12
University Daily Kansan
Nation/World
Hursday, Nov. 14, 1985
South Africa stops production of coins
United Press International
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — South Africa halted production of its Krugerrand gold coins yesterday, and state-run television blamed the action on U.S. economic sanctions.
on the action of the attack. Announcement of the halt in production by the television service and a spokesman for the Chamber of Mines came as new violence shook Johannesburg and other cities, and seven black activists testified that they were beaten, choked and given electric shocks while in a Soweto jail.
The broadcast said the halting of Krugerrand production was the first direct result of U.S. sanctions imposed by the Reagan administration on Sept. 9 to underscore opposition to apartheid. The sanctions were followed by similar measures in European and other countries.
A spokesman for the Chamber of Mines, which manages the production of the one-ounce gold ore that are collected around the world, confirmed that production stopped yesterday. The chamber said 10 black workers had been laid off.
The Krugerrand, now selling at about $330,
accounts for about 70 percent of the world
market for gold coins, but sales tell about 25
percent last year, cutting earnings to about $1
billion.
President Reagan included a Krugerrand embargo in a package of limited sanctions designed to pressure the white-minority commitment into reforming its apartheid policy of racial discrimination and segregation. The package also included a ban on trade in nuclear technology, bank loans and computer sales to South Africa.
The announcement about the Krugererrands came after lawyers for seven black activists appealed to the Supreme Court to order a stop to torture in jails. Judge G.A. Coetzee said he would consider the request today.
The former detainees and the mothers of three men still jailed said in court affidavit that the assaults were made at the Protea police station in Soweto, the nation's largest black township, located outside Johannesburg.
back black. In Pretoria, police said the racial violence that had taken more than 845 lives in the past 14 months continued Tuesday and yesterday.
morning committee A spokesman said scattered incidents of stoning and arson were reported in black townships around the country. At least one man was reported wounded, and four people were arrested.
Revised
Soviet Mazibuko, one of those who filed the
afffdavits, said his head was shoved into a bucket of water, into which tear gas was pumped. He said he was made to strip naked and was shocked by electrodes wired to his wrists.
"About 10 bricks were placed on my neck and back," Mazibuko added. "Two of the policemen stood on the bricks and then jumped up and down on them for about 20 minutes."
Another former detainee, Doris Masenya, said in an affidavit that a hood was placed over her head, and an unknown substance was injected into her arm, making her weak and dizzy and restricting her ability to speak.
In a landmark decision Sept. 25, J.P.G. Eksteen, a Port Elizabeth supreme court judge, issued an order prohibiting police from assaulting detainees at local jails.
Cigarette tax passes House
United Press International
WASHINGTON — The House yesterday approved and sent to the Senate a bill extending the current 16-cent-a-pack cigarette tax, and several other laws, through Dec. 14.
Without the temporary extension, the cigarette tax. Medicare payments to hospitals. Railroad Unemployment Insurance and the trade adjustment assistance laws would have expired today.
Without action, the cigarette tax would have dropped to 8 cents a pack and payments to doctors and hospitals under Medicare would have been automatically increased. The House action, on a voice vote without much debate, continues a freeze on Medicare payments.
Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, D-ILL,
said the one-month extension of
the laws would "minimize confusion and
prevent economic distortion and
allow time for subsequent enaction
of permanent legislation."
The permanent laws are hung up in the Senate as part of a budget-related bill, but passage is expected within the month.
New Wisconsin law holds parents liable
The Associated Press
MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin has adopted a pioneering law that holds parents financially responsible if their minor children have babies.
Under the measure, signed Tuesday by Gov. Anthony Earl, a welfare agency could take the parents of both the mother and father to court to make them pay for the expenses of raising the child.
The law also allocates $1 million for pregnancy counseling, requires a girl's consent before a hospital or clinic can notify her parents of her abortion and repeals restrictions on the advertising and sale of contraceptives.
State Rep. Marlin Schneider, who said no other state had such a law, said it was intended to reduce teen-age pregnancies by increasing discussion between parents and teen-agers regarding sex.
