news
BRIEFS
Ministers available for guidana
A&M student killed in
automobile accident
Douglas Talmage Blaz, a 20
year-old sophomore wildlife and
fisheries major, died Feb. 7 in an
automobile accident.
Blaz, from Dallas, was participat
ing in an internship at Rancho Ires
Hijos in Tilden, Texas, at the time of
his death.
Sparkman Hillcrest Funeral in
Dallas is handling the funera
arrangements.
~3 ETEl In cJ La cJ La cJ la cU ET
SEzai
SUMMER ’96
Teen injured while
using in-line skates
Limited spaces
Ei
H STILL
AVAILABLE.
Reserve yours
now!
Take courses in:
Arts and Civilization
European Politics
Pick up an application at
the Study Abroad
Programs Office.
CORPUS CFHRISTI, Texas (AP) —
A teen-ager was hospitalized in criti
cal condition Monday after he appar
ently lost control of in-line skates and
rolled out of a parking garage in front
of a passing vehicle.
John David Segovia, 13, of Sin-
ton was taken to Memorial Medical
Center in Corpus Christi Sunday
with severe head injuries, a nursing
supervisor said.
The seventh-grader at Sinton Ju
nior High School was skating inside
the Mercantile Bank-Corpus Christi
parking garage shortly after 5 p.m.
He rolled swiftly down a ramp and
"shot right out in the street," said
police Sgt. Bill Heuston.
Segovia was not wearing a hel
met, police said.
UH reinstates author
of violent poem
HOUSTON (AP) — The Universi
ty of Houston has reinstated a doctor
al candidate whose poem two years
ago depicted the murders of five pro
fessors at the school by a disgruntled
student resembling himself.
The university's history depart
ment two months ago dismissed Fabi
an Vaksman because he had not
made sufficient progress toward his
dissertation, the original work re
quired for a doctorate.
However, school administrators
restored Vaksman's academic stand
ing last week against the history de
partment's wishes, giving him a
$10,000 assistantship and two more
years to finish his studies.
The new deadline gives Vaksman
a total of nine years to finish his de
gree, four more than doctoral stu
dents typically are allowed.
The 50,000-word poem, titled
"RRacist," depicts a student resem
bling Vaksman who shoots and kills
five history professors modeled on
ones he fought with at the university.
â–¡ Campus ministers will be
stationed at All Faiths Chapel to
advise students, regardless of their
religious affiliations.
By Danielle Pontiff
The Battalion
A group of campus ministers is setting up an of
fice in Texas A&M’s All Faiths Chapel in an effort
to make religious and other guidance more accessi
ble to students.
Members of Campus Ministers Association, an
organization of ministers from various denomina
tions, will be available Mondays through Thurs
days from 1 to 4 p.m. to talk about anything on
students’ minds.
Rev. Barbara Grant, CMA president and minis
ter at Peace and Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church,
said the office will be open to students of any de
nomination, regardless of the religious affiliation
of the CMA representative present.
“The CMA has a code of ethics concerning reli
gions,” Grant said. “We uphold the privilege of all
people to worship as they please.The CMA minis
ters are all professional people hired to answer
questions without pressing any specific religious
denomination.”
Grant said students who have questions about
specific religious denominations will be referred to
the appropriate CMA representative or can pick
up a brochure in the office.
The CMA has been working with the University
since Fall 1995 to set up hours at All Faiths
Chapel. The project was finalized Feb. 6.
Thomas McMullin, CMA member and educ?,;
at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day S13
Institute of Religion, said that even thoughii
University remains neutral on spiritual beliefs^
cause of the separation of church and stated
student affairs department is aware that relip
is important to students.
“The student affairs office recognizes*
spiritual concerns are important in many 11
dents lives,” McMullin said. “They are interesiij
in the spiritual well-being of students andwai;
ed the facility at the All Faiths Chapel tows;
in a beneficial way.”
Amy Pr
IE Batta
"We uphold the privilege of all peoplt
to worship as they please."
— Rev. Barbara Gnt
Campus Ministers Association presik
McMullin said CMA will be working withtheSs
dent Counseling Center to handle crisis situations
"Not all campus ministers are comfortablet:
crisis counseling,” McMullin said. “This isaji
effort. If students are in need of crisis counsel^
we will get them in touch with someone attheSn
dent Counseling Center.”
Pam Martiniano, a junior recreation parla
and tourism sciences major who works
Mary’s Catholic Student Center, said the
office is conveniently located.
“There are people calling here all the time as
ing to speak to a priest about religious issues,'
Martiniano said. “The CMA office at the All Fai
Chapel is a good idea because students are roc
likely to go there than cross University
get to a church on Northgate.”
Drive:; jei
Kevorkian judge limits jury questionin
na mor
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â–¡ Dr. Jack Kevorkian is
accused of violating a
now-expired law
banning assisted suicide.
PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — A
judge railed Monday that poten
tial jurors in Dr. Jack
Kevorkian’s assisted suicide trial
cannot be asked about their reli
gious beliefs or their views on a
law that banned the practice.
After first approving a de
fense motion to ask such ques
tions, Circuit Judge Jessica
Cooper switched positions and
threw out juror questionnaires
proposed by both sides.
In her order, the judge told
lawyers not to ask any questions
that require prospective jurors to
reveal their religious beliefs or
their views on a now-expired state
law banning assisted suicide.
