Skip to main content
The largest online newspaper archiveArchive Home
The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 12
A Publisher Extra® Newspaper

The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 12

Publication:
The Guardiani
Location:
London, Greater London, England
Issue Date:
Page:
12
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

THB ratAPnTAKT- Wednesday October 11 1989 Explosion in space could cause an 'accident worse than Chernobyl' NucOear pirottestieirs flake Jy pSftec mSssDomi to courft 12 INTERNATIONAL NEWS Simon TtsdaM In Washington Security has been stepped up as a result of the disruption threats, with more than 200 security guards armed with M-16 assault rifles and semi-automatic pistols on patrol. As the court case proceeded, and the official countdown commenced, technicians were fighting against time to ready the shuttle for lift-off during a 10-minute "window" on Thursday. Engineers reported problems with one of the shuttle's three main engines, centred on faulty fuel pressure readings. If the part had to be replaced, the delay could last several days, according to Mike Leinbach, the shuttle test director. A decision was not expected until late last night or today, but meanwhile, the shuttle's five astronauts continued preparations for blast-off.

The Galileo probe is named safety measures. Voyager II, which visited Neptune in August, was RTG-powered. Galileo has two RTGs. Opponents pointed out that this will be the first launch of a probe aboard a space shuttle, recalling the Challenger disaster of 1986. Nasa has conceded that three nuclear-powered spacecraft failed in previous missions and re-entered the Earth's atmosphere.

Galileo is being launched aboard Atlantis because Nasa lacks a booster, rocket powerful enough for a direct flight The anti-nuclear groups said that if the court case was lost, they would attempt to prevent the launch by direct action at the launch-site. Yesterday, about 25 people held a mock countdown at Cape Canaveral and collapsed, feigning death, after one of the group sprinkled plutonium-like white powder over them. Lawyers representing the activists told US District judge, Oliver Gasch, that Galileo's six-year flight plan, which includes two Earth "fly-bys" in 1990 and 1992, posed potential contamination problems from the accidental re-entry of the probe into the Earth's atmosphere. "If you had an explosion and dispersal of that plutonium you would have ah accident worse than Chernobyl," one of the launch opponents, Lanny Sinkin, said yesterday. Nasa has denied that the plutonium, which will provide 285 watts of electricity for the unmanned craft, poses a hazard and puts the chance of an accident at one in two million.

Twenty-two such plutonium-powered vehicles the technical name for the power-pack is a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) have been launched without incident and $50 million has been spent on THE scheduled launch of Nasa's $1 billion Galileo space probe to Jupiter tomorrow experienced double jeopardy yesterday as anti-nuclear groups began court action to stop the launch and Nasa engineers struggled to overcome a space shuttle engine problem. Three anti-nuclear groups, led by the Florida Coalition for Peace and Justice, claimed that the 491bs of plutonium contained in the probe's power-pack could produce a rain of radioactive debris over Florida, causing thousands of cancer 'deaths, should anything go wrong with the launch. Galileo, described as the most advanced interplanetary spacecraft produced, will be carried into space aboard the space shuttle, Atlantis. Anti-abortionists seek victory in Florida consent before a teenage girl can be given an abortion; and ruled that all women have a right to an abortion under the state's constitutional right to privacy. Activists from both sides of the argument were campaigning in Tallahassee yesterday.

Pro-choice campaigners had bombarded every state lawmaker with the results of polls showing most women in favour of abortion. The local politicians had also been left in no doubt that the pro-choice movement had the organisation and the electoral muscle to hurt anti-abortion legislators at the polls. "We are preparing for an uncivil war in Florida over anti-abortion and pro-choice candidates," warned Patricia Ireland, of the National Organisation for Women. Abortion is swiftly joining drugs as the big domestic issue of US politics. In the first television debate between the candidates for the governorship of Virginia, abortion was the overwhelming issue.

