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Thursday, March 8,1990
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Explosion
in Frankfurt
kills eleven
FRANKFURT, West Germany
(AP) — A gas explosion and a fire
in an Asian restaurant in down
town Frankfurt killed at least 11
people and injured six others
Wednesday evening, officials
said.
Frankfurt fire brigade chief
Guenter Burbaum told reporters
at the scene that the blaze broke
out about 8:40 p.m. (1:40 p.m.
GST) and gutted the “Koryo”
Chin£se-Korean restaurant on
the second floor of a five-story
building near Frankfurt’s Cathe
dral.
Burbaum said a gas explosion
in the restaurant’s kitchen was be
lieved to have triggered the fire,
which he said had left at least 1 1
people dead and six others in
jured.
Police and witnesses said the
injured included restaurant
guests who tried to escape the
flames by jumping from win
dows. Most of the victims ap
peared to be restaurant guests,
police said.
Hostage reports give hope
News from Lebanon hints at Americans’ release
WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State James A.
Baker III said Tuesday he was unable to judge reports
suggesting that American hostages in Lebanon will be
freed soon but added that the existence of such specu
lation is encouraging.
Baker, asked if the administration had reason for op
timism about the hostages, replied, “I don’t know. 1
mean, you’re asking me if all the smoke out there
means there is a fire.”
“We certainly hope that the hostages will be re
leased,” he added. “We’d like to see anybody that could
have influence in that regard weigh in.”
Baker commented at the State Department about the
latest in a string of reports in Iranian newspapers, as
well as optimistic assessments by Syrian officials, sug
gesting that the long hostage ordeal may be ending.
The Tehran Times, a newspaper close to Iran’s pres
ident, said in an editorial that 1990 would be the last
year of captivity for the hostages.
The report also said resumption of U.S.-Iranian ties
was not a precondition for the hostages’ release.
State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler,
commenting on speculation about the hostages, said, “I
don’t know why this many rumors are out here. I don’t
have an explanation for that.”
Baker, asked by reporters if he were encouraged by
statements from Iran, said, “We don’t have any better
way ofjudging that right now, frankly, than you do. We
see what is coming across here, and we are encouraged
by the fact there is speculation. Let’s see if that specu
lation proves out.”
A senior administration official, speaking on condi
tion of anonymity, said, “We see a lot of stuff going on.
“It’s kind of like watching a lot of action under a
blanket,” the official added. “We’re not quite sure who’s
doing what to whom.”
“We’re hopeful,” the official said. “We don’t know
enough to be optimistic.”
White House press secretary Marlin Fitzwater, asked
We certainly hope that the hostages
will be released. We’d like to see anybody
that could have influence in that regard
weigh in.”
— James A. Baker III,
secretary of state
about the latest Tehran Times report, said, “It’s just
pretty hard to judge it. We certainly hope it’s true.”
Eighteen Westerners, including eight Americans, are
being held captive in Lebanon.
While saying there is nothing to suggest an imminent
release of the hostages, the administration says there
are a lot of talks going on behind the scenes by officials
outside the U.S. government.
GOP strategist claims Bush almost guaranteed second term
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WASHINGTON (AP) — By Republican calcu-
I lation, any Democrat who wants to challenge
| President Bush for the White House in 1992
.■should be at work by now, piling up primary
I campaign money at a rate of about $250,00 a
I week. None is, and a GOP strategist claims that
R just about concedes Bush a second term.
Ed Rollins acknowledges his is a partisan anal-
I ysis. It is a wishful one, too, with the next presi-
I dential election more than 30 months away. As
I Bush has said, popularity ratings that soar, as
I they have in his case, also can plummet.
Nevertheless, the political circumstances of
I 1990 may do what political reformers long have
advocated, and abbreviate the campaign for the
White House. The standard campaign plan has
been based on an early, usually undeclared start
j by a presidential candidate, especially one run
ning against an incumbent president.
It isn’t happening this time.
The prospective challengers all have other
things to do. In the last two elections in which in
cumbents were unseated, the winners, Democrat
r alleg'
Jimmy Carter and, four years later, Republican
Ronald Reagan were fulltime campaigners, for
mer governors without other duties.
