Nicaragua
charges
jailed
American
MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) -
The Sandinista government yesterday
charged a jailed Illinois farmer with
violating public order and security
and accused him of having ties to
"the war of aggression" waged by the
Contra rebels.
j Government prosecutor Julio
Cabrera delivered the papers to a rev-
olutionary court in Managua.
Cabrera declined to read the
charges but told reporters that James
Denby was linked to the "war of ag-
gression" by the U.S.-supported
rebels and he was charged with vio-
lating public order and security and
criminal association.
Conviction on the charges carries
a jail term of up to 30 years.
: Denby, of Carlinville, Ill., was
taken into custody Dec. 6 after his
small Cessna plane was forced down
by Sandinista rifle fire in Nicaraguan
territory on the Caribbean coast near
the border with Costa Rica, where he
has a farm.
The leftist government has
claimed Denby is linked to the Con-
tras, which are backed and supplied
by the United States in a war against
:the ruling Sandinistas.
It was not immediately known
:when Denby's trial would start.
Denby's family and attorneys
claim he is innocent and that he flew
into Nicaraguan territory because of a
storm.
"The facts are that he was at the
-wrong place at the wrong time," said
-his brother, William Denby, an at-
torney from Carlinville, who spoke
to reporters outside the Anti-So-
mocista Popular Tribunal.
The revolutionary court was set
up after the Sandinistas came to
power in July 1979 to try national
guards who operated under the So-
moza dynasty that ruled in Nicaragua
for 42 years.
The imprisoned Denby was not
;present to hear the charges and the
family had no word from the gov-
ernment in response to requests to
see him.
Robert Swanson, a Los Angeles
attorney representing Denby, said the
Nicaraguans violated international
loiw by using 'deadly force" during a
storm.
"I have witnesses who are afraid to
come forward," Swanson said. He
said the Denby family filed a letter
:with the government's human rights
commission complaining that Denby
was held in an underground cell with
no light for 10 days, interrogated by
35 investigators and barred from ac-
cess to a lawyer for 10 days.
Marie Denby, the jailed man's
wife, arrived in Nicaragua Monday
night and delivered a prepared state-
ment to reporters outside the court.
fI
I ---I- I
The Michigan Daily-Wednesday, January 13, 1988- Page 3
M or airline
crashes, deaths
increase in
'87
M asked Doily Photo by ELLEN LEVY
First year graduate student Paul Rentschler, left, is blindfolded in order to "be deprived of one of my senses."
Rentschler, led around by first year graduate student Wil Cwikiel yesterday, is holding, tasting and smelling
snow as part of an environmental education course offered through the school of Natural Resources.
Federal courts will discontinue
intervention in custody cases
WASHINGTON (AP) - Major
U.S. airlines in 1987 had the highest
number of accidents in 13 years and
the most deaths in five years while
commuter carriers had their worst
safety record of this decade, the Na-
tional Transportation Safety Board
reported yesterday.
The board said the large airlines
had 31 accidents last year, including
four crashes involving fatalities, ac-
counting for 231 deaths. The com-
muter airlines, which fly smaller
planes, had 35 accidents and 58
deaths in 1987, the largest number
for that segment of the industry since
1979, when 66 people died.
The 31 accidents among the U.S.
airlines flying large jet aircraft was
the highest figure since 1974, when
the airlines had 42 accidents. The 231
fatalities were topped during the past
decade only by 1979, when 351 peo-
ple died, and 1982 when 233 were
killed, according to the board.
Airline industry officials sug-
gested, however, that the total acci-
dent and fatality figures are mislead-
ing.
They say the rate of accidents in-
volving fatalities - 0.043 per
100,000 departures - was lower in
1987 than in most years although
significantly higher than the rate in
1986 when there was only one fatal-
ity involving major U.S. air carriers.
"There were only six other years
since the beginning of safety regula-
tions in 1926 that had a lower (fatal
accident) rate," said William Bolger,
president of the Air Transport Asso-
ciation, which represents the major
air carriers.
