European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 7, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 8 a a a the stars and stripes thursday june 7, 1990e. German joblessness triples in 6 weeks Berlin apr joblessness tripled in East Germany in just six weeks and the government worried about mass unrest unveiled a Broad program tuesday to Blunt the Shock of the shift to a free Market. East German factories will Cut hours and reduce wages to try to keep people on the payroll even though there is less work for them to do said labor and social minister Rugine Hildebrandt. A new employment administration has been created to oversee a program for compensating workers for lost wages and retraining them for new jobs she said. East Germany is to officially shed four decades of communism july 2 and merge its Economy and social institutions with West Germany. It will be the biggest and most difficult stage of full German unification. The effects of unification already Are being Felt in the form of rising prices and growing unemployment As East German enterprises Many of them inefficient and overstaffed face Western Competition. About 100,000 people were officially unemployed at the end of june said Hil Debrandt. That represents Only 1 percent of the work Force but it is about three times the unemployment rate of 35,000 listed in april. Hildebrandt said that even though a 1 percent jobless rate is minuscule by Western standards the Speed with which it materialized is alarming in a nation where joblessness was once officially non existent. Analysts say 500,000 to 4 million East germans will lose their jobs in the next two years. Officials in both countries Are counting on a flood of Western investment to create new employment. Many East germans Are not waiting to find out. West Germany said tuesday that East germans Are still fleeing to West Germany at a rate of 2,000 a week and that More than 180,000 have migrated this year alone. Hundreds of thousands fled last year an exodus that opened the Berlin Wall and helped bring Down the communist government in october. Western firms already have begun taking Over parts of the East German Economy. Western food imports for example fill East German grocery stores and Many East germans have been buying Western clothing and electronics. The effect has been to Speed the decline of Many East German industries. Hildebrandt said about 6,600 workers in the last week of May alone registered for unemployment. About half of the unemployed Are skilled workers and the biggest concentration is in the heavily industrialized cities in the South such As Dresden and Leipzig. City officials in East Berlin on tuesday opened their first a social station a a counselling and Aid Center for people facing financial or other personal problems caused by the changes under Way. The Large safety net being Woven with West German financing is aimed in part at heading off growing fears of unrest among workers Many of whom already have staged protests and Brief stuntman missing after ride Over Niagara Falls Niagara Parks policeman Fred Hollidge inspects the kayak of the missing Tennessee stuntman. Niagara Falls Ontario apr an american stuntman is missing after going Over the Niagara Falls in a kayak Canadian police said. A red kayak belonging to Jessie w. Sharp 28, of Ocoee term., was recovered below Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian Side a fall in one piece a said Maureen Quinn a Constable with the Niagara Parks police. But she said authorities a found nothing else just the kayak. No body has been Sharp was last seen about 1 45 p.m., Quinn said. The Falls on the Canadian Side the worlds largest in volume Are 181 feet High or about As tall As a 13-Story building. Constable Kim Davis said the daredevil was trying to Complete a stunt that had been planned for about 10 years. Police said nobody has Ever tried to kayak Over the Canadian Side of the Falls. A barrels yes a said Quinn of other attempts to go Over the Falls. But she said a it does no to seem plausible he could do it and survive a George Bailey of the Niagara Parks commission said Sharp had attempted the stunt several years ago on the american Side of the Falls but Park police stopped him. He said the Man was accompanied by a film Crew and a Friend who took photographs. Quinn said police received a Call that the stuntman had entered the water about a half mile above the Falls but a by the time we responded it was too late. He actually went Over the she added that a several people saw him go Over. It was videotaped. There were plenty of Ken Kitchen was working in an Ontario Hydro Tower overlooking the Niagara River when he saw a Man stripped to the Waist in a kayak. He said the Utility closed the dam Gates reducing the water flow to the Falls in an attempt to Stop him. The Many a boat grounded but he picked it up and moved it into the Middle of the River Kitchen said. A the was gone before our help could get