News Digest
Scott Peterson/Newsmakers
Smoke Mows from the top of the 1,772-foot Ostankino television tower in Moscow. The (be broke out in
the tower; Europe* taflest structure, IwocMng out some television broadcasting and forcing the evacuation
rfathe tower* popular tourist restaurant Russian President Vladhnir Putin said the fire and the tower*
subsequent floundering show a need to update Moscow*, as wel as the country*, infrastructure, which is
Firefighters douse blaze
on Russia tower; 2 dead
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MOSCOW- Firefighters put out a blaze
that gutted Moscow’s giant television tower
and killed at least two people, officials said
Monday.
Firefighters found die bodies of an ele
vator operator and a high-ranking firefight
er in an elevator shaft, said Viktor Beltsov, a
spokesman for the Moscow Emergency
Situations Ministry. The two had been
trapped in an elevator high up in the 1,771
foot Ostakino tower, the world’s second
tallest freestanding structure.
Beltsov did not say if any others were
thought to have been caught in the elevator.
Various news reports had said up to four
people had been trapped.
The fire knocked out most television
service in the Russian capital, Europe’s
biggest city, and concern was rising that
some parts of the landmark tower could fell,
particularly the upper reaches of its thin
spire.
President Vladimir Putin said the fire
pointed to the need for economic reforms
that can salvage Russia’s widely dilapidated
infrastructure.
“This emergency highlights what condi
tion vital facilities, as well as the entire
nation, are in,” he said to government offi
cials. "Only economic development will
allow us to avoid such calamities in the
future."
Firefighters wearing heavy rubber coats
and breathing apparatuses had to climb
hundreds of stairs, carrying heavy metal fire
extinguishers and other equipment to bat
tle the blaze. They succeeded in putting it
out at 5:40 pun., 26 hours after it broke out,
Russian news agencies cited Moscow fire
department chief Leonid Korotchik as say
ing.
Bundles of steel support cables running
up the middle of the tower had been dam
aged, fire department deputy director
Vyacheslav Mulishkin said.
Automatic firefighting systems within
the tower appeared to have failed orhad run
out of fire-suppressing foam, officials said.
More than 300 firefighters and other
emergency workers were called in to battle
the blaze, which broke out high on the
towerfe upper spire Sunday afternoon.
It was the latest in a series of disasters,
including gas explosions,
industrial accidents and
breakdowns in the power *nlS
grid, which have under- emergen
scored the weakened hinU
state of Russia’s infra- niyn
structure because of lack lights
of money and poor main- what
tenance. That weakness ,. .
was further highlighted Condition
by an Aug. 12 accident vital
that sunk the nuclear sub
marine Kursk, killing the facilities,
118 men aboard. as Well
Responding to fears n~ ti,0
that the tower could col- .
lapse, Moscow Mayor Yuri entire
Luzhkov said “alarge dan- nation
ger arises from the physi- .
cal condition of the con- tire in.
Crete parts of the tower.”
But he said earlier that the Vladimir
risk of collapse "practical- Putin
ly does not exist”
A Moscow city sur- president
veyor on the scene,
Vladimir Aleksin, said the tower’s upper
spire had tilted slightly and that the tip ofthe
structure was off-center by about 6 Vi feet
The fire started after a short-circuit in
wiring belonging to a paging company.
Visitors were quickly evacuated from
the tower’s restaurant and observation
deck, which were engulfed several hours
later as the fire moved down the structure.
Interior Minister Vladimir Rushailo said
authorities considered it unlikely that the
fire was set intentionally.
Prosecutors opened an investigation
Monday into whether criminal negligence
was responsible for the fire, the Interfax
news agency reported.
Clinton tries to save talks between warring factions
■The idea of peace between
Mrican Hutu andTutsi
factions has been elusive.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARUSHA, Tanzania-Lending
US. prestige to an effort to prevent
the collapse of Burundi peace
talks, President Bill Clinton and
Nelson Mandela lectured Hutu
mdlUtsi factions Monday on die
consequences of failing to end
seven years of ethnic warfare that
tias kilted 200,000 people.
“When all is said and done,
Dnlyyou can bring an end to the
bloodshed and sorrow your coun
try has suffered,” Clinton said.
Clinton, rounding out the sec
ond Africa tour of his presidency,
Elew to Tanzania after a two-day
visit to Nigeria, Africa’s most pop
ulous nation, which is still shed
ding the vestiges of corruption
under autocratic rule.
