Friday, June 26, 1987AThe Battalion/Page 5
World and Nation
Libyan jets flying by U.S. cruiser
force crewmen to battle stations
■WASHINGTON (AP) — Libyan jet fighters,
in the first such overt military move since the
he Bsti;. , U.S. bombing raids last year, twice last week tlew
kingd lfs j 50 near a Navy cruiser in the Mediterranean Sea
^^fctthe ship’s crew was forced to man battle sta-
Hns, Pentagon sources said Thursday.
Pentagon, in a statement in response to a
^^Mxirter's query, confirmed that the Soviet-made
MiG-23 “Flogger” fighter jets approached the
nuclear-powered USS South Carolina twice on
rn* ei7 -
>< / vllBPentagon sources, who spoke on condition
they not be identified, said the flights had forced
J crew of the heavy cruiser to man battle sta
tions both times.
JThe cruiser was steaming with two other
■taller Navy ships in the central Mediterranean,
approximately 100 miles from the Libyan coast-
^lineand above Libya’s so-called “Line of Death,”
at a time when no U.S. aircraft carrier was in the
s region.
r y ■Two Libyan jets first approached the cruiser
h a|wMound 1 pan. local time, flying within seven stat-
! ute miles of the cruiser, the Pentagon said in its
h** iJ!!® 1 ™ 6111, ^ second flight by another pair of
pfiUs occurred around 4 p.m., and that time the
M[hters flew over the ship at an altitude of ap
proximately 6,000 feet, the Pentagon said.
■ In both instances, the fighters had been mon-
abred by the cruiser almost from the moment
they flew northward from Libya over the Medi
terranean, the Pentagon said.
“The aircraft did not demonstrate hostile in
tent,” the Pentagon added.
A Pentagon official, who asked not to be
named, elaborated by saying the MiG’s did not
activate any radar for their weaponry and never
maneuvered into a position to fire missiles.
The South Carolina “took every precaution” as
the planes approached and was prepared to open
fire at a moment’s notice, but the Libyans with
drew without making any threatening moves, the
sources concluded.
The Pentagon declined to confirm the flights
had forced the South Carolina to battle stations,
saying only that the ship “was ready for any even
tuality had the MiG 23’s demonstrated hostile in
tent.”
The Pentagon said the South Carolina had at
tempted to establish radio contact with the Li
byan fighters on both occasions “various times.”
“However, no response was received,” the
Pentagon said.
The sources, ranking officials who agreed to
discuss the matter only if not identified, de
scribed the jet passes as “the first time the Li
byans have come out to sea” since confrontations
that culminated in April 1986 with a night-time
raid by U.S. warplanes on two Libyan cities.
“We assume they just wanted to take a look-
see,” one official said, noting the Navy had filed a
“Notice to Mariners” indicating that U.S. ships
would be conducting an exercise in the area.
The Line of Death is an imaginary line, drawn
by Libyan leader Col. Moammar Gadhafi, across
the top of the Gulf of Sidra. That is a large, U-
shaped body of water that cuts into the center of
Libya.
Gadhafi claims the gulf waters as Libya’s, a
contention adamantly dismissed by the United
States. Early last year, when Navy ships and
planes conducted operations below the Line of
Death, Libya opened fire with surface-to-air mis
siles, prompting retaliatory strikes by Navy
planes on the missile batteries.
In April 1986, after the Reagan administration
determined Libya had helped sponsor a terrorist
attack on a West Germany nightclub frequented
by American servicemen, Navy and Air Force
bombers raided five terrorist facilities inside Li
bya, causing what the Pentagon described as ex
tensive damage to the targets.
Since that raid, Gadhafi has lowered his public
profile amid scattered reports that his grip on the
government was shaky. He suffered another set
back earlier this year when his military was
routed in ground battles with neighboring Chad.
According to the Pentagon sources, activity on
the part of the Libyan air force has also been low
since the U.S. raids, restricted to periodic flights
over land.
tudies show violence is No. 1 killer of youth
Waldheim meets
pope; protesters
shout at Vatican
VATICAN CITY (AP) —
While police kept shouting pro
testers from approaching the Va
tican, Pope John Paul II on
Thursday received President
Kurt Waldheim of Austria at a
controversial audience in the
quiet of the pope’s library.
About 100 people protesting
the pope’s meeting with Wald
heim shouted “Assassin!” and
“Shame!” as Waldheim’s motor
cade crossed cobblestoned St. Pet
er’s Square. One group held up a
makeshift gallows.
The square was closed to tour
ists as part of tight security
around the meeting, which ended
Waldheim’s diplomatic isolation
since he became president of
Austria in July.
