2A - The Michigan Daily - Monday, October 21, 1996 NATION/WORLD HOMECOMING Contintued from Page 1A The event, held in the lobby of the Power Center, was well-attended - both by those wearing masks and those without. -One student was impressed with the ball's agenda. "It was a lot better organized than ,last year," sajd LSA sophomore Kal Le Mar Evans. "It was more like a program fhan just a dance" -Tanya Mucholland, Engineering junior and Homecoming Planning Committee chair, said she was pleased with Homecoming, but looks to the future for even better festivi- dies. "I think there's always room for improvement. I think that everything we . did this year and everything we tried went well," Mucholland said. Japanese party makes gains Political party still must seek coalition rule TOKYO (AP) - Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto's conservative party completed a historic comeback yesterday, capturing almost half the seats in Japan's lower house of Parliament to secure a dominant place in government. The results of yesterday's election mean all but certain re-election for Hashimoto as prime minister and a return to glory for the Liberal Democratic Party, which governed Japan alone from 1955 to 1993 before falling amid a series of corruption scandals. Attention now turns to whether Hashimoto will keep his campaign promise to overhaul the bureaucracy - which dominates Japanese policymak- ing - by cutting the number of min- istries in half. Even as the results came in, Hashimoto appeared to be backing off from quick action, refusing to name the top priority of his new government. "I don't think it's a good idea to pluck out one and make that into the star product," the prime minister said. The Liberal Democrats won 239 of the 500 seats in Parliament's lower house, which chooses the prime minis- ter, the Japan Broadcasting Corp. reported. That's far better than their previous strength of 206 seats. But the party still lacks a majority in the upper house, which was not being chosen yesterday, so Hashimoto said his party plans once again to govern in a coalition. He said the Liberal Democrats will seek support from their current coali- tion partner, the Social Democratic Party, which holds a substantial bloc in the upper house but won only 15 lower- house seats. The No. 1 opposition New Frontier Party took 156 seats, while the liberal- leaning Democratic Party won 52, both slightly below their strength in the last parliament. The Communist Party took 26 seats, up from 15. Voter turnout reached a record low of just under 60 percent, down from the 67 percent mark set during the last election in 1993. The new parliament is expected to convene at the end of this month or in early November to select the prime minister. In foreign policy, the Liberal Democrats' dominance means contin- ued support for the Japan-U.S. security alliance. Hashimoto also has been hawkish as a negotiator in trade dis- putes with the United States. A0NA L REPORT More hiring than firing expected in '97 WASHINGTON - More companies plan to hire workers than plan to dismiss them in the coming year, according to a new survey by the American Managenent Association. The study, which surveyed human resources executives at 1,441 firms of vary- ing sizes around the country, found that only one in five companies plans to elim- inate jobs within the nine months, while nearly half of them plan to add jobs. 0 Corporate downsizing, primarily because of efforts to restructure and stream- line business operations, has been declining as some companies decide that staff cuts have not resulted in improved productivity and increased operating profits. Last year's survey found that about 30 percent of the firms planned job cuts. In 1994 25.8 percent of those surveyed predicted such plans, up from 22 percent in 1993. "Downsizing is no longer the dominant theme of change in the U.S. work force;' said Eric Rolfe Greenberg, director of management studies for the asso- ciation, which represents about 9,500 corporate members employing about one- quarter of the U.S. civilian work force. About 47 percent of association members