301.FBIS3-58025.retnorel.html0100644000076500001440000000764710117747335014403 0ustar TREC2003users FBIS3-58025 "drweu000__a94023"
FBIS-WEU-93-000-A Document Type:Daily Report 2 December 1993
ANNEX Italy

Calabria Judge Seen as Likely Target of Bomb Attack

BR0701100994 Rome ANSAMAIL Database in English 1555 GMT 6 Jan 94--FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY BR0701100994 Rome ANSAMAIL Database Language: English Article Type:BFN [Unattributed article: "'Ndrangheta Informant Warns of Explosives"] [Text] Reggio Calabria, 6 Jan (ANSA) -- Police in the Calabrian capital were searching for 350 kg of explosives that a 'ndrangheta [Calabrian Mafia-style organization] informant had warned them were going to be used in an attack on a Reggio magistrate. That search was concentrated today in an area near the Ionian coast about 30 km from the capital, investigators said. A likely target of the reported plan was Giuseppe Verzera, assistant district prosecutor of Reggio, who has conducted some of the most important inquiries into organized crime in that region. Police said they had obtained the information from several members of 'ndrangheta gangs who had decided to cooperate with the authorities, including one informant who only recently began to talk to police. This source told investigators that the explosive (of the same type used in deadly car bombs that blew up in Florence, Milan and Rome last spring and summer) was in the hands of the Calabrian crime organization as well as how they intended to employ it. In a search last July, Carabinieri found 50 kg of explosives hidden in a field near Montebello Ionico, an area considered to be under the control of the Iamonte clan. That crime group was recently badly hit in a major dragnet on December 6, under the coordination of Verzera. The growing role of the 'ndrangheta in national organized crime circuits, both alone and in cooperation with the Sicilian Mafia was underlined in a report on crime filed by the Anti-Mafia Investigating Directorate (DIA) to parliament yesterday. The national anticrime police unit said that the Calabrian 'ndrangheta has been expanding rapidly since 1991, when Sicilian Cosa Nostra representatives intervened among warring Calabrian rings to negotiate a "pax mafiosa" that led to a steep decline in interclan murders and a much improved capacity for illicit business. (DIA cited the 20 percent in Calabria's gangland killings in 1992, with inter-gang deaths continuing to fall this year.) [as published] Investigators linked the 'ndrangheta's spread to the tight network of secret masonic lodges in the region of Calabria, first brought to the attention of law enforcement officials by the Palmi public prosecutor's office, then under the direction of Judge Agostino Cordova. One third of all southern Free Masons live in Calabria, investigators estimate, and they are stepping up their inquiries into the links between criminal activity and the secret and semi-secret lodges. In the province of Reggio Calabria alone, some 3,500 persons have been identified as 'ndrangheta members, while the whole region numbers 155 clans and at least 5,500 working for organized crime. Catanzaro and Cosenza were cited as other major crime centers. 'Ndrangheta activities include extortion (with 368 related cases of arson in 1992), usury, kidnaping and drug traffic. The DIA report cites the spread of Calabrian crime activities to Northern Italy as well as abroad to Canada, the U.S. and Australia. In the past six months, 890 detentions or arrests have been ordered, including 524 regarding the 'ndrangheta, as compared to 269 orders regarding the Sicilian Mafia, 62 involving the Sacra Corona Unita [United Holy Crown -- Pugliese Mafia-style organization] of Puglia and 35 involving the Camorra. 301.FBIS4-68846.retnorel.html0100644000076500001440000004073310117747335014411 0ustar TREC2003users FBIS4-68846 "jpusr056___94027"
FBIS-USR-94-056 JPRS
FBIS Report: Central Eurasia 16 April 1994 RUSSIA ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS

Gangland Murders Investigated

Gangland Murders Investigated 944F0690C Moscow PODMOSKOVYE in Russian No 15, 16 Apr 94 p 7 944F0690C Moscow PODMOSKOVYE Russian CSO [Article by Nikolay Modestov: "Who Is Next? Today Even Recognized Criminal World Authorities Are Not Immune From Criminal Lawlessness"] [Text]
The "Queen of England" of the Caucasus Mafia
The first victim arrived in the admissions room of the Balashikha TsRB [central rayon hospital] at 0940. Surgeons diagnosed the condition without hesitation: bullet wound to the right thigh. The wounded man--30-year-old Chechen Osmayev--reported that he had been shot on Razina Street near the office of the Rosinter company. At 1010 local resident Marina B. was brought to the same hospital with a bullet wound to a buttock. A group of operatives that went to the site of the incident barely got there in time. In the Volga sedan speeding out of the city they detained a Rosinter company administrator and two local residents without any particular employment. Under the car seat the detectives from the ninth department of the oblast GUVD [City Administration of Internal Affairs] Regional Organized Crime Administration [RUOP] discovered a TT handgun and a couple of loaded magazines (with three and seven cartridges). It soon became clear why the magazines were not full. In the trunk of the car was the body of mortally wounded 30-year-old Deryabin, a resident of Zheleznodorozhnyy, also not employed. He died an hour later without regaining consciousness in the intensive care unit of the Balashikha TsRB from a bullet would to the eye. The operatives encountered the main "surprise" later, however. In the course of a ground search near the woods behind Novaya village they discovered another corpse. The body of a young man dressed in a well-made denim suit had been dumped in a roadside ditch and covered with snow. The experienced detectives realized that they were not dealing with an ordinary "score-settling." They recognized the man, killed by a shot through the back of his head, as 38-year-old Daudov--a well-known "crime boss" nicknamed Sultan... In the complex and constantly changing table of ranks of the criminal world, Sultan had long held a special place. Suffice it to say that he had been the only "crime boss" among the Chechens. As is known, this ethnic group does not recognize the traditions of "bosses" commonly followed in the criminal world. Chechens remain faithful to their tribal ties and treat clan elders with respect. Even the so-called "kitty"--a "thieves'" treasury which exists mainly to support authorities and "bosses," delivering parcels of "gravy" to investigative detention facilities and labor camps, is made up of foreign currency--not "wooden" rubles--"contributions" among Chechens. Because of these circumstances, Sultan was considered a stranger among their own both among Chechens and among Russians. Sultan had four convictions. The first--a three-year prison term--he got in his native Groznyy back in 1972. All in all he had accumulated 14 years behind barbed wire... He did time in the zone in Saratov, Bryansk, Tula, Voronezh, Rostov, and Moscow Oblasts. As operatives who had known him tell it, Sultan was not a simpleton. An offspring of a prominent Chechen family (according to some data his father had worked as a party functionary in Chechnya), he had his own view of many things, and intellectually was far above most criminals around him. Sultan liked to philosophize, gladly proffered advice (and not bad at that, from what we heard), and was moderate in his use of alcohol. He did have a weakness--grass; he could not stay off it. However, even in prison Sultan kept up appearances--was cleanly shaven, neat, and calm. He left his family, was "crowned" in prison by Georgian "bosses," and since then became something like the "Queen of England" among Chechens. They recognized his authority, but did not consider him "kin." Perhaps these circumstances eventually led to Sultan's demise.
Are "Thieves" Brothers?
That morning Sultan, accompanied by his bodyguard Deryabin, was leaving for Crimea for a meeting with a local authority nicknamed Shoe. When their Jeep was on its way to the airport, Sultan suddenly suggested that they stop briefly at Rosinter on business. Deryabin was the first to walk into the office. Sultan lingered for a moment--he was showing something to driver Osmayev on the car's dashboard. Subsequent events are still to be reconstructed in detail. (For quite understandable reasons, witnesses to the murder prefer to keep their mouths shut.) It is obvious, however, that Sultan and his "cover" were dealt with professionally, calmly, and cruelly. The operatives also believe that the victim had a large amount of money from the "kitty" on him. The money has not yet been found. Oblast RUOP detectives also know the names of the murderers. What is not entirely clear is the motive for the murder--who is behind the shooting in the Rosinter office? One of the versions is revenge for Balashikha authority Frol, killed on the last day of last year (PODMOSKOVYE No. 9 devoted an article "Epitaph for a `Godfather'" to this event). Frol had a long-running feud with the "Chechen community"--he was one of the leaders of the "Slavic wing" of the domestic mafia. He was threatened many times, and the confrontation, which by some estimates had been going on since 1988, in 1993 spilled out into a series of score-settling altercations between Frol's shock troopers and the Caucasians. On 18 August, for instance, Frol's villa was fired at by a grenade launcher. The victim decided not to report the incident to the militia. "Maybe gasoline canisters exploded in the garage," he told detectives. Frol's response was much more "tangible." Soon a series of explosions rolled through Chechen-"protected" sales outlets in Balashikha Rayon. Sultan lived in Balashikha and of course knew Frol well. Frol even contributed money to the "kitty." So far there are no grounds, however, to contend that he was the person who gave the "green light" to Frol's killing. Neither can one say with certainty that Frol's group had something to do with Sultan's death. There are other versions as well. Frol was not the only one to take a stand against the Chechens' preponderance in the capital city metropolitan area. According to operatives, "bosses" do not like the Chechens, considering them people who do not live by the law of the criminals. The Chechens constantly clash with "bosses" and invade the territory of others, which results in armed clashes and score-settling. This also explains the attitude of the "bosses'" lobby to the Chechen authorities. "Crime bosses" do not want Chechens to have a voice at "conferences." In this respect, Sultan's behavior was indicative in that he had tried twice to promote Mairbek, a Chechen, to "thief" status. The attempts failed twice... The late Globe [Globus] was also unhappy with Sultan. The famous "boss" said more than once that Sultan was "flaky," that is, gave the "boss" title to young criminals who had not earned this "high honor." Interestingly, a young leader nicknamed Pushkin (he controlled Podolsk and Serpukhov), who had been "crowned" by Sultan last year, was "quietly" shot dead by an unknown assailant. For a real authoritative "boss" this is impermissible. The death of any of them is an extraordinary event, which is discussed at a "conference," with appropriate "organizational conclusions." Sultan's relations with the late "boss" Barberry [Kalina] were no less strained. Barberry's derogatory remarks about the Chechens (behind his back he called Sultan an ape and a Czech) compelled Sultan to threaten to kill him. So Barberry, having figured out that he was playing with fire, went to Serpukhov, where Sultan was sitting in the SIZO [preliminary investigative detention facility], and apologized to the "comrade" for "accidentally dropped words." In the Serpukhov SIZO, on the other hand, the attitude toward the Chechen was that of utmost respect. Two local "bosses" treated Sultan with attention appropriate to his rank. This is understandable--no "boss" will insult another one in his face. As is known, "bosses" are brothers.
Going to Crimea--Taken to Chechnya
After Sultan's murder, an assassination attempt was made against his good friend, a Lyubertsy authority nicknamed Avil. The latter was nearly shot to death in Solntsevo by an unknown criminal. The killer fired several shots from a Makarov handgun when Avil left his apartment to walk his dog. He did not die, but ended up in a very serious condition in a hospital. The operatives remember an incident that happened back in 1989 at the Old Castle restaurant. It all started with some Caucasians occupying a table next to the one where Sultan and Avil were sitting began to get rowdy. Sultan walked over to them, introduced himself, and asked them to tone it down. The mountain people, high from all the wine they had drunk, told the "boss" to get lost. Naturally, a fight ensued in which the "boss" ended up with broken ribs and a cracked skull. The next day Avil came to the Old Castle, shot the bartender dead with a sawn-off shotgun, and mortally wounded one of Sultan's offenders with a sharpened screwdriver... Does this story offer an explanation of the demise of the Chechen "boss"? I think this version does not hold water even by a long stretch of imagination. Neither does another one frequently discussed by journalists. They talk about the so-called supersecret "White Arrow" team allegedly created on the personal orders of the Russian MVD [Ministry of Internal Affairs] leadership for secret suppression of criminal "authorities." Those who have gained a knowledge of the criminal world mores from operational work experience rather than from newspaper articles do not take this tale seriously. It is obvious that the "White Arrow" myth is being spread precisely by those bandits who want to write off the blood and murder of their own confederates to the militia. The causal connection here is much more simple and material. Behind the death of every "boss" is enormous money, influence, and a complex disposition of forces in the criminal world and the criminal economy. So why did Sultan, who was heading for the warm sea of Crimea, end up traveling in a casket to his native Chechnya? Operatives think it possible that the cause of Sultan's demise may lie in his sharing a neighborhood with Zakhar, also a "boss" who lives in Balashikha. The latter is known as an authority who sticks to strict labor camp traditions. He never concealed his Slavic orientation and claim to leadership in his territory. According to detectives, Zakhar cannot stand the Chechens. He knows the "law" very well, but he knows equally well the golden rule: As a rule, the fight is won by whoever strikes first and strikes hard. And, as they say, the winners are not judged... Was a "shoot" set up for Sultan in the office? And if it was, by whom and why? In keeping with tradition, only an equal--that is, another "boss"--can make an appointment for a "boss." Actually, the hidden springs of this incident are still not known. But the operatives, while not dismissing the possibility of Zakhar's involvement in the bloody "score-settling," know perfectly well that he himself did not kill Sultan. It is just that any lead deserves attention and discussion. ...Over the last half-year alone dozens of criminal world authorities have been killed in the Moscow region; well-known crime bosses have fallen victim to shootouts and contract murders. It is an unprecedented situation; not a single one among experienced detectives can recall anything like this. These days a bullet fired by a small-time criminal, who has barely staked his place among his kind, may take the life of a criminal world "patriarch," a single word from whom in the past could change the situation in entire oblasts of Russia. The "thieves" Globe, Pipiya, Pushkin, and Arsen have been killed. Givi Scarface disappeared without a trace. Georgian "boss" Roin also faded into the night while driving home from a casino. Sultan has been shot dead... And an uncountable number of less prominent personalities. Bobon was torn apart by a submachine gun burst; Little Falcon [Sokolenok] shot dead in front of his apartment; Mikota died of a gunshot would to the head in a cafe in Kolomenskoye; in Lyubertsy, Hare [Zayats] died at the door of his own home; Kruglov, nicknamed Beard [Boroda], was found in Yauza river with a garrote around his neck. There is a virtual hunt for the "boss" nicknamed Signature [Rospis], who is considered the most active fighter against the Caucasian preponderance in the capital city region. Signature has been hit by a sniper bullet twice. The first time he was saved by a bullet-proof vest; the second--by his bodyguard Sharapov, who was killed on the spot. Signature did not escape unharmed, though. The same bullet that killed Sharapov hit the "boss" in the liver and tore through his kidney. It was a miracle that he lived; he flew to the United States, had surgery there, returned, and came under fire again. When he left his home accompanied by his bodyguard Shaykhullin and headed for his Volga car, unknown perpetrators blew up a car parked nearby. The charge was so powerful that all the windows in the building--from the first to the 10th floor--were shattered. This is not the worst, however. Innocent bystanders were hurt--two girls playing in the courtyard, and two passers-by. The bodyguard was also killed on the spot. Signature survived and was taken to hospital in a critical condition. Doctors list his condition as satisfactory. Quite possibly, Signature will soon get back into business again. A reasonable question, through: For how long? And another one: What will the killers come up with this time to find a more reliable way to eliminate the adversary? Perhaps blow up an overpass as Signature's car travels on it? Or will they blow up an entire rayon when the authority holds an appointed meeting? Operatives believe, however, that Signature may feel it is prudent to leave again for the United States... Lawlessness [bespredel]. This slang word, which means mocking even the norms of "morality" commonly accepted in the criminal world, is increasingly often defining our current life. First we registered a rise in crime, then we had to admit that it had practically got out of control. And finally we agreed that crime itself has undergone a qualitative change. Now lawlessness has become the norm rather than the exception, and fighting gangsters who have long lost the notion of propriety is not just difficult--it is nearly impossible. "Our laws, the criminal and criminal process codes, normative acts, and other juridical mechanisms were created with a civilized society in mind," is the opinion of Aleksandr Kartashev, chief of the Moscow Oblast GUVD Regional Organized Crime Department. "They do not meet the requirements of the current situation, cannot protect to a full extent society and its citizens. People get shot, blown up, and stabbed to death in broad daylight. Brainless, stupid retards pull the trigger without a second thought. The situation is increasingly often characterized as extraordinary. What do we have to counter this lawlessness? Almost nothing except the courage and enthusiasm of our staff. Hiding behind the letter of the law, leaders and authorities find loopholes in the criminal code with the help of high-powered lawyers and escape punishment. In order to realistically grab a gang organizer, we need a law on criminal activities, a law on protection of witnesses, and a law on organized crime. It is necessary to toughen the penalties for illegal possession of weapons and ammunition. We should think through how to punish the mercenaries who are coming here from "hot spots" and are ready to commit any crime. Until these issues are resolved, we can hardly expect results commensurate with the militia's efforts in its struggle against runaway crime. 301.LA041789-0010.retnorel.html0100644000076500001440000003620710117747336014456 0ustar TREC2003users LA041789-0010 45052

April 17, 1989, Monday, San Diego County Edition

Metro; Part 2; Page 1; Column 2; Metro Desk

2323 words

TWO VIEWS OF MOBSTER LINKED TO SILBERMAN;

IS PETTI A MAJOR UNDERWORLD FIGURE OR A CROOK WHO LIVES UP TO HIS NAME?

By RICHARD A. SERRANO, Times Staff Writer

There are two views of Chris George Petti, the underworld figure indicted with Richard T. Silberman in an alleged money-laundering scheme.

One can be found in a thick stack of federal affidavits, transcripts, crime reports, media clippings and testimony before the U. S. Senate on file with the Nevada Gaming Commission. They say the 62-year-old Petti has been at the helm of organized crime in San Diego, the majordomo protecting the interests of the Chicago and Las Vegas mob.

Jimmy (the Weasel) Fratianno, perhaps the most notorious mobster ever to turn government informant, once described Petti as a "strong-arm thug in San Diego" associated with the top leadership of the Chicago and Las Vegas syndicates.

Yet to some law enforcement officials, Petti is merely a wanna-be, a bit player, a man of Greek extraction trying to rub shoulders in a criminal organization traditionally ruled by Italian-Americans.

"He was a cheap little hood that showed up in town," said A. David Stutz, a San Diego County deputy district attorney.

"He isn't very bright. He's not a mover and shaker. He's no big deal. He's just a cheap, no-good little hood who never really amounted to anything."

But one thing is clear: The federal government has spent a lot of time, money and manpower tracking his movements for the past 2 1/2 years, deploying one of the first ever roving wiretaps enabling the FBI to monitor Petti's conversations on any telephone he used.

The investigation ended April 7 with the arrest of Petti, San Diego businessman Silberman and two other men for their alleged role in the complicated drug money-laundering scheme. A federal affidavit describing the investigation alleged that Petti had a powerful friend in Silberman, who confided to an undercover FBI agent about Petti: "I love the guy."

Silberman is free on bail. But Petti remains in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown San Diego after a federal magistrate denied bail, concluding that Petti is a danger to the community.

Oscar Goodman, a flamboyant attorney from Las Vegas who is representing Petti and has represented a number of organized crime figures, acknowledged in an interview that Petti and Silberman have long been friends. But, he added, "I can assure you it was a very legitimate relationship, going back a long, long time."

Silberman and Petti came from two different worlds.

While Silberman has been a longtime Democratic Party power broker and successful financier, Petti came from Cicero, Ill., and is reputed to have made his early mark as a Chicago area loan shark. Later, he would be named by Fortune magazine as among the top 50 "Biggest Mafia Bosses," and the Nevada Gaming Commission would find him worthy of inclusion in its Black Book of notorious hoodlums barred from the state's casinos.

Yet he has only two prior criminal convictions.

At the time of his arrest in the money-laundering case, he was living in a ground-floor condominium in the Hillside Colony near Lindbergh Field, with a man identified as Victor Garcia, described as a longtime confidante and chauffeur, according to federal agents.

Also known as Chris Poulos and Christopher Polous, Petti is the father of two children, from a marriage that began in 1967 and ended in divorce 18 years later.

Distinctive Features

Petti's features are distinctive, with silver gray hair, and a long, chiseled nose. He has been seen often around the downtown county courthouse wearing V-neck sweaters and sometimes a sweat suit. He often hung around the Stardust Hotel & Country Club in Mission Valley.

"With me he's always been a very honorable fella," Goodman said. "He's a very quiet person, actually. I don't know what all the fuss is about."

A 1984 probation report paints a different picture.

"He has been seen in the company of organized crime figures in Las Vegas, Northern California and Chicago," the report says.

It adds that Petti "has a propensity for violence (and) has a violent temper, particularly when he is drinking."

Goodman denied that characterization.

"I've spent a lot of time with him, both during the day and in the evening," he said. "He laughs a lot harder when he's drinking."

Petti first surfaced in San Diego in the early 1970s as the bodyguard and chauffeur for Frank Bompensiero.

Known as the "Bomp," Bompensiero had a reputation as an elder statesman in organized crime, a top mob boss in California with good contacts to the Chicago outfit.

"He would be like a driver or a kind of a courier, a messenger-type carrier," said Nick Lore, a former organized crime specialist with the FBI.

But Bompensiero was also a government informant. And, according to a former Justice Department organized crime prosecutor familiar with Petti, he told investigators that Petti was heavily involved in illegal gambling and loan sharking.

Gangland Slaying

Bompensiero was gunned down in 1977 while walking in an alley near his home in Pacific Beach, shot four times in the head when a car slowed down alongside him.

One of the first people his wife called after the murder was Petti, and federal agents quickly began to theorize that Petti would assume control for the San Diego rackets, highlighted primarily by bookmaking, loan sharking and some drug smuggling, officials said.

Petti became closely linked by federal investigators with Anthony "Tony the Ant" Spilotro, a notorious Chicago mobster who moved to Las Vegas to run operations in the desert. Like Bompensiero, Spilotro eventually was murdered, his body dumped along with his brother's in an Indiana farm field.

As Petti was gaining in prominence, so too was the government watching his moves.

A 1978 federal affidavit filed in Las Vegas places Petti and Spilotro together in a Las Vegas restaurant, discussing what to do about a loan shark victim under pressure to cooperate with federal investigators.

The next day, Petti called Spilotro and told him the loan shark victim hadn't talked to the FBI, the affidavit says. Later, the loan shark victim met with Petti and Spilotro at the same restaurant, the affidavit says, and Spilotro suggested that the man be less than truthful in his upcoming grand jury testimony.

The document has Petti and Spilotro meeting again, this time to discuss upcoming grand jury testimony in San Francisco from Fratianno.

Jack Armstrong, a former FBI agent and San Diego County criminal investigator, told a U. S. Senate investigating committee about surveillance of two out-of-town union organizers with mob ties. The organizers came to San Diego in 1978, ostensibly to help local hotel and restaurant employees.

Assault With Baseball Bat

"I watched their organizing efforts in San Diego," Armstrong said. "It was an easy job. They would spend half the day playing golf at the Stardust, then attend the races at Del Mar and then confer with Joe LiMandri (a reputed mob associate) at the card room in the Stardust.

"I watched them meeting with people like Chris Petti."

In 1979, Petti assaulted two men with a baseball bat during an altercation at a La Jolla condominium complex. One of the men suffered a concussion and, in a complex legal case, Petti eventually was convicted and in 1984 fined $1,000.

His second conviction involved a federal bookmaking case that covered the 1980-81 football season. He was released from prison in 1984, after serving just under nine months of his year-and-a-day sentence.

Both court cases came at a time when the California attorney general's office issued reports about organized crime activities in the state, noting Petti's new prominence in underworld circles.

A 1982-83 report asserts that Petti had been given "carte blanche" by Spilotro to handle gambling action in Southern California.

And a 1984 report discussed the P&T Construction Co., a home repair contracting firm "long alleged to be a front for organized crime in San Diego." The report notes that two of the company's principals eventually pleaded guilty to felony grand theft involving the diversion of construction funds.

It adds: "Chris Petti, a reported organized crime figure, worked for P&T at various times and was a principal . . . in Say-It-All, an entity to which P&T diverted construction funds."

Based on the convictions and other evidence, the Nevada Gaming Commission voted in May, 1987, to include Petti in its "List of Excluded Persons," a roster created to protect the gambling industry from unsavory elements.

Nick De Pento, Petti's attorney before the gaming commission, told the commission that any description of Petti as a member of organized crime is in error, because "there was no illegal association."

'A Las Vegas Connection'

"It is a mystical fright that is being presented to you that in reality does not exist," De Pento said.

James Chamberlain, a Nevada deputy attorney general, disagreed.

"We don't need to prove whether there is a Mafia," he told the commission. "We don't need to prove whether there is a Cosa Nostra or Black Hand or anything given that way. When we talk about organized crime, we talk about people getting together to make crime.

"He did that. He has done that. And he has done it with a Las Vegas connection."

The exact nature of Petti's relationship with organized crime has been debated in law enforcement circles for years.

Some officials discount Petti's role, such as one former Justice Department organized crime prosecutor who said that "the guy is a classic LCN (La Cosa Nostra) hanger-on."

Stutz, the San Diego County deputy district attorney, said Petti was never able to stand shoulder-height with such notorious mob figures as Bompensiero or Spilotro. "I never viewed him sitting down with the heavyweights at all," Stutz said.

Others, like Lore, the former FBI organized crime expert, think otherwise.

"This guy right now has the stature of a major hoodlum in the United States," Lore said.

"This is a righteous mob guy. Without being a soldier or a member of La Cosa Nostra, he's got all the moves of a made guy. He's involved in extortion. He's involved in bookmaking and gambling. Now you can add money laundering."

More Important Mobsters

But Lore also said there are hundreds of other mob associates in both Chicago and New York with far more importance that Petti, primarily because there is so much more "action" in those cities than San Diego. He said the Chicago and East Coast outfits consider San Diego something of a "branch office," out of the mainstream of mob racketeering.

"He comports himself the way you'd expect a mob guy to," Lore said. "He wears all the nice clothes. He likes to drive around in nice cars. He is very well manicured. He's well coiffed. He's your typical well-groomed mob guy."

Armstrong, testifying before the Senate subcommittee, said Petti was "the top organized crime figure in San Diego."

And Bob Morehouse, supervisor of the organized crime unit for the California Department of Justice, echoed that sentiment. "He's a major figure in San Diego," Morehouse said. "Maybe the major figure."

One person who gravitated to Petti was Robert Benjamin, a 20-year associate with an extensive arrest record dating to 1951.

According to the federal affidavit filed in connection with the money-laundering arrests this month, Benjamin was a confidential government informant and told investigators how he had "been involved with Petti in bookmaking, loan sharking, extortion and other illegal activities." Benjamin played a key role in introducing Petti to an undercover FBI agent posing as the representative of drug traffickers.

Goodman, the Las Vegas attorney representing Petti in the money-laundering case, said he was eager to confront Benjamin in a trial as one of the key government witnesses.

"He's got a squeaky voice," Goodman said. "I'm going to eat him up for lunch and maybe even spit him out. That's how I feel about him."

The government, in its affidavit and request to hold Petti without bail in the money-laundering case, alleged he has been active in trying to extort money from individuals reportedly in debt to the late Spilotro.

Robbery Plan Claimed

The government also contends that Petti had been planning the armed robbery of an elaborate illegal bookmaking operation in Las Vegas run by an individual known only as "Marty the Jew," and that Petti had helped enlist the efforts of alleged strongman Carmen DiNunzio to help him.

The affidavit alleges there was repeated discussion about Petti being paid for his involvement in setting up the meetings between the undercover agent, who said he had money to launder, and Silberman, who allegedly came to Petti seeking some business.

The relationship between Petti and Silberman, and their string of alleged telephone conversations and meetings at a Denny's restaurant downtown, is at the heart of the government's case.

According to the money-laundering affidavit, Silberman at one time told the undercover FBI agent that his reason for wanting to move money surreptitiously was because "I just wanted a little diversification and that's why I went to Chris."

Boasted of Friendship

Petti allegedly boasted about his friendship with Silberman, according to the affidavit. The document describes a meeting between Petti and the undercover agent.

"Petti explained that he had a wealthy associate who was a founder of the Jack in the Box restaurants and who was a prominent member of the Democratic Party having served in the administration of Gov. Jerry Brown," the affidavit says.

"Petti said that this individual had a way to get money out of the country which involved purchasing private stock which is held in trust accounts in Switzerland."

The affidavit says the undercover agent asked Petti if he trusted Silberman.

"Petti said that he trusted this individual and personally vouched for his trustworthiness," the affidavit says.

Times staff writer Doug Frantz contributed to this report.

Photo, Chris George Petti, center, in 1984 photo, with attorneys Oscar Goodman, left, and Nick De Pento. Associated Press

301.LA100790-0068.retnorel.html0100644000076500001440000001347310117747335014456 0ustar TREC2003users LA100790-0068 288774

October 7, 1990, Sunday, Bulldog Edition

Part A; Page 14; Column 1; Advance Desk

840 words

ITALY SHOCKED BY ORGANIZED CRIME KILLING OF CHILDREN;

MAFIA: SLAYERS NO LONGER MAKE EFFORT TO BE SURE THAT INNOCENT PERSONS ARE NOT IN THE WAY WHEN THEY ATTACK THEIR TARGETS.

By PHILIP PULLELLA, REUTERS

ROME

Twelve-year-old Andrea Esposito was in the wrong place at the wrong time and it cost him his life.

One morning in September he witnessed a brutal Mafia ambush in a seedy wholesale produce market near Naples, where he worked unloading fruit crates before school to help his family get by.

After shooting the man they had come to kill, the gunmen -- from a clan of the Camorra, the Naples region branch of the Mafia -- turned their attention to those who had seen them.

Years ago, Andrea's tender age might have saved him. He might have got away with an icy warning to keep his mouth shut.

As Andrea huddled in a corner crying out for mercy, one of the killers put a gun to the boy's head and fired twice.

The Mafia and its offshoots have killed children before in their long and violent history. But such killings were rare. They were often by-products of attacks targeted at others and the Mafia went to great pains to keep such killings quiet.

"One of the masterpieces of the Mafia's self-generated public relations image has been to make people believe that its 'men of honor' kept women and children out of their conflicts," said sociologist Pino Arlacchi, an expert on the Mafia.

Still, Andrea's execution, the second killing of a child by organized crime groups in two days, shocked and outraged a country largely inured to gangland violence.

"The killing of children now occurs with much greater frequency and there is no attempt to hide it," Arlacchi said.

Two days before, 8-year-old Paolo Longobardi died when a gunman who had come to kill the boy's father sprayed their bedroom window with shots from a hunting rifle.

No longer concerned about a facade of honor, the killers now make no effort to make sure children or other witnesses are not in the way when they attack their targets.

Paolo and his father were the latest victims of a gangland feud between two Camorra clans in Castellamare di Stabia, south of Naples.

Andrea and the Longobardis were among 10 people killed in a rash of Camorra violence in a 72-hour period. Nearly 160 have died this year.

Police say the spiraling violence stems from the breakdown of the Camorra's two monolithic umbrella families into 106 rival clans fighting to control lucrative drug trafficking, extortion and smuggling rackets.

"Before, big flare-ups in organized crime violence occurred cyclically, every generation or so, when the young members took over from the old chiefs," said Arlacchi. "Now these conflicts are continuous, with a much higher number of dead."

After the killings of the children, Italy's national police chief Vincenzo Parisi -- usually a man of few words -- gave a flurry of television and newspaper interviews to assure the country that the forces of law had the situation under control.

Parisi said the indiscriminate violence showed the Camorra was in a desperate panic because police were taking advantage of the break-up of the big families to crack down.

Not everybody agreed with Parisi's suggestion that the Camorra clans were going wild because they felt the heat.

Right-wing Sen. Rafaele Valensise demanded that either the government give top priority to organized crime or admit the failure of its current strategy and start all over again.

"If not even this recent ferocity and brutality by the clans can dislodge the state into making a commitment in places where organized crime strikes out in an indiscriminate way, that means there is little hope of winning this war," he said.

The flare-up in the Naples area coincided with a burst of fresh violence in Calabria, where more than 200 people have been killed this year by the 'Ndrangheta, the poor southern mainland region's version of the Mafia.

