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The Battalion
iWORLD & NATION
Tuesday, November 28,1989
Page 9
Colombian jet explodes
Anonymous telephone caller claims
drug traffickers had bombs implanted
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — A
Colombian jetliner crashed on the
wtskirts of Bogota on Monday
hortly after takeoff, and all 107
)eople aboard were killed. A caller
o a radio station claimed drug traf-
ickers bombed the jet.
Witnesses said the Avianca Air-
ines Boeing 727-100 exploded be-
bre it plunged into a hilly area
rst-plj! outh of the capital, about a mile
rom a neighborhood of slum
itusMouses and factories. Pieces of the jet
leiSj} vere found up to six miles from the
els wen nain point of impact, police said.
Hours later, a man called Radio
Haracol and claimed that a group
ailed The Extraditables blew up the
et to kill five police informants. He
aid the five gave police information
hat led to the discovery of the Me-
iellin drug cartel leader’s hideout.
The man did not identify himself,
Non( ind the claim could not be immedi-
helt ttely authenticated.
“The plane was flying along when
)mer j suddenly it exploded, broke in two
rank in d fell in flames and smoke,” a wit-
[tijnj less, Alfonso Moreno, said in an in
terview with the radio network Cara-
col.
Another witness, Mario Vasquez,
said, “I heard explosions and I
thought there was some problem
with transformers in the electrical
station, but I looked up and saw a
plane explode in the air, and bodies
and pieces of luggage were falling.”
Two Colombian air force pilots in
another plane reported seeing two
explosions on the jet, the director of
Colombia’s Civil Aviation Authority,
Col. Jorge Gonzalez, said.
The airline refused comment on
the reports of explosions. Avianca
spokesman Patricia Duarte said the
plane carried 101 passengers and a
crew of six and that all were killed.
Their nationalities were not immedi
ately known.
No one on the ground was hurt,
spokesmen for Colombia’s Civil De
fense teams said in radio interviews.
Investigators have found no evi
dence of a bomb yet, Col. Edgar
Leal, chief of national police for the
state, said. He also said the flight re
corder had not been found.
Flight 203 was bound for Cali,
about 190 miles southwest of Bo
gota. Cali is the headquarters of one
of Colombia’s biggest cocaine cartels
and has been the site of frequent
bombings and other attacks since the
government declared war on drug
lords in August.
The plane took off from Bogota’s
El Dorado International Airport at
7:15 a.m., and the pilot, Jose Ossa,
told the tower at 7:18 a.m. that ev
erything was normal, Duarte told
the Associated Press. It crashed
shortly afterward.
One witness said he saw black
smoke pouring from one of the
plane’s three engines and then the
plane blew up.
Most of the wreckage was in an
area about 200 feet by 50 feet. The
biggest piece appeared to be about
50 feet long.
Leal said one piece of the jet was
found six miles away. The RCN ra
dio network said a body was found a
half-mile from the main crash site.
: w ■
Mother survives transplant;
it fin;
I Gives part of liver to daughter
iinik
CHICAGO (AP) — Doctors placed a portion of a
mother’s liver into her daughter Monday in the nation’s
"irst living-donor transplant and reported the opera-
ion was going smoothly.
Doctors at the University of Chicago Medical Center,
lowever, said the mother, Teresa Smith, sustained
pleen damage and the organ had to be removed.
The surgery involving Mrs. Smith and her 21-
month-old daughter, Alyssa, is the first liver transplant
iom a living donor in this country, doctors at the hos
pital said.
Hospital spokesman Ed Ernst said the girl went
through a critical period of about 30 minutes without a
liver “very well” before the segment was sutured into
place shortly before 6 p.m. CDT.
“Everything’s going extremely smoothly with the
little girl,” Ernst said.
After suturing the liver segment into place, doctors
ints tiad to flush the preserving fluid out of the segment.
Then they planned to make sure the liver was begin-
hng to work properly before reconnecting blood ves-
iels and bile ducts — a process that could take up to two
tours, Ernst said.
During the surgery, surgeons accidentally damaged
Mrs. Smith’s spleen and had to remove it, Ernst said.
Mrs. Smith was out of surgery at 4 p.m. CDT and was
isted in critical condition in the intensive care unit, al-
in though she is expected to be fine, Ernst said. People can
ive without their spleens, although it may make them
more susceptible to infection, he said.
“She’s fine, a little hurting, she has some pain,” said
Mrs. Smith’s husband, John L. Smith, who visited her
after the surgery.
If successful, the operation could provide a solution
to a severe shortage of organs for children who need
transplants, said doctors at the university hospital.
Alyssa suffers from an often-fatal liver disorder
called biliary atresia, the leading cause for liver trans
plants involving children.
calf
She had been waiting more than a year for a cadaver
liver transplant when the Smiths heard about the hospi
tal’s plans for an experimental living-donor program in
August. Liver transplants from living donors have been
performed only three times — in Brazil, Australia and
Japan. One child has died.
Mrs. Smith went into surgery at 7:35 a.m. CDT to be
gin the operation in which the left lobe of her liver —
about one-third of the organ — was to be transplanted
in her daughter.
“She was as eager to get started as she was a month
ago when we first proposed this to her,” said hospital
spokesman Mary Fetsch. “She has not displayed any
signs of doubt or hesitation.”
“Q
Ohe was as eager to get started as
she was a month ago when we first
proposed this to her. She has not
displayed any signs of doubt.”
