6A
Thursday, December 1, 1994
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Achille Lauro sinking ends lifetime of tragedy One dead and nearly 1,000 passengers crew escape burning ocean cruise liner 1985: Achille Lauro hijacking
The Associated Press
NAIROBI, Kenya — The Achille Lauro's history of misfortune ended in flames yesterday on the Indian Ocean, where nearly 1,000 passengers and crew fled in lifeboats as the cruise ship burned.
At least one death was reported. The ship burned into the night, tilting 40 degrees over to its port side off the coast of Somalia. The captain of a ship that went to the rescue said it was in danger of sinking.
The Achille Lauro gained notoriety when Palestinian hijackers killed an American passenger in 1985. But its troubled past includes the death of an Italian fisherman whose boat was rammed in 1971 and two passengers who drowned trying to escape a 1981 fire.
After fighting the blaze, the last 60 crewmembers abandoned the vessel and boarded merchant ships helping in the rescue. The 23,478-ton ship was burning and listing badly 130 miles south of the Horn of Africa.
Last night, Italian Coast Guard officials said everyone aboard was accounted for. Eight people were injured in the fire.
"The whole back half of the ship is fully engulfed" by flames, said U.S. Navy Lt. Paul Frost, who flew over the site in the afternoon. "Flames have progressed far forward in the ship."
The ship's owner, Genoa-based Stalrauro, said the blaze apparently broke out in the passenger area, but the cause was unknown.
But Dmitrios Skapinkais, the Greek captain of the Treasure Island, said the liner's captain, who came aboard to use his ship's radiotelephone, said the fire started in the engine room.
"I did not see the vessel sinking, but maybe in the next 12 hours, if any explosions come from the fuel
Associated Press reporters, who flew over the ship after nightfall, saw it burning. The ship was initially reported to be 15 miles off Somalia, but the pilot of the reporters' plane said it was more than 100 miles off shore.
tanks ... the vessel is going to be
sinking," he said.
The ship was carrying 581 passengers and 404 crew, said Capt. Ferdinand Lolli, a port official in Rome. Most of the crew was Italian and the passengers mainly South African, German, Dutch and British. Ten Americans were on board — eight crew and a couple that boarded in Genoa. All were reported safe.
The Panamanian oil ship Hawaiian King was one of the first ships to arrive at the scene and took on about 800 people, said a coast guard official in Rome, Adm. Eugenio Sicurezza. The Liberian-registered Bar Du was picking up passengers and would take them to Djibouti, coast guard officials said.
Two deaths were reported, but the Italian news agency ANSA said the ship's pursuer faxed a statement from the Hawaiian King saying one was an 84-year-old German tourist who suffered a fatal heart attack the day before the fire.
The shipping line identified the fatality in the fire as Arthur Morris, a 68-year-old Briton who died during rescue efforts.
The Achille Lauro gained notoriety nine years ago when it was hijacked by Palestinian terrorists after leaving for a cruise from Alexandria, Egypt
The ships that rescued people from the Achille Lauro were reported to be heading for Mombasa, Kenya; the Seychelles, or Djibouti.
The Achille Lauro left Genoa on Nov. 19, stopped in Israel, and its next port of call was to be Durban, South Africa, on Friday, said Carla Gotta, a representative for the cruise ship's owner.
The terrorists who hijacked the Achille Lauro in 1985 shot American Leon Klinghoffer and pushed him and his wheelchair off the ship. The hijackers escaped the vessel and boarded a jet, but U.S. fighter planes forced it to land in Italy, and the hijackers were captured.
1 Oct. 7, 1985 Four Palestinian terrorists hijack ship outside of Port Said, demanding release of 50 Palestinian prisoners
2 Oct. 8; Syria, Cyprus deny ship entry; terrorists kill disabled American Leon Klinghoffer
3 Oct. 9: Ship returns to Egypt; terrorists surrender in exchange for jet passage from Cairo to Tunis
4 Oct. 10, 1et
intercepted by U.S.
planes, forced to
land in Italy;
hijackers taken
into custody
Knight-Ridder Tribune
The Achille Lauro resumed service as a cruise ship shortly after the hijacking.
George Bennett, representative for the U.N. operation in Somalia, said the Achille Lauro's position was close to the small Somali fishing village of Eil.
