The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, December 07, 1979, Page Page 2, Image 2

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BafigSaSBE i WORLD Warning to NATO BERLIN ? Foreign ministers of the seven Warsaw Pact member nations ended their fwn-dav pnnfprpnpp ? ? " x'v"*w ^"vv/ yesterday with a new warning to the NATO alliance to forsake plans for stationing new U.S.-built missiles in Western Europe. In a communique, the Soviet Bloc foreign ministers condemned NATO's "dangerous plans" to station 572 Pershing II and Cruise missiles in Western Europe and urged the West to "consider once again" the weapons' effect on the military balance. They also repeated their call, issued last spring in Budapest, Hungary, for convening of another disarmament conference bringing together nations of Europe, Canada and the United States. Shift in tactics SAN JUAN ? The ambush ot a u.b. Navy dus in which two sailors were killed and 10 men and women wounded signalled a dangerous shift in tactics by the Puerto Rico independence movement. "The extreme-left groups are feeling suffocated and time is running against them," one source in the federal government reported. "If Puerto Rico becomes a state, then it will be too late for them to do anything," he said. Pnr tha met rlanoHo nrn.inHananHonpo torrnricm hac JL V/& HIV/ UWHUV, pi U ll ivivpv>iv4v>tw tv& i V* lotn KMU been mostly a matter of haphazard bombing of U.S. government buildings or property of mainland companies, usually at night when the buildings were empty. Of some 50 bombs planted in the past year, nearly half were dismantled unexploded, and those that went off did minimal damage. But after the ambush Monday, the three underground independence groups that claimed responsiDiiuy warned inai uiey were nui playing at war" and were prepared to carry their struggle to its' 'ultimate consequences.'' Trains collide BARCELONA ? Two passenger trains, one of them carrying schoolchildren to a country outing, collided head-on yesterday about 20 miles northeast of Barcelona, killing at least seven persons and injuring more than 75, railway officials said. They said many of the injured were in critical condition and they feared the toll might go higher as rescue workers struggled to cut through the twisted wreckage in search of passengers still trapped inside the battered coaches. Some cars from the commuter tram had shot off the tracks and slammed into the walls of a nearby plant, J ~J mu ? i me idiiiudu uuiticita sciiu. i nei e was nu limiieuiaie word on the cause of the crash. Democracy Wall to go PEKING ? The Peking city government has announced that it is abolishing Democracy Wall, effectively ending 12 months of nearly uninhibited free speech in the capital and presumably elsewhere in China. In place of Democracy Wall, the government will allow carefully screened posters to be hung in Moon Altar Park, a mile to the west. There, a registration center will be set up for those wishing to put up posters. Their names, pseudonyms, addresses and units to which they belong will be recorded. The Peking Municipal Revolutionary Committee said the content of the posters will not be examined at me parn, dui * writers 01 pig-cnaracter posters will be held responsible for the political and legal implications of the content." Hnw flhnnt a A drink? :^Kk Brandy thanks her owner for a drink of water ? all she wants... | I .. SE . '/ '..':;.. i' 'i&k'* ' '.-i ' I .. 'iu "l- * 1 $ .?. . ' 'A/i a , ' ' InAlMiU.UIIIfiiWilllllllllMillWNIII'IIIII'MNIlMII NOTION Concert victims suffocated riMriMKUTi 11 nn/>t, I viiivinii/iii ? auc 11 jruuug viLUiiio ui a auviv concert stampede suffocated under the crush of other bodies, an autopsy report concludes. The report came Wednesday as President Carter's son, Chip, passed along his father's sympathies in the tragedy and as city officials began to assess what had happened and try to take steps to prevent future accidents. Meanwhile, officials in Portland, Maine, turned down an offer by the rock group The Who to play there following the cancellation of the group's planned pnnnorf in PrnviHonpp R T In Chicago, promoters of the British group's concert there Saturday said tight security and reserved seating should prevent a recurrence of the accident here Monday. Minority death rates higher Washington ? tsiacKs ana otner minorities are more likely to die young, less likely to have a regular source of medical care and less likely to get dental care than whites, an assessment of Americans' health said yesterday. The report from the federal Public Health Service shows progress was made in the 1970s in the state of Amprirans' hpalth as wpII as in apppss to hpalth rarp However, problems remain, including spiraling costs and persistent differences in health status among racial, ethnic and economic groups. The report said death rates are much higher for blacks and Indians than for whites. Between ages 25 and 44 the death rate of blacks is nearly 2xk times that for whites. Among the positive achievements cited by the study nr'jc a 19 narnont rcuHimfinn in tho hirth rata nf toon. agers, aged 15 to 17, during the 1970s. Men