Friday, October 9, 1987/The Battalion/Page 11
World and Nation
Iran attacks Japanese tanker
in Persian Gulf, wounding three
I MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — An
■Iranian vessel attacked a Japanese
■tanker Thursday in the Persian
"Gulf, wounding three crewmen and
starting a fire in the engine room.
The Tomoe 8, a 9,400-ton chemi
cal tanker flying the Panamanian
flag, was hit by what the captain
called a “gunboat missile.” The at
tack came the day after Japanese
hip owners lifted a suspension that
kept their tankers from operating in
the gulf for a week.
Iraq reported its seventh air strike
an Iranian coastal shipping in four
days. There was no immediate con-
lirmation from maritime executives
aased in the gulf, where Iran and
m,
Iraq have been at war since Septem
ber 1980.
France said its mine-hunting ships
found two more mines in the Gulf of
Oman, just south of the Persian Gulf
on the other side of the narrow
Strait of Hormuz. Iran has been
blamed for laying mines in both bod
ies of water.
In response to the French report,
some companies ordered their ships
away from the area, a major coastal
anchorage for ships bound to and
from the Persian Gulf, shipping
sources in the United Arab Emirates
said. A U.S.-operated supertanker
hit a mine there in August.
Iran said an American warship
tried to force one of its patrol planes
to change course, which the Iranians
called a violation of international
law. Prime Minister Hussein Musavi
said Iran was “quite prepared to con
front a U.S. aggression.” He re
peated the frequent threat that con
tinued Iraqi attacks on Iranian oil
targets would expose all ships and
petroleum installations in the Per
sian Gulf to possible retaliation.
Both Iran and Iraq have attacked
foreign ships during their seven-
year war. The U.S. Navy began es
corting 11 Kuwaiti tankers in July to
protect them from Iran, which con
siders Kuwait an ally of Iraq. Ship
ping agents said the Tomoe 8 re-
E orted that it was attacked after
eing stopped by the Iranians and
questioned about its destination.
Salvage executives said the cap
tain sent a distress signal and a re
port that an Iranian boat fired a
“gunboat missile” at 9:25 a.m., set
ting the engine room afire and
wounding three members of the 23-
man Burmese crew. A salvage tug
reached the damaged ship, about 60
miles east of the Saudi port of Jubail,
in late afternoon, the shipping
sources said. All spoke on condition
of anonymity.
Group says deadly chemical carried
across U.S. threatens to spark disaster
)wn
:ation
/si-
WASHINGTON (AP) — A toxic rocket fuel
omponent that the Air Force is shipping by
ruck around the country threatens a “Bhopal on
jur highways,” an environmental group charged
Thursday.
The chemical, nitrogen tetroxide, is as toxic as
nethyl isocyanate, the pesticide raw material that
illed more than 2,000 people and injured about
00,000 in a leak from a Union Carbide Co.
ilant, in Bhopal, India, in December 1984, Fred
Pillar of the Environmental Policy Institute said.
Transport of the chemical along the routes
[how being used is endangering an estimated 11
million people in 41 cities, he said. In Texas, ma
jor cities on or near the routes used in the rocket
fuel component, according to the Environmental
i simple,
\j you
ces of
ispital.
pital &
:ontinues
n
Electing
it to the
Brazos
Policy Institute, include Longview, Mesquite,
Dallas, Fort Worth, Abilene, Midland, Odessa
and El Paso.
“We’re trying to deal with this before we have
a Bhopal on our highways,” Millar said, adding,
“This stuff is extraordinarily dangerous.”
Millar said the institute, a Washington-based
advocacy group that lobbies on behalf of envi
ronmental causes, has urged the Air Force to
change routes to avoid populated areas, consider
relocating the manufacturing plant and ship the
chemical in the form of a non-volatile gel.
Fifty parts per million of nitrogen tetroxide is
“immediately dangerous to life and health,” and
lethal doses can be inhaled without much irrita
tion, he said.
“You could be exposed to it right now and not
know it and then go home and die tonight or
next week,” he said.
The Air Force “thinks they’re handling this
with adequate care,’'’ Millar said. “Frankly, they
don’t want the public attention. They just want it
to be shipped through like it’s peanut butter.”
The institute’s efforts alone haven’t solved the
problem, so the institute has written the mayors,
city councils and fire authorities in the 41 cities,
mostly in the Southeast, the South, the Southwest
and California, urging them to take action
against accidents involving the chemical.
Reagan taps
deputy to step
into Dole's job
WASHINGTON (AP) — Presi
dent Reagan on Thursday nomi
nated James H. Burnley IV, a
federal transportation official
who has clashed with senators
about aviation safety, to succeed
Elizabeth Dole as secretary of
transportation.
Reagan also announced that he
is nominating Mimi Dawson, a
former congressional staff mem
ber who has been a member of
the Federal Communications
Commission since 1981, to suc
ceed Burnley as deputy secretary
of transportation.
Both nominations must be ap
proved by the Senate.