are manufacturing enterprises, compared with 20 percent of all U.S. corpo tions. "Companies have learned that smaller is not necessarily better," Greenberg said. The Healing Force of Meditation Free public lecture by Dr. Matthew Raider, M.D. Dr. Matthew Raider. M.D. Wednesday 23 Oct. 7 PM at the Michigan Union 2nd FIr. Pendleton room. Dr. Raider practices Surat Shabd yoga and is a member of the Science of Spirituality under the direction of Sant Rajinder Singh. Dr. Raider is a graduate of the U. of M. Medical School. n addition to maintaining a private practice in geriatric and family medicine he holds a faculty position at the University of Connecticut Medical School. Dr. Raider has lectured extensively in the United States *and Canada on the subjects of meditation and health and meditation and the near death experience. r Don't Panic!! If you think you're pregnant... Call us-we listen, we care. PROBLEM PREGNANCY HELP 769-7283 Anytime, any day, 24 hours. Fully confidential Serving Students since 1970. Apartment fire kills three in Texas GARLAND, Texas - Fire spread through an apartment building before dawn yesterday, killing a woman and her two daughters, and forcing some residents to escape by jumping from their second-floor balconies. The fire at the Village of Eastgate Apartments in this Dallas suburb left 16 people homeless and residents com- plaining about smoke alarms that didn't work properly. Investigators were trying to deter- mine the cause of the blaze, which a resident said started in sofa in a main hallway of the two-story building. The dead were identified as Dorothy Chism and her two daughters, 9-year- old Danyell Powell and 11Iyear-old Creola Thompson. Fire officials said the girls came to the balcony with their mother but turned back. Ms. Chism, 42, who went back to find the girls, eventually escaped by jumping from the balcony but died later at a hospital from extensive burns. The girls' bodies were found in a bedroom. Rutha Barksdale, who lives in anoth- er building in the complex, said that after four recent fires, she has had enough. "This place is a death trap, and I'm going to move out of here as soon as possible," she said. Runway reopens after plane sisoif NEW YORK - Busy LaGuardia Airport reopened yesterday, a day after a jetliner smacked approach lights with its landing gear and slid down the run- way on its belly. The Delta Airlines plane, a McDonnell Douglas MD-80, w hauled off the end of the runway yester- day afternoon, though the runway remained closed. The airport's other runway reopened at about noon. Delta's Flight 554 arrived from Atlanta on Saturday as a severe storm was knocking power to thousands of customers in the region, flooding high- ways and homes and postponing the first game of the World Series. :;r,. ,..:r l.lli i.'. ::. ., . 4 A ND Nicaraguans elect new president MANAGUA, Nicaragua - Voters waited in long lines yesterday morning to pick a president and some 2,000 other public officials, with some polls opening hours late because of delayed ballot deliveries and other problems. All of the 9,000 polls across the country were to have opened at 7 a.m. Like many others sites, the precinct at the San Gabriel school had not opened by 8:30 a.m. because ballots were late. There are two front-runners for presi- dent among 23 candidates: leftist Daniel Ortega, of the Sandinista National Liberation Front, and conservative busi- ness executive and lawyer Arnoldo Aleman, of the Liberal Alliance. If no candidate gets 45 percent of the vote, a runoff election will be held between the top two. Whoever wins faces the difficult challenge of bringing Nicaragua out of the morass of unem- ployment and poverty that has plagued it for decades. Voters began lining up at 3 am. at the La Paz nursery school, one of several 0 R L polling spots visited by former President Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker, invited as elec- tion observers. Belgians protest criminal probes BRUSSELS, Belgium - Nearly 300,000 people, dressed in white and carrying white balloons and flowers, marched down the boulevards of Brussels yesterday to protest