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A&M to continue designing
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Lady Ags find little trouble
in defeating Horned Frogs
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AIM
TEXAS AGGIES
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TheBattalion
1.83 No. 96 (ASPS 045360 16 pages College Station, Texas • Wednesday, February 12, 1986
Jewish dissident freed,
gets welcome in Israel
Associated Press
TEL AVIV, Israel — Anatoly Sh-
charansky, the Soviet human rights
activist imprisoned for nine years as
a spy, was freed on a snowy Berlin
bridge-Tuesday and flown to a tu
multuous, emotional welcome in Is
rael.
The 38-year-old Jewish dissident
had become known as the “prisoner
of Zion,” a focus for international
Jewry and symbol of Jews who are
not allowed to leave the Soviet
Union.
Also included in the East-West
prisoner exchange on Berlin’s Glie-
nicke Bridge were five people held
in the West on spy charges and three
held in the East.
Shcharansky was freed first, apart
from the others, to emphasize the
U.S. insistence that he was not a spy.
He was arrested in 1977 and a Soviet
court convicted him of spying for
the CIA, sentencing him in 1978 to
13 years imprisonment.
Prime Minister Shimon Peres and
Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir
embraced Shcharansky as he and his
wife Avital, who met him in Frank
furt, stepped from the Israeli exec
utive jet at Ben-Gurion Airport. The
ceremony was broadcast live on ra
dio and television.
“How are you?” Peres asked. “Ev
erything is okay,” Shcharansky said.
They spoke in Hebrew.
Shcharansky clasped his hands
above his head in victory, then held
hands with Avital as she introduced
him to Cabinet members, helping
him with his Hebrew. For more than
a decade she has lived in Israel and
campaigned for his freedom.
About 3,000 people gathered out
side the terminal building cheered
and waved as the Shcharanskys and
Peres went inside to telephone Presi
dent Reagan.
“We thanked him for his tireless
efforts out of a deep feeling for the
Jewish people and an inner convic
tion that the Jewish people deserve
to leave the Soviet Union,” the prime
minister said.
The 45-minute prisoner exchange
was the latest of several on the Glie-
nicke Bridge, a green metal struc
ture across the Havel River between
West Berlin and Potsdam in commu
nist East Germany. This one came
24 years and a day after American
U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers and
Kremlin master spy Rudolf Abel
were exchanged there.
The snow had been cleared from
a 4-inch-wide line in the middle of
See Soviet, page 15
U.S. diplomat will go to Philippines
Don’t Sell Them Short
Photo by ANTHONY S. CASPER
The Vienna Choir Boys, under the direction of show in Rudder Auditorium. The 23 choristers
iPeter Marschik, perform at Tuesday’s sold-out are one of two touring groups. See story, page 3.
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President
Reagan said Tuesday night the
United States is neutral in the bitter
Philippines presidential election,
and announced plans to send vet
eran U.S. diplomat Philip Habib to
Manila to “help nurture the hopes
and possibilities of democracy.”
“We’re neutral, and we then hope
to have the same relationship with
the people of the Philippines that
we’ve had all these years,” the presi
dent said at a nationally televised
news conference.
In a written statement distributed
moments before he stepped before
White House reporters, Reagan said
he found it disturbing that the elec
tion had been “flawed by reports of
fraud, which we take seriously, and
by violence.”
In his statement, Reagan said he
was sending Habib to meet with
leaders of both political parties as
well as with church and government
officials and representatives of pri
vate sector groups.
Reagan added that the adminis
tration is concerned “about the vio
lence that was evident there and the
possibility of fraud. It could have
been all of that was occurring on
both sides.”
Asked about the release earlier in
the day of Soviet dissident Anatoly
Shcharansky, Reagan said he “talked
at great length about human rights”
with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorba
chev at their summit last November.
Reagan said he thought there had
been an increase in such emigrations
since then.
On another foreign policy issue,
the president said the United States’
only involvement in the downfall of
Haitian President-for-Life Jean
Claude Duvalier was in “providing
an airplane” to fly him into exile in
France. He said Duvalier did not
seek advice about his departure, and
the United States offered none.
