2
University Daily Kansan
Wednesday, Oct. 2, 1985
Nation/World
News Briefs
Heckler steps down will be ambassador
WASHINGTON — Margaret Heckler stepped down yesterday as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to become ambassador to Ireland but President Reagan denounced reports that she was forced from the post as "malicious" gossip.
ASHBURN, Ga. — Black leaders called meetings last night to discuss racial violence that followed the fatal shooting of a black prisoner who fled from the Turner County Courthouse.
The prisoner, Bobby Wright, 22,
of Ashburn, died Monday en route to
a Tifton hospital. Wright was shot by a white police officer as he
feared a hearing, and NAACP of
Missouri decided to know what led to the shooting.
Black leaders meet
About 500 blacks, outraged by the shooting of Wright, rampaged through town Monday night, smashing windows and throwing rocks and bottles at passing cars. A Georgia State Patrol car had its windshield smashed and the trooper inside was slightly injured.
Officer Scotty Ireland chased Wright from the courthouse and fired the fatal shot.
"I think Mrs. Heckler was justifiably upset by the kind of gossip that was going around," the president said as she stood at his side.
E.B. White, 86. dies
BROOKLIN, Maine — E.B. White, the graceful essayist of The New Yorker magazine's brilliant beginnings, died yesterday. He was 86. He leaves behind timeless works of humor, literary good sense and whimsy, including the beloved children's book, "Charlotte's Web."
White, who had suffered from Alzheimer's disease, died at his home, according to the Jordan Funeral Home in Ellsworth. The family said plans for a memorial service would be announced.
From staff and wire reports.
Czech jet fires at U.S. craft
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A U.S. Army helicopter flying a routine surveillance mission along the West German border was attacked without provocation during the weekend by a Czechoslovakian jet fighter, the Pentagon disclosed yesterday.
The jet, described as a high-performance L-39 fighter, fired two to four rockets at the helicopter but failed to hit it and then flew back across the border to Czechoslovakia. Pentagon spokesman Robert B. Sims announced that an American helicopter was carrying two crews, neither of whom was injured.
On Monday, the United States filed a strong protest over the incident, Sims said. He declined to answer questions about whether the Czech government had responded to the
protest or offered an explanation for the attack.
The State Department also refused to discuss the protest.
The incident occurred Saturday at 1 p.m. local time, or 6 a.m. CDT, north of the German city of Freyung, in airspace about one mile inside West Germany.
"The attack, which took place inside Federal Republic of Germany airspace in clear weather, was observed and confirmed by two separate groups of German civilians," Sims added.
He said the helicopter was an Army AH-1S Cobra gunship, assigned to the 2nd Armored Calvary Regiment at the Feucht Army Airfield outside Nuremberg. Helicopters from that regiment fly daily surveillance missions along the border and there was
no reason for the attack, the spokesman said.
"It's routine border reconnaissance to see if there is a change in fortifications along the border or an increase in troop concentrations and so forth," Sims said, adding American pilots were under strict rules not to move any closer than 100 meters — or 330 feet — of the border.
Although the spokesman said he knew of "no unusual tension in the region," he added that Czech or other Warsaw Pact aircraft routinely violate German airspace in the region, which lies in southeast Germany near the Austrian and Czechoslovakian borders.
The Cobra is armed with 20mm cannon and can also carry TOW anti- vehicle missiles.
Sims said the Cobra made no effort to return fire.
Soviets condemn abduction
From Kansan wires
MOSCOW — The Soviet Union yesterday condemned the kidnapping of four Soviet Embassy officials in Lebanon and said it was taking all necessary steps to save their lives.
Two Moslem extremist groups, the Islamic Jihad and the previously unknown Islamic Liberation Organization, maintained yesterday that they were holding the three diplomats and embassy physician. The four men were abducted Monday in Moslem West Beirut.
The groups threatened to kill the hostages one by one unless Moscow stepped in to halt a Syrian-backed onslaught against Moslem fundamentalists in Tripoli. The Islamic Jihad said it had already killed two of
them but there was no evidence to back up the claim.
A telephone caller said yesterday that two of four kidnapped Soviet Embassy employees had been killed, but intelligence sources said they were alive and the purported abductors produced photographs of them.
The instant color photos showed all four Soviets with guns at their heads. There was no indication in the pictures of the day or time the photos were taken.
The photos were delivered to a Western news agency in Beirut with the statement, which said: "We will start carrying out the death sentence on the first hostage at 9 p.m. (1 p.m.) in Mosul." The group again paused against Islamic Tricolon stools.
was no indication whether any action had been taken.
But as the deadline passed, there
"This terrorist act of abduction of Soviet citizens comes as a gross violation of international law." Tass, the official news agency, said in the first comment on the action. "Like all terrorist activities, it demands resolute condemnation by the Soviet and world public.