Kevorkian, an outspoken ad
vocate of physician-assisted sui
cide as an option for the severely
ill, is accused of violating the
ban by aiding two 1993 deaths.
Merian Frederick, 72, of Ann
Arbor, had Lou Gehrig’s dis
ease, and Dr. Ali Khalili, 61, of
Oak Brook, Ill., had bone can
cer. Both died after inhaling
carbon monoxide.
Earlier this month. Cooper
approved a survey by Kevorkian
attorney Geoffrey Fieger con
taining such questions as ‘‘Does
your religion forbid suicide?” and
“Do you tithe or contribute a
portion of your income to your
place of worship?”
“We’re absolutely entitled to
know whether there is religious
bias in this jury,” Fieger said
Monday outside of court.
Prosecutors appealed Coop
er’s ruling, arguing that the de
fense questions would invade ju
rors’ privacy and bias the selec
tion against the prosecution.
link we’r
at every
NAACI
ion. Spot
Cooper changed her mindaf jtill we l'
ter a state appeals court orderal|etwo mo
her to submit more information
about her original decisionio
support of FMeger’s request.
Jury selection had beende
layed until the appellate revie*
was complete. It was not imme
diately clear when the appeals
panel would rule on the prosecu
Lovely
IAACP <
(AACP v
etter unc
This is
now the
el! said. “
lave hap
tion motion, but Prosecutor vantedto
vhere we
Octevi
ihair am
Richard Thompson said the trill
could begin as early as Tuesday
The assisted-suicide law,
which took effect in February (frican-A
1993 and expired in November ware ar
1994, carries a penalty of up to
four years in prison.
Kevorkian, who has acknowl
edged being present at 21
deaths since 1990, also
charged with assisted suicidein ;hetic al
ihe Univt
“Stude
ngs and
locial clii
African
two 1991 deaths.
In 1994, Kevorkian wasac
quitted of charges of assisted
suicide in the 1993 death of a
Michigan man.
FNAACP,
\4m
Feds probe Russian gem company with government links
aw,
â–¡ The owner of Golden ADA and
up to $400 million in diamonds^
gold and cash is missing.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — In the
months after the collapse of the Soviet
Union, Golden ADA emerged among the
crop of new companies seeking fortunes
from the marriage of Russian raw materi
als and Western know-how.
Golden ADA boasted the best asset a
Russian business could have: personal con
nections to Boris Yeltsin’s government.
Russia shipped hundreds of millions of
dollars in uncut diamonds to the San Fran
cisco company, which was supposed to cut
and polish the gems and send them back.
But few, if any, ever returned. Now, up to
$400 million in diamonds, gold and cash has
vanished from Golden ADA, and federal in
vestigators suspect the Russian mob stole
the riches. The company’s Russian owner,
Andrei Kozlenok, is also missing.
Investigators want to know where the
valuables are and why Russia continued to
ship them even though the company had
failed to pay.
Russia contends Golden ADA illegally
sold its diamonds and kept the cash. Some
of the money apparently helped buy a stun
ning array of luxury items, including a
Faberge egg created for Czar Nicholas II, a
$377,000 Rolls Royce, nine speedboats, a
$20 million Learjet and a $4.4 million Lake
Tahoe estate used in “The Godfather Part
II,” outside auditors found.
Kozlenok, a relative of Yeltsin’s Deputy Fi
nance Minister Anatoly Golovaty, also used
his money to buy connections on this side of
the Pacific. Golovaty refused a request for an
interview from ’The Associated Press.
After it was launched in 1992, Kozlenok’s
company showered California politicians with
money, including $25,000 to the failed guber
natorial campaign of Kathleen Brown and
thousands more to state and city politicians.
In January 1995, Kozlenok recruited two
well-connected San Francisco politicians to
rescue his company after Russia in mid-1994
finally cut off further shipments and demand
ed an accounting of the gems and money.
He hired veteran state Sen. Quentin
Kopp, a powerful California legislator, as
corporate counsel, and made Jack Immen-
dorf chief executive. Immendorf was then-
Mayor Frank Jordan’s campaign finance
chairman and still heads the city Recreation
and Park Commission.
In a February 1995 letter to Yeltsin, Immen
dorf warned that Golden ADA would fail disas
trously if Russia did not resume shipments of
diamonds. But the appeal was unsuccessful,
Until the shipments were cut off, Russia
kept sending the gems because “it was a
question of trust,” said Russia’s California
attorney, Mark Beck.
Russia’s diamond marketing agency has
admitted shipping at least $178 million ia
uncut diamonds, gold coins and other valu
ables to Golden ADA without pre-payment
or security, in violation of its own rules.
Diamond industry experts say the embar
rassed Russian government may be concealing
its real losses, which could hit $400 million.
Political pressures both in Moscow and
Washington could smother the U.S. investi
gation, which gives ammunition to Yeltsin’i
Communist and nationalist opponents ia
Russia’s presidential elections in June.
Yeltsin’s critics have repeatedly accused;
his government of corruption and of helping;|
to plunder Russia’s vast natural resources.
One federal law enforcement official who
spoke on condition of anonymity said the
U.S. investigation was going slowly because
“there is concern in Washington.”
Immendorf and Kopp left the company
shortly before Russia filed a lawsuit in Octo
ber and the IRS raided Golden ADA’s head
quarters in November, seizing its remaining
assets for $63 million in unpaid taxes.
1 \
February 12 & 13, 1996
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Officers
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