Jay, Augusts, •ills !iy The Battalion Vol. 91 No. 187 (6 pages) ‘Serving Texas ASM Since 1893’ Tuesday, August 4, 1992 Inside Valley girl meets Dracula in ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ Page 3 t Dr. Max McGin- >nts had to be cori' I I equal that offered [ good explanation ? they were appre- ecurity of a major the event of a car- ation," McGinnis outh African protest leads to nationwide violence ?d less persuasion renters, which he rhedule a surgen, d. "If you havelo ledule anesthesia, department." las figures that re- a an outpatient ba- major hospital. A ; and myrincotrm l's ears) is $700 vs. JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) Millions of blacks joined a nationwide |trike Monday in one of the largest rotests ever against white rule. At least 2 deaths were linked directly to the alkout. The violence erupted despite African ational Congress and government calls r peace. Most workers in black townships ring- |ng South Africa's cities stayed home, leaving city centers largely deserted, fransportation officials said trains and (uses in some areas were carrying as little s 2 percent of normal traffic. Activists erected barricades in some ar ias to enforce the ANC-called strike, mads and trains were blocked with burn ing car tires in parts of Cape Town and Durban. "We don't like losing two days of pay. But we must do this to support the ANC," said Ernest Mnjeza, a 38-year-old security guard in Sebokeng, a violence- torn township south of Johannesburg. Other blacks defied the strike, either out of opposition to the ANC campaign or because they feared they would lose their wages or their jobs. The ANC's main black rival, the con servative Inkatha Freedom Party, op posed the strike, as did extreme black left- wing groups. At least 23 blacks were killed in scat tered violence Sunday night and Monday. In the eastern province of Natal, site of ongoing black factional violence, 19 peo ple were killed Sunday and Monday. Three black men were fatally shot when police fired on some 50 people ap parently enforcing the strike in Soweto, outside Johannesburg. Four police officers were wounded in the shooting. Police shot and killed a man when strikers hurled rocks at vehicles near Cape Town. Two journalists were shot Monday in Evaton outside Johannesburg by un known black assailants. The two, Paul Taylor of The Washington Post and Phillip van Niekerk of The Toronto Globe and Mail, were in stable condition, friends said. Ten U.N. monitors had arrived Sunday to try to help prevent violence. No overall figures on the number of strikers were available. Reports from trade unions, transport and business offi cials indicated 3.5 million to 4 million of the country's 7 million black workers stayed home. Despite the success of the walkout, the two-day strike that ends Tuesday has no realistic chance of bring ing down the white leadership. "The people of our country have been compelled to embark on this campaign for democracy because of the intransi gence of the de Klerk regime/' Cyril Ramaphosa, the ANC's secretary general, said at a news conference. The ANC broke off black-white negoti ations in June to protest escalating politi cal violence that has cost some 8,000 black lives in the past three years. It called for de Klerk's removal and formation of a multiracial interim government in this country of 5 million whites and 30 million blacks by the end of the year. ANC militants had called for street ac tion to force de Klerk from office. The group was forced to scale down its plans as many of the earlier protests drew small turnouts. Talks on an interim government and a new constitution are expected to re sume after the protests. Moderate ANC leaders favor a quick return to the talks. ANC leader Nelson Mandela said in a television interview Sunday night that he was optimistic his group's disputes with the government would be resolved. Texas - ? partly to mostl \ost of West Text idy skies over par Valley. al South Texas re r partly to mostl Showers and thun ne with heavy rain inday afternoon!: nd coastal sections, -es at 3 p.m. variei ain-cooled 1 100 in the lower val 5 casualties. >lice in Tyre said d woman was a two Israeli heli- ■S fired rockets a! iich is monitored eeping forces. s the fifth Israeli st Hezbollah tar- 23 and the 24t!i rding to Israel's 37 people have d 91 wounded, .ebanese police 3w." Hundreds^ never even mall A, much less lajors. But By as been stronj rim at the top bet at Double-A. Aid nough to complelf ilwaukee. Officials ready Astrodome for GOP •me of the behaf : this article could ramifications, bd tip of the icebei lifficulties, be ate vhat they are, cf mediately. If yi* is subject or ob t the Health Edt seling to help you it Counseling Set A Building roran n alcohol-related ig Prevention and Going for the gold? Steven Blake, a senior civil engineering major from Bedford, trains in the Colony Apartments' pool for a tubing competition. NICK PENA/ The Battalion The first annual Down the River/Up the Creek competition will be held on August 11 in New Braunfels. HOUSTON (AP) — Top Republican Party tfficials Monday got their first look at con duction inside the Houston Astrodome as