The violence in much of southern Italy has prompted the influential Roman Catholic Church to denounce organized crime with renewed vigor.

"This concerted position of the church, these bishops, these priests, who speak out openly against the Mafia, this is truly something historically important," said Arlacchi.

Throughout the country, priests, bishops and cardinals urged Italians to cut the lifeline of organized crime by rebelling against "omerta," the Mafia's "code of silence."

"Those mouths and eyes which have been shut by brutality must finally make us open our mouths and our eyes to speak and see for them," said Bishop Antonio Riboldi of Acerra, a Camorra-infested city near Naples.

Rome Cardinal Ugo Poletti accused Italian political parties of weakening the fight against organized crime by bickering too much about strategy.

At Naples' most significant religious event, the prayers for the "liquifaction miracle" of the blood of St. Gennaro, the city's patron, Cardinal Michele Giordano attacked the Camorra for the brutal deaths of the children.

Bishop Riboldi, who travels with a police escort because of Camorra death threats, called for a new attitude among people living in Mafia strongholds to break the crime cartels.

"There is no more time to make believe we don't see and don't know," he said.

Wire

301.LA121990-0141.retnorel.html0100644000076500001440000000504710117747334014450 0ustar TREC2003users LA121990-0141 324561

December 19, 1990, Wednesday, P.M. Final

Business; Part P; Page 3; Column 6; Late Final Desk

317 words

U.S. ALLEGES MOB CONTROLS CASINO UNION;

CRIME: THE BRUNO-SCARFO FAMILY HAS USED KILLING AND EXTORTION TO CONTROL THE ATLANTIC CITY LOCAL, THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SAYS.

From Associated Press

NEWARK, N.J.

A union representing Atlantic City casino workers is controlled through mob killing, extortion, embezzlement and bribery, the Justice Department said in court papers filed today.

U.S. Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh said at a morning news conference that the local has been controlled for 20 years by the Bruno-Scarfo organized-crime family, which controls Philadelphia and southern New Jersey.

"Through their brutal and often deadly acts of violence and intimidation, members of the Bruno-Scarfo families have destroyed the integrity of the union and its leadership," Thornburgh said.

Nicodemo (Little Nicky) Scarfo has been controlling the local from prison, where he is serving a life sentence for his 1988 conviction on Racketeer Influenced, Corrupt Organizations Act charges, according to the complaint.

In a suit filed in U.S. District Court, the Justice Department is seeking to take control under civil racketeering statutes of the 22,000-member Local 54 of the Hotel Employees Restaurant Employees International Union. The local represents hotel, bar and restaurant workers in Atlantic City casinos and in other southern New Jersey cities.

The suit seeks court-ordered control of the local, the restriction of the union's international president from the local's affairs, the removal of the local's president and five other officials and the forfeiture of illegally obtained profits.

Also named was Edward Hanley, president of the Washington-based international since 1973. The suit said he was an associate of senior members of the Chicago-based organized-crime family.

Citing alleged dealings with organized-crime figures in New Jersey, New York and Las Vegas, prosecutors are seeking to bar Hanley from further association with Local 54.

Thornburgh said the organized-crime families earned perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars through sweetheart contracts and kickbacks.

Wire

305.FBIS3-40368.retnorel.html0100644000076500001440000001555110117747336014402 0ustar TREC2003users FBIS3-40368 "jpest004___94035"
JPRS-EST-94-004 Document Type:JPRS Document Title:Science & Technology
Europe/International 4 February 1994 WEST EUROPE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY

France: Renault Tests Active Suspension Prototype

94WS0094A Paris INDUSTRIES ET TECHNIQUES in French 8 Oct 93 p 35 94WS0094A Paris INDUSTRIES ET TECHNIQUES Language: French Article Type:CSO [Article by Thierry Mahe: "Renault's Laboratory On Wheels, Pasha"; first paragraph is INDUSTRIES ET TECHNIQUES introduction] [Text] Engineers at the Aubevoye test center in Eure are validating active suspension technology by mounting each wheel on a computer-controlled hydraulic jack. There are no highway signs to guide you to Renault's test center in Aubevoye (Eure), where the manufacturer guards its secrets carefully behind high hedges. The center is where Renault tests the road handling of its prototypes. It also validates there--with the agreement of the Rueil research center--the new "skid resistance" technologies (suspension, steering, braking, etc.) that will be standard on mass-produced cars within 10 years. The suspension system of the Safrane (AMV) passed its final examination at Aubevoye. The center will also produce Renault's first "real" active suspension system. Nicolas Varlot, the head of test systems development, explains. "Renault's Safrane or Citroen's Xantia do not, strictly speaking, have active suspension systems. Their shock absorbers have simply been altered, without any addition of energy. Outside of the Formula 1, the only example of active suspension is Nissan's Infinity." Aubevoye has some strange-looking mutants on its roads, including an R25 with an oddly upswept front hood and a license plate that reads "Pasha", for "Active Hydraulic Suspension Automobile Prototype." Each of Pasha's wheels has a computer-driven hydraulic jack, and its rear trunk contains a powerful (32 Mips) computer and an array of electronic boards. Under the vehicle's front hood snakes a mass of hydraulic circuits, and each suspension jack features three sensors to monitor distance traveled, speed, and effort. Computations consume a total of 32 input parameters. Pasha is a real laboratory on wheels, designed to simulate all types of suspension. Its has a steering counterpart, called Dirac. Says Nicolas Varlot, "We have been testing Pasha since the beginning of the year. By mid-1994, we will have worked up a specifications sheet, and by late 1994, we will have preliminary vehicles." Safrane's replacement may sport an active suspension system... Two parameters can be used to synthesize suspension behavior: wheel wobble, a safety factor; and autobody cycling, which is linked to comfort (cycling = the oscillations to which the body is subjected). Pasha can modulate these two parameters over a very broad range. Depending on adjustments, passengers can feel they are riding in a 2 hp, or a luxury limousine! Renault engineers are experimenting with 16 types of servocontrol, one of which will be selected as offering the best tradeoff between comfort and safety. Assessing those two variables still provides a great deal of food for thought. Francois Hebert, head of the electronics/data-processing lab, stresses, "With Pasha, we can even induce a counter-rolling motion. When the vehicle turns, it leans in the opposite direction to that of most cars! Is this good? Reducing or reversing rolling motion may be a good idea to help cars grip the road, but the change skews the perception of the driver. The same goes for the ABS, which makes people safer and encourages them to drive faster. It's dangerous, especially when the driver switches back to a regular model!" The Aubevoye center is involved in every step of creating a vehicle, starting from the very basic research level, during the technology scouting stage. It remains active during the pre-project phase "before the vehicle even gets to the drawing board", and again during development of the prototypes. "Our job is to work up the specifications sheet and check that the prototype is valid. One of our suppliers (Valeo, Bendix, etc.) then makes it. In return, we inspect the equipment," says Nicolas Varlot. One of the peculiar features of electronic equipment is that it tends to break down. Annoying when the automatic window controls are involved, failures are catastrophic if they affect the steering, braking, or suspension systems! "Hence the importance of strategies involving graceful degradation, which occupies between 60 and 80 percent of the computer's memory. Engineers must, for example, anticipate one of the suspensions being knocked out--and design the other three to adjust accordingly!" adds Nicolas Varlot. Will numerical simulation of vehicle behavior make certain road tests obsolete? "It's an old question.... We thought structural computations were going to eliminate crash studies--but they didn't at all. The more you refine a simulation, the more new parameters pop up! At best, road handling simulators will eliminate certain standard tests." Concludes Varlot, "A problem solved raises other that need solving. When the ocean recedes, it exposes new shoals!"
Boxed Material: Using Electronics in Testing
Francois Hebert's electronics lab has a staff of six and two electronics CAD stations that run the Cadence program. Cadence can be used to design and simulate digital/analog boards. Says Francois Hebert, "One of the product's great features is its behavioral simulation module, which enables us to close the simulation loop." Indeed, the sim module can be used to model a mechanical device--jack, steering column--governed by linear or non-linear laws. The laboratory designs between 15 and 20 boards a year, each of which requires about three months of study. "By extending the limits of electronic board simulation, we have reduced the number of touchups per board from 4 or 5 to 1.2 or 1.4. With each touchup costing 30,000 or 40,000 French francs, CAD quickly pays for itself."
Boxed Material: Two Facilities for Torturing Prototypes
Renault has two facilities for prototype testing. The first, at Lardy (Essonne), specializes in engines, while the second, in Aubevoye (Eure), focuses on skid resistance (chassis, suspension, brake system, etc.) and vehicle dynamics. Aubevoye was created in 1982 and employs about 300 people. It boasts 21 kilometers of roadways to test speed, road handling, skid resistance, comfort, and endurance. The test roads recreate pothole conditions, high-speed national highways, city streets, and mountain roads. The center has an acoustical bench and a climate wind tunnel. 305.FBIS4-44250.retnorel.html0100644000076500001440000001510410117747337014370 0ustar TREC2003users FBIS4-44250 "drweu124_q_94010"
FBIS-WEU-94-124 Daily Report 21 Jun 1994
TURKEY

Situation of Kurdish Refugees in Iraq Detailed

Situation of Kurdish Refugees in Iraq Detailed NC2406170794 Ankara TURKISH DAILY NEWS in English 21 Jun 94 p B1 NC2406170794 Ankara TURKISH DAILY NEWS English BFN [Report by Galip Ridvanoglu] [Text] Diyarbakir-The two, Khaki colored, convertible Land Rovers sped past our bus heading towards Mardin. Four villagers were seated on top of one of the vehicles among heavily armed gendarmerie soldiers. As we watched them go by we noticed their hands were tied behind their backs. But they could not see us, for their eyes were covered with rags. Blindfolded, they were clearly being taken for interrogation. Heading towards one of the seven makeshift refugee camps set up in northern Iraq to accommodate some 12,000 refugees, our group which was escorting a delegation from the Turkish Human rights Association was constantly accompanied by the sound of blasts coming down from the mountains. Explosions could be heard from miles away, signalling a new operation. Perhaps there will a new communique from the Governor's office on yet another victory against militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The explosions, however, are also being attributed to other things. At the Association branch office in Diyarbakir, a wall gazette is full of pictures. Pictures of burned down and destroyed houses. Pictures of civilians with bodies covered with bruises and burn marks. Asking the local activists on what they are, we get a blunt reply, "the houses are those which have been destroyed by security forces. The people are those who have been tortured." About 12,000 people living along the border have already fled into northern Iraq where they are scattered in seven separate camps. Everyone is scared. Among the scared are human rights activists. Association Chairman Akin Birdal suggests we move together and eat in the same place. "To avoid mystery killings," he explains. On the first day of the fact-finding mission, a decision is taken to keep the group together and "avoid complications." Numbering around 30 people and made up of human rights activists and journalists, our group headed for the border some 300 kilometers away. Stopped ten times at security check points along the road, we are constantly surrounded by the remains of petroleum tankers. Following the Gulf War, the road has been empty. There is hardly any traffic now and the sanctions on Iraq have hurt the local economy most. A police officer explains, "this situation has helped the PKK. Most of the unemployed youngsters are now heading for the mountains." Custom officials tell us that two to three thousand trucks were crossing the border before the sanctions. Now, even the customs crossing point is empty. "If things go on this way, the whole region will be empty," one customs official interjects. Immediately on the other side of the border we are greeted by a Kurdish border policeman. "Welcome to Kurdistan," he says, standing before a signpost saying the same thing. Close to the border post is the vast mountain of Cudi which ranges from Turkey into Iraq and has been used over the years as a crossing point by PKK militants. Mount Cudi is smoking. "Turkish planes hit it again this morning" one Peshmerge explains. In Zakho about 200 Turkish Kurds are on hunger strike. "They are bombing our villages," a middle age villager says. "We want to live like human beings," he adds. The delegation then moves on to a camp where about 2,000 refugees who have fled Turkey are housed. Despite previous statements by Turkey that the migration is only a PKK ploy, the first thing which attracts our attention is the crowded number of women and children. The situation in the Sheranishe and Beheri camps just on the slopes of the Zerkan mountains astonishes members of the delegation. Suddenly there are too many people. More than 10,000 villagers are now there and about half of them are children. Complaints are similar. Stories are almost identical. Some complain of being forced to join the village guards and losing their villages when they refused. Others say their settlements were bombed. The most common complaints are related to health and nutrition problems. There is a demand for more assistance from the United Nations. "We were forces to move here because of the security operations," explains an elderly man. "They bombed and destroyed our villages." Following the visit to three separate camps, a Turkish officer at the Habur border gate tells us there are 4,000 PKK terrorists on Mount Cudi. "We are conducting operations on the mountain every day," he says. "We have no day or night. It is very difficult." In the evening, we hear cannons pounding the mountain once again. Members of the delegation go silent as they listen. The roads at night are still dangerous. Nothing goes by but for military vehicles. Most officers insist we do not continue. "It is too dangerous," one of them says. It is in contrast to official statements made back in Ankara that Turkey has full control throughout the region. At one military post, where we are hosted while waiting for a fully equipped escort convoy, we chat with officers. They believe the problem in the Southeast can only be solved through peaceful methods. One officer says they have identified 2,500 PKK militants in Mardin by name. "But in the past two years, we could only get some of them. People forced to migrate are joining the organization." Another officer interjects, "peaceful methods are a must." Two of the four villagers on the Landrover are elderly and in no way do they resemble terrorists. Members of the delegation are in pain, knowing they cannot do anything. Two women on the bus wipe away their tears. If the villagers are crying as well, there is no way to know. Their eyes are blindfolded. They cannot even see that someone cares. These days, the scene everywhere in the southeast is similar. There is only military traffic on the roads at night. During the day, one can easily hear the blades of helicopters chopping through the air. Echoes of faraway explosions can be heard. And now, becoming a part of the natural scene, is the smoke. The mountains of the Southeast are smoking.... 305.FBIS4-4506.retnorel.html0100644000076500001440000002531310117747340014305 0ustar TREC2003users FBIS4-4506 "dreas063__a94001"
FBIS-EAS-94-063-A Daily Report 7 Apr 1994
ANNEX Indonesia

Military Unhappy About Habibie Navy Purchases

Military Unhappy About Habibie Navy Purchases BK0104093594 Hong Kong FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC REVIEW in English 7 Apr 94 pp 26-28--FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY BK0104093594 Hong Kong FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC REVIEW English BFN [By John McBeth in Jakarta] [Text] Nearly 18 months after influential Research and Technology Minister B.J. Habibie bought much of the East German navy in a post-Cold War garage sale, the ships have begun arriving at a Surabaya naval base. But Indonesia's Defence Ministry insists it still doesn't know what the final price tag will be for the ships or what happened to the extras that were initially included in the package. Typically, the answers appear to lie at the office door of Habibie, whose involvement in defence procurement goes back to 1980 when he convinced President Suharto that nurturing a set of strategic industries with a high technological component was crucial to accelerating and sustaining Indonesia's industrialisation process. A key part of the plan was to turn the navy and air force into a captive market for the state-owned PT PAL shipyard and aircraft-maker, Industri Pesawat Terbang Nusantara (IPTN). Over the past two or three years, Habibie has gone one step further and secured the final say in the purchase of almost all major armaments. Leaving aside the loss of lucrative commissions that once ended up in armed forces' coffers, the heavy role played by the civilian Habibie in military procurement has rubbed many an Indonesian general, admiral and air marshal the wrong way. Says one analyst: "If you're trying to develop a force structure and you're always being told to buy this or that, then you'll always be having to rationalise what that structure is going to be." The difficult relationship between Habibie and members of the military leadership has taken on new relevance in recent years: Habibie's political influence has been rising at the same time as some of the military's most influential political figures have been effectively sidelined. Habibie was appointed in 1990 to lead the Association of Muslim Intellectuals (ICMI), an Islamic revivalist group. Many senior officers see the ICMI as a potentially dangerous counterweight to their own influence and a vehicle which could be used to support a possible Habibie bid for the presidency when Suharto, his life-long acquaintance and mentor, finally leaves the scene. In the past 12 months, Habibie has acquired valuable political experience by playing an important behind-the-scenes role at the assembly which extended Suharto's term as president and at the five-yearly congress of the ruling party Golkar. While Habibie has upset military leaders numerous times over one issue or another, the purchase of East German warships initially had the support of both then-Defence Minister Benny Murdani and navy chief Adm. Muhammad Arifin. The two men soured on the deal, however, in the final months before it was consummated. Acquired from the Germans for only US$12.7 million -- but carrying an initial refurbishment estimate of US$640 million -- the 16 Parchim-class corvettes, 14 Frosch-class landing ship tanks (LST) and nine Kondor-class minesweepers are trickling into Surabaya under a delivery schedule that will extend into next year. Four of the corvettes, one LST and all of the minesweepers have arrived so far. A senior Defence Ministry source said the cost of the refits "will depend on the components to be put in by Habibie," but he indicated the final figure could be as much as US$200 million below the original estimate. Savings have been made by limiting the work done in Germany's Peenewerft (corvettes) and Neptunwerft (LSTs) shipyards, where labour costs are higher. The source also sought to play down navy unhappiness over the purchase. "The conflict is between the Ministry of Finance and Habibie," he told the REVIEW. "Of course, if the total budget is amortised through our defence budget, then there will be a problem." This stems in part from the actual side of the Defence Department's annual budgetary allocation which, at Rps [rupiahs] 1.1 trillion (US$511 million) works out at only 1.5 percent of GDP -- the lowest in the Asean region. Defence officials say the navy will pay for the ship refurbishment on an installment basis, starting with the 1995-96 budget. They describe Habibie's initial estimates as "planning figures" and say they have been kept in the dark about the status of the additional US$338 million he sought to tack on to the package for the upgrade of navy shipyards a new port at Teluk Ratai on Sumatra's southern tip, and two new tankers. Some military observers point to the fact that the average cost of US$20 million per ship is small compared with prevailing market prices. But others are sceptical about the long-term prognosis for a military already over-burdened with different systems. The critics also note that while the deal may provide PAL and its recently expanded facilities with much needed work, it offers virtually nothing in terms of new technology. The 1,200-tonne corvettes are a major acquisition for a small navy built around 16 Dutch, United States and British-built frigates, nine fast patrol craft and two attack submarines. Similar to the Russian Petya or Risha-class patrol vessels, the corvettes carry twin, 57-millimetre and 30-millimetre guns, four torpedo tubes, two antisubmarine mortars and two SA-N5 surface-to-air missile launchers. The major problem for Indonesian naval officers is that each corvette has three engines and a propulsion system they have never worked with before -- and for which they have had to buy all available spare parts. The minesweepers, delivered last October, are in poor shape and most probably will serve out their life on coastal patrol duties. The 1,950-tonne LSTs may be the best buy for a navy with an important role in nation-building. During any one year, the navy is required to show the flag at all of the country's 165 ports. Much of that duty falls to the fleet's 30 assorted landing ships, cargo vessels and coastal oilers which are used to supply outlying islands and to move gear for civic action and public works projects. While Arifin, the navy's top officer, initially went along with the deal, the same sentiments were apparently not shared by other senior officers, among them current navy chief Adm. Tonto Kuswanto, the then-commander of the Eastern Fleet. And even proponents of the deal had a change of mind when it became apparent how much would have to be spent on the refurbishments and on Habibie's list of extras. "In the end, they were all told it was a done deal and to shut up and make it work, says one military source. "Navy chiefs look at it askance. They're going to use the ships, but they think they've been `had' by Habibie because they weren't really involved." Said another source: "They don't like what happened and they don't like the expense, but they do need the ships to protect Indonesia's outer extremities." More than any of the three services, the navy seems to have been the most put out by Habibie's schemes. In 1984, for example, PAL was given the job of repairing 18 navy ships. When the shipyard said it would be unable to handle one of the vessels -- an LST requiring a new engine and communications gear -- it gave the Defence Ministry the go-ahead to get the vessel repaired in Singapore instead. Former officers say the LST was halfway through the refit in Singapore when Habibie complained to Suharto that the navy was not utilising PAL. Although it would have cost US$450,000 to break the contract, a furious Murdani, then armed forces chief, ordered the cancellation of the whole project. Suharto subsequently rescinded the order because of the advanced stage of the refit, but Habibie made few friends out of the episode. In the mid-1980s Habibie may have learned a costly lesson about market research when he sought to parlay the purchase of six high-speed hydrofoils into a deal with Boeing to build as many as 100 of the 40-knot craft under licence at PAL. The plan fell through when the navy refused to have anything to do with them because of their high fuel consumption and problems posed by the unusual amount of flotsam in Indonesian waters. Two of the hydrofoils were later bought by a privately owned, passenger-ferry operation, but the other four gathered rust at PAL until late last year when the navy finally agreed to take them on to their books for troop-carrying and search and rescue work. One in fact has recently been seen around the disputed Sipadan and Ligitan islands, located just off the east coast of Borneo island. Navy relations with Habibie reached such a low ebb in 1986 that the fleet air arm embarked on a programme known as "Turbo-express" to re-engine and lengthen its five ageing C47 transport planes rather than replace them with new IPTN-built CN235 turboprops. "That is an indication," says one source, "of the lengths they were prepared to go to avoid being a captive audience for Habibie." As concurrent head of the Agency for Strategic Industries (BPIS), which groups together, PAL, IPTN and eight other concerns, Habibie supervised the early 1980s decision to buy 100,000 Belgian FNC assault rifles which, along with the U.S.-made M16 and the Russian AK47, is one of three standard infantry weapons now spread through vanous units of the 271,000-strong Indonesian armed forces. Under a seven-year, transfer-of-technology arrangement, the first 25,000 rifles were to be made in Belgium and the last 5,000 at PT Pindad, a munitions manufacturing company under the BPIS umbrella. But sources intimately involved with the deal claim that after four years, when army inspectors began looking into the transfer of the assembly line, they discovered far too much had been paid for the initial batch of rifles. In the mid-1980s, Habibie caused further consternation by proposing to establish a factory for British Scorpion light tanks. At the time the plan was mooted, it was already clear there would not be a regional market for the vehicles. Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and New Zealand had bought Scorpions, or as many as they were going to -- and almost a decade later, manufacturer Avis is still actively trying to sell the tank to the Indonesian army. 305.FBIS4-45714.retnorel.html0100644000076500001440000000645110117747336014402 0ustar TREC2003users FBIS4-45714 "jpten006__l94041"
JPRS-TEN-94-006-L JPRS Environmental Issues 27 March 1994
WEST EUROPE UNITED KINGDOM

Diesel Fumes Said To Kill 3,000 a Year

Diesel Fumes Said To Kill 3,000 a Year 94WN0255A London THE SUNDAY TIMES in English 27 Mar 94 p 3 94WN0255A London THE SUNDAY TIMES English CSO [Article by Sean Ryan, environment correspondent: "Diesel `Kills 3,000 a Year'"] [Text] The government's most senior adviser on air pollution in cities will trigger an intense debate over the safety of diesel vehicles tomorrow by claiming that their exhausts kill 3,000 people a year, writes Sean Ryan, Environment Correspondent. Professor Roy Harrison, chairman of a panel of experts advising ministers on urban air quality, will warn that minute particles given off when diesel fuel is burned may be causing heart and lung failure, strokes and cancer. Harrison accused diesel manufacturers yesterday of "peddling misinformation" about their vehicles, which have soared in popularity after being marketed as environmentally friendly. More than 340,000 diesel cars were sold last year. "Anyone who is concerned about air quality should not buy diesel cars," said Harrison. His claims were condemned by motor industry executives as "scientifically dangerous". But Harrison believes he has evidence to justify tighter exhaust standards and tax changes to discourage diesel sales. Harrison, professor of environmental health at Birmingham University, calculated an annual death toll following American research into the dangers of PM 10s -- "particulate matter" 10 thousandths of a millimetre in diameter. Diesel vehicles are thought to produce one-third of the particles circulating in cities, and their exhaust is classified as a probable carcinogen. A study published by the NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE analysed the deaths of 8,111 adults in six American cities and found "statistically significant and robust" associations with air pollution. The report concluded that the death rate in the most polluted city was 26 percent higher than in the least polluted. The strongest link was PM 10s. Harrison's concerns are shared by medical experts at the Department of the Environment, whose ministers are becoming increasingly critical of cars in cities. The government is expected to announce cuts of £1 billion in Britain's road-building programme this week. But motor manufacturers claimed Harrison's calculations were misleading. Lucas, Britain's sole manufacturer of diesel injection systems, said that while diesel exhaust probably caused cancer, the risk was "vanishingly small". The makers of diesel cars say they are less damaging to the environment than petrol models because they emit lower levels of several polluting gases and contain less benzene, a known carcinogen linked with leukaemia. Harrison, who disputes most of the manufacturers' claims, says any technological improvements could be cancelled out by higher sales of diesel cars. COPYRIGHT: TIMES NEWSPAPERS LIMITED, 1994 305.FT911-431.retnorel.html0100644000076500001440000000312610117747337014157 0ustar TREC2003users FT911-431 _AN-BELAGAEAFT 910511 FT 11 MAY 91 / Rifkind acts on truck speeds By RICHARD TOMKINS, Transport Correspondent OLD TRUCKS as well as new ones will be fitted with devices limiting their speed to the 60mph legal maximum, Mr Malcolm Rifkind, transport secretary, told the Scottish Conservative party conference in Perth yesterday. The Department of Transport said retrospective fitting of the devices would be confined to articulated trucks up to four years old - less than 12 per cent of the UK heavy goods vehicle fleet. Yesterday's move follows the announcement in February that all new trucks were to be fitted with devices to stop them exceeding the 60mph limit on heavy goods vehicles. Mr Rifkind said he was extending the requirement because he wanted speed limiters fitted to a greater proportion of the truck fleet. Mr Rifkind said many truck drivers were causing danger by flouting speed limits. Speed limiters would also cut fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. Retrospective fitting has been targeted at articulated vehicles because they are the heaviest and fastest trucks. The Freight Transport Association criticised the measure. It said most accidents were caused by error or irresponsible behaviour, not by speeding, and the Pounds 500 cost of the devices would be incurred without compensating benefits. The Department of Transport estimated that the measure would save 26 deaths and 400 injuries a year. The Financial Times London Page 6 305.FT932-1338.retnorel.html0100644000076500001440000000356310117747337014256 0ustar TREC2003users FT932-1338 _AN-DFXCNACIFT 930624 FT 24 JUN 93 / Parliament and Politics: Warning on car companies THE arrival of Japanese car companies as manufacturers in the UK has had a big effect on upgrading the quality and productivity performance of some of the larger players in the UK motor and components industry, Mr George Simpson, chairman of the Rover vehicles group, told MPs yesterday. But there is a danger that many smaller and medium-sized suppliers will disappear unless the big components companies pass on the lessons learned from their Japanese customers, he told the Commons trade and industry committee, which is inquiring into the competitiveness of UK manufacturing industry. Most carmakers have sharply reduced the number of their direct component suppliers, forging partnerships with them and expecting them to have strong design and development capabilities. Smaller and medium-sized companies are, in effect, becoming suppliers to the larger 'first tier' component groups. Describing the overall impact as 'very much beneficial' to the UK motor industry, Mr Simpson warned that as production by Nissan, Toyota and Honda increases competitive pressures throughout the EC will intensify and that 'they will reduce everyone's market share'. For that reason, the government should resist pressures to open the UK market completely to Japanese imports while other EC member states kept restrictions in place during the EC's transition to a completely open market by the end of the decade. Countries:- JPZ Japan, Asia. GBZ United Kingdom, EC. Industries:- P3711 Motor Vehicles and Car Bodies. P3714 Motor Vehicle Parts and Accessories. Types:- NEWS General News. The Financial Times London Page 9 305.FT941-12127.retnorel.html0100644000076500001440000003072210117747337014331 0ustar TREC2003users FT941-12127 _AN-EBADGADSFT 940201 FT 01 FEB 94 / A sudden burst of acceleration: BMW's acquisition of Rover Group will realign the world auto industry and has benefits for both By KEVIN DONE BMW's takeover of Rover Group has stunned its competitors and sent shockwaves through the world auto industry. The German carmaker, traditionally a byword for fierce independence, has until now remained aloof from the waves of restructuring that have swept over global manufacturers. Now, at a stroke, the Munich-based producer has outflanked Mercedes-Benz and devised an expansion strategy that is indelibly different to the one chosen by its arch domestic rival in Stuttgart. It has stolen Rover from under the nose of Honda, the Japanese carmaker and Rover's alliance partner for more than a decade, leaving an air of betrayal in Tokyo. Overnight it has become one of the world's leading players in four-wheel-drive vehicles, through Land Rover, and it has pulled out of the hat a strategy for moving into small cars without the danger of diluting its highly prized brand image. The opportunities for such significant takeovers in the world auto industry are dwindling. Most of the smaller players have been swallowed up, and BMW has had to move fast to ensure that it was not left on the starting grid. With the marketplace fragmenting, BMW has accepted that it must move into new segments to add to its niche of high-performance executive and luxury cars. It could have continued to go it alone and develop the necessary products itself, but that would have taken time and would have been expensive. Instead, it has chosen the riskier fast track of acquisition. Even before the dust has settled over the wreckage of the attempted Renault/Volvo merger, which collapsed in December, BMW has stepped forward with its Pounds 800m purchase of British Aerospace's 80 per cent stake in Rover and Land Rover, the last UK-owned, medium-sized vehicle maker. Honda could hardly have been reassured by the mollifying words yesterday of Mr Bernd Pischetsrieder, BMW management board chairman, who said that he wanted the Honda/Rover relationship to continue. In the short term that must be so: the links between Rover and Honda are too close to be unpicked overnight, but in the longer term there is a new master in the Rover house, and Honda is left with its European strategy in tatters. For BMW the immediate attractions of the takeover are clear. They mark out a different expansion strategy to that of Mercedes-Benz. BMW now gains: Control of Europe's only credible manufacturer of four-wheel-drive sports/utility vehicles in the shape of Land Rover. Long the jewel in the Rover crown, Land Rover operates in one of the fastest-growing segments of the world market. A viable way of entering the small car market without diluting its own precious brand image. Access to a low-cost European production base and control of the European carmaker that has probably learned most in recent years about Japanese production and engineering methods. A novel way of developing a presence in some of the fastest-growing auto markets in the Far East and in Latin America, where BMW's traditional products largely price it out of the markets. BMW has been studying whether it should make an independent entry into the four-wheel-drive sports/utility market, currently dominated by makers such as Chrysler of the US, with its Jeep Grand Cherokee, and Ford, with the Explorer, or Japanese competitors such as Mitsubishi, Toyota and Isuzu. It is a critical market. One of the fastest-growing sectors, with consumers increasingly switching over from traditional passenger cars, it already accounts for sales of more than 1m vehicles in the US alone. Mr Wolfgang Reitzle, BMW research and development director, said yesterday that BMW had developed a vehicle concept for a sport/utility that it could have brought to market in about three years, but the takeover of Land Rover placed it immediately in the forefront of the sector. Land Rover's fortunes have been blossoming in recent years and it is undoubtedly the main centre of excellence in Europe for sport/utilities with an unrivalled brand image. With the Range Rover it has developed alone the luxury end of the market, and the launch of the higher-volume Discovery at the end of the 1980s has provided it with a mainstream world competitor. Land Rover is poised to launch the Discovery shortly in the US, where it is expected to quadruple overall Land Rover sales volumes there. Access to the much stronger BMW dealer network, where it will not compete with any existing BMW products, will allow it to expand its presence in North America much more rapidly. BMW's competitors have been forced to take less attractive routes to enter this market. Mercedes-Benz, which long has struggled with its antiquated small-volume G-Wagen, has decided to develop its own mainstream sport/utility, which will be made at a new plant in Alabama in the US. The vehicle will not be ready for launch before 1997, however, and Mercedes-Benz must shoulder the development costs alone. For all the vaunted prestige of the Mercedes-Benz name, it has no pedigree in all-terrain four-wheel-drive vehicles, where Land Rover is a world leader. Land Rover has long been coveted by rival carmakers, but they have been unable to unlock the key, because British Leyland and, more recently, British Aerospace have been unwilling to separate it from the previously chronically loss-making Rover car operations. This is where the BMW deal breaks new ground. It is willing to take on the car operations as well. BMW has studied intensively in recent years how it should take account of the increasing trend towards the use of smaller cars, especially in densely populated and congested urban areas. Almost in step with Mercedes-Benz, it has presented concept studies for a future small car at the world's leading motor shows in the past two years. The design exercises were to assess whether the two luxury/executive carmakers could risk going downmarket into small cars. The answers are now clear: for Mercedes-Benz, yes, but for BMW, a resounding no, at least under its own name. Mercedes-Benz has decided recently to build its own small car for sale under the Mercedes star. The car will be built at a volume of at least 200,000 a year - at least that is Mercedes-Benz's aspiration - at a plant in Germany. The size of the concept car was smaller than a Ford Fiesta, but in the marketplace the small cars will carry the Mercedes name and compete at Volkswagen Golf prices. As of yesterday it became official that BMW will not build a small car for sale under the BMW badge. Rover in the UK and and the Rover brand will become its centre for small car development. This would ensure BMW a presence in this marketplace but would not put at risk the BMW brandname, said Mr Pischetsrieder, BMW management board chairman yesterday. 'There will be no smaller BMW car than the 3-Series,' he said. 'You must not over-stretch the core brand values of BMW. A small BMW would not comply with the hard core BMW image, that we have worked for 20 years to achieve.' Mr Pischetsrieder declared that he had told Mr Helmut Werner, chief executive of Mercedes-Benz, that the Stuttgart group was misguided with its small car strategy. 'I told Werner he was wrong. Clearly he does not think so.' Instead BMW is now intent on developing Rover as its maker of small and medium-sized front-wheel-drive cars. All BMW's existing executive and luxury cars are rear-wheel-drive cars. With the takeover of Rover it buys in front-wheel-drive technology and, crucially, it also buys in one of the most competitive small engines in Europe in the shape of Rover's K-Series engine. Mr Pischetsrieder was at pains to insist that under BMW rule Rover will continue its present car lines but with increased resources and with the potential for creating new car ranges. These include a replacement for the 30-year-old Mini, which has never featured in Rover's own more financially stretched product plans. Rover already has under way a development programme for a replacement for the Metro small car due in 1995-96. This will remain in place, but the development phase will now benefit from the much greater engineering resources of BMW, which will be put at Rover's disposal. The Metro replacement was being developed alone by Rover without the involvement of Honda. Moving up through the Rover model range, BMW will meet its most immediately sensitive challenge with Honda over the replacement car for the Rover 200/400 and its sister car, the Honda Concerto. These existing cars were jointly developed. In Europe both Honda and Rover versions are produced at Rover's Longbridge plant in Birmingham. Under a current agreement, the new generation cars - codenamed Theta - will appear in 1995. The Rover versions will still be produced at Longbridge, but the the Honda version is due to be produced at its new plant at Swindon. Mr Pischetsrieder made clear that BMW expects Honda to remain in this crucial joint development programme, as the Japanese carmaker would lose financially by pulling out. Rover and Honda have a joint purchasing base, many of the sheet metal panels are provided from Rover's main stamping plant at Swindon, and the joint development programme allows Honda to spread its risk over a bigger production volume with Rover involvement. Whatever the ultimate impact of the BMW takeover, this programme appears to ensure that Honda and Rover will continue to work closely together on a project basis at least to the end of the decade. The same can be said for the Rover 600 and the sister car the Honda Accord. These were only launched last year with production of the Accord at Honda's Swindon plant and the 600 at Rover's Cowley plant in Oxford. Beyond these product generations it may suit Honda and Rover/BMW to go their separate ways, but economies of scale may still dictate further co-operation into the next decade. At the top of the Rover range, the 800 is a different story. The present ageing Rover product was derived from a Honda - the old Legend executive car -but there is no joint replacement programme. Mr Pischetsrieder said yesterday that work would start immediately on a replacement. It would be likely, he said, that it would be based on the new 5-Series BMW platform and would share several important components with the new generation BMW executive car. It would also become rear-wheel-drive. BMW wanted, too, to promote the revival of some of the Rover Group's old British makes that had fallen on hard times, said Mr Pischetsrieder. Top of the list is the plan for the reintroduction of the MG sports car marque. Rover has a small affordable MG roadster under development for launch in 1995-96, but under BMW management this programme is expected to be given extra momentum. Even before the Rover takeover BMW had earmarked sports cars as a niche for accelerated development. Yesterday, top BMW executives confirmed industry speculation that the 'secret' car it planned to build in the US at its new plant in South Carolina would also be a small roadster. Mr Pischetsrieder said that for future products there would clearly be potential for the sharing of components between their planned sports cars. He promised that no Rover cars would be built in Germany and that no BMWs would be built in the UK. While dealer networks would not be merged, the distribution systems would eventually be merged, said Mr Pischetsrieder, with common logistics and parts supply. Single dealers may sell both marques but from separate showrooms. Certainly, for Rover, access to the BMW dealer network in Germany will give its fortunes a massive boost in a tough market. The big success of Rover management in the past seven years has been to rescue the old British Leyland car operations from the threat of extinction and create a viable business based on the relationship with Honda. Under BAe its long-term ownership was always uncertain, however. Honda provided the crutch during the long recovery from intensive care, but BMW can provide the long-term home it has long needed in the hostile environment of the world auto industry. Companies:- Rover Group. Bayerische Motoren Werke. Countries:- GBZ United Kingdom, EC. DEZ Germany, EC. Industries:- P3711 Motor Vehicles and Car Bodies. Types:- COMP Mergers & acquisitions. CMMT Comment & Analysis. MKTS Production. The Financial Times London Page 19 305.FT942-6637.retnorel.html0100644000076500001440000001001310117747336014251 0ustar TREC2003users FT942-6637 _AN-EE2AAAFDFT 940528 FT 28 MAY 94 / Motoring: A safe ride in the ultimate boy racer By STUART MARSHALL The sad thing about Ford's Escort RS Cosworth is that most of the young who lust after it cannot afford to buy one. Even if they could fund its purchase -Pounds 25,175, or less than half the price of an equally unattainable Porsche 911 - it is unlikely they could insure it. Picture the scene. A 21-year-old, with a couple of expensive accident claims under his belt, walks into an insurance company. As soon as he mentions he is seeking cover on a fat-tyred vehicle of 227 horsepower, with a monstrous rear spoiler and a top speed of 140mph (225kph), what happens? The motor policies manager either gives a hollow laugh, tries to hide under the desk, or runs screaming from the office. Thus, very few examples of the Escort RS Cosworth are likely to end up in the hands of those who would relish most the thought of driving them. Does this mean, then, that it is an inherently difficult, even dangerous, car? The answer is: absolutely not. Used responsibly, there can be few safer for all kinds of journeys on motorways, main and minor roads. The Escort RS Cosworth is the latest version of a vehicle that was created to win motor sport honours for Ford. In essence, it consists of the mechanicals of a Sierra RS Cosworth 4 x 4 tucked away in an Escort body shell. Like all previous Escorts, it has done well in international rallying; it won this year's Monte Carlo. The road-going model I drove in Luxembourg and Germany last week, although much tamer than the rally car, is a formidable performer. It will catapault from 0-60mph (96kph) in 5.7 seconds and, more meaningfully, accelerate in fourth gear from 30-60mph (48-96kph) in 9.4 seconds. In practice, this spells safe, swift overtaking on wet or dry roads. It also spells temptation. I really disapprove of people who drive fast and grippy cars on country roads at speeds more appropriate to a rally special stage. And what did I do in the almost traffic-free lanes criss-crossing Luxembourg's woods and fields? You have guessed. I yielded to temptation, although only where sight lines on bends made it safe to do so. I discovered that the Escort RS Cosworth 4x4, on its specially developed Pirelli P Zero Corsa tyres, has extraordinary cornering powers. It is easier to drive fast on slippery roads than any other car I can think of. And, however much you exploit its turbo-charged muscle, the sophisticated transmission defeats wheel spin. What is it like to drive at more sensible speeds? The ultra-low profile tyres are less than half as high in cross-section as they are wide. Inevitably, they tend to 'tram-line' - that is, follow ridges in the road - and rough surfaces are heard as well as felt. Both the engine and power-assisted steering respond instantly; the anti-lock brakes are powerful; and the five-speed transmission smooth without being exactly silky. Conversation became difficult on the autobahn at close to maximum speed, but at 80-85 mph (128-137kph) the engine sang sweetly and not at all noisily. Changes to the power plant include using a smaller turbo-charger. Peak power and maximum torque (pulling power at a given speed) are the same as before, but are developed at lower revolutions. This makes the Escort RS Cosworth as driveable as a family car in town traffic. The luxury-trim version I tried sets you back Pounds 24,775. With optional extra leather seats, air-conditioning and passenger air-bag, it would cost Pounds 27,005 - still very reasonable. The spoiler might come in useful as a table for plates of food at race meetings but, otherwise, seems pointless. It is part of the package, but Ford makes no charge for leaving it off. Countries:- GBZ United Kingdom, EC. Industries:- P3711 Motor Vehicles and Car Bodies. Types:- NEWS General News. The Financial Times London Page XIV 305.LA030490-0145.retnorel.html0100644000076500001440000001407510117747337014456 0ustar TREC2003users LA030490-0145 184602

