UNL student .
arrested for
fatal accident
By Jake Bleed
Senior staff writer
A three-car accident at 4:46
p.m. Friday killed a 15-ye9r-old
Lincoln girl, hospitalized ariother
and resulted in the arrest of a
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
student, a Lancaster County
Sheriff’s sergeant said.
Robert James Mullin, 21, of
Ralston, was arrested Friday for
driving under the influence and
felony motor vehicle homicide
after the car he was driving pushed
another car into an oncoming lane
of traffic on N.W. 48th Street,
Lancaster County Sheriff’s Sgt.
Robert Marker said.
Mikela Perez, 16, was driving
with her 15-year-old sister, Tawni,
when Mullin’s car allegedly struck
their vehicle in the rear, causing the
Perez car to lose control, according
to a press release.
The Perez car swerved side
ways across the road, blocking the
oncoming lane of traffic immedi
ately south of West Thatcher Road,
said the Sheriff’s department.
A delivery truck heading south
driven by an 18-year-old Lincoln
man struck the Perez car in the side,
killing Tawni Perez.
The 15-year-old was a sopho-^
more at Lincoln High School.
Mikela Perez was admitted to
BryanLGH West hospital after the
crash in fair condition and was dis
missed this weekend, a hospital
representative said.
The 18-year-old and Mullin
suffered minor injuries in the acci
dent.
Mullin was apparently on his
way to work at the Overland
Station, 2805 NW 48th St., where
he was scheduled to work as a bar
tender at 4:30 p.m., manager Byron
Bloom said.
Bloom said Mfillin had dis
cussed trading Friday’s shift with
another coworker, and that the
schedule was somewhat confused.
Mullin was apparently late to
work at the time of the accident.
Bloom said Mullin was a good
employee and has never arrived at
work drunk.
“To my knowledge, he’s a
clean-cut, good kid,” Bloom said.
Mullin is listed in the 1998-99
UNL student directory as a student
in fhe College of Arts and Sciences.
‘ A Lancaster County Court offi
cial confirmed Mullin was released
this weekend, but did not know the
cost of Mullin’s bail. Mullin could
not be reached for comment.
Weather update:
Earthquake warms
political climate
SAARISELKA, Finland (AP) -
The devastating earthquake in Turkey
last month had a surprising, positive
effect on regional politics, with Greece
showing readiness for a thaw in its
relations with Turkey by dropping
objections to its closer integration into
Europe.
At a weekend meeting of
European Union foreign ministers,
Greek Foreign Minister George
Papandreou said his country was
ready to let Turkey into the 15-nation
union.
The earthquake “created a new cli
mate,” Papandreou told reporters
Sunday, at the end of the two-day
meeting. “Human warmth came out of
this tragedy. A message came out...
that we must work for peace.”
Papandreou said he had spoken
with Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail
Cem by telephone and told him of
Greece’s change of heart.
The new stance means that Greece
won’t block hundreds of millions of
dollars in EU grants and loans to help
Turkey rebuild from last month’s
earthquake, Papandreou said. The
death toll from the quake now stands at
more than 15,000 and is expected to
top 20,000.
It also means that EU leaders will
likely add Turkey to the list of candi
dates for membership when they meet
in Helsinki for a Dec. 15-16 summit,
setting a “road map” of economic and
democratic targets the country must
meet.
Finnish Foreign Minister Tarja
Halonen said that Turkey had moved
closer to EU membership, largely
because of the “most helpful” attitude
of Greece.
Papandreou, however, told col
leagues that Greece and Turkey still
have a long way to go to settle long
standing differences, notably over
Cyprus and Aegean Sea territory,
u
It does not mean that
we have solved all
outstanding
questions, (but) the
climate exists for a
possible
breakthrough in
these as well
George Papandreou
Greek foreign minister
which have brought the two NATO
allies close to war in the past.
“It does not mean that we have
solved all outstanding questions, (but)
the climate exists for a possible break
through in these as well,” Papandreou
said.
