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Nation/World
University Daily Kansan
Monday, Sept. 30, 1985
News Briefs
Hostages will talk says Jihad caller
BEIRUT, Lebanon — A caller who said he represented the Islamic Jihad terror movement said yesterday that a group of Americans held hostage in Lebanon would hold a news conference to deliver "messages" to the Beiran administration.
In telephone calls to two Western news agencies in Beirut, the caller did not say how many captives would appear, nor did he give a time or location for the news conference.
Islamic Jihad, held responsible for a series of bombings and kidnappings in the Middle East, has taken direct responsibility for the abductions of six Americans and two Frenchmen who are among the 14 Westerners held captive in Lebanon.
JENKINSBURG, Ga. - A small plane, packed with skyd民iers prepared for a formation jump, stalled shortly after takeoff yesterday and nosedived on a rural road. killing all 17 people aboard.
Plane crash kills 17
The single-engine Cessna 208 Caravan, owned by the Westwind Parachute Club, stalled three minutes after takeoff from the club's private airport, 45 miles south of Atlanta. It crashed about 12:15 p.m., police said.
The plane was regularly used for parachute jumps, but officials questioned whether it had the capacity to carry the 16 club members who were crammed aboard along with the pilot.
State bans smoking
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Beginning tomorrow it will be against the law to smoke inside most public places in Florida in what may be one of the toughest state anti-smoking laws in the nation.
Florida's Clean Indoor Air Act bans smoking in all indoor public places unless authorities take steps to create exemptions, and requires employers to develop and post a policy on smoking in the workplace.
From staff and wire reports.
S.A. ads ask for peace talks
From Kansan wires
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — About 100 leading businessmen, contending "there is a better way," published newspaper advertisements yesterday to demand the abolition of apartheid and peace talks with South African black leaders.
The calls came on the eve of a significant policy address scheduled by President Pieter Botha and police reports that they shot and killed a black man heaving a gasoline bomb in Dordrecht in eastern Cape Province.
An explosion that police thought was caused by a bomb went off in the men's room of a hotel near Durban but no one was injured.
On Saturday, six people died in fierce clashes between moderate Zulu tribesmen and radical black youths near Durban.
A group of 91 business leaders, including mining magnate Harry Oppenheimer, signed full-page advertisements in Afrikaans- and English-language newspapers yesterday, demanding an end to the white-minority government's policy of apartheid, or racial segregation.
"We believe there is a better way for South Africa and we support equal opportunity, respect for the individual, freedom of enterprise and freedom of movement," said the businessmen, including top executives of foreign companies including
Eastman Kodak, General Motors and the BMW auto company.
"We believe the reform process should be accelerated by: abolishing statutory race discrimination wherever it exists, negotiating with acknowledged stock leaders about South African citizenship to all our peoples, restoring and entrenching the rule of law," the ads stated.
Leading Afrikaan businessman Dr. Anton Rupert delivered a similar message in a rare interview with opposition English-language newspapers and with the pro-government Rapport Afrikaans newspaper.
"Apartheid is dead, but the corpse stinks and it must be buried, not embalmed," he said.
Israel rejects peace conference
United Press International
JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Shimon Peres welcomed yesterday a call by King Hussein of Jordan for direct peace talks with Israel, but rejected Hussein's proposal for an international Middle East peace conference.
A Cabinet official also said Israel would seek clarifications of "problematic" sections contained in Hussein's speech Friday at the United Nations, but said Israel "accepts the challenge of direct negotiations and is ready for talks."
ready for war. Israel will seek answers through the United States during President Reagan's talks with Hussein in Washington today. Cabinet sources said.
The sources said Peres' statements reflected a consensus among the ministers despite sharply divergent reactions to the speech by Peres' centrist Labor party and the right-wing Likud parties, the major partner in the coalition government.
intended to boost the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir of the Likud also said the speech contained "nothing new," Israel radio said.
Labor and Likud are sharply divided over the future of the occupied West Bank, with Labor favoring territorial compromise with Jordan and Likud seeking Israeli rule over the entire area.
Likud members have cautioned that the speech was
"A positive result will be direct and unconditional negotiations between Israel and a Jordanian-Palestinian delegation," Peres said. "If no such advance is made, the existing situation will not change."
In a statement at yesterday's weekly Cabinet meeting, Peres said Hussel's speech "will be judged according to its results, and not by its repercussions."
existing situation with the Peres said Hussein's statement "is the first time the king of Jordan speaks about direct and immediate negotiations with the government of Israel."
