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Monday, August 25, 1986 / University Daily Kansan
News Briefs
40 die as volcano in West Africa releases toxic gas, officials say
YAOUNDE, Cameron — Toxic natural gas released from a volcano killed at least 40 people in northwestern Cameron during the weekend, the government said yesterday.
The government declared an emergency zone in the area near Nios Lake and ordered an evacuation from the area. It said it feared the death toll could rise significantly.
A government statement said 40 people were killed by inhaling toxic natural gas coming from an active volcano in the area. It said the deaths occurred Friday and Saturday.
Radio Cameroon said injured people were evacuated to a hospital in Bemenda, about 250 miles south of the disaster site. It did not give a figure on injured people or people who had been evacuated from the remote area.
The radio said the United States and Britain had pledged to provide instruments and material to monitor the releases of toxic gas, as well as medicine and food for victims.
French radio in Paris said France and Israel also had pledged aid.
Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres is to travel to Cameroon today, and an announcement is expected on a resumption of diplomatic relations between Israel and Cameroon. Yaounde, in the central part of the West African nation, is far from the disaster zone.
Radio Cameron said the toxic gas disaster apparently had not changed Peres' plans to travel to the country.
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Anita Stockman said: "The U.S. government is prepared to assist the government of Cameroon. They have indicated there may be a need. We don't have any report of American casualties. It's not an area frequented by tourists."
Okla. post office gunman burier
WATONG, Okla. — Patrick Henry Sherrill, who killed 14 U.S. Postal Service co-workers and wounded six others before committing suicide, was buried yesterday in a family plot in his hometown.
Sherrill, 44, was cremated, and his ashes were placed at the gravesite of his parents in a brief, private service attended by 25 friends and relatives no clergy.
Sherrill, who had worked at the post office in Edmond, Okla., about 80 miles away, for about 1½ years, entered the building about 7 a.m. Wednesday and began shooting.
Gov. George Nigh declared yesterday an official day of mourning in Oklahoma. The declaration came as Edmond residents gathered at a college football stadium for memorial services.
Eight victims of the shooting were buried Saturday. Four others were buried Friday.
Services for Patricia Gabbard, 47, were yesterday in Crescent, Okla. Betty Jarred, 34, will be buried today in Guthrie, Okla.
Police have speculated that Sherrill was angry over a reprimand he received Tuesday. On Wednesday, he entered the post office carrying a pistol in his hand and two more pistols and ammunition in his mail bag.
The police reference was to reports that supervisors had threatened Sherrill with dismissal if his work did not improve. Postal Service officials have denied that supervisors threatened to fire Sherrill.
Sherrill was one of the five top marksmen in the Oklahoma National Guard and was authorized to check out weapons and ammunition, officials said Friday. The guns used in the killings were from the National Guard.
Merger stalls Frontier Airlines
DENVER — Frontier Airlines, the subject of a stalled $146 million merger with United Air Lines, was shut down yesterday by its parent company, People Express, leaving thousands of passengers stranded as the owners prepared for bankruptcy.
Frontier, which served 55 cities in the United States and Canada, halted operations at 6 a.m. because People Express, which bought the airline in November for $100 million, said it could no longer afford Frontier's
People Express said it planned to file for bankruptcy protection for Frontier today.
Despondent Frontier employees held out hope that the airline might be saved by the pending $146 million offer by United.
"People Express has given United until today to reach an accord with us," said Hank Krakowski, a United co-pilot and Air Line Pilots Association spokesman in Chicago. "Once bankruptcy is filed, the deal off. Everything will be tied up in court."
A People Express statement said, "In the absence of assurance that the sale to United will take place, People Express is unwilling to commit any more of its funds to Frontier," adding that the bankruptcy filing would take place assuming no agreement between United and its pilots' union was reached.
Marcos denies plans for coup
HONOLULU — Ousted Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos said he would not sneak home for an attempted coup while President Corazon Aquino was on her first trip abroad since taking power six months ago.
"Just between us," Marcos told reporters during a rally Saturday at his beachfront home in Honolulu, "it is immaterial whether I go or not.
"The most important thing is to get the country out of Communist hands," he said after hundreds of his supporters encouraged him to return to govern his homeland.
"I'm not in control of her movements," Marcos said when asked about Aquino's trip to Indonesia and Singapore, as well as a stop in the United States next month. "It is not for me to dictate exactly how she will move."
In the Philippines, military and police units were put on red alert. Armed Forces Chief Gen. Fidel Ramos said the maximum state of readiness was a precautionary measure against a possible coup by Marcos supporters during Aquino's absence.
Aquino herself was confident as she boarded her presidential jet, saying, "I do not have any second thoughts about this trip."
Falwell denounces campaign
LYNCHBURG, Va. — The Rev. Jerry Fallow well that despite Pat Robertson's effort to emphasize his experience in law and business, he could not escape identification as a minister if he ran for president.
Fallwell, a Baptist minister who founded the Moral Majority, said he was concerned that a Robertson presidential campaign could be harmful to the evangelical cause at large.
Robertson recently said he would answer the issue of his religious affiliation by emphasizing that he had a law degree, attended the London School of Economics and ran the multimillion-dollar Christian Broadcasting Network.
Robertson has complained that during the contest for precinct delegates in the Michigan Republican primary, supporters for Vice President George Bush circulated a flyer headlined, "Help Keep Religion Out of Politics."
He said supporters of the religious right also had been guilty of excesses, pointing to the Michigan primary campaign of Rep. Mark Siljander.
The congressman, a strong supporter of the religious right, was defeated by a Republican challenger. Siljander attributed his defeat to backlash from a tape distributed to ministers in which he asked for their help to break the back of Satan.
Official questions tax-plan fight
HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. — The congressional tax plan is unfair to the states, but fighting its passage could leave the states facing even worse legislation, Gov. Richard Lamm of Colorado said yesterday.
"Despite the fact that it's bad tax policy, it has a head of steam behind it," Lamm told the executive committee of the National Governors' Association, which is having its annual conference in South Carolina.
According to the association, 45 states have some kind of sales tax, and the portion of the tax plan removing the sales tax deduction is seen as pressuring states to shift their revenue base to deductible taxes, such as those on income and property.
From Kansan wires.
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