And, he added, to become an EU
member Turkey needs to embrace
“European values such as the rule of
law, democratic institutions and good
neighborly relations.”
Importantly, Turkey also must
show respect for minorities, notably
the Kurds.
Turks have long taken the view that
Western European reluctance to let
their country join the EU is rooted in
the fact that it is a Muslim nation. EU
governments have always denied this.
In 1997, the EU snubbed Ankara
for the list of candidatts to the union,
naming Cyprus and 10 other countries
- Poland, Hungary, the Czech
Republic, Slovenia, Estonia, Romania,
Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania and
Slovakia.
Adventure
travel fever
catching on
WASHINGTON (AP) - Want to
endure gut-wrenching flights at
Cosmonaut boot camp in Russia, go
diving in the near-freezing waters of the
Arctic, spend two weeks hiking in Iran?
Me neither.
But there’s a growing number of
people who do like that sort of thing,
and National Geographic Adventure
magazine has the list for them - the 25
greatest adventures in the world.
“Adventure travel is a burgeoning
industry. There are a lot of people with a
real yen to do something more than just
sit on a beach when they travel, and who
have the resources to do it,” explained
Mark Jannot, executive editor of the
new magazine from the National
Geographic Society, which goes on sale
today.
Billed as the first annual adventure
list, it includes a half-dozen newly
available exploits along with others that
have been around for a while but remain
the editors’ choices for most exciting.
Walking with the Masai in Tanzania
is among the new treks listed in the fall
edition of the magazine.
The trip is available to “six athletic
adventurous participants,” the maga
zine reports - for a walk that covers 150
miles in 17 days, escorted by outfitters
and local Masai guides.
Walkers cross the vast savanna
amid elephants, cape buffalo, zebras,
giraffes and their predators, tour the
famous Olduvi Gorge and conclude
their trip during the annual migration of
wildebeest.
The good news: Donkeys carry the
gear. The bad news: The price is $6,495.
It took a team of editors and
researchers six months to collect nomi
nations and compile the list of the
cream of the travel crop, Jannot said.
Perhaps the most extraordinary, he
said, is cosmonaut training in Star City,
Russia. “It’s an opportunity not may
people will end up having.”
That exploit carries a hefty $ 14,950
price tag for a week at the Gagarin
Cosmonaut Training Center outside
Moscow.
The tour promises flights in a spe
cially equipped aircraft that provides
periods of weightlessness, rides in a
massive centrifuge that simulates
launch and reentry in a rocket and, for
certified divers, a chance to join cosmo
nauts training for weightlessness in a
giant water tank.
Jannot recalled his own adventure
on one of the listed trips: paddling along
the Tatshenshini River in the Yukon, a
rafting trip now open to kayakers too.
“The thing for me that was so extra
ordinary about that trip was the sense
that you have of isolation and being
somewhere, relatively speaking, no one
has gone before,” he said.
Though the river has been open to '
travel for a few years, “you never see
anyone else. The number who have
gone on that river areTewer than the
number of people I see when I walk to
the deli for lunch,” he said.
The 25 great trips aren’t ranked, so
there’s no No. 1 adventure. Jannot said
the group tried to provide diversity both
in location and for people with different
interests.
Fans of shipwrecks and the cold, for
example, might enjoy visiting the ship
H.M.S. Breadalbane. The vessel sank
in the Canadian arctic in 1853, and the
cold water has preserved its remains,
340 feet deep.
The northernmost wreck ever
found on the sea floor was located in
1980, and now submersible vessels
carry visitors to the site.
It’s a seven-hour flight from Ottawa,
plus another half-hour hop in a small
plane, but the $9,980 trip also includes
evening presentations by marine biolo
gists and the local Inuit and an outing to
a polar bear den.
For those who prefer hiking to div
ing there’s a 13-day trek in Iran, begin
ning with the ruins of the ninth century
Castle of Assassins, a walk through the
Elburz Mountains north of Tehran then
down to the tea plantations on the
Caspian Sea.
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