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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 2, 1999)
>- . 3 Page 6 • Wednesday, June 2, 1999 N EWS Russia to abandon Mir MOSCOW (AP) — In the strongest sign yet that Russia’s era of space glory is coming to an end, space officials announced Tuesday cosmonauts will leave the Mt'r space station in August and it will remain unmanned. The 13-year-old Mir saw a series of accidents in 1997, including a fire and a near-fatal space collision, but has been running relatively trouble- free since then. Its biggest obstacle lately has been financial: The government can no longer come up with the $250 million needed each year to keep the space station up and running. “We can’t keep the station aloft, because we have no money,” Sergei Gorbunov, a Russian Space Agency spokesperson, said Tuesday. The Russian Space Agency has been under pressure from its U.S. counterpart NASA to abandon the Mir and concentrate its meager re sources on the international space station. Because of Russia’s failure to build its segments on time, the first permanent crew is not expected to be able to move into the interna tional space station until next March, almost two years behind schedule. A panel of top Russian space of ficials met Thesday at the Mission Control Center in Korolyov, outside Moscow, to make their recommen dations on the Mir’s future. They decided that the best option would be for the three-man crew to depart in August, leaving it to circle the Earth unmanned until early next year, when it is expected to burn up in the atmosphere, said Vyacheslav Mikhailichenko, a spokesperson for the space agency. Space officials had said previ ously it would be too dangerous to leave the space station un manned. Memories of a previous unhappy experience in February 1991, when Soviet ground con trollers lost control of the un manned, 40-ton Salyut-7 space station, stoked fears that the 130- ton Mir could wreak havoc on the ground with a fiery return. Pieces of the Salyut fell on a sparsely populated area in Argenti na’s Andes mountains near the Chilean border, but caused no in juries or damage. LTTM WiTT ‘Ere 6 Activation Wi wO ‘Accessories 'Calling Cards pager airtime PrimeCo phones sold here HOPE PREGNANCY CENTERS OF BRAZOS VALLEY Discount Paging System THE BATTALION CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING •EASY •AFFORDABLE •EFFECTIVE CALL FOR MORE INFORMATION 845-0569 FACING AN UNPLANNED PREGNANCY? YOU DON'T HAVE TO FACE IT ALONE. Free & Confidential Pregnancy Tests Pregnancy, Adoption & Abortion Education Practical Assistance Post Abortion Counseling Adoption/Medical & Community Service Referrals 846-1097 3620 E. 29TH ST • BRYAN n if I cn- 1 II U C/> l< I <T> ■O AN1C> TA>CS i Speeding Ticket? Have the Last Laugh n State-approved Defensive Driving course for ticket dismissal and insurance reduction. Convenient Saturday classes taught at 4.0 & Go Tutoring in College Station DEFENSIVE DRIVING... COMEDY STYLE USA Training Company, Inc. Taught by professional comic Bobby Bernshausen To register, call 778-GRIN (778-4746) Sturt Your Future WORK PORT-TURF ROW flPPLV FOR R FUll-TimE OPPORTUniTV UIHER YOU GRRDURTE! UCS is continuing expansion into College Station. Our newest facility is open and we are hiring for part-time positions in these departments: Client Service Equipment Repair Shipping/Receiving Inventory Software Distribution Hardware Assembly Office Administration PC Software Support UCS offers: Competitive salary and flexible shifts Excellent work experience Career opportunities after - graduation Paid weekly To Apply, Call (409) 595-2609 or stop by our hospitality room at MSC 138 from 9-4 p.m. June T‘ & 2 nd to pick up an application. .UniUFRSflLCOmPUTFRSYS.com Texa: I South Africans set to vof mally ui ept for fie top-: ear 20 The African National Congress expected to claim victo 'ears of oy a 26 Tlhe' JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) — South Africa’s election campaign drew to an ugly conclu sion Tuesday as parties exchanged court challenges and accusations of dirty tricks ahead of a vote that the ruling African National Congress (ANC) was expected to win in a landslide. Still, that rancor meant good news for democracy in South Africa, given the violence that pre ceded the landmark 1994 vote which ended apartheid. Today’s election should keep the ANC in power for five more years and open a new chapter after the Nelson Mandela era of reconciliation. Mandela’s deputy president, Thabo Mbeki, 56, is expected to win the race to succeed him and has promised to focus on deliver ing services and opportunity to the millions of impoverished blacks. Some 18.2 million people are registered to vote for the 400-seat National Assembly, which formal ly selects the president June 14. The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., with the first, unof ficial results likely to be early to morrow. South Africa’s current National Assembly d by Bowi Ser in e in i anc I At th III exp South African elections are being held June 2. A new president will t n fe s an elected to succeed Nelson Mandela and the new makeup of the or National Assembly will determined. 6 in U New National Party: 82 Freedom Front S Six r Pan AfricanistPart.Jaseba Present National Assembly Inkatha Freedom Party: 43 | Democratic Party: 7 African Christian Democrats: 2 African National Congress: 252 AP/Wm.J rveek’i More than 100,000 soldiers and police officers were sent out to en sure the country’s second all-race election remains peaceful. “We don’t want those people who think with their blood and who try to use violence against oth ers,” Mandela said Tuesday as he dedicated a community center lo cated in a politically tense section of the TYanskei region. “We strictly condemn that — it does not matter what party they belong to.” The waning days of the cam paign were marked by widespread ill will among the parties: )all Drs • The small, mainly whin Junic mocratic Party accused the^ken in broadcaster of following theay the S hue. jlThe i • The ANC sued a pronw recc member of the New Natioru Fello\ ty, successor to the apartheiBs sell ing party, for accusing it oi n the s ning to stuff the ballot boxlverall p member publicly apologized. Also • Mangosuthu Buthelezi, man Jol of the Zulu nationalist InkatlrDiego), dom Party, attacked the mediamacher ports he knew his party was!fielder S arms in the early 1990s while kee; ai fighting a war with the ANC. Scarbor Former professor sworn ii as president of El Salvado SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — A former pro fessor of philosophy took over Tuesday as El Salvador’s new president, pledging to push for economic develop ment and fight crime — this Central American nation’s two biggest problems. Francisco Flores, 39, of the rightist Nationalist Re publican Alliance, was sworn-in as the country’s 34th president. Carlos Quintanilla, 52, a lawyer and coffee grower, was sworn-in as vice president. In his inaugural address, Flores pledged to do every thing possible to develop the economy. “The foremost and most urgent requirement of our government is to promote jobs,” he said. “We must en courage all enterprises and businesses to create employ ment as the only alternative to neglect and poverty. ” Some 3,000 special guests attended the ceremony in S Thu hr Rc Moved San Salvador, including other Central Americanf tor in t dents and the heirs to the thrones of Spain and Mot ment 0 El Salvador, the size of Belgium with a populat tural S 6 million, still has a frail economy, the result of J the Of war between leftist guerrillas and a succession of Provos supported rightist governments backed by the mil newly Human rights groups estimate more than 75,0ft assista pie were killed in the conflict from October 1979 for Te January 1992, when peace was established und f Univer mediation and supervision of the United Nations As During the conflict, the United States pouro provos lions of dollars in military and other aid to the f don wi try to keep it from falling in the hands of the gu ! vise R( las. The conflict dismantled a system of govern preside that favored powerful, wealthy landowners and elate a the majority of the population in dire poverty.
