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Vol. 87 No. 70 GSRS 045360 12 Pages
College Station, Texas
Wednesday, December 9, 1987
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Grad student Andy Nunberg plays his flute to relax Tuesday.
Photo by Mike C. Mulvey
Superpowers sign missile treaty
WASHINGTON (AP) — Presi
dent Reagan and Soviet leader Mik
hail S. -Gorbachev, in a landmark
moment of superpower affairs,
signed a treaty Tuesday banning in
termediate-range nuclear missiles
and began talks that would reduce
See related story, page 9
the number of more threatening
long-range weapons.
There were “no surprises or new
proposals” during the first day of
the three-day summit, an adminis
tration official said Tuesday evening
after both leaders expressed satisfac
tion with the day’s main order of
business.
“We have made history,” Reagan
declared after he and Gorbachev
spent more than three minutes put
ting their signatures — time and
again — into leather-bound volumes
containing the treaty and accompa
nying documents.
The INF treaty gives the super
powers close to three years to de
stroy their arsenals of medium- and
short-range missiles in the 340- to
3,000-mile range. This process al
lows 100 missiles on each side to be
destroyed by launching them with
out their warheads or by dismantling
and exploding their components.
“We can be proud of planting this
sapling which may one day grow into
a great oak of peace,” Gorbachev
proclaimed.
“May December 8th, 1987 become
a date that will be inscribed in the
history books — a date that will mark
the watershed separating the era of a
mounting risk of nuclear war from
the era of a demilitarization of hu
man life,” the Soviet leader said.
After the flay’s summit was over,
Gorbachev hosted a group of about
60 prominent Americans at the So
viet embassy. He appealed for schol
ars and artists to pressure political
figures to forge a “new relationship”
between the superpowers.
CAYUCOS, Calif. (AP) — A fired
airline worker who wanted to kill his
boss smuggled a .44-caliber Mag
num handgun onto a jetliner whose
crew reported gunshots just before a
fiery crash killed all 43 on board,
ABC News reported Tuesday.
The airline confirmed that a fired
USAir employee and his former boss
were on Pacific Southwest Airlines
Flight 1771, which crashed Monday
afternoon. USAir recently bought
PSA.
“At this point it does not appear
that it was an accident,” said Richard
Bretzing, a special agent in charge of
the FBI in Los Angeles. “It appears
at this point — and has yet to be sub
stantiated — that it was a criminal act
on board that caused the craft to
come down.”
In a memo to airline employees,
PSA President Russ Ray said, “We
have no basis to believe that the acci
dent was caused by mechanical rea
sons or a crew error.”
However, a handgun fired aboard
the jetliner wouldn’t necessarily
cause it to crash, said George Dahl-
man, a spokesman for the jet’s man
ufacturer, British Aerospace, at its
American headquarters near Wash
ington, D.C.
“Any kind of penetration of the
fuselage might result in depressuri
zation, but there’s no reason to think
that it would cause this kind of acci
dent,” Dahlman said.
The crew of the flight from Los
Angeles to San Francisco reported
gunfire aboard the plane and smoke
filling the cockpit and radioed the
code for an on-board emergency.
Moments later, witnesses on the
ground saw the flaming four-engine
BAe-146 jet streak in a vertical dive
into the green, oak-studded hills of a
cattle ranch 175 miles northwest of
Los Angeles.
ABC, citing a confidential govern
ment source, said authorities found
a suicide note or recording left be
hind by the former USAir employee.
The man learned that his former
station manager was going to be on
the plane, bought a one-way ticket
and smuggled the gun and Six
rounds of ammunition aboard, us
ing his airline badge to avoid secu
rity checks, ABC said.
USAir spokesman Nancy Vaug
han acknowledged that a 35-year-
old former employee was aboard.
But she said that he had turned in all
his airline identification to USAir
headquarters near Washington,
D.C., and that they had been de
stroyed.
“David A. Burke joined USAir on
June 13, 1973, and was terminated
for misappropriation of funds from
his position as a customer service
agent for USAir at Los Angeles In
ternational Airport on Nov. 19,
1987,” she said.
The name D. Burk, address un
listed and spelled differently than
the name released by USAir, was
listed by PSA as one of the dead.