After his stop in Arusha,
Clinton was continuing on to
Egypt for a meeting with Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak on the
Middle East peace process.
Negotiators in Tanzania had
hoped that Clinton would witness
the signing of a major Burundi
peace accord. But the power-shar
ing agreement signed Monday
wasn’t approved by Hutu rebels,
who hadn’t participated in the
talks, or by several small Tlitsi par
ties.
Mandela, the former South
African president and chief medi
ator, lashed out at thelbtsi parties
that didn't sign, accusing them of
ignoring “the slaughter of inno
cent people inside Burundi.”
They “are sabotaging this
agreement,” Mandela said.
As Mandela spoke, several
seats on the stage remained
empty. But, in a symbolic move,
thellitsi representatives filed back
in to the auditorium to take their
seats as Clinton addressed the
group.
After the signing, Mandela lost
his balance and fell forward.
Several African leaders caught
him and set him bade on his feet
The 81-year-old Mandela waved it
off, laughing.
Clinton avoided pointing fin
gers, calling on both sides to end
theethnic warfare.
"I do think it is absolutely cer
tain that if you let this moment slip
away, it will dig the well of bitter
ness deeper and pile the moun
tain ofgrievances higher," he said.
Clinton stood with Mandela
and African leaders - including
President Jerry Rawlings of Ghana
and the son of Libyan leader
Moammar Gadhafi - in hopes his
American presence would serve
as a catalyst for peace.
But he arrived to find the
peace talks, which have gone on
for more than two years, in disar
ray. Clinton huddled with
Mandela for about 20 minutes
and had a 30-minute session with
Burundian President Pierre
Buyoya before joining the other
leaders.
The White House insisted that
Clinton was in Arusha simply to
show his support for Mandela
regardless of whether a peace
agreement would be ready.
"We know this is a long-term
process, one way or another,” said
White House national security
spokesman PJ. Crowley.
As soon as Air Force One
touched down here, Clinton and
Tanzanian President Benjamin
Mkapa met briefly in an airport
terminal in the shadow of Mount
Kilimanjaro.
They walked to a stage beside
the tarmac to watch their trans
portation secretaries sign an
“open sides” agreement allowing
unrestricted international air
port-to-airport access between
the United States and Tanzania.
”He has supported our efforts
at finding... African solutions to
African problems,” he said. “An
African proverb says, ‘Only the
owner can free his home from
mice.’ Indeed, that is as it should
be.”
2 die in university shootings
Inc ASSOCIATED PRESS
FAYETTEVILLE, Aik.—A longtime
professor and a graduate student who had
been taking classes for 10 years woe shot to
death Monday at the University ofArkansas
in an apparent murder-suicide on the first
day ofthe fall semester, authorities said.
Associate Professor John Locke, 67,
died in his English department officeon the
second floor ofKimpel Hall, a classroom
and office building.
Officers responding to several 911 calls
from the building said they spoke briefly
widi a man behind the locked office door,
University Police Capt Brad Bruns said.
Less than five minutes later, another
shot rang out Police found the two men
dead.
Bruns identified the other victim as
James Easton Kelly, 36, ofMarianna, a grad
uate student in the comparative literature
program in which Locke taught
Police hadn't determined the motive for
the shootings or who pulled the trigger,
Bruns said. He said the gun found at the
scene belonged to Kelly.
Kelly had been taking courses in a doc
toral program for 10 years and had a pattern
of enrolling in comparative literature
courses and then dropping them, Bruns
said.
On Aug. 21, a committee of six profes
sors voted to dismiss him from the degree
program but to allow Kelly to continue to
take classes as a non-degree student Locke
was on the committee but abstained from
the vote, Bruns said.
Z)«z7}'Nebraskan
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DAILY NEBRASKAN
Hazing may start in high schools
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - Almost half the high
school students who answered a nation
wide survey said they were made to eat
disgusting things, abuse alcohol or drugs
or perform humiliating or illegal acts to
join athletic teams, the band, even church
groups, university researchers said
Monday.
The researchers at Alfred University in
Alfred, N.Y. - known for studies of hazing
among college sports teams, fraternities
and sororities - said the report on high
schools shows a willingness among
younger people to do violence or break
laws for a sense of belonging.
It demonstrates, as well, that young
people’s social activities should have
greater adult supervision and gives proof
that no group is immune, the researchers
said.
“Students may already be deeply
immersed in the culture of hazing before
they arrive on our campuses as fresh
men,” said Charles Edmondson, presi
dent of the private liberal arts university
in western New York. “Our challenge is
much greater than anyone appreciated.”
