Albuquerque Journal from Albuquerque, New Mexico • Page 2

A2 ALMJQUERQUE JOUltNAL Monday, January 31, 199 1 TODAY'S BRIEFING It a. extremists who have threatened war. Japan May Have Bomb Parts LONDON Japan has all parts for a nuclear bomb and may have built one, a London newspaper cites a British defense ministry report as saying. The Sunday Times cited the report as saying Japan "has the expertise to go nuclear very quickly." The paper said the report emphasizes there's no evidence Japan abandoned its non-nuclear stance. In Tokyo, Defense Agency spokesman, Takahiro Goto, said: "We have maintained our principles that 4 -7-1 Feds May Lay Off Thousands WASHINGTON The federal government may lay off thousands of federal workers later this year unless Congress approves an employee buyout plan to prompt voluntary departures, officials say.

The Clinton administration has wanted to offer workers as much as $25,000 apiece as an incentive to take early retirement or otherwise voluntarily leave their jobs. So far, Congress has refused to provide money for the program. The legislation stalled last year after the Congressional Budget Office estimated it would cost as much as $519 million over the next five years, largely because of higher pension costs. A spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget said "reductions in force," as the government calls layoffs, are a last resort. Chernobyl Findings Disputed BOSTON A 1986 explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor led to a complete core meltdown and far worse contamination than previously reported, says a Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher who studied the reactor's ruins.

The amount of radioactivity released during the world's worst nuclear disaster was up to four to five times greater than previously published estimates, a nuclear engineer said in a doctoral dissertation. U.S. OKs Visa for IRA Backer WASHINGTON The United States granted a limited visa Sunday to Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Fein, the Northern Irish political party that supports the outlawed Irish Republican Army. The White House said in announcing the step, which permits Adams to attend a New York conference, that President Clinton "supports this difficult decision and believes it will help advance the cause of peace in Northern Ireland." Adams has been turned down in eight previous requests for visas, and the decision to allow him into the country reflects recent progress in negotiations to end decades of civil strife in Northern Ireland. Taco Bell Workers Killed CLARKS VTLLE, Tenn.

Four employees of a Taco Bell restaurant were found shot to death Sunday in an apparent robbery. The employees, a man and three women, one of whom was pregnant, were each shot several times, police told the Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle. The restaurant safe had been blown open and 20 or more spent shells from two weapons, a shotgun and a 9mm pistol, were strewn about the restaurant, police said. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS End of Land Mines Residents of Suchitoto, El Salvador, about 50 miles north of San Salvador, watch Sun-day the detonation of what officials called the last land mine In the country during a ceremony commemorating the erd of the two-year effort to rid El Salvador of the mines. prohibit manufacturing, possession and bringing in nuclear weapons, and we will continue that policy." New Delhi Bomb Wounds 18 NEW DELHI, India A bomb placed under a seat in a movie theater in downtown New Delhi exploded Sunday, wounding at least 18 people, police said.

The bomb went off at the Odeon theater in the capital's main shopping center, Connaught Place, shortly before the evening screening was to begin. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but suspicion fell on militant Sikhs who have struck several times in New Delhi. 3 Questioned in Brit's Death SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina Bosnian authorities are questioning three suspects in the slaying of a British aid worker whose murder is causing U.N. officials to reconsider the relief effort. The slaying of Paul Goodall, 35, in government-held Zenica on Thursday embarrassed the Muslim-led government.

Goodall, a father of four, was shot twice in the head Thursday after gunmen commandeered his U.N. car. Two other British aid workers, also on loan to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, were shot and wounded as they dove into an icy river to escape. Asim Fazlic, chief of the investigation, told The Associated Press three of the people who allegedly intercepted the U.N.

car have been arrested. Cousins Arrested in Drug Bust SANTIAGO, Chile Two Bolivian cousins were arrested in the isolated Andean border area and narcotics agents seized 111 pounds of cocaine from them, police reported Sunday. Police said the two men, David and Jose Encina, ages 32 and 25, were arrested lay as they trekked by foot to the Chilean port city of Arica, near the borders with Peru and Bolivia. They had received the cocaine in the Bolivian city of Santa Cruz, police said. The police anti-narcotics division called the seizure one of the largest in several months.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS River Flooding Steps Up Visitors to a Cincinnati park on Sunday walk along the top of the Serpentine Wall as the flooding Ohio River laps at the top step. The wall is normally about 35 feet above the river. The Ohio river was at about 54 feet Sunday. Superfund Law May Change WASHINGTON The Clinton administration will propose changes in the Superfund toxic waste law that would allow less-stringent cleanup measures to be used for some contaminated sites, depending on their future use, officials said Sunday. The legislative proposal for overhauling the 1980 Superfund law is expected to be announced later this week by the Environmental Protection Agency.

