Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.news From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: news Mon, Apr 27 1992 Date: Mon, 27 Apr 92 05:41:46 EDT Message-ID: DECISIONLINE: News USA TODAY Update April 27, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network CALIFORNIANS UNEASY AFTER QUAKE: California residents spent an uneasy night Sunday in the wake of the fourth major earthquake to strike the state since Wednesday. Residents slept on lawns and in shelters after a 6.9 magnitude quake and two powerful aftershocks. Parts of Humboldt County were the hardest hit by Saturday's quake and Sunday's 6 and 6.5 aftershocks. There were no fatalities but 50 reported injuries. VOTERS FED UP: Voters are so fed up that growing numbers are ready to dump their own member of Congress, according to a USA TODAY:CNN:Gallup poll. Usually voters criticize Congress, but support their own representative. Only half of voters now think their own member of Congress deserves re-election. That's down from 64% in February. The nationwide poll of 1,004 voters has a 3% margin of error. SHERATON TO OVERHAUL RATES: ITT Sheraton wants to overhaul its rates in much the same fashion that American Airlines did with fares two weeks ago by simplifying them. Monday, Sheraton unveils three discount rates it says will save money for business and leisure travelers. "Rack" rates, the hotel equivalent of full coach fares, also have been cut as much as 20% at most Sheratons. PROTESTS LIKELY TO CONTINUE: Abortion protest leaders urged their followers Sunday to continue blockade attempts at Buffalo-area abortion clinics. Clinics remained open during the first week, despite daily sieges. Police logged about 350 arrests during the week. About 210 demonstrators remained in jail Sunday. There were no protests Sunday because the clinics are closed that day. PAN AM FAMILIES' SUIT BEGINS: The case of families of 212 victims in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1989 who filed suit against the airline is scheduled to begin Monday in a New York City courthouse. The families charge that shoddy security was the reason a bomb-laden suitcase was allowed aboard the Boeing 747. Defense lawyers are expected to argue that no one is certain how the bomb got on board the plane. CRIME STATISTICS ARE UP: Incidents of murder climbed 7% last year and forcible rape and serious assault rose 3%, according to preliminary 1991 crime statistics released Sunday by the FBI. The total number of crimes reported to police increased 3%, with violent crime showing a 5% rise. Gangs, guns and drugs are responsible for the rise, says Lt. Burton Poe, spokesman for the Fort Worth, Texas, Police Department. GROUP OF SEVEN OKS AID PLAN: Finance officials from the world's seven richest industrial countries Sunday endorsed the broad outlines of an economic assistance package for the former Soviet Union that could over time rival the Marshall Plan in its scope. The endorsement by the USA, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada represented a victory for President Bush, who unveiled the proposal earlier. AIRMAN SUCKED OUT OF PLANE: U.S. and Peruvian ships and planes will continue to search Monday for a missing U.S. airman who fell from an Air Force C-130 plane Friday after Peruvian fighter jets fired on the aircraft off Peru's coast. The airman, who has not been identified, was sucked out of the C-130 while it was flying to a Peruvian air base after being hit 60 miles off the coast by gunfire from the jets. QUAYLE VOICES SUPPORT OF ISRAEL: Vice President Dan Quayle, speaking at a Holocaust remembrance in New York Sunday, pledged his support for Israel. "Speaking as a non-Jew, let me say this: As long as I am in public life, the case for Israel will not become an exclusive preserve of American Jews," he said. The commemoration marked the 49th anniversary of the uprising of Jews against the Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto. KUWAIT TO FLY HOME WOMEN: Kuwait is flying home hundreds of foreign women who had taken refuge in Kuwait City embassies after reporting they'd been beaten, raped or denied pay by employers. USA TODAY reported two months ago that the women were hiding in the embassies. Kuwait said it would fly the women home free if they dropped all charges of rape and assault, and gave up claims to back pay. WEST WARMS AS EAST BUNDLES UP: A cooling trend will blanket the Eastern half of the USA Monday, while a warming trend pushes into the West. A mixture of rain and snow will dominate in West Virginia, western Virginia and northwestern North Carolina. Thunderstorms with hail will rip through portions of Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico. A weak system over the Pacific Northwest will bring showers to the Oregon coast. DOW JONES OPENS ON DOWNSWING: The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials opens Monday at 3324.46, after closing down 24.15 Friday. The New York Stock Exchange composite opens at 225.12, down 1.04. The American Stock Exchange market value opens at 385.98, down 0.28. The NASDAQ OTC composite opens at 572.90, down 3.16. News Editor: Beth Mann. (919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM