The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, October 01, 1993, Page 2, Image 2
t News Digest - Earthquake kills 10,000 NEW DELHI, India — A major earthquake shattered the dawn quiet Thursday, collapsing mud and mortar homes onto sleeping families in vil lages across southern India. More than | 10,000 died and many more cried for help from the wreckage. Authorities feared the death toll would rise substantially in India’s worst quake in a half century. Many villages were leveled so quickly as the earth shook violently and opened crevices that people were crushed inside their homes while sleep ing, news agencies reported. “The rising sun created darkness for us this morning, swallowed up our villages, and made our houses into tombs,” a survivor told a reporter. Some survived when frantic rescu ers heard them shouting for help be neath toppled walls and roofs or saw a hand reaching out from the wreck age, Press Trust of India reported. Friends, neighbors and police strained to lift stone, brick and wood by hand to free victims. me quaxe rippeu mruugu suum west India at 3:56 a.m. It was felt at least 400 miles from the epicenter and caused a wide swath of damage. State-run Doordarshan TV raised the toll to more than 10,000 and said more than 12,000 people could still be trapped. The United News of India news agency later put the death toll at 12,000. About 10,000 people were injured, said Raghunathan. Officials said they expected the death toll to rise sharply. Telephone, electricity and water lines were cut, and no reports were available from Latur, a city with a half-million peo ple, 20 miles north of the epicenter. The largest death toll — 3,050 — was reported from Umarga, 270 miles southeast of Bombay. Sixty percent of the town’s buildings were de stroyed, Raghunathan said. About 80 percent of the village of Killari, which has 10,000 people, was flattened, said senior police officer S.P. Wathore in Bombay, the capital of Maharashtra. About 3,000 people died in Killari, Raghunathan said. Huge cracks opened in the ground, swallowing homes, witnesses said. Umarga is 18 miles south of the epicenter, which is near Maharashtra’s southeastern border with Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh states. Killari is SO miles north of the cpicen ter. Powerful quake devastates southwestern India A powerful earthquake toppled houses and devastated villages in southern India before dawn Thursday, burying hundreds of people f under their collapsed homes. The quake, which /' registered 6.4 on the Richter scale, occurred at rJ 3:56 a.m. about 250 miles southeast of Bombay, V India's largest city and its financial capital. \ v . In Karnataka state, south ot Maharashtra, 13 people were killed in several villages. Press Trust of India reported. Soldiers and policemen rushed to the remote area of southwestern In dia, bringing stretchers, tents, medi cal supplies,earth movers,bulldozers and mobile hospitals. Relief workers had trouble reach ing some villages that recently lost their roads and bridges to heavy mon soon rains. In shattered villages, crowds of people roamed through the debris, prayingforlostrclative^^^^^^ AP The quake also awakened people ! in Bombay, Bangalore and Madras, up to 400 miles from the epicenter. No deaths were reported in the three major cities. Across southern India, people fled their shaking homes in panic. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies on Thursday sent $66,000 in emer gency funds to help. The Geneva based federation groups national Red Cross and Muslim Red Crescent soci eties worldwide. The stricken region stands over a geological formation called the Deccan Plateau. Olmos Continued from Page 1 but he said history gave him a feeling of oneness with others. “When you look at me, you see an African, an Asian, an indigenous per son ... and in the 1500s, white men came from Spain,” he said. “It’s all mixed into this little brown guy you see on stage. “A lack of education puts a hole in the soul. Not the soul that goes to Heaven, but the soul that makes you what you are.” Olmos said religion was one place where people had to be educated about other colors. One problem was the belief that Jesus was Caucasian, he said. “It was Jerusalem, 2000 years ago,” he said. “Swedes were not happening in Africa. “Jesus was all colors,” he said. “When you put .together white, and yellow, and red and brown, what do you get? Black.” Olmos said the way to fight racism was not to fight immediately out of anger, but to walk away and fight later. “When someone exhibits racism, it’s their problem,” he said. “They may not give me the opportunity, they may do a million things, but they got a problem. Me.” Olmos said his feeling ot oneness made him concerned about gangs, especially because children were kill ing other children for no apparent reason. “Every kid who gets killed is relat ed to me,” he said. “We are all relat ed.” Gangs are a result of a natural human need to be together, he said, and a lack of positive opportunities. He said gang members needed a pos itive stimulus. “We must band together to pull in the kids, not push them out,” he said. “If you give them something they could have a future in, nine out of 10 times, they’ll take the job and go fecit.” Olmos said individuals could help solve the problems of racism and vi olence by being good role models for younger children. “You have to be ready as a commu nity,” he said. “Start to dig. Go to it, and mentor one on one. Help those kids grow. Olmos, 46, said he had been a role model for 44 years. “And everyone here is a role mod el. When you least expect it, someone will be watching you.” Olmos said his acting helped him to be more understanding ofbehavior. “I think everyone in here should take an acting class,” he said. “You study human nature, you get an under standing.” Bjorklund Continued from Page 1 without some reference to the robber ies, Colborn said. “We don’t intend to offer the state ments that didn’t deal with the homi cide,” Colborn said. Helvie said his motion was misun derstood. He said he simply was ask ing for the state to tell the defense about statements concerning the rob bery before they were presented in the trial. The judge said it would