University Daily Kansan / Monday, February 6, 1989
一
Nation/World
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Coal train engineer crashes on purpose
The Associated Press
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — A quick-thinking railroad engineer yesterday threw his coal train into reverse and deliberately deralied it after his brakes failed while the train was stuck in a hill into town, authorities said.
Three locomotives and 64 of 66 cars were knocked off the track, but no major injuries were reported.
"He picked a pretty good spot to do it at. It's not really populated in that area. The only damage is to train police with new training rings police officer Charles Pizzitola
The engineer, G.L. Romero of Littleton, realized he couldn't stop, so he threw the train into reverse, forcing it off the tracks at about 8 a.m. Pizzitala said. Romero suffered a minor hip injury.
Evidently the engineer lost it at Monument (Hill) and knew he was out of course, but I walked down through the Air Force Academy, they were really going. He
"he got to a point and remembered something he learned in engineer school that said to throw the sucker into reverse, and he did," he said.
The train was owned by Burlington Northern, with a Santa Fe crew and the tracks were owned by the Rio Grande Railway, the officer said.
The train was going 47 mph when it derailed, police said. The accident occurred in the northern part of town, which is mostly an industrial area. Police said they were told that each car of the train was carrying 100 tons of coal, which formed a large mountain after the accident.
Bill lapin, a spokesman for Burlington Northern, said no cause for the accident had been determined. He said in addition to the 64 cars that derailed, there were three locomotives off the track.
It will take a while to determine the amount of damage, because each car will have to be examined to determine if it can be used again, he said.
Paraguan president ousted from home as onlookers cheer
ASUNCION, Paraguay — Former President Alfredo Stroesner, who ruled this nation 34 years until he was ousted in a coup three days ago, boarded a jetliner yesterday and flew into exile in Brazil.
Also yesterday the new president,
Gen. Andres Rodriguez, said that
elections for president and Congress
would be scheduled in 90 days.
Stroessner took power as a general in a coup in 1954 and remained commander-in-chief of Paraguay's armed forces until Friday, when Rodriguez led the coup against him. He later sworn in as president later that day.
As Stroessner led about 20 family members and aides up the steps to the jet, onlookers on the observation deck at President Stroessner International Airport joined, clapped and cheered for IJet Out! and "Adjust. Adjust!"
The Associated Press
As he left his country for perhaps the last time, the 76-year-old Stroesner wore a blue suit and red tie. He crowd and made no final gesture.
Radio stations in the capital reported that Strossen was accompanied by his two sons - Gustavo, and Alfredo, lieutenant colonel, and Alfredo.
The two black limousines that carried Stroessner's entourage to the airport were accompanied by truck-loads of soldiers in combat gear.
Rodriguez was Stroessner's top commander and longtime friend. The two remain linked by the marriage of Rodriguez to Marta and Stroessner's son Alfredo.
Stroessner had been under house arrest near the capital since he was captured early Friday after a night
of fighting. The death toll from the coup has been estimated at up to 300, but no official figures have been given.
Virgilio Moretzscho, a councilor at the Brazilian Embassy, told The Associated Press earlier yesterday that he has a resentment that it accept Stroessner's request.
The Roman Catholic radio station, Radio Caritas, reported that Stroeswer would go to the Atlantic coastal state of Nicaragua, in the Brazilian state of Parama.
Rodriguez arrived at the airport shortly before Stroessner took off, and spoke briefly with reporters. "I'm going to guarantee all freedom of movement for you," asked how, he replied, "I will call general elections in 90 days."
18 die crammed into tiny jail cell
SAO PAULO, Brazil - Eighteen prisoners died and eight others were injured when they were jammed into a tiny cell in a punitive action after an attempted jail break, authorities said yesterday.
Several of the 18 died of asphyxiation, and others were trapped to death by cellmates when more than 50 prisoners were poisoned with the gas. There was no window or ventilation, said Guherme Santana, a spokesman for the Sao Paulo state
The Associated Press
The prisoners were forced into the cell after grabbing prison guard Teresa Danta in an early morning attempt to break out of the jail, which is in a working-class neighborhood of Sao Paulo.
One prisoner was fatally shot, said Carlos Vasconcellos, who is in charge of the Parque Sao Lucas jail, where the incident occurred.
