Clinton sends delegation to Japan auake site
LOS ANGRlivS (AP) - President C-lin
ton, commemorating the one year
anniversary of California's Wilier *• »rth
quake, ordered a high-level delegation to
Japan to help Tokyo cope with the extra
ordinary fury" of its quake
A powerful tremor tore through several
western Japanese cities, toppling hum
dreds of buildings, touching off raging
fires and killing more than 1,700 people
With billboards featuring scenes of the
UW-t Northridge earthquake forming a
backdrop, Clinton said he ordered Fed
era! Kmergencv Management Agent v and
Transportation Department officials to
Japan.
He said the United States "sends our
profound condolences."
Gen. John Shaliknshvili, chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is in Japan on
other business and has promised U S
military support, Clinton said
"We know that nature has stuc k again
here at home in California, with the
floods, and with extraordinary furv with
the earthquake in Japan," Clinton said.
He said the administration has made
contact with Japanese officials, prompt
ing him to send the high-level delegation.
He did not say what the delegation would
do.
In a trip loaded with politic nl impiil a
lions. Clinton inspected earthquake-dam
aged uiti** from tttiM and areas hit by this
year's flooding
Hit- *(**<< h was delivered at California
State University, a campus heavily dam
aged in Hi>h Clinton's tour of a rebuilt
v.iumo building was canceled after three
devices resembling pipe bombs were
found The Set ret Service later deter
mined then* was no bomb
With 54 electoral votes at stake in the
1990 presidential election, the White
House cannot afford to look laggard In
responding to California's natural disa*
ters — fires floods, mud slides or earth
quakes
Yesterday was the first anniversary of
the Northridge earthquake, who h killed
til people, injured at least 0.000 and
caused $20 billion In property damage,
buckling highways and crumbling honors
li was the most expensive natural disaster
in U S history
Across the Pacific, japan was reeling
today from an earthquake that killed
more than 1,700 people, injuring thou
sands and causing massive property
damage.
Clinton, after talking Monday night
with I ' S Ambassador Walter Mandate in
Tokyo, said the United States w ill stand
ready to help" japan recover, Press Sec
rotary Mike \l< < aim said
Inst year's Northridge earthquake trig
K*»r»Hl a masMM) outpouring of federal tits
aster relief The White Hottsv said nearly
Si 1 r> billion vva- made available m
recovery effort*, with direct aid going to
inure than BOO,000 psKipIo
Clinton was e\{*s ted to visit flood res
cuers at a local fire station He was then
traveling to Roseville. California, to walk
n flood stricken street and talk to lor a!
resident*
Storms battering California for almost
two weeks created floods and mud slides
that killed at least 11 people and caused
an estimated S UM) million m damage
Eager to show his sympathy, Clinton
produced spr< tal radio and television
addresses for California last week Aides
bragged that the administration took less
than an hour to approve Republican Cm
Pete Wilson's request for federal aid
More than 10,000 people already have
applied for the aid. hoping fur loan guar
ontees. temporary shelter or dim t aid
Several agencies have anted up. im lud
ing the Transportation Department,
which released SS million fan 1 i and
was to provide SIS million more yester
day
Aides shrugged off suggestions that
Clinton's disaster response was politii al
ly motivated Hut thuv wid it was impor
tant to get the federal government
involved quit klv and visibly, otherwise,
voter* blame the president
"l think Americ an* have the right to
expec t the government to act swiftly I
don’t think there's anything political
about that," Met lurry said
Clinton, who won California in the
1 ‘HI2 election ami has always found polit
ical solace here, has watched his political
fortunes sag in recent months The most
recent /.os trige/rs Times poll showed
him with a M) percent approval rating in
the state, higher than his national aver
age Hut that was in Oc tober, and the
political tandsi ape has c hanged drasti
cally sune then
Democratic gubernatorial c andidate
Kathleen Hrown lost to Wilson In Novem
ber. despite Clinton's efforts in her umi
pntgn California Democrats lost three
seats in the House in the midterm elec
tions, and the Republican landslide
meant a loss of power for California
Democ rats who had Intm running power
fed congressional committees
Aides cite Clinton's immigration effort,
the cpoc k response to the earthquake and
the administration's plan to cushion
defense cuts as reasons the president
should hold California in DWti
Devices look like bombs;
Clinton’s tour cut short
LOS ANGELES (AP) —
President Bill Clinton
scrapped plans to tour an
earthquake-damaged building
today after authorities dis
covered a device they thought
looked like a pipe bomb It
turned out to Ih* just pipes.
Secret Service spokesman
Curtis Eldridge said the
device discovered in a science
building at California State
University's Northridge cam
pus was found to be innocu
ous.
