The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 1

SlfHi)lMi3 lit) IMC wit iWaMpfi Penn, St. Joe's win at Palestra 5s Rams going to St. Louis Franchise leaving L.A. for greener pastures. Sports.

NBA 'Magic 109 Sonics 115 Hornets 98 Cavs 91 Suns 129 Kings 95 Nuggets 113 Blazers 88 College basketball Penn 90 La Salle 71 Syracuse St. John's 91 87 St. Joe's Drexel 78 73 Ga. Tech W. Forest 67 65 Quakers whip La Salle, Hawks beat Drexel in twin-bill.

Sports. Wednesday, January 18, 1995 35 Cents 50 oents outside the eight-county Philadelphia metropolitan area Quake's Death Toll Hits 2,000 Survivors wander in devastated streets Pageantry surrounds Pa. ys biggest inaugural Ridge sworn in as 43d governor By Russell E. Eshlcman Jr. and Robert Moran INQUIRER HARRISBURG BUREAU HARRISBURG Thomas Joseph Ridge, the working-class kid from Erie who became the first person from the state's remote northwest corner to win election as governor, took office yesterday as Pennsylvania's 43d chief executive.

In a ceremony brimming with politics and pageantry, the 49-year-old former congressman told a crowd estimated at 8,000 in his inaugural address that for too long Pennsylvania has coddled its criminals, suppressed business "We're ready tO expansion and jjiawcu government programs above individual initiative. "I am your steward. I am honored to be passed this torch, and hura- get rockin'," Ridge said, on his first I WtMm MM-- 7 til Jh Diy accept me udJr" challenge that lies ahead," Ridge said in a 20-minute speech that was straightforward in delivery, general in content, and largely devoid of rousing, emotional applause lines. Ridge took the oath of office at 12:15 p.m. from Supreme Court Justice Ronald D.

Castille of Philadelphia. Ridge's wife, Michele, held a family Bible, and his children, Lesley, 8, and Tommy, 7, looked on. For the first time, the outdoor swearing-in ceremony was held in the rear of the Capitol instead of the front, beneath a white canopy and behind a specially constructed podium. The ceremony occurred under cloudy skies. A cool breeze made the 45-degree day chillier, especially for those who had been expecting the unseasonably high temperatures of See GOVERNOR on A 12 By Eric Talmadge ASSOCIATED PRESS KOBE, Japan In a city that was supposed to stand up to earthquakes, survivors with blank expressions wandered battered streets yesterday, their faith in technology smashed by a disaster that killed at least 2,000 people.

In large areas of this once-prosperous city, fire destroyed what yesterday's 7.2-magnitude earthquake did not. But by today, many of the fires ran out of fuel and burned themselves out. Elevated roads and bridges that Japanese engineers boasted were quake-proof were broken at crazy angles, flung to earth by the force of nature, crushing whatever was beneath them. Motorists perished as their cars skidded off the collapsing highways. Tracks and bridges for Japan's famous "bullet" trains were damaged badly enough to be out of action for months.

Hundreds of thousands of survivors struggled to live without electricity, gas or water. Hardly a block in this industrial port city of 1.4 million people had a house or building intact. Many streets were reduced to piles of rubble by the strongest quake to strike an urban area of Japan since 1948. Osaka, Japan's second-largest city and across the bay from Kobe, was also heavily damaged. The wreckage extended 50 miles northwest of Kobe to the ancient capital, Kyoto, where treasured Buddha statues and a five-story pagoda built in 951 suffered minor damage.

More than 600 aftershocks hit the area through this morning, including 60 that could be felt. National police said 2,014 people were known dead by midday today, 1,058 were missing and 11,977 injured. One American was among those killed, the U.S. Embassy said. Details were withheld pending notification of next of kin.

Just outside Kobe, damage seemed almost arbitrary. A showroom window at an auto dealership survived undamaged, but next to it, four wooden houses collapsed. In the city, a five-story building had fallen on its side, and a seven-story bank building leaned over the sidewalk. "I thought it was the end of the world," said 64-year-old Minoru Ta-kasu, whose house fell down around him in Nishinomiya city, six miles from Kobe. "I survived by sliding into a small gap between a dish cabinet and the wall," he told the Asahi newspaper.

"I'm happy to be alive." The shaking lasted about 20 seconds, and when it was over, 7,000 buildings were destroyed. Many people slept outside for fear of further damage to buildings left standing. About 100,000 people spent the See JAPAN on A 10 The Philadelphia Inquirer AKIRA SUWA Two full pages of stories and photographs on Tom Ridge's inauguration. A12, A13. Gov.

