Elko Daily Free Press from Elko, Nevada • 1

A 596? MO? 01019 Dar Micro Film 1115 El'ast firqijiis Ave unnwali, A 9 4 0 6 ELKO, ELKO COUNTY, NEVADA Vol. 109 No. 181 Established Jan. 5, 1883 35 CENTS FRIDAY, JULY 31, 1992 20 Pages Ai Ii mines eras today China Jnlimallayas 3r J1 5 lit v. KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) A Thai Airways jetliner carrying 113 people, including 11 Americans, crashed into a Himalayan mountain in heavy rain today minutes after the pilot reported a technical problem.

Airport officials said they doubted there were any survivors among the 99 passengers and 14 crew members. The plane was (light TG311 from Bangkok), Thailand to Katmandu and most of the passengers were apparently tourists. In neighboring China, meanwhile, a Yak-42 airliner exploded in flames while taking off today from the Nanjing airport, killing at least 100 people and injuring 26, the state-run Xinhua Yugoslavian war rages SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) Defenders launched a coun-teroffensive today in hopes of breaking the Serbian noose around Bosnia's war-ravaged capital. The fighting left at least eight dead and 63 wounded. Fifty orphans who were to have been shuttled to safety were stranded by the heavy fighting in the Bosnian capital.

Five newly arrived Ukrainian peacekeepers with the U.N. contingent were wounded, two seriously, spokesman Mik Magnusson said. Maj. Dervo Harbinja, a senior Sarajevo defense official, said the fighting, which broke out around 4 a.m. on the city's northern edge, created "one of the worst nights since the war began." The fighting temporarily shut down the airport, the city's only lifeline to the outside world.

Professional rodeo action of the Silver State Stampede is scheduled tomorrow and Sunday at the Elko County Fairgrounds. Performances begin with a concert at 3 p.m. each day and the rodeo slated to start at 4:30. Above is a file photo of the Stampede's bull riding. any top-ranked in Elko Stampede News Agency said.

The report said the plane "failed to lift off and burst into a ball of flames" about 600 yards from the runway. It was headed from the eastern city of Nanjing to Xiamen, on China's southeast coast. It was not immediately known if any foreigners were on board. Air traffic control at the Katmandu airport lost contact with the Thai Airways A310300 Airbus near the village of Simra in the foothills of the Himalayas, 47 miles south of the airport, the airline said. Alerted by villagers, troops and policemen at a remote outpost north of Simra located the wreckage in a forested area 8.500 feet high, the vice president of Thai Airways, Chatra-chai Bunya-Ananta, told reporters in Bangkok.

Nagendra Ghimire, the deputy airport manager in Katmandu, said the plane apparently slammed into the mountain in heavy rain as it was preparing to land. "I doubt if there can be any survivors," he said. The region is in central Nepal, 30 miles south of Katmandu. The crash site itself is a three-hour walk from the Shimbhjyng mountain pass, which connects Katmandu to the southern town of Bhainse. The pass snakes around hills and traverses steep mountains, some as high as 9,000 feet Ghimire refused to say what could have caused the crash.

But he said that when the jet was 15 minutes from Katmandu, the pilot reported a technical hitch. A few minutes later, however, the pilot said the problem had been overcome. "I am OK now and coming in to land from Simra," Ghimire quoted the captain as saying in the final contact. "After that there was no sign of the clouds as it arced over the Atlantic Ocean. Minutes later, the shuttle was cruising at a 264-mile-high altitude.

Liftoff was delayed 48 seconds because the crew was a little late in throwing a switch to open a power unit valve. If not for that it would have been the first time since 1985 that NASA launched a shuttle on the appointed day at the appointed moment "We're getting closer," said Brewster Shaw, the shuttle commander during that punctual liftoff of Atlantis seven years ago and now deputy director of the shuttle program. "It was really a piece-of-cake countdown." After reaching orbit the crew quickly began preparing for tomorrow's release of the Eureca scientific entered Top-ranked Drofessional rodeo cowboys from throughout the United States will be in Elko this weekend to compete in Elko's Silver State Stampede. The show is scheduled to begin tomorrow at the Elko County Fair Grounds with a 3 p.m. country-western concert by Skip Ewing and rodeo performances at 4:30 p.m.

This year's Stampede also features a record number of entries in the Professional Rodeo Cowboy's Associ 4. Space shuttle launched on weeK-ioiig iniission Stampede Schedule Friday 5:30 plane," he said. At about the same time, air traffic controllers in the Indian city of Calcutta, 400 miles to the southeast, also lost contact with the aircraft, officials there said. News of the crash was delayed because of poor communications with the police outpost in the Chisapani jungle near the mountain pass. Ghimire said he had no information if rescue teams had reached the site by late Friday night.

