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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 18, 1984)
■380 Wednesday, January 18, 1984/The Battalion/Page 5 Helicopter in airspace initiates strong protest counts o! Kerrvi bse ci lixedlyj his suit' Ithefint ury seb ospectin :d oftht e agains divorced her tw cparated man has [ n Counts /hen het evoked. ed froa twnoni United Press International Nicaragua issued a protest Tuesday to Honduras charg ing that a camouflaged heli copter from Honduras en tered its airspace near where a U.S. helicopter pilot was killed last week, Nicaraguan officials said. The protest came at a time when relations between the two Central American neigh bors have reached a low point following the death last Wednesday of Chief Warrant Officer Jeffery Schwab. The United States says Schwab was killed by Nicara guan soldiers after he landed a light observation helicopter some 200 yards inside Hon duras. On Monday, Gen. Daniel Bali Castillo, commander of the Honduran Public Security Force, warned that relations between Honduras and Nicaragua were approaching “a very dangerous point” be cause of alleged Sandinista cross-border attacks against farmers and the killing of Schwab. The Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry sent a letter of pro test to Honduras saying another helicopter entered its airspace Monday. “A camouflaged helicopter of an undetermined type violated Nicaraguan airspace from Honduras near La Quebrada in the Madriz pro vince, returning to Honduras at 1300 hours,” the protest said. The region was near the Honduran border town of Cifuentes, near where Schwab was shot. In the same protest, the Foreign Ministry also charged that a Honduran army patrol entered Nicaraguan territory near El Aguacate last Thurs day and “set off four mines without causing any damage.” Honduran residents at Las Trojes, some 3 miles from where Schwab was killed, said Americans in civilian clothes made frequent trips in Hon duran army helicopters to the zone in December. Two resi dents said they saw some Americans in uniform. Rebels of the anti- Sandinista Nicaraguan Demo cratic Force operate from bases in the tense border area. In El Salvador, leftist rebels attacked the trestle over the Lempa River for two hours late Monday, firing automatic rifles and machine guns at security posts on both ends of the structure, sources said. Government war jets Tues day bombed insurgent posi tions around the trestle, which is under a virtual rebel siege, military sources said. Monday night’s attack was the third heavy night assault since last Friday on the trestle, which is one of two major road links to eastern El Salvador, where much of the nation’s chief agricultural products are grown. The mile-long trestle, 20 miles southeast of San Salva dor, has been used to carry traffic across the river since guerrillas destroyed the near by Golden Bridge on Oct. 15, 1981. Three national guardsmen were wounded in the Monday attack, which started about 10 p.m. and ended at midnight, military sources said. The guerrilla attacks have been described by military sources as “probes” of govern ment defenses. Bank buys FDIC loans 3e Ip who ask id the gif /quipme: progra louse sgislatm Shiite Moslems take blame United Press Intentional MIDLAND — RepublicBank First National of Midland bought 8,692 loans worth more than $250 million from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Tho mas Wageman, bank president, said Tuesday. The FDIC acquired $1.3 bil lion in commerical loans when First National of Midland was closed by the federal currency comptroller on Oct. 14. The 93- year-old financial institution was the largest independent bank in Texas. RepublicBank Corp., based in Dallas, purchased the bank and it was opened under new own ership Oct. 16. The bank holding company has 37 Texas banks and more than $18 billion in assets, RepublicBank officials have said. “In this first phase of the re purchase program we have achieved our objective of assur ing the uninterrupted availability of credit to as many people in our community as possible,” Wage- man told reporters at a news con ference. RepublicBank First National was given 90 days to decide which of the loans it wanted to assume from the FDIC. All of the re maining loans will now be put up for sale through a bidding pro- cesss, FDIC officials have said. “Our next task will be to take a