"It just turned out to be
some old pipes," Eldridge
said from Washington
Clinton went ahead with
his scheduled speech at the
university, but security
appeared even tighter than
usual and he canceled plans
to tour the science huildmg
"The bomb squad was
( ailed at 7:40 am. after the
Secret Service found three
devices resembling pipe
bombs," said Officer Rigo
Romero, a spokesman for the
Los Angeles Police Depart
ment,
Carl Meyer, another Secret
Service spokesman, said that
during a routine search of the
science building before Clin
ton s visit, investigators dis
covered "some pipes in a uib
inet,” including a pipe that
was capped.
Bomb-sniffing dugs worn
brought in, and one of thorn
"alerted" that it had smelled
something of potential con
cern, Meyer said
The decision to abandon
the tour was made before
Clinton left bis hotel in San
ta Monit a and drove the :I0
minutes to the college in
Northridge.
McCurry said the material
— which he refused to iden
tify was found during a
routine set urity sweep
" The construction workers
who were working m that
building weren't able to iden
tify the material quickly,
erring on the side of caution
(We) thought it would be
smarter for us to make some
changes," McCurry said
At the site. Secret Service
agents were seen conferring
with construction officials
Then a member of the police
bomb squad in a protective
Suit went insole the S< lence
Two building with some type
of equipment.
Several minutes later the
bomb squad member came
Ixick outside, and a few min
utes later While House
advance man Dave Nelson
told reporters that the presi
dent would deliver his sjxssh
at the university but would
not tour the building
FDA approves drug for alcoholics
NEW YORK (AP) A utu
day pill heroin addicts take to
help them kit k the habit will now
I hi given to alcoholic s, making it
the first new drug used to fight
alcoholism in nearly SO years
Researchers, who concluded
that the drug naltrexone has
some benefit in blocking the
craving for alcohol, i autioned,
however, that it does not retire
sent n "magic bullet" in (he tat
tle against alcoholism
The manufacturer. DuPont
Merck Pharmaceutical Co , said
Tuesday it would sell the drug
as a supplement to traditional
alcoholism therapy.
Available since l‘)H-t. naltrex
one blot ks the euphoria people
feel after taking heroin and oth
er narcotic s
The Food and Drug Adminis
(ration gave DuPont Merck
authorization on Dec 30 to mar
ket the drug for use against alt o
holisrn after two studies involv
ing tt>7 people showed it also
appears to curb aleohole s' i rav
ings.
The only other drug now sold
for alcoholism is Antabuse,
introduced in UMH, which
makes a person nauseous when
they drink Researchers said
Tuesday that it hasn’t been very
suo essful because HO pen ent of
patients fail to take it properly
They were cautious in their
expec tations for naltrexone
"None of these studies militate
this is a substitute for good psy
chosocial treatment 12-step
programs like alcoholit s anony
mous." said Dr Charles O'Brien,
a professor of psyc hiatrv at the
U m verst I y of Pennsylvania
Drugs like naltrexone
"address some unmet needs in
alcoholism treatment, but no
single medication i* a magic bul
let. " O'Brien said, using the term
once applied to penicillin
the drug, which has been
sold under the brand name I res
an. in the future will be called
Kevia
Doctors are allowed to pre
scribe approved drugs for any
reason they see fit, and some
have already been using najtrev
one for alcoholism, the
researchers said.
DuPont Merck a partner
ship of the nation's biggest
chemical company and the
biggest prescription drug maker
plans to sidl the onte-a day
pill for a wholesale price of
S3 HO per day in a treatment pro
gram lasting three to ms months
Patients who can’t afford it will
receive it for free, said DuPont
Merck's president and chief
executive. Kurt landgraf
Alcohol is the most widely
abused drug in the United
States, and about 15 million
Americans are alcoholics, the
researchers said Researchers
estimated the annual cost of the
disease at $100 billion in prema
ture deaths and Illnesses, lost
productivity, treatment costs
and other expenses
In the two studies, both done
in 1992 in conjunction with
counseling, scientists said the
drug reduced euphoria, c ut the
c raving alcoholic s feel for drink
ing and also rod need the result
ing rolnpsos into drinking that
many people suffer after Quit -
>"'K
A 1 ~ week study of 70 lung
turin alcoholic men done by the
University of Pennsylvania
showed 7 I peri ent who were on
the drug relapsed compared
with s-t [>ert ent of those given a
plat eho Those who did drink
while on the drug drank less fre
quently and in smaller quanti
ties
Asked which kinds of people
would be best suited to naltrex
one. the researchers said they
weren't sure and that broader
studies are planned to find out.
The major side effect of the
drug is nausea, whit h w as expe
rienced by about 10 percent of
patients who have taken it
About seven percent got
headaches, and smaller numbers
suffered from di/./.iness. ner
vousness. fatigue or insomnia
DuPont Men k exe< ulives said
sales exptu tations are modest
Naltrexone brought in about $14
million last year as a narcotics
treatment and tin* company
expects an additional $70 mil
lion this year
Paul Wood, president of the
National Council on Alcoholism
and Drug Dependence, a Now
York based education and advo
c acy group, said the drug
appear* to have potential
"If you could reduce the < rav
ing and desire to drink, it would
certainly help the standard alco
holism treatment a lot,” he said
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