March 4, 1990, Sunday, Home Edition

Westside; Part J; Page 1; Column 2

874 words

QUAKE PERIL SEEN AT BUSY FREEWAY INTERCHANGE;

SAFETY: THE JUNCTION OF THE SANTA MONICA AND SAN DIEGO FREEWAYS IS 25 YEARS OLD, AMONG THE BUSIEST IN THE NATION, AND SITS NEXT TO THE NEWPORT-INGLEWOOD FAULT.

By JEFFREY L. RABIN, TIMES STAFF WRITER

The Upland earthquake, the strongest in Southern California in more than two years, has focused new attention on the potential danger that a major quake poses to the massive interchange of the Santa Monica and San Diego freeways.

One of the busiest highway connections in the nation, it ranks at the top of the state's list of Los Angeles-area freeway segments considered most vulnerable to damage in a serious earthquake.

Three of the five overpasses where Interstates 405 and 10 come together have been assigned Caltrans' highest rating of seismic risk, a rating based on the volume of traffic, the age of the structures and their proximity to the Newport-Inglewood Fault. The fault, which runs less than two miles east of the interchange, is considered the most dangerous in the urbanized portion of Southern California.

An estimated 526,000 vehicles a day used the junction in 1988, Caltrans spokeswoman Lisa Covington said.

A $4.8-million program to tie freeway bridge decks together with steel cables is scheduled to begin this summer, but the effort is only the first phase in strengthening the 25-year-old interchange.

Concerned about the potential risk to motorists, Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) is introducing legislation that would direct Caltrans to establish a priority system for retrofit projects based on risk rating, potential danger to the public and probability of an earthquake nearby.

Hayden aides said the measure is intended to ensure that the San Diego-Santa Monica interchange is one of the first to be upgraded with state-of-the-art seismic safety engineering.

After the devastating San Francisco Bay Area quake last October, Hayden called on Caltrans Director Robert K. Best to make improvements to the interchange -- the linchpin of the Westside's entire transportation network -- a top priority.

"Over half a million cars pass through that interchange each day," Hayden said in a letter to Best. "Any structural weaknesses in this interchange presents an enormous risk to human life. For this reason alone, it is imperative that the steps required for seismic safety be taken as quickly as possible."

Caltrans spokesman Jim Drago said the concrete and steel columns that support nearly 400 freeway bridges statewide have been identified as needing reinforcement, including many along the San Diego and Santa Monica freeways.

Bridges were assigned a risk rating based on a scale from 0.00 to 1.00, with the highest rating representing the most vulnerable structure. Three of the freeway connectors at the Santa Monica-San Diego Freeway junction were assigned 1.0 ratings -- higher than any other interchange in Los Angeles County. Two other connectors in the same interchange were rated 0.92 and 0.95.

California freeways underwent a fundamental redesign after the 6.4 magnitude Sylmar earthquake in 1971 caused extensive damage to overpasses in the northern San Fernando Valley.

Single-column structures built in the 1950s and 1960s, before the Sylmar quake, are considered most at risk. The San Diego-Santa Monica Freeway interchange was completed in August, 1964, at a cost of $25 million, and it predated those design changes.

Court Burrell, Caltrans deputy district director, said Thursday that a "rather substantial project" to tie the freeway bridge decks together at the interchange will go out to bid in May. Work is expected to begin during the summer and last for six months, he said.

Burrell said the Phase I retrofitting "reduces the risk there tremendously," but, he said, "there will still be some risk left."

Phase II of the retrofitting program will involve improvements to single-column structures that support the roadway. The concrete columns will be wrapped in a steel jacket to enhance their ability to resist a major quake.

Drago said the second phase of the retrofitting program will cost at least $100 million. Financed out of highway funds and proceeds from an emergency increase in the state sales tax, the program will take until the end of 1991 to complete, he said.

After the 5.9-magnitude Whittier earthquake in October, 1987, Caltrans engineers predicted that a major quake along the Newport-Inglewood Fault would subject at least a dozen major freeways or interchanges in Los Angeles to strong shaking. They predicted that as many as 100 fatalities could be attributed to bridge collapses along the San Diego, Long Beach and San Gabriel River freeways.

After the San Francisco earthquake collapsed a double-deck section of the Nimitz Freeway, killing 42 people, engineers retracted the predictions, saying they had no "specific knowledge" that 100 deaths could occur.

James H. Gates, a structural mechanics engineer for Caltrans, said last fall that the Newport-Inglewood Fault, which runs nearly parallel to the San Diego Freeway, poses a major risk. The 1933 temblor estimated at 6.3 magnitude that devastated much of Long Beach was along that fault. (Wednesday's Upland quake, by comparison, measured 5.5.)

"Everybody talks about the San Andreas, but we think the Newport-Inglewood is the critical one," Gates said. "If you get a 7 on the Newport-Inglewood, you're going to kill three times as many people as you would on the San Andreas."

Photo, Three of the junction's five overpasses have been assigned Caltrans' highest rating of seismic risk. Los Angeles Times

305.LA090990-0018.retnorel.html0100644000076500001440000000172210117747337014463 0ustar TREC2003users LA090990-0018 273344

September 9, 1990, Sunday, Home Edition

Magazine; Page 4D; Magazine Desk

99 words

HARRY SHEARER

Shearer is just one of the many citizens who makes the job of parking enforcement a thankless and sometimes dangerous job.

Most officers hate tow-away calls more than anything. They waste a great deal of time waiting for the tow truck to arrive and for the information to reach them covering the vehicle, and then the "dreaded" report to do. Contrary to public belief there are no Brownie points for this.

Place the blame where it belongs -- not on the shoulders of the officers. Remember, the officer is only executing the law that you, the public, make.

L. H. MANDA

Monterey Park

Letter to the Editor

306.FBIS4-48788.retnorel.html0100644000076500001440000000354010117747341014411 0ustar TREC2003users FBIS4-48788 "drafr103_e_94008"
FBIS-AFR-94-103 Daily Report 25 May 1994
WEST AFRICA Liberia

Faction Members' Deaths Stir Collaboration Fears

Faction Members' Deaths Stir Collaboration Fears AB2505214094 Paris AFP in English 1455 GMT 25 May 94 AB2505214094 Paris AFP English BFN [Text] Monrovia, 25 May (AFP) -- Four members of two Liberian armed factions were killed and 12 civilians injured when the lorry they were riding on ran over a mine north of the port town of Buchanan, the Defense Ministry said Wednesday [25 May]. Those killed were a colonel of the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) and three guerrillas in a recently emerged faction, the Liberian Peace Council (LPC), ministry spokesman Arthur Dennis said. The presence of an AFL general staff officer in the company of LPC fighters has stirred up new suspicions that the AFL helped form the new armed movement last September in a bid indirectly to pursue a conflict with Liberia's main armed faction, the National Patriotic Front (NPFL). But Dennis said "it is not the AFL that sent (the colonel) to the territory. He went to the LPC-controlled area on his own." The LPC, which currently controls the region on Liberia's central coastline where the truck hit the mine, has declared that the NPFL is its avowed enemy. It is not a party to a peace pact signed in July last year among the NPFL, the AFL and a third faction, the United Liberation Movement (ULIMO). Dennis said that 10 of the civilians travelling with the fighters when the mine blast occurred Sunday had been taken to hospital in serious condition. 306.FBIS4-974.retnorel.html0100644000076500001440000000326410117747340014234 0ustar TREC2003users FBIS4-974 "drafr076_a_94001"
FBIS-AFR-94-076 Daily Report 19 Apr 1994
CENTRAL AFRICA Burundi

Fresh Ethnic Clashes Erupt Near Bujumbura

Fresh Ethnic Clashes Erupt Near Bujumbura AB1904172094 Paris AFP in English 1539 GMT 19 Apr 94 AB1904172094 Paris AFP English BFN [Text] Bujumbura, April 19 (AFP) -- New clashes erupted on the outskirts of Bujumbura Tuesday [19 April] between Tutsi-dominated army forces and Hutu militants, shattering several weeks of relative calm, official sources said. The clashes broke out in Hutu-dominated areas of the city, the sources said. A government statement said Prime Minister Anatole Kanyenkiko had taken measures to "make those who are armed lay down their weapons." Unrest has mounted in some areas on the outskirts of the city for the last few days. Sources said sporadic small arms fire had been reported in the areas for the last few days. The government called on observers from the Organization of African Unity (OAU) to be deployed in the areas "to work with civilian and military officials to create confidence between the different ethnic groups." The fresh unrest came two weeks after the death of Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira on April 6 in a plane crash in neighbouring Rwanda, which also killed Rwandan head of state Juvenal Habyarimana. Inter-ethnic unrest in Rwanda is reported to have killed thousands in the two weeks since the plane crash. 306.FT921-13505.retnorel.html0100644000076500001440000000173110117747340014321 0ustar TREC2003users FT921-13505 _AN-CAUBNAEDFT 920121 FT 21 JAN 92 / Congo troops open fire By AP BRAZZAVILLE Troops fired yesterday on supporters of Mr Andre Milongo, the prime minister, in the first violence of a week-long bid to topple the civilian leader, AP reports from Brazzaville. Several people were wounded but there were no reports of deaths. The shootings came after soldiers, angry over Mr Milongo's appointment of new military commanders, seized state radio, television and the international airport, and demanded yesterday that he step down. Mr Milongo, in hiding, appealed for international aid to prevent the central African nation from returning to military rule. He urged 'all democratic forces .. to use every means possible to help the democracy being compromised in Congo.' The Financial Times London Page 4 306.FT923-6909.retnorel.html0100644000076500001440000000500010117747340014246 0ustar TREC2003users FT923-6909 _AN-CHYAUAA6FT 920821 FT 21 AUG 92 / UN begins Sudan airlift By JULIAN OZANNE NAIROBI THE United Nations yesterday flew the first aircraft of food in a month to 300,000 starving civilians trapped in the besieged government-held garrison town of Juba, in southern Sudan, despite rebel threats they would shoot the aircraft down. The successful relief flight came as Africa Watch, an influential international human rights body, condemned rebel threats to shoot down aircraft carrying food as showing 'a callous disregard for the welfare of the people on whose behalf (they) claim to be fighting'. Mr Paul Mitchell, an official with the UN World Food Programme, said a Russian Ilyushin 76 transporter aircraft carrying 40 tonnes of food and 5 tonnes of medicines landed successfully in Juba, the first UN aircraft to land in the town since the UN suspended relief flights due to insecurity on July 16th. The 300,000 civilians trapped in Juba, which is under siege by the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), face death from starvation and are completely dependent on an airlift for their survival. 'Food stocks ran out 10 days ago, medicines and supplementary foods are virtually non-existent,' Mr Mitchell said yesterday. 'Reports from the city tell of sharp increases of malnutrition and related diseases.' Africa Watch called yesterday for the SPLA to withdraw its threat to relief flights immediately. Noting that a year has passed since the SPLA split into two factions after allegations of human rights abuses against Dr John Garang, the putative leader of the SPLA, Africa Watch said human rights violations within the movement 'continue unabated'. The organisation called on Dr Garang to release all detainees and demanded that up to 3,000 child refugees - who are believed to have been forced by the SPLA to return to Sudan, from Kenya, to fight as child soldiers on the Juba front - be returned to the protection of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). It also strongly criticised the UNHCR for allowing the children to be abducted from their protection. Last night, Mr Lam Akol, a leader of the break-away faction of the SPLA, confirmed that Commander Mr Silva Kiir, Dr Garang's chief of security, had forced the children to return to Narus in southern Sudan so that they could fight on the Juba front. The Financial Times London Page 4 306.FT933-1807.retnorel.html0100644000076500001440000001353210117747341014251 0ustar TREC2003users FT933-1807 _AN-DIVB9ADLFT 930922 FT 22 SEP 93 / Africa's lunatic asylum: US ends in Somalia are admirable, but do not justify the means By EDWARD MORTIMER 'The UK gov-ernment said last night its forces would fire on civilians being used by IRA gunmen as 'human shields', des-pite casualties among women and children on Thursday when British helicopters fired into a crowd.' Just imagine the worldwide outcry that would greet that news item. Imagine, especially, the storm of indignation that would sweep across the US. It would surely end, once and for all, any talk of a 'special relationship' between the UK and the US. Now read the item again, substituting 'United Nations' for 'UK government' and 'Somali militiamen' for 'IRA gunmen'. I did not make it up. It was the opening sentence of a report from the FT's Africa correspondent, published 10 days ago. I tried this trick on several US officials and commentators in Washington and New York last week. Needless to say, they did not like the analogy, but they floundered somewhat in trying to explain what was wrong with it. 'But in Northern Ireland you'd be killing your own people, your kith and kin,' said one. 'Aha,' I replied, 'so is it perhaps their skin colour that makes Somali women and children expendable? If so, won't black American leaders soon have something to say about it?' Apparently not. Black leaders were to the fore in urging the US to go in and save Somalis from starvation, complaining that the UN had become exclusively obsessed with a 'white man's war' in Yugoslavia. Therefore, I was told, they are not well placed to call for a pull-out now. War and 'warlordism' - disrupting the production and distribution of food - were the main causes of famine in Somalia. Everyone seems to agree about that. That is why armed intervention was deemed necessary to end the famine. The first UN force (Unosom I), dispatched in August 1992 to supervise and protect food deliveries, failed to overawe the warlords. So in December a stronger force (Unitaf) was sent in, authorised by the UN Security Council but under US command. Initially the US wanted to concentrate only on food deliveries. It was the UN secretary-general, Boutros Boutros Ghali, who insisted that the warlords must be disarmed at the same time if the operation was to have any lasting effect. By the time the US command handed over to the second UN force (Unosom II) in May, the US had come round fully to Mr Boutros Ghali's view. In fact the US view now seems to be that all remaining problems in Somalia are the fault of one particular warlord, General Mohammed Farah Aideed. 'On food, we have done very well,' said US defence secretary Les Aspin on August 27. 'On security, we have made progress.' Somalia, he said, is now 'generally peaceful', except for south Mogadishu, the Aideed stronghold. 'The danger now is that unless we return security to south Mogadishu, political chaos will follow the UN withdrawal . . . The danger is that the situation will return to what existed before the US sent in the troops.' The US retains two separate forces in Somalia. There are logistics troops, which are part of Unosom II and under its commander (who is a Turkish general, but chosen for the job by the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, General Colin Powell); and there is the 'quick reaction force' (QRF), composed of combat troops which remain under US command but back up the UN force when necessary, at the request of the UN special representative (who is another American, Admiral Jonathan Howe). It is the QRF which retaliates when UN troops are ambushed or fired on by General Aideed's forces, and which, therefore, has inflicted most of the casualties on Somali civilians. This complex command structure results from the unwillingness of the US to do what every other contributor to UN forces has to do, namely place its combat troops under a commander of another nationality. Presidential Decision 13, which is supposed to define the availability of US forces for UN peacekeeping and other duties, has been held up by prolonged argument within the administration on this very point. In the case of Bosnia, President Bill Clinton has insisted that if US troops do go in to help enforce a peace agreement they will do so under Nato and not UN command. (His aides say it is agreed within Nato that the French General, Jean Cot, who commands the present UN force in Bosnia, would also command the Nato troops; but it remains to be seen whether Mr Clinton is really prepared to try and sell that arrangement to Congress.) Meanwhile, the arrangements in Somalia ensure that the UN is identified, in the eyes of local opinion and of the world, with a peculiarly American modus operandi. Somalia is not another Vietnam, or even another Panama; still less another Gulf war. It is like a grotesque re-enactment of all those by the inmates of a small lunatic asylum (on the lines of the French revolution as portrayed in Peter Weiss's play Marat-Sade). The objectives are admirable, and in this case untainted by any discernible US national interest. But several hallowed American principles are at stake: The battle is one of good against evil, and evil has to be incarnate in one man (Gaddafi, Noriega, Saddam and now Aideed). US casualties must be as low as possible, but US military superiority must make itself felt, no matter how great the 'collateral damage'. Any attempt at a negotiated solution constitutes 'appeasement', if not 'betrayal'. Whoever questions the method is assumed to be urging abandonment of the entire enterprise. Countries:- SOZ Somalia, Africa. USZ United States of America. Industries:- P9721 International Affairs. Types:- CMMT Comment & Analysis. The Financial Times London Page 24 309.FT923-5998.retnorel.html0100644000076500001440000001640510117747343014276 0ustar TREC2003users FT923-5998 _AN-CH1BVACOFT 920827 FT 27 AUG 92 / Arts: Four dudes search for a plot - Cinema By NIGEL ANDREWS JUICE (15) MGMs West End, Electric BFI NEW DIRECTORS Metro THE CUTTING EDGE (PG) MGM Haymarket BODY HEAT (18) Barbican HITLER: A FILM FROM GERMANY ICA from next week TAKING the rap used to be something people did for a crime they had or had not committed. Now it is what filmgoers do (with or without criminal record) when pinned to their seats by black movies whose plot sense is as minimal as their musical variety. Ernest Dickerson's Juice is a Harlem-set rap-scored melodrama about four young blacks who fall out with the law after a robbery with murder. Since it marks the writing-directing debut of Spike Lee's longtime camera-person, the film has gained encomia from those publications that worship at the altar of Political Correctness. 'Energetic, entertaining and engagaging, and without the feeling of difficult truths being forgotten' says Time Out. And right-on ideologues will no doubt applaud the film's 90 percent non-white cast, the dialogue rich in local argot ('I'm gonna beat your ass', 'You gonna beat my ass?' 'Yes, I gonna ..' etc.) and the screenplay that weaves and feints through half an hour of tired street comedy before standing stiffly to attention to give us a 'plot'. This concerns aspiring disc jockey 'Q' (Omar Epps) and his two friends Steel and Rahim who are appalled when a fourth friend Bishop goes gun-crazy during a shop hold-up. Why he does so is unclear; but perhaps an earlier glimpse of Cagney on TV in White Heat has wired him up for mayhem. Either way, the film soon turns into a throwback Warners melodrama, with Bishop gunning for his former friends, and the early sub-Spike Lee street comedy is forgotten in a hail of B-movie cliches. We especially note the tilted angles and harsh-lit close-ups of the police interrogation sequence: these look as if they were kidnapped, feebly protesting, from Public Enemy or The Roaring Twenties. With its two-dimensional characters and trite moralising, this film would have been laughed off the screen if presented by white film-makers with white actors in white roles. But we cannot laugh around - or we are not supposed to - with the cinema of Spike Lee and his acolytes. Although some of those film-makers, like Lee himself, are talented social satirists, most like Mr Dickerson are bargain-basement disciples empowered and encouraged only by the mighty karma of PC How mighty that karma is is evident in the 1992 New Directors programme of shorts sponsored by the British Film Institute with Channel 4. This is the fifth year's fruit from the annual scheme whereby six aspiring film-makers receive Pounds 30,000 apiece to make calling-card movies. The quality is so low this year that we need not detain you with an autopsy on each film. But I wonder if the reason for the cinematic poverty is not that ethnic tokenism is being exercised in the choice of directors. Three are white (one male, two female), one is black, one is Asian and one is Dutch-Trinidadian. For good measure, lesbianism, the environment and cultural colonialism are among the Important Themes treated. This would be fine if the films were any good. But they are so banal that one wonders what the 990-odd submissions apparently rejected by the BFI were like. Were they bad? Were they banal? Or were they just Politically Incorrect? Better luck, and much better selection, in 1993. It is not a good week - it is not a good summer - and Hollywod fails to come to the rescue. 'I wanna see your ass in the air' shouts the trainer to the figure skater in The Cutting Edge; much around the time that that part of the filmgoer's anatomy has slid deep into the upholstery in response to this dotty tale of love and ambition on the ice rink. Tony Gilroy wrote the script, Paul M. Glaser (TV's Starsky) directed, and DB Sweeney and Moira Kelly play the ice partners for whom initial antagonism is a prelude to - yes] - passion. The wiser characters realise this early on. 'Foreplay]' they chuckle avuncularly as Sweeney slings Kelly life-endangeringly on to the ice or she screams at him down a hotel corridor after a drunken dinner date. Never mind. We can always turn to more peaceable matters like the reception accorded our hero's career-change - he used to be an ice-hockey player - by his redneck bar-owning father ('Are they gonna make you shave you legs?'). Or for tragicomic relief there is Roy Dotrice as the duo's trainer, struggling with his Russian accent much as Laocoon struggled with his consignment of snakes. Hokum so wholehearted earns affection if not admiration. It skates over every known emotion in the pop-melodramatic rink, while never pausing to make an original incision on any. Revival corner this week features Lawrence Kasdan's 1981 directing debut Body Heat, launching a Barbican season in honour of actor William Hurt. Adultery and murder; Hurt and Kathleen Turner; and a shameless set of plunderings from the fatal-woman thrillers of yesteryear. Double Indemnity, The Woman In The Window, Out Of The Past: bring on the Venetian blinds, paint the dialogue in wisecracking monochrome. But if Body Heat is plagiarism posturing as art, it is still more enjoyable than anything director Kasdan has made since. Main reason: a script is served up with a salty crackle by Hurt and Turner, aided by Mickey Rourke's debut cameo as a soft-spoken bomb-maker. Jostling an 11-year-old American film is a 15-year-old European one. Hans-Jurgen Syberberg's Hitler: A Film From Germany, revived at the ICA, is a monstrous 7-hour cabaret from the man who brought us Ludwig: Requiem For A Virgin King and Parsifal the movie. On soundstages thick with smoke, puppetry, slide projections and other theatrical-pedagogic devices oft called 'Brechtian', modern German history is recounted for us as if by a mad schoolteacher with a runaway props budget. The good news is that Syberberg both absorbs and contextualises the kitsch associations that grew around Hitler in 1970s culture, when in such musicals as Cabaret and such films as Visconti's The Damned Herr Fuhrer became a superstar. The bad news is - well, actually there is no bad news. Against expectation, Syberberg's seminar is horribly compulsive. Even at its most hectoring - a toga'd Adolf rearing from a grave marked 'RW' (Richard Wagner), Goering or Goebbels puppets cavorting against Leni Riefenstahl back-projections - Hitler has a passionate wit about the fatal windings of politics and an absurdist ferocity that puts the hiss back into history. How disturbing, though, that the summer has brought us so few new films from Europe and so many old ones reminding us of her former glory. The European Film Award nominations, just announced, pour salt on the continent's wounded self-esteem. The awards are nicknamed 'Felixes' in reference to Neil Simon's odd couple. They were Felix and Oscar, you recall, of whom Oscar was the flamboyant shambolic one while Felix was the fastidious introvert. Oh what wisdom from careless sobriquets] While Oscar wassails loudly and untidily each April, Felix dons his dinner jacket each autumn graciously to honour films that few people have heard of and fewer have seen. The Financial Times London Page 13 309.LA011390-0033.retnorel.html0100644000076500001440000001424110117747343014444 0ustar TREC2003users LA011390-0033 161394

January 13, 1990, Saturday, Home Edition

Calendar; Part F; Page 3; Column 1; Entertainment Desk

901 words

NBC WILL PITCH MINISERIES AGAINST BASEBALL;

TELEVISION: ENTERTAINMENT PRESIDENT TARTIKOFF OUTLINES NETWORK'S COUNTERPROGRAMMING STRATEGY.

