■■■■■
A&M horse judging team
wins 3 national competitions
— Page 5
Lady Ags stay undefeated
at home with a 72-61 win
Page?
Vol. 82 No. 66 GSPS 075360 12 pages
stmas
-1
Shuttle photos
"may help find
water in Africa
Associated Press
fel)WARl)S AIR FORCE BASE,
Cajit. — The space shuttle Atlantis
landed safely Tuesday with a cargo
of promise: photos that may locate
Helen water in drought-ridden Af
rica. a purified hormone for tests of
a tjew medical treatment-, and video
(apes to help design a U.S. space sta-
! tioh.
1 W^ ! ' 1 h mission c o m m a n d e r
use Brewster Shaw at the controls, the
shuttle landed at this desert air base
ju|4:33 p.m. EST in front of about
6,100 spectators.
Hfhe shuttle’s plunge from orbit
staned when Shaw fired rockets at
3:27 p.m. to slow the craft and drop
it from its 218 mile-high orbit in a
lopg blazing glide over the Pacific
Ocean.
HOthers on the crew were astro-
hauts Bryan O’Connor, Mary
Cleave, Sherwood Spring and Jerry
Ross, McDonnell Douglas engineer
Charles Walker, and Mexican astro
naut Rodolfo Neri, the first of his
nation to fly in space.
SgShaw said at Monday’s news con
ference that the astronauts took
photographs of Africa’s drought-
stricken Ethiopia and Somalia. Ex-
peits plan to examine the photos for
surface evidence of water that may
be hidden beneath those desert
m ■■ lands, where famine continues to
fom u 3 kii!
ICJiliMJ ■\] so stored aboard Atlantis were
miles of video tapes of Ross and
Spring as they built large structures
of spindly metal struts in the shut-
^ es °P en car g° bay during two
| Spacewalks. Scientists believe the
J construction demonstration will
:amination and a major contribution in the de-
>ar end. This offer is sign of an American space station
planned for the 1990s.
HAtlantis also carried samples of a
ays for the conve' p Un [" iec | hormone that can be used
to treat red blood cell deficiencies,
such as anemia. The samples, pu
rified in an electrical process that is
more efficient in zero gravity, will be
used in animal tests, the first step in
winning Food and Drug Administra
tion approval for clinical use.
■The astronauts also launched
three communications satellites, con
ducted a variety of crystal-growth
experiments, and tested a new auto
pilot system that will enable shuttles
to automatically hold position in or
bit next to a space station or satellite.
The Battalion
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Photo by MIKE SANCHEZ
Resuscitating Annie
Inez Ferraco (bottom) and Susan Dart (top), both on Resuscitation Annie during the CPR block of in-
Texas A&M students, practice their life saving skills struction while in scuba class.
Defense firm
suspended
by Pentagon
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — General Dy
namics Corp. on Tuesday lost its
right to obtain new government con
tracts, one day after the firm and
four former or current executives,
including NASA administrator
James M. Beggs, were indicted on
fraud charges.
The contract suspension, an
nounced by the Defense Depart
ment, is the second such action im
posed on the nation’s third-largest
defense contractor this year. The lat
est suspension applies not only to
Pentagon contracts, but also to any
other government work.
Meanwhile, a key congressman
said Beggs plans to take a leave of
absence as NASA administrator
while he defends himself against the
charges.
“He is relinquishing his duties
during the period in which the
courts will judge the charges made
in the indictment,” said Rep. Don
Fuqua, D-Fla., chairman of the
House Science and Technology
Committee, which oversees NASA.
Fuqua said he talked to Beggs on
Tuesday afternoon and that “he in
formed me of his decision to step
aside.”
The suspension order was issued
by the Navy in its role as executive
agent for the Pentagon on all con
tractual matters involving General
Dynamics, which received defense
contracts worth $6 billion in fiscal
1984.
Alvin Spivak, a company spokes
man, said the Navy’s action was “in
appropriate, since the issue in the
case should not have resulted in in
dictments against the company or its
people.”
Spivak said the indictment in
volved “highly sophisticated regula
tory and accouting matters.” Had
those matters been properly re
ferred to a “civil forum ... we doubt
that the government’s position
would have prevailed,” Spivak said.
On Monday, Beggs had said “I am
See General,page 12
Abortion acti visf leave
choice to individual
/e
er
'6 4364 J
Strike marks anniversary of gas leak
M WITH THIS
COMBINED WITH
labpaT'Entsof'"
Associated Press
■ BHOPAL, India — A general
strike paralyzed this central Indian
city Tuesday and thousands of angry
protesters filled the streets on the
isec ond day of demonstrations mark
ing the first anniversary of the
Union Carbide gas leak that killed
more than 2,000 people.
I Flundreds of effigies of the Amer
ican chemical company’s chairman
were set ablaze Tuesday night.
| ; Marches and rallies were con
ducted in at least five other Indian
cities, including New Delhi and Cal
cutta, commemorating the leak of
methyl isocyanate gas that killed
more than 2,000 people in Bhopal
— most of them slum dwellers —and
injured 300,000 others.
About 4,000 demonstrators
swarmed outside the Union Carbide
pesticide plant in Bhopal, demand
ing that the plant he permanently
closed before another disaster oc
curs.
“Our struggle will be alive as long
as we have life in our bodies and sen
sation in our toes,” Abid Rizvi, a tex
tile union leader, told protesters out
side the plant.