— Mary Fetsch,
Hospital spokesman
Dr. Christoph Broelsch led the surgical team in the
two-phase operation. About 3 Vs* hours into the mother’s
operation, doctors prepared Alyssa for the transplant.
Monday’s surgery was complicated by the need to
keep the removed portion of the liver intact, he said.
But he noted the hospital’s doctors had been trans
planting portions of cadaver livers into children since
1984, “with better than 80 percent success.”
A medical ethicist said using a parent as donor raises
some serious questions.
s tit
thev'f
Gandhi dissolves Parliament
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NEW DELHI, India (AP) — The
president dissolved Parliament on
Monday, leaving Prime Minister Ra
jiv Gandhi and a caretaker govern
ment to see India through what
could be weeks of post-election un
certainty.
Gandhi’s Congress Party had
00 Joverwhelming control of Parlia
ment, but voters in the world’s most
populous democracy took it away in
three days of elections that began
Wednesday, and left the party far
short of a majority.
To retain power, Congress must
find partners for what would be the
first coalition government since In
dia became independent of Britain
in 1947.
The prime minister, who won a
landslide victory for the Congress
Party two months after the Oct. 31,
1984, assassination of his mother,
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, was
leading his own race for re-election
to Parliament.
Vote tabulations put Congress
ahead of any single opposition
group, but not far enough to govern
Ruling party
loses majority
in last election
alone.
The party of Gandhi’s grandfa
ther, Jawaharlal Nehru, has been
out of power only once — for 29
months that began after an election
loss in 1977 to an alliance that later
came apart. The prime ministers
during those 29 months were Moraji
Desai and Charan Singh.
President Ramaswamy Venkata-
raman took the first step toward a
coalition Monday by dissolving Par
liament, on the Cabinet’s recommen
dation. Parliament normally is dis
solved before elections, but Indian
law does not require it.
Growing opposition to Gandhi’s
leadership was reported within his
party.
“If Congress wants to win any
thing, the prime minister must go,”
said Bhabani Sen Gupta, an inde
pendent analyst. “With Rajiv Gan
dhi, very few things are possible.
Without Rajiv Gandhi, many things
are possible.”
When all votes are counted, the
president probably will ask the party
with the most seats to try to assemble
a majority in the 543-seat Lok Sabha,
or House of People, the lower house
of Parliament where the power lies.
Many opposition leaders argued
the president should turn to the
party or alliance with the most popu
lar support, regardless of the num
ber of seats involved.
The two largest opposition
groups, the five-party National
Front and the right-wing Hindu
Bharatiya Janata (Indian People’s)
Party, opened talks on a forming a
coalition.
Yashwant Sinha, spokesman for
the Janata Dal, or People’s Party,
said, “The National Front will form
the next government.”
JU.S. lodges protest with Soviet Union
over alleged attempt to ship weapons
WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department said
oday it lodged a strong protest with the Soviet Embassy
:oncerning the “dangerous escalation” created by Nica
ragua’s alleged attempt to ship Soviet-bloc weaponry to
leftist rebels in El Salvador.
Department spokesman Margaret Tutwiler said the
Central American issue, as a result of the abortive
veapons delivery attempt, will become a prime area of
liscussion when President Bush meets with Soviet Pres-
| ident Mikhail S. Gorbachev on Dec. 2-3 in the Mediter-
anean off Malta.
The protest note deplores the “dangerous escalation
[>f conflict, contrary to Soviet assurances,” Tutwiler
said.
She added that Bush will press the Soviets “to take ac
tion to ensure their allies (Nicaragua and Cuba) cease
this outrageous behavior.”
The note was delivered to the Soviet charge d’af
faires at 7 p.m. Saturday by Robert Kimmitt, the under
secretary of state for political affairs, and Bernard
Aronson, the assistant secretary for inter-American af
fairs.
Delivery of the note on a Saturday evening reflected
the concern with which the United States views the
weapons shipment, Tutwiler said.
The note was sent just hours after Salvadoran mili
tary authorities said they discovered two light planes in
El Salvador that were delivering shoulder-fired missiles
to the leftist rebels.
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The Financial Services and Consulting Arm of the Trammell Crow Company,
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will be interviewing for the position of
FINANCIAL ANALYST
in four principal areas of
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Aggie Democrats
present
Ron De Lord
(candidate State Senate)
Jim James
(candidate State Representative)
&
Ron Gay
(chairman Brazos County Democratic Party)
Wednesday November 29,1989
8:30 p.m. 504 Rudder Tower
★ *
“7Ac "t/atieif (^Acnatc
‘frte&cHta.
Pinkham...Sinfonia Sacra, Jess Wade II, Conductor
Mendelssohn.. .Italian Symphony
Vaughan Williams.. .Donna Nobis Pacem
Franz Anton Krager, Music Director and Conductor
Thursday, November 30,1989
8:00 p.m.
Rudder Auditorium, TAMU
Individual Ticket Prices
Adu R $12.00
Student/Sr. Citizen $10.00
Childern under 12 $8.00
Student Balcony $5.00
Parking Available. Present ticket or parking
Tickets Available: pass for parking in Lot #62 with shuttle
MSC Box Office (845-1234) service to Rudder Autitorium before and
Dillard s Ticketron after the performance.
For More Information
Call 776-BVSS
The Advantage is yours
with a Battalion Classified.
Call 845-0569