News Digest
Wednesday, March 13,1996 Page 2
War games put Taiwan on edge
TAIPEI, Taiwan—As Chipa test
fired another missile early Wednesday
near Taiwan, reports came of the first
suicide related to rising fears ignited
by the Chinese war games just off
Taiwan’s coast.
The streets of Taipei were filled
with rush-hour traffic and businesses
opened as usual, but news reports said
jittery foreign workers were consider
ing giving up well-paid jobs and flee
ing the island.
Taiwan authorities, trying to keep
fears from running out of control, have
denied reports that Chinese warplanes
have approached Taiwan’s coast and
that atest missile fired last week crossed
the island’s northern tip.
In the town of Taitung, on the
island’s southeastern coast, a teen-age
girl killed herself by drinking pesti
cide, leaving a note blaming despair at
the Chinese moves, newspapers said.
“What’s the use of studying geog
raphy or history? The Chinese com
munists have already fired missiles to
our doorstep,” 15-year-old Nicn Ting
chih reportedly wrote. Newspapers said
a cousin drank pesticide with her, but
was saved.
China is trying to intimidate Tai
wan, which it regards as a renegade
province, into dropping what it sees as
a campaign to declare independence
and discard their shared doctrine that
the two are one country.
Taiwan is run by the Nationalists,
who fled the mainland after losing a
civil war in 1949. Although initially a
military dictatorship, they have intro
duced democratic reforms that are to
lead to the island’s first direct presi
dential election, scheduled for March
23.
Campaigning for the election has
intensified Chinese fears that Presi
dent Lee Teng-hui, widely expected to
win re-election, will use his mandate
to declare independence!
The war games, which began Mon
day, have pushed tensions to their worst
—i
point since the late 1950s, when China
and Taiwan traded artillery barrages
almost daily on islands near the main
land coast.
Taiwan’s400,000-member military
is on heightened alert and the United
States has moved two aircraft carriers
and other warships closer to Taiwan.
The missile fired shortly after dawn
Wednesday splashed down in waters
southwest of Taiwan, an area previ
ously declared as a test zone by China’s
military, according to U.S. and Tai
wan officials;
It was the first missile fired in four
days by the Chinese force, but unlike
at least one of three missiles fired
Friday, this one didn’t cross Taiwan’s
territorial waters, according to a Pen
tagon official in Washington.
The USS Bunker Hill, an Aegis
class guided missile cruiser,electroni
cally monitored the firing of the M-9
missile, according to the official, who
spoke on condition of anonymity.
The test zone declared by China
lies 32 miles west of Taiwan’s south
ern port of Kaohsiung.
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said 10
ships of various types were seen con
ducting formation drills on Tuesday,
and about 10 warplanes practicing air
cover, surveillance and bombing runs
near Dongshan and Nan Ao, on China’s
southeastern coast.
The Liberty Times newspaper
quoted unidentified Taiwan military
officials as saying there were indica
tions Chinese naval submarines had
participated in the drills and will per
form a mock blockade of Taiwan’s
ports.
The war games are being held in a
6,600-square-mile rectangle that
stretches to the mid-point of the Tai
wan Straits. The area is 30 to 70 miles
from Taiwanese islands.
Taiwan’s military says it expects
the exercise to include anti-submarine
measures, anti-ship and anti-aircraft
missiles, artillery and bombing runs.
News
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Bums laid to rest with wife
GLENDALE, Calif.—Bums and Allen are together again, and this
time Gracie gets top billing. Her gold-leaf epitaph will be put above
George’s on the crypt they now share.
Relatives and close friends of George Bums, who died Saturday at
100, mourned the cigar-chomping comic and actor during a starless,
invitation-only funeral Tuesday.
“He often said he knew entrances and exits,” manager and longtime
friend Irving Fein told mourners at Wee Kirk O’ the Heather church at
Forest Lawn Memorial Park. “Last Saturday he knew it was time to go.”
The 70 or so mourners included Ronald J. Bums and Sandra Jean
Burns, the entertainer’s son and daughter, plus seven grandchildren and
five great-grandchildren.
The half-hour service for the show-biz legend had a Hollywood
ending: As if on cue, the skies darkened and rain began to fall.
Bums had been unable to work since falling at his home in 1994.