Mr Rezso Nyers (right), the new party president, listens to Mr Laszlo Kovacs, his supplicant foreign secretary of state Rivals round on on doodling charge Susan Vlets In Budapest THE opposition was yesterday unimpressed with the emergence of the new Hungarian Socialist Party, claiming that it had made too many compromises. It said the party would suffer at the free elections scheduled for the spring. Mr Mihaly Bi-hari, a Communist Party member expelled- last year for attending an opposition meeting, said the compromise engineered by Mr Nyers would not hold together for long. Criticism followed the end of the four-day congress which, in its final hour, voted to disarm the Workers' Militia and make it a non-party body. While an alter tne man wno ojscoverea Jupiter's four major moons.

Banker delights in lack of dogma Jonathan Steele In Moscow THE chairman of the United States Federal Reserve Bank, Dr Alan Greenspan, ended a round of talks with Soviet bankers and economists yesterday, apparently delighted with the lack of ideological dogmatism in their discussions. "I was surprised at how thoughtful they were in trying to reach out to other ideas," he said. "We stand ready to give advice on techniques." The US banker's visit coincided with a debate on prices in the Soviet parliament, at which the divisions in official thinking came into full public view. Dr Greenspan intervened delicately at his press conference, debunking the conventional wisdom of many Western analysts who argue that the Soviet economy cannot be reformed unless price subsidies are immediately lifted. "It is better to get your macro-economic issues Tight first.

Remove the currency restore financial equilibrium and reduce monopolies, before you try to go to full price competition," he advised. Dr Greenspan said he thought his hosts, who included Mr Viktor Gerashchenko. the chairman of the Soviet State Bank, and Mr Leonid Abalkin, a deputy prime minister, were "trying to determine whether Western economic ideas are applicable to specific problems. I don't think they want to take on the whole Western structure." He conceded that it felt a bit odd at first to be talking to Soviet bankers at their invitation. "If I hadn't felt odd, I would be peculiar," he joked.

He refused to be drawn on whether the Soviet economy was in crisis. He rejected the view that market reforms are incompatible with administrative controls, pointing to US wartime experience of rationing and a command economy. He stressed that absorbing excess liquidity was-crucial and one way to do this was to use long term debt instruments. The Soviet Government has already announced plans to offer government securities and pay people higher rates for long term savings deposits. The Prime Minister, Mr Nikolai Ryzhkov, outlined to parliament yesterday the extent of inflationary pressures in the economy.

Incomes had risen by 12.3 per cent in the first nine months of this year, compared with the same period in 1988. He said he was caught between two sets of pressures: those who wanted market relations to be given full play and those who wanted to freeze the system. Both were unacceptable. Under market conditions, the present rate of inflation would be increased ten times, while doing nothing would economic reform. The Democratic candidate, Mr Douglas Wilder, is devoting the bulk of his television advertisements to a solemn warning that his opponent is "trying to take away a woman's right to Thrown on to the defensive, his Republican opponent, Mr Marshall Coleman, was reduced to accusing Mr Wilder of "trying to fan the flames of fear," although he sidesteps questions on whether he as governor would veto any new laws to restrict abortion.

Meanwhile, the US Supreme Court, which is now seen to have a clear conservative tilt after judicious appointments by Mr Reagan, is facing three new cases which threaten to tighten the rules around abortion still further. Mr Martinez became the first state governor to convene- a special session of the legislature to debate new abortion laws, and local commentators suggest his decision was taken with an eye to his reelectioiiih the face of sagging opinion polls. The chairman of Izmir human rights association; Dr Alparslan Berktay, welcomed the decision, but said that it had been made because of MC's age, rather than in defence of freedom of thought. "The laws in question still hang over people like a sword of Damocles," he said. Clauses in the Turkish penal code ban the formation of a Communist party or spreading Communist propaganda.

They also ban the founding of an Islamic fundamentalist party. Both the Prime Minister and President have said the relevant clauses should be abolished. drid for a bloody bomb attack which caused 21 deaths, was sentenced yesterday to 11 years in jail for two earlier outrages, writes Jane Walker in Madrid. Strike suspended The People's Front of Azerbaijan yesterday suspended until October 23 a rail strike that has cut off supplies to neighbouring Armenia. AP.

Chile exile returns The former Communist Party leader, Mr Luis Corvalan returned to Chile yesterday from exile and declared support for the opposition's presidential candidate. AP. Havel birthday greeting The Czechoslovak Communist newspaper unwittingly printed birthday greetings last weekend to the dissident playwright, Mr Vaclav Havel. His friends sent the message in the name of the autobiographical character in his plays. Reuter.

