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Reagan signs bill resuming
aid to Nicaraguan rebels
— Page 6
Baseball spotlight focuses
on Rose, Ryan, Jays again
— Paae 5
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Texas A&M — - -m 0
The Battalion
Serving the University community
T LI
College Station, Texas
Nicaraguan
rebels free
29 activists
Associated Press
■ MANAGUA, Nicaragua —
twenty-nine American peace activ
ists, allegedly kidnapped by Contra
rebels, were treed Thursday, a
Spokesman for the Witness for Peace
roup said.
u
id-
is,
)
Raqael Pina said in a telephone in
terview the activists were on their
way to San Carlos, a town on Lake
Nicaragua, where the government
lad organized a reception for them
||nd 18 journalists who had disap
peared Wednesday.
I The Witness for Peace group and
the Nicaraguan government said the
i29 American activists, who oppose
RJ.S. policy toward Nicaragua, were
Kidnapped along with 18 journalists
further down the San Juan River
Wednesday.
The government and the group
said the kidnapping had been car
ried out by Contra rebels led by
feden Pastora, a former Sandinista
who broke with the Managua gov
ernment when it turned to Marxism.
In San Jose, Costa Rica, govern
ment spokesman Armando Vargas
said Costa Rican officials flying over
t/iearea saw the boat traveling in Ni-
:araguan waters.
The peace group said the activists
Radioed their Managua office
Wednesday and reported Nicara
guan rebels forced them off a boat in
drich they were traveling on the San
Juan river, near the Costa Rican bor
der.
The Witness for Peace activists are
in Nicaragua to protest the Reagan
administration’s expressed support
for the rebels and to campaign for
peace between the United States and
Nicaragua, the group’s Washington
office said.
The Revolutionary Democratic
Alliance,led by Pastora was one of
four rebel groups known as Contras,
was the group blamed by the gov
ernment and the activists for the kid
napping.
The RDA had earlier warned that
its fighters would fire on the activists
if they entered the area.
But a spokesman for the group,
known by the Spanish acronym of
ARDE, denied any involvement in
the alleged kidnapping.
ARDE, the second-biggest Contra
group, is made up principally of
people who once fought in the Sand
inista revolution, which toppled the
late dictator Gen. Anastasio Somoza
in 1979.
19 blacks killed
as riots continue
in South Africa
Not Just Dogs
Veterinary students Jessie Buel, Glynn Echerd and
Anton Hoffman prepare this White Tail doe for
surgery as Kevin Shurtleff looks on. The right
front leg is being prepared for amputation be-
Photo by SUSAN MERCER
cause of a loss of use and feeling. The fawn was
found on Southwest Parkway about a month ago
and has been under the supervision of Dr. Eliza
beth Russo at the 1 Texas A&M Small Animal Clinic.
Associated Press
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa
— Riot and arson swept the town
ships around Durban on Thursday.
At least 19 blacks were killed in
South Africa’s bloodiest violence in
months, and Indians fled fiery dev
astation in their communities.
The government imposed night
curfews in the eastern Cape prov
ince, another flashpoint, and threat
ened tougher action to quell the
year-long tide of violence against
white domination. At least 500
blacks have been killed.
Foreign Minister R.F. Botha went
to Vienna, Austria, for talks with
U.S. officials who want South Afri
ca’s white rulers to talk with jailed
black leaders.
News reports said as many as 22
blacks were killed in the Durban ri
oting since mid-day Wednesday.
Hospitals confirmed 19 violent
deaths and said 16 were riot victims.
More than 250 people were re
ported injured since Tuesday night.
Rioting persisted in the Durban
townships into Thursday night. An
official report in the evening said
police had killed two more blacks
since midday and that a black
woman was shot to death by a civil
ian firing from a car that was being
stoned.
The townships of the Indian
Ocean port city had been an area of
calm in South Africa’s racial storm,
and were not among the 36 localities
pul under a state of emergency. Ri
ots began Tuesday in apparent re
sponse to the murder last week of a
prominent black civil rights lawyer.
As many as 500 terrified families
of ethnic Indians fled their homes in
Durban’s Inanda and Phoenix town
ships, parts of which had been set
afire by rioting blacks.
“They are going quite crazy, espe
cially in Inanda,” a local reporter
said. “Indian families are rushing
out carrying as many possessions as
they can.”
A police source said the attacks on
Indians reflected “an age-old In
dian-black” conflict. Leaders of the
Natal Indian Congress, which has
long supported black majority rule,
blamed hooligan elements taking ad
vantage of political protest.
Armed Indians escorted people
fleeing the Inanda township.
Smoke rose from blazing shops,
factories and schools. It hung in a
pall over Inanda. Gangs of as many
as 1,000 rock-throwing youths ram
paged through the giant black town
ships of Umlazi and Kwa-Mashu,
stoning every vehicle in sight.
Police raced from riot to riot in ar
mored cars, spewing tear gas,
birdshot and rubber bullets into the
crowds, but witnesses said the mobs
of young blacks surged on.
In Pretoria, the capital, President
P.W. Botha declared, “If necessary
we can introduce even stronger
steps.”
He said that, “if necessary,” he
would extend the 19-day-old emer
gency to Durban and the rest of Na
tal province. Most of the areas in
which the emergency was imposed
are near Johannesburg and in Cape
province.
Police link local car thefts to crime ring
By BRIAN PEARSON
Staff Writer
A recent rash of car thefts and
burglaries has been attributed to a
crime ring operating between here
and Houston, a College Station Po
lice Department spokesman said
Thursday.
Sgt. Larry Johnson said nine cars
have been stolen and about 30 have
been burglarized within the past two
weeks.
