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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 8, 1989)
T*IS’‘S4?"D __ 1 ne ESattalion WEATHER TOMORROW S FORECAST: Partly cloudy and hot with a slight chance of rain in the afternoon. HIGH: 90s LOW: 70s Vol. 88 No. 183 USPS 045360 6 Pages College Station, Texas Tuesday, August 8,1989 l . UIe detai la, 'ian ^ort I d U.S le Ir aniarj ; ,,k niomb la P s ed and ' S' v e ih t 11 yielded' ‘‘gence, pi lra, 'ian .V P^ian C, nie rican i :)nt 'ng the rces confe 11 -mian t a,T este(i id the In. hose mer- LnitedSa ‘ °f the le?: “ countn •nts. rs protestet Commerce ioming, osbacher, ties in [lit s with si:.; c rying bull rganiaerof said, 'Tliiif front us will tree shriwl ed compfe trawling than wilt s loathe, inly TEDs ■y fromcS thecentuf (udgeTte . ordered* ecting se; in shriiK s expects metre try rules. ; TEDs eir nets i 1 times. U.N. official: Releasing hostages may take years BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — A se nior U.N. envoy expressed optimism Monday about chances of freeing Western hostages in Lebanon, but predicted “a long process of quiet and patient diplomacy.” Algeria’s ambassador, who has acted as an intermediary, said get ting the hostages released might take a year or more. Israel on Monday rejected a new demand for release of a kidnapped Lebanese Shiite cleric and urged Shiite radicals to use the Red Cross to arrange a hostage-prisoner swap. Israeli officials said the government would only accept a deal if three Is raeli soldiers were included. President Bush was described by White House press secretary Marlin Litzwater as “cautiously optimistic” about the American hostages in Leb anon. However, Litzwater said, “He knows that it’s probably going to be a longer period of time rather than shorter” before the matter is re solved. “Certain tendencies, certain trends in the international climate . . . suggest that circumstances may be more conducive to a settlement to the hostages problem now than they have been sometime in the past,” said Marrack Goulding, U.N. under secretary-general for peacekeeping operations. “Many governments and organi zations will have to take part,” he said. It will be a cooperative effort. FBI: Terrorists killed Higgins WASHINGTON (AP) — LBI analysts have concluded that the body hanging from a rope in a vi deotape released by Lebanese ter rorists is that of hostage Marine Lt. Col. William R. Higgins, Pentagon sources said today. “It is our understanding that the study is concluded. . . . Evidently, they have concluded that the figure in the tape is Rich (Higgins) and that he is dead,” said a Pentagon official, who spoke on condition he not be identified. The sources said the study was not able to pinpoint the cause of death or when it occurred. Higgins, head of a 75-member United Nations peacekeeping team, was kidnapped in south Lebanon on Leb. 17, 1988. His captors claimed last Monday that he had been hanged in retaliation for Israel’s re fusal to release a kidnapped Moslem cleric. There have been some theories that Higgins could have been killed as long as a year ago, after a U.S. Navy ship shot down an Iranian air liner. A videotape of a figure, hanging by his neck, bound and gagged, was released last Monday as supposed evidence of Higgins’ death. The LBI conducted the study of the tape and was expected to release a statement about the review later to day, the sources said. But forensic experts who exam ined the tape said the body shown on the tape could have been someone who was dead for a while and not someone who had been killed on Monday, as the kidnappers claimed “It’s a very difficult and very com plicated problem in which there are a large number of elements and a large number of players involved,” Goulding said in Beirut after five days of meetings in Lebanon and Syria. Goulding met Monday in west Beirut with Salim Hoss, premier of a Moslem Cabinet that vies for power with a Christian government, and Sheik Mohammed Hussein Ladlal- lah, spiritual adviser of the funda mentalist Shiite Moslem group Hez bollah, or Party of God. See Hostages/Page 4 Leland’s whereabouts unknown after plane misses planned stop ipuS e sexual male wear feniale de,” jafeifotf )S virus larges' ege stu ® transnif mta ct ' 11 aeis^ bull' up >dy Ouch! Junior Ingraham Thompson puts his money where his mouth is while teaching freshman Kathrine Dresser how to play Hacky-sack Photo by Phelan M. Ebenhack Monday on the Polo fields. The Hacky-sack hit Thompson in the mouth. A&M Honors Program grads receive top graduate schools bids, fellowships By Cindy McMillian STAFF WRITER Graduates of Texas A&M’s Uni versity Honors Program are receiv ing top bids from graduate schools around the nation, according to data gathered on May’s graduating class. Of the 50 graduates who were named either University Honors graduates, University Undergrad uate Fellows or both, more than 80 (iom oses t percent are immediately pursuing