Several army, police and civilian medical teams were sent by road because darkness prevented helicopters from flying. Earlier, a seven-hour air search was called off after night fell. In Bangkok, an airline statement said that besides the 11 Americans, the other passengers included 17 Japanese and 23 Nepalese. The plane also carried five Belgians, five Finns, four Germans, three Spaniards, two Thais, two Koreans, two Israelis, two Britons, two Canadians, one New Zealander and one Australian. Katmandu is a popular tourist destination and the staging point for mountain climbing teams to the world's highest peaks, including Mount Everest.

But July and August when the city is drenched by summer monsoons, is considered offseason, possibly explaining why the jet was only half-full. The airline said the missing plane, built in November 1987, was leased in May 1990 from Blenheim Aviation. A spokesman for the San Francisco-based firm said the plane in fact was leased from a subsidiary, Bermuda-based Blenheim Air Lease Ltd. The last crash involving a Thai Airways airliner was on Aug. 31, 1987, when a Boeing 737 plunged into the sea off the resort island of Phuket, killing all 83 people on board.

Errors by the pilot and control tower were blamed. satellite owned by the European Space Agency. Swiss astronaut Claude NiQollier had the honor of releasing the satellite with the shuttle's robot arm. The satellite holds brine shrimp eggs, bacteria and fungi spores, crystals, and a gammaay and X-ray telescope. Another shuttle crew will retrieve Eureca next spring so scientists can analyze the samples and the satellite can be outfitted for another flight.

The $428 million Eureca project is being managed from the European Space Agency's control center in Darmstadt Germany. Shriver will lower Atlantis' altitude to 184 miles for the main event of the seven-day mission. The Italian Space Agency's Tethered Satellite is to be reeled from the shuttle cargo bay on Monday. For 30 hours, the half-ton metal ball will fly as high as 12 miles above the spaceship, at the end of a cord just one-tenth of an inch in diameter. Scientists believe the cord will generate up to 5,000 volts of electricity as the linked spacecraft (lash through Earth's magnetic field at 17,500 mph.

The tether and satellite should move very slowly relative to Atlantis, however, and poses no safety threat NASA officials said. The astronauts will have plenty of time to sever the line if the satellite starts to swing dangerously close to the shuttle, officials said. The last time NASA tied two spacecraft together, during Gemini in 1966, the 100-foot Dacron cord between the capsule and Agena booster flapped wildly. This tether, in addition to being more than 630 times longer, contains copper as a conductor. As current flows down the tether from the satellite to Atlantis, electron beam guns in the cargo bay will shoot the electrons back into the electrically charged ionosphere and close the circuit Such a system could be used in the future to power spacecraft Shaw said the experiment may sound as formidable as holding a "tiger by the tail." But he added: "I think it will really be a pussycat and it will do just what everybody thinks it's going to do." Gianfranco Manarini, program manager for the Italian Space Agency, also is confident the $379 million Tethered Satellite system will work as advertised.

But he noted this is new technology, "and technology can fail." "It can happen to anyone look at Hubble," Manarini said, referring to NASA's nearsighted space telescope. Reeling the satellite back in is expected to be the hardest part of the experiment If all goes well, Atlantis will land at Kennedy Space Center next Friday. Calcutta and Art Show Dance following the Calcutta Saturday Chuckwagon Breakfast Parade Skip Ewing Concert Grand Entry and Rodeo Rodeo Dance at Fairgrounds Sunday Chuckwagon Breakfast Skip Ewing Concert Grand Entry and Rodeo Performance CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) Atlantis thundered into orbit this morning with seven astronauts space-age Benjamin Franklins who will fly a satellite on a 12-mile string to generate electricity high above Earth. "This is what space is all about, to do things in space that you cant do on the ground," NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin told the astronauts four hours into the flight He wished them "good luck and Godspeed." "We firmly believe that science is taking a big step into some unknown areas and we are very glad to be able to try to help out" replied shuttle commander Loren Shriver.

Atlantis rose from its seaside pad at 9:56 a.m. and pierced a low deck of 7 to 9 a.m. 12:30 p.m. 3 p.m. 4:30 p.m.

7 to 9 a.m. 3 p.m. 4:30 p.m. cowboys event at the Calgary Stampede in Alberta, Canada. Also entered from Utah is steer wrestler Lance Robinson of Far-mington.

Robinson qualified for the National Finals Rodeo in steer wrestling from 1982 to 1984 and in 1987 and 1988. Competitors from California include Charmayne James Rodman from Gait Richard Oehmigen from Browns Valley and Rosser. Rodman has been the world champion barrel racer for the last eight years and Oehmigen was an NFR saddle bronc qualifier in 1982 and 1983. Rosser is entered in team roping. Idaho cowboys Butch Small from Dubois and John Davis from Home-dale are entered in the saddle bronc and bull riding events.