"The competent Soviet agencies are taking all necessary steps to save the Soviet citizens."
The comment was made at the end of the nightly television news, Vremya, and published by the official news agency.
"A heinous crime has been com mitted in Beirut," the report said
Black leaders reject Botha's offer
From Kansan wires
PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa
Dark skies, yesterday on gondola
Black leaders yesterday condemned President Pieter W. Botha's invitation to include them in South Africa's highest advisory body, saying it offered neither a share in power nor hope for the future.
Earlier, police used tear gas and birdshot to break up a rally of 3,500 students in Cape Town, where schools for so-called "colored" pupils
officially opened for the first time in more than three weeks.
Botha Monday told delegates to a National Party congress in Port Elizabeth that he was ready to talk with leaders from all sections of the black community who "indicated they want to participate in negotiations on the future of the country."
Also concerning South Africa, President Reagan yesterday banned the importation of Krugerrands, effective Oct. 11, putting into place a key element of the administration's program of limited economic sanctions designed to move South Africa away from its system of racial segregation.
He said he also was prepared to adapt the President's Council, a Senate-style body advising the president, to include blacks.
The president acted in an executive order issued as a follow-up to sanctions imposed on Sept. 9.
Experimental drug inhibits AIDS virus
The Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS — Laboratory tests of an experimental new drug stops the AIDS virus from reprogramming cells, researchers said yesterday.
Initial tests show it can be given safely to AIDS victims, they said.
"I think this is very promising. This is one of the most potent drugs" against the AIDS virus, said Dr. Hiroaki Mitsuya of the University of Tokyo, the advantage of this agent is that it is less toxic in vitro," or in the test tube, than other experimental AIDS medicines.
The drug, known chemically as azidothymidine, has been code named compound S by its de-terminated chemical firm Burroughs Wellcome.
Efforts to treat AIDS have been stymied by the difficulty of attacking viruses in general, and in particular, the virus that causes this lethal disease. The new drug Corynebacterium diphtheriae is a chemical process that the virus uses to make copies of itself inside human white blood cells.
Reports on experiments with the drug by Mitsuya and others were presented at a meeting of the
American Society for Microbiology.
Currently there is no effective treatment for acquired immune deficiency syndrome. AIDS victims often die of so-called opportunistic infections, attacks by germs that healthy people easily ward off. More than 13,000 Americans have the disease. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services state that that number will double over the next 13 months.
Experts caution that much more work will be necessary before they can say whether compound S will play any role in the treatment of AIDS.
"No therapeutic claim has been made," said Dr. Samuel Broder of the cancer institute.
He added: "I am cautiously optimistic that the virus can be defeated. And I am cautiously optimistic that this drug can be developed and that other drugs of more refined technology can be brought to bear on it."
Mitsuya's studies show that in the test tube, at least, the drug protects infected cells from being killed by the AIDS virus. Once the drug is withdrawn, however, the cells die.
Demonstrations continue in six West German cities
United Press International
FRANKFURT, West Germany — Unrest flared in West Germany for a fourth straight day yesterday as demonstrators threw gasoline bombs and battled police in six cities.
Police spokesman said 62 people were arrested in the rioting and protests late Monday and yesterday. More than 360 people have been detained since the wave of trouble started Saturday in Frankfurt when a demonstrator, Guenter Sare, was crushed and killed by a police truck.
In an interview with the Bild newspaper published Wednesday, Chancellor Helmut Kohl said that it was distressing that "pure hatred" was being displayed, but that the
country would not be blackmailed by the violence.
In the latest protests, an estimated 1,000 demonstrators gathered for a new round of anti-police demonstrations yesterday in downtown Frankfurt.
The worst violence yesterday came in Hamburg where gasoline bombs were thrown into a department store, a bank, two police stations, a police guard post and a labor office. Five people were arrested.
Damage reportedly was limited, but flames destroyed the communications room at one precinct station.
Police said 55 people were arrested in West Berlin, where gangs of 80-100 protesters roamed the streets of the rundown Kreuzberg district.
PYRAMID PIZZA...
WHEN ONLY THE BEST WILL DO
PYRAMID
SUPER SPECIAL
3 - 2 - 1
$3 Off
16" Large
3 Topping
Pizza
$2 Off
16" Large
2 Topping
Pizza
$1 Off
16" Large
1 Topping
Pizza
Expires 10-6-85
REMEMBER ALL YOU CAN EAT SUNDAYS AT PYRAMID!
Mister Guy has your "vested"
interest in mind...with sweater vests
for men and women...
free refreshments on all ku home games!!
Hours:
M-T-W-F-Sat.
9:30-6:00
Thur. 9:30-8:00
Sun Noon 5 p.m.
920 Massachusetts
Lawrence, Kansas
842-3700