rheAlPj re homfr xual-f Vell0' vj vef' )ost-graduate study, many with arge fellowships. The list of grad uate schools includes Harvard Uni versity, Dartmouth College, Cam bridge University, Stanford University, Johns Hopkins Univer- Ifsity, Cornell University and the Uni- ■ versity of California at Berkeley. These students were at the tops of 50 '‘!f| their classes at A&M in both academ- , giics and campus leadership positions, 1 g|Honors Program director Dale Kno- ins, ’plbel said. The class includes a recipi- jate **Mentof a Junior Lulbright Fellowship ;en JjIBfor international study, four recipi- ents of National Science Foundation Fellowships for graduate study and the University’s 1989 Rhodes Schol arship nominee. Thirty-five members of the class shared 75 different undergraduate scholarships worth more than $325,000, including President’s En dowed Scholarships and National Merit Scholarships. Director Dale Knobel said the rec ognition students earn as graduates of the Honors Program provides them with remarkable credentials for graduate study or post-graduate employment. Nine members of the class began their careers immediately after grad uation with leading employers such as Rockwell International, Trammel Crow, Arthur Andersen, and Shear- son, Lehman, Hutton. Several others will attend medical and dental school at Washington University, Baylor University, Texas A&M University, McGill University and the University of Texas. University Honors graduates have completed 36 or more hours of chal lenging Honors coursework, and University Undergraduate Fellows complete a full year of Honors re search culminating in a Senior Hon ors Thesis. The graduates represent 19 major fields of study in the Colleges of Lib eral Arts, Science, Engineering, Ag riculture and Life Sciences, Veteri nary Medicine, Architecture and Environmental Design, and Business Administration. More than 90 percent of the stu dents were placed on the Deans’ Honor Roll (GPR of 3.75 or above) or named Distinguished Students (GPR of 3.25-3.74) during their last semester of studies. HOUSTON (AP) — U.S. Rep. Mickey Leland was among six Amer icans reported overdue Monday on a plane trip that was taking the dele gation on tours of refuguee camps in the southern Sudan in Africa, his of fice said. Leland, 44, a Democrat from Houston, is chairman of a select House subcommittee on hunger. He is in his sixth two-year term. “We do have information from the State Department that he is over due,” Alma Newsom, a spokesman in Leland’s Washington office said. “But I need to put that in perspec tive. I think it’s too early to raise any alarms until morning.” Leland left for Africa on Satur day. Newsom said it was unlikely she would learn anything further until 3 a.m. EDT, due to the seven-hour time difference. “There’s no way we could talk with him,” she said. “He does not check in and there’s no reason for him to check in with us.” Newsom, who said she was not overly concerned, said communica tions were poor and individuals on the trip could not readily pick up a telephone or cable to say they were changing plans. “For all practical purposes, they’re cut off,” she said. “They’re going to be overdue all night. They’re going to be overnight in the camp.” She said Leland and five others, including members of his staff and officials from relief organizations, were late in departing Monday from Rep. Mickey Leland Addis Ababa, Ethiopia because of bad weather. “My guess is once enroute, the camp that was the original destina tion! was too far and they opted to go to a different camp,” Newsom said. “Even at that, once they got on the ground and began their tour, they simply ran out of time to end their tour and get back.” She said pilots were very strict about adhering to a 5 p.m. curfew to return to Addis Ababa. “If they feel they can’t get back by that time, then you stay where you are overnight,” she said. “They sim ply will not fly. And at that point, they’re overdue.” She described Leland’s presence in Africa as a humanitarian mission. “There has been a very big effort to bring relief into southern Sudan, and he’s been a part of that,” she said. “The mission he’s on involves visits to refugee camps.” The normal routine calls for Le land and the delegation to leave Ad dis Ababa each morning, tour the camps and then return. “For the most part, it’s not easy to do the day trips but that’s the way they’ve been doing them,” she said. Newsom said she went on a simi lar trip in April and encountered similar difficulties. “We’re not concerned,” Timmie Jensen, a spokesman for the hunger committee said. “I think it’s prema ture to be concerned because it’s night time. They do not fly at night.” “This kind of thing comes up when you fly in the bush. She said Leland was aboard a plane known as a Twin-Otter, oper ated by the Relief and Rehabilitation Commission of Ethiopia. “They have experienced pilots and do a lot of relief flying,” she said. “Congressman