USAir identified Burke’s former
boss as Raymond F. Thomson, who
was supervisor of customer services
for USAir at Los Angeles Interna
tional Airport, Vaughan and USAir
spokesman David Shipley said. PSA
said Thomson, 48, was on board
Flight 1771, but referred all ques
tions about the criminal investiga
tion to the FBI.
Soldiers shoot down American plane
ABA panel decides
to give Kennedy
their highest rating
MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) —
Sandinista soldiers shot down a
ptane flown by an American linked
to Contra rebels and he may be put
on trial, Defense Minister Humberto
Ortega said Tuesday.
James Jordan Denby, 57, “was
moved to the capital on Monday and
at this time is being interrogated by
state security” about ties with the
U.S.-supported rebels, Ortega told a
news conference.
The Defense Ministry said rifle
fire hit the fuel tank of Denby’s
Cessna 172 and he made an emer
gency landing Sunday at San Juan
del Norte.
Ortega said Denby might be tried,
as was Eugene Hasenfus of Ma
rinette, Wis., but added: “This time
the laws of the country should be ap
plied more severely.”
Hasenfus was captured in Octo
ber 1986 after a Contra resupply
flight was shot down.
Denby was carrying a U.S. pass
port, the ministry said. U.S. Embassy
spokesman Lou Falino said: “We’ve
asked for access to see if the guy is an
American. Right now we’re presum
ing he’s an American.”
Documents Denby was carrying
“confirm his link with the illegal ac-
ua,
of President
tivities of the North American ad
ministration against Nicarag
said Ortega, the brother of Presu
Daniel Ortega.
Official Voice of Nicaragua radio
said documents in Denby’s posses
sion connect him with members of
Congress and John Hull, a U.S. citi
zen living in Costa Rica who often is
linked to the rebels fighting Nicara
gua’s leftist government.
Texas A&M graduate class addresses
problems of worldwide malnutrition
By Jamie Russell
Staff Writer
Hunger and malnutrition are affecting the
world population, and Texas A&M will address
these issues in a graduate class next semester.
The scope of the malnutrition and hunger
problems lies in a number of diverse areas of
:tudy — ranging from economics to genetics,
SH'd Dr. George W. Bates, a professor of bioche
mistry who will be teaching the new class.
“At Texas A&M we are one of the strongest
universities in the area of international involve
ment,” Bates said. “There has been an emphasis
by President Vandiver and others on A&M being
a world-class university; that it’s able to work on
solutions toward global problems.”
To address the issue of world hunger, the de
partment of nutrition is offering an interdiscipli
nary graduate class called Agriculture and Nutri
tion in a Hungry World, NUTR 689, to both
graduate students and non-graduate students
near graduation who have at least a 3.25 GPA.
There are no other prerequisites.
“I’m hoping we’ll get some undergraduates
taking the class,” Bates said. “But we’re aiming
the course at the range of students in the agricul
tural sciences, nutritional sciences and biological
sciences, and even areas such as economics, who
would be interested in the broad, global view of
why we have hunger and malnutrition.”
The class — which has one section in the fall
semester that will be taught on Monday, Wednes
day and Friday at 10 a.m. — will be divided into
three parts and will involve about 20 faculty
members from diverse disciplines.
The faculty members will do several different
guest lectures and contribute to lectures, but the
majority of lectures will be taught by Bates.
Other lecturers include Dr. David N. McMurray
Graphic by Carol Wells
from the Texas A&M Medical School; Dr. Nor
man Borlaug, distinguished professor in soil and
crop sciences who won the Nobel Peace Prize
(1970) for the discovery of the Green Revolution,
and Dr. H.O. Kunkel, dean of the College of Ag
riculture.
The first part of the class will cover the basics
of human nutrition and malnutrition and its his
tory; protein, vitamins and minerals, and mater
nal and perinatal (period right around time of
birth) malnutrition.
“There will be some students who take the
course, we anticipate, who have not had a nutri
tion background,” Bates said in consideration of
such possibilities. “So we will have to bring those
students up to speed, give them the essentials of
nutrition and the description of the nutrition de
ficiency syndromes so we get some concept of
what malnutrition means in biological terms . . .
and the effects on human welfare.”
The second part of the class, world food pro
duction, focuses on the agricultural aspects of
what is happening now and the possibilities for
the future, Bates said. The more food that can be
produced, the less expensive it will be and the
more it will be available for commodity or food
support by the government, he said.