But they were 350 miles away and wouldn't reach the scene for 10 hours
Two U.S. warships — the guided missile cruiser USS Gettysburg and the missile frigate Halyburton — were headed for the Achille Lauro, said a representative for U.S. Naval Forces Central Command in the Persian Gulf.
Knight-Ridder Tribune
Congressional Black Caucus flexing muscle
The Associated Press
The Congressional Black Caucus soon will select a new chairman, hoping to build on its success as a voting bloc under current Chairman Kweisi Mfume. D-Md.
WASHINGTON — Black lawmakers are promoting themselves as a crucial swing vote in the new Republican Congress, a warning to weakened Democrats to shore up their Black support or lose it.
If Republicans stick together, they could pass legislation without any Democratic support. Also, the GOP is more likely to seek support from conservative white Democrats.
Still, the caucus' 36 Democratic members with full voting rights take on a different significance in a pretty evenly divided House of Representatives. Many of these usually loyal Democrats are frustrated, accusing their party of stiff-arming the concerns of Blacks, then pinning blame for Democrats' resounding losses on low turnout by Black voters and the creation of Black congressional districts.
Stung by such scapegoating, Black Democrats are prepared, if necessary, to rebel against their party for the sake of their race, Mfume said in an interview.
"Don't blame Blacks and Latinos for taking a loss at the polls," he said. "The situation that is before us presents us with enormous possibilities to negotiate, to bargain but most of all, to win. There will be a lot of horse trading going on in the 104th Congress."
But there also could be setbacks. The new GOP leadership is discussing eliminating staff funding for the Black Caucus and other legislative service groups as a way to cut government spending.
Plus, caucus leadership is changing at a time when it is terribly reliant on Mfume's savvy and charm. There are worries that three often-mentioned potential successors, Reps. Donald Payne, D-N.J., Alce Hastings, D-Fla, and Harold Ford, D-Tenn., are either too taciturn or too divisive to carry out Mfume's strategy.
Caucus tradition dictates that
"There are going to be a lot of issues where the Republicans are going to be just short of the majority they need within their own party," Mfume added. "Then we can sit down and talk."
Mfume already is talking welfare reform with House Speaker-to-be Newt Gingrich, R-Ga. Although Republicans hold 230 House seats and only need 218 votes to pass legislation, Mfume is banking on the prospect that a House full of Republicans won't agree all the time.
Mfune step down as chairman after one term, but nothing precludes him from being re-elected — especially since he lost his bid yesterday to chair the House Democratic Caucus. Also, there could be a last-minute candidacy by Rep. Louis Stokes, D-Ohio, to put a smooth, experienced power broker at the Black Caucus helm.
But the Caucus stands a better chance if it resists the swing vote role and moves back to its 1980s posture as an adversary to the GOP, said Howard University political science professor Alvin Thornton.
"They will have to become Newt Gingrich-like on how the Republican Party is using the Congress to work against their interest," Thornton said. "They'll have to move to the outside now."
After a Tuesday meeting with Mfume and Rep. Charles Rangel, D.N.Y., Gingrich said he anticipated general cooperation between Republicans and Blacks on welfare reform, and he doesn't discount the Caucus' potential influence.
Caucus members run little risk in aligning with Republicans because most Black Americans, also faithful Democrats, are aggravated, said Theodore Shaw, assistant director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
"We want to reach out to every member of the Democratic Party in the House." Gingrich said.
Yet, as Rangel pointed out, Blacks, Hispanics and women are nearly absent from the debate on party direction and leadership, even though together they comprise nearly 50 percent of Democrats.
Two Clinton aides could face investigation for Whitewater
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — In their first major action on Whitewater since the election, Senate Banking Committee Republicans are requesting a criminal investigation into the congressional Whitewater testimony by two Clinton aides.
Last summer's testimony by George Stephanopoulos and Harold Ickes "appears to raise significant questions of veracity," the Republicans said in a letter to independent counsel Kenneth Starr.
In Little Rock, Ark, Starr's office said it is reviewing the GOP letter.
At the White House, Press Secretary Dee Meyers said that Starr's office had already reviewed the record from the hearings and that "it's time to move on."
Meanwhile, a former Clinton administration official appears to be in serious legal trouble with Starr's office. Starr has developed extensive evidence that Webster Hubbell billed hundreds of thousands of dollars in phony expenses to his ex-law firm in Little Rock, The Washington Post reported in yesterday's editions.