Hussein proposed talks between Israel and a Jordanian-Palestinian delegation. The king and PLO chief Yasser Arafat agreed in February to establish a panel to meet with U.S. officials.
Tanker spills 9,000 barrels of oil
United Press International.
CLAYMONT, Del. — A supertanker ran aground in the Delaware River Saturday, gashed a hole in its side and spilled 435,000 gallons, or 9,000 barrels, of crude oil, threatening water supplies and wildlife preserves.
Gov. Michael Castle called it the worst oil spill even on the Delaware.
Delaware Memorial Bridge. Coast Guard spokesman Mike Kelly said.
The 800-foot Sunoco Grand Eagle, loaded with 22 million gallons of crude, left a 15-mile trail of thick oil from Philadelphia to Wilmington after running aground in shallow water at Cherry Island near the
The Panamanian-registered ship freed itself and steamed ahead to its destination, a Sunoco refinery in Marcus Hook, Pa., spilling the North Sea crude oil from its damaged hull as it moved.
Castle criticized the tanker pilot for continuing to the refinery after the accident, saying it caused a five-hour delay in alerting Delaware officials of the spill.
Castle said the ship had an engine problem or failure and couldn't turn or maneuver in the river.
The supertanker's owner, International Ship Finance of Panama, pledged to pay for the clean-up, another Coast Guard spokesman said.
"It's stretching out and thinning like a piece of licorice when someone pulls it," he said.
The DelBay, an oil recovery ship owned by a cooperative of eight petroleum companies, began skimming the muck from the river.
State officials said Wilmington and New Castle used the water from the river but booms were placed at intake areas.
British youths riot in 2nd day of fury
From Kansan wires
LONDON — British youths hurting stones and gasoline bombs battled police in the mostly black neighborhood of Britxon yesterday in the second straight night of rioting sparked by the accidental police shooting of a black woman.
As darkness fell in the south London neighborhood, crowds of youths began gathering on street corners despite the presence of hundreds of police, who earlier sealed off the area by closing major roads.
Scores of officers charged several groups of black youths, some of them wearing masks to prevent identification. The police tried to disperse the crowd after they began throwing stones on gaseo and water. A bystander gathered and chanted, "Murderers!" police said.
Twenty-six people were arrested yesterday — most after nightfall bringing to about 200 men arrested since the rioting flared Saturday.
The violence was sparked by the police shooting of Cherry Grosse, a 38-year-old mother of six, who was wounded Saturday when
police staged a pre-dawn raid on her home in search of her 19-year-old son for an alleged firearms offense.
Grose was in St. Thomas Hospital with fragments of bullet still lodged in her spine after an emergency operation. Doctors said they would not know until later in the week whether she would be permanently paralyzed.
The officer who shot Grosse immediately went on sick leave and was reported to be in a state of shock.
Labor Party members said joblessness, running at a record 13.2 percent nationwide and exceeding 40 percent among urban blacks, was a key cause of the violence.
"There are hideous social problems in our inner cities," said Home Secretary Douglas Hurd. "We have been putting massive resources into them, and . . we have made some progress in the last 20 years, but clearly we are not there yet."
Police patrolled streets on foot and in vans, keeping Britton sealed off and allowing only residents' cars in.
UAW votes on strike
United Press International
TORONTO — United Auto Workers members at Chrysler Canada Ltd. plants voted overwhelmingly yesterday to give their negotiators a mandate to call a strike against the automaker if contract talks break down.
A total of 97.6 percent of the production workers and 95.5 percent of the office workers in Toronto, nearby Ajax and Windsor voted to approve a strike if the negotiations fail, a union spokesman said yesterday.
Negotiations, which were recessed for the vote, are expected to resume at a Toronto hotel today.
The newly independent UAW Canada represents about 10,400 Canadian Chrysler workers.
parity with workers at General Motors of Canada Ltd. and Ford Motor Co. of Canada Ltd., in an attempt to close a wage gap of about 40 cents an hour. Chrysler workers in Canada now make almost $10 an hour.
The Canadian UAW has demanded
The union also wants to return to a policy of simultaneous expiration of contracts with the "Big Three."
"While Chrysler workers do not want to have a strike, they have clearly spoken out to support their bargaining team and a return to parity with workers at GM and Ford," said Canadian UAW leader Robert White. "It is time for the company to address the main issues at the bargaining table."
Chrysler officials say the strike vote was part of the normal course of bargaining and they are hopeful for a peaceful settlement.