By DIANE HAITHMAN, TIMES STAFF WRITER

Alan Alda won't be joining NBC for the 1990-91 season -- but Jackie Collins, Danielle Steel, Jane Curtin, Richard Roundtree and a TV movie about Jim and Tammy Bakker will.

In an effort to compete with CBS' televising of baseball's playoffs and World Series in the fall, NBC Entertainment President Brandon Tartikoff told a news conference Thursday that three novels by Steel and two by Collins will be developed into miniseries to counterprogram the games, which were wrested from NBC by CBS in a bidding war last year.

"We were the bride left at the altar," Tartikoff said. "We're not going to take this lying down."

The Steel best-sellers "Daddy" and "Fine Things" will become two-hour movies, and "Kaleidoscope" will become a four-hour miniseries. They are the first of her books to go into production as part of a long-term exclusive contract between Steel and NBC, Tartikoff said.

"We have 26 (books) available, and if these are successful, we don't have to wait for her to write a new book," he said.

Collins' books "Chances" and "Lucky," about an Italian gangster, will be combined as a six-hour miniseries. Tartikoff predicted that "the running Mafia theme" would lure both male and female viewers away from baseball. When it was mentioned that the last miniseries based on similiar material, CBS' adaptation of the Judith Krantz novel "I'll Take Manhattan," garnered disappointing ratings, Tartikoff said, "It (success) really depends on the subject matter."

Alda, who had had an hourlong series in development for the network in which he would have starred as a judicial system employee facing midlife crisis, has "just begged off" because of a movie deal with Disney and other feature-film directing commitments, Tartikoff said. He added that Alda's recent appearance in Woody Allen's "Crimes and Misdemeanors" has injected some life into Alda's feature career.

Tartikoff joked that he would not reveal too many details about Alda's original script for NBC because "there is still time in this development season for some people who are relative newcomers" to network TV to steal the idea. He was referring to new CBS Entertainment President Jeff Sagansky, one of Tartikoff's former programming lieutenants. Tartikoff added that NBC might develop the series with another star.

While Alda is no longer cooperating with NBC, Jim and Tammy Bakker are. "Fall From Grace," the authorized story of the demise of Bakker's ministry, will go into production, Tartikoff said, although no air date was announced. He maintained that the endorsement of the Bakkers will not soften the story.

"We're not going to show them collecting stamps," Tartikoff said. "It's not going to be a love poem to this couple." Bernadette Peters will portray Tammy Bakker; the role of Jim Bakker has not been cast.

Following last season's flurry of advertiser boycotts of controversial TV projects, including NBC's "Roe vs. Wade" and "The Tracy Thurman Story," Tartikoff said that the network has set aside money to cover any loss of advertising it might incur with the Bakker movie. He called such budgeting a standard procedure, and added that the network expects the Bakker story to be "a big ratings-getter."

Two other miniseries -- "A Woman Named Jackie," about the life of Jacqueline Onassis, and "The Oldest Living Confederate Tells All," based on the best-selling book about a Civil War widow -- are also in development for fall, he said.

"Shaft" veteran Richard Roundtree will join the cast of NBC's newest daytime soap, "Generations," Tartikoff said, and Jane Curtin, the former co-star of "Kate and Allie" and "Saturday Night Live," is set to star in a half-hour comedy for next season.

Meanwhile, Tartikoff is tinkering with the existing schedule. "My Two Dads" will return to NBC at 8 p.m. Sundays beginning Jan. 21; "Ann Jillian," currently airing in the time slot, will be pulled until March, to be re-tooled by a new set of producers.

Following a fall season that created no big hits for NBC -- or the other networks -- Tartikoff was asked if he found himself looking over his shoulder at the competition more now than in recent years, particularly with a new man in charge at No. 3 CBS and some of NBC's biggest successes, including "The Cosby Show" and "Cheers," aging. He replied that NBC expects some of its current shows, including "Dear John," "Quantum Leap" and "Midnight Caller," to develop into Top 10 shows if the network nurtures them as it did "Cheers," which faltered in the ratings during its first seasons.

Of Sagansky, Tartikoff said he "is a talented, resourceful and creative programmer and broadcaster. They (CBS) were lucky and fortunate to get him, and if they give him enough free rein to do what I know he knows how to do, I think they'll see some improvement."

After the press session, however, a tongue-in-cheek Tartikoff revealed a "secret" about Sagansky that Tartikoff said he had politely been keeping under wraps: The 1983 series "Manimal," a stunning flop about a young professor with the uncanny ability to transform himself into jungle animals in order to help the police solve crimes -- for which Tartikoff has heretofore accepted blame -- was actually Sagansky's idea.

Tartikoff said that, after years of taking the rap for "Manimal," it was time to reveal the truth: "It was his idea. He brought it to me, and I said, 'This is horrible!' "

NBC TELEVISION NETWORK; WORLD SERIES; BASEBALL GAMES; TELEVISION PROGRAMMING; TARTIKOFF, BRANDON; ALDA, ALAN; BAKKER, JAMES; BAKKER, TAMMY

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February 22, 1990, Thursday, Home Edition

Part A; Page 1; Column 2; Metro Desk

1349 words

BONNIE RAITT, MIDLER WIN TOP GRAMMYS

By ROBERT HILBURN, TIMES POP MUSIC CRITIC

Bonnie Raitt, whose career seemed in jeopardy four years ago when she was dropped by her long-time record company, climaxed a dramatic comeback Wednesday night by winning a Grammy for best album of the year.

Raitt, who also won three other Grammys during the nationally televised ceremony at the Shrine Auditorium, has long been admired in the record industry for her fierce devotion to the blues, including championing veteran artists whose accomplishments have been sometimes overlooked by the pop world.

"This means so much for the kind of music that we do," the red-haired singer said in accepting the best-album award. "It means that those of us who do rhythm and blues are going to get a chance again."

In the other key awards, Bette Midler's "Wind Beneath My Wings" was named best single record of 1989 and the composition itself, written by Larry Henley and Jeff Silbar, was declared song of the year.

The Grammy awards are determined by the approximately 6,000 active members of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences.

Not only did Raitt, the 40-year-old daughter of Broadway singer John Raitt, come up in 1989 with her most successful album ever, "Nick of Time," she also overcame in recent years a drinking problem that led her to Alcoholics Anonymous.

Delighted by the response to the new album last October, she said in an interview at the time, "In many ways, this is like a first album. . . . It's for a new label (Capitol) and getting all of this attention and critical acclaim

"And it's my first sober album. . . . Being this age and being straight -- it's been the greatest time."

In accepting the best-record Grammy, the evening's other most coveted award, Midler said, "I'm stunned and I'm flabbergasted.

"Hey, Bonnie Raitt, I got one, too."

Besides Raitt, other multiple winners Wednesday included jazz great Miles Davis, British soul-dance group Soul II Soul, composer-arranger Dave Grusin and country music's Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

Davis, who was also saluted with a prestigious lifetime achievement award, picked up his fifth and sixth career Grammys for best jazz instrumental performance by a big band and by a soloist.

Soul II Soul won Grammys for R&B group vocal award and R&B instrumental. The group, however, lost in the more prized category of best new artist to the duo Milli Vanilli.

Grusin, winner of three previous Grammys, picked up three more, including one for the background score of the film "The Fabulous Baker Boys."

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band won a Grammy for best group vocal and shared a Grammy with Bruce Hornsby for best bluegrass recording.

The evening's most potentially dramatic moment -- the much rumored reunion of the surviving Beatles -- failed to materialize because neither George Harrison nor Ringo Starr attended the event, though both were nominated for Grammys.

That left just Paul McCartney, who was also saluted by the Academy with a lifetime achievement award. McCartney, currently on his first U.S. tour in more than a decade, thanked his wife, Linda, and their children for their support, gave a brief environment awareness message and described his former band mates as "beautiful people."

The absent Harrison won a Grammy for best rock group vocal as a member of the Traveling Wilburys, the veteran rock group that also featured Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty and the late Roy Orbison. But the Wilburys lost to Raitt in the best-album competition.

Starr was nominated in the country vocal collaboration category for a duet with Buck Owens, but also lost.

Raitt's other Grammys were for female pop vocal, female rock vocal and traditional blues recording. The latter was for her duet with John Lee Hooker on "I'm in the Mood," a track from Hooker's album, "The Healer."

Metallica's "One" was named best rock/metal recording, while Living Colour's "Cult of Personality" single was named best hard rock performance of 1989. Living Colour's victory shut out the controversial Los Angeles-based hard-rock band Guns N' Roses.

The latter group had been widely criticized for allegedly racist remarks in a song, "One in a Million," that was included in its "GN'R Lies" album, which was a contender in the hard-rock category.

About 10 members from the Los Angeles chapter of the Guardian Angels, the self-styled crime fighters, marched in front of the Shrine on Wednesday, handing out leaflets that branded "One in a Million" as racist for its use of racial epithets and New York rap group Public Enemy's "Welcome to the Terrordome" as anti-Semitic.

Public Enemy -- whose "Fight the Power" single lost in the rap category to Young M.C.'s "Bust a Move" -- has been criticized by Jewish leaders and others for possible anti-Semitic attitudes ever since a controversial interview by Professor Griff, the group's former "minister of information," that appeared last May in the Washington Times.

Both Axl Rose, the lead singer of Guns N' Roses, and Chuck D., the leader of Public Enemy, have denied racist or bigoted attitudes.

Michael Bolton won best male pop vocalist for his recording "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You," with the pop duo award going to Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville.

Former Eagle Don Henley was judged best male rock vocalist.

The video awards were strictly a family affair. Michael Jackson won in the short-form music video category as his younger sister, Janet, triumphed in the long-form music video competition.

The Winans family teamed up for three indvidual Grammys in the gospel balloting.

Harry Connick Jr.'s victory in the male jazz vocal category is likely to stir criticism from the purist wing of the jazz community that has tended to think of Connick primarily as a cabaret or pop singer.

Two names more commonly associated with pop and rock, Dr. John and Rickie Lee Jones, were also honored for best jazz vocal by a duo or group.

Veteran Ruth Brown, a star over the years in the R&B and rock fields, was named best female jazz vocalist for her album, "Blues on Broadway."

Bobby Brown and Anita Baker were named best male and female R&B vocalists.

In the country field, k.d. lang was named best female singer for the second straight year, while Lyle Lovett's victory in the male singer category ended a three-year win streak for Randy Travis.

Los Lobos was judged the best Mexican-American performance, while Jose Feliciano was cited as best Latin pop record.

Celia Cruz and Ray Barretto shared the best tropical Latin performance award, while Ziggy Marley captured the reggae Grammy for the second straight year.

The late actress-comedian Gilda Radner was honored for best spoken word recording. "Jerome Robbins' Broadway" was named best musical cast show album. Peter Asher was voted pop producer of the year.

In the composition categories, Carly Simon's "Let the River Run," from the film "Working Girl," was named best song written for a movie, while Danny Elfman's "Batman" theme was voted best instrumental composition.

The classical Grammys produced a bumper crop of surprises this year.

Best album -- a category dominated by big-budget, big-name symphonies and operas -- went to the Emerson Quartet's Bartok set, which also took the chamber music award. Placido Domingo and Kathleen Battle lost the vocal soloist prize to Dawn Upshaw and her Barber-Menotti-Harbison-Stravinsky program with the Orchestra of St. Luke's.

Memorial sentiment did not help Herbert von Karajan's final recording, nor did 25 weeks on the best-seller charts boost Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony past Leonard Bernstein's Mahler Third in the orchestral category.

Other areas proved more predictable. Bloc voting from the Atlanta classical contingent no doubt contributed to the choral performance and engineering awards for Robert Shaw's recording of Britten's "War Requiem." Steve Reich -- the only American composer on the ballot -- took the composition prize for "Different Trains."

The award for best opera went to the Metropolitan Opera's recording of Wagner's "Die Walkure."

Times staff writer John Henken contributed to this story.

Photo, COLOR, Bonnie Raitt, who won for best album, accepts 1 of 4 Grammys. RANDY LEFFINGWELL / Los Angeles Times; Photo, Bette Midler took best-record award for "Wind Beneath My Wings." ; Photo, Public Enemy's Flavor Flav, left, salutes rap winner Young M.C. JAYNE KAMIN-ONCEA / Los Angeles Times

Main Story

GRAMMY AWARDS; AWARDS; AUDIO RECORDINGS; RECORDING INDUSTRY; RAITT, BONNIE; MIDLER, BETTE; GUARDIAN ANGELS (ORGANIZATION); DEMONSTRATIONS -- LOS ANGELES; ANTI SEMITISM; PUBLIC ENEMY (MUSIC GROUP); GUNS N' ROSES (MUSIC GROUP); MCCARTNEY, PAUL

309.LA022290-0245.retnorel.html0100644000076500001440000002556510117747342014464 0ustar TREC2003users LA022290-0245 181534

February 22, 1990, Thursday, Southland Edition

Part A; Page 1; Column 2; Metro Desk

1547 words

MICHAEL BOLTON, RONSTADT WIN POP GRAMMYS

By ROBERT HILBURN, TIMES POP MUSIC CRITIC

Michael Bolton was named top pop male vocalist over the late Roy Orbison, the evening's sentimental favorite, and Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville were cited for best vocal by a pop duo as the 32nd Annual Grammy Awards telecast got under way Wednesday evening at the Shrine Auditorium.

Jazz great Miles Davis was certain of one award even before the three-hour CBS program began. Along with former Beatle Paul McCartney, the celebrated trumpeter was to be honored with a prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award.

But Davis, who has won four previous Grammys, also picked up his fifth and sixth Grammys.

During pre-telecast ceremonies -- in which 61 of the evening's 77 awards were announced -- Davis was saluted for best jazz instrumental performance by a big band during 1989 and for best jazz instrumental by a soloist, both in connection with his album, "Aura."

The Recording Academy was also scheduled to give two posthumous Lifetime Achievement Awards during the telecast to singer Nat King Cole and pianist Vladimir Horowitz. Dick Clark was to be presented with a Trustees Award, for achievements in the non-performing side of the industry.

Grammy winners are chosen by the nearly 6,000 active members of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, a nonprofit organization formed to represent all segments of the recording industry.

Bonnie Raitt was one of the evening's other multiple winners. She was saluted for best female rock vocal and traditional blues recording, sharing the latter with John Lee Hooker for their duet on "I'm in the Mood."

Other artists who received multiple awards included British soul-dance group Soul II Soul and composer-arranger Dave Grusin.

Soul II Soul won the R&B group vocal award for the single "Back to Life," and the R&B instrumental Grammy for "African Dance," a selection from the group's "Keep on Movin' " album. The group, however, lost in the more-prized best new artist category to the duo Milli Vanilli.

Grusin, winner of three previous Grammys, picked up three more. They were for the background score of the film "The Fabulous Baker Boys," instrumental arrangement for the suite from the film "The Milagro Beanfield War" and instrumental arrangement with a vocal for the rendition of "My Funny Valentine" in "'Baker Boys."

The Traveling Wilburys, the veteran rock superstar quintet that was widely viewed in the recording industry as the betting favorite in the competition for key album of the year, were also honored during the pre-telecast portion of the program for the best group vocal in rock.

The group consists of rock veterans Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty and Orbison.

Living Colour's "Cult of Personality" single was named best hard rock performance of 1989, shutting out the controversial Los Angeles-based hard-rock band Guns N' Roses. The latter group had been widely criticized for allegedly racist remarks in a song, "One in a Million," that was included in its "GN'R Lies" album, which was a contender in the hard-rock category.

About 10 members from the Los Angeles chapter of the Guardian Angels, the self-styled crime fighters, marched in front of the Shrine on Wednesday, handing out leaflets that branded "One in a Million" as racist for its use of racial epithets, and New York rap group's Public Enemy's "Welcome to the Terrordome" as anti-Semitic.

Public Enemy -- whose "Fight the Power" single was a nominee in the rap category -- has been criticized by Jewish leaders and others for possible anti-Semitic attitudes since a controversial interview by Professor Griff, the group's former "minister of information," that appeared last May in the Washington Times newspaper.

Both Axl Rose, the lead singer of Guns N' Roses, and Chuck D., the leader of Public Enemy, have denied racist or bigoted attitudes.

Harry Connick Jr.'s victory in the male jazz vocal category Wednesday is likely to stir criticism from the purist wing of the jazz community that has tended to think of Connick primarily as a cabaret or pop singer. In picking up his first Grammy for his contributions to the "When Harry Meets Sally" film sound track album, Connick defeated past jazz Grammy winners Joe Williams and George Benson.

Two names more commonly associated with pop and rock, Dr. John and Rickie Lee Jones, were also honored for best jazz vocal by a duo or group. They teamed up on a version of "Makin' Whoopee."

Veteran Ruth Brown, a star over the years in jazz, blues and rock fields, was named best female jazz vocalist for her album, "Blues on Broadway."

The Pat Metheny Group was honored for jazz fusion performance for the fifth time since the category was initiated in 1979.

Chick Corea, who had won seven previous Grammys, was honored for best jazz group instrumental for his album, "Chick Corea Akoustic Band."

Bobby Brown was named best male R&B vocalist, Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff's "If You Don't Know Me by Now" was named best R&B song.

In the country field, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's "Will the Circle Be Unbroken, Volume Two" was associated with three awards. The band itself won a Grammy for best group vocal, defeating the Judds, who had finished on top in this category two of the last three years. The band also shared a Grammy with Bruce Hornsby for best blue grass recording, while Randy Scruggs was cited as best country instrumentalist for his work on a song, "Amazing Grace," that appeared on the "Circle" album.

Rodney Crowell's "After All This Time" was declared best country song.

The Indigo Girls' debut album was judged the top contemporary folk recording. The traditional folk Grammy was awarded to the Bulgarian State Female Vocal Choir, a group that had made a considerable pop splash during 1989.

Los Lobos was judged the best Mexican-American performance.

The late actress-comedian Gilda Radner was honored for best spoken word recording for her, "It's Always Something."

"Jerome Robbins' Broadway" was named best musical cast show album.

In the composition categories, Carly Simon's "Let the River Run" (from the film "Working Girl") was named best song written for a movie, while Danny Elfman's "Batman" theme was voted best instrumental composition.

POP WINNERS

Album: "Nick of Time," Bonnie Raitt.

Pop Instrumental: "Healing Chant," Neville Brothers.

Rock Vocal by Duo or Group: "Traveling Wilburys, Volume One," Traveling Wilburys.

Rock Instrumental: "Jeff Beck's Guitar Shop with Terry Bozzio and Tony Hymas," Jeff Beck with Terry Bozzio and Tony Hymas.

R&B Vocal by Duo or Group: "Back to Life," Soul II Soul.

R&B Instrumental: "African Dance," Soul II Soul.

R&B Song: "If You Don't Know Me by Now," Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff.

New Age: "Passion -- Music for the Last Temptation of Christ," Peter Gabriel.

Jazz Fusion: "Letter From Home," Pat Metheny Group.

Jazz Vocal by Duo or Group: "Makin' Whoopee," Dr. John and Rickie Lee Jones.

Solo Jazz Instrumental: "Aura," Miles Davis.

Group Jazz Instrumental: "Chick Corea Akoustic Band," Chick Corea Akoustic Band.

Big Band Jazz Instrumental: "Aura," Miles Davis.

Country Vocal by Duo or Group: "Will the Circle Be Unbroken Volume Two," Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

Country Vocal Collaboration: "There's a Tear in My Beer," Hank Williams Jr. and Hank Williams Sr.

Country Instrumental: "Amazing Grace," Randy Scruggs.

Bluegrass: "The Valley Road," Bruce Hornsby and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

Country Song: "After All This Time," Rodney Crowell.

Female Gospel Vocal: "Don't Cry," CeCe Winans.

Male Gospel Vocal: "Meantime," BeBe Winans.

Gospel Vocal by Duo or Group: "The Savior is Waiting," Take 6.

Male/Female Soul Gospel Vocal: "As Long As We're Together," Al Green.

Soul Gospel Vocal by Duo, Group, Choir or Chorus: "Let Brotherly Love Continue," Daniel Winans & Choir.

Tropical Latin: "Ritmo En El Corazon," Celia Cruz & Ray Barretto.

Traditional Blues: "I'm in the Mood," John Lee Hooker and Bonnie Raitt.

Contemporary Blues: "In Step," Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble.

Traditional Folk: "Le Mystere Des Voix Bulgares, Volume II," Bulgarian State Female Vocal Choir.

Contemporary Folk: "Indigo Girls," Indigo Girls.

Polka: "All in My Love for You," Jimmy Sturr & his Orchestra.

Reggae: "Serious Business," Third World.

Children: "The Rock-A-Bye Collection Volume I," Tanya Goodman.

Comedy: "P.D.Q. Bach: 1712 Overture & Other Musical Assaults," Professor Peter Schickele -- the Greater Hoople Area Off-Season Philharmonic.

Spoken Word or Non-Musical: "It's Always Something," Gilda Radner.

Instrumental Composition: "The Batman Theme," Danny Elfman.

Original Instrumental Background Score for Motion Picture or Television: "The Fabulous Baker Boys," Dave Grusin.

Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or Television: "Let the River Run," Carly Simon.

Arrangement on an Instrumental: "Suite From 'The Milagro Beanfield War,' " Dave Grusin.

Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocals: "My Funny Valentine," from "The Fabulous Baker Boys," Dave Grusin.

Album Package: "Sound + Vision," Roger Gorman.

Album Notes: "Bird: The Complete Charlie Parker on Verve," Phil Schaap.

Historical Album: "Chuck Berry -- the Chess Box," Andy McKaie.

Engineering: "Cry Like a Rainstorm -- Howl Like the Wind," George Massenburg.

Photo, Donny Osmond presents Grammy for R&B vocal by duo or group to Caron Wheeler of Soul II Soul. JAYNE KAMIN-ONCEA / Los Angeles Times; Photo, A moment of bliss: Al Green busses his award for soul gospel vocal. JIM MENDENHALL / Los Angeles Times; Photo, New-artist nominee Tone Loc makes his entrance. ; Photo, Vanessa Williams shows off style outside Shrine. ROBERT DURELL / Los Angeles Times; Photo, Clint Black, in hat, looks every bit the country star. ROSEMARY KAUL / Los Angeles Times; Photo, Winners Bonnie Raitt, John Lee Hooker backstage at Grammys. RANDY LEFFINGWELL / Los Angeles Times

List

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April 2, 1989, Sunday, Home Edition

Calendar; Page 80; Calendar Desk

384 words

POLICE DON'T GIVE RAPPERS BAD RAP

By STEVE HOCHMAN

Los Angeles area law enforcement officials are uncomfortable with some of the gangbanger sentiments expressed by N.W.A, but don't view the rap group as a threat.

"It's not very welcome," said Lt. Joe Flores, adjutant to the Compton chief of police. "But it's a fad and I don't think it's going to have an adverse effect on the community. . . ."

Representatives of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department familiar with the Compton and South-Central Los Angeles gang situation also saw little reason for concern.

"If you're attributing rap music to escalating gang activity, I haven't seen it," said Lt. Art Herrera of the Sheriff's Department gang unit.

However, Leon Watkins, head of a private agency that works with parents of youths involved with drugs and gangs, believes the music is exploitative of a volatile situation and that "nothing good" can come from it.

"I don't condone that kind of thing," said Watkins, former regional director of the Los Angeles County Probation Department's youth gang services office and now head of his own South-Central Los Angeles Family Hotline. "The minds of our young people are too impressionable for groups to be coming out with stuff like that."

Watkins noted that he has been active in bringing such rap acts as Run-D.M.C. together with L.A. gang representatives to serve as positive role models. "Most of the rap groups I deal with are positive, anti-gang and anti-drugs. But N.W.A sounds like it's using the record industry to glamorize crime, and that's a hindrance. . . ."

Still, Watkins accepts N.W.A's contention that it is just reporting what happens on the streets of Compton.

"What they're trying to do is sell records, and they're taking a situation that's already prevalent and using that frustration to sell records," Watkins said. "But when you put certain things to people who are already frustrated, that's what I worry about. . . . They've got a volatile situation and they're taking advantage of it."

And Watkins does not think songs such as "---- Tha Police" can serve as the spark to ignite the volatility into something bigger.

"The music won't touch off something violent," he said. "In my experience it's not the music, but something like a shooting that sets things off, and then the music becomes a battle cry later."

CENSORSHIP -- LOS ANGELES; LOS ANGELES COUNTY SHERIFFS DEPARTMENT; NWA (MUSIC GROUP); RAP MUSIC; RUN DMC (MUSIC GROUP); GANGS -- LOS ANGELES COUNTY; BLACKS -- LOS ANGELES COUNTY; CULTURAL RELATIONS; BLACKS -- CULTURE; POLICE -- LOS ANGELES COUNTY; LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS

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July 3, 1989, Monday, Home Edition

Calendar; Part 6; Page 1; Column 2; Entertainment Desk

569 words

POP MUSIC REVIEW;

VIOLENCE MARS SUPERFEST AT COLISEUM

By CONNIE JOHNSON

The crowd loved his cool strut, his funk-powered dancers, his dark sunglasses and new jack-swingin' persona. But the most fervent response Kool Moe Dee received during his performance at the 10th Annual Budweiser Superfest on Saturday at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum was to the brief snippet he performed from "Self-Destruction," the rap plea for an end to the black-on-black crime and violence that has been escalating in the inner city in recent years.

But neither Dee's appeal nor the heavy police presence on foot, on horseback and in helicopters stopped fights from breaking out during the course of the six-hour concert -- fights that would send hundreds of skittish people running for the nearest exits. Police reported three stabbing incidents at the event, which was attended by a crowd of 41,000.

"Hey, I'm just here to see Kool Moe Dee and Karyn White," said 19-year-old Tina Jefferson from Carson as she watched one fracas down on the field. "Otherwise, I wouldn't even be putting myself through this kind of a scene."

The bill included rappers (Dee, Rob Base & DJ Easy Rock, M. C. Hammer), young soul stars (Tony! Toni! Tone!, New Edition, Guy) and one soul matriarch (Patti LaBelle). White didn't make her scheduled appearance.

Dee's set had its moments, hampered though they were by what may have been the world's muddiest sound system. And if you didn't have great seats or a pair of binoculars, you may have missed some of his flashier dance steps, since the Budweiser folks didn't spring for giant video screens. But none of that stopped the kids in the bleachers from chanting along to the lyrics of Dee's "Go See the Doctor," a rap about the perils of condom-less sex.

While he's an authoritative performer on record, Dee suffered from the same problem that plagued many of the young performers on the bill Saturday: How to pace a show, build momentum and keep an audience fully engrossed are pesky little conceptual wrinkles that haven't been totally ironed out by Dee -- or, for that matter, by the act that followed him, New Edition.

Back when Bobby Brown was a member of this group, it was Ralph Tresvant -- with his teen-dream good looks and teasingly sweet falsetto -- who garnered most of the spotlight. Now it's Brown's replacement in the group, Johnny Gill, who gets the screams that used to go to Tresvant.

With his from-the-old-school soulfulness, Gill tends to overpower his fellow group members. But his bravado didn't disguise the fact that their act also contained a lot of annoying stop-and-start moves that kept New Edition from chugging along like the well-oiled entertainment machine it should be.

Pacing was a problem in Guy's set also, though lead singer Aaron Hall compensated with his church-derived vocal delivery. Muddy sound system aside, Guy performed a string of tunes ("Teddy's Jam," "Piece of My Love," "I Like") that succeeded despite the feedback and distortion.

M. C. Hammer and his Posse also came across strongly -- even though there were a few lulls when it looked as if they had no clear idea of what was supposed to happen next. Short of Michael Jackson, Prince and Bobby Brown (when the spirit moves him), nobody delivers more exciting choreography than the Bay Area-based rapper and crew.

Like Dee, Hammer got his most fevered response to a "stop-the-violence" message. On Saturday, that message was more well-meaning than effective.

Photo, Kool Moe Dee's cool strut combines with his anti-violence message, and Patti LaBelle provides the soul at Los Angeles Coliseum on Saturday. ELLEN JASKOL / Los Angeles Times

Concert Review

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August 5, 1990, Sunday, Home Edition

Calendar; Page 8; Calendar Desk

2625 words

ANTI-GAY MESSAGE GOES UNCHALLENGED;

SHOULD THE RECORD INDUSTRY'S REACTION TO GAY-BASHING BY RAP AND HEAVY-METAL GROUPS MIRROR ITS REACTION TO RACIAL AND ETHNIC SLURS?

By CHUCK PHILIPS

When Elton John called comedian and sometime rocker Sam Kinison a "pig" on the recent "International Rock Awards," gay activists called John's statement a long overdue response to what they say is "gay-bashing" in pop music.

The pop charts have too often been a forum for artists engaging in anti-gay hatred, at a time when violent incidents against homosexuals are on the rise, activists interviewed by The Times say.

Songs and comments by heavy-metal bands Guns N' Roses, Skid Row and Cinderella top the list of offensive statements. The comedy of Kinison, whose last two comedy albums have included heavy metal send-ups of rock classics such as "Wild Thing" and "Mississippi Queen," has raised the ire of gay groups more than once.

Even pop artists generally considered to be politically aware have come under attack. Songs such as "Money for Nothing" by Dire Straits' Mark Knopfler and "On Any Other Day" by the Police also have been criticized.

Rap artists Ice-T, Big Daddy Kane, 2 Live Crew, Heavy D, Slick Rick, Chuck D., Professor Griff, Schoolly D and Kool G Rap also have been accused of promoting anti-homosexual messages on records and stage or in interviews, according to black gay and lesbian groups.

Frustrated by increasing anti-gay song lyrics and remarks and by record company executives' tacit approval of anti-gay attitudes, activists argue that the industry consistently fails to react to performers' homophobia the way it frequently does when presented with racial and ethnic slurs.

If performers substituted racial or ethnic expletives for the anti-gay terms "blithely" used in pop songs, "the industry would react with vocal outrage," says Adam Block, rock columnist for the Los Angeles-based Advocate, the nation's most prominent gay magazine.

"On the one hand, this is a country which believes in artistic freedom," said Alan Bell, editor and publisher of BLK magazine, a Los Angeles-based national black gay and lesbian publication. "But on the other, we don't believe in bashing minorities. So what do you do?"

Last January, in response to charges of anti-Semitism and other forms of racial insensitivity and bigotry surrounding ethnic slurs in an interview with Public Enemy member Professor Griff, CBS Records chief executive Walter Yetnikoff sent a memo to more than 7,000 CBS employees asking for a dialogue on what the company policy should be in this area. The move was widely applauded by other label chiefs, some of whom said they intend to follow suit.

But gay activists maintain that little has been done.

"Let's face it, it's open season on gays," Block said. "Look at Skid Row or Guns N' Roses -- how much of a career killer is it when pop music artists verbally bash gay people in public?"

Homosexuals were the targets last year of more than 7,000 anti-gay incidents ranging from verbal abuse to violence, according to a recent report from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

Carol Anderson, outreach chairwoman for the Los Angeles branch of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) maintains that explicit bigotry abounds in rock 'n' roll.

Founded six years ago in New York, GLAAD now has nine chapters across the country, including the Los Angeles chapter, which processes about 500 calls a week on a local hot line for comments about the presentation of gays in the popular media.

GLAAD studies reveal that the typical gay-basher tends to be a white male between 16 and 25 years of age, the same demographic to which heavy-metal music appeals, Anderson points out.