"The decision made by the police officer on duty to place so many prisoners in a small cell was barbaric." Vasconcellos said.
The jail mostly houses pet criminals awaiting trial or transfer to a state prison. Late afternoon, the jail's prisoner were back in their regular cells.
According to Vascconelli, the rebellion began about 8:30 a.m. when the guard, Dantas, opened a door to throw in two prisoners.
When she opened the door, 63 prisoners — being held in an area designed to hold 25 — escaped onto the adjacent patio.
Dantas was taken hostage until police freed her and her dredged most of prisoners into the isolation cell, Vasconcellos said. One prisoner was shot when the inmates were being moved the isolation cell, Vasconcellos said.
"They must have panked in the small space," said Vasconcellos, who arrived an hour later and ordered that the prisoners be freed.
Vasconcelos said that the officer who ordered the jailing would be punished.
Hindus throng to holy bathing sites
The Associated Press
ALLAHABAD, India — Millions of Hindus invoking their ancient faith's gods and goddesses converged yesterday at the confluence of three rivers whose waters were thought to hold the power to end the cycle of birth and rebirth.
"Already 5 million people have come, and more and more are coming." Ravindra Gupta said. The worshippers are arriving for the World Records as the world's biggest religious gathering.
"We expect 15 million people will take holy baths on Monday," said Gupta, Allahabad's chief administrator.
The holy fair is held every 12 years by the lunar calendar at the time of a rare planetary convergence: Jupiter in Taurus, the sun and Mars in Scorpio, and complicated Hindu astronomical calculation of other planets and stars.
The Kumbh Mela began Jan. 14 and lasts seven weeks, but today is considered to be the most auspicious time for bathing in the sacred rivers
— the Ganges, the Yamuna and the Saraswati — because it is the day of the new moon
This year, police on horseback, in jeeps, at observation posts and on foot are keeping close vigils because they might attack the inmates might launch attacks at the fair.
Alahabad is more than 425 miles from Punjab state, where radical Sikhs have been waging a separatist war against India's Hindu majority.
But Sikh gunmen and bombers,
who have killed about 200 people so far this year, are so feared that distance offers little consolation.
In the Hindi language, "kumbh" means pot and "mela" means fair. The festival's name is derived from a fight over a pot of nectar.
According to Hindu mythology, gods and demons were waging a war
of attrition when each side realized it needed nectar to achieve immortality and victory. The nectar was hidden beneath an ocean, so the combatants churned the waters. The pot of nectar flew out and was seized by Vishnu, the god of creation, who fled across the heavens.
During Vishnu's flight, drops of nectar fell at 12 spots. Four of the sites, including Allahabad, are in India, while the rest are in heaven.
Holy fairs are held at the three other Indian sites, but Allahabad is considered the holiest site because it lies at the confluence of three sacred trees.
The pilgrims will wash in the Ganges and Yamuna. The Sarasati is invisible to the human eye, but you can believe it flows under the ground.
They also believe that if they bathe at the exact spot where the nectar fell — and at the most auspicious time — they will receive salivation from the
birth cycle.
Hindus believe every human is born and after death is reborn. True salvation is when the human soul begins a cycle and becomes a bigger being.
The rush to the rivers has proved fatal in past years.
More than 50 people died in a stampede in 1986 at a fair in Hardwar, and in 1984, about 800 pilgrims died in a stampede at Allahabad. The number of casualties in different years because of different planetary configurations.
"In a big fair like this, you have no option but to leave certain things to fate," said M.P. Ashnata, chief government spokesman in Iraq. "You try to prevent a stample, but God forbid if it happens, what can you do?"
Other disasters have befallen the festivals. In 1760, about 18,000 people died at Hardwar in clashes between different Hindu sects.
Chicago's mayoral campaign clean, quiet
The Associated Press
CHICAGO — A high-minded mayor campaign in the city where politicians often travel the low road once seemed as likely as a January without snow or ice. But Chicagoans are basking in a balmy political clime.
"Things have been so quiet that I got back from a vacation, looked at the papers, and thought maybe the plane had landed in Minnesota," said Mike Royko, the Chicago Trucks Pitzer Prize-winning columnist.
