The Pittsburgh Press from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 6

A6 The Pittsburgh Press Friday, May 18. 1990 Japanese Van Gogh buyer gets a Renoir for $78. 1 million TOKYO (AP) A Japanese tycoon, who once sold i large part of his Tt collection to help his ailing company, returned to the -market thisweek purchase the world's twoTbiost expensive paintings. Industrialist Ryoei Saito con-fimad today that he nad bought Renoir's "As Moulin de la Galette" yesMrday for 171-1 million at an auction at Sotheby's in New York. Van Gogh's "Portrait of Dr.

Cachet" was purchased Tuesday by the Kobayashi Gallery of Tokyo for Saito, 74, chairman emeritus of the Daishowa Paper Manufacturing Co. Saito told The Associated Press in a telephone interview today that he had not expected to win the auctions. "They are world-class, wonderful works," he said. Before the Renoir sale, five of the 11 most expensive paintings sold at auction had been bought by Japanese bidders. The somber portrait by Vincent Van Gogh of his doctor was sold for 82 .5 million the highest purchase price ever paid at auction for a single painting.

Saito was president of Daishowa between 1971 and 1982 and is said to remain its de facto leader. Newspapers said two of his children are president and chairman of the company. His younger brother is state governor of Shiruoka prefecture, where the Saito clan lives and Daishowa has one of its corporate headquar ters. Japanese newspapers said Saito Elans to borrow on his considerable ind holdings to pay for the two paintings. He often is listed among Japan's richest men.

According to the Yo-miuri Shimbun newspaper, Saito paid more than $5 million in taxes last year. Known as a veteran art collector, Saito amassed a substantial collection during the postwar era. However, he sold many of the works after the oil shocks of the 1970s, when his paper concern hit bad times. Profits since have revived, Japanese newspapers said, enabling him to indulge in his favorite hobby. 11 117 West End bridge project jp oiniii PennDot's rendition of the $46 million rehabilitation of the West End Bridge, scheduled to be finished in October 1991: i Fort Duquesne Bridge Fort Duquesne Bridge surger called success" 0H1Q RIVER I To and from 1-279.

WEST END BRIDGE Th Pittsburgh Press parking on nearby residential streets. Consequently, the Pirates are encouraging stadium-goers to park Downtown and walk or ride special Port Authority Transit buses for 45 cents a trip, and use Allegheny Center Mall, where parking prices are reduced to $2 by snowing a game ticket. PennDot's Skrinjar said he expected far greater problems for Steeler games and special events, like the city's Fourth of July fireworks on July 3, and the annual Three Rivers Regatta. "They bring the biggest crowds, and a lot of out-of-towners. But they don't happen as often as the Pirates." merger East and West Germany is the crowning achievement so far of Kohl's fast-forward unification efforts.

Under provisions of the document, East Germany will get massive assistance from West Germany in exchange for scrapping its moribund centrally planned economy and adopting capitalist principles. Germany rial to slain police officers. He will attend a Portland fund-raising breakfast Monday for gubernatorial candidate Dave Frohnmayer. The president wraps up the trip in Los Angeles where he will honor a Culver City neighborhood watch group and attend a state GOP fund-raising event. nm I Bridge Jrom Pag A I Three Rivers Stadium and Ttie bridge was supposed to be closed in January, but PennDot experienced setbacks.

They included the -discovery of uncharted utility lines that needed to be relocated, and delays in the fabrication of steel needed for various repairs on ramps amMhe bridge superstructure. 7H there is good news, it's the fact thai-the scheduled closing of the bridge has been reduced from 18 months to 16 months," Skrinjar said, putting completion of the project in October 1991. rflere are some of the special steps being taken for the West End Bridge-Otllg River Boulevard project: Two German nations sign economic ers to find "what works best for them," Skrinjar said occasional users, visitors and trucks are mostly likely to follow posted detours. He said specific detours and other information will be announced after this week's meeting to determine traffic strategies and the deployment of police. Although the West End Bridge is a short distance from Three Rivers Stadium, it has not been a popular way to get there.

As a result, Richard Andersen, vice president of operations and administration for the Pittsburgh Baseball Club, does not expect the closing to discourage attendance at Pirate games over two seasons. "While we think West End Bridge Maiziere, the finance ministers of the two merging nations signed the treaty inside the federal government's opulent Palais Schaumburg. "We have come here together to sign a treaty after 45 years of painful division, a treaty with which we are completing the first significant step toward the restoration of Germany's state unity," Kohl said. and the Warsaw Pact. Kohl said his nation's choice "is and will always be" NATO, but he urged that the alliance concentrate more on its political role rather than its military one.

