8 killed as explosion hits Kentucky coal mine By CHARLES WOLFE Appalachian Regional Hospital system. He • Associated Press Writer delivered the news to the waiting families. TOPMOST, Ky. (AP) A powerful explosion Shortly after that, the final missing body was blasted mud through a coal mine yesterday, killing found, said Bill Riley, public information officer eight miners one-half mile inside the mountain, with the Kentucky State' Police. officials said. The cause of the explosion was not The miners, who were not immediately identified, immediately known. had been working 2,500 feet from the entrance of the Willard Stanley, state mines and minerals mine at ground level. commissioner, said rescue workers found five Witnesses said the blast was so strong it * bodies in the Adkins Coal Co. No. 18 mine about 10 splattered mud and water against a cliff 280 feet p.m., seven hours after the explosion. ,/ from the mine mouth and broke a headlight on a Two more bodies were found shortly after Jeep parked about 125 feet away. midnight today, said the Rev. Charles Wilcox of the The cause of the blast could not immediately be Reagan accuses Khadafy of lying President: By TERENCE HUNT Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) President Reagan yesterday rejected the , denial by Col. Moammar Khadafy that Libyan terrorists have been sent to the United States to kill government leaders. "I wouldn't believe a word he says," Reagan declared. "We have the evidence and he knows it." The president, in a brief meeting with reporters, left open the possibility of punitive steps against the Khadafy government. Asked whether he might seek a boycott of Libyan oil or other economic sanctions, Reagan replied only that "There have been no decisions made." White House and State Department officials said U.S. economic and political relations with Libya have been under review for at least two months. State Department spokesman. Dean Fischer said the•step was,taken with at view toward dealing with Libya's "terrorist activities." As to the question of whether the United States could stand by idly if a foreign leader were trying to kill the president, Reagan said: "Well, , m m r to By BRYAN BRUMLEY was the reason for the hunger strike. The letter, delivered by undisclosed means to the Sciences." Associated Press Writer The defiant letter was written last week, a few days before . daughter-in-law, Liza Alexeyeva, was dated Dec. 1 and said Sakharov lost slightly more than 17 pounds and his wife MOSCOW (AP) Nobel laureate and human rights the government newspaper Izvestia reported the couple had the strike "is a struggle for the right of anyone to come and about 15 1 / 2 , the letter said, and his blood pressure had activist Andrei Sakharov wrote in a letter received here been hospitalized to protect their health. They were fasting go from this country. It is a defense of my rights and honor. dropped. yesterday that the Soviet KGB and the silence of his at the couple's exile home in Gorky but their whereabouts No change in our health or empty words will change our Alexeyeva was was married by proxy in Montana last scientist colleagues would be responsible for any "tragic since the Izvestia report on Friday are unknown. minds, Only the departure of Liza. We will continue the mmer to Alxi Semonov, Bonner's son a previos end" to the hunger strike he and his wife launched Nov. 22. Friends of Sakharov, who received the letter, said they hunger strike until the problem is solved." su mar riage. Sov i et autho y rities do not recognize by the marr iage. International pressure for the Soviets to allow the couple's did not know where the couple was being held after a forced A postscript dated Dec. 2 thanked American physicist daughter-in-law to emigrate to the United States increased hospitalization apparently ended the hunger strike. Sydney Drell, of California's Stanford University, for his Alexeyeva told Western reporters yesterday that she was yesterday, with protests in several nations including a Friends and relatives of the 60-year-old Sakharov and his support; and added: "A tragic end will signify a murder ordered to appear today at the government emigration sharply worded statement from Belgium's Communist 58-year-old wife, Yelena Bonner, said they fear authorities agreed to by the KGB (Soviet secret police) and by the office but was given no, indication it involved more than a Party. Refusal by authorities to allow the woman to leave are force-feeding the Sakharovs. complete silence of my colleagues in the Soviet Academy of routine matter. inside • Like almost everything at the University, meal schedules in resi dence halls will face changes when the semester system is imple mented Fall Term 1983. And like almost everything at the University