second look at the loans remain ing with the FDIC for purchase,” Wageman said. “Our review pro cess took into consideration the impact on the customer and the community as well as the bank.” Many Midland residents had expressed concern over the own ership change of First National, which had been a leader in orga nizing charity and civic events. Those concerns prompted FDIC Chairman William Isaac to attend a breakfast in November to visit with Midland residents. Midland, located in the oil-rich Permian Basin, holds the third largest per capita income in the nation, Midland Chamber of Commerce officials said. Some banking spokesmen blamed the oil industry boom- bust of 1981-82 for delinquent loans that led to FNB’s woes. Issac said his department had watched the bank for a year ex pecting a failure. He estimated it would take up to 45 days before the paperwork associated with the loan transfers was completed. iccl e ii ;s - luc >nz; hai alle b< :UVU , VVV%AArtAArYW%nj%fldVVV\JVWVSA^WV , tfWVVW\rtA/VVS TRUCK OWNERS! (a “shop&lot” just for you) We buy, sell, trade, and offer complete service on your pick-up including: •4 wheel drive -brakes •front end alignment -overhauls •transmissions -specialty work “one day service on most repairs’’ Pickups-Plus 512 W. Carson (across from Army Reserve) (409)775-6708 Embassy consul kidnapped United Press International BEIRUT — Three carloads of gunmen kidnapped the con sul of the Saudi Arabian Embas- tensesali sy Tuesday, ambushing his paidi chauffeur-driven car on the iblic ops crowded streets of west Beirut in ,299 pa n consul a daring daylight attack. Christian Phalange radio televisiio i)] ame( j t h e kidnapping of Hus sein Farraj on the Hizbollah, a . .fundamentalist Lebanese Shiite '8 in ‘j; Moslem group suspected of in- anableli volvement in attacks against the smansi: Imultinatonal peacekeepers in ones t !BejruL are, sil\t ithema: leave. n Arndlofficial from thejustice Ministry No group immediately claimed responsibility, but an who declined to be identified said a man calling himself a member of Hizbollah had threatened other Saudi diplo mats in a telephone call a month . Gov. B:l| a 8 0 ' Saudi Arabia is deeply in volved in mediating efforts to end the violence in Lebanon, but has made enemies in the Middle to senth$t because of its ties to the Un ited States. k hispol ty the bi uses so ix payee >37 wi His ev am a i?! church ii While some of the gunmen roughed up the Lebanese driver and the Saudi guard in the front seat, others pulled Farraj, 45, from the back seat and dis appeared. Beirut radio said the driver, Izzat Assaf, drove on to the embassy a mile away with blood running down his face. Police said Assaf was treated at a hospital for a bullet graze on the head and brought back to the embassy for questioning. But he spent the ni^ht under observation in a hospital. The morning attack occurred in the Rawsheh area of west Beirut, a crowded neighbor hood of high-rise apartment buildings near the Mediterra nean at the western edge of the capital. A reinforced guard of uni formed soldiers with rifles and plain-clothes security agents with submachine guns protected the Saudi Embassy against further attack. Farraj was re sponsible for issuing visas there. The Lebanese government denounced the attack and Sunni Moslem leader Saeb Salam, who has strong Saudi ties, called on the government to use an “iron hand” to prevent any more kid nappings. Police said Nabih Berri, the head of the main Shiite Moslem militia Amal, sent a delegation to the Saudi ambassador “de nouncing the incident and ex pressing readiness to help in gaining the freedom of the di plomat.” The Hizbollah movement, and the related Islamic Amal that broke away from Berri’s group, are radical Lebanese Shiite groups based in the Sy rian-controlled city of Baalbeck in eastern Lebanon. The kidnapping of the Saudi diplomat followed two shootings recently of people associated with the French Embassy. In each case a silencer-equipped pistol was used to gun down the victims, although both survived. er Gam ,325 lomptni Iran’s Islamic regime has ex tra animosity toward it because ofSaudi support for Iraq, Iran’s $265,Od a dversary in the 40-month-old Gulf war. Police said three cars without licence plates surrounded the green Buick embassy car and 10 men swarmed to the attack, fir ing submachine guns. 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