■
The Showdown
Longhorns, Aggies duel it
out at Olsen Field in key
SWC series
Page 5
Christmas is not important
to Christians
-Michael Quinn Sullivan,
columnist
Page 5
The Battalion
College Station, Texas
‘Serving Texas A&M since 1893”
8 Pages
Friday, April 10, 1992
(leans
ment
LONDON (AP) — Prime Minister John
Major, who waged a come-from-behind
oapbox campaign to extend 13 years of
ie big paris Conservative Party government, ap
peared headed for a nerve-wracking elec
tion victory Thursday.
With results in hand from 602 seats out
of the 651 contested, the British Broad
casting Corp. computer analysis predict-
nts to aban Jed the Conservatives were assured of an
overall majority in the House of Com
mons, winning 334 seats. Labor was pro
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BBC analysis predicts Conservative victory in Great Britain
News gave the Conservatives 333 seats.
Labor 271 and Liberal Democrats 21, with
the rest going to smaller parties.
"The evening is not yet concluded, but
I believe when it is concluded, it will have
a satisfactory result, the right govern
ment, and we can push ahead with the re
covery for Britain that all of us wish to
see," Major said. He won his own district
by 36,000 votes, the biggest victory of the
night.
"Pm very pleased. Everything we have
done in the last 13 years will now be con
served and built on in the future," former
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher exult
ed. No party had won four straight elec
tions in Britain this century.
With actual tallies in from 596 districts.
Conservatives had won 315 seats, com
pared to Labor's 268 and 14 for the Liberal
Democrats.
"The battle is not yet over," insisted
Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock.
The BBC projected that the Conserva
tives would win 43 percent of the popular
vote, matching their share in three land
slide victories under Margaret Thatcher.
"This is very, very bad news for La
bor," said BBC analyst Peter Kellner. "It is
also rotten news for the pollsters. . . they
blew it."
The combined verdict of the last opin
ion polls this week showed Labor about a
point ahead, though the difference was
well within the margin of error.
The projections moved steadily toward
the Conservatives after the polls closed as
Labor failed to win in several battle
ground districts.
If no party wins a majority. Major
would have the first chance to line up
enough support from other parties to gov
ern. If he failed, Kinnock would have a
try.
The rejuvenated Labor Party cam
paigned hard on the theme that the Tories
have held power too long.
But what hurt the Conservatives most
was an enduring recession that has
pushed the unemployment rate to 9.4 per
cent. The other big issues were taxation
and the state-run National Health Service.
The opinion polls suggested that both
major parties might fail to win a majority
in the 651-member House of Commons,
which has happened five other times this
century.
If that occurred, both parties likely
would try to form a government based on
the informal support of smaller parties.
Brenham
explosion
inquiries
intensify
Officials investigate
possible valve flaw
By Karen Praslicka
The Battalion
BRENHAM — Indications of a
possible valve malfunction hours
before had no consequences on the
I explosion, said officials investigat-
t ingthe blast near Brenham Tues-
i day.
Charles Batten, head of the op
erations group of the National
Transportation Safety Board
(NTSB), said there was a backup
valve connected to the valve that
caught on fire during the explo
sion.
"There was an earlier concern
about a signal at 4 a.m. on records,
indicating a possible change in the
status," he said. "Adjacent to that
valve was a manually operated
valve that was closed. If the sig
nal in fact determined that the
valve moved, it would be of no
consequence, because there was a
valve closed adjacent to it."
George Mocharko, a
spokesman for the NTSB, said the
investigation will continue.
The fire was extinguished at
10:30 a.m. Thursday, which al
lowed investigators to get closer to
the disaster scene.
Mocharko said one of the four
connections on the six-inch flam
ing valve was blown off, and it
was found 47 feet away. Another
connection was cracked and bent,
he said.
These connections will be sent
to a Washington lab for examina
tion.
Investigators have learned from
three witnesses and Seminole
Pipeline Co. employees that a
large water column was seen in
the air over the plant area minutes
before the explosion.
"We're looking at the opera-
See Officials/Page 4
ORTRUN GiNGERICH/The Battalion
Final touches
Margot Havel, a seamstress at a local clothing
store, alters a dress for Ring Dance, which will
take place this Saturday in the MSC. Havel is a
third-generation seamstress.
Officials investigate possible rape
U.S. court
convicts
Noriega
Miami jury finds former leader guilty
of 8 of 10 racketeering, drug charges
By Alysia Woods
The Battalion
As Texas A&M authorities con
tinue to investigate a possible date
rape that occurred on campus last
Sunday, another sexual assault
was reported to the College Sta
tion Police Department on Tues
day.
This latest incident is the 11th
reported rape in College Station
since the beginning of the year.
Last year, nine sexual assaults
were reported in College Station
for the entire year. These figures
do not include rapes reported on
the Texas A&M campus.
The woman who reported the
sexual assault to CSPD on Tues
day said she was raped by an ac
quaintance who gave her a ride
home after a party late Monday
night. She has decided not to
press charges, said Lt. A.W. Un-
stott of CSPD.
