UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Tuesday, February 14, 1995
7B
Elections offer Mexico change
The Associated Press
GUADALAJARA, Mexico—Mexico's largest opposition party on yesterday celebrated the biggest electoral victory of its history, which analysts said could help end 66 years of single-party rule in Mexico.
The National Action Party claimed it won the governorship of the state of Jalisco, control of the state legislature and 90 of 124 city halls, including Guadalajara, Mexico's second-largest city.
"This triumph shows it is possible to change the government... through the force of votes and not through the force of bullets," said Felipe Calderon, secretary-general of the center-right party, known as the PAN.
Sunday's vote was a vindication of President Ernesto Zedillo's promise of fair elections and greater democracy in Mexico.
It also came three days after Zedilio sent troops to crack down on leftist rebels in the southern state of Chiapas, breaking a year-long truce. That move thrilled hard-liners in his ruling party and may have helped dissuade them from challenging Zedillo with a fraudulent election in Jalisco, analysts said.
With 40 percent of the gubernatorial vote counted, the PAN's candidate, Alberto Cardenas, had 54.46 percent and the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party candidate, Eugenio Ruiz Orozco, had 35.9 percent. Eight other parties trailed far behind.
"We accept the results... We know the vote did not favor us," said Rafael Gonzalez Pimienta, state president of the governing party, known as the PRI.
In the past, the PRI had contested claims of opposition victory at the polls and had admitted losing only two statewide elections in its history — both to the PAN.
For years, presidents have been promising to clean up Mexican elections, but opponents have continued to accuse the PRI of using fraud, force and public funds to maintain its hold on power.
The last election before Zedillo took office in December, a November vote in Tabasco state, was marred by widespread fraud allegations. Militants within his party rebelled against Zedillo's efforts to solve the dispute in January, causing the president to appear weak.
"It is very important that did not happen in Jalisco," said Jaime Sanchez Susarrey, a political columnist and professor at the University of Guadalajara. "The government of the republic maintained control."
The election Sunday was the first since a sudden devaluation of the Mexican peso in December slashed Mexicans' buying power and forced the country to appeal for international aid to save its economy.
Sanchez suggested that the vote could be the first of a series of PAN victories and said the party has a chance to win control of Mexico's lower house of congress in the 1997 federal election.
Three other states, all PAN strongholds, have gubernatorial elections this year. Baja California, Guanaiuato and Yucatan.
Other, local issues also factored into the PRI defeat here. Many in Guadalajara were angry about a 1992 sewage explosion, blamed on the government, that killed more than 200 people. There is also widespread frustration over a wave of violent crimes, including the still unsolved 1993 murder of the city's Roman Catholic cardinal, Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo.
On Thursday, Zedillo sent the Mexican army after the rebel Zapatista National Liberation Army in Chiapas. That move pleased PRI hard-liners and helped wipe away an image of presidential weakness.
Sanchez said the Chiapas events might have dissuaded any hardliners from thoughts of challenging Zedillo with fraudulent actions.
"I believe the show of force in Chiapas was a warning ... that the president maintains his power," Sanchez said.
The leftist Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, which denounced Zedillo's action in Chiapas, won less than 5 percent of the vote in Jalisco.
Salman Rushdie laughs at death threats in face of continuing seclusion
Hiding isn't a full-time job for writer Salman Rushdie, who even did a comedy turn on television in the last year.
"Salman, you should get out more. You're becoming antisocial," comedian Donna McPhail joked on the BBC's satirical news quiz. "Have I GOT News for You."
When the conversation turned to a cricket official who had fired a team chaplain, Rushdie quipped: "He should be sentenced to death."
The late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran ordered the novelist's death six years ago for allegedly blaspheming Islam in his book, "The Satanic Verses."
LONDON
THE NEWS in brief
Rushdie wrote an open letter in July in support of Taslima Nasrin, the Bangladeshi author who went into hiding rather than be arrested on charges of violating religious sentiments.
He also published his first collection of short stories in the fall, titled "East. West."
Rushdie's unannounced appearances at literary and social events provoke little comment, but life under police guard clearly has its restraints.
Appearing in Brussels, Belgium, in November, Rushite complained that British Airways and Lufthansa, the German airline, refused to allow him on their flights for fear of terrorism. He didn't say how he got to Brussels.
Grand Canyon crash kills eight
TUSAYAN, Ariz. — A plane flying tourists to the Grand Canyon apparently lost an engine and crashed while trying to return to the airport yesterday, killing eight of 10 people aboard, authorities said.
