European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 29, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 28 news briefs the stars and stripes Friday. September 29,1989 House votes to Back plan to Cut capital gains tax Washington a the House thurs Day voted to support president Bush s capital gains tax Cut pushing aside democratic cries that it was a Giveaway to the Rich. Culminating weeks of political struggle the House Defeated by a vote of 239 to 190 a demo cratic attempt to replace Bush s tax Cut with a plan to raise tax rates for the wealthy and restore deductions for individual retirement accounts. The vote left intact a proposal supported by the president that would Cut by 40 percent the maximum tax rate for earnings from stocks Bonds real estate Timber and other assets. A final vote on the Overall Bill which contains Many other unrelated budget provisions and is sues in t expected until next week. I am very pleased by the bipartisan House vote which represents a step Forward for eco nomic growth new jobs and american competitiveness Bush said in a statement after the Vole. Greek parliament indicts sex Premier Papandreou Athens Greece a the greek parliament Early thursday indicted former Premier Andreas Papandreou on bribery charges in a$210 million Bank embezzlement scandal that helped topple his nearly decade old socialist administration. The 300-Mcmbcr unicameral legislature voted 166 to 121 that Papandreou and four of his senior Cabinet ministers should stand trial before a special court in connection with the Bank of Crete scandal. It was the first time in Greece s history that a civilian political Leader was ordered to stand trial for alleged wrongdoing in office. In a rare appearance before a packed chamber before the vote Papandreou said he is innocent of the criminal charges bribery accepting Sto Len Money and breach of Faith. He said he accepts political responsibility for the scandal that broke in october but he called the indictment politically motivated. . Navy officer killed in turkish Beach mishap mentes Turkey a . Navy officer was killed in an apparent fall at a Beach in Turkey. Ensign John c. Speight 25, a repair division officer aboard the Salvage ship grasp died Mon Day of injuries sustained in a 20-foot fall from a Seaside retaining Wall onto a Concrete platform a Navy spokesman said. The fall took place at a Beach on the Man pcs army base near Izmir Turkey during a party celebrating the end of the Point .-turkish mine warfare exercise Damsel fair. The spokesman said Speight a native Ofchar Lotic n.c., was reported missing when he failed to show up at 11 . Monday Tor the last boat run to his ship. A search party discovered the officer s body soon afterwards. Speight was pronounced dead at the scene by a turkish doctor. The spokesman said Speight is survived by his wife Kathy and a daughter Jayna both of Vir Ginia Beach a. The fatal plunge is being investigated. $600 million restored by Senate to Star wars Washington a the democratic con trolled Senate in a major reversal thursday restored $600 million to president Bush s Star wars program apart of the $288 billion military spending Bill. The Senate responded to the pleas of several legislators including leading defense figures who said the were worried that continuing cuts in the space based defense initiative would cause irreversible damage to the program. By a vote of 53-47, the Senate adopted an Amend ment requiring that $4.3 billion of the Money appropriated for the defense department in the fiscal year beginning sunday be spent on Star wars. On tuesday the Senate had voted overwhelmingly 66-34, to spend $3.7 billion on Star wars formally known As the strategic defense initiative and Law makers indicated that the Vole reflected an erosion in support for the program. But the ranking members of the Senate armed serv ices committee Democrat Sam Nunn of Georgia and John Warner of Virginia argued thursday that the Star wars total approved tuesday had undermined their bargaining position in negotiations with the House on the defense authorization Bill. The Senate in adopting its authorization legislation last month approved $4.5 billion for Star wars. The House s defense blueprint earmarked $3.1 billion for the program. The Senate was expected to Complete work on the appropriations Bill thursday with a handful of Amend ments on anti satellite weapons . Troop Levels in Europe and Star wars. On thursday the chamber approved 95-5 an amendment allowing the use of defense department funds for a multinational anti narcotics strike Force if such a group is formed. A total amount was not specified. The other aspect of the measure sponsored by sen. Arlen Specter r-pa., was a non binding Resolution calling on the president to allow . Involvement in such a strike Force. The anti drug abuse act of 1988 had urged the president to enter into negotiations to create a Force. The other amendments pending f bar funds for anti satellite weapons tests unless the administration could certify that the soviets had engaged in tests of their own had refused to bargain in Good Faith in limitations and had blocked International verification efforts. Call for either a reduction of 30,000 american troops stationed in Europe or a requirement that . Allies foot the Bill for those personnel if nato and the Warsaw pact nations fail to reach a conventional arms agreement by oct. 1, 1990. Require