European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 18, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 28 the stars and stripes saturday March 18,1989 news briefs discovery Crew prepares for trip Back to Earth Cape canaveral Fla. A discovery s astronauts packed Friday for the end of their 1.9 million mile voyage and prepared the shuttle for a fiery plunge toward a Dawn Landing saturday on a California desert discovery commander Michael coals an Pilot John Blaha planned to run through tests Friday to make sure the shuttle s computers and control jets were ready for the return to Earth. The other astronauts made final runs on a group of experiments and followed a script to shoot the last 4,000 feel of film in a powerful 70mm camera used to study the Earth s Environ mental trouble spots. Then they were to Stow their equipment for the trip Home. Early saturday Coats and Blaha will fire two powerful rockets on the Back of discovery to slow the Craft and allow it to drop into the Earth s atmosphere. The shuttle will then make a powerless Glide Halfway around the world and land at 6 36 . At Edwards fab calif., in the Mojave desert. The Landing will Complete a flight of four Days. 23 hours and 38 minutes that circled the Earth 79 i times. Greek Cabinet resigns Over Bank scandal crisis Athens Greece a Premier Andreas Papandreou on thursday accepted the Resig nations of All 54 ministers in his Cabinet pre paring for a government shake up in a political crisis Over a Bank scandal. The socialist government also proposed a Law allowing More representation for smaller parties and raising the parliamentary majority required to forma g9vcrnment, making governing coalitions More Likely. The Cabinet reshuffle will be the second since the $200 million fraud forgery and embezzle ment scandal involving a fugitive greek banker broke five months ago leading to the Resig nations of eight Cabinet ministers. Papandi Rcpt s party has come under heavy Firefox its handling of the Bank of Crete scandal in which Papandreou and senior government officials have been accused of taking payoffs. Markets jolted by 1 % Rise in february wholesale prices Washington a wholesale prices soared 1percent in february for the second consecutive month the government said Friday in a report that unsettled financial markets and shocked economists. Slock and Bond prices plunged with the Dow Jones average of 30 Industrial stocks closing at 2292.14, Down 48.57. Prices in january and february were pushed up by surging Energy and food prices but the Cost of other items which arc generally More stable increased at a worrisome rate in february As Well. The identical Back to Back increases As measured by the labor department s producer Price Index mean that inflation one Stop Short of the retail level is running at a 12.6 percent annual rate in 1989. That is More than triple the 4 percent increase for air of last year and the worst two month increase in nearly eight years. White House spokesman Martin Fitzwater said we Are of course concerned about any indications of More inflation adding that we also believe that the Long term Outlook for inflation is that it will remain Low and under  the twin surges surprised analysts who in Advance of both reports had predicted moderate rises of about 0.4 percent. It look bad. It s far worse than anyone expected said economist Michael k. Evans who Heads a Washington forecasting firm. Based on these figures no reasonable person could deny the conclusion that inflation has  president Bush s chief economic adviser. Michael Boskin speaking in a television interview an hour be fore Friday s figures were released said we want to remain prudent and vigilant against an acceleration of inflation and urged Congress to act swiftly on a plan to curb the budget deficit. We Don t want to let that inflation Genie out of the bottle. That would be a bad thing and it would take quite a bit of work to get that Genie Back in he Saidon Abc s today show. Wholesale food prices Rose l2 percent last month the steepest increase in 13 months. They had risen almost As much in january 1.1 percent. Most food items were up except eggs which dropped is percent after rising 20.1 percent in Jan uary. Food prices were led by 35.3 percent increase in vegetables including a 158 percent Rise in Tomato prices. Energy prices jumped 2.4 percent Overall in february following a 4.9 percent increase a month earlier the latest surge was led by a 4.1 percent Rise in Gaso line prices the same As january s increase and a 1.9 percent Advance in the Cost of natural Gas. Fuel Oil prices fell 3.1 percent recovering somewhat from an 11.6 percent surge a month before. The Federal Reserve Board has been pushing inter est rates higher for the past year in an Effort to Moder ate the Strong economic growth fueling inflation. The labor department will report tuesday on How much wholesale Price pressure in february fed through to Consumers. In january retail prices increased 0.6 percent the steepest Rise in two years. Fruit from Page 1 team of inspectors to Chile to Check fruit Security and other  the Fra has held a series of meetings with import ers the food Industry and chilean officials to decide what to do with the tens of thousands of cases of fruit that have piled up since the Fra began detaining All chilean fruit. The government could face a monumental task in handling the fruit that has been detained since the Fra found traces of cyanide in two grapes. It was estimated that  million cases of fruit have been loaded at chilean ports for the . Market