2
Nation/World
University Daily Kansan
Friday, Nov. 15, 1985
News Briefs
Romanian seaman gets asylum in U.S.
HOUSTON — A Romanian seaman who slipped off a cargo ship to fulfill "a wish and a dream" to live in the United States was granted political asylum yesterday.
Paul Firica, 44, is the second Romanian sailor to defect to the United States within one week.
Firica, appearing nervous and frightened, told reporters that he feared for his wife and two daughters, ages 23 and 17, and hoped to bring them to the United States.
FCC grants waivers
WASHINGTON — The government, approving two significant broadcasting deals yesterday, will allow Capital Communications Inc. to take over the ABC network and publish Rupert Murdoch to buy a chain of independent TV stations.
In giving the green light to the multibillion-dollar deals, the Federal Communications Commission granted the buyers waivers to federal broadcasting regulations, saying the transactions and the waivers would not violate the public interest.
The Capital Cities-ABC deal is the first transfer of ownership of a television network since network broadcasting began.
Guru to plead guilty
PORTLAND, Ore. — Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh has apparently agreed to change his plea to guilty to some of the immigration fraud charges against him, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office said yesterday.
Marie Elliott, the spokeswoman, would not say to which crimes the guru will plead guilty or comment on reports that he will be deported under terms of a plea bargain. She also would not say whether any of the gurus' disciples also charged with crimes had decided to change their pleas.
From Kansan wires
Colombian volcano kills 4,000
United Press International
MARIQUITA, Colombia — A snow-capped volcano erupted in western Colombia, unleashing floods and mudslides that buried an entire town in the world's worst erosion in decades. A U.N. agency said 4,000 were confirmed dead yesterday and up to 15,000 might have died.
and up to 18,500 people. The powerful eruption was the deadliest since Mount Lamington exploded in New Guinea in 1951, killing 3,000 to 5,000 people.
killing 3,000 to 5,000 it. It was also the deadliest in the Western Hemisphere this century. The worst previous volcanic catastrophe, the 1968 eruption of Mount Arsenal in Costa Rica, left 80 dead. The 1800 explosions of Mount St. Helens, Wash., killed 63.
The hardest-hit town was Armero, 93 miles west of Bogota in Colombia's western coffee-growing region, which was buried under a sea of mud. Three other towns were flooded.
"It looks like a bomb exploded," firefighter Chucho Melo said in describing Armero. "There are many deaths — too many deaths."
The 17,716-foot volcano Navado del Ruiz, about 100 miles west of Bogota in the state of Caldas, erupted at about 11 p.m. Wednesday, spewing smoke, ash and rock, officials said.
The heat from the eruption melted the volcano's snowcap, sending torrents of water down the mountain that quickly turned into devastating mudslides, smashing into homes, trucks and bridges below, officials said.
"There could be 20,000 to 25,000 dead," said Gustavo Esquira, governor of the Colombian state of Cundinamarca. "But we hope that many of the missing people saved themselves by climbing nearby mountains.
The U.N. Disaster Relief Organization said in a statement that "4,000 bodies have already been recovered and the eventual death toll may reach 15,000 in the town of Armero."
"There was an evacuation in the town of Armero about 2 a.m. (yesterday) and many were able to climb the mountains." Esguera said. "The town was practically destroyed."
In Washington, Darrell Herd of the U.S.
Geological Survey said on a scale of one to 10, with the world's worst volcanic eruption at Krakatoa in 1883 rating a 10, the Colombian eruption rated a 5 or 6.
Herd also said that, based on a Sept. 11 mini-eruption of mud and ash, he suspected that the mudflow traveled at avalanche speed — 20-30 mph — "bobsledding through turns" down the steep track from the volcano to Armero.
Many Colombians refused to leave towns despite a warning last Friday that an eruption was likely. "The Colombians were attempting to become prepared," he said. "As best as I can tell, the eruption occurred before their plans and activities could be fully implemented."
Armero, called Colombia's White City because of its crops of cotton and rice, was covered with water from the Lagonilla River and with brown mud.
"God, what have you done to us?!" cried Armero resident Carmen Pantoga, who sought refuge in the town of Mariquita after her family was killed in the disaster.
The BBC reported that Thatcher and Irish Prime Minister Garret Fitzgerald were to sign the document at a summit meeting, probably today.