Bolger said the airlines carried
more than 450 million passengers on
nearly 7 million flights during 1987
and that 17 of the 31 accidents in-
volved some sort of injury. The
NTSB counts an accidenlt whenever
there is a significant injury or aircraft
damage. Heavy turbulence in which
there is a significant injury is also
classified as an accident.
During 1987, the major airline
accident rate - covering fatal and
non-fatal accidents - was 0.43 per
100,000 departures compared with
0.31 the previous year, the safety
board said. The accident rate for
commuters was 1.43 per 100,000
departures, the highest since 1981.
The major airline accident figure
did not include the crash of a Pacific
Southwest Airlines jet Dec. 7 in
which the cause is believed to have
been a passenger firing a gun in the
cockpit. The PSA crash, which
claimed 43 lives, was included in the
NTSB's total accident and death fig-
ures, however.
The other major accidents during
the year were the crash of Northwest
Airlines jetliner Aug. 16 near De-
troit, killing 156 people; the crash of
a Continental Airlines DC-9 Nov. 15
in Denver, killing 28 people; and the
crash of a Buffalo Airways jet April
13 near Kansas City, killing all four
people aboard.
The most severe commuter acci-
dents were the crash of a Ryan Air
Service plane Nov. 23 near Homer,
Alaska, killing 18 people; the colli-
sion of a Sky West commuter with a
private plane Jan. 15 near Kearns,
Utah, killing 10 people; and the
crash during an attempted landing
March 4 near Detroit of a Northwest
AirLink commuter, killing nine
people.
Pilots of small private planes had
a fatal accident rate of 1.45 per
100,000 hours flown during the year,
the lowest in 10 years. It was the
fifth straight year of declining fatality
rates for so-called general aviation
aircraft.
The total number of fatalities
declined to a record low of 788 in
general aviation.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. Supreme Court
ruled yesterday that federal courts can offer no help in
resolving child-custody disputes that result in parental
kidnapping.
The attorneys. general of four states - California,
Hawaii, Nevada and Texas - had warned the high court
that such a ruling could spark even more kidnapping.
"The longer custody remains unresolved, the
greater... the parent's frustration increases, and self-help
becomes an increasingly attractive alternative," one
attorney general said.
Justice Thurgood Marshall wrote yesterday that
when Congress passed the Federal Parental Kidnapping
Prevention Act in 1980, it meant only to encourage
more cooperation between state courts, and did not
envision federal court intervention.
"Instructing the federal courts to play Solomon
where two state courts have issued conflicting custody
orders would entangle them in traditional state-law
questions that they have little expertise in," Marshall
said.
"This is a cost that Congress made clear it did not
want the (1980 law) to carry," he added.
Marshall acknowledged that "child snatching" is a
national problem, citing congressional estimates that
up to 100,000 children are kidnapped each year by
parents unable to obtain legal custody.
But Marshall said it is up to Congress to devise new
solutions if state courts refuse to cooperate as urged to
do in the 1980 law. "Any more radical approach to the
problem will have to await further legislation," he said.
Assembly calls for 'U to take
legal action against Steiner
(ContinuedfromPage1) said, "If he wants a war, he's got
tional racism hecause all of the one."
power in it goes back to the white
male deans who make the decisions,"
Phillips said.
The resolution, submitted by the
assembly's Student Rights
Committee, also urges students to
rally and speak against the code,
mainly at Thursday's 3:30 p.m. rally
and University's Board of Regents
meeting.
Amid discussion on Fleming's
draft as a direct challenge for students
to oppose a code, School of Business
Administration Rep. Jon Bhushan
TH IS
What's happening in Ann Arbor today
Campus Cinema
Snow Country (Shiro Toyoda
1957), Michigan Theater 9:00
p.m.
Love affair between an artist and a
geisha, based on a story by
Yasunari Kawabata. In Japanese
with subtitles.
Tampopo (Juzo Itami
1987),Michigan Theater 6:40
p.m.
