guilty of abusing
Nebraska keno game reporting reg
ulations.
Dale Waldron of Exeter was
charged with filing a false report
and making a false entry, both fel
onies. A third charge, violating the
Nebraska Bingo and Lottery Act,
was dismissed Monday.
Waldron faces five years in pris
on and a $10,000 for each charge.
“It was a solid case and the jury
obviously felt it was solid, too,*’
York County Attorney Charles
Campbell said after the verdict.
It is the first court case in Ne
braska to probe the reporting regu
lations and bookkeeping require
ments of keno game operators, ac
cording to Steve Schatz of the state
revenue department’s Gaming Di
vision. The trial started Monday.
Waldron operated a keno game
in Exeter in September 1992 at the
Longbranch Saloon, a bar he owned.
An audit by the Gaming Division in
October 1992 allegedly showed
numerous discrepancies in the
records Waldron turned in to the
Exeter Village office.
“Dale Waldron gambled that he
wouldn’t get caught,” Campbell
told jurors during final arguments
Thursday. “He lost that gamble.”
A customer playing keno the
night of Sept. 25 and a keno writer
at the bar testified that a customer
was allowed to play illegally, after
the game had closed for the night,
which led to an estimated $15,000
in losses for the player.
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