November 7, 1984 Page 2
NATION AND WORLD
The University Daily
KANSAN
Yemenis hijack plane; hostages freed in Iran
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Two Yemeni yesterday hijacked a Saudi Arabian jet carrying at least 127 people to Tehran, where Iranian troops stormed the plane and freed all hostages, including 11 Americans, officials said.
The hijackers, who apparently commanded the Saudi Airlines Lockheed L-1011 with a single gun, were granted political asylum by Iran, Iranian officials said. Political asylum and a $500,000 ransom were two of their demands.
Iranian authorities said the two hijackers were detained at Tehran's Mehrabad airport and the released hostages were still in the Iranian capital.
Standard set for bicycle bells
GENEVA, Switzerland — At the request of U.S. manufacturers, the International Standardization Organization yesterday came up with a world noise norm for
The organization said cyclists in the United States often use whisks because bike belts are inadequate and subject to rusting and to deterioration of loudness.
In its new international standard, the group said bicycle bells should be capable of producing 17 decibels when moped bells should be at least 85 decibels.
First lady takes a fall in L.A.
LOS ANGELES — First Lady Nancy Reagan was still feeling "wobbly" yesterday because she fell from an elevated bed on her head on a chair, the White House said.
Mrs. Reagan accompanied the president on a helicopter flight to Solvang, Calif., yesterday morning where they voted.
As she stepped down from the helicopter, she was helped by both the president and her Secret Service agent.
Sheep rams way into home
KALISPELL. Mont. — A bighorn sheep stared down his reflection for three hours before ramming through a plate glass window and tumbling unconscious into a home in the wilds of the Rocky Mountains.
Ed Bailley said he was watching football on television Sunday when he saw the ram eyeing the window in the lower section of his split level home on Angel Island in Bull Lake near the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness Area.
Bailey said the confused animal failed to break the glass on his first two butts.
Compiled from United Press International reports.
NEW YORK — Traders crowd the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, as officials kept the exchange open for the first time on an Election Day. The stock market yesterday scored a big gain in active trading. The Dow Jones industrial average soared 14.91 points to 1,244.15, the highest closing level for the Dow industrials since 1,244.45 on Jan. 23, and 101,250,000 shares were traded.
Freighter may carry MiGs for Nicaragua
By United Press International
LOS ANGELES — The White House is concerned about reports that a Soviet freighter may be carrying MG-12 fighters to Nicaragua, and is "closely" watching the situation, presidential spokesman Larry Speakes said yesterday.
GHS News said a freighter may have been carrying several Soviet jet fighters to Nicaragua, and that among the U.S. responses being considered is a possible "surprise attack to destroy" the planes if they are aboard.
The CBS report cautioned the United States had no proof planes actually were aboard the ship.
NBc News had a similar report that said the freighter was thought to be carrying up to 18 of the MIG-21 fighters jets for delivery late yesterday. It said President Reagan was notified of the freighter's movement as he sat on an election party last night in Los Angeles.
"We're watching it closely and we would certainly consider the sending of MiGs to Nicaragua an alteration of the balance in the area if it was true." Speakes said.
Speakes would not say what the administration knew about the possible shipment of Soviet MIG fighters to Nicaragua. "We're continuing to watch" the situation, he said.
Nicaragua's Punta North airport, being built 20 miles north of Managua, has been
criticized by the Reagan administration for having runways longer than Andrews Air Force Base - 12,000 feet long and capable of landing Soviet MiGs.
The airport is scheduled for completion by the end of this year. Nicargunja junta leader Daniel Ortega said recently that his administration would be Soviet MGs or French Mirage let fighters.
CBS News anchorman Dan Rafter said on the evening news broadcast, "U.S. intelligence officials tell CBS News a Soviet submarine had sunk, and it may be carrying MIG 21 jet fighters."
CBS said the freighter left a Black Sea port in September shortly after President Reagan met with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromykov.
"The U.S. officials cautioned that they do not have proof the MIGs are on board but they do have satellite photos which show that at the time the ship was being loaded, a dozen crates similar to those used to transport" - 215 disappeared from the pier. "Rather said,
"The Reagan administration warned Moscow not to send fighter aircraft to Nicaragua." Rather said. "If those planes are on the ship one U.S. option being considered is a surprise attack to destroy, them."
Nicaragua is fighting a three-year, old civil war against anti-Marxist rebels and has been accused by the United States of trying to short revolution throughout Central America.
Discovery to blast off with double mission
By United Press International
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The shuttle Discovery was set to blast off this morning on an unprecedented double-duty mission to carry two satellites into orbit and bring back two that had been written off as lost in space nine months ago.
The final portion of the countdown began at 6:02 p.m. CST yesterday, rolling toward a blastoff scheduled for 8:22 a.m. EST; the 14th for a shuttle in 43 months.
Despite the smooth preparations for the flight of Discovery, space agency officials said the program's ambitious launch-month schedule for 1985 has been scrambled because of insulation tile problems on the shuttle Challenger.
ASSOCIATE NASA administrator Jesse Moore said a high-priority secret military mission that Challenger was to carry out Dec. 8 had been delayed at least six to eight weeks later than when the problem was announced Monday.
The Air Force forced to elaborate on the secret mission, but Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine said Air Force Maj Gary Payton of Rock Island, Ill., had been training秘密 to participate in the flight along with four NASA astronauts.
Moore said Discovery instead of Challenger might be used to make the military flight.
The salvage part of Discovery's flight this week is NASA's boldest undertaking since men landed on the moon. Flight commander Frederick Hauck is confident of success but
said, "We're not going out there with 100 percent confidence that we're going to be able to pull this off."
Hauck and astronauts David Walker, Anna Fisher, Joseph Allen and Dale Gardner are scheduled to spend eight days in orbit aboard the spacecraft, returning to a Florida landing Nov. 15.
The initial part of their mission is routine. The astronauts will drop off a Canadian communications satellite tomorrow and will deploy communications satellite leased to the Navy.
Once its main cargo is delivered, Discovery's crew will set out in pursuit of the twin $35 million communications satellites stranded in useless orbits last February by identical failures of two rockets. The 224-mile-high satellites are 600 miles apart
and Hauck and Walker will fly the shuttle to within 35 feet of one Sunday and the second next Tuesday.
Allen, carrying a lance-like grapple, will use a jet backpack during a spacewalk Sunday to fly to the first spacecraft, named Palapa B2. He will insert the grapple in the rocket nozzle to stabilize the satellite so it can be snared by Discovery's robot arm and placed in the ship's cargo bay.
Gardner will repeat the retrieval operation Tuesday for the second satellite, called Westar 6.
The plan is to bring both satellites back to Earth so they can be refurbished and launched again. Both satellites are now owned by insurance underwriters who paid $180 million to Indonesia and Western Union.