European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 08, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 28 the stars and stripes monday january 8,1990 news briefs . Ambassador stresses Panama canal cooperation Panama City Panama a new . Ambassador Deane r. Hinton pledged saturday that the United states would work to prepare for panamanians to take full control of the Panama canal at the turn of the Century. Let us not look Back to a troubled past but rather let us responsibly face the future. Together let panamanians and americans build our relations on a basis of Mutual respect and endur ing Friendship Hinton said on his arrival. In conclusion let me stress that panamanians and americans must henceforth cooperate to prepare for the Day less than 10 years away for panamanian operation of the Panama canal he said. Treaties signed in 1977 by president Jimmy Carter and the late panamanian Leader Omar Torrijos gave Panama immediate ownership of the Atlantic Pacific waterway which the United states built and inaugurated in 1913. But the canal is to be operated by a joint .-panamanian commission and the United states will retain military responsibility for its Protection until it reverts completely to Panama in the year 2000. Chances growing Slimmer for monday shuttle launch Cape canaveral Fla. A a wors ening weather forecast has reduced the chances of launching space shuttle Columbia on monday to just one in five Nasa said sunday. Our weather for monday does t look Good shuttle test director Al Sofge told reporters. He said the main concern was visibility with Clouds and fog expected to cover the area during the 54 minute launch window which opens at 8 10 . The Chance of launching had been calculated at 40 percent on saturday but Sofge said the Outlook became bleaker overnight and Cut the chances to 20 percent. He said the weather front should move out late monday increasing the Odds for a tuesday launch to so percent. U.s., soviet army schools to Exchange students Moscow up West Point and soviet army cadets will visit each other s military Aca demies in a unique Exchange this Winter the soviet army newspaper said sunday. Krasnaya zvezda said 10 soviet cadets an two officers will stay in the United states feb. 7 14 and the americans will be at the Moscow higher military school March 10-18. The visit further deepens the military exchanges of the last two years in which the de sense chiefs and military chiefs of staff of both countries visited each other. The Exchange of Cadet delegations popped up during a meeting of then Secretary of de sense Frank Carlucci and soviet defense min ister Dmitri Yazoo the newspaper said. 6 children elderly woman killed in Foster Home fire Clayton Ala. A fire swept through a private Foster Home in a Rural area Early Sun Day killing six Young children and an elderly woman officials said. Barbour county Coroner David Childs said the owners of the House Robert and Lois Mitch Ell escaped the 2 . Blaze uninjured As did their three children and two other Foster Chil Dren. Alabama fire marshal John Robison said the cause of the fire that destroyed the Large Wood Frame House near the Bakerhill Community was not immediately known. An investigation was continuing he said. Childs identified the children lulled in the fire two girls and four boys As Kimberly Gil Bert 8 her brother Jessie 10 Kimberly Walker 5 and her Brothers Larry 10, Jessie 7, and mar Ketta,4. The identification of the elderly woman killed in the Blaze was not immediately released Pend ing notification of relatives. Students anti communists hold rallies across Romania Bucharest Romania a anti communists held an emotional commemorative March sunday for the martyrs of Romania s bloody revolution and Stu dents rallied in several cities to press for educational reforms and More say in National affairs. In Bucharest thousands of people attended a March called by the peasant and Christian democratic Par ties. They Knelt and prayed in the bitter cold for those who fell in the Battle against loyalist forces of executed dictator Nicolas Ceausescu. About 2,500 students met for a separate rally at the capital s pol technical Institute to press for reforms to Ceausescu s heavily indoctrinated education system. Nicolae Costel an official of the Christian demo cratic party said that thousands of other students had held gatherings in Braila and Galatia about 120 mile Northeast of the capital and in Timisoara the Cradle of the revolution approximately 300 Miles to the Northwest of Bucharest. Costel said the rallies outside Bucharest were called to demand greater student representation on the National salvation front the provisional leadership running the country until planned elections in april. He described sunday s pro democracy demonstrations As among the most widespread since Ceausescu overthrow dec. 22 and execution three Days later. The peasant party was a Power in parliament before the communists abolished it in 1947, and both it and the Christian democrats have been traditionally anti communist. Since their rebirth the two parties which have joined forces in preparation for the promised elections have warned against a Renaissance of the communist party which has been in dissolution since Ceausescu s downfall. They have also suggested that the National Salva Tion front which includes several former