the work- ings of the Belgian justice system. In a largely peaceful demonstrati people from across Belgium and neigh- boring countries took more than four hours to walk the distance between the city's two train stations. Marchers brought their children and held aloft photos of the four murdered young girls whose deaths spawned the protest. By evening, some people had gathered silently outside the heavily guarded Brussels Palace of Justice, or courthouse. - Compiled from Daily wire reports. W" Goldman, Sachs & Co. invites University of Michigan undergraduates to explore the many- opportunities for professional growth within the firm. Monday, November 18, 1996 Opportunities in the Information Technology Department 6:30 p.m., pECS Building Casual Attire IThe Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday during the fall and winter terms by students at the University of Michigan. Subscriptions for fall term, starting in September, via U.S. mail are $85. Winter term (January through April) is $95, yearlong (September through April) is $165. On-campus sul scriptions for fall term are $35. Subscriptions must be prepaid. The Michigan Daily is a member of the Associated Press and the Associated Collegiate Press. ADDRESS: The Michigan Daily, 420 Maynard Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1327. PHONE NUMBERS (All area code 313): News 76-DAILY: Arts 763-0379; Sports 647-3336; Opinion 764-0552; Circulation 764-0558; Classified advertising 764-0557: Display advertising 764-0554; Billing 764-0550. E-mail letters to the editor to daily.letters@umich.edu. World Wide Web: http://www.pub.umich.edu/daily/. ~ ilI (1 ~ WI i 11 ~ ~T ?'e=11 1 IN N~hr.~~? IL cv vr n . a r+rr nvnn aataaauci6f GUltUl ll v1411ug J NEWS. Amy Klein, Managing Editor EDITORS Tim 0-Connell. Megan Schimpf, Michelle .ee Thompson. Josh White. y STAFF: Janet Adamy. Brian Campbell, Prachish Chakravorty, Anita Chik, Jodi S. Cohen, Jeff Eldridge, Bram Elias, Nick Farr. Jennifer #arvey, Heather Kamins. Jeff Kosseff, Marc Lightdale, Laurie Mayk, Heather Miller, Stephanie Powell, Anupama Reddy, Alice Robinson, Matthew Rochkind, David Rossman. Matthew Smart, Ann Stewart, Ajit K. Thavarajah, Christopher Wan, Katie Wang, Will Weissert, Jenni Yachnin. CALENDAR:Hope Calder. EDITORIAL Adrienne Janney, Zachary M. Raimi, Editors ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Erin Marsh. STAFF: Emily Achenbaum, Ellen Friedman, Samuel Goodstein, Katie Hutchins, Yuki Kuniyuki, Jim Lasser, David Levy. Christopher A. MoVet James Miller, Partha Mukhopadhyay, Steven Musto, Jack Schiilaci, Paul Serilla, Ron Steiger, Jason Stoffer, Mpatanishi Tayari, Matt. Wimsatt SPORTS Nicholas J. Cotsonika, Managing Editor EDITORS: Alan Goldenbach. John Leroi. Danielle Rumore, Barry Sollenberger. STAFF: Nancy Berger, T.J. Berka, Chris Farah, Jordan Field, John Friedberg, James Goldstein, Kim Hart, Kein Kasiborski. Andy Knudsen. WI McCahill, Sharat Raju, Pranay Reddy, Jim Rose, Richard Shin, Mark Snyder. Dan Stillman, Jacob Wheeler, Ryan White. ARTS Brian A. Gnatt, Joshua Rich, Editors WEEKEND, ETC. EDITORS: Greg Parker, Elan A. Stavros. SUB-EDITORS: Dean Bakopoulos (Fine Arts), Lise Harwin (Music), Tyler Patterson {Theater). Jen Petlinski (Film). STAFF: Colin Bartos, Eugene Bowen, Neal C. Carruth. Melanie Cohen, Kari Jones, Brian Kemp, Stephanie Jo Klein, Emily Lambert, Bryan Lark, Kristin Long, Elizabeth Lucas, James Miller, Heather Phaes, Ryan Posly, Aaron Rennie, Dave Snyder, Prashant Tamaskar, Ted Watts, Kely Xintais, Michael Zilberman. PHOTO Mark Friedman, Editor ASSISTANT EDITOR: Sara Stillman. STAFF: Josh Biggs, Jennifer Bradley-Swift, Bohdan Damian Cap. Aja Dekleva Cohen, Margaret Myers. Jully Park, Darmian Petrescu-.Kriste Schaefer, Jonathan Summer, Joe Westrate, Warren Zirn COPY DESK Elizabeth Lucas, Editor STAFF: Lydia Alspach, Jill Litwin, Heather Miller, Adreanne Mispelon, Anupama Reddy, Matt Spewak, David Ward, Jen Woodward, ONLINE Scott Wilcox, Editor STAFF: Dana Goldberg, Jeffrey Greenstein, Charles Harrison, Anuj Hasija. Adam Pollack, Vamshi Thandra, Anthony Zak. GRAPHICS Melanie Sherman, Editor r , +t z , i ' Y Fi {