The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, April 18, 1986, Image 9

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    Friday, April 18, 1986AThe Battalion/Page 9
World and Nation
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Decline in tourism expected
Tourists cancel trips to Europe
NEW YORK (AP) — American
travel agents are reporting increas
ing cancellations to Europe follow
ing the bombing raid on Libya, and a
European official said Thursday
that tourism had been expected to
drop by as much as 30 percent even
before the raid occurred.
“It’s an absolute shame, a tragedy,
that one man that President Reagan
has called ‘the Mad Dog of the Mid
dle East’ is restricting the freedom of
Americans to travel,” said Donald
McSullivan, chairman of the North
American Committee pf the Euro
pean Travel Commission.
McSullivan, whose group rep
resents 23 European national tourist
offices, said travel to Europe in 1985
was up about 16 percent over 1984,
but that rough estimates indicated a
decline of 20 percent to 30 percent
could occur this year.
t he group’s estimates were made
before the bombing raid. McSullivan
said it was too soon to predict what
additional effect the raid might have
on European tourism, already hurt
ing because of recent terrorist acts in
that part of the world. Northern Eu
ropean countries were not expected
to suffer as much as countries closer
to the Mediterranean, he said.
Even with the cancellations, large
numbers of Americans are still ex
pected to go to Europe, some travel
officials said.
“The perception on the part of
people is that terrorism is rampant.
But 6'/l' million Americans go to Eu
rope every year and 10 get killed,
file chances of getting murdered in
(he U.S. are much greater,” said
Conrad Blomberg, president of the
Rocky Mountain chapter of the
American Society of Travel Agents.
Several cruise lines have aban
doned or reduced their Mediterra
nean schedules and are concentrat
ing instead on the Caribbean and the
Pacific Northwest. Americans are
expected to flock to Florida for Dis
ney World and to Vancouver, Brit
ish Columbia, for Expo ‘86, and
cruise operators say their bookings
in those areas are high.
Costa Cruises said its Mediterra
nean cruises generally include about
50 percent Americans, but only
about 30 percent of passengers are
expected to be Americans this sum
mer.
If some Americans have changed
their travel plans out of fear of ter
rorism, others are doing it out of an
ger.
Sherri Goodwin, a South Bend,
Ind., travel agent, said, “I did have
somebody who was planning a trip
to Paris. But they said since the
French would not allow the U.S. to
fly their planes over on Monday
night, they did not want to spend
their money there.”
Mike Drake, general manager of
Empress Travel, a franchise with 75
offices, primarily on the East Coast,
said he wants tourists to boycott
France.
“I have a retail office and I told
my agents to try to disuade someone
who wants to go to France,” he said.
“I’m specifically saying don’t go to
France only in light of France’s refu
sal to allow us to fly in their air
space.”
Bomb explodes in front of U.S. Consulate, injures three
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) — A bomb ex
ploded Thursday night in front of the U.S. Con
sulate, shattering windows and injuring three
passersbys with flying glass, authorities said.
Police said three people, including a Panama
nian, were detained in connection with the 9 p.m.
(10 p.m. EST) explosion in downtown San Jose.
They were not identified.
The U.S. Embassy, which is located on the op*
posite corner of the intersection where the explo
sion occurred, was not damaged. U.S. Ambassa
dor Lew is A. Fambs, who appeared at the site of
the explosion, called it a terrorist act.
James Full, deputy chief at the embassy, told
AP Radio by telephone to Washington: “A device
of some kind went off in the middle of a down
town commercial street in San Jose, between the
building that houses the American consulate and
commercial buildings.
“There w as glass damage on both sides of the
street, but aside from glass damage there was no
damage whatsoever to the consulate. There were
no Americans injured. The police tell us that
there were three passersbys that have been taken
to the hospital with injuries from the explosion
or the falling glass.”
Investigators were searching for an individual
who may have carried the device in a small suit
case. They said the explosive appeared to be
homemade.