there. All we could do was sit and watch helplessly a Kitchen said. At a press conference later tuesday police showed reporters a videotape that a tourist made of the incident. The film shows a Man in a kayak successfully negotiating the rapids of the Niagara River just before the Falls. Then he disappears. World to Dayall 4 aboard Light plane killed in azores crash Horta azores apr a Light air plane crashed while Landing at Horta Airport on the mid Atlantic Island of Faial killing All four people on Board an Airport official said wednesday. Two French and two portuguese citizens died in the crash tuesday evening the official said. The twin engined Cheyenne ii plane crashed into the runway after returning from a reconnaissance flight to assist tuna fishermen in the portuguese azores islands said the official who requested anonymity. An eyewitness cited by the portuguese news Agency Lusa said he saw smoke coming from the plane before it fell some 3,300 feet to the ground. The Airport official said the reasons for the crash were not immediately apparent. Visibility was Good at the time of the Accident he said. The plane belonged to a French fisheries detection company inter Thon and was contracted by the the azores regional secretariat for agriculture and fisheries to help detect tuna Shoals the official earthquakes Rock Coral sea Island Chain port Vila Vanuatu apr a pair of earthquakes damaged Homes and caused landslides on Vanuatu a Mere lava Island radio Vanuatu said. There were no reports of casualties in the quake tuesday. A Richter scale measurement of the quakers Force was not immediately available. Davidson Lilia Secretary to the Banks Torres local government Council said wednesday that most of the damage was at the Village of Tasman where about 400 people live. He said most of the damage was caused by the second stronger earthquake which followed the first temblor about 1 i hours later. He added that a series of aftershocks was keeping residents nerves on Edge. Vanuatu is a double Chain of about 80 islands in the Coral sea Northeast of palestinian says raid aimed at civilians Jerusalem apr a palestinian guerrilla Leader captured in last weeks failed sea raid said tuesday his squad had orders to Spray the Tel Aviv hotel District with machine gun fire and a kill any person we he also said his Palestine liberation front squad was trained by libyan instructors in that North african country for 18 months carried out joint exercises with the libyan Navy and was accompanied in route to Israel by a libyan lieutenant colonel. The captured guerrilla identified As Ahmed Mohammed Yusuf the squads Deputy commander spoke on Israel televisions arabic language nightly news. The curly haired heavyset Yusuf 28, wore Olive Green military style clothing and spoke calmly. His remarks if proven accurate provide the most detailed account of the May 30 raid in which two guerrilla boats sped toward the israeli coast. One was intercepted at sea and a second one landed near a Beach South of Tel Aviv. Four guerrillas were killed and 12 captured. Asked what orders he had Yusuf said a the target area was the hotel District. First to bombard the area from the sea with Katusha rockets. After shelling and machine gun fire to go ashore and storm the target. They asked me to enter the Sheraton hotel to kill everyone when asked to clarify Yusuf added a the targets of the operation were civilian and not military. We were asked not to have mercy on anyone and to kill any person we his account contradicted statements by the palestinian factions Leader Moham med Abbas who has said the attack was aimed at military targets not civilians. The remarks could cast a further Shadow on the dialogue that was launched by the United states after Plo chief Yasser Arafat renounced terrorism in december 1988. A senior . Administration official said in Washington on monday that the dialogue was a clearly in jeopardy following the attempted raid on Israel. The United states is demanding that the Plo dissociate itself from the attack and condemn it. The Bush administration is also asking the Plo to expel Abbas who is part of the plots 15-member executive committee. Yusuf said libyan instructors taught the squad How to swim and operate Small rubber boats and gave lessons in navigation and naval tactics. A a frigate accompanied us and participated in an exercise with us a he said. A the Man from the libyan Navy responsible for us would give us the libyan officer identified by Yusuf As it. Col. Zuheir also accompanied the guerrillas on the civilian libyan vessel that carried the squad toward Israel. Also aboard was Abu Al a the Deputy Leader of the Palestine liberation front said Yusuf. If captured a the instructions were that no one was to admit where we trained who helped us and who gave us weapons and boats a Yusuf said. Yusuf who was bom in Kun Eitra Syria said he was a member of Arafat s mainstream Fatah group before joining the Abbas faction in 1