In the survey - a two-page mail-in
questionnaire sent to 11th and 12th
graders this spring - students said they
were most likely to be hazed by a sports
team or gang.
They also reported being hazed for
music, art and theater clubs and church
groups. Every high school organization
except school newspaper and yearbook
staffs had high levels of hazing.
The university-funded survey does
not represent the teen population at large.
Only 1,541 of those mailed surveys
returned therm just over 8 percent, but the
project’s lead researcher, Nadine Hoover,
said further studies could build on the
findings.
The results nevertheless furthered a
“Students may already be
deeply immersed in the
culture of hazing before they
arrive on our campuses as
freshmen
Charles Edmondson
small-university president
debate over whether hazing is more a
time-honored rite of passage or a danger
ous trend that sends increasing numbers
of children to hospitals or jails.
In Winslow, Ariz., eight high school
athletes face charges they sexually
assaulted or helped other students
assault about a dozen basketball and
track athletes; the basketball coach also
was indicted, accused of knowing about
some of the abuses and failing to stop
them.
Schools need to do more, said Linda
Murtie, an Essex, Vt., parent who cam
paigned against hazing after her 16-year
old daughter, Lizzie, was hazed on the
school gymnastics team.
The team progressed from having new
members dress up in silly clothes to her
daughter's being forced to eat a banana
protruding from a boy's pants zipper.
Some schools - institutions including
the Upper St. Clair, Pa., school district and
the University of Vermont - are cracking
down on hazing, creating strict policies
and punishments.
More than 40 states with anti-hazing
laws, although researchers said the laws
do not appear to limit hazing significant
ly
Hazing was defined by researchers as
any humiliating or dangerous act expect
ed of new group members, regardless of
willingness to participate.
■ Texas
Drought finds way
into record books
DALLAS - A history-making
drought in North Texas has all
the signs of continuing for days
- or even weeks - and the rain
forecast elsewhere in the state
isn’t much better.
With no precipitation in the
forecast Monday, the record of
58 consecutive days without
rain in the region - first set in
1934 during the Dust Bowl years
-was vulnerable.
A rainless Sunday tied the
record, which was repeated in
1950.
The National Weather
Service forecast this week calls
for continued temperatures at
or exceeding the century marie
along with dry sides.
■ Washington, D.C
Caesarean sections
on the rise again
Caesarean sections started
dropping slowly in the early
1990s after an outcry that
American women undergo too
many - but now they're on the
rise again.
Most puzzling: Why C-sec
tions are increasing in first-time
moms, not just in women who
previously had one. And where
pregnant women live deter
mines how likely they are to
wind up on the operating table:
C-sections are more common
in the South than out West
Now, with Caesareans inch
ing back up to 22 percent of U.S.
births, the nation's leading
obstetricians' group is issuing
new guidelines to reduce
unnecessary C-sections and
reserve the surgery for mothers
and babies who truly need it
There are many suspects in
the C-section rise - state-by
state variation particularly sug
gests doctors’ habits sometimes
can overshadow medical need.
■ Georgia
For first time, Ramseys
submit to questioning
ATLANTA - John and Patsy
Ramsey submitted to police
questioning for the first time in
two years Monday, saying
investigators “may never clear
our names till they find the
killer” of their 6-year-old
daughter, Jon Benet
A team of Boulder, Colo.,
police investigators planned to
interrogate husband and wife
separately at the offices of the
couple’s Atlanta lawyer.
Jon Benet Ramsey was
found beaten and strangled on
Dec. 26,1996, in the basement
of her family's Boulder home.
■ Tennessee
Congress starts inquiry
into Firestone recall
NASHVILLE-Congressional
investigators went to
Bridgestone/Firestone head
quarters Monday to quiz exec
utives on their handling of safe
ty problems with their tires.
The congressional aides are
preparing for hearings in
Washington next month that
will examine the recall of 6.5
million Firestone ATX, ATX II
and Wilderness AT tires.
The recall came after the
National Highway Itaffic Safety
Administration began investi
gating reports of 62 deaths and
more than 100 injuries in crash
es that could be connected to
the 15-inch tires.
Karen Janovy, the curator of
education at the Sheldon
Memorial Art Gallery, was
misidentified in a story in
Monday's Daily Nebraskan.
TODAY
Partly cloudy
high 83, low 65
TOMORROW
Partly sunny
high 85, low 70