“Down with killer Carbide, drown
Anderson in chemicals,” they
shouted.
Protest leaders said they planned
to burn one effigy for each victim in
the Dec. 2-3, 1984, industrial disas
ter, the world’s worst.
Government offices, schools,
shops and markets in Bhopal were
closed Tuesday in memory of the
victims. Motorscooter rickshaws and
mini-buses, the principal means of
transportation in the city of 900,000,
stayed off the roads.
Black flags flew over homes in
most of the slums around the Bho
pal plant while the victims marked
the anniversary as a “black day.”
No violence was reported in any
of the demonstrations.
The United News of India, quot
ing official sources, said three more
slum dwellers who lived near the
plant died Tuesday of gas-related in
juries.
By SONDRA PICKARD
Reporter
The choice of abortion is one that
should be left to the individual and
not the government because it is un
certain when life actually begins, an
abortion activist said Tuesday in
Rudder Theatre.
Sarah Weddington, an Austin at
torney, fought before the U.S. Su
preme Court in favor of legalized
abortion in the 1973 landmark case
of Roe vs. Wade.
“The Supreme Court has said that
where the experts in law, medicine,
science and religion cannot agree on
an answer to the question of when
life begins, then that is an issue for
each person to decide for themsel
ves,” Weddington said. “I agree with
that decision.”
She said the majority of Ameri
cans still believe that abortion should
be a matter of choice and not a mat
ter of state prescribed law.
Before Weddington won her case,
a Texas law provided that abortion
was illegal except in cases where the
woman’s death was imminent. She
said a few states had more liberal
laws, permitting abortions in cases of
rapt, incest, or fetal deformity.
Weddington pointed out that
Texans continued to receive abor
tions despite the statute.
“There was a flight that left Love
Field in Dallas every Saturday morn
ing going from Texas to California
for people who were going there to
get procedures,” Weddington said.
Sarah Weddington
“But in many parts of Texas there
were women going to Mexico for es
sentially illegal procedures that were
often very dangerous and not well-
performed.”
However, Jane Roe was not one of
these Texans. She tried to obtain an
abortion in Texas but was denied.
Weddington met Roe at this time
and decided to take her case.
Although Weddington won the
case, Dallas District Attorney Henry
Wade announced that he would con
tinue prosecuting. The case was then
See Activist, page 12
f
I
Rowe is nominated
for Battalion editor
By BRIAN PEARSON
Senior Staff Writer
Michelle Powe was nominated
Tuesday by the Student Publica
tions Board to be editor of The
Battalion for the spring 1986 se
mester.
The decision by the board,
which is made up of three stu
dents, three faculty members and
one administrator, was unani
mous. The decision must be con
firmed by Texas A&M Provost
Gordon Eaton.
Powe, a senior journalism ma
jor from Springfield, Va., is the
current managing editor of The
Battalion. During her S’A-years at
| the newspaper, Powe has been
staff writer, senior staff writer, as-
Michelle Powe
sistant news editor,-assistant city
editor, photo editor and editorial
page editor.
“I’ve been here for a long time
See Spring editor, page 12
Phone fraud
Company investigating B-CS residents for long distance toll abuse
By CRAIG RENFRO
Reporter
Bryan-College Station residents
are under investigation for several
thousand dollars of long distance toll
fraud abuse, says a spokesman for
U.S Telecom Inc.
Tim Bowring, assistant vice presi
dent for corporate communications
for U.S. Telecom, in Kansas City
Mo., says the investigations are part
of a multi-million dollar loss suf
fered by long distance services in
Texas.
“We noticed an unusual amount
of numbers being dialed out of the
switching center for the (Texas
A&M) campus area,” Bowring says.
“After we identified where the abuse
was occurring we canceled many of
the abused codes.”
When the investigations are com
pleted, students will be encouraged
to come forward and make restitu
tion for the calls, Bowring says.
“Students are breaking federal
law and are subject to fines,” Bowr
ing says. “They just aren’t getting
free phone calls.”
Long distance service companies
across the nation have lost an esti
mated $500 million through toll
fraud abuse, says a spokesman for
MCI Telecommunications Inc.
John Houser, corporate public re
lations director for MCI in Washing
ton, D.C., says the Secret Service is
being called in to investigate the
fraud.
Bowring says most people don’t
realize the illegal calls are a felony,
punishable by a $50,000 fine or by
15 years in jail.
“Our purpose is to stop the abu
se,” Bowring says. “We prefer not to
prosecute. The best solution of all is
for code abusers to come forward
and make restitution for the calls.
“This investigation is like a drug
bust. We don’t want to get the per
son with a half-ounce of marijuana,
we want the big dealer.”
Houser says Communications
Fraud Control Association, an orga
nization of 34 long distance compa
nies, has banded together to identify
where the fraud is occuring across
the states and to assist federal offi
cials with the investigations.
“Monitoring systems are being
used to detect frequently dialed
codes, and then the calls will be tra
ced and the suspects will be appre
hended,” Houser says.
Last week five individuals were ar
rested in New York for toll fraud
abuse, Houser says.
He says there are several ways
people can get these free numbers.
“There are computer hackers who
just keep dialing numbers until they
find one that works,” Houser says.
“I’ve even heard of instances in New
York where you can buy a code off
the street for $2.”
Bowring says even though the in
vestigations are preliminary, they
have been done in other areas and
were succesful.
“Tell students don’t do it,” he
says. “It isn’t worth it.”