Here are some incidents involving heavy-metal music and alleged homophobia frequently cited by the activists:

* Sebastian Bach, lead singer of the Atlantic Records band Skid Row, was chastised by gay groups after a heavy-metal magazine ran a snapshot of him wearing a T-shirt bearing the slogan: "AIDS kills (gays) dead."

* Cinderella, a best-selling band that records for PolyGram Records, irked gay activists after drummer Fred Coury espoused anti-gay opinions during an interview in a heavy-metal magazine earlier this year.

* Guns N' Roses came under fire last year after writing and recording "One in a Million" for Geffen Records, an angry rock narrative replete with slurs against gays and blacks. During subsequent interviews and live performances in which lead singer Axl Rose attempted to defend his creative intentions, his statements only upset activists more.

Last year, when the band was removed from the line-up of a Gay Men's Health Crisis AIDS benefit, David Geffen, the president of their record company, resigned as chairman of the event.

Geffen, an AIDS philanthropist, explained his position in an interview in Entertainment Weekly: "I don't care what their record was," he said. "If you need a blood donor and the only person who can give you a transfusion is Hitler, you take the blood."

Block, the Advocate columnist, says he finds the anti-gay attitude promoted by metal acts particularly offensive.

"Metal music is a medium which targets young males at a point in their lives when they feel sexually confused and ambiguous," Block said. "In order to allay any fear that they may be gay themselves, metal creates these fantasies of gay-bashing and power over women -- it's part of the musical ethos."

But heavy metal hasn't cornered the market on homophobia, gay activists say. Block notes that some of the same macho, anti-gay bragging prevalent on the heavy-metal circuit exists in rap music too.

A song by the group Audio Two contains this passage:

I can't understand why you're lookin' this way

What's the matter with you boy, are you gay?

Yo, I hope that ain't the case

'Cause gay mothers get punched in the face.

-- from Audio Two's "Whatcha' Lookin' At?"

In recent issues, BLK, the Los Angeles-based, national black gay and lesbian publication, has reported a number of anti-gay, rap-related incidents:

* Ice-T angered activists during a concert on a recent Australian tour when he allegedly gave his approval to "bash poofs," according to BLK magazine.

* Big Daddy Kane's song "Pimpin' Ain't Easy" came under fire for lyrics such as: "The Big Daddy law is anti-(gay). That means no homosexuality."

* Activists also point the finger at Heavy D for his song "More Bounce," which states he is "extremely intellectual, not bisexual" and that his listeners can "be as happy as a (gay) in a jail."

Walter Williams is an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Southern California in the Program for the Study of Women and Men in Society. He teaches a class at USC called "Gender and Sexuality as an Issue in American Public Life."

Williams notes that the sudden onslaught of anti-gay pop music and comedy mirrors the ambiguity that exists in American society regarding the emergence of a public and vocal homosexual community.

"This is a homophobic culture and the kind of hateful messages we're concerned with here are a reflection of the nervousness that society feels about gay people," Williams said.

"The problem is that artists who perform this type of material not only reflect and reinforce what the society already thinks, they select and escalate the saturation of such thoughts in the culture."

Williams said he wished that artists and record companies that promote anti-gay messages in their work would realize that they are not operating in a social vacuum.

"Record companies understand the limits of what is right and wrong," Williams said. "I don't think Sam Kinison would be caught ridiculing black people. I don't hear anybody putting out songs about beating up blacks.

"Artists have to start factoring in other realities. For instance, the question of violence," Williams added. "Right now there are a lot of hate crimes going on against specific minorities, gays included. I really do believe that there is the possibility that hate material may incite violence."

Two weeks ago, following a performance by Arista recording artists Snap at a Boston gay nightclub called Buddies, Turbo Harris, the rap group's singer, allegedly shouted anti-gay remarks, choked Dennis Moreau, the club owner, and kicked club employee Kevin Riley in the ribs, according to Buddies manager Mark Eacobacci. The anti-gay incident has set off a boycott of Snap's music at radio stations and clubs throughout the Boston area.

Larry Jenkins, senior director of national publicity for Arista Records, said the group has apologized to the club owner and offered to perform a benefit concert at Buddies, the proceeds of which are to be donated to the fight against AIDS.

"This incident was the result of a misunderstanding," Jenkins said. "Turb B is not anti-gay."

Eacobacci acknowledged that a spokeswoman for Arista apologized to the club, but said that Buddies' management has no intention of allowing Snap to perform at Buddies again.

Most of the artists who have allegedly been criticized for anti-gay expressions declined to be interviewed by The Times. Representatives for Guns N' Roses, Skid Row, Cinderella, Audio Two and Ice-T all turned down repeated requests for interviews. In addition, executives from PolyGram, Atlantic, A&M, Arista, Capitol and Geffen Records declined repeated requests for interviews for this story.

Rap artist Heavy D was unavailable for comment, but his manager, Steve Lucas, said the rapper was sorry for any unintentional slap at gays.

"What Heavy D said was meant to be playful, not derogatory," Lucas said. "He is not into gay-bashing. If we offended anybody, we apologize."

Big Daddy Kane also described his "Pimpin' Ain't Easy" as a gag. "Rap songs don't always have to have a message," Kane said. "They can be done for pure entertainment or just to get a laugh. This was not meant to offend anyone."

But Rich Miller, manager of Fresh Fruit Records, a San Francisco-based company that markets albums by gay musicians and comedians, says he finds such humor in poor taste.

"It's one thing for gay songwriters or comedians to poke fun at gay people in their art," Miller said. "That's like Woody Allen making fun of Jewish customs or Richard Pryor making light of black stereotypes.

"But it is simply not acceptable for someone who doesn't understand the culture to ridicule gays in their work."

Gay activists not only criticize artists such as Kinison and Audio Two for recording what they perceive to be anti-gay diatribes, they also indict the record companies that finance and distribute such material.

Last month, GLAAD's New York chapter launched a national letter-writing campaign directed at Atlantic Records, protesting the distribution of Audio Two's album. GLAAD's Los Angeles chairwoman Anderson says record companies are as much to blame as the artists.

Bob Merlis, national publicity director at Warner Bros. Records, the company Kinison records for, said he views the debate over controversial subject matter as a First Amendment issue.

"I can understand why a significant portion of people, whatever their sexual orientation, would find parts of Sam Kinison's humor offensive and demeaning," Merlis said. "But, by the same token, it would be hard to make the case that this guy, just because he espouses comedy that people find objectionable, ought to be stifled."

Merlis portrays the record company's role as a commercial conduit between the artist and the public. If consumers find material objectionable, he says, they don't have to buy it.

But Randy Morrison, the independent record producer who initiated the Kinison protest in 1988, insists that record companies do have an obligation to monitor potentially offensive product.

"I realize that Warner Bros. artists have done outstanding work with AIDS patients, but sometimes it seems like record labels who finance albums that include hateful messages are like the companies who made the poison gas during Nazi times," Morrison said.

"They say, 'Oh, we just put the gas out. We don't kill anybody.' . . . Sometimes it seems like all these guys care about is making a buck."

Merlis disagrees.

"I'm not going to deny that we want to put out albums that sell," Merlis said. "But I take exception to anyone equating us with German munitions manufacturers. We make records and we know what they are used for. They are used for entertainment. It is our belief that record companies should not meddle in the creative process."

Atlantic Records recently issued a press release that endorsed the constitutional right of artists to voice ideas with which the company "vehemently disagrees" and may find "personally repugnant."

Richard Palmese, executive vice president and general manager of MCA Records, also believes in the right to artistic freedom, but qualified that right.

"MCA Records supports the right of the artists to free expression," Palmese said. "I will, however, always do everything within my power to ensure that our artists act responsibly and do not traffic in any kind of bigotry or hatred."

Jeff Ayeroff, president of Virgin Records, says that he would never put out any record that could be perceived as promoting bigotry. During his tenure at Warner Bros., Ayeroff refused to work on Kinison's record.

"I don't need to go to sleep at night thinking that I made my profits off the misery of any oppressed minority group," Ayeroff said in a recent telephone interview. "If somebody else can rest easy putting that kind of stuff out, let them. I'm just not going to do it."

Ayeroff denied that such a stance constitutes censorship, insisting that record company executives exercise the right to determine what is recorded on their own labels.

"This is the kind of situation where as a businessman I have the right to make decisions on how I want to earn my living," Ayeroff said. "I'm not saying the group shouldn't put the album out. I just don't want any part of it."

Why haven't gay activists been able to organize a more effective campaign against what they see as insensitive or anti-gay sentiments in the record business?

Among the reasons cited by various activists: the enormous amount of emotion and time required to deal with the AIDS epidemic, plus an age gap in the gay community.

According to GLAAD's Anderson, the older gay generation, which is more politically involved than the younger gay generation, does not usually listen to rap or metal music.

"So we don't actually hear about this kind of offensive material until long after it's been on the market," she said. "We have published articles in the gay press trying to raise the awareness of younger members regarding these issues, but I can't say that we have been terribly successful in reaching them."

GLAAD believes that the best way for record companies to counter the negative impact of anti-gay material is to finance and promote positive public service announcements denouncing anti-gay bigotry. But, so far, GLAAD's attempts to enlist the support of labels like Geffen Records in such pursuits have proven unsuccessful.

Advocate columnist Block suggests that musicians and comics need to join the fight, denouncing the work of artists who promote anti-homosexual bigotry. Independent producer Morrison thinks gays working within the music business need to speak out more frequently regarding their opposition to anti-gay recordings.

Alan Bell, editor and publisher of BLK magazine, said that the entire gay community needs to mobilize and let it be known that it won't tolerate offensive albums.

"While my feelings may not represent the gay community as a whole, I personally believe that artists should not be prevented from recording this kind of stuff," Bell said. "The appropriate response is for gays to stop buying products from companies that promote hateful messages."

Photo, 'Let's face it, it's open season on gays.' Adam Block, rock columnist for the Advocate SUSAN SPANN / for The Times; Photo, 'Sometimes it seems like all these guys care about is making a buck.' Randy Morrison, independent record producer Irfan Khan / For The Times; Photo, 'Artists should not be prevented from recording this kind of stuff.' Alan Bell, editor and publisher of BLK magazine ROSEMARY KAUL / Los Angeles Times; Photo, Skid Row, Sam Kinison, Guns N' Roses and Big Daddy Kane, clockwise from upper left, have faced criticism concerning alleged anti-gay messages.

Main Story

RECORDING INDUSTRY; HOMOSEXUALS; DISCRIMINATION; HATE CRIMES; HEAVY METAL MUSIC; RAP MUSIC; BANDS

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August 24, 1990, Friday, Home Edition

Calendar; Part F; Page 19; Column 1; Entertainment Desk

275 words

POP MUSIC REVIEWS;

PUBLIC ENEMY BLENDS FUNK AND POLITICS

By JONATHAN GOLD

Wednesday was another summer night at the Greek Theatre. Balmy breezes, thrumming crickets . . . and rap superstars Public Enemy, pounding their blend of funk and politics into the swaying, party-hearty crowd.

The group played some big Palace dates a few months ago, but this was really its first L.A. show centered on the songs from its latest album, "Fear of a Black Planet." The question of the evening was how the new, harder-edged material would work with its already plenty-controversial older stuff. Pretty well, as it turned out.

Lead rapper Chuck D. played it to the hilt, especially in the song "Welcome to the Terrordome," shrugging exaggeratedly when he rapped the line "apology made to whoever pleases," crossing himself when he followed with "still they got me like Jesus." His speeches were almost as entertaining as the songs. And a Public Enemy show is live, unpredictable and tension-filled like nothing else in rap.

For the song "Burn Hollywood Burn," which criticizes racist media stereotypes of African-Americans, L.A. rapper Ice Cube played out something of a stereotype himself, spewing four-letter words and gleeful descriptions of violent crime while Chuck beamed paternally and girls in the audience screamed (Ice Cube is kind of cute). PE's clown prince, Flavor Flav, seemed something of an elder statesman in comparison.

Public Enemy (which headlines the San Diego Sports Arena on Sunday) was dressed for the occasion, Chuck in a white Raiders jacket instead of a black one, the S1Ws, PE's dancers, in crisp, white naval uniforms where they usually wear camouflage-pattern guerrilla outfits. JONATHAN GOLD

Concert Review

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November 1, 1990, Thursday, Home Edition

Calendar; Part F; Page 1; Column 2; Entertainment Desk

918 words

THE MAN WHO'S TAKING THE RAP;

POP: CHARLES FREEMAN LEFT A BROOKLYN GHETTO TO GET AWAY FROM 'A LIFE OF CRIME.' NOW HE FACES A YEAR IN JAIL IN FLORIDA FOR SELLING A 2 LIVE CREW ALBUM.

By CHUCK PHILIPS, TIMES STAFF WRITER

Thanks in large part to the national obscenity controversy surrounding the Miami rap group 2 Live Crew, the group's "As Nasty as They Wanna Be" album has sold more than 2 million copies -- earning the Crew's leader, Luther Campbell, approximately $6 million.

And making him a national celebrity.

Nearly 1,000 of the "Nasty" albums were sold at E.C. Records, a tiny store in nearby Ft. Lauderdale -- earning its owner, Charles Freeman, about $3,000. And putting him in line to become, possibly, the first person in the United States to go to jail for selling obscene music.

While Campbell is touring the country with 2 Live Crew and promoting his recent solo album, which has sold more than 500,000 copies, Freeman is back home facing up to a year behind bars.

"I'm just an average guy, trying to make a living," he said by phone from his store. "I don't drink or smoke or do drugs."

For weeks now, Freeman has been worrying about a Friday court date during which he was to be sentenced by a Broward County judge -- not knowing when he kissed his wife and four children goodby whether he would be returning home.

But Wednesday, Judge Paul L. Blackman approved a motion granting the retailer a Nov. 16 hearing to allow his attorney to argue for a new trial and a judgment for acquittal. The decision meant Freeman's sentencing would be postponed until after the hearing.

The action may have only postponed his agony.

"This bust has totally disrupted my life," Freeman said after hearing Wednesday of the postponement. "I couldn't sleep last night. My business has been crippled. My wife and kids are upset and my ulcers are about to kill me. I vomit after every time I eat."

The irony, Freeman said, is that he left "a life of crime . . . running with gangs" in his native Brooklyn, N.Y., and moved to Florida to pursue a legitimate career after his mother warned that he was going to end up in jail.

"I never imagined I'd be about to go to jail for selling a record," he said. "I'm just trying to earn an honest living down here. No judge should be allowed to dictate what kind of music an adult can listen to."

Freeman, 32, was arrested June 8 for selling a copy of 2 Live Crew's "As Nasty as They Wanna Be" to an adult undercover police officer two days after a U.S. district judge in Ft. Lauderdale ruled that the record violated a Florida obscenity statute.

He was convicted of selling obscene material on Oct. 3 by an all-white jury and faces a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Freeman said he has been selling albums by 2 Live Crew and other "even more sexually explicit" rappers, along with a small stock of gospel, comedy and R&B records, since he opened his mom-and-pop shop in 1987.

Nobody in the black, middle-class neighborhood where he rents the 800-square-foot storefront ever complained, he said, until anti-obscenity crusader Jack Thompson initiated a campaign against the "Nasty" album in January.

"2 Live Crew's 'Nasty' album was dead and buried before Jack Thompson came along," Freeman said. "He gave it mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and brought it back to life. Thompson was unemployed before he got into this obscenity thing. Now he's out there trying to earn money on the lecture circuit debating about 2 Live Crew."

Thompson, in the middle of 30-stop college campus tour, was unavailable for comment. But Det. Eugene McCloud of the Broward County Sheriff's Department, the officer who arrested Freeman, said the record-store owner has no one to blame but himself.

"It's like some guy stealing crack cocaine in the streets saying, 'Hey, I dare you to do something about it,' " McCloud said. "Well, eventually a guy like that tends to draw attention to himself. The only reason Mr. Freeman was arrested was because he openly defied the law."

Still, people in the Brooklyn neighborhood where Freeman grew up do not view him as a criminal. One of six children reared in a welfare-recipient family, Freeman quit the gang he ran with in 1977 to move to Ft. Lauderdale. He worked as a maintenance man, a porter and a street deejay before opening his store.

His aunt, Mary Alice Freeman, said Freeman's relatives and childhood friends support him "110%" in his free-speech battle.

"He's like a hero to everyone back home," his aunt said from the apartment building where Freeman was raised. "We're all glued to our TV sets waiting to see if they put him in jail."

Freeman's First Amendment stance has drawn him into the national anti-censorship debate. He has appeared on "Donahue," "Crossfire," "Geraldo" and "Good Morning America." His attorney, Bruce Rogow, suggested that Freeman's act of civil disobedience is historic.

"He is a modern First Amendment martyr," Rogow said. "If only there were 1,000 Charles Freemans. The fact is, if all the retailers in America had the courage to stand up to the censors like Charles did, none of this would be happening at all."

Some of the most powerful forces in the music industry have pledged to support Freeman in his legal battle. On Friday, Freeman is scheduled to meet in Washington with Recording Industry Assn. of America Executive Vice President Hilary Rosen. Freeman said he is grateful that the record industry has finally signed on to support him in his struggle.

"The crusaders are after mom-and-pop shops like mine right now, but you big retail chains and record companies better watch your backs," Freeman said. "If I go to jail, you better believe they'll be coming after you next."

Photo, Charles Freeman, arrested for selling "Nasty." Associated Press; Photo, CHARLES FREEMAN SUSAN GREENWOOD / Los Angeles Times

FREEMAN, CHARLES; OBSCENITY; MUSIC; 2 LIVE CREW (MUSIC GROUP); FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION; RETAIL SALES; CENSORSHIP; FLORIDA -- LAWS; MUSIC INDUSTRY

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December 30, 1989, Saturday, Home Edition

Calendar; Part F; Page 4; Column 4; Entertainment Desk

650 words

RAP MANIFESTO LEADS THE LIST OF '80S SINGLES

By ROBERT HILBURN, TIMES POP MUSIC CRITIC

Who imagined seven years ago that a New York rap record that failed even to crack the national Top 40 would stand as the most noteworthy single of the decade?

Hailed by pop critics but little-known initially outside the emerging East Coast rap scene, "The Message" by Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five was a hugely influential record in the development of rap, the most persuasive new pop sound of the '80s.

The dramatic chronicle of the tension and despair of ghetto life also outlined a series of social issues, from homelessness to gang crime, that would continue to be addressed by rap and other pop artists through the decade.

The first challenge of pop is to be appealing musically, but the most compelling records also convey a strong point of view. That doesn't always mean social commentary, but at least a passionate and convincing tone that combines imagination, craft and heart.

The best singles of the '80s:

1. Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five's "The Message" (Sugar Hill, 1982) -- This blueprint was studied by such varied and acclaimed rap forces as Run-DMC, Boogie Down Productions, Public Enemy, N.W.A and De La Soul. Sample line:

'Cause it's all about money

Ain't a damned thing funny

You have to have a con

In this land of milk and honey.

2. U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" (Island, 1987) -- Typical of the cautious idealism of the '80s, this majestic single by the Irish rock group carried a humble, almost wary edge that was shaped by the disillusionments of the '60s and '70s.

3. Prince's "Controversy" (Warner Bros., 1981) -- To underscore Prince's position as the premier hit-maker of the '80s, two of his singles are included on today's list. This one, a mocking slap at rigid pop and social attitudes, introduced his provocative sex 'n' salvation vision.

4. Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" (Epic, 1983) -- Sparked by a captivating vocal and one of the most striking rhythm tracks ever in pop, this bizarre riddle about temptation and guilt was a masterpiece of pop dynamics.

5. Prince's "When Doves Cry" (Warner Bros., 1984) -- Or, to underscore Prince's productivity, perhaps "Little Red Corvette," "1999," "Purple Rain," "Kiss," "Mountains" or "U Got the Look."

6. Bruce Springsteen's "Brilliant Disguise" (Columbia, 1987) -- "Born in the U.S.A." was the more powerful anthem, but this bittersweet track from "Tunnel of Love" was perhaps the most darkly confessional song about commitment and doubt ever to make the national Top 10.

7. Guns N' Roses' "Sweet Child o' Mine" (Geffen, 1988) -- An amazingly tender and affecting reflection on love and innocence from the so-called bad-boys of '80s hard rock.

8. Run-DMC's "Walk This Way" (Profile, 1986) -- A spirited remake of the old Aerosmith hit that was a major break in the Cold War between rap and rock.

9. R.E.M.'s "Radio Free Europe" (I.R.S., 1983) -- First released independently in 1981, "Radio Free Europe" helped ignite the alternative/college music scene that produced much of the decade's freshest music, much of it patterned after the wonderfully appealing, almost dreamlike instrumental textures of this single.

10. Don Henley's "The End of the Innocence" (Geffen, 1989) -- Just as he co-wrote (with Glenn Frey) "The Long Run," the Eagles song that was a graceful farewell to the '70s, Henley co-wrote (with Bruce Hornsby) the song that serves as a benediction of sorts for the '80s.

Colleague Dennis Hunt picks Jackson's "Billie Jean" as the No. 1 single of the '80s, followed in order by Prince's "1999," Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing," Bobby Brown's "My Prerogative," Kim Carnes' "Bette Davis Eyes," Tone Loc's "Wild Thing," the Police's "Every Breath You Take," Manhattan Transfer's "Birdland," Billy Ocean's "Caribbean Queen" and Club Nouveau's "Lean on Me." His choice for single of 1989: Tone Loc's "Funky Cold Medina."

Photo, Melle Mel and Grandmaster Flash: deliverers of "The Message." LARRY ARMSTRONG / Los Angeles Times; Photo, Bono of U2: a humble, almost wary edge shaped by disillusions. ; Photo, L.A.'s own Guns N' Roses: the bad boys of '80s hard rock.

List

ROCK MUSIC; 1980S (DECADE)

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January 3, 1989, Tuesday, Home Edition

Metro; Part 2; Page 1; Column 4; Metro Desk

771 words

9 DIE ON AREA HIGHWAYS; 411 ARRESTED AS DRUNK DRIVERS

By SHERYL STOLBERG, Times Staff Writer

At least nine people were killed in Los Angeles County traffic accidents over the New Year's holiday weekend -- among them a 12-year-old girl who died Monday morning after the camper van in which she and seven of her relatives were riding was struck by a car and flipped over on the Long Beach Freeway.

Nearly the whole family was thrown onto the roadway when their vehicle turned over.

"The camper basically kind of disintegrated," said California Highway Patrol Officer Bob Weaver. "The sides ripped open and out they went."

In other accidents:

* A 10-month-old girl died in a Pomona crash, despite being strapped into an infant car seat.

* A 6-year-old boy was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver in Long Beach.

* A Lawndale man died when the car he was a passenger in slammed into a divider on the Harbor Freeway, flipped and burst into flames. Authorities said the driver was drunk.

* Three pedestrians died in traffic accidents.

Statewide Toll

The weekend fatalities were among 33 traffic-related deaths statewide between 6 p.m. Friday and 6 a.m. Monday, according to statistics compiled by the CHP.

Last year, 35 people died in traffic accidents in the same period, CHP Officer Monty Kiefer said.

In the fatal accident on the Long Beach Freeway the camper was traveling north near Rosecrans Avenue at about 11:35 a.m. when a car drifted out of its lane and struck the camper, sending it out of control, CHP Officer Bob Weaver said.

The camper struck the freeway divider, spun around and flipped, throwing the 12-year-old girl and five other passengers onto the road.

The driver and front-seat passenger were not ejected, Weaver said.

The accident left another child, a 10-year-old girl, with "major injuries," and a 69-year-old woman and 6-year-old girl with "moderate injuries," Weaver said.

The seven passengers and driver of the camper, who Weaver said apparently were going on a family outing, were from Long Beach and Compton and all female, ranging in age from 4 to 69. The children's names were not released; the adults were identified as driver Martha Abuhijleh, 37, of Long Beach; Olivia Gonzalez, 69, of Compton, and Cleo Gonzalez, 41, also of Compton.

Neither the driver of the car nor his passenger was injured. The driver, identified as Jorge Higueros, 36, of Paramount, fled from the scene on foot and was being sought, Weaver said.

Also during the holiday weekend reporting period, Kiefer said, CHP officers in the Los Angeles area arrested 411 people on suspicion of drunk driving, down from 443 last year. Statewide, the CHP cited 1,725 drivers for drunk driving, three more than were cited during the 1987-88 holiday weekend.

In Los Angeles, one man arrested on suspicion of drunk driving also faces possible felony manslaughter charges in the Harbor Freeway accident in which his car crashed into the divider and caught fire, killing his passenger.

The accident occurred just south of 135th Street at about 10:45 p.m. Friday night.

Kiefer said the driver, Rene Rodriguez, 21, of Lawndale, entered the southbound lanes of the freeway at El Segundo Boulevard, accelerated to nearly 100 m.p.h. and then swerved into the center divider to avoid hitting another car.

Passenger Trapped

Passenger Raul Trevino, 28, also of Lawndale, was trapped when the car crashed, but Rodriguez escaped with minor injuries and was being held in the jail ward of County-USC Medical Center.

Kiefer said two pedestrians were killed Saturday -- a 30-year-old Temple City woman who was struck while walking in El Monte, and a man, about 18, who was struck and killed in North Hollywood. Also on Saturday, a man, about 35, was killed in an accident in Downey. Details of the accidents and identities of the victims were not available.

On Sunday, traffic accidents claimed three lives, including two children. So Den Taing, 6, was killed in Long Beach after a hit-and-run-driver struck him and a 5-year-old girl, dragging them both for nearly half a block. The girl, Anika Elk, was in critical condition at St. Mary Medical Center.

Ten-month-old Candice Smith died after her mother's car collided with a pickup truck at Arrow Highway and Garey Avenue in Pomona. Pomona police said one of the cars ran a red light, but it was unclear which driver was at fault.

Both drivers suffered minor injuries.

A 30-year-old man was pronounced dead at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center after he drove his car into a pole at the corner of Alameda and 103rd streets at about 1 a.m. Sunday.

Kiefer said authorities believe the man, who was not identified, was "asleep or drunk or both."

Photo, Parts of a wrecked camper are picked up on Long Beach Freeway after accident in which a 12-year-old girl died. Most of the vehicle's occupants where thrown out in the crash. THEODORA LITSIOS

TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS -- LOS ANGELES COUNTY; NEW YEARS EVE; HOLIDAYS; DRUNK DRIVING

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January 17, 1990, Wednesday, Valley P.M. Final

Part P; Page 1; Column 3; Late Final Desk

309 words

FREEWAY CLOSED AFTER ICE SENDS CARS COLLIDING

By MICHAEL CONNELLY, TIMES STAFF WRITER

The Antelope Valley Freeway was briefly closed this morning after snow and ice caused 16 accidents, including a 10-car pileup, in less than an hour, the California Highway Patrol reported.

There were no serious injuries in any of the accidents, but tangled cars littered a five-mile stretch of the freeway from Angeles Forest Highway north to Palmdale Boulevard, CHP Officer Miguel Siordia said.

"That's the area where the snow hit hardest," said Siordia, who noted that ice conditions were listed as a cause in every accident on the highway.

"We started getting snow at 5:15 a.m. People started crashing by 6," Siordia said. "They were driving too fast for the conditions."

By 6:30 a.m. the CHP had reports of 16 separate accidents, four of which resulted in injuries, Siordia said.

One of those accidents involved 10 cars that collided in a chain-reaction pileup in the southbound lanes near the Angeles Forest Highway, he said.

The CHP shut down all lanes of the four-lane freeway at 7 a.m.

"People were driving into the center divider to get around and were getting stuck. We had to close it down until the tow trucks could go in and get everybody out," Siordia said.

CHP officers began escorting lines of commuters along the freeway at 8 a.m., Siordia said. At 9 a.m., after the ice and snow in the area had melted, the freeway was completely reopened.

Siordia said the accidents and closure made a miserable and long commute for many residents heading south to Los Angeles. He explained that the accidents occurred during the high point of that commute.

"In the Antelope Valley, our rush hour is an hour earlier than in Los Angeles," he said. "It was bumper to bumper when these accidents started happening."

Siordia said the Antelope Valley Freeway is usually closed only once or twice a year because of weather conditions.

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January 18, 1990, Thursday, Valley Edition

Metro; Part B; Page 3; Column 5

365 words

SNOW CAUSES 16 CRASHES, CLOSING FREEWAY AT RUSH HOUR

By MICHAEL CONNELLY, TIMES STAFF WRITER

The Antelope Valley Freeway was briefly closed Wednesday because snow and ice caused 16 accidents, including a 10-car pileup, in less than an hour during the morning commuting period, the California Highway Patrol reported.

No serious injuries were reported, but tangled cars littered a five-mile stretch of the freeway, which was closed from Angeles Forest Highway north to Palmdale Boulevard, CHP Officer Miguel Siordia said.

"That's the area where the snow hit hardest," said Siordia, who noted that ice conditions were listed as a cause in all the accidents.

"We started getting snow at 5:15 a.m. People started crashing by 6," Siordia said. "They were driving too fast for the conditions."

By 6:30 a.m. the CHP had reports of 16 separate accidents, four of which included injuries ranging from minor to moderate, Siordia said.

Two women suffered moderate injuries when the car in which they were riding spun out on ice on a bridge near the Pearblossom Highway exit and struck a van, the CHP said.

They were transported to Palmdale General Hospital and were the only accident victims hospitalized, officials said.

Ten cars collided in a chain-reaction pileup in the southbound lanes near Angeles Forest Highway, Siordia said.

The CHP shut down the four-lane freeway at 7 a.m., Siordia said.

"The reason we had the closure was the number of accidents," Siordia said. "The accidents were blocking the lanes. People were driving into the center divider to get around and were getting stuck. We had to close it down until the tow trucks could go in and get everybody out."

CHP officers began escorting commuters along the freeway at 8 a.m., Siordia said.

At 9 a.m., after the ice and snow had melted, all lanes were reopened.

Siordia said the accidents and closure made a miserable and long commute for many residents heading south to Los Angeles during the high point of the morning rush hour.

"In the Antelope Valley, our rush hour is an hour earlier than in Los Angeles," he said. "It was bumper to bumper when these accidents started happening."

Siordia said the Antelope Valley Freeway is usually closed only once or twice a year because of weather conditions.

Photo, Rescuers help two women who were hurt in a 10-car collision on the Antelope Valley Freeway. GARY THORNHILL

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March 14, 1990, Wednesday, Home Edition

Metro; Part B; Page 1; Column 2; Metro Desk

1499 words

NIGHTMARE AHEAD;

COAST HIGHWAY IS PUSHED TO LIMIT IN L.A. COUNTY

By RONALD B. TAYLOR, TIMES STAFF WRITER

Pacific Coast Highway wends its way along the California shoreline for nearly a thousand scenic miles, offering motorists a leisurely, often spectacular drive. Then the highway crosses into Los Angeles County and the character of the route changes radically.

From the Ventura County line to Santa Monica, California 1 becomes a congested and dangerous stretch of road, its critics say.

Along this 28-mile stretch known as PCH, the highway snakes by Point Dume and Malibu Point, through urban areas with expensive homes and high-use beaches.

During rush hour, traffic often slows to a crawl and gridlock is only a stalled car, a fender-bender or a mudslide away.

Almost everyone ignores the 40 m.p.h. posted speed, police say. Cars zip along at 55 or faster on the undivided highway. And the number of crashes along most of PCH has climbed steadily, with a 15% increase over the last four years alone, reports show.

"It is a nightmare," said Dave Roper, a California Department of Transportation official who oversees highway operations in Southern California.

The highway now carries as many as 75,000 cars a day, nearly double the peak flows of the 1970s, reports show.

Congestion is heavy, but Roper said there is no room to build more lanes.

"Essentially the highway is in the worst possible location," he said. "On the one side is the beach, on the other a bluff of unstable land. . . . So all we can do is try to squeeze more (space) out of the existing right of way."