He said most of the car thefts have
been in a region one mile west of the
University Drive — Texas 6 east by
pass intersection. At least three
thefts were reported in the Vassar
Court-Wellesly Court area.
Michele Giticone, a senior market
ing major from Houston, almost had
her Camaro stolen from that area
early last Saturday morning.
After going out with some
friends, Giacone returned to her car
at 12:30 a.m. It was parked near
Vassar Court.
Giacone was told a woman had
seen two black men attempt to steal
her Camaro.
Giacone said the woman had
called the police, but the police said
they couldn’t investigate until she re
turned.
“The men saw the witness and I
guess they got scared,” Giacone said.
“They could have stolen it but they
didn’t.
“I thought I could come up here
(to Texas A&M) and these things
wouldn’t happen. I thought they
only happened in Houston.”
Johnson said police assume the
stolen cars are being taken to Hous
ton because they are found there.
At least three of the cars recently
stolen have been discovered in
Houston.
Johnson added cars stolen in
Houston sometimes end up in Col
lege Station.
Stolen cars are brought here and
“totally stripped.” The parts then
are transported back to Houston in a
vehicle stolen locally, he said.
The area where the thefts oc
curred now will be under surveil
lance, he said.
Johnson also said about 30 addi
tional burglaries, not related to the
nine car thefts, have been reported
within the past two weeks. He added
that the crimes probably were done
by 17-and 18-year-olds.
Security
False sense of safety
exhibited on campus
By KAREN BLOCH
Staff Writer
The atmosphere on the Texas
■ A&M campus lends itself to feeling
of security — a false feeling of secu-
rit y ; ,
“1 he students feel like everyone
at A&M is nice and friendly,” Mon-
I ica Christen, housing area coordina-
I tor for the Commons said Thursday.
I "They think they can leave their
I doors unlocked and not worry about
| anything,” she said.
| But, the residents of Krueger Hall
| have discovered that the dormitories
| may not be as safe as they seem.
During the last two weekends, sev-
| eral women in Krueger have re-
| ported that men have entered the
I dorm and entered some rooms after
■ visitation hours.
| Debbie Owensby, assistant area
| j coordinator for Krueger, said the
II men seem to be entering the dorm
I after the local bars close.
“They (the men) are a problem
I between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m.,” she said,
| “and, they seem to be inebriated.”
This weekend, resident advisers
i will be keeping an exceptionally
I dose watch for men in the dorm af-
I ter hours, Christen said. Also, the
0m i i combinations of the outside doors of
I Krueger were changed Tuesday.
But, the hall stall doesn't think
these changes will put an end to the
problem. The staff has several safety
recommendations for dorm resi
dents: ,
• Keep rooms locked.
• Do not give anyone the combi
nation to the outside doors.
• Never prop the outside doors
open.
• And, if someone attempts to
enter your room, notify a staff mem
ber immediately.
Christen said she was suprised
that many of the girls were keeping
quiet about the problem.
“Two weekends ago we had one
report,” she said, “and last weekend
we had two reports. After that, more
and more people started saying
‘Yeah, that happened to me too.’
“(After the men entered the
rooms) most of the girls just locked
the door and went back to sleep.”
Owensbv said that because the
women have had their lights out
when the men entered their rooms,
no one has been able to identify the
men. Christen said that despite the
fact that no one knows who the men
are, the staff believes the same men
are responsible for all of the re
ported incidents.
“It’s been the same pattern every
time,” she said. “They enter the
Photo by Barbara Henry
Lock combinations were changed on some dorms to deter intruders.
dorm and check for unlocked
doors.”
Christen said the hall staff is
handling the problem and the Uni
versity Police have not been con
tacted.
Lawyers investigating
Delta Air Lines crash
Associated Press
GRAPEVINE — Lawyers who
said they represent at least a dozen
clients in the aftermath of the crash
of Delta Flight 191 returned to the
accident site Thursday to gather
more evidence.
An eight-person team from the
firm of San Francisco attorney Mel
vin Belli planned to examine tire
mafks left by the jetliner near Dallas-
Fort Worth International Airport
when it crashed last Friday.
The crash killed 133 people, in
cluding one person on the ground.
Thirty-one passengers and crew
members survived. The Dallas
County medical examiner’s office
said Thursday that all but three of
the 133 fatalities had been identi
fied.
Members of the National Trans
portation Safety Board team investi
gating the accident said Wednesday
that the pilot of the jumbo aircraft
apparently applied the brakes and
reversed the engines seconds before
the fiery crash.
NTSB member Patrick Bursley
said the agency’s nine-member oper
ations group had completed its work
and would reconvene Monday in At
lanta, Delta’s home city.
A federal judge in Miami on
Thursday issued a temporary re
straining order preventing Delta
from conducting any destructive
testing of aircraft parts and requir
ing preservation of records for a
pending lawsuit.
“This is a substantial victory in
terms of the preservation of the evi
dence,” said Richard E. Brown, a
Belli associate. “We are very pleased
with the judge’s order and we will be
able to go in with our experts and in
spect, tag and test the parts of the
airplane we are interested in.”
Brown said the Belli team wants to
examine spoilers, the spoiler link
age, on-board radar and instrumen
tation and a ground proximity warn
ing device for the wide-bodied L-
1011 to determine questions of lia
bility.
He said evidence indicates the
warning device, which is designed to
give the pilot enough time to recover
from an impending crash, sounded
in the plane before impact.
“Obviously, it sounded and he
(the pilot) was not able to pull up,”
Brown said. “There must have been
either a problem with the ground
proximity warning system or some
thing wrong with the aircraft’s ability
to respond.”
He said the wingtop spoilers,
which flip up during a landing to act
as a drag over the wind surface, ap
parently deployed upon first impact,
about 1,700 yards north of Texas
Highway 114.