Martin Waiter In Washington TENS of thousands of anti-abortion demonstrators gathered outside the state legislature in Tallahassee yesterday as Florida became the first state to take up the issue since the US Supreme Court gave the individual states authority to restrict abortion. The fiercely anti-abortionist Governor Bob Martinez was claiming a victory yesterday, on the ground that he had forced a debate on abortion. But the signs were that the Florida legislature would avoid a vote, after polls showed most Florida voters were against any tightening of the abortion laws. The anti-abortion forces have been hit by a series of defeats in recent days. The Supreme Court yesterday upheld a racketeering conviction against anti-abortion protesters who conspired to harass and close an abortion clinic.

The Florida Supreme Court last week struck down a bill that would require parental Boy freed lana Howard In Ankara A TURKISH court has acquitted a schoolboy of spreading Communist propaganda by drawing a hammer and sickle on his schoolbooks in a case seen as a test of the Turkish Government's stated desire to allow greater freedom of thought. "Little MC," as the Turkish press calls him to protect his identity, was denounced by his headteacher one year ago and has been suspended from school ever since. He was accused of drawing Communist graffiti on his books and desk and discussing leftwing youth leaders. News in brief Bush to attend drugs summit President George Bush on Tuesday accepted an invitation from the leaders of Bolivia, Colombia and Peru to attend a summit within the next 90 days on the growing drug trade. The White House said it would be in contact with the three countries, who supply virtually all the illegal cocaine sold in the United States and Europe, to determine a date and place.

Reuter. Britain 'scoring points' The Soviet spokesman, Mr Gen-nady Gerasimov, yesterday accused Britain of scoring propaganda points by cancelling a human rights mission due to visit Moscow this week, Jonathan Steele writes from. Moscow. Britain pulled out after the Soviet Union refused a visa to the director of a centre on religion in Communist countries. The most radical change in the East bloc since the second world war party minutes of the congress reformers tried to raise the issue again but were roundly defeated.

Mr Gabor Roszik, an opposition MPr yesterday announced that his group, the Hungarian Democratic Forum will oppose Mr Pozsgay as candidate for the presidential elections and that the opposition might field a joint candidate. Mr Roszik also denied that the Forum would enter into a coalition with the HSP before the multi-party elections. Yesterday the small opposition October Party announced that Mr Sandor Racz will be their candidate for the presidential elections. Mr Racz headed the main workers' council in the 1956 uprising. few months ago, conducted himself with a good degree of dignity.

The other leading Communist, Mr Janos Berecz, by contrast presented a dismal picture. Although both have said that they do not intend to register as members of the new party and remain Communists, they have still not stated unequivocally that they are setting up a new party. And simply by sitting still in the Communist-turned Socialist Party, they can create mischief and fuel rows in the new leadership by their very presence. One of the final acts of the congress witnessed an orthodox Communist taking the rostrum to demand the formation of a solid leftwing platform within the Socialist Party, The reformers would much prefer to see the Communists split altogether, so as to leave the Socialist Party with a more clearly focused image. The danger is that Mr Nyers, by going for compromise, has tried to please everyone and ended up pleasing hardly anyone.

The Hungarian Communist Party says its farewells to the old Stalinist dogmas. Ian Traynor reports from Budapest The 15-year-old spent more than three months in jail during his trial and another month in medical custody undergoing psychiatric tests before being released. Reports showed that while he was mentally sound, MC had received a culture shock on coming to Turkey he previously lived in West Germany and told the court that he was used to talking about whatever he wanted there. The state security court prosecutor in the western city of Izmir asked for a sentence of at least seven years, but the judge acquitted the boy without comment MC, now aged 16, fainted when he heard the verdict. Tigers offer amnesty Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers offered an amnesty to rival guerrillas yesterday and asked them to join the Tigers.

Meanwhile, the government said 11 more had died in political violence. Reuter. Help at hand Phoning for emergency help in Europe should be easier after 1992. One number 112 will get police, fire or ambulance in all 12 EC countries. Reuter.

