Wednesday, August 22,1990
The Battalion
Page 11
igust 22,199
^JGang of convicts hijacks Soviet plane,
l Aggieland, t Jasks for political asylum in Pakistan
d a mortal sin. JL J
do you tell thes
hem that a conf«
TCU, SMU,
iton and A&S
enough funds i ca
;s to light Bonlit
omes useless
an likely to has
eft the SWC)
useful come from
t has been coinei
ist gander at sonit
nade by official
love to the SEt
,von’t finish ninil
nore,” said Fret
ad football coadi
■ most candid ani
ts of the Razor
rain part of [lit
remains a viablt
)r. William
lexas A&M Uni
>rd here is viablt
seen a viable con
KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — A gang of con-
ncts from a Siberian labor camp overpowered
their guards aboard an Aeroflot passenger flight,
hijacked the plane to Pakistan and sought politi-
il asylum Monday. No one was hurt.
One of the convicts apparently smuggled
weapons on board in an artificial limb, the offi
cial Soviet news agency Tass reported.
The 11 hijackers surrendered after landing at
Karachi International Airport, and the 29 pas
sengers and nine crew members were freed un
harmed, officials said.
It was the latest in an unprecedented spate of
ackings involving Soviet aircraft. There have
been at least 13 hijack attempts in the past three
months.
Airport officials insisting on anonymity said
the Tupolev 154 had only five to 15 minutes of
fuel left when it landed in Karachi. The authori
ties did not say whether the hijackers would be
given asylum or sent back to the Soviet Union.
The hijacking began Sunday when 15 prison
ers were aboard an Aeroflot flight from Neryun-
gry, about 3,000 miles east of Moscow, where
their labor camp is located. The flight was bound
for the nearby city of Yakutsk in eastern Siberia,
officials said.
It was not known why the prisoners were being
taken to Yakutsk, or why they were serving time
in prison.
The prisoners, armed with guns and home
made explosives, overpowered their guards and
threatened to blow up the plane, said the inde
pendent Soviet news agency Interfax.
“All indications are that the weapons were con
cealed in an artificial limb used by one of the hi
jackers,” Tass said.
The hijackers forced the plane to return to
Neryungry. There, six prisoners left the plane
but two more joined the group, according to So
viet Interior ministry spokesman Yuri I. Arshe-
nevsky.
Of the 70 passengers left on board, the hijack
ers allowed 41 women and children to leave the
plane in Neryungry, Arshenevsky said. Then
they flew west to Krasnoyarsk in Siberia, where
authorities negotiated with them for two hours
and allowed them to refuel.
The plane next flew to Tashkent in Soviet Uz
bekistan. There, the hijackers demanded the air
craft be allowed to leave the country.
After negotiating through the night, authori
ties allowed the plane to be refueled and to take
off. The hijackers promised to free the passen
gers and crew when they landed, officials said.
Karachi airport authorities initially denied the
jetliner permission to land but relented when the
pilot said he did not have enough fuel to fly to
another destination, officials said.
The airport was briefly closed but reopened to
normal traffic after the hijacked plane landed,
officials said.
Pakistan is an Islamic country, but authorities
said none of the hijackers was believed to be Mos
lem.
There have been at least 13 attempts to hijack
Soviet aircraft since late May, mostly by Soviet
teen-agers or young men who said they wanted
to live in the West. That compares with about 70
such attempts in the 57-year history of Aeroflot,
the Soviet state airline.
At least six hijackers made it out of the Soviet
Union, but all were arrested. Soviet media em
phasized that Western countries have been re
turning the hijackers to the Soviet Union to face
charges. Hijacking carries a penalty of five to 20
years in jail in the Soviet Union.
Finland on Monday ordered the extradition of
Mikhail Varfolomeyev, who commandeered a
Soviet plane on a domestic flight from the Esto
nian capital of Tallinn to the Ukrainian city of
Lvov. He sought asylum when the plane landed
in Helsinki. Finland extradited another young
Soviet hijacker last month.
U.S. court upholds
justice’s free speech
NEW ORLEANS (AP) —• A
justice of the peace in Texas was
within his rights to speak out
against what he believed were
miscarriages of justice in the
handling of traffic offenses in
Fort Bend County, the 5th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals ruled
Tuesday.
The appeals court overturned
the U.S. District Court for the
Southern District of Texas, which
had upheld reprimands issued by
the Texas Commission on Judi
cial Conduct against James M.
Scott Jr., in 1984.
Scott was elected to a four-year
term as justice of the peace in
Fort Bend in 1982.
“Soon after taking office, Scott
became concerned aoout what he
perceived to be an injustice in the
administration of the county
court system,” the 5th Circuit said
in its opinion issued Tuesday.
“Apparently, the great major
ity of defendants who appealed
their traffic offense convictions
from justice or municipal courts
to the Fort Bend County court-at-
law during Scott’s term in office
succeeded in having the charges
against them dismissed or the
fines sharply reduced,” the ap
peals court said, noting that the
truth of that allegation had never
been challenged in six years of lit
igation.
