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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 4, 1982)
Texas A&M Battalion Serving the University communily 75 No. 182 USPS 045360 12 Pages College Station, Texas Wednesday, August 4, 1982 i . M v. photo by Toni Broadway Scenic route >ebi Haney, a freshman computer science ladder platform. The ladder and othei hajor from Waco, and Paula Tallant, who is fireman’s school equipment were on display bm Abilene and works at the scheduling in front of Rudder Tower for students office in Rudder Tower, ride in an 85-foot registering for the fireman’s school. enate to vote on balanced budget amendment today United Press International WASHINGTON — Defying its aders, the Republican-led Senate opted a rider to the balanced dget constitutional amendment at its supporters fear could turn nate approval of the amendment to a hollow victory. A final Senate vote was set for n today, and chief sponsor Orrin atch, R-Utah, predicted victory de- pite the attachment of the potentially ippling rider. The Senate must first deal with at least one more proposed change, a substitute constitutional amendment jySen. Alan Cranston, D-Calif., that would allow Congress to engage in deficit spending to ensure benefits for Social Security recipients and terans. ! To become part of the Constitu- lition, the amendment must be Approved by two-thirds of the mem bers of the Senate (67) and House and ratified by at least three- fourths of the states (38) within seven 'ears. The House has not yet acted on the mendment, because opponents have ept it bottled up in the House Judici ary Committee. A move to bring it to e full House has been unsuccessful so far. The Senate worked late Tuesday to reject about a dozen proposed riders to the balanced budget constitutional amendment, which had 62 co sponsors to its original version. Backers of the amendment were successful in scuttling all but one of the riders. After it was attached, Cranston said four of the co-sponsors were having second thoughts. Hatch and other supporters feared the rider would make it more difficult to achieve House passage by mid- October, the end of the 97th Con gress, because the House version of the amendment is now quite different from the new, changed Senate ver sion. Even if the amendment passed the Senate, rejection or no action by the House would kill it and the whole pro cess would have to be initiated again next year by the new Congress. The Senate voted, 51-45, Tuesday to accept a rider by Sen. William Arm strong, R-Colo., requiring a three- fifths vote of both houses of Congress to increase the public debt limit. “This may well defeat the amend ment this year,” Hatch said, explain ing he still expected the amendment to pass the Senate but feared it would Israel breaks ninth cease-fire in assault United Press International Israeli tanks, preceded by a relent less artillery barrages, rolled today into west Beirut for the first time, cap turing three major roads in fierce fighting in the heartland of the Pales tine Liberation Organization. The four-pronged Israeli assault further tightened the noose around the trapped PLO guerrillas and shat tered the two-month old Lebanon war’s ninth cease-fire. By mid-morning, Israeli armored columns had blown their way through Palestinian defenses and advanced more than a mile inside the city. An Israeli spokesman denied the action was the long-feared, full-scale invasion of the western sector, where an estimated 6,000 PLO guerrillas are encircled along with 500,000 civilians. Palestinians said they were fighting Israeli ground advances from the north, northeast, south and southeast — sometimes in hand-to-hand battles. Security sources and witnesses con firmed all four Israeli ground adv- Hundreds of shells per minute crashed into west Beirut neighbor hoods. The United Press Internation al office on the main business street of Hamra was directly hit. The Commodore Hotel, where many U.S. reporters were staying, also was shelled and reported on fire. The Hamra neighborhood, which houses the American University Hos pital, had been considered the safest place in west Beirut, and thousands of homeless civilians had taken shelter in buildings there. More than 100 Israeli tanks, mine sweepers and armed personnel car riers plowed over the Museum Cros sing, moving for the first time across the “Green Line” separating west Beirut from the Israeli-controlled eastern sector. The tanks, accompanied by bull dozers to clear away PLO barricades, advanced inland after encountering stiff resistance from the tattered re mnants of the PLO. The advance gave the Israelis at least partial control of the three major roads in west Beirut, including the Corniche Mazraa, the main artery into the heartland of PLO resistance in the northern part of the Moslem sector. An Israeli source said one of the aims of the advance was seizing the Corniche Mazraa, and cutting off guerrilla strongholds in the Arab University area and