By making parents financially responsible, "they may at least talk about the subject" before
there is an unwanted pregnancy, be said.
The legislator predicted the law could help promote understanding on abortion, but Barbara Lyons, an anti-abortion lobbyist for Wisconsin Citizens Concerned for Life, said it would only encourage teen-agers to have abortions.
"Essentially, abortion is the easiest option in the short term," she said. "If the situation is going to be complicated by the boy's parents going to court to decide what the support payments should be, the girls won't tell their parents."
Critics also questioned whether the law was workable.
"How are you going to make the mother's parents responsible?" asked June Perry, executive director of New Concepts, a human service agency in Milwaukee. "Where are the mother's parents going to get the money?"
"The Legislature passed the bill, but with no thought or effort put in to how it's going to be implemented," she said.
Overtime bill signed
United Press International
WASHINGTON — President Reagan signed legislation yesterday giving state and local governments the option of paying employees overtime in either compensatory time or cash, a measure passed in response to a controversial Supreme Court decision.
decision.
Reagan said that without the legislation, which had broad support in the House and Senate, costs to state and local governments to provide police, firefighting and other services could have increased by as much as $3 billion annually.
"This law once again permits state and local governments and their employees the flexibility to serve their citizens effectively." Reagan said in a statement.
The legislation followed a Supreme Court ruling early this year that public employees must be paid cash for overtime work instead of getting time off.
After the Supreme Court ruling, state and local officials lobbed Congress for a change in federal labor law to counter the effect of the ruling, saying it would substantially increase labor costs for their jurisdictions if they were forced to pay cash for all overtime.
The bill will allow state and local governments the option of paying their employees overtime in either compensatory time off or cash, both at $1\frac{1}{2}$ times the regular rate. The arrangements will be worked out between the employee and employer.
The measure imposes a cap of 240 hours on compensatory time that can be accumulated by each worker, except for police and firefighters who will be able to accumulate up to 480 hours. The employees will have to be paid cash for overtime beyond those limits.
Reagan said that although the legislation did not restore state and local governments to their position before the Supreme Court decision, "it does recognize ... their special burdens, responsibilities and character."
Several members of Congress and state officials were on hand to watch Reagan sign the bill.
North Carolina Gov. Jim Martin said the state and local governments there would have had to come up with an additional $40 million a year if the legislation had not been enacted.
"It gives us some flexibility we need." Martin said. "The court decision would have taken that flexibility away from us."
Neo-Nazi is on trial in Seattle
SEATTLE — FBI investigators found a cache of weapons in the house of a white supremecist just 12 hours after the alleged neo-Nazi shot shots at them as they crossed his property in rural Idaho, an agent testified yesterday.
FBI agent Michael Johnston said he and two other agents assigned to monitor the activities of defendant Gary Lee Yarbaugh were fired on as they drove along a road on Yarbaugh's property near Sandpond, Idaho.
Yarbrough is one of 10 members of The Order, an alleged neo-Nazi group, on trial in U.S. District Court in Seattle facing charges of violations of federal racketeering laws for conspiring to stage a right-wing revolution.
United Press International
Johnston testified that Yarbrough, dressed in a military-type jacket, suddenly appeared in a clearing as the agents drove away from his house on Oct. 18, 1984.
"I saw him raise a handgun with both his hands and discharge it three or four times. It appeared to be directly at us." Johnston said. He added that none of the agents were hit.
Under cross examination by Yarbrough's attorney, Johnston said he and the other agents — who were in a forest service vehicle — were not identifiable by the way they were dressed.
He also acknowledged they drove by "no trespassing" signs, even though they did not have a search warrant for their first visit.
Yarbrough was arrested a month later after a shootout with FBI agents at a motel in Portland, Ore.
Asked whether Yarbrough was merely fired a warning shot, as the defendant maintains, Johnston said. "Both arms were extended toward us. It seemed that we were looking right down the muzzle."