Residents of the area blame the state for not solving the congestion problems.

"Caltrans talks a lot, but nothing is being done," said Malibu Chamber of Commerce spokesman Richard Idler. "We've got a major commute problem in the mornings. There are bottlenecks all along the highway from Big Rock to Topanga Canyon . . . and that's complicated by the Z traffic."

"Z traffic" refers to San Fernando Valley commuters who drive a zigzag course from the Ventura Freeway over the mountains to PCH as a way to reach the Santa Monica Freeway heading downtown. This, the Z drivers say, avoids the congested Ventura Freeway. But coastal residents complain that Z drivers clog the canyon roads and PCH, causing 10-minute delays at some signal lights.

As congestion has increased, so has the number of accidents. Last year there were 762 accidents on the 26 miles of PCH patrolled by the California Highway Patrol, a 15% increase since 1985, according to CHP spokeswoman Donna Urquidi. During the same period, 11 people were killed in accidents, down from 13 in 1985, she said.

During rush hour, most accidents are fender-benders. But at other times, speed, unsafe U-turns and motorists driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol have contributed to head-on wrecks over the years, police say.

Most notorious is the two-mile stretch in the city of Santa Monica, where the Santa Monica Freeway feeds into the McClure Tunnel. Motorists traveling at freeway speeds flash through the tunnel and head north on PCH, then suddenly are confronted by the beach, the blue Pacific and six congested lanes of undivided traffic.

High bluffs are on the right; the beach, parking lots and expensive houses are on the left. For nearly two miles there are no cross streets, no place to turn around. And "No U-Turn" signs are everywhere.

Tourists bound for the Santa Monica Pier often find themselves heading the wrong way up the coast. Confused, they slow or pull into the double yellow-striped median lane, trying to turn back. Other drivers zoom around the slow-moving vehicles.

The speed limit is no longer strictly enforced, police said. "We've been told not to enforce the (40 m.p.h.) speed limit," said Santa Monica Police Capt. Bill King.

The courts throw many tickets out because the posted speeds are not realistic and virtually everyone is speeding, King said.

For years the accident rate had been rising along this two-mile stretch. By 1987, Santa Monica police were reporting roughly 100 accidents and three fatalities a year on PCH, double the 1983 accident rate. Then the statistics dropped last year to 58 wrecks and two fatalities within the city's jurisdiction on PCH. King credited a crackdown on drunk drivers with helping to reduce the number of accidents.

Although the annual number of accidents along the rest of PCH is rising, Caltrans engineers contend the rate of accidents per million miles driven is lower than average when compared to similar roads.

State crews have been trying for years to make traffic along PCH safer and smoother.

They made one change in 1983, after a jury awarded $2.1 million to the widow of stockbroker Donald Hillman, who died in a head-on wreck on PCH just north of the McClure Tunnel. In the 1977 accident, a collision in the northbound lanes knocked a car head-on into Hillman's southbound vehicle, police reported.

During the trial, experts testified that 16 similar head-on crashes had occurred in the same stretch of PCH in the year preceding the Hillman accident. The jury found Caltrans liable for 75% of the damages. The $2.1-million verdict was appealed, and the state settled out of court for $1 million, officials said.

Within days of the 1983 verdict, Caltrans announced it would build a 1,200-foot-long median barrier to separate the six PCH traffic lanes north of the McClure Tunnel. The barrier was designed to prevent cross-over accidents and unsafe U-turns. Owners of beachfront homes and the city of Santa Monica had requested such a barrier more than a year earlier.

State lawyers decline to talk about the PCH problems, because at least two lawsuits are pending against the state.

Caltrans lawyers acknowledged that in addition to the $1-million settlement, the state had paid out $350,000 in another, similar PCH case. They would not say how many other PCH liability suits had been brought against the state.

In recent years, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Irving Shimer has presided over three liability suits filed against the state after accidents on PCH.

"More people will be maimed and killed (on PCH)," Shimer said from the bench in Santa Monica in January.

He criticized Caltrans for trying to squeeze more traffic capacity out of the road by making lanes narrower while failing to make the highway safer.

Shimer made the comments during the trial of a suit by two teen-age girls who were critically injured in a head-on collision. The three-car accident occurred in 1984 just north of the barricade built after the Hillman verdict. A van struck a car attempting to make a U-turn and then struck the girls' car, experts testified.

Lawyers for the girls noted that there had been 22 accidents during the previous five years involving cars that were either making a left turn or a U-turn in this same area.

Carl McMahan, representing one of the girls, argued that the state, by earlier building the barricade, had acknowledged that the stretch of road was "unreasonably dangerous."

Had the structure been extended even farther, the girls' car would not have been hit, McMahan argued.

Although Shimer has not ruled in the case, he said construction of the barrier had only "pushed the problem farther north."

While declining to talk about specific accidents, Caltrans officials say they are trying to find solutions to problems along PCH.

A variety of proposals have been discussed: building a double-deck freeway over the existing route or constructing a viaduct over the water. But these ideas were dropped because they proved too costly and controversial.

The latest idea is a $37-million Caltrans proposal to create "reversible lanes" on the most congested five miles of PCH, north of the tunnel. In the morning, four lanes of traffic would flow south to the Santa Monica Freeway, with two lanes going north. Automatic pop-up cones and overhead signals would separate the traffic. In the afternoon, the flow would be reversed and four lanes would be northbound, engineers said.

Skeptics point out that even if this solution did ease congestion, it would not solve the basic problem: there is not enough room between the bluffs and the beach to make way for more cars.

"These little devices (barricades, narrower lanes or reversible lanes) are not going to solve the basic problem. . . . There are too many cars going too fast," Shimer said.

PCH TRAFFIC CRUNCH

From the Ventura County line to Santa Monica, Pacific Coast Highway is a congested and dangerous stretch of road.

High bluffs are on one side; the beach, parking lots and expensive houses are on the other, making widening of the highway impossible.

The most notorious segment of PCH is in Santa Monica, where the Santa Monica Freeway ends at McClure Tunnel. Motorists traveling west exit the tunnel onto the northbound three lanes of PCH, a congested stretch of undivided highway. There are no cross streets for two miles. "No U Turn" signs are everywhere. Turning around is nearly impossible. Southbound three lanes are also congested.

Map, PCH TRAFFIC CRUNCH; Photo, Southbound traffic snakes its way along PCH during the morning rush hour in Pacific Palisades. ELLEN JASKOL / Los Angeles Times

PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY; LOS ANGELES COUNTY -- TRANSPORTATION; TRAFFIC; TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT; COMMUTING; TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS -- LOS ANGELES COUNTY

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July 12, 1990, Thursday, Orange County Edition

Metro; Part B; Page 6; Column 1; Metro Desk

110 words

OVERTURNED TANKER CLOGS UP FREEWAY

IRVINE

Traffic was backed up for miles Wednesday night after a tank truck jackknifed on the Santa Ana Freeway just north of Lake Forest Drive, the California Highway Patrol said.

The California Highway Patrol said the truck slammed into the back of a car, injuring its two occupants. The truck driver was not hurt.

The accident forced closure of all but one lane on the northbound side of the freeway.

CHP officers who arrived at the scene at 7:17 p.m. called for firefighters because of fears that the tanker may have contained hazardous liquid. The northbound rig apparently was used to carry aviation fuel, but CHP officers said the tanks were empty.

TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS -- ORANGE COUNTY

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September 11, 1990, Tuesday, Orange County Edition

Metro; Part B; Page 2; Column 2; Metro Desk

61 words

ORANGE COUNTY FOCUS: COSTA MESA;

MOTORCYCLIST HURT IN FREEWAY CRASH

A 22-year-old motorcyclist was in critical condition Monday after crashing into the back end of a car on the San Diego Freeway, California Highway Patrol officials said.

Steve R. Koch of Cypress was flown by helicopter to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana after the 4:45 p.m. accident, which occurred on the northbound lanes near the Harbor Boulevard off-ramp.

Photo, A motorcyclist injured in a San Diego Freeway crash involving several cars is airlifted from the scene, above, as the California Highway Patrol and Costa Mesa police officers block off northbound rush-hour traffic, below. DON TORMEY / Los Angeles Times

Column; Brief

TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS -- ORANGE COUNTY; MOTORCYCLE ACCIDENTS -- ORANGE COUNTY

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October 1, 1989, Sunday, Orange County Edition

Metro; Part 2; Page 20; Column 2; Metro Desk

177 words

TRUCK CARRYING ORANGES OVERTURNS, BLOCKS ANAHEIM FREEWAY FOR 2 HOURS

A tractor-trailer truck rolled over Saturday on the Riverside Freeway in Anaheim, spilling a load of oranges and shutting down the highway for more than two hours.

No one was injured in the 3:45 p.m. accident just east of Imperial Highway, but thousands of motorists were stranded on the freeway until the mess was cleaned up shortly before 6 p.m.

Some drivers resorted to taking side streets to get around the crash, but the majority waited it out while crews cleared the freeway, authorities said.

A California Highway Patrol spokesman said the accident apparently occurred when a car blew a tire, swerved into the big rig, then ricocheted down an embankment.

Jose Luis Luivano, 24, of Escondido lost control of the truck, which swung across traffic and overturned onto its side, spilling the load of oranges across the pavement, the CHP spokesman said.

The driver of the car that triggered the accident fled the scene afterward, the spokesman said.

Authorities had been unable to identify the man, who was apparently unhurt, by late Saturday night.

TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS -- ORANGE COUNTY

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November 21, 1990, Wednesday, Valley Edition

Metro; Part B; Page 6; Column 1

336 words

RAINSTORM BRINGS FLURRY OF ACCIDENTS ON FREEWAYS

By JOCELYN Y. STEWART, TIMES STAFF WRITER

A powerful storm that brought the first significant rainfall of the season also contributed to a flurry of accidents on freeways in northern Los Angeles County, the California Highway Patrol reported.

There were no reports of fatalities in any of the incidents, but foul weather and speeding drivers kept officers busy late Monday and early Tuesday. "We had 12 to 15 fender-benders and about a dozen people" were taken to hospitals, said Sgt. Robert Callahan of the CHP's Newhall office.

At least four major accidents occurred on the southbound Golden State Freeway.

About 1 a.m. Tuesday, a trailer came loose from a semitrailer truck north of the Foothill Freeway and an auto slid beneath the trailer, seriously injuring the car's driver, Uehara Minoru, 46, of Los Angeles. He was taken to Holy Cross Medical Center, where he was in serious condition, hospital spokeswoman Reenie Collins said.

About 11 p.m. Monday, a motorist speeding south on the Golden State Freeway near McBean Parkway lost control and struck the center divider and a second vehicle, the CHP said, blocking two southbound lanes of the freeway for two hours.

The driver of the first car was identified as Tristan Emil Gunnett, 20, of Redwood City. The driver of the second car was identified as Anh Quang Hoang, 43, of San Francisco. Gunnett, Hoang and Hoang's passenger were treated and released from Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital.

Shortly after 1 a.m. Tuesday, a small speeding car "spun out of control and hit a dual-wheel pickup truck carrying persimmons," spilling the fruit onto the highway south of Calgrove Boulevard, Callahan said. There were no injuries.

Shortly before 10 p.m. Monday, four semitrailer trucks were involved in two accidents in the truck lanes of the Golden State Freeway near the Antelope Valley Freeway, closing the lanes for more than two hours.

Two trucks collided and when a third stopped to avoid the wreckage, it was hit by a fourth truck. There were no serious injuries, the CHP said.

Photo, Firefighters check the sleeper of a truck involved in a collision on the Golden State Freeway late Monday. GARY THORNHILL / For The Times

315.LA120590-0129.retnorel.html0100644000076500001440000000717010117747345014457 0ustar TREC2003users LA120590-0129 317994

December 5, 1990, Wednesday, Orange County Edition

Metro; Part B; Page 4; Column 1; Metro Desk

512 words

COMMUTE A BIT SLOW? BLAME FOUR SIGALERTS

By JAMES M. GOMEZ, TIMES STAFF WRITER

If the morning commute took a bit longer than usual Tuesday, there was good reason: four SigAlerts that tied up traffic the length and breadth of Orange County.

"It's very unusual that we have this many SigAlerts in one day," Highway Patrol Officer Linda Burrus said. "It pretty much screwed up all the freeways."

The SigAlerts, issued during unusually disruptive traffic accidents, began at 6:15 a.m. on the Riverside Freeway and continued on other freeways for much of the day, Burrus said. Luckily, she added, the rash of traffic accidents resulted in only three minor injuries.

The most troublesome accident occurred on the southbound San Diego Freeway at the El Toro Y when the load on a tractor-trailer shifted and about 150 bags of redwood compost fell onto the freeway, clogging all but a portion of the slow lane, Burrus said.

The spilled load caused the driver of a 1984 Datsun to swerve to the right, hit an asphalt curb and tumble off the freeway. The driver of the Datsun suffered only minor injuries, but the accident backed traffic up for miles.

"That's the worst place to have an accident," Burrus said. "There is just no place to get off the freeway." The SigAlert was canceled at 8:52 a.m., and the driver of the tractor-trailer was cited for spilling the load.

Just before 6 a.m., a fuel tank on a truck going east onto the Riverside Freeway from the northbound Santa Ana Freeway ruptured, spilling about 175 gallons of diesel onto the road, Burrus said.

The driver was able to pull the rig to the side of the road as it reached the Gilbert Street overpass. But 20 minutes later, as traffic began backing up, a car skidded on the slick road surface, causing a chain reaction that involved six cars, Burrus said.

Traffic was tied up on the Riverside and Santa Ana freeways. There was only one minor injury involved in that SigAlert, which was also canceled at 8:52 a.m.

Then at 10:40 a.m., a woman allegedly making an unsafe lane change on the transition road from the southbound Orange Freeway to the eastbound Garden Grove Freeway rear-ended the motorcycle of a CHP officer, prompting the third SigAlert of the day.

Burrus said the officer was pulling into the lane after making a traffic stop. At the same time, the woman driver, reportedly going about 70 m.p.h., was maneuvering around another car and failed to notice the officer, hitting the rear of his motorcycle and throwing him off, Burrus said. He was taken to Tustin Health Center for treatment of scrapes and bruises.

That accident brought traffic to a crawl on both freeways for more than an hour.

The fourth SigAlert occurred at 12:10 p.m. on the westbound Riverside Freeway just east of Harbor Boulevard, Burrus said.

In that accident, a Volvo in the slow lane made an unsafe lane change to the left and struck a Mercedes driving alongside it.

The Mercedes went out of control and crossed three lanes of traffic before slamming into the rear of a big rig. The impact punctured the truck's fuel tank, spilling more than a hundred gallons of diesel, Burrus said.

TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS -- ORANGE COUNTY

318.FBIS4-574.retnorel.html0100644000076500001440000000536310117747346014243 0ustar TREC2003users FBIS4-574 "drafr071_e_94014"
FBIS-AFR-94-071 Daily Report 12 Apr 1994
EAST AFRICA Sierra Leone

Government Retires Army Chief, 13 Other Officers

Government Retires Army Chief, 13 Other Officers AB1204184094 London BBC World Service in English 1705 GMT 12 Apr 94 AB1204184094 London BBC World Service English BFN [From the "Focus on Africa" program] [Text] There has been a major shake up in the top ranks of the Sierra Leonean Army. Among the 14 senior officers who have been sacked is the head of the Army, and it comes at a time when the military is finding itself stretched in its drive against the RUF [Revolutionary United Front] rebels. This month, the RUF has staged attacks in northern Sierra Leone for the first time in their three-year-old rebellion. From Freetown, Victor Sylver telexed this report. The Defense Department in Freetown has sent the head of the Army, Major General Jusu Gottoh, and 13 top military officers on compulsory retirement. A spokesman from the Defense Department said the decision had been taken in the best interest of the Army and the country. He did not elaborate further. Apart from Gen. Gottoh, Brigadier (Modibo Lyman), and Brigadier Joy Toure, a former brigade commander and current head of the Army's training center, have also been retired. Four colonels and five lieutenant colonels, including the commanding officer of the 2d Battalion based in Makeni, as well as a major and a captain are also on the list. Although the official reason given for the move is that it is in the best interests of the Army and state, speculation is rife that the NPRC [National Provisional Ruling Council] Government is impatient with the pace of the war and with the apparent success of the rebels. Ordinary Sierra Leoneans are sometimes taken by surprise to note an escalation in rebel activities just when they were beginning to be optimistic that the war would soon come to an end. It would seem that recent action taken by the rebels to hold a section of the Bo-Kenema Highway, and moves to do the same on the Masingbe Matotaka-Kono Highway has finally sapped the government's patience. The first promise made by the men of the 29 April Revolution when they came to power two years ago was to bring the rebel war to a speedy conclusion. The man now charged with this responsibility is Colonel (Kelly Conte), who is the new head of the Army. Sierra Leoneans are eagerly watching to see if he can perform the long-awaited miracle. 318.FT921-12799.retnorel.html0100644000076500001440000001354010117747347014352 0ustar TREC2003users FT921-12799 _AN-CAXBAAD9FT 920124 FT 24 JAN 92 / Survey of FT Quarterly Review of Personal Finance (33): Premiums fall but vary widely - Travel insurance / One insured holidaymaker in every 15 eventually makes a claim on policies offered by 100 companies competing in a profitable market By RICHARD LAPPER THINGS CAN go wrong when you take a holiday abroad, and the expense, especially if you are unfortunate enough to need hospital treatment, may be considerable. One insured holidaymaker in 15 eventually makes a claim to recoup the cost of cancellation, lost luggage or medical treatment. Travel insurance is a classic example of what insurers call a 'commodity product'. According to Peter Friend, of Leslie & Godwin, the insurance broker, most policies are similar in character, offering cover for a standard range of risks: Cancellation or curtailment of a holiday; Loss of luggage (usually covered for between Pounds 1,000 and Pounds 1,500) and money (Pounds 250 to Pounds 800). Medical costs: (typically, cover of up to Pounds 250,000 in Europe, and Pounds 1m in the US where treatment can be very expensive, though some policies offer higher limits). Other clauses provide compensation in the event of an accident, and also cover any legal expenses that might be incurred. Terms are often comparable. Excesses (the amount that the policyholder must bear of any claim) of Pounds 25 apply in most cases. However, conditions can differ sharply, according to the type of holiday. The cover for losses arising from the cancellation or curtailment of a holiday varies from about Pounds 1,000 to Pounds 5,000, for example. But although premiums have fallen in the past few years, as more insurers have competed for what has traditionally been reasonably profitable business, rates for exactly the same policy can vary markedly among the 100 or so companies in the market. According to Which?, the magazine of the Consumers' Association, which published an extensive review of the market last February, cover for a family holiday in the US can cost as much as Pounds 158 or as little as Pounds 94.20. A survey conducted by Leslie & Godwin also shows wide variations. Lunn Poly, the tour operator, charges holidaymakers Pounds 20.90 for seven-days' cover for a European holiday; while Masseys, the broker, which markets a policy underwritten at Lloyd's of London, charges only Pounds 13.50. Most companies rate premiums in three geographical bands: travel outside Europe is the most expensive, Europe is cheaper, and the UK cheaper still. Premiums vary according to the number of days' cover, and are also affected by the amount of commission earned by the retailers - banks, travel agents and tour operators. Tour operators sometimes charge higher commissions; in some cases they also provide special packages. Wallace Arnold provides special rates for family groups, while Lunn Poly offers discounts for pensioners. People who take holidays where the risk of injury is higher, such as skiers, must usually pay higher rates. Winter-sports packages also provide snow guarantees, which compensate skiers if there is insufficient snow on the ground, and also cover losses arising from rock damage to equipment. Holidaymakers should be aware of exclusion clauses, paragraphs in fine print which spell out circumstances under which cover is not valid. Off-piste skiing is sometimes not covered. More generally, holiday insurance policies rarely provide cover if you are travelling against medical advice, or for anything that happens while you are under the influence of drink or drugs. And policyholders should be aware that cover for loss of property, such as jewellery, cameras and expensive watches, can be limited. In some cases, it may be advisable to extend your home-contents policy. Travel by car can mean extra requirements that are not met by standard travel cover - such as the cost of repairing your car, or of hiring a replacement. So you may need to extend your motor insurance, too. Companies can supply you with a Green Card, which is internationally recognised proof that you are covered. Which? warns: 'You can drive without a Green Card in EC countries, but cover is then limited to the legal minimum for that country.' The magazine lists more than two dozen companies that provide good coverage relatively cheaply for holidays in the UK, Europe, the US and worldwide. Its list of 'best buys' covers four categories of holiday: those where no special requirements are involved, 'family holidays', trips taken by the 'retired or elderly', and those where 'higher levels of cover' than those provided on standard forms are required. In turn, rates for each type of holiday are cited for four destinations: the UK, Europe, US and worldwide. Specialist brokers Crispin Spears and Lloyds Bank, which sells a policy underwritten by Commercial Union, get most mentions. Crispin Spears is particularly competitive in the UK, while Lloyds provides best value for most holidays outside Europe. Brokers Frizzell and MKC also figure prominently. Crispin Spears' popular Annual Protection Plan is particularly suitable for business travellers who make frequent trips to Europe or farther afield. It covers any number of trips each year. Guy Ireland, of Crispin, says the cost varies, from Pounds 80 a year for Europe, Pounds 100 for the US and Pounds 120 for a full international cover. The policy is particularly appropriate for people who have second homes in France or elsewhere in Europe, he says. Finally, holidaymakers may find they have some level of automatic cover when tickets are bought with a credit card. Most ordinary cards simply provide basic personal accident cover, but some gold cards provide extensive cover. The Financial Times London Page XXXI Photograph Those who live dangerously pay more (Omitted). 318.FT923-9560.retnorel.html0100644000076500001440000001475610117747350014270 0ustar TREC2003users FT923-9560 _AN-CHGA7ABIFT 920804 FT 04 AUG 92 / Ageing process may benefit less well-off: Norma Cohen reports on the implications of the proposed equalisation of the retirement age By NORMA COHEN THE government's pensions advisers have made it an offer that politically it will be hard pressed to refuse. In short, benefits improvements for the most vulnerable elderly people - most of whom are women - can be paid for by requiring the most well-off women to work five years longer before they are entitled to any benefits at all. Indeed, the Department of Social Security is likely to be secretly gloating over the advice yesterday from its own Social Security Advisory Committee that the state pension ages be equalised at 65 - an option that will save it about Pounds 3bn a year. The catch is that DSS advisers do not want the saved revenues to be returned to the Treasury. Instead, they should be devoted to a cause long recognised as deserving of additional funds. 'Our recommendation for an equal pension age of 65 is part of an indivisible whole on the basis that the cost savings will be recycled,' said Sir Peter Barclay, committee chairman. The move appears to offer the government a politically palatable method of raising women's retirement ages to 65 - something it has hinted it wanted to do all along. 'It is clear that if you are going to reduce social security entitlements, you have to say the savings will be used to help the poor,' said Mr Andrew Dilnot, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, a social policy think tank. Mr Dilnot said that in spite of the government's disavowal of means testing for benefits, it had already begun to move down the road to diverting social security benefits to those who need them most. Meanwhile, the committee acknowledged that if the government follows the advice to raise women's retirement age, there is no guarantee that a future government would choose to spend the cost savings on enhancing benefits for the poorest elderly. But Sir Peter said that pressure to do anything other than that would be so great that a government would have little choice. Among the ways the committee has proposed spending the saved revenues are: Enhancements to the State Earnings Related Pension Scheme to assist the low-paid and those with broken employment records, who are primarily women. A new premium with income support for those unemployed for more than two years and aged 55 or over and those 55 and over who are long-term sick or disabled. Enhanced 'home responsibility protection' and an extension of the invalid care allowance to those aged 65. The committee has also urged that the government extend the date at which equalisation would be phased in to a 15-year period rather than the 10 years suggested in the DSS's initial discussion document. That means that no one currently 52 or over would be affected by the proposals and no one 42 or over would feel the effects of the full five-year rise in women's pension ages. While the recommendations contain a certain logic, it must be remembered that the move to equalise state pension ages had nothing to do with improving benefits. In Britain, women are eligible to receive full basic state pension at age 60 while men must wait until 65. But a recent European Court ruling on occupational pensions determined that men and women must not receive disparate pension benefits and the European Community is drafting a directive for member states requiring equalisation all around. Last December the DSS released a discussion document on proposals to remove sex-related differences in state retirement benefit. The options were lowering men's retirement ages to 60 - at an estimated cost to the Treasury of Pounds 3.5bn a year - raising women's ages to 65 or equalising at the actuarily neutral age of 63 in a move with no cost implications. It also included the option most favoured by the pensions industry and providers of occupational pensions: the introduction of a so-called flexible decade of retirement between 60 and 70 that would give lower benefits to those who retired before 65 and higher benefits to those who retired later. In explaining why the other options were ruled out, Sir Peter made clear that the committee's main goal was finding ways to use equalisation to channel scarce benefits to groups that need them most and to ensure that the best-off receive no additional benefits. Already, some 75 per cent of male retirees will be eligible for some form of occupational pension and are therefore better off in old age than women. Because many women have interrupted or part-time service that is ineligible for the receipt of pension, they are the most needy group of elderly. In explaining why retirement at the neutral age of 63 was rejected, Sir Peter said the option did not produce any cost savings that could be used to help the worst off. The pensions industry is sure to be disappointed by the committee's rejection of flexibility in retirement ages. This is increasingly a feature of occupational schemes - the basis of the best retirement packages available in Britain. Sir Peter said that not only would flexibility not save money, but it would penalise those who genuinely needed most to retire at 60 for reasons of ill health. ---------------------------------------------------------------- STATE PENSION AGE: How the EC compares ---------------------------------------------------------------- Country Men Women ---------------------------------------------------------------- Belgium Flexible 60-65 Denmark 67 67 France 60 60 Germany 63 63 Greece 65 60 Irish Republic 66 66 Italy 60 55 Luxembourg 65 65 Netherlands 65 65 Portugal 65 62 Spain 65 65 UK 65 60 ---------------------------------------------------------------- Germany plans a standard pension age for men and women of 65 to be phased in by 2012. Italy also plans a standard pension age of 65 by 2016 ---------------------------------------------------------------- Source: Options for Equality in State Pension Age, DSS (1991) ---------------------------------------------------------------- The Financial Times London Page 6 318.FT924-1073.retnorel.html0100644000076500001440000001541410117747347014256 0ustar TREC2003users FT924-1073 _AN-CLTALAELFT 921219 FT 19 DEC 92 / Nine phases of Arthur: Robin Lane Fox salutes gardening writer Arthur Hellyer, who turned 90 this week By ROBIN LANE FOX WE ALL know about guardian angels, and even I would like to believe in them. Gardening angels may be less familiar but, as I have just been in touch with them, for this week you can believe in them, too. They do promise that they are trying to do their best. They really will stop the rain when most of the water companies stop losing quite so much of it between the reservoir and the customer. They know that we would all like to keep our Christmas azaleas alive for more than a month, but they do feel a conflicting loyalty to the house-plant trade and the growers must come first. Just at the moment, they are feeling rather pleased with themselves. Many years ago, they had a master plan; this week, they are seeing it enter phase nine. He might not realise it but the master plan concerns my colleague, Arthur Hellyer, who reached his 90th birthday this week. When he began to write, old age was still old age, but nowadays we are being asked to call it chronological experience in order to be correct. So, we must all congratulate him on his chronological experience while reminding him that the saleroom correspondent of Country Life magazine, to which Arthur also contributes with distinction, was still writing to the highest levels after seven years' further experience in his 90s. Meanwhile, if you ever wonder about retirement or the passing years, he is the definitive evidence that the best answer is to get out into the garden and never retire at all. If so, you ought to start as soon as possible. Here, the gardening angels must take up the story, beginning with what they see as their successful phase one. In 1916, the lad Hellyer was ordered by his father to go to work on the lawn, dig it up and grow vegetables because the Germans were threatening the British imports with submarines (nowadays, they threaten them with a strong currency). Arthur passed his patriotic test and was ready for phase two: three years of post-war farming in Jersey, which must have been good for the back muscles. Phase three, until 1929, took in eight years at a general nursery in the south-east. All the while, the angels knew why it was needed. The pen, we all know, is mightier than the sword: usually, it is less of a match for the spade. Perhaps the previous schooling at Dulwich played its part, perhaps it was angelic direction, but Arthur now moved from the potting shed to the printer and became an associate editor for Commercial Horticulture, one of those titles which did not wait around for a Maxwell to buy it. So phase four rapidly became phase five, the backbone of the angels' plan: the young Hellyer moved to something even more solid, Amateur Gardening, where he was to work for the next 38 years. From 1929 onwards, the British home-owner had a fully-trained expert, willing to be photographed in sensible jerseys, sometimes with a reassuring pipe in hand or mouth. Who better to tell them what they perhaps wanted to know: how to lay a land drain, dig a bastard trench, or make their own cabbage crop fertiliser and apply it to a rod of ground. In 1937, it was time for phase six: commercial authorship under the Hellyer name, beginning with Your New Garden. The angels admit the timing was rather optimistic; but they never could stop men fighting and, during the sequel, they could win only one small concession: the publication in 1941 of the Amateur Gardening Pocket Guide. This Hellyer classic would have fitted in a kitbag or suited any soldier-gardener who found himself wondering how to cope with carrot fly while sitting near the front. It proved the merits of angelic foresight by going into endless editions until 1971, rivalled only by The Amateur Gardener, the deserving favourite of Arthur's many books. When the war ended, there was a significant conjunction in the charts. I was born on an October day when The Times was offering chrysanthemums at one shilling and threepence for 10 and, as a sort of angelic, pre-emptive strike, Arthur moved up to phase seven: the full editorship of Amateur Gardening which he held, famously, for 21 years. In 1959, the angels felt that the working gardener now had enough friendly pictures of Arthur sowing seeds from his much-photographed hands, or looking reassuring among the brasiccas with that trim moustache and ever-cheerful eye. The next target lay in the idler reaches of the social pyramid, and so phase eight began: the weekly column for the FT. It started modestly with a piece on the definitive art of weed control but, like weeds, it is still with us after 33 remarkable years, almost without interruption. You all know and admire the clarity, generosity, grasp of plain science and the range of plantsmanship and gardens visited all over the world and written up to encourage us. Perhaps you are wondering why the angels needed so many phases for their purpose. They do believe in free will and, once Arthur was started, they could guide but not coerce him. But they had also foreseen two dangers. One was the appearance in 1970 of a second FT columnist who did not know the true properties of bone meal, hated heathers, and was prone to run riot on the topic of the National Rose Society's gardens. They had to have their own man in place to keep me firmly in hand. Their other reason, I can now reveal, was that they had foreseen the rise of the conservation movement in the 1980s. Everyone would enthuse about the merits of 'lost' garden plants and try to conserve them. However could we keep a grasp on reality unless Arthur Hellyer had been conserved long-term for the purpose? I recall, with relish, the gentle deflation in his FT review of a book by the director of Wisley called Vanishing Garden. The good director lamented as lost treasures plants which Arthur had known intimately during his phase three in the 1920s. With the unique authority of the one surviving expert who had grown and assessed them himself, Arthur reminded the conservation authors that, so far from being a tragically lost heritage, these plants were weak, sulky nuisances. Now it is to be phase nine. Will it be a new line in fruit management, a critical review of gardening by urban councils, or the continuing defence of the balance of knowledge and unpredictability in a garden-lover's life? Perhaps all three; but before you could do more than wish the FT's senior correspondent the best of it all, the gardening angels vanished to the strains of their signature tune, In the Mild Mid-Winter, and I was left wondering if even Arthur has ever seen a better year for winter-flowering cherries. The Financial Times London Page XII 318.FT933-2400.retnorel.html0100644000076500001440000000701110117747347014243 0ustar TREC2003users FT933-2400 _AN-DISAKAD6FT 930918 FT 18 SEP 93 / FT Guide For The Serious Investor (6): Swiss mystique fades By IAN RODGER NO DOUBT a Swiss bank account still has a cachet all of its own. But as with many hoary traditional things, the reality no longer coincides with the myth. There has ceased to be any point in having a Swiss numbered account operated anonymously for you by a lawyer, for example. Swiss law requires that a bank know the identity of the beneficial owner of all its accounts. It also requires that the bank disclose the identity in the event of criminal inquiries, and it authorises bank directors to inform the authorities if they are suspicious that the account is being used for something illegal. (The Swiss are now discussing making this latter practice obligatory.) Some Swiss banks now play down the importance of secrecy in marketing their services to high net worth individuals. And that leads to a second misapprehension among potential clients. Time was that Swiss banks actually charged foreigners a fee on deposits - in other words, a negative interest rate. No longer. They are now as eager to attract deposits as any other bank, and pay reasonable interest rates, too. So why bother having a Swiss bank account? In general, there is not much of a case for it. If you have frequent business in Switzerland or in Swiss francs, then a Swiss franc account will undoubtedly be useful. But these days, most international banks will offer accounts in all major currencies, so there is no obvious need to go to a Swiss bank. And even if you spend a lot of time in Switzerland, it may not be wise to put your money in a Swiss franc account. The Swiss franc also has a slightly outdated reputation for being firm and stable. Although it is going through a good patch at the moment, its performance in the past decade has been among the least impressive of major currencies. If you are thinking of stuffing some money away for retirement, then certainly the big Swiss banks are among the strongest in the world. Indeed, among the world's top 15 banks, Union Bank of Switzerland has by far the best tier one capital ratio (7 per cent). However, even though they pay reasonable interest rates, the banks are obliged to extract a 35 per cent withholding tax from earned interest. Switzerland has double taxation treaties with most countries so you can get it back, but it is a nuisance. A secondary, but nevertheless important, consideration is that the Swiss are still extremely careful and competent bankers. One does not need to worry about funds being misplaced or transfers going astray when dealing with them. Finally, even though bank secrecy has eroded considerably, the Swiss still cling tenaciously to a few elements of it. They will not co-operate at all with foreign governments' tax investigations, and they will not help an ex-spouse trying to get his or her share of a family fortune. For most people, however, these considerations do not apply. Thus, to get the best of Swiss banking without the possible disadvantages, it might be best to take out an account with a reputable Swiss bank in your home currency and in your home country. Countries:- CHZ Switzerland, West Europe. Industries:- P6081 Foreign Banking and Branches and Agencies. P6282 Investment Advice. Types:- CMMT Comment & Analysis. The Financial Times London Page VIII 318.FT943-12064.retnorel.html0100644000076500001440000003164410117747345014342 0ustar TREC2003users FT943-12064 _AN-EG1ANAC6FT 940727 FT 27 JUL 94 / Grey on top, thinning below: Reform of the French pensions system could have far-reaching effects on industry and the economy By JOHN RIDDING Mr Philippe Bechet says he could always do with a bit more money, but he does not grumble about his pension. Like most of France's senior citizens, who are entitled to a full pension after 37 1/2 years of contributions, the former sales manager receives more than half of his previous salary from the state pensions system. His children, however, and the rest of their generation cannot regard retirement with such calm. Demographic trends, which will increase the proportion of over-60s in the population from about 20 per cent today to about 27 per cent in 2020 and a third in 2050, are putting state pensions under unbearable strain. Last year, the 'pay as you go' system, in which pensions are paid from contributions from the current workforce, incurred a deficit of some FFr40bn (Pounds 4.8bn). The realisation of a gathering crisis is pushing France towards a far-reaching reform of its pensions system, with implications which extend far beyond the purses of the over-60s. The changes under consideration could establish powerful private pension funds, provide a significant stimulus to the Paris stock market and, in the long run, reshape the structure of French capitalism. Some important steps are already under way. By early next month, a law is due to take effect which will provide tax incentives for artisans and independent workers who invest in private pension schemes. The law, called the Madelin Law after its architect, Mr Alain Madelin, minister for enterprises and economic development, will affect an estimated 1.7m workers. One of its aims is to encourage the expansion of private pension schemes so as to provide a complementary retirement income to the state system. Mrs Simone Veil, minister for social affairs, has also moved to ease the burden on the state pensions system. Last year she reformed existing legislation to extend from 37 1/2 years to 40 years the period which people need to work to qualify for a full pension. She also announced that the full pension would be calculated, from this year, on the basis of a person's 25 best-paid years, rather than an average of the 10 best-paid years, which will result in lower benefits. These changes, combined with the allocation of revenues from increased taxes on tobacco and higher social security contributions, will reduce the pensions pay-as-you-go deficit this year. But they are not enough to remedy France's underlying structural pensions problems. As a result, the government has faced increased pressure for the creation of a broader system of capitalised private pensions, as exist in most industrialised economies, in which employees invest in pension funds to finance their retirement. The creation of such pension funds is 'urgent and indispensable', says Mr Ernest-Antoine Seilliere, vice-president of the Patronat, the French employers' association. 'Reforms should be adopted as quickly as possible,' he says. In principle, the government agrees. In January, Mr Edmond Alphandery, the economy minister, said he 'greatly hoped' to introduce a bill on pension reform to the National Assembly during the spring. Since then, however, the timetable has slipped. Mr Alphandery is now aiming to introduce a bill during the autumn parliamentary session. The delay is the result of two factors. Reform of the state pensions system is politically sensitive and has provoked opposition from some trade union groups, which participate in the management of the present system. They perceive pension reform as an attack on their influence and claim that it will act against the interests of the lowest-paid, since it is the wealthy who will be more able to contribute to private pensions systems. 'Private pensions are theft,' says Mr Marc Blondel, general secretary of Force Ouvriere, the union organisation. At the same time, the government is anxious not to nip France's emerging economic recovery in the bud. 'A reform of the pensions system would encourage more long-term savings and could dampen consumption,' says Mr Jean-Francois Mercier, economist at Salomon Brothers, the securities house. Employees would effectively be paying into an additional, private pension scheme, on top of the existing two-tier state system and pay-as-you-go system. Despite official foot-dragging, however, most observers believe the creation of capitalised private pensions is now a question of when, rather than if. 'I am convinced that within one year or 18 months we will have private pension funds,' says Mr Jacques Friedmann, chairman of Union des Assurances de Paris (UAP), France's largest insurance group, and a confidante of Mr Edouard Balladur, the prime minister. He describes the Madelin Law as a significant step to this end. Mr Friedmann is not alone. Politicians, business groups and industry associations, aware that reform is on the way, have been busily preparing their own plans for pensions systems in an attempt to sway the bureaucrats at the economics ministry who are working on Mr Alphandery's proposals. Among the most influential suggestions are those from Mr Jacques Barrot, chairman of the National Assembly's finance committee, and from the Patronat. Mr Barrot calls for the creation of capitalised pension funds, which would complement rather than compete against the existing state system, and which would provide tax incentives for companies and employees to invest in pension funds. These funds would be set up by individual companies themselves, banks, insurance groups and other financial institutions. Mr Barrot recommends that at least half of pensions contributions should be invested in equities, and that a proportion of employee contributions should be invested in employees' own companies. The funds would, however, be managed outside the company. This, he believes, would create a balance between the UK pensions system, in which pension funds are managed independently of companies, and the German system, where pension contributions are incorporated in company balance sheets. As in Germany, this might require an insurance scheme to protect pensioners against corporate bankruptcies. The Patronat, by contrast, argues that companies themselves should decide whether pension funds should be managed internally or externally, and that they should be allowed to manage all of the funds themselves and add them to their balance sheets. The employers' organisation also wants employees to have the choice of taking their pensions in a lump sum or through annuities. Mr Barrot is opposed to payment in a lump sum. The debate, which has also drawn proposals from the Association of French Banks and the French Association of Private Enterprises, centres on these questions of internal versus external management, rules governing the division of investment between stocks and bonds, and the form of payment. For some involved in the debate, Britain's experience of the Maxwell scandal, in which Mr Robert Maxwell, the late publisher, plundered the company's pension scheme, has raised concerns about internal management of pension funds. While French companies favour the use of pension funds to bolster their balance sheets, others question the extent to which companies should reinvest the pension contributions from employers. 'Employees already have their jobs tied up with the company. It may not be desirable for them to have their pensions tied up there too,' says Mr Jan Twardowski, president of Frank Russell Securities of the US. The method of payment of pensions has also drawn a sharp divide between France's banks, which favour the availability of a lump sum pay-out, and insurance companies, which support annuities. 'Everyone is pushing the system which favours their own expertise,' says Mr Alain Leclair, deputy president of asset management at Banque Paribas, the French investment bank. He sees it as an unnecessary battle, which has hindered the process of reform. The battle, however, highlights the importance of the stakes involved. 'It will be a huge market in the future for us,' says Mr Friedmann of UAP. 'Just for the Madelin Law there will be perhaps FFr10bn to FFr15bn in premiums; for a broader private pensions system the market will be hundreds of billions of francs.' The competition to manage these funds will be tough, with insurance companies, mutual savings groups and banks all vying for a slice of the new business. 'The creation of a capitalised system of pension funds will not happen overnight,' says one insurance industry executive. 'But most of the potential competitors are already developing products to cash in on the market.' One of the most important effects will be the creation of powerful institutional investors, a con-sideration which looms large in the government's thinking. 'The government sees the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone,' says Mr Leclair at Paribas. In addition to easing pressure on the state pensions system, the creation of pension funds will strengthen the country's financial markets, he says. For the French government, this is an important incentive. The Paris bourse has grown steadily in recent years - but, with a capitalisation of FFr2,600bn at the end of June, it remains smaller than some international rivals such as London, which had a market capitalisation of Pounds 757bn for domestic equities at the same date. The creation of powerful institutional investors, such as pension funds, would help the government develop the role of Paris as a financial centre. 'If you take a long-term view, then the best returns on investment are in equities,' says one economist at a French merchant bank, pointing to statistics which show an average rate of return for an investment in French equities of more than double the return for an investment in bonds over the past 10 years. 'So the creation of pension funds should shift funds to the bourse and give it a strong institutional base.' One important advantage of this would be to support the French government's ambitious privatisation programme. Launched in autumn last year, with the sale of Banque Nationale de Paris, the programme includes the sale of 21 public sector groups, expected to raise more than FFr250bn. As Mr Alphandery puts it: 'As long as important privatisations are in the pipeline, our country must have funds which have the large part of their holdings in shares.' But the implications for the corporate sector spread far beyond public sector companies slated for sale. Pension funds could also help remedy what Mr Elie Cohen, a professor at Paris university, refers to as 'capitalism without capital'. Because of the lack of big institutional investors and the stable long-term shareholders they represent, French industry has been forced to seek alternatives. One such has been a relatively high reliance on bank loans and direct equity investment by banks. Another has been the creation of complex systems of cross-shareholdings, in which companies form so-called noyaux durs - groups of core long-term shareholders. The recent privatisations illustrate the trend. For example, Elf Aquitaine, the oil group, and Banque Nationale de Paris, one of France's largest banks, took stakes in each other as they left the public sector. Both recourses, however, have their drawbacks. The experience of Credit Lyonnais has also shown the limitations of the bank-industry relationship. The state-owned bank, which lost FFr6.9bn in 1993, has outlined a plan to dispose of FFr20bn of assets over the next two years as part of its restructuring efforts. Many of the assets to be sold are equity stakes in French companies, heralding a reversal of the industrial banking strategy of Mr Jean-Yves Haberer, the former chairman. The pattern of cross-shareholdings is also open to criticism. 'The system can reduce the rigour of shareholder discipline,' says one industry observer in Paris. 'There is a risk of cosy corporate relationships based on self-protection rather than the maximising of returns. There is also the question of whether it is the best use of corporate funds to have them tied up in shares in another industrial group, rather than investing them in the company's own core businesses.' Such considerations are far from the thoughts of the retired sales manager, Mr Bechet. But the changes unleashed by the need to provide for his offspring could also resolve a long-standing weakness in the financing of French industry and transform the nature of the economy from which they retire. Countries:- FRZ France, EC. Industries:- P9311 Finance, Taxation, and Monetary Policy. P9441 Administration of Social and Manpower Programs. P9651 Regulation of Miscellaneous Commercial Sectors. P6371 Pension, Health, and Welfare Funds. Types:- CMMT Comment & Analysis. ECON Economic Indicators. The Financial Times London Page 17 318.LA021790-0064.retnorel.html0100644000076500001440000002156010117747350014455 0ustar TREC2003users LA021790-0064 177654