Reagan sidestepped a question of
whether the United States would re
sume aid to Haiti, suspended be
cause of human rights absues under
the Duvalier regime.
See related story , page 15
officials say Tylenol death an isolated poisoning case
Associated Press
YONKERS, N.Y. — A woman
io died of cyanide poisoning after
ing Tylenol capsules, leading
lusands of stores nationwide to
:ethem off their shelves, was mur-
red by someone who placed the
ison inside the package within the
110 days, a county official said
lesday.
Westchester County Executive
drew O’Rourke said at a news
|erence, “We are dealing with a
ieof murder.”
No one has been charged in the
Jth of Diane Elsroth, 23, of Peeks-
Uho died Saturday at her boyf-
nd’s home.
County Chief Medical Examiner
■ Millard Hyland, who appeared
til O’Rourke, did not pinpoint
ten cyanide was introduced into
“We are dealing with a
case of murder. ’’
— Andrew O’Rourke,
Westchester County exec
utive.
the capsules, which left the factory in
August. The potassium cyanide
would eat through a gelatin capsule
in eight to 10 days, he said.
An FBI investigation turned up
no evidence that poison had been
placed in any packages of Tylenol
other than the one used by Elsroth,
Joseph Valiquette, an FBI spokes
man in New York, said.
FBI spokesman Bob Long said in
Chicago there’s no evidence to indi
cate any link between the New York
death and those in 1982.
Authorities announced Monday
Elsroth had been fatally poisoned by
cyanide after taking Tylenol on Sat
urday. Three other capsules in the
bottle she used contained the poison,
officials said.
Yonkers Deputy Police Chief
Owen McClain said there were no
suspects in Elsroth’s killing.
Frank Young, commissioner of
the federal Food and Drug Adminis
tration, said no poison had been
found in other Tylenol bottles.
“There is no evidence of any bot
tles being involved beyond this par
ticular one,” Young said.
Police in Yonkers received only
about half a dozen calls from resi
dents saying they had bottles from
the Tylenol lot number — ADF916,
with a May 1987 expiration date —
that Elsroth used. Her bottle was
bought at an A&P in Bronxville.
The batch, about 200,000 bottles
of 24 capsules each, was shipped
Aug. 22 and by now most of it prob
ably has been sold and used, Robert
Kniffin, a Johnson & Johnson
spokesman, said.
The company advised callers not
to use Tylenol capsules for the next
few days.
Elsroth, who had been spending
the weekend in the home of her
boyfriend, Michael Notarnicola, felt
ill and took two Tylenol capsules
early Saturday, McClain said. The
capsules were from a new bottle that
Notarnicola opened, he said.
Elsroth was discovered dead
ruck like principal's seen near site
New evidence in Fontenot trial
Associated Press
LIVINGSTON — A gas pipeline worker
Uesday said he saw a pickup truck similar to the
leowned by school principal Hurley Fontenot
nerge from the woods April 13, the day after
HyMac Fleming disappeared.
Fleming, 36, a Hull-Daisetta Woodson Junior
igh School football coach, was found dead in
«same woods 10 days later.
William Hulin, 32, a gas controller for Pan
andle Eastern Trunkline Gas Co. of Houston,
id he could not identify the make of the truck
it described it as a dark vehicle with a camper
ell on the back. Fontenot, former principal at
e school, owns a similar truck.
Hulin’s testimony angered defense attorney
ick DeGuerin who asked for a mistrial because
ulin is a friend of a juror.
DeGuerin asked State Disrict Judge John Mar-
' to remove the juror or to . declare a mistrial,
artin, however, denied both motions.
Hulin’s testimony completed the state’s case
ainst Fontenot, 48, who is accused of mur-
hng Fleming. The trial resumes Thursday.
Earlier Tuesday, defense attorneys tried to
show that Fontenot was a good friend of Nu
gent’s and was glad she was marrying Fleming.
Nugent, in her second day of testimony and
wearing a gold chain she received from Fonte
not, said Fontenot also gave her and Fleming a
microwave oven.