Small has been an NFR qualifier in the saddle bronc event every year since 1982 and Davis competed in the NFR bull riding competition in 1974, 1975 and 1976. Marteney said in addition to the top-name professionals, many local competitors also are entered in the saddle bronc event, bareback bronc riding, team roping and barrel racing. Stampede kick-off activities begin at 5:30 this afternoon at the fairgrounds with the Calcutta, art show opening and dancing to the music of Lenny Knast and the Nevada Knights. what is believed to be a previous injury'- The couple also have another child, Larry Whittaker III, who was taken away from them last year after suffering injuries. Hatch said in an affidavit that Larry Whittaker was an abusive parent and a neighbor told police that he had seen the father treat the infant "in a rough and abusive manner." Populists out CARSON CITY (AP) Populist presidential hopeful Bo Gritz and other Populist candidates won't be on the November ballot in Nevada, Secretary of State Cheryl Lau says.

Lau said Thursday that county clerks and registrars went through a lengthy verification process and determined the Populist candidate petition, which started out with 13,162 signatures, contained only 9,013 valid names. The legal minimum is 9392. Prison stabbing CARSON CITY (AP) A Northern Nevada Nevada Correctional Center inmate was stabbed in the chest with a file and was reported in stable condition today at Carson-Tahoe Hospital. Department of Prisons spokesman Glen Whorton identified the inmate as John Phillips, 29, sentenced in Las Vegas to a life term as a habitual criminal. Whorton said Phillips was stabbed late Thursday by Daniel Reed, 25, who is serving a five-year term imposed in Las Vegas for larceny and attempted burglary.

Nevada neivs summary: SNEA to seek raises, perks from legislature ation events, according to Wayne Marteney, special events chairman. Cotton Rosser's Flying Rodeo Company from Marysville, will provide stock and produce the rodeo, which features seven PRCA events along with a number of special events for local competitors. Kyle Kosoff, a professional cowboy from Ogden, Utah, is entered in the calf roping. Kosoff comes to Elko after winning $50,000 in the calf roping Miller's veto last year of a collective bargaining bill. Spangler also said the association is concerned about efforts to privatize government services.

Bail raised LAS VEGAS (AP) Bail has been set at $500,000 for Larry Whittaker, who faces a death penalty trial in last week's death of his five-week-old son, Patrick. Justice of the Peace Bill Jansen doubled the 20-year-old's previous bond after learning the state would seek a death sentence against Whittaker and that the defendant possibly had the resources to make his $250,000 bail. Whittaker is on probation for one count of conspiracy to commit burglary in Elko County, said Bob Streif of the state probation department Jansen also ordered the infant's 19-year-old mother, Suzanne Whittaker, held without bond until another court hearing Monday. She faces a single count of felony child abuse. Jansen raised the bail after Las Vegas Metro Police homicide Detective David Hatch said the defendant's father owns a large auto salvage business in Las Vegas, and a large amount of property, and possibly could come up with the $250,000 bond.

Suzanne Whittaker, arrested Tuesday, said initially that she and her husband believed the infant had an abnormal brain and was hurt after lying on a bottle of formula in his crib in the July 23 death. But police said the cause of death was multiple skull fractures. An autopsy also showed broken ribs in i t' i CARSON CITY (AP) There's little chance Gov. Bob Miller will back a bid by the State of Nevada Employees Association for a seven percent cost-of-living raise in the coming two-year budget cycle, a spokesman says. Miller press secretary Mike Campbell said Thursday there are many unknowns now in the budget-drafting process, "but right now, it's unlikely that a seven percent pay raise will be in the governor's budget." "Basically, it's still too early to tell what levels of spending will be in the next two-year budget for any agency," Campbell said.

"In good economic times, the governor has increased salaries for public employees," Campbell added. "In tough times, however, because of lagging revenues we've had to cut budgets. We have to balance the budget and we don't have that luxury of granting salary increases." The cost of the seven percent increase for about 12,000 state employees would be $35 million over a two-year period starting in July 1993. The same seven percent if awarded to public school teachers, would cost $126 million. The SNEA also has submitted a proposal making it a felony to assault threaten or coerce an on-the-job state employee.

Another proposal would continue a sick leave bank for employees facing catastrophic illnesses. Another proposal would raise the per diem paid to state employees from $58 to $64 a day, and raise the mileage reimbursement from 24 cents to 27 cents per mile. Another major goal of the association in 1993 is the override of Gov. Space shuttle Atlantis thundered into orbit this morning from Kennedy Space Center. The shuttle and its crew of seven are to return next Friday.

ORIGINAL PEFEG 4.