communists in its leadership is in reality a front for communism. Those fears were in evidence sunday. They arc calling for a new communist party Sai Constantin Dimitrescu s3, alluding to tentative appeals by some communists to Reform As a democratic socialist party. We say to that the Wolf has changed its fur but not its  other marchers accused romanian television of boycotting their gatherings while giving ample cover age to the National salvation front. The front has decided to run on a democratic plat form in free elections tentatively set for april despite initial claims that it would t Field candidates. Romanian television which played a key role in the two week uprising has reportedly promised some air time for All registered parties starting next week. There was no romanian television Crew in evidence As the marchers moved from the communist party Headquarters to Bucharest s downtown Piazza Roma a a Square where heavy fighting took place Between Ceausescu loyalists and the army units and civilian revolutionaries that were battling them. Carrying White cloth banners proclaiming the martyrs want Liberty and bread the marchers Knelt repeatedly on the ice covered sidewalks during the slow procession. At Sites of particularly heavy fighting they halted to chant the lord s prayer and Cross themselves. Many women wore Black scarves and some demonstrators carried lighted funeral tapers. Coalition from Page 1 Awakening democracy now the initiative for peace and human rights and the United left. But the United left announced sunday that it had withdrawn from the coalition telling East Germany s official adn news Agency that the group had been misleadingly presented in the announcement thurs Day. Bernd Chr pcs of United left said his group was open to other alliances if suitable common policies can be worked  new forum the largest of the pro Reform group with More than 200,000 members held a strategy con Gress in Leipzig Over the weekend and announced that its Union with the other groups was limited. The Iso new forum delegates said that the election of individual Independent candidates was preferable to voting for political parties or alliances and that new forum candidates would rather run alone. Regulations on campaigning and balloting Are to be set out under a new election Law a draft of which is expected to be published before parliament meets  among opposition groups also have be come apparent during the weekly negotiations Amon the various Reform movements the communists and other political  confrontation Between the fractured opposition groups and the communists could result in the talks collapse and further destabilization of Premier Hans Modrow s transitional  talks began dec. 7 to provide a forum for draft ing reforms and airing the views of citizens groups that have no representation in the government. Democratic Awakening has threatened to pull out of the talks monday unless Modrow s government shows proof that the former state Security Force has been  forum said it too would leave the talks if parliament acts to form a secret police Force before the elections. Adn reported in december that the government had abolished the once feared secret police Agency. But Media reports have since contended some armed units continue to operate. Modrow told austrian television sunday that a Security Force was needed to prevent the spread of right Wing extremism in East Germany. Colombia from Page 1 there to help get better control of the drug traffickers. I think it la work  Pentagon sources said saturday that the Juk was chosen to Lead an anti drug interdiction Effort off the colombian coast but that final decisions about when the warship might go to work had not been made. The White House acknowledged dec. 28 that Bush had instructed the . Military to draw up plans for interdicting drug Supply routes from South and Cen trial America. Spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said then that the final plans were still being made but added we have decided to take certain actions to help the countries of latin America interdict these Supply  the new York times reported sunday that colom Bian officials were Balking at the stationing of . Vessels off its coast and had refused to meet last week with an american team sect to explain the plan. The times said the Pentagon wanted to put ground based radar units in the mountains of Colombia Bolivia and Peru to be run by americans and military officers from those countries. Souvenir from Page 1 the West Berlin Side booed when East German Border guards welded steel bars Over a roughly 7-foot Hole in the Wall at the Reich Stag the former seat of Germany s parliament near the Brandenburg Gate. Enterprising vendors have been Selling pieces of the Wall for up to so Marks about $29 and even rent out hammers and chisels for do it yourself Chipping. But each Wall chunk removed Means lost business for cast Germany. An East German company said last month it planned to raise Western currency by Selling sections of the Wall removed from the Brandenburg Gate and potsdamer Platz a Square that was the Hub of 1920s Berlin. Sales profits Are to go to humanitarian causes. Communist East German authorities have punched dozens of Crossings into the Wall since their dramatic decision on nov. 9 to open their Borders to the Westfor the first time since 1961