Two killed In Colombia Two employees of the Colombian newspaper El Espectador, well known for opposing the cocaine cartels, were killed yesterday and 12 more bombs exploded in the latest violence in the drug war. Reuter. Basque bomber Jailed A self-confessed Basque terrorist, Josefina Ernaga, on trial and awaiting sentence in Ma Hungary tober 23, the day marking the start of the 1956 uprising, be a national holiday. Parliament will decide on this next week and preparations are now going ahead for the first public celebrations of the uprising. The event is expected to attract tens of thousands.

Mr Bihari said yesterday that the HSP "cannot be held together for long because there are directly clashing He said a congress decision to keep party cells at the workplaces is indicative of the split in the newly elected 24-man praesidium. Mr Nyers, the party president, voted for the cells, while his praesidium colleagues, Mr Imre Pozsgay, Mr Miklos Nemeth and Mr Gyula Horn voted against. In. the last transition both of the system and of the party itself are the Spanish and Portugese experiences in the post-Franco and post-Salazar upheavals. The new party is also keen on citing the West German and Swedish Social Democratic parties as models.

The basis of the new system is to be a new constitution, currently being drafted, which will enshrine the primacy of parliament and definitely separate the party from the state. On the economy, the new party urges an end to overweening state control, proposing a "social market economy of mixed This is likely to lead to extensive privatisation, closure of loss-making firms, and considerable unemployment. But, despite Mr Nyers's apparent tactic over the four-day congress of seeking to keep as many of the old members as possible in the new party, the ideological contours leave the old Communists looking increasingly desolate and with little reason to stay. If roundly defeated at the congress, Mr Karoly Grosz, the party leader until only a COMPANY PRODUCT important step, this falls short of opposition demands to disband the organisation and will remain a sharp issue of debate. The Workers' Militia is now under government control.

The party also voted to hand back some of its much disputed property, but accepted the softer of two proposals. They have agreed to register their assets and to hand back property they do not need, which will undoubtedly include lavish holiday resorts. They rejected a proposal to pass all party property over to a parliamentary committee and will still face a barrage of criticism on this issue from the opposition. The congress also agreed to propose to parliament that Oc torship of the Politburo either. The latter, formally known as democratic centralism, is replaced by a commitment to freedom of opinion and expression within the new party.

Mr Gorbachev has gone this far, too, with his advocacy of "socialist but the key difference is that the Hungarians have ab-dured any right to a "leading role" and committed themselves to a multi-party political system. "Our party will become a modern, leftwing socialist movement, as distinct from a state party, a political mass party controlled by its membership, one which stretches out its hand to all democratic and progressive Hungarian forces and considers itself an integral part of the European the new party statement proclaims. The analogies most frequently drawn here for the underlay. leadership elections I for Hungary's new I Socialist Party ranked as a victory for the moderate middle ground, of the party leader, Mr Rezso Nyers, against the more radical reformist wing in personal power terms, but in political philosophy terms the party's ditching of Communism as its guiding ideology is arguably the most radical statement from the ruling class in Eastern Europe since Stalin stamped his will on the region after the second world war. The new programme, rule book, and historical statement overwhelmingly endorsed by the emergency party congress that ended in the small hours of yesterday morning waved a not too fond farewell to the central dogmas, honed in Moscow, that have governed the region for the past 10 years.

No more dictatorship of the proletariat, no more dicta all ifc original comfort and luxury, year after year after year. So bring put the best tn your next carpet with isagates RUBBER Europe's best selling quality underlay. Only Tredaire is formulated to actually prolong carpet life by up to 40, working hard behind the scenes to make sure your carpet keeps Look at your carpet Is it wearing well or just well worn? It probably depends on whether you've given it the unique support and protection of Tredaire, Tredaire THE.

Get access to Newspapers.com

  • The largest online newspaper archive
  • 300+ newspapers from the 1700's - 2000's
  • Millions of additional pages added every month

Publisher Extra® Newspapers

  • Exclusive licensed content from premium publishers like the The Guardian
  • Archives through last month
  • Continually updated

About The Guardian Archive

Pages Available:
1,153,931
Years Available:
1821-2024