Two other passengers were being treated for serious injuries at the scene 2 miles northeast of Grand Canyon Airport, said Coconino County Sheriff's Set. Raoul Oseguda.
The Associated Press
The plane, a Piper Navajo, belongs
There was a fire when the plane crashed amid pine trees, Osegueda said.
to Las Vegas Airlines, a tour company that specializes in scenic flights over Grand Canyon National Park, Osegueda said.
It's believed the flight began in Las Vegas and had completed a tour of the park, said Fred O'Donnell, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration in Los Angeles.
The plane landed at Grand Canyon Airport, 175 miles north of Phoenix and a few miles south of the park's main south entrance.
It took off at about 3:35 and almost immediately reported trouble, O'Donnell said.
"The pilot reported having lost an
engine and declared an emergency,
and we believe was attempting to return to ... Grand Canyon, "O'Donnell said.
KANSAS CITY, Kan.
Kidnapping and rape didn't happen
An employee at the airline's office at North Las Vegas Airport refused to comment or bring a company official to the phone.
The airport is the base for much of the lucrative Grand Canyon tour industry.
There have been numerous crashes of tour planes around the Grand Canyon in recent years, and Congress has imposed restrictions on air tours over the canyon, in part due to safety concerns.
12-year-old girl who said she was kidnapped and raped while walking to school made a false report and will be charged, police said.
The girl was the victim of a crime several years ago and still has personal problems related to that incident, police said yesterday in a statement.
"She made up this story because of those problems," the statement said.
The girl reported she was raped Wednesday as she walked to school.
Charging the girl with the misdemeanor of making a false report will give her access to court supervision and counseling, police said.
According to police reports, the girl said she ran when she was confronted by two men, but the men chased her and put her in their car.
The girl told police she was driven to an alley where she was raped by one of the men while the other held her
down.
The report caused a great amount of concern in the community. Police distributed composite drawings of two suspects — a black man and a white man.
Police said the case was thoroughly investigated and that inconsistencies were found in the girl's story.
Professor discovers historic poems
Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote more poems than previously thought, although an academic who dug them up say they contain no new masterpieces like "Kubla Khan" or "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner."
Jim Mays, head of the English Department at University College in Dublin, says he has discovered 300 Coleridge poems that he plans to publish this year.
About 500 Coleridge poems were already known.
The Sunday Times quoted Mays as saying Coleridge did not stop writing poetry around 1810, as had been thought.
"The 1820s saw a kind of renaissance. He kept writing poems. Whenever he felt anything intensely, it came out in verse," Mays was quoted as saying.
Mays declined to give further interviews about the book, a spokeswoman for the university said Monday.
The Sunday Times said the poems spoke of homosexuality, gout, ingrown toenails and one poem in Greek and Hebrew about a man who has trouble keeping an erection.
One poem, titled "An Autograph of an Autopergamene," apparently was written in blood on a piece of the poet's skin that peeled off in the bath.
Mays found the texts in Britain, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Middle East, South Africa, France, Switzerland and Russia, the Sunday Times reported.
The professor said he found more than 100 variations of "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and 25 of "Chistabel."
SANGHINAGAR, India
SANGHINAGAR, India Chess championship surprises fans
Anatoly Karpov of Russia beat Boris Gelfand of Belarus in the sixth game of the World Chess Championship semifinals yesterday.
Gelfand surprised spectators by using the Karzon Sharp Benko gambit against Karpv's queen pawn opening. Karpv outwitted Gelfand in 49 moves and took a 3.5-2.5 lead in the 10-game series.
In the other match, American Gata Kamsky, playing black, appeared to be heading for a victory at adjournment of the sixth game yesterday against Valery Salov of Russia.
Kamsky, who again chose the Nimzo-Indian defense, enjoys a 4-1 lead in the match.
Compiled from The Associated Press.
Valid at the KU Bookstores, Mt. Oread Bookshop and the Union Technology Center on February 14, 1995.
KU Bookstores Kansas and Burge Unions The only store offering rebates to KU students
Valentine's Day - a good day to begin Condom Week and to remember to always show concern for your sweetheart and yourself. Every day abstinence is the surest way to prevent STDs (including HIV) and pregnancy, but if you decide to have intercourse-use a latex condom and nonoxynol-9 spermicide every time. And remember that alcohol and other drug use are strongly associated with failure to use preventive measures and to communicate clearly. Use your condom sense! Condoms are available at Watkins Pharmacy -3 for 50$+ (male) and $1.80 each (female).
National Condom Week February 14-21
To schedule a Condom Week presentation or display table for your organization or living group call The Center for Peer Health Promotion 864-9570.