This section will cover such topics as world
food production, food protein sources for the
Third World, and climatology and oceanography
and how it affects food production.
The class concludes with the economic, politi
cal, social and strategic determinants of nutrient
distribution and malnutrition.
“The overall idea in this part is what do cul
ture, environment, economics and politics have
to do with the problem,” Bates said.
The class is open to interested students from
all majors. This will add to discussions and con
versations so the class can have different view
points from students from different disciplines,
Bates said.
“The main goal of the class is to develop an un
derstanding of what the problems are in the way
of malnutrition, where they exist, and what num
bers of people are affected, to develop an under
standing of the reasons that we have malnu
trition, and develop a priority list for attacking
the problems of malnutrition, both in the short
range and long range,” Bates said.
WASHINGTON (AP) — An
American Bar Association panel de
cided unanimously Tuesday to give
Supreme Court nominee Anthony
M. Kennedy its highest rating a week
before the Senate opens hearings on
him.
The ABA panel’s rating of “well
qualified” was a boost for Kennedy, a
federal appeals court judge who is
President Reagan’s third choice to
fill the vacancy on the Supreme
Court.
The Senate Judiciary Committee
plans to start confirmation hearings
next Monday.
The 15-member ABA Standing
Committee on the Federal Judiciary
rated Kennedy, 51, of Sacramento,
Calif., well qualified to serve on the
Supreme Court, Justice Department
spokesman Terry Eastland said. The
other possible ratings were “not op
posed” and “not qualified.”
No senator has announced oppo
sition to Kennedy. All but one of the
women’s, civil rights and civil liber
ties organizations that campaigned
against defeated Supreme Court
nominee Robert H. Bork have re
mained neutral so far.
Only the National Organization
for Women, which opposed Bork,
and the anti-abortion American Life
League have announced opposition
to Kennedy, a 12-year veteran of the
9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
who has written more than 400 opin
ions.
The lack of coordinated opposi
tion and the favorable ABA rating
indicate Senate hearings will open in
a calm political atmosphere, a con
trast to the strong opposition to sec
ond nominee Bork, an appeals judge
who was Reagan’s first nominee for
the vacancy that occurred in June
with the retirement of Justice Lewis
F. Powell Jr. The court has been
meeting with eight justices since
Oct. 5.
A campaign to defeat Bork was
well under way a week before his
hearing began in September, and
word had leaked out that the ABA
panel was seriously divided. Ten
panel members rated Bork well qual
ified, four said he was not qualified
and one member was not opposed.
The well-qualified rating is re
served “for those who meet the high
est standards of professional compe
tence, judicial temperament and
integrity,” according to the ABA
standards. “The persons in this cat
egory must be among the best avail
able for appointment to the Su
preme Court.”
Finals Schedule
Dec. 11 (Friday)
Classes meeting MWF 8 a.m. will have final 8 a.m. - 10 p.m.
Classes meeting MWF 1 p.m. will have final 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Classes meeting TR 8 a.m. will have final 2 p.m. - 4 p.m.
Classes meeting MWF 9 a.m will have final 5 p.m. - 7 p.m.
Dec. 12 (Saturday)
Classes meeting MWF 2 p.m. will have final 8 a.m. - 10 p.m.
Classes meeting TR 9:30 a.m. will have final 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Classes meeting MWF noon will have final 2 p.m. - 4 p.m.
Classes meeting MWF 10 a.m. will have final 5 p.m. -7 p.m.
Dec. 14 (Monday)
Classes meeting MWF 3 p.m. and MW 3 p.m. will have final
8 a.m. - 10 p.m.
Classes meeting TR 11 will have final 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Classes meeting TR 3:30 p.m. will have final 2 p.m. - 4 p.m.
Classes meeting MWF 11 a.m. will have final 5 p.m. - 7 p.m.
Dec. 15 (Tuesday)
Classes meeting TR 2 p.m. will have final 8 a.m. - 10 a.m.
Classes meeting TR 12:30 p.m. will have final 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Classes meeting TR 5 p.m., 5:15 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. will have
final 2 p.m. - 4 p.m.
Classes meeting MWF 4 p.m. will have final 5 p.m. - 7 p.m.
Classes meeting MW 4 p.m., 4:30 p.m., 5 p.m., 5:15 p.m. and
5:30 p.m. will have final 5 p.m. - 7 p.m.