EPA officials familiar with the proposal said it will restructure cleanup standards, depending on whether a site will be used for residential purposes, commercial or industrial use or remain open space. Contaminated land in residential areas would adhere to the current strict standards for cleanup. Officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the less-stringent cleanup requirements would apply to commercial and industrial land. FROM JOURNAL WIRES Militants Balk at ANC Offer KHUMA, South Africa The African National Congress offered Sunday to let pro-apartheid Whites vote for their homeland but said a Black government would retain power to veto results. ANC President Nelson Mandela appealed to militant Whites to accept the offer and avert bloodshed.

The right-wing Afrikaner Volksfront rejected the proposal and vowed to establish its own homeland by force if necessary. Under the ANC proposal, Whites could vote April 27 on whether to establish a White-only homeland. The ballot would be separate from national elections April 27-29 for a new, multiracial government. The ANC is expected to ftin those elections. Whatever the outcome of the homeland vote, the newly elected government would have final say on the issue, a condition unacceptable to White PEOPLE Pop Singer Declines Award BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.

Larry King took a bow after Michael Jackson bowed out. King picked up the 23rd Scopus Award on Saturday night. Jackson declined the award while dealing with the molestation accusation that led to him settling a teen-ager's lawsuit for an undisclosed sum. American Friends of Hebrew University recognized King for his humanitarian work and use of mass media. Singer's Son Dies in Crash ARSTOW, Calif.

Former Supremes singer Mary Wilson was injured and her 14-year-old son was killed when her Jeep hit a freeway median and overturned, authorities said Sunday. Wilson's Jeep Cherokee drifted to the right side of Interstate 15, and, when she overcorrected, the vehicle swerved across the highway, plowed into the median and overturned, said San Bernardino County Deputy Coroner Monika Padilla. Fans Choosy in Popular Atlanta ATLANTA Sorry, Broadway Joe. So many celebrities were in town for the Super Bowl, stargaz-ers got choosy. Joe Namath was ignored by autograph hounds when boxing champ Muhammad Ali passed by.

The list of celebrities included Frank Sinatra, James Brown, Rush Limbaugh, Clint Black, Hammer, Bo Jackson, Martin Mull, Stevie Wonder, Mary Lou Ret-ton, Tanya Tucker and Natalie Cole. Ali 11 Jackson Wilson Did Mom Hire a Hit Man? Kevorkian Takes Cause To Pulpit By Julia Prodis THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Joey Fischer after he broke off a relationship with her daughter. Cisneros has pleaded innocent. Fischer was fatally shot outside his suburban home in March 1993. A month later, investigators arrested Cisneros and Maria Mercedes Martinez, 72, a reputed "curandera" a type of folk healer and fortune teller not uncommon along the Texas-Mexico border.

A county judge made police reports and evidence secret after the arrests, and investigators refused to comment publicly on the alleged motive. But it was well-known that Fischer had dated Cisneros' youngest daughter, Cristina, who has not spoken to reporters about the case. Fischer reportedly broke off the relationship in 1992. According to published reports, people close to Fischer told investigators that Cis neros offered to pay Fischer to continue the relationship, but he declined. The indictment alleges that in October 1992 Cisneros began plotting the teen-ager's death, telling Martinez she would pay anyone to kill him.