With the public opinion polls putting Bush at
record approval ratings, running against him
doesn’t look like an inviting assignment at this
point. That may change; the law of political grav
ity will pull the poll ratings down eventually. But
if Bush can go into his next campaign at anything
even approaching his current standing, the odds
will belong against his challenger.
So a waiting game makes sense for Democrats,
especially those with the ambition to run but the
option of waiting until 1996 to do it. And that
means most of them.
There’s also an increased demand for pre-sea
son fund raising in 1992, with costly California in
the process of moving its primary election from
the end of the schedule to near the beginning.
That means assigning the biggest single bloc of
nominating votes in March instead of June.
It will send Democratic contestants into the
most expensive of primary campaigns in a state
in which Jesse Jackson gained 35 percent of the
Democratic primary vote in 1988. Jackson has
just announced that he won’t run for mayor of
Washington, which probably means that he will
run a third time for the Democratic nomination.
The new calendar works in his favor. The leadoff
states, Iowa and New Hampshire, are not his ter
ritory — his 1988 percentages there were in sin
gle digits. But California would quickly eclipse
them, and the southern Super Tuesday prima
ries follow that.
That raises the prospect that the Democratic
nominee would have to get around a strength
ened Jackson, trying not to alienate his black and
liberal constituency, and struggling to stay near
enough to the political center to have a chance
against an incumbent Republican.
Rollins, co-chairman and operational chief of
the Republican congressional campaign commit
tee, said “we expect at this point for George Bush
to have a tremendous victory. ... Democrats are
almost conceding,” he told the National Associa
tion of Home Builders.
JERUSALEM (AP) — Vice
Premier Shimon Peres on Tues
day threatened to bring down the
government unless Israel’s Cab
inet gives immediate approval to
U.S. proposals for starting a dia
logue with Palestinians.
The decision-making inner
Cabinet is scheduled to meet
“I
L-abor ministers
demand... a discussion
and decision on a positive
answer to the questions
U.S. Secretary of State
(James A. Baker III)
presented to Israel.”
— Shimon Peres,
vice premier
Wednesday, with Peres’ center-
left Labor Party and Prime Min
ister Yitzhak Shamir’s right-wing
Likud bloc still at odds over the
U.S. plan.
Peres read an ultimatum after
a 45-minute meeting of Labor
Cabinet ministers at his office in
Tel Aviv. He demanded a Cab
inet meeting to decide whether to
accept the plan, which the parties
have been squabbling over since
October.
“Labor ministers demand ... a
discussion and decision on a posi
tive answer to the questions U.S.
Secretary of State (James A.
Baker III) presented to Israel,” it
said.
Peres told reporters he would
consider a tie vote in the inner
Cabinet, which has six members
of each party, as a negative re
sponse that would “bring an end
to the government.”
“We demand a vote and a deci
sion tomorrow,” he said.
Baker urged Israel to approve
his terms for talks or run the risk
of coming to a dead end in Mid
east peace efforts.
He told reporters in Washing
ton on Tuesday, “Without a dia
logue between Israelis and Pales
tinians we can never move
forward to peace.”
Baker said he believed Israel
was “working hard and in good
faith to resolve those problems
and we certainly hope they are
successful.”
In an interview on Israel Tele
vision, Foreign Minister Moshe
Arens of Likud declined to say if
the issue would come to a vote
Wednesday or even be discussed.
But he said in an Israel radio
interview, “I don’t see any reason
for dismantling the government.
I think, I hope and I expect that
we can unite around the positions
presented by Likud ministers.”
Labor’s statement Tuesday
reaffirmed the party’s commit
ment to “the status of Jerusalem
as the sovereign and united capi
tal of Israel,” and stressed that “in
accordance with the govern
ment’s guidelines, Israel will not
conduct negotiations with the
PLO.”
But the ministers said they
“completely reject any attempt bv
Likud” to deviate from the origi
nal May 14, 1989, peace plan,
which made no mention of bar
ring East Jerusalem residents.