“This practice, Scott believed,
unfairly allowed those ‘in the
know’ to violate the traffic laws
repeatedly and with impunity
while penalizing less sophisticated
individuals who committed the
same offenses,” the court said.
Scott wrote an open letter to
county officials, prompting seve
ral newspaper articles and an an
gry response from at least one of
thejudges he criticized.
The matter was taken to the
Commission on Judicial Conduct,
which warned him to be more
temperate in the future.
mg possibilitywt
iWG,” said Franl
\thletic Director
i now infamous
efore the Razor
ink gets another
pas.
ith Bo, Ninja tut
and seedy stories
ers and promises
iown
2-1
W A ^
streaks
(AP) — Danny
eight straight
ding singledto
ning tie, as the
ended Pitts-
■ win streak
a 2 -1 victory,
m pfete game,
zin, also ended
-game losing
i.
0 with a 1.51
ig a starter on
sburgh to Jeff
in the third,
r and walked
o allow more
:he ninth time
left-hander
n’t allow a hit
ibbs’ two-out
i. Making his
e start, Tom-
iving up three
ises
. “So we stayed
r helping each
our weight and
ate Keith Alex,
it guard, lost a
s this summer
r 300 pounds
cill be a lot less
le of the line in
nutritionists to
- us to follow,
s didn’t do out
we’ve worked
ch as Pappas,
cl and reserve
also slimming
• r. Rockholo
)0-pound club,
R.C. Slocum
sed with his o(-
► f the offensive
ely hard this
l lot of discipli-
-now on man)
-re at six in the
in weight will
-er, and that
er some oppo-
to see what we
ATll be a lot
■elp getting to
ckness will be
The starting
un-opener op
5t;es about 2ft 1
ng up against
rts about two-
ball,” McCal
inebacker. It
step so I can
ane.”
tranipionships
=s. Great run-
■erbacks need
-of fensive line-
is and dedica
II and the res
s, everythiflf
ses come bow
■i.
Fortune magazine lists oil barons as richest people
Mayor’s car
stolen during
tour of town
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) —
This city’s mayor may have a tough
time convincing GOP officials crime
won’t be a problem if they hold their
1992 convention here — his car was
stolen during their tour.
While Mayor Robert Ulrich met
Sunday night with Republican lead
ers scouting potential convention
sites, someone sw iped his car from
the parking lot of the St. Petersburg
Hilton.
Ulrich returned from a three-
hour dinner cruise with a group
from the Republican National Com
mittee to find shards of broken glass
—and another parked car — where
his 1980 white Buick four-door had
been.
Ulrich’s car was recovered about
11 p.m. Sunday after the driver
crashed into someone’s front yard.
No arrests have been made.
The mayor said members, of the
GOP delegation werensympathetic
about his loss. Ulrich had never been
a car-theft victim before. He said he
will repair his car.
The GOP officials took a three-
day tour of the possible convention
venue, the new Florida Suncoast
Dome and other Tampa Bay-area at
tractions.
NEW YORK (AP) — If you won
dered why oil is worth fighting for,
take a look at Fortune magazine’s
latest ranking of the world’s bil
lionaires.
The two richest people on the face
of the earth are oil barons, the mag
azine reported Tuesday.
Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah, oil-
rich leader of the tiny Pacific sulta
nate of Brunei, retained Fortune’s
top title for the fourth straight year
with an estimated worth of $25 bil
lion, unchanged from 1989.
Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd and
clan, a focus of the Persian Gulf cri
sis, ranked second with assets worth
$18 billion, also unchanged from last
year.
CHICAGO (AP) — A Texas real
estate developer Tuesday pled guilty
to charges that he illegally obtained
more than $90 million in loans from
thrifts in Illinois and Texas and a
bank in Wisconsin, the Justice De
partment said.
The six-count indictment filed
against James Reagin of Houston
stems from a series of fraudulent
transactions in 1984 and 1985
against the bank and the three now-
collapsed savings and loan institu-
The ranks of Fortune’s richest —
bankrolled by assets ranging from
oil to sneakers to ball bearings —
swelled by 25 names this year to 182
individuals and families, controlling
a combined empire worth $471.3 bil
lion. That’s up about 7 percent from
last year.
Fortune released the fourth an
nual ranking in its Sept. 10 issue. It
said the average entrant’s wealth was
only slightly higher compared with
last year after adjusting for inflation.
But the average fortune was still
worth about $2.6 billion, which if in
vested in 7.5 percent U.S. Treasury
bills would earn $534,000 a day.
As competitor Forbes magazine
did in its annual list released last
tions, federal prosecutors said in a
statement.
Those institutions were Glen El
lyn Savings in Glen Ellyn, Ill.; First
Savings of South Beloit in South Be
loit, Ill.; the B^nk of Alma in Alma,
Wis.; and Western Savings in Dallas.
Federal officials said Reagin sub
verted regulatory authorities to ob
tain control of the Glen Ellyn thrift
and illegally borrowed money from
the four institutions to finance real
estate deals.
month, Fortune ditched the Sultan
of New York, Donald J. Trump,
whose real estate and casino empire
is bogged down in debt. The mag
azine had estimated his holdings at
$1.7 billion last year.