be impos sible to foresee every robbery detail that could surface at the trial. Prob lems concerning that information will be dealt with as they arise, Endacott said. Helvie asked that Bjorklund's wife, Shannon, not be summoned for action that could lead her to testify against her husband. The judge said Helvie could object UMieMestimonywhcntne time came and then ordered Shannon Bjorklund to give her deposition to the court Oct. 6. Helvie also asked that Bjorklund and county deputies be allowed to wear street clothes during the trial. Bjorklund wore a blue jail uniform, blue Converse high-top sneakers and leg shackles during the pretrial hear ings. Bjorklund is presumed innocent, Helvie said, and wearing shackles does not foster the presumption of innocence. “He has behaved in this courtroom in a consistently gentlemanly man ner,” Helvie said of Bjorklund. Colbom said he did not object to Bjorklund wearing street clothes dur ing the trial, but asked that he remain in shackles for security reasons. Bjorklund filed motions on his own behalf calling for evidence to be giv en to experts for examination. Bjorklund is representing himself in several robbery charges. Bjorklund said he had made the same request this summer. He asked the judge why a Suzuki motorcycle, Buick Skylark automobile and five cans of spray paint had not yet been released to experts. Colbom said Bjorklund had failed to comply with the law in naming a specific expert who would examine tne evidence. I m not going tojust turn it over 10 some unknown, alleged, unchecked out expert," Colbom said. Endacott said the motorcycle had been sold to someone in South Dakota and the car was returned to the dealer from which it allegedly was taken. Endacott said the state was ordered in August to comply with Bjorklund ’s request to the extent of its control over the items. “The state no longer has posses sion and control of those items,” he said. Netiraskan F AX NUMBE R 472-1761 The Daily NebraskanfUSPS 144-060) ia published by the UNL Publications Board, Nebraska Union 34.1400 R St.. Lincoln, NE. Monday through Friday during the academic year; weekly during summer sessions. Readers are encouraged to submit story ideas and comments to the Daily Nebraskan by phoning 472-1763 between 0 a.m. and 5 p.m Monday through Friday. The public also has access to the Publications Board. For information, contact Doug Fiedler, 436-7862. Subscription price Is 650 for one year. Postmaster Send address changes 10 the Daily Nebraskan. Nebraska Union 34,1400 R St..Lincoln, NE68588-0448. Second-class postage paid at Lincoln, NE. ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT , 1963 DAILY NEBRASKAN ,1 i I Chinese man hijacks airliner to Taiwan TAIPEI, Taiwan — A Chinese man armed with a knife hijacked a domestic airlinerwith69peopleon board to Taiwan Thursday, offi cials said. The man was detained along with his wife and son, and no one was hurt. The Sichuan Airlines plane with 58 passengers and 11 crew landed safely at Taipei International Air port at 3:30 p.m. said Ma Chen fang, vice minister for communi cations and transport. The hijacker, a29-year-old truck driver from northeast China, said he would detonate bottles of dyna mite strapped to his waist unless the pilot flew the plane to Taiwan, airport police chief Wang Rong chung said. The bottles were later found to contain vegetable seeds, Wang said. Ma told reporters Taiwan would send the plane back to China and hand the man over to the court for investigation and criminal charg es. He did not say what would happen to the man’s 29-year-old wife and 8-year-old son. China’s official Xinhua News Agency said the Russia-made TU 154 was hijacked at 2:43 p.m. on a domestic flight from Jinan in north east China’s Shandong province to Canton, capital ofGuangdongpnov ince in south China. Xinhua cited the Civil Aviation Administration of China as saying the crew, passengers and aircraft were safe. Taiwan’s official Broadcasting Corporation of China quoted an unidentified official as saying Tai wanese military jets intercepted the airliner over the Taiwan Straits, which divides China and Taiwan, and guided it to a safe landing. Ma told reporters that Taiwan will send the plane back to China and hand the hijackers over to the court for investigation and crimi nal charges. It was the fourth Chinese com mercial plane hijacked to Taiwan since April. -STATE WIRE Motives sought in York drive-by shooting t ukk — rouce are loosing ior a notivc in a drive-by shooting that iamaged the home of District Judge Durtis Evans. Evans and his wife, Mary, were in mother part of the house and were not injured in the Monday night shooting bat broke out the living room win jow York Police Chief Donald KJug said shots were fired about 8:30 p.m. into the living room, open garage and in outside fence. “It could have been disastrous had hey been in the living room,” KJug said. “It appeared that a vehicle drove oy the house. Witnesses thought they ncara nve snois. we ve oeen aoie 10 verify three,” Klug said. “It appears to be a rifle or a handgun-type weapon.” He said it’s likely that Evans’ job had something to do with the shoot ing. “The judge is in a position where they have to make decisions that upset people,” Klug said. Police are talking 1 to the judge to determine if anyone J had an “ax to grind,” he said. M Seward County Judge Alan Gless^ said Thursday such retaliation often I passes through a judge’s mind. “Those risks are associated with I the job," Gless said. “You think about I it all the time.”. Sports wire ACC coaches will try to prevent brawls RALEIGH,N.C.—AtlanticCoast Conference football coaches are warn ing their players they won’t tolerate a repeat of the fights that broke out in three games involving conference teams. Duke coach Bany Wilson, whose team was involved in a fight at Virgin ia last Saturday, was the most em phatic of the league’s coaches insist ing they would suspend players in the future for fighting or leaving the bench area to join brawls. Wilson said if an opposing player was getting pushed on the Duke sidc line he would “attack our players anddefend him. No one is going to getbeat up on the sidelines. But when youget 100 kids over there it can get dangerous."__