The woman involved in Sun
day's reported rape said she was
visiting the accused at his resi
dence in Dorm 12. This case is the
second reported rape on campus
for the 1991-92 school year, said
Bob Wiatt, director of University
Police Department.
UPD keeps its statistics on re
ported rapes separate from Col-
See UPD/Page 4
MIAMI (AP) — Manuel Norie
ga was convicted today of eight of
10 drug and racketeering charges
that led to the 1989 U.S. invasion
of Panama.
The former Panamanian leader
was found guilty of the key counts
of racketeering and racketeering
conspiracy, plus six lesser charges.
He was acquitted of two lesser
charges, cocaine distribution and
conspiracy to import cocaine.
The federal court trial lasted
seven months, during which the
government painstakingly built its
case against a head of state it
called "a small man in a general's
uniform" who was "just another
crooked cop."
The jury finished work in its
fifth day of deliberations. On
Wednesday, they announced they
were deadlocked with one hold
out; U.S. District Judge William
Hoeveler urged them to try again.
Noriega's lawyers maintained
he was a victim of U.S. politics,
saying the case "smelled all the
way to Washington." They had
defended him by portraying the
government's witnesses — con
fessed drug traffickers in many
cases — as unscrupulous thugs
looking only for a "get-out-of-jail-
free card."
The trial marked the first time
the United States invaded a
sovereign country and brought
back its leader for a trial on crimi
nal charges.
Noriega, who records say is 54,
was indicted on Feb. 4,1988, along
with 15 other people, including
the head of Colombia's Medellin
drug cartel, Pablo Escobar. At the
time, Noriega was still in power in
Panama, and sneered at U.S. de
mands that he step down.
On Dec. 20, 1989, the United
States invaded Panama. U.S.
forces tracked Noriega to a Vati
can mission in Panama City, sur
rounded it and blasted the Pana
manian leader with rock music
until he surrendered.
His trial opened in U.S. District
Court on Sept. 5 with jury selec
tion; opening arguments began
Sept. 16.
The government called 46 wit
nesses, plus 14 others on rebuttal
after the defense rested. The de
fense called 19 to the stand.
The most crucial prosecution
witnesses were confessed drug
traffickers, some with violent
streaks, including Carlos Lehder,
Max Mermelstein and Jose "Pepe"
Cabrera.
In exchange for pointing the
finger at Noriega, they won re
duced sentences, immunity from
other charges and sometimes the
right to keep millions of dollars in
drug profits.
The witnesses said Noriega's
formal relationship with the
Medellin traffickers began in late
1981. Leftist Colombian guerrillas
had kidnapped the sister of the
cartel's Ochoa brothers. As head
of Panama's powerful G-2 intelli
gence division, Noriega negotiat
ed her release.
In response, pleased cartel lead
ers sent emissaries to him in early
1982 to establish a business ar
rangement, prosecutors said.
Soon, prosecutors said, drug -
and cash-laden Colombian planes
were flying into Panamanian air
ports.
Incoming Battalion editors summarize theories, strategies
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By Matari Jones
The Battalion
As the new summer editor of
The Battalion, Todd Stone plans to
provide Texas A&M with bal
anced and complete news cover
age.
"First and foremost, I want to
provide the public — Texas A&M
and the surrounding communities
— with objective and thorough re
porting of the news," says Stone, a
first year graduate student in the
Graduate School of Business.
Secondly, he wants to train fu
ture journalists with hands-on
newspaper experience.
Stone began his undergraduate
journalism career as a reviewer for
The Battalion on the Lifestyles
desk from Fall 1989 to Spring 1990.
In the summer of 1990, he was
promoted to Lifestyles editor.
Stone says he is most interested
in writing columns about personal
experiences.
"Writing is a personal way to
communicate to the general public
that reporters are human, too," he
says.
After graduating from A&M in
1990 with a bachelor of arts degree
in journalism. Stone worked for a
year in Dallas with Temp Associ
ates Personnel Company. He says
it was a good experience because
See Stone/Page 4
Fall editor seeks diverse staff
to cover wide range of issues
By Julie Polston
The Battalion
BILLY MORAN/The Battalion
Todd Stone,
editor for the
left, editor for the summer, and Atlantis Tillman,
fall, prepare for the upcoming semesters.
Atlantis Tillman plans to make
The Battalion as diverse as possi
ble in her role as editor of the
school paper next fall.
Tillman, a senior journalism
major from Garland, was officially
chosen as the fall editor for The
Battalion by the Student Publica
tions Board April 3.
"I want to hire a diverse group
of people to represent and cover
all aspects of the student body, as
much as we can," she said.
Every semester there are al
ways one or two major controver
sial issues, she said. Therefore,
Tillman wants a staff that works
well together and can handle any
situation fairly.
"I'm really excited about hav
ing new people in new positions to
give The Battalion a new personal
ity," she said. "So many people
are going to be coming on in the
fall, and I really hope to get a
group that works well together,
like the group we have now."
In addition, Tillman plans to fo
cus more on the administration
around campus and in the com
munity. This includes the Board
of Regents, Faculty Senate and city
council.
"There are things going on
See Tillman/Page 4