February 17, 1990, Saturday, Home Edition

Sports; Part C; Page 1; Column 6; Sports Desk

1308 words

KEEFE IS A PIVOTAL FACTOR;

STANFORD: SOPHOMORE PLAYS BASKETBALL LIKE AN OLD-TIMER AND VOLLEYBALL LIKE KARCH KIRALY.

By JERRY CROWE, TIMES STAFF WRITER

STANFORD

When Adam Keefe phoned Stanford Coach Mike Montgomery to tell him that he planned to play for the Cardinal, the news was greeted by silence at the other end of the line.

Had Montgomery fainted?

Stanford, its exemplary academic reputation notwithstanding, doesn't often win recruiting battles against North Carolina for blue-chip basketball players.

So, when Montgomery realized his coup, it took him a few seconds to collect his thoughts.

"What do you say?" he asked, recalling his moment of silence. "You don't want to understate it, but you don't want to be an idiot and jump through the phone."

Not that he wasn't tempted.

At Woodbridge High School in Irvine, Keefe was not just a great prospect with the grades and board scores to get into Stanford, he was a great prospect, period.

And as a sophomore this season, the 6-foot-9, 220-pound Keefe has shown why Montgomery considers Keefe to be the most important addition in the coach's 3 1/2 seasons on the Farm.

Despite routinely facing unorthodox defenses concocted specifically to deny him the ball, Keefe is the No. 4 scorer in the Pacific 10 and leads the conference in rebounding and field-goal percentage.

Arizona's Lute Olson and USC's George Raveling are among the coaches who have described the Cardinal's redhead as the best pivotman on the West Coast.

"He's the most fundamentally sound postman in the conference since Bill Walton," Raveling said.

Efficient and well schooled in the peculiarities of the pivot, Keefe is "a throwback to the old days," Raveling said. "I haven't seen a guy in a long, long time who knows how to play in the post like Adam Keefe. He could have played back in the days of (Bob) Cousy and (Bill) Sharman."

This is not to suggest that Keefe's bruising, economical style has fallen out of fashion.

To the contrary, Montgomery said: "Everybody liked Adam. You couldn't watch Adam and not like the way that he played. You might not think he was the best player in the country, or the best power forward, but you couldn't not like the way that he played."

And how's that?

"If I come out of a game and I'm not dripping and my shirt's not clinging to my back, I feel like I've let myself down," Keefe said.

Stanford's academic reputation played a major role in luring Keefe to Palo Alto. He plans to live in Southern California and, he said, "a degree from Stanford means a lot more in Orange County than a degree from North Carolina."

As much as anything, though, Keefe didn't want to give up volleyball, which is not played on an intercollegiate level at North Carolina. Keefe has the potential, his coaches say, to be a world-class volleyball player.

It has been said that Keefe dominated at the high school level like nobody since Karch Kiraly, a two-time Olympian who was widely regarded as the best player in the world before he retired from the U.S. team last summer.

His coach at Stanford, Fred Sturm, said that if Keefe played volleyball full time, "He would become one of the very best players this country has ever had -- and he might become the best."

Last spring, after helping Stanford reach the NCAA basketball tournament for the first time in 47 years, Keefe joined the Cardinal volleyball team as a reserve middle blocker almost five months into a six-month season and helped the Cardinal reach the NCAA final.

Coach Bill Neville of the U.S. team has extended Keefe an open invitation to train with the national team. Last summer, Keefe was asked to play in an international tournament in Moscow.

"We consider him a part of our program, and that avenue is open to him," Neville said. "Unfortunately for us, a lot of other avenues are going to be open to him that are more financially lucrative."

By that, of course, he meant that Keefe probably has a future in the NBA. Keefe turned down the volleyball trip to Moscow so that he could try out for the U.S. basketball team that played in the World University Games.

A toe injury, however, limited his effectiveness and he was cut.

"I feel like I should enjoy basketball more because I've been playing it longer, I've put more hours in, I've worked harder for a longer period of time," Keefe said. "I almost feel an obligation to the sport because it's the one paying the bills.

"On the other hand, volleyball allows me to take a step back and maybe have a little bit more fun; maybe have 200 people in the gym instead of 7,500; be able to smile a little more. It just seems like the pressure's not there, the TV's not there. My parents aren't going to call and say, 'Why'd you argue that call? You looked like a fool.' "

And in volleyball, Keefe won't be surrounded and suffocated by rival defenses, as he has been in basketball this season.

Last season, as the new kid on the block of a senior-dominated team, Keefe didn't draw much attention as Stanford's sixth man. He averaged 8.4 points and 5.4 rebounds a game, averaging less than 20 minutes but making 63.3% of his shots. And toward the end of the season, he showed flashes of what lay ahead.

In the Pac-10 tournament, he scored 17 points against USC. He scored 22 points and took 11 rebounds against UCLA. Then, against Siena in the first round of the NCAA tournament, he scored 22 again.

Relying more on physical strength than finesse, Keefe has significantly increased his productivity this season, averaging 19.1 points and 9.3 rebounds while making 65.8% of his shots.

"He just rolls up his sleeves and comes out of the fray with (impressive) numbers," Montgomery said. "He's less concerned about the periphery than some. He just really enjoys competition. And he takes challenges personally."

Keefe has faced more than his share this season.

Almost nobody has played a straight man-to-man defense against Keefe since he scored 18 points in the first half last month against UCLA, making all five of his shots and eight of nine free throws. The Bruins switched to a box-and-one in the second half, holding Keefe to five points.

Last Sunday, Washington surrounded Keefe with three players, assigning two others to guards John Patrick and Kenny Ammann and all but ignoring forwards Deshon Wingate and Andrew Vlahov. Bothered by a sprained ankle, Keefe scored only nine points, making two of eight shots.

"I think the theory in the league now is, 'If we're going to lose, we're going to lose to the other four guys,' " Raveling said.

So, against UCLA, guards Patrick and Ammann combined for 39 points. Against Washington, Wingate scored a career-high 22 points and grabbed 14 rebounds. Stanford won both games.

"It gets frustrating," Keefe said of the attention focused on him, "but I just have to realize that maybe I'm freeing up other people for their shots and helping somebody else get a rebound."

Said Montgomery: "It's been very difficult for him, but his presence has made our other players better. That's what separates the great players. They can make the players around them better."

Last summer, a reporter wrote that Keefe "wouldn't know how to spell finesse if you handed him a Funk & Wagnalls," but Montgomery disputes that notion.

"He's not given much of an opportunity to be a finesse player because people are attacking him," the coach said. "If he were soft or weak-hearted, he'd be getting dominated."

The youngest son of a retired Marine officer, Keefe "started with a willingness to get dirty, a tough, play-as-hard-as-you-have-to attitude," Montgomery said.

But, he added, it wouldn't be accurate to call Keefe a brute.

"He's got good touch," Montgomery said. "He's a very good shooter. He doesn't miss very often, and he can make those shots while being bumped. It's not fair to say finesse is not part of his game. He's not a bully, but he just seems to be around other people a lot."

One of them is Montgomery, who is grateful for the privilege.

Photo, Stanford sophomore Adam Keefe looks to pass around USC's Ronnie Coleman Thursday night. Associated Press

KEEFE, ADAM; BASKETBALL PLAYERS; STANFORD UNIVERSITY

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April 1, 1990, Sunday, San Diego County Edition

North County Focus; Page 88; Metro Desk

947 words

DESPITE GROWTH, RAMONA CLINGS TO SMALL-TOWN WAYS

By DON PATTERSON

Where exactly is Ramona? The pamphlet from the Chamber of Commerce puts it this way: "Below the snow line, above the smog line, in the Valley of the Sun."

To get to it, take California 67 North, away from the clutter and traffic jams of city life and into a community of feed stores and specialty shops for guns, knives and belt buckles.

Ramona is a small town that is starting to become a big one. Mary Kay Pinkard of the Chamber of Commerce is responsible for taking the census, and she figured out quite a while ago that it doesn't pay to put exact numbers on population signs. They are too quickly outdated. In 1978, when the population was 12,000, she had the signs marked at 12,600 to allow for the rapid growth.

"I didn't want to have to do it again the very next day," said Pinkard, who was born in Ramona in 1918 and has lived there all her life.

Since 1978, the population of Ramona has almost tripled, to 35,000. With three elementary schools, a junior high and a high school, it is the fastest-growing unincorporated town in San Diego County, said Eunice Tanjuaquio of the San Diego Assn. of Governments. The school district had to hire 20 new teachers on the first day of classes last fall because of the unexpected number of new students. With the continued improvements in road conditions on California 67, Ramona has become a fairly simple commute from San Diego.

"Ramona used to be a very, very tough place to get to," said Charles Le Manager, author of a recently released book titled "Ramona and Round About" and a former state director of Housing and Community Development (1967-70). "You would get behind a truck in Lakeside and you'd stay there until you got to Ramona. It was terrible. Whenever you improve the road, that just invites more people to come up."

Le Manager is partially responsible for the rapid growth. In 1970, after he resigned from his position with the state, he helped plan Ramona's San Diego Country Estates, a 3,250-acre housing development approved for 3,456 units. The project was approved in 1971, and the first houses, all custom built, were sold in 1972. According to Le Manager, sales were slow until the mid-1980s, and the project is now 80% full.

Ramona was founded in 1886 by land speculator Milton Santee and named after a novel by Helen Hunt Jackson about relations between Mexicans and Indians. At that time, Ramona's 700 acres were inhabited by about 500 people. Santee sold 2 acres of land for $100 to Amos J. Verlaque, who built the town's first store and post office.

Since its early days, Ramona's biggest industry has been chicken and turkey farming. Eggs for breeding were distributed widely around the United States until 1959, when bigger companies cornered the market. Today, there are still four chicken ranches, each with about 450,000 laying hens, as well as rabbit and cattle ranches.

Ramona once was a popular spot for dairy ranches, but, because of rising land prices, only three remain. It was also once known for its rich honey, produced from a host of apiaries and sold as far away as Belgium.

Avocado orchards are sprinkled throughout Ramona and the rest of the valley, but freezes during the past three seasons have destroyed harvests and longtime growers have been forced to switch to other sources of income. Dave Galusha, a grower since 1972, cut his crop from 500 to 100 acres after a freeze in January, 1987.

"With these freezes hitting back to back, it takes a couple of years to recover," said Galusha, who now teaches school part time. "Meanwhile, the cost of water is skyrocketing."

Despite the hardships, growers have kept their sense of humor and formed an organization called Avocados Anonymous.

"If you take a notion of planting another avocado tree, you're supposed to call up another member," Galusha said. "They'll come over and drink with you until the notion passes."

Included among Ramona's attractions is the Guy B. Woodward Museum, just off Main Street in the Verlaque House, built in 1886 by a Frenchman named Theophile Verlaque, Amos' father. The Verlaque House was converted to the museum in 1985, complete with rooms decorated in the style of early Ramona homes.

Ramona is perhaps best known for Fred Grand Arena, home of the annual Ramona Rodeo/Casey Tibbs Roundup, which attracts top-ranked riders from around the country. Tibbs, a two-time world champion and longtime resident of Ramona, died of cancer Jan. 28. He founded Ramona's first bronco riding school, where Steve Ford, son of former President Gerald Ford, was once a student. Fred Grand Arena is also the site of Ramona's dog and horse shows and the Ramona Country Fair.

Other recreational activities with a distinct Ramona flavor are fishing -- there are seven lakes within half an hour's drive -- archery, and horse auctions held every Friday and Saturday night at the Auction Barn.

Listed in several magazines as one of the country's best places to retire, Ramona has only a handful of tract homes. Houses are primarily ranch style, built with a wood frame and stucco. Prices range from about $125,000 to $350,000. Houses surrounded by an acre or more of land and set up with horse stables are commonly priced from $180,000 to $230,000.

RAMONA

Population

Total (1989 est.): 35,000

Averge household size: 3.1

Median age: 30.5

Income distribution:

Less than %25,000: 32.9%

$25,000-$49,999: 40.8%

%50,000+ : 26.2%

Sex:

Female: 50.0%

Male: 50.0%

Median household income: $34,015

Racial/ethnic mix:

White: 82.4%

Latino: 13.2%

Asian: 4.1%

Black: less than 1%

Education:

No high school diploma: 22.6%

High school diploma: 39.5

Some college: 23%

College graduate: 14.9%

Photo, The old and the new in Ramona. An older section of town, above, on D Street near 10th Street, is shaded by mature trees. ; Photo, Area below, at E Street and Tag Lane, has the raw look of a new subdivision. TERESA TAMURA / Los Angeles Times; Map, Ramona ; Chart, Racial/ethnic mix ; Chart, Education

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June 3, 1990, Sunday, Home Edition

Sports; Part C; Page 17; Column 1; Sports Desk

3898 words

WORLD CUP FIELD A COLLECTION OF HAVES, MIGHT HAVES, HAVE-NOTS

By GRAHAME L. JONES, TIMES STAFF WRITER

MILAN, Italy

All World Cup teams are not created equal, and it is pointless to believe otherwise.

Take the Dutch, for instance. Can anyone seriously think that the Netherlands, the reigning European champion, is the equal of, say, Egypt?

Or look at Brazil, whose star-studded team waltzed away with the South American Championship a year ago. Does anyone believe the Brazilians are the equal of, well, the Americans?

And what of Argentina, the defending world champion? Can Diego Maradona and company possibly be considered in the same class as, for example, Cameroon?

Of course not. But that is one of the joys of the World Cup: It pits the giants against the giant-killers and sometimes the little guys win.

Cameroon will be counting on that element of the unexpected here Friday night when it plays Argentina in the opening match of the month-long tournament. The game will be the first of 52 to be played in a dozen Italian cities that will decide the world champion.

The 24 countries have been divided into six groups of four teams each. The teams will play a round-robin schedule within their group, with the top two teams in each group plus the four third-place teams with the best records advancing to the next round.

In other words, the first 36 matches between Friday and June 21 will cut the field to 16 teams. Even this, however, will not have removed all the chaff from the wheat. That takes a round of knockout play that will reduce the field to eight quarterfinalists.

Any one of those eight should be capable of winning the World Cup, but the likelihood is that the solid-gold trophy once again will go to a former winner. Since it began in 1930, only six countries have won the World Cup.

Brazil (1958, 1962 and 1970) and Italy (1934, 1938 and 1982) have won three times; West Germany (1954 and 1974), Argentina (1978 and 1986) and Uruguay (1930 and 1950) have won twice, and England (1966) has won once.

All six former champions are in the field and all are conceivable winners. Throw in the Netherlands and the Soviet Union and you have the eight teams from which the 1990 World Cup winner almost certainly will emerge.

Basically, the teams break down into three kinds: The eight from whom the winner is likely to come; the eight whose victory would be a huge upset, and the eight who stand almost no chance of winning. To cast a more kindly light on the last group, their victory was simply in qualifying for Italy. After all, 110 nations tried, but only 22 succeeded. Italy, as the host country, and Argentina, as the defending World Cup champion, were exempt from having to qualify.

CAPSULE LOOKS AT THE 24 WORLD CUP TEAMS

ITALY: As the host nation, Italy is a logical choice to win it all. The home team has won five of the 13 tournaments, including three of the past six. But even disregarding that advantage, Italy must be considered a likely finalist. Under Coach Azeglio Vicini, the Italians are, as usual, a potent defensive force, but they have yet to produce a match-winning goal scorer.

In Spain in 1982, they found one in Paolo Rossi, whose knack of putting the ball into the back of the net in crucial matches won Italy its third World Cup. This year, they will be counting on Gianluca Vialli, Roberto Donadoni and the latest boy wonder, Roberto Baggio, 23.

Baggio last month was the subject of some furor in Italy when his club team, Fiorentina, sold him to Juventus of Turin for a record $13 million. That not only broke the world transfer record set by Napoli when it bought Maradona from Barcelona, but also caused fans in Florence to riot in protest of the sale. Baggio is brilliant but inconsistent, a fact that has not escaped Vicini's notice.

Defensively, Italy will be difficult to score upon, with such veterans as goalkeeper Walter Zenga -- widely regarded as the world's best along with England's Peter Shilton -- and defenders Franco Baresi and Giuseppe Bergomi anchoring the back line. Italy's problem will not be stopping goals, but scoring them.

Synopsis: If the players can cope with the tremendous pressure exerted by the Italian fans, who will accept nothing less than a World Cup victory, Italy should make it to the Final on July 8.

Best Finish: Winner, 1934, 1938, 1982.

Player to Watch: Midfielder Roberto Baggio.

BRAZIL: Although the Brazilians are one of the favorites in every tournament they enter, it has been 20 years since they won the World Cup. That was in Mexico, when the team featured Pele and Carlos Alberto. Now, there are new names -- Careca, Romario, Bebeto, Muller, Dunga, Valdo -- and the Brazilians once again are one of the favorites.

Brazil has a unique record: It is the only country to have participated in every World Cup and has played and won more tournament matches than any country. Long known for their adventurous and inventive style of play, the Brazilians are always the most entertaining team to watch. The country's apparently unending supply of talent has generally been free to express itself on the field. This has meant exciting, attacking soccer, but has also left Brazil exposed on defense, a fact that cost it dearly in 1982 and 1986.

Now, a new dimension has been added. Coach Sebastiao Lazaroni has introduced the "sweeper" -- sort of a free safety -- to Brazilian soccer. Since he did so last year, Brazil has been virtually unbeatable, winning its first South American Championship since 1949 and sweeping aside its qualifying opponents. The new formation allows midfielders such as Silas and Valdo the freedom to attack without worrying about the defense.

Up front, Lazaroni also has the luxury of four world-class strikers in Careca, Maradona's teammate at Napoli; Romario, who is recovering from a broken leg and might not play until the second round; the slightly built but exceptionally talented Bebeto, and 1986 veteran Muller. At the back, goalkeeper Claudio Taffarel not only defies custom by using both names, he is also the best at the position that Brazil has produced in a long while.

Synopsis: Only one South American team has won the World Cup when the tournament was played in Europe. That was Brazil in 1958, in Sweden. This team has all the credentials to repeat that feat.

Best Finish: Winner, 1958, 1962, 1970.

Player to Watch: Striker Careca.

WEST GERMANY: During the preliminary rounds, Franz Beckenbauer promised to resign as coach if West Germany failed to qualify. It was a safe bet. Germany has never failed to make the World Cup field, missing only the 1930 and 1950 tournaments by choice.

Now, Beckenbauer has said he will resign after the World Cup, turning over his job to longtime assistant Berti Vogts. Perhaps that will act as a spur to the players, who may want to win the World Cup for the man who captained his country to its last victory in 1974 and who came close as a coach in 1986, when West Germany finished second to Argentina.

Then, too, there is another incentive. This will be West Germany's last World Cup. By 1994, when the United States is the host nation, East and West will have reunited, and it will be simply Germany that takes the field.

Beckenbauer has assembled a strong squad, with the sheer physical power of the 1982 and 1986 teams giving way to a team of more artistry. The midfield features a world-class lineup, with veteran Lothar Matthaeus and two exceptional youngsters, Thomas Haessler, 24, and Andreas Moeller, 22. On attack, Beckenbauer can call on Juergen Klinsmann, Rudi Voeller and Karlheinz Riedle.

Synopsis: Having finished second to Italy in 1982, and second again to Argentina in 1986, the West Germans think it is their turn to win it all. To see Beckenbauer become the first person to win the World Cup as a player and as a coach would not be a surprise.

Best Finish: Winner 1954, 1974.

Player to Watch: Midfielder Thomas Haessler.

ARGENTINA: If it were not for the genius of Diego Armando Maradona, Argentina could not be considered anything more than an also-ran. The defending world champion has failed miserably to live up to its title during the past four years, going 6-14-11 through May 1. One of the losses was to Australia, hardly a soccer power.

