August 30,1984 Page2
NATION AND WORLD
The University Daily KANSAN
Gemayel's father's death leaves rightist party void
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Pierre Gemayel, leader of Lebanon's rightist Christian Phalange Party and father of President Bashar al-Assad, today, state-run Lebanon television said.
Gemayel, 78, founded the right-wing Phalange Party and his death set off a power struggle among moderates in the party and the harder-line Christian Phalangists, who advocate setting up a virtual state-within-a-state in Marounistan, Lebanon's Christian Maronite heartland.
Security sources in Christian east Beirut said Gemayel died of a heart attack at 5:30 p.m. He had been suffering from a heart ailment for months but had attended a Cabinet session yesterday.
Soviets have improved rifles
LONDON — The Soviet Union has developed a new version of its advanced AK-74 Kalashnikov rifle that is possibly better than anything used by Western forces, the authoritative British defense publication Jane's said yesterday.
The new Kalashnikov gives Soviet troops a cheap weapons system "which is at least the equal of anything in the West, and perhaps one that is a half-generation ahead," Jane's said.
The latest edition of Jane's Infantry Weapons annual said that the new 5.45 mm AK-74 assault rifle was "light, tough and easy to shoot."
Henry David Brody, 20, was arraigned on federal felony charges and ordered to undergo psychiatric observation.
Bomb thrown outside Capitol
WASHINGTON — A young man threw a Molotov cocktail on the steps of the Capitol yesterday, singing a tourist but causing no other damage, police said.
White House rid of chirper
WASHINGTON — Crickets are regarded in some households as good luck, but to the family in residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. the noisy little insect in the bedroom was akin to a plague of locusts.
After two nights of lost sleep, the man of the house took charge of the great cricket hunt at the White House, and the first lady of England lay awake that the cricket was chirping no more.
Nonetheless, Mrs. Reagan's press secretary, Sheila Taila, quoted the first lady as saying, "Anticipation being what it is, I stayed awake most of the night, expecting to hear it."
Because of reporter's error, the name of the chairman of the Art in Public Spaces Committee was missspelled in Tuesday's story about the Vietnam Memorial The correct spelling is Grabow.
Correction
United Press*International
An enthusiastic Geraldine Ferraro greets the crowd after addressing a rally in downtown St. Louis. The Democratic vice president candidate told the large crowd yesterday that President Reagan's economic policy had meant a recovery for the wealthy.
Ferraro blasts Reagan defends campaign gift
By United Press International
ST. LOUIS — Geraldine Ferraro criticized President Reagan in a speech to a St. Louis crowd yesterday and then prepared to defend her finances again after a story in the Philadelphia Inquirer said she received congressional campaign contributions from a man later convicted for labor racketeering.
The Democratic vice presidential nominee denounced Reagan for "exchanging insults" instead of proposals with the Russians and had said that a second would increase if he won a second term.
"NOW AS PRESIDENT he has presided over the total collapse of arms control talks," she said. "I want a president who believes in negotiation, not confrontation."
Ferraro, on a three-day campaign swing, marveled at the crowd of about 4,000 cheering and clapping people who came to the rally despite sweltering heat. "You're wonderful to come out on a day like today," she said.
Throughout her speech, anti-abortion demonstrators shouted "Stop the killing" or "Protect unborn babies" but Ferraro ignored them.
Instead, the Queens congresswoman, the first woman in history on a national ticket, lashed out at Reagan for relishing the past instead of planning for the future.
She elicited a swell of boos from the crowd by denouncing tax cuts that she said have only benefited Reagan's wealthy friends.
SHE SAID WHEN the president asks his 1980 campaign question, "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?" that 'he'd better stick to asking his friends.'
As she campaigned in three states, drawing enthusiastic crowds, Ferraro issued
a statement saying she knew nothing about the labor activities of New York baker Michael La Rosa, who the Inqairer said was a businessman and who himself farm donated another $500 this year.
Ferraro said the contributions "were legal,
and I properly recorded them with the Parchment."
But she stongly denied what she said was an implication in the newspaper article that she might have accepted illegal corporate contributions from La Rosa.
"MY HUSBAND AND I have already disclosed more information about our finances than any other candidate for president or vice president in history. This article leaves an impression about my family and encourages me to inaccurate and offensive," she said.
In Minnesota, presidential nominee Walter Mondale told reporters he fully supported Ferguson.
"We do the best we can, but it's very difficult under all circumstances to know the background of every person who might contribute to a campaign," he said.
In 1982, La Rosa, 69, admitted to a scheme to pay off corrupt labor unions to assure labor peace on non-union jobs, the Inquier company, and a day in prison and served eight days.
THE NEWSPAPER SAID that the family of John Zaccaro, Ferraro's husband, also managed properties for La Rosa and lent him mortgage money on several properties. But Zaccaro severed the relationship in 1977, several months before his wife decided to run for Congress.
The newpaper said that La Rosa, in an interview, said he had done business with Zaccaro's father, but, "I never done nothing with this kid, with John."
Discovery makes three tries
Shuttle, crew finally ready for maiden voyage today
By United Press International
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The troubled space shuttle Discovery finally stood ready last night at the Kennedy Space Center to begin its thrice-delayed maiden flight early today.
The United State's newest billion-dollar space freighter was scheduled to takeoff from its oceanis launch pad at 8:35 a.m. EDT — two months behind schedule — for a revised six-day mission to put the nation's shuttle program back on track.
sure program. Discovery's first two launch attempts in June ended in failure because of a broken computer and engine trouble. A third
attempt had been scheduled for yesterday but was scrapped because of problems with a computer system that controls critical launch events.
The shuttle was cleared for flight yesterday afternoon after extensive tests to work the kinks on out of the crucial software.
"WEVE SAID FROM the very first flight it's a very complicated vehicle and it's an amazing vehicle." shuttle commander Henry Hartfield said in an interview yesterday.
Hartfield said co-pilot Michael Coats and crew members Judy Resnik, KU alumnus Steven Hawley, Richard Mullane and Charles Walker were disappointed by the postponement but approved the delay decision.
Troubleshooters decided Tuesday night that they needed more time to check the computer programs that control two onboard launch timers.
The master event controllers fire the solid rocket boosters and overseen when the spent rocket casings and empty external fuel tank are blown away from the ascending shuttle. The space freighter cannot reach orbit without being free of the other components.
ENGINEERS REVIEWING IMPROVED computer software designed especially for Discovery noticed a remote possibility that the commands sent through the two event controllers might be improperly timed. This could cause a major failure.
A computer program "patch" was developed that worked around the problem, and it was successfully tested at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
When the astronauts finally get into orbit, they will face a busy schedule because Discovery's payload is a combination of what to have on flown on its first two flights.
The shuttle will be carrying two commercial communications satellites owned by American Telephone & Telegraph Co. and American Systems that are insured for $100 million.
Also on board is Syncom 4, a radio relay station leased by the Navy for $83.7 million over the next five years, and an experimental solar cell array.