rews installed the speaker's podium and be- yan hanging the first of a nearly quarter-mil lion balloons for the GOP National Convention two weeks away. think it's going to be a great forum for us o be holding the Republican Convention," Bill iarris, the convention manager, said. "We're 'ery pleased with the progress. It looks like 're still a little bit ahead of schedule. We're ^ery pleased where we are." Harris and Craig Fuller, the Bush-Quayle ampaign convention chairman, rode around the Astrodome in a motorized cart and limbed to the top of the podium to check out instruction and sight lines. It's much better than artists' sketches and mputerized renditions," Fuller said. "The president is very excited about the convention. It's very much on his mind and he is very much raring to go on this campaign." The convention is set for Aug. 17-20. Plat form hearings begin next week. Construction crews used cranes Monday to lift pieces of fake sandstone that provide a background arch above the speaker's platform. Other cranes lift ed net sacks filled with balloons that will be dropped on the delegates. Lighting grids 64 feet over the Astrodome floor were being test ed Monday and interior work was beginning on TV anchor booths, which already are adorned and lit with network logos. "We're going to see a lot more progress in the next two to three days," Bob Keene, design director for the convention and the man in charge of podium construction, said. Keene, based in Los Angeles, has construct ed studio sets for the Grammy and Tony awards programs. This is his first political con vention. He said his experience with televi sion spectators didn't necessarily mean he was trying to turn the Astrodome into a giant TV studio. "I don't really think of it that way, although obviously in this day and age you have to take (that) into consideration," he said. "What I'm trying to do is present an orga nized, unified look to reflect American politics and Americana, red, white and blue, lots of American flags. The podium as I've designed it does reflect a lot of things about the party. It is on the conservative side. It is, I hope elegant, I hope classic, in its feelings." Keene described himself as a Republican al though party officials denied that was a pre requisite for the job. "We tried to find the best in the business," Harris said. nt type of atmos- been at a slowei ?n instructing us f Independent States. Kravchuk 'ad initially claimed the entire leet, which is based in the -ikrainian port of Sevastopol and one of the most powerful ar- fiadas in the world. A decision on final control of he roughly 300 ships and naval acilities on the Black Sea will be esolved dWing the three years. !fter 1995, Russia and Ukraine are to divide the fleet among their separate navies. Asked about nuclear weapons in the fleet, Kravchuk said the joint command will destroy the arms under existing arms control treaties and eventually will re move them all. Russia and Ukraine "will build up their separate fleets and strate gies from the assumption that the Black Sea is a peaceful zone," Kravchuk said. "That assumes a non-nuclear status." Yeltsin also said Russia would do its share in any military action sanctioned by the United Nations, particularly in the Persian Gulf or Yugoslavia. Russia still controls all the other former Soviet fleets and the largest chunk of the old Red Army and air forces. Yeltsin and Kravchuk agreed to jointly appoint new fleet comman ders who would control the ships and naval bases until the end of 1995. "It will calm the people of Ukraine and Russia, and calm the servicemen and officers posted with the Black Sea Fleet," Kravchuk said at a joint news con ference in front of the granite mansion once used by former Ukrainian Politburo member Vladimir Shcherbitsky. Yeltsin said the agreement meets the interests of both coun tries and will give them time to work out several remaining obsta cles, particularly which side will eventually get which ships. "Over the next three years, this will help reduce our society's pain, even in connection with the move to a market economy," Yeltsin said, his voice rising. "We have more optimism for our re forms also. We are going to work together only with mutual cooper ation.” Although Russia and Ukraine agreed in principle last spring to divide the fleet, talks went nowhere. Kravchuk wanted most of the ships, while Yeltsin wanted them all under Russian or com monwealth command. Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev and his Ukrainian counterpart, Anatoly Zlenko, also signed agreements on economic coopera tion and unrestricted travel be tween the two countries. The sides still must tackle a worsening conflict over control of the Crimea, the lush Russian- dominated peninsula that was turned over to Ukraine in 1954. Many Crimean residents want independence or reunion with Russia, but Ukraine insists on keeping control. Yeltsin and Kravchuk dis played a relaxed joviality that in dicated their bilateral talks are a better forum for resolving their problems than the unwieldy com monwealth has been. Yeltsin said the men have regular conversa tions over a special hotline. Marine training exercises begin on Kuwaiti soil KUWAIT (AP) - Nearly 2,000 Marines prepared to come ashore Tuesday, some of them surprised to find themselves in the desert again hearing increasingly belli cose statements from Iraqi Presi dent Saddam Hussein. The Marines were the first of thousands expected to land this week for joint maneuvers meant to show the United States is ready to defend the oil-rich emirate against Iraqi attack. "If you told me two years ago that I would be back I would have said no way. But training is train ing," said Lt. Kevin McMerney, 27, of Orlando, Fla. The lieutenant led an advance team setting up camouflage nets at the container port of Shuwaik, where some 1,900 Marines were to land in three waves of amphibi ous assault vehicles and hover craft starting just after dawn Tuesday. In all, more than 5,000 U.S. troops from all branches of the military are to take part in at least two weeks of exercises with the Kuwaitis. American troops were dis patched to the Gulf as Saddam es calated his rhetorical claims to Kuwait. Baghdad trumpeted these claims to justify invading the emirate on Aug. 2, 1990 and has unnerved Kuwait by reassert ing them two years later. McMerney said the troops weren't concerned by Saddam's pugnaciousness: "We just came for training. No worries." Some Kuwaitis say they are heartened by the sight of the mili tary muscle. They drive repeated ly past the Marine ships and eight Patriot missile launchers de ployed last month to knock Iraqi Scud missiles out of the sky. "When you have a bully in the neighborhood and you are weak. you like having a tough guy standing next to you. It's reassur ing," said Fuad al-Ghanim, a Kuwaiti businessman whose win dows overlook the Gulf. Defense Minister Sheik Ali al- Sabah has made training on high- tech weaponry, and defense pacts with the United States, Britain and soon France, the twin pillars of rebuilding Kuwait's army. The military is never expected to be more than a temporarily blocking force. The United States decided to double the number of soldiers participating in the scheduled ex ercise after Saddam resisted U.N. weapons inspections. Inspections were part of the truce agreement Baghdad signed at the end of the 1991 Gulf War that drove Iraq from Kuwait, but Saddam held inspectors at bay about three weeks before relenting. In Iraq, the official news agency quoted Information Minis ter Hammed Youssef Hammadi as saying the "mother of all bat tles," as the Gulf war was called, would continue as long as U.N. sanctions were in force against Iraq. Foreign diplomats and Kuwaiti military officers, speaking on con dition of anonymity, said Saddam had two armored divisions in Basra, 30 miles north of the Kuwaiti border. Without the U.S. troops, the di visions probably could roll through the emirate as others did in 1990, but Saddam seems too preoccupied fighting Shiite rebels in southern Iraq, the sources said. Most of Kuwait's military equipment was stolen during the war and its facilities were wrecked. The emirate's pre-invasion ground forces consisted of about 17,000 stateless Arabs. Budget cuts, tuition increases hit colleges WASHINGTON (AP) - Mon than half of the nation's colleges felt a financial squeeze last year that led to mid-year budget cuts and prompted most to raise tu ition, according to a survey re leased Sunday. The survey, by the American Council on Education, found 57 percent of colleges and universi ties had to cut their budgets mid way through the 1991-92 operat ing year, compared with 45 per cent the previous year. Public colleges were most af fected, with 73 percent of two- year institutions and 61 percent of four-year schools reporting mid-year cuts, the study said. Thirty-five percent of private col leges reported having to trim their budgets last year. "Private colleges have gone over this budget cutting for 10 years. They've already cut back," said Richard F. Rosser, president of the National Association of In dependent Colleges and Univer sities. The survey was based on re sponses from senior administra tors at 411 colleges, from a sam ple of 510 institutions. At least 47 percent of public, four-year institutions and 43 per cent of two-year public schools also had 1991-92 operating bud gets that were the same or lower than the previous year, the sur vey said. Only 14 percent of private col leges reported unchanged or de creased operating budgets. Thir ty-three percent said they saw a 7 to 10 percent increase in operat ing funds. Part of the problem, said researcher Elaine El- Khawas, is that state universities "are substantially unprotected" financially, lacking a cushion of money to avert a crisis. "If the state budget is cut, the state budget is cut," she said. "They don't have . . . a savings account to tap into." The study also said 81 percent of four-year colleges and 67 per cent of two-year institutions raised student fees as a short term financial solution. Fifty-five percent of private colleges raised tuition because of a budget crunch, the study found. Colleges also said they de layed or cut back building im provements, equipment purchas es or faculty raises, froze hiring and postponed new academic programs because of budget woes.