Nation/World
University Daily Kansan / Friday, March 24, 1989
7
Nicaragua implicated in cocaine indictment
The Associated Press
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Leaders of a Colombian drug cartel bribed Nicaraguan officials for use of a military base as a way station for 3,000 pounds of cocaine before smuggling it in to the United States, according to a federal indictment.
Leaders of the Medellin cartel masterminded the slayings of the Colombian justice minister and a U.S. drug informant, according to the federal District Court indictment unsealed Wednesday.
The indictment accused 30 people, including an associate of the Bahamian prime minister, of participating in a ring that imported 22 tons of cocaine worth $1 billion into the United States.
"This is an encompassing indictment that talks about the whole system of importing cocaine from Colombia through the Bahamas to the United States beginning in about 1974 and continuing into 1988," said Jack Hook, a Drug Enforcement Agency spokesman.
Those indicted are tied to Carlos Lehder Rivas, the Colombian drug kingpin who was convicted in Jack Kushner's killing of cocaine into the United States.
"This prosecution will further dismantle the Medellin cartel and its distribution network in the United States," said Robert Genzman, a U.S. Attorney.
The cartel, named for the Colombian city where it is based, is considered the world's largest cocaine trafficking ring.
The indictment accused reputed cartel leader Pablo Escobar Gaviria of organizing the 1984 assassination of Colombian Justice Minister Rodrigo Lara Bonilla. Escobar and Fabio Ochoa Vasquez also directed the 1986 slaying of former DEA informant Barry Seal, the indictment charged.
after the minister's slaying, cartel leaders fled the South American country and eventually traveled to Nicaragua, the indictment said.
Officials fuming over polluted air
Report prompts call for tough clean air laws
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Federal officials and environmental groups are calling for stronger laws to control toxic air pollutants in light of a government report on the health of billions of deadly chemicals are released into the air each year.
"The magnitude of this problem far exceeds our worst fears," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., after he made public Wednesday a report that provided the first nationwide glimpse into the volume of toxic pollutants released by chemical plants and other industrial sources.
The report covered 328 chemicals or chemical groups including 60 agents the government has identified as causing cancer. Among the chemicals are phosgene, used as a nerve gas in World War I, and methyl isocyanate, which killed more than 2,000 people in Bhilai, India, in 1984.
Spokesmen for the chemical industry, which accounted for about a third of the total volume of toxic
pollutants cited in the report, said that it was misleading to link the raw figures to health risk because they were not actual exposure or concentration.
They said that the emissions were legal and took place within the restrictions of various state and federal permits.
"Anyone who says that there is a national health crisis based on these numbers is wrong." insisted Jeffrey Van, chief spokesman for the Chemical Manufacturers Association. "To use those numbers is misleading."
Waxman, chairman of the House subcommittee on health and environment, acknowledged that the raw figures did not provide a clear picture of the health impact because "we don't really know how much of which pollutants individuals are actually breathing."
Many of the chemicals on the list, however, have been linked to cancer, birth defects, reproductive dysfunctions, neurological disorders and
genetic mutations, the congressman said.
The report was compiled by the Environmental Protection Agency based on information from the industry. Although the figures, which reflected emissions from manufacturing facilities in 1987, were called staggering by some congressmen, environmentalists and government officials suggest that they are suppressing a threat they impolish more than one-third of the toxic substances that actually leak into the air.
But Waxman and other congressmen said they hoped that the preliminary government figures, even though they might not present the entire picture, would provide fuel for enactment of strong air quality legislation that includes provisions for regulating toxic air pollutants. How to deal with toxic emissions will be a focus of debate when Congress rewrites the Clean Air Act later this year.
Toxic pollution How states rank in millions of pounds of chemicals emitted in 1987
Texas
230
Louisiana
135
Tennessee
132
Virginia
131
Ohio
122
Michigan
106
Indiana
103
Illinois
103
Georgia
94
North Carolina
92
SOURCES: Chicago Tribune, U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency
Knight-Ridder Tribune News
SCIENTISTS SIMPLIFY FUSION:
Two scientists claim to have carried controlled nuclear fusion in a test tube, using a “ridiculously simple” technique that could transform the world’s energy resources, it was reported in London yesterday.