Leland certainly knows the area. He’s visited some of these areas and is familiar with the whole situation.” At Leland’s Houston office, staff ers were taking the incident in stride, she said. 50 $5£ no ^ 00 0 NAACP requests Clements name black to police panel AUSTIN (AP) — A civil rights leader Monday called on Gov. Bill Clements to appoint a black to the state police licensing commission to ease tensions between black commu nities and local police. “I think when you have air so thick that you can cut it with a knife, like you do in some cities in Texas right now, that stems directly back to the police department,” said Gary Bledsoe, president of the Austin chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. “What happened in Miami could happen in Dallas,” he said, referring to riots in Miami earlier this year that followed the shooting of a black by police. Bledsoe and Michael Tippitt, president of the Texas Peace Offi cers Association, urged Clements to appoint a black to the Texas Com mission on Law Enforcement Offi cer Standards and Education. A black has never served on the 24-year-old commission, Bledsoe said. The panel licenses peace offi cers, reserve officers and jailers and sets minimum standards for educa tion and training. A black commission member would make others sensitive to the problems in minority communities and help reduce violence between See Commission/Page 4 ‘Troublefree’ Columbia will launch spy satellite CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) —Columbia, earthbound for SVa years and cannibalized for parts to keep other space shuttles flying, was pronounced troublef- ree Monday and ready for a Tuesday morning launch to put a high-powered spy satellite in or bit. “Everything is on schedule, there are no constraints to launch,” said Lisa Malone, a NASA spokesman at the Ken nedy Space Center. Everything about the mission, except the names of the all-male, all-military crew, was secret — in cluding time of liftoff, length of mission and the cargo in the shut tle’s 60-foot-long hold. NASA said only that the liftoff would be between 7:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. EDT. The most likely time was a few minutes before 8. Military missions in the past have lasted only four days, but this one is expected to remain aloft a day longer to test the shuttle’s control systems, unused for 3'A years. NASA conducted its count down in secret. The clocks scat tered around the Kennedy Space Center were to be lit up just nine minutes before launch. NASA Space shuttle Columbia’s mission at a glance CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) —Here, at a glance, are the facts and figures about the 30th space shuttle mission: Spaceship: Columbia, on its eighth flight and first in 3!/2 years. Launch: Between 7:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. EDT Tuesday. Exact time not released because Columbia carries a classified Defense Department payload, which sources say is a photographic reconnaissance satellite. Landing: At Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., time and date not released. Flight is expected to last five days. Crew: Air Force Col. Brewster Shaw, Jr., 44, com mander; Navy Cmdr. Richard N. Richards, 42, pilot; Navy Cmdr. David C. Leestma, 40; Army Lt. Col. James C. Adamson, 43, and Air Force Maj. Mark N. Brown, 37. Next flight: Atlantis, on Oct. 12, with a five-per son crew to deploy the Galileo probe, which is to or bit the planet Jupiter. will provide only minimal an nouncements during the flight, including the time of landing at Edwards Air Force Base in Cali fornia. Sources said the astronauts will launch a 20,600-pound satellite, capable of gathering photo graphic and electronic images of the Soviet Union, China, the Mid dle East and other areas of mili tary interest. The satellite, traveling over much of the inhabited world, is able to take highly detailed pho tographs of troop movements. military installations and the like, according to the sources. The sources also said the shut tle’s cargo bay holds a package of scientific experiments for military research, built by NASA at its Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. Columbia is the grand old man of space shuttles. It was the first of the flying orbiters and com pleted five missions in 1981 and 1982 before the second ship, Challenger, joined the fleet. Co lumbia flew once in 1983 and once in 1986, completing its 7th and last mission 10 days before the Challenger explosion. But Columbia became out dated as the newer ships came along. And when the fleet got its complete overhaul during the 2'/2-year post-Challenger hiatus, Discovery and Atlantis got pre ferred treatment. Columbia was used as a parts source until mod ernizing began last November. “We will have a certain sense of deja vu when Columbia lifts off,” said Dick Young, a NASA spokes man. “Columbia is the first of a kind and we’re glad to see it back in flight.”