Ranked third on Fortune’s list was
the reclusive Mars family of the
United States, whose holdings in
clude Mars Inc. candy bars. Uncle
Ben’s Rice and Kal-Kan pet food,
worth $12.5 billion.
Fourth was Britain’s Queen Eliza
beth II, the wealthiest woman, with
an untaxed personal fortune of
$11.7 billion in riches ranging from
267,000 acres of royal real estate to
racehorses, crown jewels and a vast
stock portfolio.
“This case is a classic white collar
‘whodunit’ that follows a sizeable
chunk of cash across the country,
through a series of fraudulent loans,
to the doorstep of three collapsed,
federally-insured financial institu
tions,” said Attorney General Dick
Thornburgh from Washington.
Thornburgh called the plea
agreement a “significant break
through” in efforts to unravel com
plex fraud schemes in the nation
wide savings and loan industry
scandal.
Fifth was the Newhouse family of
the United States, owners of a large
media empire, worth $11.5 billion;
sixth was the Reichmann family of
Canada, with extensive real estate
holdings valued at $ 11.1 billion; tied
for seventh were Yoshiaki Tsutsumi,
Japan’s richest industrialist, and Ar
kansas retailing mogul Sam Walton,
both valued at $7.3 billion; eighth
was John W. Kluge of the United
States, owner of media giant Met
romedia Inc., valued at $7.0 billion;
ninth was Tsai Wan-lin and family of
Taiwan, owners of a construction
and insurance empire worth $6.5
billion; 10th was the Thomson fam
ily, owners of Canada’s biggest news
paper chain, with $6.2 billion.
OAXACA, Mexico (AP) — Rescue
crews battled bad weather and back-
roads Tuesday to get to a mountain
town where a mudslide claimed at
least 10 lives and left seven injured
and five missing, the attorney gener
al’s office said.
The victims were reported Mon
day after mud rolling down a steep
hillside knocked over a water storage
tank, wiping out at least seven homes
below, Oaxaca state Attorney Gener
al’s spokesman Pedro Perez Cevallos
said.
Four of the missing are children,
the official news agency Notimex
American newcomers included
the Stephens family of Arkansas,
owners of investment banking, en
ergy and real estate holdings worth
$1.7 billion; the Parfet family of Ka
lamazoo, Mich., owners of a large
stake in the Upjohn Co. drugmaker,
worth $1.5 billion; and Philip
Knight, head of the Nike Inc. ath
letic footwear maker, $1.3 billion.
Foreign newcomers included Al
icia and Esther Koplovitz of Spain,
owners of a $2.2 billion construction
and banking fortune; Hiroshi Ter-
machi, owner of a $1.8 billion Japa
nese ball-bearing business; and John
Spyros Latsis, European head of a
Saudi Arabian shipping and oil-re
finery network worth $1.8 billion.
said Monday night.
Bad weather and impassable
roads made rescue efforts difficult,
Perez said in an interview.
He said the town of La Luz, where
the landslide toppled the water tank,
could only be reached by a one-hour
walk.
La Luz is perched high in the Jua
rez mountain range 270 miles south
east of Mexico Gity.
Perez said five of the seven houses
in the path of the slide were inhab
ited.
Notimex said Monday that five
people were injured, none seriously.
Texas real estate developer pleads
guilty to indictments of S&L fraud
Mudslide claims 10
PARKING
SALE!
for 3 montliB
only mid wk.
for 6 montiis
Special Sale Hours 9am-7pm,
Mon.-Sat.
STEVENS FURNITURE & APPLIANCE
911 S. Texas Ave.
823-2720
Across From Sonic
in Bryan
COLLEGE LIFE CALLS
FOR DOMINO’S PIZZA.
IPS TIME FOR DOMINO’S PIZZA'
Hours: ll:00am-lam Sun.-Thurs. ll:00aln-2am Fri. & Sat.
Call Us!
693-2335 260-9020
1504 Holleman 4407 S. Texas
822-7373
Townshire Center
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
1
DELUXE PIZZA FEAST
ONE FOR $9.99 plus tax
TWO FOR $13.99 plus tax
Medium size Deluxe Pizza loaded with Pepperoni,
Sausage, Onions, Green Peppers & Mushrooms.
FI
MEDIUM
PIZZA SPECIAL
$6.99 plus tax
Two-item Original Style Medium Pizza.
8
(!)
VfekJ 21 parbopatmQ stores only Not vak) with any other offer Pnces may vary Customer
pays sales tax wfiere apphcabte Defcvery areas limited to ensure sate driving Our dnvers
carry less than $2000 Our dnvers are not penalized for late delivenes
Valid at participating stores only Not valid with any other otter Pnces may vary Customer
pays sales tax where applicable Delivery areas fcmrted to ensure safe driving Our dnvers
carry less than $20.00 Our dnvers are not penalized for late delivenes
I
i
1
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
1