It says Cisneros gave the teenagers' prom picture to Martinez, who allegedly passed it to a third co-defendant, Daniel Garza. Garza, 43, a Mexican national living legally in San Antonio, allegedly hired Israel Olivares and Heriberto Puentes Pizana to kill Fischer, using Cisneros' money. The indictment doesn't specify how much money was exchanged, but investigators have placed the figure between $2,000 and $5,000. Olivares, 23, and Puentes, 21, both of Matamoros, Mexico, remain at large. Texan Accused Of Avenging Jilted Teen By Josh Lemieux THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BROWNSVILLE, Texas Could a mother have paid for the murder of the teen-age boy who jilted her daughter? A trial that begins with jury selection today focuses on that question as a prominent doctor's wife fights a capital murder charge.

One of two co-defendants is a fortune teller whose lawyer said Friday she is likely to plead guilty to a lesser charge and testify for the prosecution. Dora Garcia Cisneros, 56, is accused of masterminding a mur-der-for-hire plot to kill 18-year-old THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Dr. Jack Kevorkian, left, chats with members of St. Paul's Presbyterian Church in Livonia, on Sunday after kicking off a petition drive to legalize assisted suicide. 1 LIVONIA, Mich.

Standing like a preacher on a candlelit, flowery pulpit, Dr. Jack Kevorkian began a petition drive to legalize assisted suicide by urging about 700 Sunday churchgoers to join his crusade. Kevorkian needs more than 250,000 signatures to place a constitutional amendment on the November ballot. In a speech between services at St. Paul's Presbyterian Church, Kevorkian spoke of the "right not to suffer" and damned the "tyrants" who passed Michigan's law banning assisted suicide.

"It's almost an insult to put this on the ballot. It's an insult to human reason. Why? Because that right exists. We have to remind ourselves that right is there," said Kevorkian, who has been present at the deaths of 20 people since 1990. The enthusiastic audience gave several standing ovations as Kevorkian, a 65-year-old retired pathologist, spoke in front of a tall wooden crucifix and an open Bible.

Two people holding Bibles over their heads briefly interrupted the program as one yelled, "This church has been cursed today!" "As a Christian, I think it's a disgrace that he stood in front of the crucifix," Dave Reuschle of Plymouth said after the rally. But others said Kevorkian's presence showed the church's open-mindedness. Kevorkian was invited to speak by Pastor Thomas Eggle-been, who said the belief of many Christians that suicide is a mortal sin is a fallacy borne of politics ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL P.O. Drawer Albuquerque, NM 87103 7777 Jefferson NE 87109 (505) 823-4400 ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL (USPS 01 2-720) ii published daily by the Journal Publishing Co. 7777 Jefferson NE Albuquerque NM 87109-4343.

SUGGESTED HOME DELIVERY RATE Daily and Sunday $10.25 per month Sunday only $4.75 per month The publisher assumes no responsibility for payments Id carriers for more than the current month. Subscribers desiring to pay tor six or twelve months in advance will please mail remittance at their carrier rales direct to the circulation department. Single copy rates: .50 Sunday 1.00 Out ot town New Out of mail rotes (823-7822) Mexico State instead of theology. "It's a hoax that's been hoisted upon us by the institutionalized church. It's just not true," Eggle-been said.

"There are six or seven incidents in scripture where a suicide is reported and it's treated kindly and tragically. In no way at all is the person condemned." The Presbyterian Church itself has taken no stand on the issue, but it does favor abortion rights, Eggle-been said. Archbishop Adam Maida of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit has spoken out against Kevorkian and assisted suicide. After the rally, hundreds of people stood in line to shake Kevorkian's hand, get his autograph or have their picture taken with him. Kevorkian was flanked by two bodyguards.

Kevorkian has been charged four times with breaking the law enacted last year specifically to stop him. Three charges have been dis missed, including two last week when a judge overturned the law as unconstitutional on technical grounds. After that ruling, Kevorkian was freed from house arrest and had an electronic tether removed. Kevorkian is free on $20,000 bail on the remaining charge. The national Hemlock Society and the grassroots group "Friends of Kevorkian" have pledged to carry out the petition drive.

Meanwhile, a statewide telephone poll of 601 likely voters conducted by the Detroit Free Press found that 58 percent supported the concept of assisted suicide. Twenty-two percent believed it should be a crime. Sixteen percent said it is wrong but should not be criminalized. The rest were undecided in the survey conducted Jan. 9-13 by EPIC-MRA of Lansing.

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