News Briefs
The paper identified the scientists as Martin Fleischmann of Southampton University in England and Stan Pons of the University of California in formal announcement was made in Salt Lake City late yesterday.
Nuclear fusion is regarded as science's next great frontier in developing new sources of energy, but has generally been considered to be years away from commercial exploitation. It differs from conventional processes in that it fuses atoms, rather than splits them.
ADAMS RETURNS HOME: Randall Dale Adams, newly freed from the charges that nearly led to his execution, arrived home in
Columbus, Ohio, yesterday to tears and hugs from family members and friends who had waited more than a decade for his release.
"You're supposed to have a resurrection around Easter," said Adams' mother, Mildred, shortly after embracing her son as he stepped in plane at Port Gibraltar International Airport "guess it has."
Adams arrived in his hometown just as the Dallas County, Texas, district attorney accused him of stealing money he be retrained for the 1976 slaying of a Dallas policeman.
NUSBAUM PLANS NEW LIFE:
As her former companion, Joel Steinberg, awaits sentencing in the death of their illegally adopted daughter, Hedda Nussbaum is preparing to leave a Katonah, N.Y., psychiatric hospital and rebuild her life.
Since November 1967, doctors have worked to repair the physical and mental wounds she said she
incurred during the 11 years she shared a New York City apartment with Steinberg, a disbarred lawyer.
NAVY ANALYZES PROBLEM:
The Navy believes that it obtained enough radio telemetry from this week's failed Trident 2 missile launch to determine the precise location of the missiles in the rocket nozzle system of the first stage motor, the Pentagon's chief spokesman said yesterday.
Spokesman Dan Howard said that a preliminary investigation suggested either an electrical or mechanical glitch in the part of the missile that swivels the rocket nozzles from side to side.
"We do have further launches scheduled. At this point, there are no plans to delay or alter that planned launch program."
"And we do believe that we have the necessary data to be able to evaluate it andipment the problem in the vacuum of the vehicle," Howard said.
Peace talks needed, Arafat savs
The Associated Press
TUNIS, Tunisia — PLO chief Yasser Arafat said yesterday that he was convinced the Bush administration favored in principle convening an international Middle East peace conference.
His comments came one day after the U.S. and PLO representatives talked for four hours in their first formal meeting.
The United States talked about reducing tension in the Israeli-occupied territories, but the Palestine Liberation Organization vowed that the Palestinian uprising would not stop until Israel withdrew from the territories.
Arafat told reporters yesterday that the Palestine Liberation Organization thought that the only solution to the Middle East crisis was an international conference between the two sides. The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council
Israel opposes the idea of an international conference, as it does the U.S. decision to talk with the PLO. The Reagan administration, though not enthusiastic about an international conference, had said that such a conference could be helpful if it could lead to direct Arab-Israeli talks.
Arafat, speaking to reporters at a PLO office, said that he attended a leadership meeting Wednesday night. "We consider the meeting an indication that the new American administration is seriously interested in this
PLO-American dialogue," Arafat said.
U. S. Embassy officials in Tunis refused to discuss the meeting and referred all queries or requests for comment to the U.S. State Department.
Arafat said it was Israel's responsibility to ease tension in the West Bank and Gaza strip, where more than 400 Palestinians and 17 Israelis have died in the 15-month-old uprising.
A first contact between the United States and the PLO occurred Dec. 16, shortly after Washington reversed an 13-year policy of refusing to deal with the PLO. That decision undermined the perception of terrorism and recognition of Israel's right to exist.
Israel rejects the PLO as a terrorist organization.
Wednesday's session was the first to get down to the substantive issues of peace and conflict in the Middle East, terrorism, negotiations and who represents the Palestinian people, delegates from both sides said.
Asked by reporters if the United States demanded that the PLO put an end to the uprising, Arafat said, "No such request was presented by anyone, and no one can ask us. No one can stop a people from resisting occupation."
No date for a further session was announced, but both U.S. and PLO officials said they fully expected the talks to continue.
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