The title character (the n a m e
means "Dandelion" in Japanese)
enlists the aid of two truck drivers
to bolster the sagging fortunes of
her noodle restaurant. Wicked
satire of commercialism and filmic
conventions, including standard
narrative forms. In Japanese with
subtitles.
Meetings
SWING - Student Women's
Initiative Group general meeting,
10 p.m. 3909 Michigan Union.
Wildlife Society - meeting
7:30 p.m., room 1046 Natural
Resources Building.
LSA Student Government -
weekly council meeting, 6 p.m.
3rd floor chambers, Michigan
Union.
U of M Outing Club -
Speakers
Women In Science -
"Women in Medical School: The
Female Experience." noon,
Conference Room 4, Michigan
League. Tray lunch from cafeteria
or take a brown bag.
Linda Souve - Women in
Communications, Inc. Kickoff. 7
p.m., Anderson Room, Michigan'
Union.
John-Paul Himka - Religion
and Nationality: Aspects of Their
Conflict in 19th Century Eastern
Europe. noon, Commons Room,
Lane Hall. Brown Bag luncheon.
Dr. Philip S a v i c k a s -
"Elemental Analysis by Mass
Spectometry." 4 p.m., room
1200, Chemistry Building.
Furthermore
Chabad House - study group
on the laws of the Jewish Holiday
cycle. 4:30 p.m., 715 Hill. Also,
prayer study group, 8 p.m.
In addition, the Assembly agreed
to allocate $650 which will be used
to make an anti-code commercial for
Ann Arbor's community access
television channel.
Also last night, the assembly
unanimously passed a second
resolution demanding the regents
"pursue legal recourse" against LSA
Dean Peter Steiner because of
remarks he made in Michigan
Bulletin magazine and at last
September's LSA department
meeting.
The minutes of the closed
meeting, publicized by news
organizations last weekend, record
Steiner's remarks on affirmative
POLICE
NOTES
Armed Robbery
Ann Arbor police are investigat-
ing an armed robbery that occured
last night at The Wolverine Adult
Entertainment store at 215 4th
Street, said Sgt. Jan Suomala. Po-
lice are searching for the suspect, a
college-age male, who entered the
store with a gun in his hand and
forced an employee to give him an
undetermined amount of cash. The
suspect was wearing a full face ski
mask.
Break In
Ann Arbor police report a campus
break in occured on Sunday, Jan. 10
at 1900 Geddes. Sgt. Jan Suomala
said a window was broken, but
nothing was reported stolen.
--by Melissa Ramsdell
KINKO'S
HAS 3-RING BINDERS
1"-$1.59
I
NOW THAT VACATION IS OVER...
Michigan Balfour House.
(c ,
action policies at the University. In
part of his speech, he said, "Our
challenge is not to change this
University (into) another kind of
institution where minorities flock in
much greater numbers."
The resolution on Steiner, alsc
introduced by Phillips, called
Steiner's comments examples of
"institutional racism" which create a
"racially unsafe and disruptive
educational environment." The
resolution also states Steiner's
comments violate the 1964 Civil
Rights Act in which United States
citizens cannot be discriminated
against in federally-funded programs.
The University receives money from
the federal government.
Phillips said Steiner's remarks
as well as low numbers of minority
studentseand faculty in LSA, indicate
that he is not upholding the
University's Affirmative Action
policy. "He's saying, 'I don't care
about our Affirmative Action
attempts here," Phillips said. "The
University should remove him from
office."
Sales and
Tra ding
Security Pacific Merchant Bank, one of
the industry leaders, offers second year
MBA candidates exciting career options
in the fast-paced, high-intensity envi-
ronment of Government Securities In-
stitutional Sales and Trading.
Sign up for our OPEN BID
Interview Schedule
to be conducted on
Thursday, January 28th.
7 SECURITY PACIFIC
MERCHANT BANK
Security Pacific Corporation is an Equal Opportunity Employer
Welcomes you back with
*20 to 50%0 off
ALL Michigan items and
select Greek items.
Announcement
University Health
close from 8 a.m.
in-service training.
- The
Service will
to 9 a.m. for