Moslem rebels
try to oust
Afghan govt.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP)
— Soldiers led by the defense
minister joined with Moslem
guerrillas Tuesday to try to over
throw Afghanistan’s government,
but were defeated by troops loyal
to President Najib, Kabul radio
reported.
The official radio said the loy
alists controlled Kabul, the capi
tal, and an indefinite curfew was
imposed at 7 p.m.
Afghanistan’s U.N. envoy,
Noor Ahmad Noor, said in New
York that security forces were
searching for Maj. Gen. Shah Na
waz Tanai, the defense chief ac
cused of being a coup leader.
Noor told reporters at U.N. head
quarters that Tanai was believed
to be in hiding in the Kabul vicin-
ity.
In the Soviet Union, which
sponsors the Najib government,
I he loyal troops
have now mopped up
the main pockets of
resistance, leaving the
situation in Kabul firmly
controlled by the
government.”
— Tass,
Soviet news agency
the official news agency Tass
said: “The loyal troops have now
mopped up the main pockets of
resistance, leaving the situation in
Kabul firmly controlled by the
government.”
Western diplomats, guerrilla
leaders in Pakistan and the Soviet
media reported heavy fighting
and said Afghan air force planes
had bombed Arg Palace, Najib’s
headquarters in the heart of Ka
bul.
Heavy artillery and tanks fired
for hours on the buildings of the
Defense Ministry and the army’s
main political directorate, Tass
said. It also reported shelling of
residential districts.
U.N. Ambassador Noor re
ported “very, very limited” civil
ian casualties.
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Number of prospective jurors
for Poindexter’s trial reaches 35
WASHINGTON (AP) — The pool of prospective ju
rors for John Poindexter’s Iran-Contra trial grew to 35
Tuesday, including a woman who campaigned for Jesse
Jackson and another familiar enough with the case to
know former President Reagan had refused to turn
over his personal diary.
Eleven people were disqualified, including a retired
CIA research analyst who conceded the agency had
made mistakes, “but not very prahy.”
On the second day of the jury selection process, U.S.
District Court Judge Harold Greene said, “I think we
can do with 45 people” before proceeding with choos
ing a panel of 12 jurors and six alternates. He said he
expects to fill the pool by midday Wednesday and have
opening statements on Thursday morning.
Of the 35 accepted so far, 27 are women and eight
are men.
Under questioning by the judge, the secretary who
had campaigned for Jackson said she could be impar
tial, adding that she once had sent a get-well card to
Nancy Reagan.
Another potential juror, an employee at the Univer
sity of the District of Columbia, said she had seen Poin
dexter aide Oliver North on television as North testified
about shredding documents.
“I knew he (North) had a secretary and she sneaked
out with documents on her person,” the woman said.
But, she added that she “wasn’t familiar with Mr. Poin
dexter.” , ,
A bridal consultant who became part of the jury pool
said she recalled that Poindexter was North’s boss, but
little- else.
She said she heard that Reagan had ref used to turn
over his “diary or private letter book,” to Poindexter.
She added, “a video was offered instead.”
Reagan’s videotaped testimony taken Feb. 16 and 17
will be shown at Poindexter’s trial, Richard Beckler,
lawyer for Reagan’s former national security adviser,
said. Reagan and the Bush administration invoked ex
ecutive privilege by refusing to turn over 36 of Reagan’s
diary excerpts to Poindexter. Greene is expected to rule
on the question at some point.
Also sent into the jury pool was a retired Defense De
partment employee who got the Watergate scandal
mixed up with the Iran-Contra affair.
Peres threatens Israeli cabinet
Labor, Likud urged to decide on U.S. proposal
Do you have any of the following concerns?
* Improving an academic skill
* Finding a tutor
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* Establishing and clarifying academic goals
* Finding a major or career
If the answer is YES, you may wish to utilize one of the following
| services.
ACADEMIC ASSISTANCE SERVICES
* Academic Assistance Information Clearinghouse—Located in the
, Student Counseling Services, this Clearinghouse consists of a file that
contains the names, phone numbers and qualifications of people will
ing to tutor courses offered at A&M. It also contains information from
inany academic departments explaining procedures for obtaining ex
tra academic help. Come to the Third Floor, YMCA Bldg., 8:00 am to
5:00 pm, Monday through Friday, to use this service.