Under cross examination, DeGuerin asked
Nugent if in fact Fontenot had jilted her so he
could re-marry his wife. Nugent replied, “yes.”
Nugent described her relationship with Fonte
not as “occasional” from late 1982.
Nugent said her relationship with Fontenot
was based more on their ability to talk to each
other than a sexual relationship because Fonte
not’s heart problems prevented them from eng
aging in frequent sex. By September 1984, she
said, the relationship was no longer romantic and
sexual.
Early in 1985, she said that Fontenot showed
her a wedding ring set although he did not spe
cifically ask her to get married.”
She said he told her later that the rings were
his sister’s and he had them because he had taken
them to get cleaned.
But Dorothy Parsons, Nugent’s best friend.
testified Fontenot called her requesting Nugent’s
ring size.
“He came by my house and showed me the
rings,” Parsons said. “He said his sister went with
him and picked them out.”
When asked who they were for, she said Fon
tenot replied that they were for Laura.
Nugent said the night before Fleming disap
peared, he had talked to his estranged wife,
Lynda, on the telephone. She said that Fleming
had become very upset and angry.
Outside the presence of the jury, Nugent said
Fleming told his wife he was changing the benefi
ciary on his insurance from her name to Laura
Nugent.
The judge, however, refused to allow that con
versation into evidence. The judge also refused
to allow testimony that Fleming had considered
suicide and even had held the gun in his hand
with the idea of taking his own life.
In addition, Martin refused testimony that in
dicated Fleming feared a former business asso
ciate was engaged in arson and drug dealing and
that he may have feared for his own life.
“There is no evidence of
any bottles being involved
beyond this particular
one.”
— Frank Young, federal
Food and Drug Adminis
tration commissioner.
known each other three years. Els
roth worked as a stenographer for a
real estate company. Her father,
John, is a state police investigator.
Police Commissioner Joseph V.
Fernandes said Westchester County
Deputy Medical Examiner Louis
Roh discovered the pain-killer and
cyanide in Miss Elsroth’s body dur
ing an autopsy, and told police the
poison may have been in the Tylenol
capsule.
about 12 hours later, after failing to
appear for breakfast or lunch. No-
tarnicola’s mother swallowed a Tyle
nol from the bottle without ill effect
after the body was found, according
to Marc Moran, a county govern
ment spokesman.
The victim and Notarnicola had
Johnson 8c Johnson said it would
extend credit or an exchange to any
customers who turned in Tylenol
from the batch under investigation.
The company said more informa
tion could be gotten through a toll-
free telephone call to a subsidiary,
McNeil Consumer Product Co., at
800-237-9800.
Number of newborns
with syphilis lower
Associated Press
AUSTIN — A new system of
requiring blood tests during pre
gnancy and within 24 hours after
birth kept more than 500 babies
from being born with syphilis last
year in Texas, state and federal
health officials said.
Texas reported an estimated
35 percent of the nation’s con
genital syphilis cases last year, but
public health officials say that ap
parent high rate reflects the thor
oughness of the state’s reporting
compared with that of other
spates.
In 1985, Texas had 96 cases of
congenital syphilis — in which the
disease contracted by a mother is
passed on to her fetus — a drop
from the 1984 total of 103, which
was 44 percent of the national to
tal.
“There is gross under-report
ing” in other states, said Consuelo
Beck-Sague, an epidemiologist
with the federal Centers for Dis
ease Control in Atlanta. _
The Texas system, which re
quires blood tests during preg
nancy and again within 24 hours
after delivery, last year detected
and led to treatment of more
than 500 pregnant women with
syphilis.
“That’s 500 babies that didn’t
develop congenital syphilis,” said
Joe Pair, director of the venereal
control division of the Texas De
partment of Health.
Texas changed its blood test
law in 1984.
Syphilis’ course is easy to track.
In the short run, the infection can
produce a premature baby or a
stillbirth. In the long run, it can
mean blindness, heart disease or
deformities. »
Frustrated health officials say
that the congenital syphilis rate
See Newborns’, page 15