PLO headquar ters on Fakhani St. from the rest of the city. The Israelis also gained control of the Ouzei coastal road that runs para llel to the Mediterranean Sea into the city and solidified their control of the highway from Beirut International Airport. Security sources said an advance party of dozens of Israeli tanks were within sniper fire range of the Palesti nian refugee camps in the south and southeast of the city. The Israelis also advanced at the northern port area of the Lebanese capital, heavily shelling a key PLO observation point. Plane hijacked in India; all 135 passengers safe United Press International NEW DELHI, India — A young bearded Sikh hijacked an Indian jet liner over northern India today, but was overpowered by crew members and passengers in Amritsar, the spir itual capital of the Sikh warrior sect. All 135 people aboard were safe. Indian authorities arrested the hi jacker, ending a 4-hour ordeal that began shortly after the Indian Airline Boeing 737 took off from Amritsar on a domestic flight to Srinigar in northern India. Armed only with a coconut-shaped object, the Sikh burst into the cockpit and ordered the pilot to fly to Lahore, Pakistan, demanding to speak to two Sikh religious leaders, the Press Trust of India said. As the plane circled Lahore’s air port, Pakistan’s civil air authorities re fused permission to land and the pilot convinced the hijacker the airliner was running out of fuel and would crash if it did not return to Amritsar, 46 miles east of Lahore. The Sikh, who was described as young and bearded, was overpo wered by his hostages just moments after he freed all women and children aboard the plane, airport officials said. Authorities who searched the hi jacker immediately after his capture said he carried no arms or explosives. They identified him only as “Mr. Mu- jithia.” The Sikhs, the third-largest reli gion in India, are dominant in India’s Punjab province, where the plane landed. Amritsar, located on a plain, is the holy city of the Sikhs and home of their “Golden Temple.” Extremist and moderate Sikhs have long sought independence from India in Punjab, or more automony from the government in their home land. A spokesman for the airline said the pilot, Capt. V.K. Mehta, appeared to have used his “presence of mind” in handling the hijacker’s demand. The flight orginated in New Delhi and was bound for Srinigar with a stopover in Amritsar. The hijacker asked to speak to Sant Harchand Singh Longowal, presi dent of Akali DAL, a moderate Sikh religious group in India, and Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, leader of the militant Sikh group, Nihangs. Pakistani authorities have refused routine Indian Airline flights from New 7 Delhi to Lahore. The two coun tries have fought three wars since both gained independence from Bri tain in 1947. It was the fifth hijacking of an In dian Airlines plane. Four previously were forced to Pakistan, but one was hijacked from Lucknow to Varansi in northern India. A Sikh last month became India’s ceremonial president, hand-picked by Prime Minister Indira Ghandi in what leaders hoped would quell un rest among members of the sect. Mrs. Ghandi visited Honolulu today on a visit to the United States. not make it through the House this year. “It’s a major setback.” The winning margin was provided by a strange coalition of conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats, who joined together for opposite reasons — the conservatives to streng then the amendment and the liberals to cripple it. Senate Republican Leader Howard Baker immediately asked the Senate to reconsider the vote, and warned his colleagues adoption of the change would “substantially impair” congres sional passage of the amendment this year. Senate Democratic Leader Robert Byrd asked Democrats to reconsider. But the Senate rejected their pleas ,and voted, 56-40, not to reconsider. Sen. Dennis DeConcini, D-Ariz., called the Armstrong proposal a “sub terfuge to kill or attempt to kill” the constitutional amendment. Armstrong said it was “intended to enhance passage” of the balanced budget amendment. “I’m not trying to scuttle this constitutional propos al,” he argued. Earlier, the Senate easily rejected a host of moves, mostly by Democrats, to kill or weaken the balanced budget amendment. Soviets accused of massacre More killed in Afghanistan United Press International NEW DELHI, India — Soviet and Afghan government troops “razed whole areas” of a province in Afgha nistan and killed numerous civilians in a recent offensive against Moslem guerrillas, Western diplomats said. Other diplomats, in Islamabad, Pakistan, said they had received re ports that Soviet-installed Afghan President Babrak Karmal may resign shortly because of ill health and other high-level changes in his regime could be imminent. The official radio in the Afghan capital of Kabul said Karmal, 53, underwent a medical check-up in Moscow in June on his w 7 ay back from a visit to East Germany. There