Mark Krishchik, spokesman for the U.S. Em
bassy, said the explosion may have been caused
by a hand grenade dropped across the street
from the consulate.
Man's war service
has double twist
during World War II
MADERA, Calif. (AP) — Jake
Sang was in the wrong place at
the wrong time during World
War II.
When Germany invaded the
Soviet Union, Sang was serving in
the Russian Army.
But when Germany neared de
feat, Sang was fighting for the
Germans.
Sang, now credit manager for
an FMC Corp. plant near this
central California city, didn’t
have any choice either time.
He was a native of Estonia,
w'hich in 1940 came under the
control of its eastern neighbor,
the Soviet Union. Sang, then 18,
had spent a year in the Estonian
Army and was ushered into the
Russian Army before the German
invasion.
When the Germans took over
roads he and other Estonians
were supposed to guard, they
headed back home, Sang recalls.
But the Germans caught up with
the Estonians at the border and
sent them to a prison camp, he
adds.
Eight months later, the Ger
mans decided the Estonians
weren’t the enemy and let them
go home.
Sang got married, became an
accountant and let the war pro
gress without him until 1943.
The next twist was a German
invasion of Estonia and a mobili
zation of healthy young men like
Sang into the German Army.
He was shipped to the Russian
front to fight his former com
rades, and suffered a minor
wound at the River Narva as the
Russians chased the Germans af
ter the battle of Leningrad.
Sang was sent home to recu
perate. Worried that the Russians
might consider him a traitor, he
took his wife and son to Germany
on a hospital ship.
Again, he was conscripted into
the military.
He wound up in Czechoslova
kia and surrendered during a lo
cal uprising against the Germans
as the war neared its end in 1945.
Sang spent the next four years
as a prisoner before being re
leased and reunited with his fam
ily. They came to the United
States in 1950.
Boy, 17, dies after drinking cyanide on college TV show
AMHERST, Mass. (AP) — A 17-
year-old boy drank cyanide-laced
Kool-Aid on live, closed-circuit tele-
vison and died on the floor of the
Hampshire College studio while his
brother and friends laughed and
urged him to quit joking, students
said Thursday.
When Andrew L. Hermann re
fused to quit his “act” on the comedy
show, students carried him to a hall.
Security guards later found he was
dead.
According to Philip Jackson, 23,
production manager of the student
broadcast,“Everyone thought it w'as
a joke. No one realized he had actu
ally done it. We’ve had some rather
extreme things on the show. One
time a group of Arabs came on and
hijacked it. Everyone just thought he
was f ooling.”
Hermann's older brother, Ste
phen, a Hampshire student who
served as co-host of the program,
said, “I thought, like everyone else,
that it was just an act.”
Hermann described his younger
brother as a very intelligent youth
w ho was' bored with high school and
had “other problems.”
Lt. David Jankowski said police
were notified of the death by Hamp
shire County Medical Examiner
Donald Abel after the teen-ager was
pronounced dead on arrival at
Cooley Dickinson Hospital in North
ampton shortly after 1 1 p.m.
Wednesday.
Jankowski said,“Cyanide-laced
Kool-Aid is suspected and we feel at
this time the youth mixed and drank
the liquid knowing it was lethal.”
The youth died of acute cyanide in
toxication, according to pathologist’s
tests.
Dr. Thomas Smith, associate chief
medical examiner for western Mas
sachusetts, said it would be some
time before laboratory tests would
be completed to determine how
much cyanide Hermann took and
whether there w'ere any other drugs
in his system.
Police refused to comment on the
suicide reports by Jackson and other
students involved in the production,
w hich was broadcast live to dormito
ries at the 1,2()0-student liberal arts
college.
“All I know is that he died shortly
after a TV show in which he took
part,” said college spokesman Rus
sell Powell. He said college officials
were declining comment on the inci
dent on the advice of counsel.
He said college administration
had not made a decision on
canceling the student show, “Voice
of the Top Two.”
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