that $820 million of the Money for Star wars be used for research on lasers and particle beams. Proponents of the amendment expressed concerns that the administration will sacrifice Long term research on directed Energy weapons such As lasers and particle beams in favor of a Quick fix or a phase 1 deployment that would favor the so called Brilliant pebbles scheme favored by Many in the administration. All european conference urged to facilitate pact on arms control Vienna Austria a declaring that a strategy of acceleration is needed to Complete talks on reducing the armies and conventional weapons in Europe the Warsaw pact on thursday called for a european Summit conference in 1990. Moscow and its allies also proposed lower ceilings on attack aircraft and helicopters in an Effort to Over come what appeared to be the most serious differences at the current East West conventional arms talks in Vienna. Soviet ambassador Oleg a. Grinevsky proposed that the Summit include All of the european states that signed the Helsinki accords in 1975, and the United states and Canada. He recommended it be held to sign an agreement on conventional armed forces the second half of next year. That would be an All european conference unprecedented in its scale Grinevsky told reporters at a news conference. Grinevsky told reporters that soviet foreign min ister Eduard a. Shevardnadze discussed the idea of the conference with president Bush and Secretary of state James a. Baker Iii during his recent visit to the United states. He said said ways to facilitate an Early agreement at the conventional armed forces in Europe talks which began last March were discussed in Washington and Wyoming in a Broad conceptual manner nato last week offered the Warsaw pact sweeping new proposals for reducing the threat of War in Europe and senior Western negotiators expressed Confidence that an agreement would be possible by next year. That was the goal set by Bush last May when he outlined new proposals to limit . And soviet forces in Europe to 275,000 each outside National territory and suggested drastic cuts in planes and other Arma  nato proposals would regulate the Exchange of information on numbers and locations of forces and weapons systems of the two military pacts from the Atlantic to the soviet ural mountains. For the first time at the talks the Warsaw pact on thursday proposed its own ceilings on attack aircraft and helicopters. Their plan called for limits that were partly lower than those proposed by nato. The soviet government and its allies proposed a new limit of 4,700 on bombers reconnaissance and elec tronic warfare aircraft and 1,900 for helicopters of each Alliance. In its july 13 proposals nato suggested ceilings of 5,700 combat aircraft and 1,900 combat helicopters  Warsaw pact however has insisted that its air defense interceptors protecting defences around mos cow and the ural mountains should be excluded. He said however that the soviet government is prepared to allow Western experts to perform on site monitoring including free Access and examination of aircraft. T for the Sake of a Compromise we could also establish a certain ceiling for air defense aircraft Grinevsky said without providing any figures. The West while pressing for maximum verification has insisted that All military aircraft including interceptors be covered in an Accord. The new negotiating round began sept. 14, with both sides expressing a desire for speedy Progress. Flights from Page 1 plan would take effect at the Start of october. Some of the highlights of the plan Are Speed reduction. The Speed of warplanes flying in the navigation phase of their Low level Mission would be reduced from 835 Kilometres an hour to 778 an hour or from around 517 Mph to about 482. The change would mean a noise reduction of up to 25 percent the report said. Interception exercises. With the Aid of new train ing methods and radar Low flying interception exercises held at Heights ranging Between Iso meters and 450 meters can be reduced by about one third. The noise pollution created by these exercises is particularly intensive the report said. In the future these exercises will take place under certain conditions at Heights above 450 meters. Reduction of the duration of Low living exercises at 247 feet. The length of such flights which the report Calls the most bothersome will be Cut to 15 minutes from the current 28 minutes. St Ollenburg said the average time for such flights would be 12 minutes this Means a dramatic reduction of Low level Fly ing at the 247-foot level he said. Low level missions in West Germany Are limited to seven areas that have been used for the last 30 years. The report said the reduction to 15 minutes of Low level flying was the result of discussions with Allied air forces which have re evaluated and changed their training requirements. In addition the number of Cit ies Over which flights cannot be flown below the 247 foot level has been increased from 25 to 61.stoltcnbcrg also said he would work on the possibility of spreading the remaining noise throughout the  Germany has 1,150 warplanes stationed on its territory the report said. The West German air Force has about 600 planes in the country the United states about 310, Britain 200 and Canada 40.the planes Fly about 68,000 hours of Low level flights yearly it said. The program will Cut 2,000 to3,000 hours from the yearly figure Stoltenberg said