“He was here for 100 great years. We may have wished for more, but
no one in this room could have wanted him to hang on, unable to hear the
laughter and applause or take his bows,” Fein said. “So, George, we’ll
miss you. I know you took your music with you, so wherever you are, I
hope they’re playing it in your key.”
Residents pay homage to volcano
SANTIAGO XALITZINTLA, Mexico — Residents of this village
on the slope of the smoking Popocatepetl volcano trudged up its barren
sides Tuesday, canning offerings of fruit and spicy mole sauce.
Placing the fruit and chocolate-based chili sauce in caves, they paid
homage to the mountain’s patron saint, San Gregorio Chino, in a rite
blending Roman Catholic and Indian traditions.
The volcano, 55 miles southeast of Mexico City, belched steam and
ash Monday after a week of lesser activity that ended several months of
calm.
Experts say there is no immediate threat, but 28 emergency shelters
have been prepared in nearby towns and cities.
The 17,887-loot mountain has not had a major eruption since 1664.
The name Popocatepetl (pronounced po-po-kah-TEH-petl) means “smok
ing mountain” in the Aztec language.
A steady plume of smoke rose from the volcano Tuesday and snaked
across the sky. Television footage showed one emission coming from
near the crater and the other from a fissure near the eastern side.
Some villagers were evacuated briefly during a scare in December
1994, when Popocatepetl spewed ash.
Coca-Cola to test curvy cans
ATLANTA — You loved the bottle. How about the can?
Hoping to build on the boost it got from bringing back its distinctive
hourglass bottle two years ago, Coca-Cola Co. plans to test market a
contoured can, probably by the end of the year.
The can has sides that curve slightly inward, subtly resembling the
Coke bottle.
“The issue is differentiation, and making sure we’re constantly
di fferentiating our products and packages,” M. Douglas Ivester, Coke’s
president, said Tuesday.
A steel version was a hit during tests in Germany, said Roberto C.
Goizucta, Coca-Cola chairman and chief executive. But the company is
less sure an aluminum version will stand up to the pressures of the
production line, hold carbonation and stack on delivery trucks and
grocery shelves.
Coke would not specify when or where it will tested.
A plastic version of the Coke bottle, brought out in 1994, has been
credited with helping Coke widen its lead in the $50 billion soft drink
market.
world leaders convene
I for anti-terrorism summit
SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt —
World leaders came to this Egyptian
resort, begun by Israel during its occu
pation of the Sinai peninsula, for an
anti-terrorism summit that President
Clinton said Tuesday would find “ways
to combat those who seek to kill peace
with violence.”
The conference Wednesday is in
tended to spark new momentum for
peace in the region after suicide-bomb
ings in Israel over the past three weeks
left 62 people dead. Yet problems that
have fostered violence seemed likely
to haunt the meeting.
The three-hour forum includes lead
ers from 11 Arab nations and Israel,
Russian President Boris Yeltsin, Presi
dent Jacques Chirac of France and
British Prime Minister John Major, all
hastily assembled by the Clinton ad
ministration to underscore its commit
ment in the Mideast.
Clinton said before leaving the
White House that “the wi 11 of the people
for peace is clearly greater than the
forces of division.... This summit of
the peacemakers can be an important
step in the process for peace in the
Middle East.”
The leaders attending the summit
arc determined to come up with “ways
to combat those who seek to kill peace
with violence,” Clinton said.
After the summit, Clinton said, he
will travel to Israel “to stand with the
people there in their time of grief.”
Syria and Lebanon chose not to
come. Syria, accused of fostering ter
rorists, said it won’t attend because the
meeting is merely “propaganda.”
Aboard Air Force One with Jordan’s
King Hussein, Clinton said he wished
Syria were represented at the meeting.
“But 1 believe that in terms of continu
ing the peace process and keeping com
mitments, that President Assad will do
that,” he said. “And that’s very impor
tant.”
Clinton said he hoped the summit
would produce “a strong, united stand
for keeping the peace process going
and standing against the terror.”
Differences in Israeli and Arab
hopes for Wednesday’s meeting arose
even as workmen were painting the
slogan “Summit of the Peacemakers”
in Arabic and English on the confer
ence headquarters.
While Israeli Foreign Minister Ehud
Barak urged efforts to achieve “con
crete results” in the war on terrorism,
PLO leaders criticized Israel’s 17-day
closure of Palestinian, territories as a
hardship that would only provoke more
violence.