Coach Carlos Bilardo's problems stem from the fact that after 1986 all the Argentine stars were snapped up by European clubs, leaving him to play with a second-string ensemble. The results were predictable. And even when Bilardo had access to his European players, as in the Copa America, or South American Championship, that they had not played together regularly made failure there inevitable, too.

Nor has Bilardo developed any new stars. Argentina will be trying to defend its title with a recycled team. The only thing it has going for it is Maradona. Having won one World Cup illegally -- his hand-ball goal in the 1986 quarterfinals in Mexico knocked out England and helped Argentina advance -- Maradona no doubt would like to win one legally.

Synopsis: That Maradona is the world's finest player is without question. But even he cannot carry the entire team. For Argentina to advance beyond the quarterfinals, it may once again require the "hand of God."

Best Finish: Winner, 1978, 1986.

Player to Watch: Midfielder Diego Maradona.

THE NETHERLANDS: If soccer reporters around the world were to be polled, it is almost certain that the World Cup Final they would prefer to see July 8 in Rome would pit Brazil against Holland, South America's best against Europe's best.

The Dutch team is led by the stars that took it to the 1988 European Championship: Marco Van Basten, Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard. The three led their Italian team, A.C. Milan, to consecutive European Cup victories and the world club championship.

But all is not calm in the Dutch camp. Unhappy with the way former coach Thijs Libregts forced them to play during the qualifying rounds, the players banded together to drive him out once the team had secured its berth in Italy. The man they wanted to succeed him was Barcelona Coach Johan Cruyff, the greatest Dutch player of all time. The man they got was Ajax Amsterdam Coach Leo Beenhakker. Once again, the players are less than thrilled.

Then, too, Gullit has been recovering from three knee surgeries in the past 11 months and has seen little action in the past year. His doctor has pronounced him fit, however, which does not bode well for the Dutch team's opponents. Nor does the fact that of 104 soccer reporters worldwide polled by the Italian magazine Guerin Sportivo, 50 said Van Basten would be the tournament's leading goal scorer.

Synopsis: The Dutch people desperately want their team to bring home the World Cup that was denied them in 1974, when Holland, powered by Cruyff, fell to West Germany, 2-1, in a controversial Final at Munich and again in 1978 when the Netherlands was beaten by Argentina, 3-1, in the Final at Buenos Aires. The team might not disappoint them.

Best Finish: Runner-up, 1974, 1978.

Player to Watch: Striker Marco Van Basten.

ENGLAND: What the English had going for them until a couple of weeks ago was an unbeaten run of 19 matches in the past two years. Then they lost to Uruguay at Wembley and reality set in. A similar undefeated run before the European Championship in 1988 ended with a disastrous performance there.

Still, Coach Bobby Robson, who will leave his job to take over the Dutch team, PSV Eindhoven, after the World Cup, has a strong squad, and England has the ability to reach the last eight as it did in Mexico four years ago, before Maradona and his "hand of God" goal sank its hopes.

Goalkeeper Peter Shilton is 40, and if England advances to the second round in Italy, he will break the world record for appearances for a national team. Shilton has played 116 times for England and needs only three more matches to surpass Northern Ireland's Pat Jennings, who retired after the 1986 World Cup with 118 national team appearances.

Up front, England has Gary Lineker, who was the tournament's leading scorer in 1986 with six goals, along with two of the best wingers in the world, John Barnes and Chris Waddle. Bryan Robson is England's captain and star midfielder but is 33 and prone to injuries.

Synopsis: Despite playing in a tough group with the Netherlands, Ireland and Egypt, England should reach the second round, but worries its loutish fans might spoil any subsequent success.

Best Finish: Winner, 1966.

Player to Watch: Winger John Barnes.

SOVIET UNION: The Soviet team finished second in the European Championship in 1988 and won the Olympic gold medal at Seoul that year. Those successes have prompted experts to consider it a serious candidate to win its first World Cup.

The team has two excellent goalkeepers in Rinat Dasayev and Viktor Chanov; top defenders such as Vladimir Bessonov and an excellent midfield that includes Sergei Aleinikov and Alexander Zavarov, both professionals with Italian Cup winner Juventus.

Coach Valery Lobanovsky will be counting on Oleg Protasov to score the goals the Soviets need to overcome Argentina, Romania and Cameroon in the first round.

Synopsis: The Soviets will be difficult to beat, but whether they have the flair to get past the quarterfinals will be the big test. A solid dark horse.

Best Finish: Fourth, 1966.

Player to Watch: Forward Oleg Protasov.

URUGUAY: For Uruguay, the last World Cup was a disaster. The team squandered the talents of such players as Enzo Francescoli and Ruben Paz and relied on brute force, rough play and negative tactics to survive. It failed and was eliminated early.

Now, the two-time World Cup winner's best hopes lie once again in Francescoli and Paz, but newcomer Ruben Sosa, who plays for Lazio of Rome in Italy's Series A, will be the key if the team is to regain its reputation. The 23-year-old striker was brilliant in last year's South American Championship, in which Brazil beat Uruguay, 1-0, in the final game.

Synopsis: Uruguay is the longest shot among the top eight contenders, but cannot be entirely discounted because of players such as Sosa and Francescoli. A logical quarterfinalist at least.

Best Finish: Winner, 1930, 1950.

Player to Watch: Forward Ruben Sosa.

SPAIN: Some experts believe that the Spanish, not the Soviets, are the real dark horse and that in building a relatively young team, Coach Luis Suarez has made the correct decision. The key will be 26-year-old striker Emilio Butragueno, who scored five goals in the 1986 tournament and can inspire those around him.

Synopsis: If Spain is to improve on its quarterfinal appearance in Mexico, strong performances will be needed from Butragueno, playmaker Michel and goalkeeper Andoni Zubizarreta.

Best Finish: Fourth, 1950.

Player to Watch: Striker Emilio Butragueno.

BELGIUM: The Belgians surprised everyone by finishing fourth in 1986, losing to Argentina in the semifinals. The success was the work of Guy Thys, the most successful coach in the country's history. But Thys retired, and although Belgium qualified for Italy, it looked ordinary.

Synopsis: Thys has been lured out of retirement for one last charge, but it is doubtful the Belgians can match their performance of four years ago.

Best Finish: Fourth, 1986.

Player to Watch: Goalkeeper Michel Preud'Homme.

SWEDEN: The Swedes have looked sharp in warmup games, including a 4-2 victory over Wales and a 6-0 rout of Finland, but will be meeting much tougher opposition, including Brazil and Scotland.

Synopsis: Coach Olle Nordin will rely on strikers Mats Magnusson and Stefan Pettersson to display the goal-scoring touch they showed for their club teams, Benfica of Portugal and Ajax Amsterdam of the Netherlands, respectively. A berth in the second round is quite possible for the Swedes.

Best Finish: Runner-up, 1958.

Player to Watch: Defender Glenn Hysen.

SCOTLAND: This is the Scots' fifth consecutive appearance in the tournament, but their stay might not be long. With Brazil and Sweden in the same first-round group, finishing third might be the best Coach Andy Roxburgh's team can do, and that might not get it into the next round.

Synopsis: The team has problems with its defense and with consistency. It beat Argentina in a warmup, then inexplicably lost to Egypt. Which team will show up in Italy is unknown.

Best Finish: First round.

Player to Watch: Forward Ally McCoist.

CZECHOSLOVAKIA: Making their first World Cup appearance since 1978, the Czechs are boosted by the political changes in Prague and the fact that the team is in a relatively weak group. Victories over the United States and Austria would see them through to the next round, regardless of what they do against Italy.

Synopsis: Czechoslovakia, which lost the 1934 World Cup Final to Italy and the 1962 Final to Brazil, is a traditionally strong soccer country. But the only major success in the past two decades was a penalty-kick victory over West Germany in the final of the 1976 European Championship. The second round is as far as it can go this year.

Best Finish: Runner-up, 1934, 1962.

Player to Watch: Goalkeeper Ludek Miklosko.

IRELAND: This is Ireland's first appearance in the tournament, but the team is led by a man who already has won the World Cup. Coach Jack Charlton, brother of Bobby Charlton, was a member of England's winning team in 1966.

Synopsis: Under Charlton, Ireland has become one of the best teams in Europe and even beat England in the 1988 European Championship. The luck of the draw has not been kind, however, and the Irish will have to get by England again, as well as The Netherlands.

Best Finish: First appearance.

Player to Watch: Goalkeeper Pat Bonner.

AUSTRIA: The Austrians are considered the most likely to yield a point or two to the United States -- or at least they were until recently, when they beat Spain, Hungary and The Netherlands and tied Argentina. Now the United States will have to look elsewhere.

Synopsis: Strikers Toni Polster and Gerhard Rodax scored 67 goals between them for their club teams this season, with Rodax finishing second only to Hugo Sanchez of Real Madrid as Europe's top scorer.

Best Finish: Third, 1954.

Player to Watch: Striker Toni Polster.

YUGOSLAVIA: The Yugoslavs' best hope is to finish second in its first-round group to West Germany. Whether they do will depend on their match against Colombia, which is Coach Ivan Osim's big worry.

Synopsis: A victory over the Colombians probably would put Yugoslavia into the second round because it should have little trouble beating the United Arab Emirates.

Best Finish: Fourth, 1962.

Player to Watch: Midfielder Dragan Stojkovic.

SOUTH KOREA: Making their second consecutive World Cup appearance, the South Koreans are the best team ever to come out of Asia, but they were drawn into a brutal first-round group with Belgium, Spain and Uruguay.

Synopsis: If the lessons of 1986 were learned, South Korea could hold its own. In Mexico, it proved that it had come of age by matching then-defending champion Italy stride for stride before eventually losing, 3-2. South Korea wants to stage the World Cup in 2002.

Best Finish: First round.

Player to Watch: Winger Joo-sung Kim.

CAMEROON: In Cameroon's previous World Cup appearance eight years ago in Spain, only a single goal allowed eventual winner Italy to advance from the first round in place of Cameroon, which tied all three of its matches but still was eliminated.

Synopsis: Cameroon has the ability to become the Brazil of Africa, especially when strengthened by its European-based players, but it self-destructed earlier this year and lost its African championship.

Best Finish: First round.

Player to Watch: Goalkeeper Joseph-Antoine Bell.

COLOMBIA: Death threats and drug cartels back in Bogota have not deterred the Colombians and Coach Francisco Maturana, from believing they can be one of the surprise teams of 1990. Maturana is confident the team will advance to the second round.

Synopsis: Whether Colombia advances will depend in large measure on flamboyant goalkeeper Rene Higuita, whose fondness for wandering far upfield could be punished at this level of competition.

Best Finish: First round.

Player to Watch: Goalkeeper Rene Higuita.

EGYPT: Until a week or two ago, the Egyptians were being taken very lightly by their first-round foes -- England, Ireland and The Netherlands. Then Egypt beat the Scots in Scotland.

Synopsis: This is Egypt's first World Cup appearance in 56 years -- the last also being in Italy, in 1934. It has no real hope of advancing.

Best Finish: First round.

Player to Watch: Goalkeeper Ahmed Shobeir.

ROMANIA: The key to Romania's success will be whether the players' minds will be on the tournament or on the tumultuous changes ocurring in their country since the December overthrow of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

Synopsis: Gheorghe Hagi, nicknamed "the Maradona of the Carpathians," was recently signed to a lucrative contract by Spanish champion Real Madrid and will be the key to Romania's success.

Best Finish: First round.

Player to Watch: Midfielder Gheorghe Hagi.

COSTA RICA: The Costa Ricans won the North and Central American and Caribbean (CONCACAF) qualifying group, finishing ahead of the United States, but have not had the financial resources to prepare properly for the type of opponents they will face in Italy.

Synopsis: Yugoslav Coach Bora Milutinovic, who replaced fired former coach Marvin Rodriguez in March, led Mexico into the quarterfinals of the 1986 World Cup. But Costa Rica has to play Brazil, Sweden and Scotland in the first round, and even Milutinovic can't work that big a miracle.

Best Finish: First appearance.

Player to Watch: Forward Hernan Medford.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: After having reached Italy against all odds by upsetting China in qualifying play, the U.A.E. team has been beset by problems. Two coaches have been dismissed, and the third, Brazilian Carlos Alberto, has a fat contract but a slim chance of getting the team through the first round.

Synopsis: The inspiration for the Arabs in the qualifying rounds was then-coach Mario Zagalo, a three-time World Cup winner with Brazil -- twice as a player and once as coach. When he was fired in a political dispute with the U.A.E. soccer federation, the team lost any chance it might have had.

Best Finish: First appearance.

Player to Watch: Forward Adnan Khamees Al Talyani.

UNITED STATES: Making their first appearance in the World Cup tournament in 40 years, the Americans are given little chance of even scoring. If they can avoid being humiliated by their first-round opponents -- Czechoslovakia, Italy and Austria -- that will be sufficient cause for celebration.

Synopsis: Canada didn't win a game or score a goal in 1986, either, but its players left Mexico with heads held high because of the tenacity of their play against equally formidable opponents. The U.S. team can only hope to do as well.

Best Finish: Semifinalist, 1930.

Player to Watch: Goalkeeper Tony Meola.

WORLD CUP STADIUMS

Venues and stadium spectator capacities

City Stadium Capacity Milan G. Meazza 90,000 Turin Nuovo Comunale 70,000 Genoa Ferraris 40,000 Verona M. Bentegodi 45,000 Udine Friuli 40,000 Bologna Renato Dall'Ara 40,000 Florence Comunale 45,000 Rome Olympic 85,000 Naples San Paolo 75,000 Palermo La Favorita 38,000 Cagliari Sant'Elia 42,000 Bari Nuovo Communale 58,000

Table, WORLD CUP STADIUMS, AP / Los Angeles Times

List

WORLD CUP SOCCER; SOCCER PLAYERS; ATHLETIC TEAMS; WORLD CUP SOCCER; SOCCER CHAMPIONSHIPS; SOCCER PLAYERS; ATHLETIC TEAMS

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FBIS-NES-94-094 Daily Report 14 May 1994
Palestinian Affairs

Policeman Faces Court Martial for Boy's Death

Policeman Faces Court Martial for Boy's Death TA1405050694 Jerusalem Qol Yisra'el in English 0400 GMT 14 May 94 TA1405050694 Jerusalem Qol Yisra'el English BFN [Text] The Palestinian police commander in Jericho, Major General Hajj 'Isma'il, says the policeman whose gun killed a Palestinian boy yesterday and critically wounded his aunt, will be courtmartialed for negligence. Latest reports say the nine-year-old boy 'Amr 'Abid was accidentally shot dead by his brother, who was playing with the policeman's gun. Witnesses said earlier the boy was accidentally killed by a Palestinian policeman. General 'Isma'il said PLO Chairman Yasir 'Arafat had called on the police to press forward with the investigation and make the findings public. Police said the boy would receive an official funeral with a police escort. Police officers who tried to pay a condolence call on the bereaved family were rebuffed by angry relatives. 343.FT922-10434.retnorel.html0100644000076500001440000000271510117747351014326 0ustar TREC2003users FT922-10434 _AN-CEAA3AA3FT 920501 FT 01 MAY 92 / Death sentence for white policeman By PATTI WALDMEIR JOHANNESBURG A SOUTH AFRICAN judge yesterday sentenced to death a white police captain convicted of murdering 11 blacks in an attack aimed at sympathisers of the African National Congress. It was the first time a member of the security forces had been sentenced to death for a politically motivated killing, and will fuel controversy over the role of police in black-on-black violence which has left 11,000 people dead since 1984. Mr Justice Andrew Wilson of the Supreme Court in Pietermaritzburg, Natal, found Captain Brian Mitchell had ordered four black constables to carry out the killings in the Trust Feed black settlement outside Pietermaritzburg in December 1988. The court heard that Mitchell had meant the constables to kill ANC sympathisers whom he regarded as terrorists but that the wrong people, including women and children, were attacked. The constables were also convicted of murder and received effective jail sentences of 15 years each. In giving judgment last week, the judge said there appeared to have been attempts at a cover-up. No death sentences have been carried out since President FW de Klerk announced a moratorium on executions two years ago. The Financial Times London Page 4 343.LA032089-0098.retnorel.html0100644000076500001440000000231610117747350014463 0ustar TREC2003users LA032089-0098 33863

March 20, 1989, Monday, P.M. Final

Part A; Page 1; Column 1; Late Final Desk

118 words

WORLD;

2 ROYAL ULSTER OFFICERS FOUND SLAIN

From Times staff and wire service reports

BELFAST, Northern Ireland

Two policemen, one a high-ranking officer in the Royal Ulster Constabulary, were found shot to death today near the border with the Irish Republic, bringing this year's death toll in Northern Ireland to 26.

The bodies of the two men were found in County Armagh in an unmarked car only yards from the border at the Catholic village of Jonesborough, police said. A spokesman at constabulary headquarters said no further details were available. He could not explain why the officers, believed to be in civilian clothes, were in the area described as "bandit country" by Merlyn Rees, former secretary of state for Northern Ireland. He would not confirm if the two dead officers had been working undercover.

Brief

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April 20, 1990, Friday, Home Edition

Part A; Page 25; Column 4; Foreign Desk

57 words

TROOPS KILL ULSTER MAN NEAR POLICEMAN'S HOME

By Reuters

BELFAST, Northern Ireland

A masked man was shot to death Wednesday night near the home of a Northern Ireland policeman when the British army apparently foiled an attempt to kill the officer.

A police spokesman Thursday declined to give details on the incident or the dead man but said the shooting occurred when an army patrol encountered masked and armed men.

Wire

ENGLAND -- ARMED FORCES; NORTHERN IRELAND -- REVOLTS; TERRORISM -- NORTHERN IRELAND; ENGLAND -- FOREIGN RELATIONS -- NORTHERN IRELAND

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October 3, 1990, Wednesday, San Diego County Edition

Metro; Part B; Page 1; Column 2; Metro Desk

863 words

GANG ACTIVITY SUSPECTED IN SLAYING OF GIRL

By RAY TESSLER, TIMES STAFF WRITER

A popular 14-year-old high school girl was fatally shot and a pregnant friend was wounded in what Oceanside police said Tuesday might be the city's first gang-related killing.

Officer E.J. Luarca said the victims were black and the suspects are believed to be Samoan, raising suspicion that the violence might have been sparked by gang rivalry between the two ethnic groups.

Michele Tate defied her mother's pleas and went to Alberto's Mexican Food in eastern Oceanside on Monday night, leaving the restaurant with several friends shortly after 9 p.m. when a car drove up and an occupant opened fire.

A bullet passed through Tate, who was pronounced dead at Tri-City Medical Center, and struck Stacey Prince, 17, who was flown by helicopter to Palomar Hospital, where she was treated and released.

Shortly before noon Tuesday, Oceanside police had arrested Talofa Finouga Jr., 19, and were searching for a second suspect, Akeli S. Kelly, 21, both of Oceanside.

"We don't know if the shooting is gang-related or ethnically motivated," Luarca said. If the former, "it's the first gang-related shooting that has resulted in the death of a person" in Oceanside, he said.

Oceanside has had gangs for generations but police warned last year that gang activity had escalated with several non-fatal drive-by shootings between the Samoan Bloods and the Deep Valley Posse, which is a black gang.

Although police were guarded in their statements, the neighborhood where Michele lived in a tract of older, modest stucco homes near Camp Pendleton's back gate has been buzzing for days about gang activity.

Michele's mother, Mecaela Tate, comforted by friends and family, said Tuesday she had warned her friendly, outgoing daughter to stay away from Redondo Drive and North River Road, the commercial and residential area where the shooting occurred and which police say is commonly used as a gang hangout.

"I told her time and time again to stay away from there," said Tate, who said her daughter didn't belong to a gang but that some of her friends did.

On the day Michele died, she had telephoned her mother at work to say she was home sick from school. But while her mother, who is divorced and works two jobs, was still at work that evening, the girl left the family's home and ended up with her friends at Alberto's.

Tate believes that her daughter, a freshman at El Camino High School, was shot by mistake and the assailants meant to kill one of her companions.

"She was at the wrong place at the wrong time. She took the bullet," Tate said.

"She doesn't do anything wrong, she's innocent," sobbed the mother, adding that her daughter "wanted to be a lawyer. How's she going to be a lawyer if she's dead?"

Tate said Michele was friendly to a fault, often inviting homeless children to spend the night in their home. She was loyal to friends, some of them gang members, and seemed unaware that her association could bring her harm, said her mother.

Sources believe the bullet could have been meant for one of Michele's companions, which included two males whom police have not identified.

Residents of Tate's neighborhood have worried for days about increasing gang activity.

One area resident, who asked not to be identified, said there has been some gang activity in the past, but that random shots were heard last Friday and Saturday nights.

Although nobody was injured, "this was new for this end of the valley," said the woman. "Everybody knows it's gangs. Everybody was told by gang members and the cops to stay in at night."

Meanwhile, Oceanside Unified School District administrators ordered extra security at El Camino High, which Michele had attended for only a month, and provided psychologists who help students having emotional problems.

"We don't know whether it (the shooting) was random or not, but we're treating it with a great deal of caution," said district spokesman Dan Armstrong. "If there's a neighborhood in turmoil, we don't want it to spill into El Camino."

The district placed unarmed guards at the school's entrances to check everybody coming and leaving, prohibiting strangers and "making sure they have legitimate business on campus," Armstrong said.

He said the mood on campus was "tense and somber," with some students "wondering if it's an isolated thing or a precursor to other incidents."

Although Tate hadn't attended the high school for long, she had already made an impression. One of her teachers, Sherilyn Gazso, said, "Michele was very sweet and extremely friendly."

Last year, before she left Lincoln Junior High School, a yearbook indicated that Tate had been voted "most humorous" by her classmates.

Oceanside police said Tuesday that many pieces are missing in the case.

Department spokesman Luarca said authorities are not sure what kind of weapon was used, how many rounds were fired or what all the injuries were. Police suspect a handgun was used, but there were unsubstantiated reports a shotgun was the weapon. Police believe the suspects were driving a 1984 blue and white Oldsmobile Cutlass.

Police didn't say why Finouga and Kelly are suspects or what the motive may have been in the shooting.

Photo, GIRL SLAIN: Oceanside police are investigating whether the shooting death of 14-year-old Michele Tate, above, and the wounding of a pregnant companion were caused by gang rivalry between Samoans and blacks.

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November 20, 1989, Monday, Home Edition

Part A; Page 23; Column 4; Foreign Desk

99 words

WORLD IN BRIEF;

SOUTH AFRICA;

3RD EX-OFFICER BACKS DEATH SQUAD REPORT

From Times staff and wire reports

A dispute over the existence of an official South African death squad gathered momentum when a third policeman alleged that the squad killed anti-apartheid leaders between 1980 and 1982. The Johannesburg Sunday Times said former police constable David Tshikalange, a black man, admitted in an interview that he helped kill black civil rights lawyer Griffiths Mxenge in 1981. Tshikalange's claims supported charges by former police Capt. Johannes Coetzee, who left the country after telling the liberal Afrikaans-language weekly Vrye Weekblad that he headed an official police death squad.

Brief

DEATH SQUADS; APARTHEID; RACIAL RELATIONS -- SOUTH AFRICA; MURDERS -- SOUTH AFRICA; POLICE -- SOUTH AFRICA

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November 21, 1989, Tuesday, Home Edition

Part A; Page 16; Column 1; Foreign Desk

1624 words

3 EX-POLICEMEN BLOW WHISTLE ON ALLEGED SOUTH AFRICA DEATH SQUAD;

APARTHEID: FORMER OFFICERS CLAIM THEY WERE PART OF A TEAM INVOLVED IN KILLING CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS. POLICE DENY SUCH SQUADS EXISTED -- BUT IF THEY DID, 'THEY WERE ROGUE UNITS.'

By SCOTT KRAFT, TIMES STAFF WRITER

PRETORIA, South Africa

It wasn't until the months of waiting on Death Row had dwindled to hours that former policeman Almond Nofomela began to panic. His former superiors had promised to win him a reprieve. But there he sat in Pretoria Central Prison, only a day away from the gallows -- and a dirty secret about the police was about to die with him.

Nofomela felt the chill of betrayal when two police officers visited and "informed me that I should take the pain."

That's when Nofomela began to talk.

Now the desperate allegations of that condemned man have begun to pull back the curtain on a mysterious and sordid part of South Africa's past, implicating for the first time a top-secret police unit in some of the dozens of unsolved murders of anti-apartheid activists.

Nofomela, who is black, a second black ex-policeman and their white captain have admitted being part of a formal political hit squad, operating under the command of generals in the South African police, that assassinated government opponents both here and abroad.

Among the squad's alleged victims were white activist Ruth First, killed by a parcel bomb in neighboring Mozambique in 1982, and black civil rights lawyer Griffiths Mxenge, abducted and stabbed to death in Durban in 1981.

Nofomela's detailed affidavits describe several brutal assassinations, by knives, poison and silencer-equipped pistols, from 1981 until 1986. All victims were men and women the police suspected of being members of the outlawed African National Congress.

Much of Nofomela's account was corroborated last week by the published statements of his former superior officer, Capt. Dirk Johannes Coetzee, who left the force in 1986.

"My men and I killed and eliminated political enemies of the government," Coetzee, 44, told Vrye Weekblad (Free Weekly), a respected Afrikaans-language newspaper, last week after fleeing the country for the island of Mauritius and then Europe. "I never hesitated to carry out an order. I thought, 'There are people who want to take this land, and they must be killed.' "

Coetzee, saying he now is troubled by his conscience, has identified a dozen ranking officers of the police force, including a current police general, who knew about or participated in the squad's missions.

Maj. Gen. Herman Stadler, a senior police spokesman, denies the existence of any official hit squads in the national police force. If such squads existed, he said, they were rogue units, operating on their own, and any police officer who has "taken the law into his own hands . . . will have to be punished."

But anti-apartheid leaders, long suspicious of the lack of arrests made by police in attacks on government opponents and their property, say the allegations by Nofomela and Coetzee, as well as other new evidence, point to high-level police involvement.

"This was done in an organized way, and it goes all the way to the top (of the police force)," said a member of a panel of anti-apartheid leaders who is familiar with the growing body of evidence gathered by human rights lawyers.

The group, formed to investigate increasing attacks on political activists, has collected Nofomela's affidavits and evidence from the inmate's home, including false passports, photographs of alleged hit squad victims and ammunition.

The police have launched their own investigation, directed by the chief public prosecutor in the Orange Free State and police Lt. Gen. Alwyn Conradie. But Coetzee claims officers have been destroying evidence at police headquarters, including internal log books, and he says officers in the unit have been told to deny everything.

Many community leaders have demanded an independent inquiry into the charges. Even the Citizen, a pro-government daily newspaper, called Monday for a judicial probe "to put the public's mind at rest."

Nofomela, 32, sentenced to death for murdering a white farmer while on a month's leave from the force in 1987, has won a temporary stay of execution while the investigation continues. A second black member of the unit, David Tshikalange, confirmed Nofomela's account before leaving the country. Capt. Coetzee is in hiding in Europe.

More than 100 anti-government activists have been murdered in the past 15 years, about half of them inside South Africa, according to human rights groups. In only one case has anyone been charged. Dozens of other activists have disappeared, many after being taken into custody by the authorities.

The government usually attributes the killings of ANC operatives to internal ANC power struggles. Incidents inside the country are often blamed on shadowy groups of white supremacists. Coetzee, in his interview with Vrye Weekblad, admitted that he directed a team of black policemen, known as "Askaris" or the "A-team," who worked from a secret headquarters at Vlakplaas, a farm near Pretoria.

They abducted ANC operatives inside and outside South Africa and, during hours of interrogation, attempted to "turn" them into anti-terrorist police officers. Those they couldn't "turn," Coetzee said, were often killed, their bodies burned. On occasion, he said, he and his men received orders from senior officers in Pretoria to carry out assassinations.

Police have acknowledged the existence of the anti-terrorism unit at Vlakplaas, but they deny it was ever used to assassinate government opponents. Stadler, the police spokesman, said Vlakplaas is home base for former ANC guerrillas who are now "proud South African policemen." He added police were "perturbed" that Coetzee had put the lives of those officers in jeopardy by identifying the farm.

The most damning allegations made by Coetzee and Nofomela concern the death eight years ago of Griffiths Mxenge, a prominent civil rights lawyer who was stabbed 45 times and had his throat cut.

Mxenge's wife, Victoria, also a lawyer, vowed to bring the killers to justice. But in 1985 she was shot in front of her home by four black men who chased her to the front door and finished the job with an ax. No one was arrested in either case, although a witness later testified in an unrelated court case that Mrs. Mxenge's assailants included a police sergeant.

In his affidavits, Nofomela says Brig. Willem Schoon and Capt. Coetzee ordered him and three other black policemen in 1981 to "eliminate" Mxenge, whom the police suspected of handling the financial affairs for the outlawed ANC. Coetzee "instructed us specifically not to shoot Mxenge, but to kill him with a knife."

Nofomela and his three colleagues parked their truck in the middle of a road near Mxenge's home and put the hood up. Mxenge, driving a white Audi, pulled up behind the men and "asked whether he could help us," Nofomela said. "I approached the car and said, 'Yes, please.' He then switched off his ignition and I produced my firearm."

The men drove Mxenge to an empty stadium and ordered him out of the car.

"We started assaulting him with kicks and punches, until he fell to the ground. We then all stabbed him several times. He immediately died, and we carried on butchering his body," Nofomela said. Obeying Coetzee's instructions, they removed Mxenge's watch and billfold "to simulate a robbery."

The radio-tape player was removed from Mxenge's car, which was driven to the Swaziland border and burned in a field. The radio was later installed in Brig. Schoon's police vehicle, according to Nofomela's statement.

The next day, Coetzee handed each of the four men 1,000 rand, about $400, which he said was from Schoon "for successfully eliminating Mxenge." (Schoon retired from the police force three weeks ago at age 55.)

Nofomela said he participated in eight other assassinations, including killings in neighboring Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland, and many kidnapings during his stint in the unit.

In his interview with Vrye Weekblad, Coetzee admitted ordering Nofomela and his colleagues to murder Mxenge and make it look like a robbery. He also acknowledged paying them each a 1,000-rand bonus "for their good work."

Coetzee also claimed that:

His unit broke into the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Mbabane, Swaziland, and stole files, telexes and a variety of envelopes bearing the commission emblem. One of those envelopes was later used to hide the parcel bomb that was mailed to Maputo, Mozambique, and killed activists Ruth First, wife of South African Communist Party General Secretary Joe Slovo, a senior member of the ANC in exile. (First's life with her daughter was the subject of the film, "A World Apart.")

He and other officers used a sleeping potion developed by the police forensics lab to drug two suspected ANC members and then shot them in the head with a 9-millimeter Makarov pistol equipped with a silencer, burned the bodies and tossed the ashes into a river.

A bomb used to blow up the ANC offices in London in 1982 was smuggled into Britain in the South African Embassy's diplomatic pouch.

Police Maj. Gen. Stadler has portrayed the claims as the "wild and untested allegations" of a Death Row inmate trying to save his life and a disgruntled white police officer who was suspended from the force.

Coetzee, who suffers from diabetes, was allowed to retire early and keep his rank after his conviction at a departmental hearing on charges of sending a telephone-tapping report to political opponents of the government and asking a fellow officer to help him bring $150,000 illegally into the country.

Coetzee told Vrye Weekblad that he decided to leave the country and admit his role in the police hit squad because "I have no future in South Africa. I owe it to my wife and children to begin a new life."

For his role in the assassinations and bombings, he said, "I think of myself with contempt."

HUMAN RIGHTS -- SOUTH AFRICA; APARTHEID; SOUTH AFRICA -- REVOLTS; POLICE -- SOUTH AFRICA; INFORMERS; DEATH SQUADS; SOUTH AFRICA -- GOVERNMENT; POLITICAL ACTIVISM