Ridge hugs his wife, Michele, after taking the oath of office. Joining the applause are former Govs. Dick Thornburgh (left) and Robert P. Casey. Two other ex-governors were among a crowd of 8,000 at the swearing-in ceremony in Harrisburg.

Inside Baby in surrogate case dies of beating injuries Congress votes to impose workplace laws on itself The father admitted shaking the 5-week-old boy several times. He is in a Northampton jail. A sea change is proposed for Medicare 1 Jonathan Alan Austin died at 6:35 p.m. of complications from brain injuries, a hospital spokesman said. The baby's mother, Phyllis Ann Huddleston, 29, who had maintained a bedside vigil for several days at the hospital, had gone home to Indiana earlier this week and was informed by a doctor last night by telephone that her baby was dead.

"She was there preparing to bring the baby home either to care for him or for his funeral, depending on whether his condition got better or worse," said Huddleston's lawyer, See BABY on A 16 By Susan FitzGerald and Mark Bowdcn INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS A 5-week-old infant, borne by a surrogate mother for a single man who admitted to shaking and beating the boy, died last night at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. A place to brew your own beer. Food, El. Disagreements abound over Mayor Rendell's plan to revitalize Independence Mall. Bl.

American Airlines will abandon nonstop service between London and Philadelphia. Business, CI. A doll has a message for teenagers. Magazine, HI. Scientists said the earthquake had defeated all their best efforts.

Coverage continues on A10. By David Hess i INQUIRER WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON Keeping a promise to change the way Congress operates, the House unanimously passed a bill yesterday to make its members abide by the same workplace laws that it imposes on private business. It was the first bill from the Republican Party's Contract With America to clear Congress. The measure was passed by the Senate last week and now goes to the White House, where President Clinton has said he would sign it. Rep.

Bill Goodling chairman of the House Economic and Educational Opportunities Committee, said the new law would serve as a ''yellow flag," warning Congress to be careful about passing worKpiace Jaws that affect private businesses. "Now that we're forced to comply with these laws," he said, "we might better identify with the problems of compliance endured by our constituents." The bill applies to Congress 11 laws that have previously applied to private business, state and local governments, find the executive branch of the federal government Included are laws concerning civil rights, labor-management disputes, family and medical See CONGRESS on A8 Desertions rising in the Russian army In many cases, mothers leading the charge away from war. Features Sections By R.A. Zaldivar INQUIRER WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON As part of their effort to scale back government, congressional Republicans are considering ways to shift Medicare recipients into managed-care plans that limit patient choice. The Republicans think they can nvf billions of dollars.

If thev succeed, the health-insurance revolution that has swept the workplace would reach the elderly. "We'll do it through a voluntary process, but in not too many years most seniors will be in managed-care plans," said Rep. Nancy L. Johnson a veteran member of the Ways and Means Committee. Medicare the government health insurance plan for 37 million elderly and disabled people is an open-ended system that lets beneficiaries choose virtually any doctor or See MEDICARE on A8 Nationallnt'l Movies F2 Metro Comics H4 Business Crossword.

H5 Sports H2 Food Entertainment. Editorials A14 Obituaries B4 Classified Television F4 Magazine 166th Year. No. 232 1995. PhlladelphU Newspapers Inc.

Call 216-665-1234 or 1-800-523-9066 lor home delivery. smoke, Alexander and Alexander walked out of their barracks 40 miles northwest of Moscow, strode quickly through a forest, crossed a frozen river, traversed some collective-farm fields, and found their way to a road. From there, they said they hopped a bus and a train to the capital, where they headed straight for the offices of the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers, which has become the, most visible anti-war See DESERTERS on A6 had, after all, been a long day. They had just deserted from the Russian army. The two Alexanders both 19, both raw recruits, and both fed up with the Russian army had learned that their motorized infantry unit was being sent to Chechnya at the end of the month.

And so, after two days' deliberation, they did what an increasing number of Russian soldiers are doing: They bolted. Saying were going for a By Fen Montaigne INQUIRER STAFF WRITER MOSCOW Two Russian soldiers, both named Alexander, sat yesterday on a couch in a crowded office in central Moscow, their olive green uniforms soiled, their baby faces dotted with pimples, their expressions quizzical as mothers of other soldiers pressed rubles into their hands. Growing tired, one Alexander put his head on the shoulder of the other Alexander sr'd closed his eyes. It Weather Partly sunny today, high 50. Drizzle possible overnight and tomorrow, high 52.

Full report, B5. Advocates for children see a new urgency, a new enemy. MAgazine, HI..