Historic pact to end unrest in N. Ireland
United Press International
LONDON — The British and Irish Cabinets yesterday approved a historic pact aimed at ending blood-shed in Northern Ireland, news reports and official sources said. Meanwhile, authorities stepped up security to guard against possible protests.
There was no official announcement after a 90-minute British Cabinet meeting at Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's No.10 Downing Street office. But the British Broadcasting Corp. said the Cabinet "is believed to have put the final seal of approval on an Anglo-Irish agreement on the problems of Northern Ireland."
In Dublin, the Irish Cabinet approved the pact after a two-hour meeting, according to an Irish government source.
The British government kept secret all details of the Cabinet meeting and the location of the summit as a security precaution against the outlawed Irish Republican Army.
Debt limit raised by House
United Press International
WASHINGTON — The House passed a bill yesterday allowing a three-week hike in the national debt limit, giving balanced-budget negotiators more time to work and staving off a U.S. financial crisis while President Reagan meets with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
The bill, which was sent to Reagan for his signature, would boost the government's borrowing authority by $80 billion to $1.9 trillion, enough to last through Dec. 6. Without the hike, the government faced default at midnight yesterday.
Reagan, leaving tomorrow for his summit with Gorbachev in Geneva, was expected to sign the measure later in the day. He also planned to sign a stopgap money bill, good through Dec. 12, to fund government agencies that have not received their regular appropriation because of slow movement through Congress.
Senate Republican leader Robert Dole of Kansas said the Dec. 6 date would give House-Senate conferences enough time to work on the yearlong ceiling debt hike, which is being held up by a disagreement over legislation that would balance the budget by 1990.
The Treasury said that it would have run out of money by midnight yesterday if the extension of the debt ceiling had not passed and that federal checks would not have been issued.
Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger hinted he would recommend that Reagan vet the balanced budget legislation if it requires cuts in defense.
Weinberger, who has opposed including military spending cuts as part of budget balancing efforts in the past, would not say what he would recommend.
Envoy warns reporters in Beirut
United Press International
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The Archbishop of Canterbury's envoy said yesterday that he had contacted the kidnappers holding four Americans here but begged reporters to stop following him because it was endangering people's lives.
Terry Waite, Archbishop Robert Funcic's special envoy, reacted angrily to the news crews that have been dogging his steps since he arrived Wednesday on a flight from London on a bid to free the hostages.
"I'd like to make a particular plea that I'm not to be followed by anybody, because if that happens, then that will jeopardize my own safety and the safety of other people," Waite, visibly irritated; told reporters and
photographers at the Commodore Hotel in Muslim west Beirut.
Beirut.
Waite, 46, came to Beirut in hopes of gaining the release of at least four of six Americans seized in west Beirut in a series of abductions since March 1984. The captors alleged that they killed one hostage, and one American is thought to be held by another group.
"It is extremely important because of the great, great sensitivity of the situation that I am left totally alone, because anything I have to do beyond this point will have to be entirely by myself," Waite said.
"We're in touch in several different ways. Progress is being made and we're moving forward.
"A wrong move and people could lose their lives — including myself."
Employees won't get AIDS tests
United Press International
WASHINGTON - The government yesterday announced new AIDS guidelines recommending no restrictions or regular screening for the disease among health care, personal and food service workers.
The guidelines are based in part on those for hepatitis B, a disease that follows the same transmission route as AIDS but is much more easily contracted, said Assistant Health Secretary James Mason.
"The evidence is overwhelming that except for rare cases of transmission by blood transfusion, or from an infected mother to her infant, or by accidental needle-stick injury, AIDS is transmitted only by sexual acts or by sharing drug-abuse equipment — not by casual contact," Mason said at a news conference.
"For this reason, the Public Health Service does not recommend routine AIDS antibody screening for the groups these guidelines addresses."
A committee of experts from the medical, business and food industries drew up the guidelines in response to new employers and public health officials.
The guidelines were published this week in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The CDC and Public Health Service are branches of HHS.
The report said food service workers known to be infected with the acquired immune deficiency syndrome virus "need not be restricted from work unless they have evidence of other infection or illness for which any food service worker should also be restricted."
The guidelines said there had been no instances of AIDS transmission by food service workers but suggested they "should exercise care to avoid injury to hands when preparing food," and if any injury occurs the food should be discarded.
For health care workers handling blood or bodily fluids, the guidelines spell out in detail such precautions as proper disposal of needles, and the wearing of gloves, gowns, face masks and eye coverings when handling contaminated materials.
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