since the season began. Inspectors have examined 20,500 cases without finding any additional poisoned fruit. The halt in exports rocked Chile s fruit Industry prompting bitter criticism and some anti american protests. Chilean president Augusto Pinochet who came to Power in a 1973 military coup visited Apple and grape processing plants where he pulled a Bunch of grapes out of a crate and ate several. Mystery from Page 1 accused of taking relate to the unit s general defense plan v corps officials said. Officials would not say whether the documents Peri allegedly passed were related to the portable computer. In addition to the mystery of Peri s motivation for jumping the Border it remains unclear How the Soldier got into East Germany where he went while there whom he might have contacted and How he returned. No diplomatic arrangements were made for his return St incr said. Peri s vehicle was found near Obj Suhl less than a mile from the heavily fortified Border but 14 Miles from the nearest crossing Point. Because of a train ticket found on him after his return. Peri is believed to have returned to West Germany by Way of Austria. An army spokesman in Washington said Peri lived in Austria with his parents from september 1982 to january 1983, although there was no information on what the family did there. Peri graduated from High school in Orange county calif., and his parents now live in Laguna Niguel Calif Peri s three roommates arc baffled by his actions Mairs said adding that Peri had none of the characteristics of someone who would go awol let alone take secrets to the East. It s not that he was disgruntled with the unit disgruntled with friends or disgruntled with his living conditions he said. We had no  unit has not changed Security procedures in the Wake of the arrest Maiers said. Because of the ongoing investigation into the Case Pentagon officials were reluctant to say what punish ment Peri faces if convicted of espionage. However an army Legal official said the maximum punishment in the military can be death if the Case involves passing information that can injure the United states or reused to the advantage of a foreign nation. There arc always varying shades of Gray in these cases the official said. It depends on the Circum  peacetime the death sentence is rare he said. The maximum punishment usually stops at life imprisonment. Contributing 10 ims report stall writers Chuck Emch in Washington and John Millir m Darmstadt. West Germany foods from Page 1 and Dairy products through the pipeline. A lot of things would spoil in transit said col. William t. Fowler commander of air Force commissaries in Europe. If we bought milk in the United states and tried to air transport it overseas the Cost would be out of  a spokesman for the . Army troop support Agency in West Germany declined to comment on the feasibility of the congressional proposal. The spokes Man said the army generally stocks More than 160 european purchased items in its commissaries including Candy cof fee cookies fruit drinks Mineral water noodles butter beef fresh fruit vegetables and certain cheeses. A spokesman for the Agency that handles purchasing for the air Force and army commissaries overseas said that organization also is sceptical of the do la Garza Aspin plan. Adam Cohen a spokesman for the de sense subsistence Region Europe said his Agency regularly buys about 2,600 foreign items for commissaries. That number includes multiple listings for meats cheeses butter and various milk products since each Brand name or Fla Vor of Yogurt for example counts As a separate listing. The Agency spent s249 million in fiscal 1988 on its foreign Pur chases. He said that figure includes the Cost of acquiring cafes bakery goods and ice Cream which Are made in Europe. Cohen said Agency officials think it makes sense to buy some food products in Europe because it can lower shipping costs and save the consumer Money. In other cases specially food items can be found Only overseas he said. In the Case of Bert Oil i Olive Oil which is produced in Italy the item is purchased in Europe As a Means to save the commissary Patron transportation and broker fees which would be added to the wholesale Price of the item if it were purchased in the .," he said. The consumer would have to pay twice As much for Olive Oil if it were bought in the United states and then shipped to Europe Cohen said. Aspin said it actually May be More practical now with the falling value of the Dollar in Europe to ship . Food stuffs to commissaries that sell to Mili tary personnel stationed in Europe the a reported. The decline in the value of the Dollar has put a tremendous Strain on the Bud get and has pushed up the Cost of every thing we buy from the europeans including products sold in commissaries Aspin said. We have also seen an improvement in the transportation system which enables the military to ship More products faster to our military around the  do la Garza said the two committees would be examining the transportation system and pricing and funding of such shipments. Shipment of beef will be closely examined because of the High Quality of the . Product and doubts whether euro Pean beef is being inspected to . Standards he said. The United slates should t be buying from european sources while the europeans Are closing their markets to our  . And european Trade negotiators agreed last month to spend 75 Days examining the Trade dispute that began Over hormone treated . Beef. Contri Liling to in report Tut writer Randy Mcclain in Darmstadt. West Germany i ii