Bush today was starting a four-day, cross-country trip. He travels tonight to Dallas for a Republican West Germany (AP) -The two German nations today signed a historic treaty that will make them a single economic entity lit less than seven weeks and introduce fragile East Germany to the rigors of capitalism. The signing means that as of July 2, when the treaty takes effect, the four-decade division of Germany WASHINGTON (AP) Physicians are pleased with the progress of freed hostage Robert Polhill, whose cancerous vocal cords were surgically removed, a spokesman for Walter Reed Army Medical Center said today. Polhill was resting in an intensive care unit at the medical center the day after a four-hour operation characterized by surgeons as successful. His next challenge is learning- to speak with no voice box.

"His condition is listed as good," said Jim Stueve, a spokesman' for Walter Reed. "We will continue to monitor him closely because of his diabetes. Physicians are generally pleased with his progress." Polhill's wife, Ferial, and mother, Ruth, waited at the hospital during the operation and were with him afterward. The former hostage, whowas released by Shiite Moslems kidnappers last month after 39 month) in captivity in Lebanon, was expected to remain in intensive care for some time because he is diabetic. Polhill, 55, could speak barely above a whisper when he arrived in the United States on April 27.

a warning sign of larynx canceri The business and accounting professor had lost 25 pounds while in captivity. Physicians waited last week to perform a biopsy so that he could regain the weights and strength needed for general anesthesia. The tumor probably had been growing at least a year when If Was diagnosed, Coi. Russ Zajtchuk, deputy commander of clinical services at the Army hospital, said in disclosing Polhill's cancer Wednesday. Larynx cancer is related to smoking, and Polhill was a cigarette smoker who continued the habit while in captivity, Zajtchuk said.

"Cancer of the larynx is such a preventable disease," said Abramson, chairman of the otolaryngology department of the Long island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, N.Y. "If a person does not smoke, they can decrease the likelihood of developing cancer of the larynx by greater than 99 percent." Four of five larynx cancer victims were male and almost all were smokers or former smokers, Abramson said. Polhill must still undergo radiation therapy and will have to learn how to communicate without a voice box, Zajtchuk said. Abramson said there are three options for laryngectomy patients: An electronic device the patient puts against his neck to transform the movement inside into a metallic-sounding voice. Esophageal speech, involving use of air pushed up from the stomach to vibrate in a way that produces a gutteral-sounding speech.

Surgery to insert a breathing valve in the throat, against which air vibrates and produces a sound similar to the human voice. declined to say. Asked specifically whether syphilis and gonofThea would be considered communicable diseases, he replied: "You hive to use a little common sense. You-have to understand how an individual's general presence in a roomcould create a hazard for an individual." Unlike syphilis and gonorrhea, Hedgepeth said, AIDS codlcf be transmitted in ways "other'than sexual contact." (Philadelphia Inquirerdistributed by house in Agua Prieta, 73 feet south of the fence-that separates the border cities'," Ms. Turner said.

The house featured a compressor-operated system of hydraulic, Jacks that raised and lowered the entire floor of the structure for entrance to the tunnel. 2 "It was just an exceptionally, professionally engineered tunnel. It was something that you and I in the ordinary world would only find in the movies. It was like something out of a James Bond movie. "It also points up the fact of why the Southwest border is considered such a high intensity drug-trafficking area," Ms.

Turner said. Out of 730 pages of engineering blueprints involved with the project, 96 relate exclusively to the maintenance and protection of traffic. Plans call for 1,400 signs and 120 traffic signals. The signs will be erected as far away as Carnegie. PennDot has set aside $1.7 million for traffic control plans, including $631,000 to hire off-duty police $1,800 every weekday over the course of the project.

By mid-June, PennDot will have 90,000 informational brochures available. Some will be mailed to residents and businesses; others will be available at Three Rivers Stadiums and through PennDot. While PennDot expects commut will come to an end in many ways. However, the thorny issue of the military status of a united Germany remains to be resolved, especially the Soviet Union's rejection of proposed NATO membership for the new Germany. Flanked by West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and East German Prime Minister Lothar de with allied leaders before his summit with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in two weeks.

The president insisted that Germany should not be singled out for special status by the Soviet Union, which wants a unified Germany to be neutral or a member of both the North Atlantic Treaty Organization communicable diseases could have their cases reassigned to other case-workers under the same policy. The policy, scheduled to go into effect next week, is under review as a result of criticism by the American Civil Liberties Foundation of Pennsylvania, said LeRoy Hedgepeth, a Welfare Department spokesman. In a letter, the ACLF argued that the policy violated individuals' constitutional right to privacy. "The scarlet letter 'C will stigmatize each client whose folder is so is a great route, we have not promoted its use, knowing that it would be going down for repairs," he said. "While we think the impact will be minimal, we think the long-term advantage of the project is maximum." Andersen said Pirate officials, along with ones from the Steelers and the Stadium Authority, have participated in meetings with PennDot and city representatives for nearly two years.

He said Pirate officials are more concerned with the loss of about 900 parking spaces in the immediate vicinity because of construction of a new Buhl Science Center and Interstate 279 pillars in stadium parking lots, and the city putting permit De Maiziere said that not all "flowery dreams" of East Germans will be fulfilled with the treaty. "But no one will be worse off than before." "Which other country gets such a good starting position as we with this treaty?" The so-called state treaty between fund-raising dinner that will be attended by embattled GOP gubernatorial candidate Clayton Williams. Tomorrow, he will participate in a golf tournament in Houston, then give the commencement address at the University of Texas in Austin. On Sunday, Bush will be in Portland, to help dedicate a memo Although the department memorandum, dated Feb. 20, repeatedly uses the term "communicable disease," AIDS is the the only disease that is specifically mentioned.

For example, each of the five hotline telephone numbers listed is for information on AIDS or AZT, the drug most commonly used to treat AIDS. The memorandum explains that the policy was adopted because "even though employees who work in an office setting are not considered in a high-risk group for transmission protests Bush, Kohl insist on NATO membership for WASHINGTON (AP) With German reunification looming as an Important topic for the U.S.-Soviet summit. President Bush and West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl are reasserting demands that a unified Germany join the NATQ alliance. Bush met with Kohl; yesterday, wrapping up a series of consultations Files of state welfare recipients with AIDS may get scarlet letter marked, and will disclose confidential medical information to every person who opens the folder," Scott Burris, a staff attorney with the ACLF, wrote Department of Public Welfare Secretary John F. White Jr.

The department is trying to address the ACLF's concerns while still protecting state employees, Hedgepeth said. "Obviously, there has to be some kind of way for one caseworker to let another caseworker know that caution should be taken," Hedgepeth said. of communicable diseases, there is a general concern for the welfare of the employees." The employees are caseworkers who visit the homes of people who receive medical assistance, public assistance and food stamps. The policy was developed by the Department of Public Welfare in consultation with labor unions, the Oflice of Personnel and the Health Department, Hedgepeth said. Asked what other diseases would fall under the guidelines, Hedgepeth Prof newt errlcet PHILADELPHIA The files of persons with AIDS or other communicable diseases who get Pennsylvania" medical or welfare benefits would be marked with a big red letter under proposed state guidelines designed to protect caseworkers from diseases, according to a Department of Public Welfare memorandum.

Caseworkers who do not want to visit persons with AIDS or other Drug-smuggling found at Mexican border i Killer executed despite world opponents outside the Governor's Mansion in Baton Rouge and another by supporters outside the penitentiary's main gate. Gov. Buddy Roemer had said he would not stop the execution. Twice in the past year Roemer rejected his own hand-picked Pardon Board's recommendations that he commute the sentence to life in prison. "I'm never happy with these things, but I do not, as a representative of the people, have a choice," said Roemer.

Prejean, 30, acknowledged he shot the trooper but said it would not serve justice to execute him. Not since the earliest of executions in the 1970s has a pending death sentence brought so much protest. Defense lawyers said Prejean had an IQ of 71, barely above retardation. Doctors said he suffered brain damage as a child, apparently at the hands of an abusive aunt who raised him. "I doubt that in documented recent world history there is an execution that has such a pile of reasons not to do it," said Steve Herrick of Amnesty International.

The National Association of Black Police Officers went on record against Prejean's execution, as did the American Civil Liberties Union and many other civil rights groups. In Strassbourg, France, the European Parliament yesterday called for commutation of Prejean's death sentence and a review of the evidence in his case. Prejean was 14 when he killed a taxi driver and 17 when, after a stint in reform school, he gunned down state trooper Donald Cleveland. ANGOLA, La. AP) A two-time killer who a Louisiana state trooper to death was "executed early today despite international that he was nearly mentally retarded a teenager at the time of the crime.

Dalton Prejean had won 10 previous delays of scheduled executions. The U.S. Supreme Court voted 7-2 last night to deny a stay for Prejean. Warden John Whitley said Prejean had been "relatively calm" throughout the day. Prejean's execution, was the nation's third in "ZZ 24 hours.

Texas and Missouri each executed killers early yesterday. His death was the 128th in the nation; and the 19th in Louisiana, since capital punishment resumed in 1977. There were two small protests prior to Prejean's execution one by death penalty DOUGLAS, Ariz. (AP) Federal agents who suspected that smugglers had developed an underground pipeline crossing the Mexican border found a tunnel today "like something out of a James Bond movie," a Customs spokeswoman said. The tunnel was about the length of a football field and 30 feet underground, Judy Turner, a Customs spokeswoman in Houston, said.

She said it was 5 feet high, 4 feet wide, well lighted and had concrete piers for support. At various points were compartments where up to five tons of drugs could be stashed. One entrance was in a Douglas warehouse about 200 feet north of the border, and the other was in a.