After the 35-minute private
audience, which has been de
nounced by Jewish leaders in Is
rael, the United States and else
where, Waldheim said he and the
pope touched on the controversy
over Waldheim’s past.
“Yes, I talked with Pope John
Paul II this morning about the ac
cusations leveled against me
about what I’m alleged to have
done during the war, but in a
marginal way,” Waldheim said.
“The pope knew from the start
the problems that the visit might
raise, but he wished it to take
E lace nonetheless,” he added. He
as denied any wrongdoing.
Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir
of Israel said in Jerusalem that
the meeting “caused us great an
guish,” adding: “We might have
expected better of the Vatican.”
In his speech during the audi
ence, Waldheim said, “As a rep
resentative of a predominantly
Catholic country, it was to me a
special concern, indeed, a heart
felt wish, to pay my first official
foreign visit to the head of the
Holy Roman church, to which I
belong.”
Since his election, Waldheim
has been isolated because of alle
gations he was involved in Nazi
atrocities while serving in the
German army.
The U.S. government has bar
red his entry into the United
States.
(CHICAGO (AP) — Violence, in-
luling car accidents, has become
■ leading killer of the nation’s
I'Oimg people, overwhelming gains
■the last 30 years in medicine’s war
■ fatal disease, according to several
Mdies.
■Three of four 15- to 24-year-olds
fwho die are victims of violence,
■ording to the studies. Accidents,
plmarily auto accidents, account for
■5 percent of the fatalities and re-
Bn by far the leading cause of
dffiith in the age group.
jBut homicide deaths among
young people have climbed 300 per-
ceru in three decades to become the
po. 2 killer, and suicide has climbed
IHn faster over the same period,
|ls(' surpassing disease to become
p about!?)■ third-leading cause of death,
ible crop
)ps
ilo
“My sense is that the threshold
where violent deaths surpassed ill
ness occurred many years ago,” said
Dr. Robert Blum, author of the
study published in Friday’s Journal
of the American Medical Associa
tion.
“But what we tried to highlight
here is how violence has over
whelmed illness to the point where
this age group is the only one whose
health status has not improved over
the last 30 years . . . that now that
we’ve gained some control over or
ganic illness and infectious diseases,
we must learn to cope with different,
but more preventable causes of
death.”
The article by Blum, who is direc
tor of the Adolescent Health Pro
gram at the University of Minnesota,
heads the magazine’s theme issue on
adolescents and health.
He noted that auto accidents ac
count for about 60 percent of all
young people’s accidents, and more
than half those who die are found to
have blood-alcohol levels above the
legal standard for intoxication.
Accident fatality rates in the gen
eral population have declined about
26 percent since 1950, standing at
42.3 deaths per 100,000 population
in 1980. But accident rates involving
15- to 24-year-olds have steadily
climbed, reaching 61.7 deaths per
100,000 by 1980.
“In the next few years, one of ev
ery five adolescents will live at or be
low the poverty level, and this will
have a tremendous effect on mor
bidity and mortality,” Blum said.
“Poverty means poor hygiene, more
adolescent pregnancy, more sub
stance abuse, higher school dropout
rates, more crime. Unless we start
dealing with the underlying causes
of adolescent health problems, we
are simply providing Band-Aids.”
Blum said the scope of the prob
lem is apparent in the staggering
numbers of homicides and suicides
among adolescents.
The homicide rate in the general
population in 1980 was 10.8 per
100,000 population, a 100 percent
increase from 1950. But among 15-
to 24-year-olds, homicide was the
cause in 15.6 deaths per 100,000
people per year. The numbers rose
to 72.5 deaths per 100,000 among
black males, largely because more
blacks fall below the poverty line.
Syrians preparing to raid
Beirut militant strongholds
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — Syrian
troops restricted access to the city’s
Shiite Moslem slums Thursday and
prepared to raid militant strong
holds because kidnappers have not
freed American journalist Charles
Glass.
Sources close to the Syrian com
mand said its 7,500 soldiers in Bei
rut’s Moslem sector were ordered to
prevent suspected Shiite militants
from leaving the south Beirut slums
where many of the 25 foreigners
missing in Lebanon are believed
held.
Fourteen gunmen seized Glass,
Ali Osseiran, son of Lebanon’s de
fense minister, and Osseiran’s driver
June 17 while they drove through a
south Beirut stronghold of the radi
cal Iranian-backed group Hezbollah.
Syria demanded they be freed
and the two Lebanese were released
Wednesday, but Glass remained in
captivity.
No word was available on when
the Syrians might act, but nothing is
likely to happen until Brig. Gen.
Ghazi Kenaan, commander of the
troops in Beirut, returns from Dam
ascus.
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