were no further details on the reported ill ness. The official Soviet news agency Tass made no reference to a medical checkup in reporting the visit and said Karmal had been on been on vacation. Diplomats interviewed in New De lhi Tuesday supported a statement made last week by a Swedish diplomat who said on returning from Afgha nistan 2,000 Afghan villagers were slaughtered in Logar Province in late J u, y- Swedish Foreign Ministry official Carl Schonmeyr had said Soviet and Afghan government troops swept through six villages in Logar pro vince, south of the Afghan capital of Kabul, and killed all inhabitants — about 2,000 people. The Western diplomats in New De lhi could not confirm the figure but backed the substance of the report. “Government Soviet forces razed whole areas,” one diplomat said, de scribing the violence in Logar. Heavy fighting also was reported in the Farah province of western Afgha nistan and in the guerrilla stronghold of Paghman, 9 miles northwest of Kabul. The diplomats also lent credence to a report by pro-guerrilla Afghan newspapers this week that rebels had freed 150 prisoners and killed at least 12 guards in an attack on the Kanda har jail in southern Afghanistan. “The situation in Kandahar is de teriorating,” one diplomat said. “A source says there is no longer a func tioning administration in the city.” In Islamabad, diplomats said some officials were purged following last week’s ninth plenum meeting of Afganistan’s Central Committee of the Ruling Peoples Democratic Party. Insurance claims raise System rates by Rebeca Zimmermann Battalion Staff Increases in Texas A&M Univer sity System group insurance rates, to : take effect Sept. 1, were explained to Texas A&M Academic Council [members Tuesday. H. Ray Smith 'told the council the rate increases are necessary because of large in- ! creases in the number of insurance | claims made. The amount of money paid out in insurance claims in the last two years has surpassed the amount taken in from premium payments. : Smith said Texas A&M formerly had reserves in its insurance plan. But, several years ago rates were not I increased and the reserves were . used. The cost of processing each in surance claim, spiraling medical costs and state and federal laws ab out what services, such as chiroprac tic care, must be included in the in surance coverage have contributed to the dramatic increase in rates, Smith said. . In 1976 it cost $122.70 to process* an insurance claim; now, it costs $535.15 to process a claim. The new insurance plan will in clude three different coverage plans: deluxe, basic and economy coverage. The current insurance plan has a standard and an economy rate. Monthly rates depend on the number of dependents an employee of the Texas A&M System claims on the insurance policy. An employee with two or more dependents on the standard plan now pays $ 110.81 per month; the economy plan costs $83.55 per month. On the new deluxe insurance plan an employee with two depen dents will pay $242.26 per month; the basic plan costs $198.44 and the economy plan costs $149.58 per month. The state of Texas will pay $58 per month on every state employees’ insurance plan. These monthly payments are fi gured for twelve months; em ployees on nine-month contracts will have different monthly rates. The System received bids for group insurance plans from six companies; the contract was awarded to Southwestern Life In surance Co. If employees are now on the stan dard insurance plan, they will auto matically be enrolled in the new de luxe plan unless the personnel de partment is notified, Smith said. In other action at the meeting the Academic Council approved: •the division of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology into a Department of Sociology and a separate Department of Anthropo logy; •candidates for degrees of Doc tor of Veterinary Medicine degrees to be conferred on Aug. 13 and gra duate and undergraduate degrees to be granted on Aug. 14; •two new graduate courses in business and a new undergraduate genetics course; •changes in the curriculum for radiological protection en gineering; •awarding a posthumous degree to Willard Francis Brown. Brown, who was a senior marketing major, was killed in a motorcycle crash in College Station on May 29. Brown needed only nine semester hours to graduate. Texas A&M President Frank Vandiver, who presided at the coun cil meeting, said he has received the faculty senate steering committee’s final constitution. Vandiver also discussed new mea sures to ease the parking situation on campus. He said parking lot attendants or security guards will be employed to prevent cars from illeg ally parking in reserved lots. If this measure, which will be used in nine lots, decreases the shor tage of faculty parking spaces, he said, the policy might be expanded to other parking lots. inside Classified 6 National 5 Opinions 2 Sports 10 State 4 Whatsup 6 forecast Partly cloudy with highs near 100; low in the upper-70s.