Drew Lewis, Reagan’s first sec
retary of transportation and now
chairman and chief executive of
ficer of Union Pacific Corp.,
praised the nomination of Burn
ley, who has been deputy secre-
tary since 1983.
Chinese authorities order
reporters out within 48 hours
CHENGDU, China (AP) —
Chinese authorities Thursday or
dered Western reporters out of the
Tibetan capital of Lhasa, where po
lice reinforcements prevented inde
pendence protests that have left at
least 14 people dead.
Telex and telephone communica
tions remained cut for the second
day and journalists’ reports were
carried out to Chengdu, in Sichuan
province.
The journalists arrived in Lhasa
after violent demonstrations Sept.
27 and Oct. 1 that were led by
Buddhist monks loyal to Tibet’s
exiled spiritual and former temporal
leader, the Dalai Lama.
Yu Wuzhen, director of Tibet’s
Foreign Affairs Office, told the re
porters to leave within 48 hours for
violating a little-publicized reporting
regulation, according to reports
reaching Chengdu.
The Chinese government said six
Chinese policemen were killed in
street battles Oct. 1, and Western
doctors traveling in Lhasa said at
least eight Tibetans also were killed.
Yu, who called the reporters to
gether in a hotel room in the Ti
betan capital of Lhasa, said the 14
journalists from the United States,
Britain, Italy, West Germany, Can
ada and Australia failed to apply 10
days in advance for permission to
cover news there.
A statement from the Dalai La
ma’s office in New Delhi called on
world leaders to try to stop “Chinese
suppressive measures” against Ti
betans.
Wall Street Journal correspon
dent Adi Ignatius said reporters at
the meeting with Yu argued they
had never seen the regulation he
cited. He said they asked why Yu
and others in his office earlier gave
interviews to some of them if their
presence was illegal.
“That’s secret,” he quoted Yu as
saying.
An Associated Press report car
ried from Lhasa on Thursday by a
Western tourist said the city was
quiet Wednesday, the 37th anniver
sary of the Chinese Red Army’s ad
vance into Tibet.
Tibetan monks had said they
hoped to hold a protest on Wednes
day, but authorities bolstered secu
rity forces with more than 1,000
armed police from other cities and
put road blocks around the monas
teries.
A pool report carried out of Lhasa
by Ignatius said many shops in the
city were closed Wednesday. At one
point, a 20-truck convoy, including
13 vehicles packed with more than
300 heavily armed police, drove
through the city in a dramatic show
of force.
Ortega criticizes U.S., demands direct talks
UNITED NATIONS (AP) —
president Daniel Ortega of Nicara-
ja accused the United States on
hursday of having no regard for
jlstice in his country and repeated
| his demand for direct peace negotia-
1 lions with Washington.
The six-member U.S. delegation
hiked out of the General Assembly
" early in a harshly critical speech
during which Ortega said, to hearty
applause: “Let President Reagan re-
■11 that ‘Rambo’ exists only in the
movies.”
Ortega repeatedly attacked Rea
gan for asking Congress to vote
more aid for rebels fighting Nicara
gua’s leftist Sandinista government,
claiming the request defies a peace
accord signed by the five Central
American presidents Aug. 7.
Reagan said in a speech Wednes
day to the Organization of American
States that he was asking for $270
million in new aid to the U.S.-backed
rebels, known as Contras, to make
sure the Sandinistas honor the peace
plan.
When Ambassador Vernon A.
Walters led the U.S. delegation out
of the chamber, Ortega declared:
“Some people find their ears hurt
when the truth is spoken and they
are incapable of listening.” Again,
there was a round of applause.
The Nicaraguan president spoke
from notes, not a prepared text.
Much of what he said concerned
Reagan’s speech to the Organization
erf American States, in which he
urged the Sandinistas to negotiate a
cease-fire with the Contras, expel all
Cuban and Soviet forces, establish
“full democracy” and restore free
dom of the press.
At a news conference after his
speech, Ortega said La Prensa,
which is Nicaragua’s only opposition
newspaper and has been allowed to
resume publishing, might be closed
again if it supports Reagan’s request
for more Contra aid. It was shut
down last year for criticizing the gov
ernment.
ike vie** 1
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EXTERNAL AFFAIRS MEETING
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in 503 Rudder
Come in and join our different programs!
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SB FRAT RAT
WORLD SERIES
HERE ARE THE FOLLOWING MATCHUPS FOR
THE WORLD SERIES WHICH WILL START AT 4:00
P.M. AT CENTRAL, FRIDAY OCTOBER 9TH.
ALPHA DELTA PI - PHI DELTA THETA
KAPPA KAPPA GAMMA - FIJI
CHI OMEGA - KAPPA ALPHA
ALPHA GAMMA DELTA - SIGMA NU
DELTA ZETA - PI KAPPA ALPHA
KAPPA ALPHA THETA - BETA THETA PI
ALPHA PHI - TAU KAPPA EPSILON
PI BETA PHI - SIGMA PHI EPSILON
ZETA TAU ALPHA - SIGMA ALPHA EPSILON
ZETA PLEDGES - KAPPA SIGMA
SIGMA CHI - ALPHA CHI OMEGA