* Academic Burnout Prevention—An academic life-style that includes
I social activities and physical exercise, as well as study, is generally
I considered the best method for maintaining academic motivation.
Istudent Activities, Room 208, Pavilion (845-1133) and the Memorial
I Student Center Student Programs Office, Room 216 (845-1515) will
I guide students to campus activities that fit the student’s interests and
Isocial needs. The Recreational Sports Office, Room 159, Read Build-
ling (845-7826) will guide students to physical activities that may help
[meet both a student’s social and physical activity needs.
Concentration Problems Assistance—Difficulties with concentra-
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from unfocused academic and life goals, or from relationship and
(other personal problems. The Student Counseling Service (845-1651)
(and the Counseling and Assessment Clinic (845-8021) offer both indi-
(vidual and group programs to help students with these concerns.
Most services at the Student Counseling Service are free to currently
enrolled students who have paid their student services fee. The
Counseling and Assessment Clinic does charge a fee for services to
students.
* Writing Lab—Located in Room 241, Blocker Building, the Writing
Lab offers help with acquiring effective writing skills. Call 845-2568
for information about current programs. Diagnostic testing, self-
study and tutoring to aid development are services which are avail-
jable. Fee charged.
Handicapped Student Service—Programs and services to help
| A&M students compensate for learning disabilities of a physical,
| mental or emotional nature are provided by this office located in Hart
Hall, Ramp B (845-1637).
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(Sterling C. Evans Library. Over 120 microcomputers, 500 software
packages, and a great variety of audio-visual equipment and materials
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icourses in the use of specific software packages are offered. A fee of
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Please call each specific department to inquire about services.
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land can seem very impersonal. Mentors consist of more than 300
I A&M faculty members who have volunteered to set aside part of their
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I your departmental office to ask about the Mentors Program.
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sistance that students have available to them is the professor of the
(course in which they are having trouble. It is wise for students to visit
[with each of their professors, especially if they have any questions. A
(professor can often help a student early in the semester, but the week
before finals is likely to be too late for anyone having serious difficul
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* Study Skills Improvement—The Department of Educational Psy
chology offers a course each semester called “Improvement of Lear
ning” (EPSY 101). The Student Counseling Service, 3rd Floor, YMCAj
Building (845-1651) offers to currently enrolled students both individ-
| ual and group study skills assistance on a weekly basis.
Test Rehabilitation Commission—Provides assistance to Texas
I A&M University and Blinn College students with permanent or
(handicapping disabilities. Examples of the disabilities covered are
(learning disabilities, orthopedic deformities, emotional disorders, di-
|abetes, epilepsy, heart conditions, etc. Call 845-0350 or 845-1620, or
(go to Room 147, MSC, or Room 223, Beutal Health Center for more
| information regarding scholarships, financial assistance, tutors, diag-
jnosis, treatment, and other services.
* Volunteer Tutoring—Phi Eta Sigma (Honor Society) offers free tu-
Jtoring in most freshman courses. Go to the Student Activities cubicle
(area. Pavilion, for more information. Many departmental undergrad-
j uate honor societies will also offer free tutoring in freshman and soph
omore courses. Contact the honor society’s president through the ap
propriate academic department office or through Student Activities.
* Academic Skills Program—This program is designed to meet the
academic needs of Texas A&M University students whose Texas Aca
demic Skills Program (TASP) test results indicate basic skill deficien
cies in the areas of math, writing, and/or reading. Various college
credit developmental courses taught by specialists provide students
■ with instructional aid and support while helping them successfully
(prepare for the TASP test and other academic course work. Academic
(counseling and information regarding the TASP test are available.
I Contact this program at 241 Blocker, or phone 845-2568 for further
I information regarding these services.
1 * Career Information—If students believe they are in the wrong ma-
(jor, they may call the Student Counseling Service at 845-1651 or
[come to the third floor of the YMCA Building to make an appoint-
j ment for career testing and group interpretation.
j * All services are subject to change. Please contact the service of in
terest for the most current information.
Student Counseling Service
Career and Academic
Resource Center
Third Floor, YMCA Building
845-1651