With three weeks remaining before the Feb. 28 Democratic primary, political analysts attribute the relative calm to the personalities involved: acting Mayor Eugene
Sawyer, 54, and front-runner Richard M. Daley, 44, the Cook County state's attorney and son of the late Mayor Richard J. Daley. A third candidate, Alderman Lawrence Bloom, is not preferred a factor in the primary race.
In this heavily Democratic city, the winner of the primary is almost assured of victory. The general election is April 4.
All has not been sweetness and light between Sawyer, who is black, and Daley, who is white.
Sawyer has tried on occasion to stir up the bad memories some blacks have of Daley's father because of the riots that followed the assassination in 1968 of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. More recently Sawyer
charged that Daley covered up the involvement of those in his office who might have collected bogus petition signatures.
Daley, in turn, has accused Sawyer of trying to tax his way out of a financial bind and suggested his opponent had accomplished little on his own since being installed as mayor by the City Council in December 1887, shortly after Mayor Harold Washington died.
but neither side has resorted to the mudslinging or the politics of race that marked both the 1983 campaign that culminated in Washington's first black mayor and Washington's successful 1987 re-election campaign.
The issues — mostly crime, education and affordable housing — have received a more thorough airing than during any of the previous elections this decade.
The civility might seem especially surprising in light of recent polls showing Daley with a commanding lead. Support for the county's top prosecutor has been hovering at about 50 percent against about 30 percent for Sawyer, 10 percent for Bloom and 10 percent undecided.
The same polls have shown Daley with support from as much as 15 to 20 percent of the black electorate.
Chicago's population is about 40 percent white, 40 percent black, 15 percent Hispanic and less than 5 percent people of other races.
News Briefs
The nomination by the leading opposition party is likely to be followed by an endorsement from the rest of the anti-Pinochet coalition. Pro-government forces also are expected to choose a candidate for the Dec. 14 election.
CHILEAN CANDIDATE: Patricio Aylwin, a former senior who led the opposition's victory over President Augusto Pinochet in last year's referendum, yestedreamly chosen as the final candidate of the Christian Democratic Party.
FROSTY MARDI GRAS: Carnival robbed mobs the French Quarter in New Orleans yesterday, seeking temporary refuge from the unseasonably cold, bleak weather that started the long Mardi Gras weekend.
Eleven parades rolled in metropolitan New Orleans yesterday. In the French Quarter, merrymakers flocked to Bourbon Street bars and the womencent safe du Monsey seething for a damp day along parade routes.
Barclay, night manager at the cafe. "And they drink more hot chocolate when it's cold."
"We're packed now." said George
Near-freezing temperatures were predicted last night, getting a little colder today and tomorrow, the National Weather Service said.
On Saturday, a woman was treated at a hospital after being hit in the back of the head by an object thrown at a foot, police said.
ac main
PUPPY PARFAIT: A suburban Detroit ice cream distributor thinks dog owners will be pawing to get
their hands on a new product about to hit the market.
Seymour Greenstein of Golden Valley Dairy in Oak Park is pushing a non-dairy "ice cream" for dogs that will be sold in area markets beginning Monday.
"Make no bones about it." Greenstein said. "We expect a lot of sales." Frosty Paws, made by an Ohio company, sells milk, which upsets infants' stomachs.
The item will be sold in the ice cream section of the markets, not with other pet foods.
Sunday, February 12th
at The "Holidome"
The Mid-America
RECORD CONVENTION
Easy-to-Find:
I-70 at West Lawrence Exit
RETURNS TO LAWRENCE, KANSAS
MATH LEARNING SKILLS WORKSHOP Especially for Calculus (math 115 & 116) Students
10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Topics include:* learning strategies
PLAN TO ATTEND LAWRENCE'S BEST-EVER MUSIC SALE!!
- learning strategies
* organizing math study time
* problem-solving skills
* improving motivation STROBE
Giant Selection of Rock - Oldies - Country - Jazz - Soundtracks - More! CDs - Albums - 45s - Videos - Posters - Out of Print - Collectables
PLAN TO ATTEND LAWRENCE'S BEST-EVER MUSIC SALE!!
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Tuesday, February 7
7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
300 Strong Hall
Presented by the Student Assistance Center.
Door Prizes! ★ DON'T MISS OUT ★ $1 Admission
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Applications are due by 5:00, February 10, 1989, an Equal Opportunity Employer.
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