“Hungry people do not fight terror
ism,” said Nabil Shaath, a longtime
supporter of PLO chief Yasser Arafat
and one of the Palestinians’ main peace
negotiators.
Abandoned girl to receive
imprisoned father’s kidney
SAN FRANCISCO — Hoping to
become “the daddy I should have teen
a long time ago,” David Patterson left
his jail cell and donated a lifesaving
kidney Tuesday to the daughter he
deserted before she was born.
Patterson, a convicted burglar, met
with Renada Daniel-Patterson briefly
before the transplant operation. They
had met only twice before, once when
Renada was too young to remember
and a second time when she was 8.
“Thank you very much for giving
me a chance. I love you,” Renada, now
13, said through tears.
The two were operated on for about
three hours at the University of Cali
fornia at San Francisco Medical Cen
ter. Renada later was listed in stable
condition and her father was doing
well, said Dr. Anthony Portalc, a pedi
atric kidney specialist.
“The surgery went very well both
for her and the donor,” Portale said.
He added that it will take weeks and
possibly months before it is known
whether Renada’s body accepts the
kidney.
Renada was bom with one kidney
that failed when she was 5. She got a
new kidney that year, but her body
rejected it a year later. Her mother
couldn’t donate one of hers because
she is diabetic, and no suitable matches
were found.
Renada was on dialysis three times
a week but had been getting sicker in
recent months.
Patterson, 34, had known for years
that his daughter needed a new organ,
but he was never asked to donate. In
November, he wrote to offer one of his
kidneys: “If you can forgive me, I will
do my best to be the daddy I should
have been a long time ago.”
Renada’s mother, Vickie Daniel,
35, said, “He’s definitely been a
nonpresence, no-help kind of person.”
She added, however* that by donating
the kidney “he’ll make a difference.”
Blue-collar
voters voice
frustrations
As a blue-collar worker, Jeff
Harper knows about shrinking
paychecks and shuttered facto
ries. Pat Buchanan is trying to
woo him on these very issues,
but Harper isn’t impressed.
“American jobs for Ameri
can workers - it’s easy for him to
say. He’s never had to vote on
anything,” says the pipe fitter
from Joliet, 111. “Coming from a
man who drove a Mercedes
Benz, it doesn’t hold any weight
for me. He has no idea what the
blue-collar people of America
do.”
But Buchanan’s message hits
home with David Ross, an
autoworker at Chrysler’s nearly
100-year-old Jeep plant in To
ledo, Ohio, who worries about
American jobs moving overseas
or to Mexico.
“Who’s to say it won’t hap
pen here and that I won’t lose my
job?” Ross asks. “Buchanan is
the only candidate... with enough
guts to say'Enough is enough.’”
As the Republican presiden
tial campaign shifts to the indus
trial Midwest with March 19
primaries in Illinois, Michigan,
Wisconsin and Ohio, the debate
turns to blue-collar concerns:
trade, plant closings, wages and
unions.
President Clinton courted
blue-collar workers in 1992,
winning all lour Midwest states
voting next week. Though some
supporters in this heavily union
ized area feel betrayed by his
support ofN AFTA, many aren’t
willing to abandon him for a
GOP candidate.
Iwouidn t vote fora Repub
lican if he paid me,” huffed Jim
Kraus, a 51-year-old United
Auto Workers member em
ployed by Caterpillar Inc., the
heavy equipment giant in Peo
ria, 111. “The middle class doesn’t
stand a chance.”
Len Epson, a 28-year veteran
of the General Motors Tech Cen
ter in Warren, Mich., echoes the
sentiment.
“The Republican Party is for
the rich man. Always has been.
Always will be,” he added, not
ing he will support Clinton as he
did in 1992.
Recent polls in Illinois and
Ohio have shown Sen. Bob Dole,
a Midwest native who often cites
his Kansas farm roots, with com
manding leads in Tuesday’s
GOP primaries.
Net>raskan
Editor J. Christopher Hain
472-1766
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Assoc. News Editors Matt Waite
Sarah Scalet
Opinion Page Editor Doug Peters
Wire Editor Michelle Gamer
Copy Desk Editor Tim Pearson
Sports Editor Mitch Sherman
Arts & Entertainment
Editor Jeff Randall
Photo Director Staci McKee
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