taken, questioned HARTSELLE, Ala. ? Secret Service agents escorted. two men from the audience after they shouted questions at Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., during a speech yesterday.y Neither man was identified immediately. The crowd of several hundred at a civic center auditorium an plauded as they were taken out. One, a black man, asked Kennedy why there was no Senate investigation of possible FBI involvement in the shooting of the head of the Communist Workers Party in North Carolina. The other shouted, "What's your position on Iran? Send the Shah back to Iran?" The men were taken to a room for questions. Kennedy was in Hartselle to speak during ceremonies honoring retired Sen. John Sparkman, DAla., a native of the north-central Alabama town. Sparkman retired last year after 40 years in Congress. Cat returned to fnmilv MELBOURNE, Fla. ? A wide-eyed Siamese cat that spent 32 days and 225,000 miles in the hold of a Pan American World Airways jetliner has been reunited with hpr nwnprs "We'd given up all hope on her," Air Force Sgt. Guy Jones said as his wife Ginger hugged the thin 2Mryearold cat, Sherry, at an emotional reunion Monday night at Orlando International Airport. The cat, which had been shipped from Guam, could not be found when the Boeine 747 arrived in San FYancisco. But 32 days later, flight personnel at [j London's Heathrow Airport found Sherry in the same jj^^KsSS^BSSsSraraaSsSSsl^^r j^^B^mS^Sf^^ffnRilffl^^^^M^^I^^^MffB^CTBwj . llMs?P^raPK?^s0?raB?s^?l S-\SM. iTwrnreWUM mwnSmgr * -<M I^^SbISBBsw fRK sBBBm JH &kj?tf&u ,*'& . ' L' ;'i ' 'Iffflftii i iiirt^MiMiftiiftirfa STRTE Murder trial near closing GEORGETOWN ? The prosecution neared the end of its presentation yesterday in the trial of two men charged with consnirine to kill MvrMp Rparh businessman Roy Lowry. John Hoffman, 45, is charged with hiring Johnny Eugene Hamilton, 31, to kill Lowry in an ambush May 11. The trial was moved to Georgetown from Conway after an earlier trial ended in a mistrial. During testimony Wednesday a man who has confessed to being a middle man in the murder-for-hire scheme said Hoffman thanked him for getting someone to kill Lowry. George Moose said the statement was made shortly after Lowry was gunned down. Moose, 42, of Mount Holly, N.C., told the court his brother-in-law, Hoffman, gave him $5,000 as payment for the murder of Lowry late the afternoon of May 11. Moose said he received the money shortly before Hoffman and his wife went to Lowry's home to express their sympathy to Lowry's widow and two children. Moose told the court Hoffman told him in November of 1978 that Lowry had "taken advantage of his wife" and asked if there were "anv wav to get rid of him." Hoffman then told Moose, "This son of a bitch has already messed up my family, and I don't want him to be able to do it to anyone else," Moose added. Moose said he contacted a friend, Bill Bryant of Casar, N.C., to try to arrange the murder after Hoffman showed him where Lowry lived and worked. Moose said Hoffman also gave him a picture of Lowry. Moose said he then met with Bryant in Myrtle Beach. But he said Bryant later said he could not find anyone to "do the job" of killing Lowry, and returned the $b,UUU. Moose also testified Bryant called him a few months later, saying he had found "someone to do the job." Two die in fire ^ COLUMBIA ? A man saved a family from death in an apartment fire before he was killed, apparently trying to rescue an elderly woman who also died, ac vui umg iv auuiui i nco. Assistant Richland County Cornoer Richard Stone said the bodies of Fred Batson, 53, and Effie Freeman, 92, were found side by side in the woman's bedroom in a one-story frame house. Batson, who lived in one of the house's three apartments, apparently was awakened by the fire around midnight, Stone said. Batson knocked on the wall dividing his apartment from the Miles Fleming family, aierung tnem. Stone said the slightly built Batson went to Freeman's room and apparently tried to carry her from the house but was overcome by smoke. The assistant coroner said Batson was pronounced dead at the scene and Freeman was dead on arrival at Richland Memorial Hospital. The preliminary cause of 4-U 1- ~ ?1 1 _ A.: ml r 11 ucdiu wtts? miiukc uiuaiauuii. ine cause 01 me lire is under investigation. Throat cultures taken NORTH ? Throat cultures have shown that some members of the staff and faculty of North Elementary School arp rarriprs nf an nronnicm fhat o-incoc wvv. . .V> w wa %? ? VA ^MKiUlll VIIUV VMMOVO meningitis, state health officials have confirmed, but they added there is no cause for alarm. Dr. Jeffrey Sacks, an epimiologist with the Department of Health and Environmental Control, said Wednesday meningococcus has been tentatively identified in six of 45 cultures taken at the school last weeK. Me aaaea tnere is no evidence of an epidemic in the Orangeburg County Community. The cultures were taken following the Nov. 17 death of a 7-year-old student from spinal meningitis. There have been four cases of spinal meningitis in the North area this year. Two resulted in deaths. H . 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