The newspaper quoted a source as saying Starr's office brought a senior member of the Rose Law Firm before a grand jury Tuesday to lay out details of the firm's conclusions about the alleged overcharges. Hubbell's attorney, John Nield, declined earlier Tuesday to comment on his client's legal status. The Post quoted sources as saying Starr's office could seek an indictment against Hubbell as early as next week.
Hundell, a former high-level Justice Department official, is a longtime friend of the Clintons.
In addition, The Washington Times reported yesterday that Starr's office is looking into the campaign finance activities of White House adviser Bruce Lindsey and Washington lobbying firm executive Bethesda Wright.
The Times said investigators were examining what Lindsey and Wright did to help settle personal loans taken by the Clintons to finance his campaigns for governor of Arkansas in 1984 and 1990. News stories over the past six months have raised questions about the campaign financing the two oversaw. Calls left at the offices of Lindsey and Wright were not immediately returned.
At the Senate Banking Committee, the panel's ranking GOP member, Alfonse D'Amato of New York, said that Starr should have examined the record from the Whitewater hearings to see if Stephanopoulos and Ickes were truthful in their congressional testimony.
The banking committee developed evidence that Stephanopoulos, a senior White House adviser, pressured Treasury Department aides regarding a Whitewater-related investigation of an Arkansas savings and loan, the Republicans said in a letter to Starr.
Stephanopoulos has denied applying pressure to fire a former Republican U.S. attorney hired by the Treasury Department to look into civil claims arising from the failure of an Arkansas S&L owned by the Clintons'whitewater partners.
Ickes, deputy White House chief of staff, gave two versions to Congress of a meeting concerning a Treasury Department civil inquiry of the Arkansas &L, the Republicans' letter stated.
Arizona primary tries to scoop East
The Associated Press
PHOENIX — Betting that presidential contenders would rather spend February in the desert sun than the New England snow, Arizona plans to hold its primary in 1996 on the same day as New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation contest.
Chances are, it won't happen without a fight from New Hampshire. New Hampshire has a law requiring its primary to be one week earlier than any other state's, a tradition that dates to 1916.
In 1992, Arizonalawmakers — envious of the attention lavished every four years on the traditional first-in-the-nation primary — set Arizona's first-ever presidential primary for the second Tuesday in March or the same date as the earliest election in any
other state. Previously, Arizona chose presidential delegates in party caucuses.
No date has been set yet for the 1996 primary in either Arizona or New Hampshire, though New Hampshire has tentatively scheduled its primary for Feb. 20 pending resolution of the conflict with Arizona.
New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner suggested that leaders of the two states could try to work out an agreement on the election dates. But he said he hasn't talked to anyone in Arizona about a compromise.
Republican state Sen. Bev Herman, chief sponsor of Arizona's primary law, said her intent was to give the people an opportunity to hear from candidates before their platforms have been molded by voters in the East.
The Associated Press
Economy makes a third-quarter rally
WASHINGTON — The economy has been growing at a brisk pace despite higher interest rates — "humming along," in the words of one private analyst. And new figures show that inflation remains quiet.
The Commerce Department reported yesterday that the gross domestic product, measuring the output of all goods and services produced in the United States, rose at a 3.9 percent annual rate in the third quarter.
An upward revision of 0.5 percent from the government's 3.4 percent estimate a month ago was greater than economists predicted. With Christmas sales expected to be strong, the economy is on target for
its best yearly performance since it expanded 3.9 percent in 1988.
Financial markets, which have had the jitters over rising inflation and interest rates from an accelerating economy, confounded analysts' expectations.
Wall Street took the GDP report in stride, as the Dow Jones industrial rallied for most of the day before closing off a fraction of a point. Bond prices also were up, pushing the yield on the key 30-year Treasury bond down to 8 percent.
An inflation gauge tied to GDP rose a mere 1.9 percent at an annual rate. Although it was up from a 1.6 percent estimate a month ago, it is still below the 2.9 percent increase in the second quarter.
Two familiar faces on campus.
Both are highly recognizable but only one comes with an Apple 14" ColorPlus Monitor, WordPerfect 3.0, StyleWriter II printer, a Mouse Pad and Standard Keyboard all for only
The Jayhawk and the Macintosh LC 475
$162990 LC 475 8/160 POWER through it.