that will be changed by the semes ter system, no one is yet certain what the exact changes to the meal schedules will be Page 4 • While a good resume can get you an interview, a good interview can get you the job or at least Page 6 • Three Lebanese Moslems armed with grenades hijacked a Libyan jetliner Monday and forced it to fly to Beirut where they said they were seeking the return of a Shiite Moslem leader who disappeared three years ago Page 10 another look • Stealers quarterback Terry Bradshaw broke his hand in Pitts burgh's loss to Oakland in the NFL last night weather Mostly cloudy, becoming windy and turning colder today, with rain showers changing to snow show• ers. High temperatures of 40 de grees early. Windy with snow showeri and squalls likely tonight accumulating around an inch. Low temperatures near 25 degrees. Blus tery tomorrow with snow showers. High tempratures only near 30 de grees. 'We have evidence' Page 12 —by Mark Stunder the daily maybe you've just caught me before we've had a chance to counsel on this." The purported Libyan plot and possible economic retaliation against Libya were among topics for Reagan's afternoon meeting with the National Security Council. Reagan spoke briefly with reporters about the purported Libyan threat a day after Khadafy denied any intent to kill Reagan or other global leaders and challenged the United States to show proof of such a plot. White House Deputy Press Secretary Larry Speakes said he was not aware of any plans to make evidence public. The Senate Intelligence Committee was briefed on the evidence late in the day and three senators told reporters they were convinced it does constitute early warning of a potential threat against the president and other leaders. "It is for real," said Sen.. Henry Jackson, D-Wash. "What you need , in dealing with terrorism is early warning and that is what this is," Jackson said later. Please see REAGAN, Page 16. On Dasher, on Dancer.. . Jane Kurtz (sth-special education) looks at a display of Santa and his reindeer in a gift shop downtown. Many stores have decorated their windows in the holiday spirit determined, but Albert Alexander, district manager for the state Department of Mines and Minerals said blasting powder used to remove coal from the mine could have been the cause. "The possibility now is that it could have been powder, but it's too early to determine," Alexander said. Asked if the explosion could have occurred while the miners were taking blasting materials into the mine, Alexander said, "There's a good chance of it, yes, sir." Stanley said the rescue teams worked in shifts, digging into the mine and erecting ventilation • Ile • larl2o apparatus to force fresh air farther into the mine The area around the mine sealed off, families of the miners, whose names were not immediately released, gathered at Beaver Creek Elementary School at Topmost. Officials said most of the trapped miners were in their 20s and were from the Beaver Creek and Carr Creek communities near the mine. Authorities were notified by the State Department of Mines and Minerals at 3:09 p.m. that a methane gas or dust explosion had occurred.at the mine on Potatoe Branch, about 50 miles northeast of Hazard in the coal-rich southeastern corner of the state. Communists claim Solidarity wants Polish overthrow By THOMAS W. NETTER Associated Press Writer WARSAW, Poland (AP) The Communist Party yesterday accused Solidarity leader Lech Walesa of calling for the overthrow of Polish authorities during a closed union meeting last week. Warsaw Radio broadcast Walesa's tape-recorded remarks, and Walesa confirmed yesterday he had made the comments. He told The Associated Press his words were taken out of context but he would not elaborate. A radio spokesman said he could not say where the tapes came from. Coinciding with the harsh new Polish attack on Solidarity's leadership, the Soviet government newspaper Izvestia yesterday charged that extremists in Poland's trade union movement were verging on terrorism in their attempts to undermine the influence of the ruling Communist Party. The Polish Communist Party daily Trybuna Ludu published lengthy quotes from Walesa at the meeting last Thursday in Radom, central Poland. Walesa, leader of the 9.5-million- Tuefiday Dec. 8, 1981 Vol. 82, No. 85 16 pages University Park, Pa. 16802 Published by students of The Pennsylvania State University member labor federation, was quoted as saying "The confrontation is unavoidable and the confrontation will take place . . . We have to awaken people to that." "I wanted to reach that confrontation in a natural way, when almost all social groups are with us," the paper quoted him as saying. "But I made a mistake . . . because I thought we would keep it up longer and then we would overthrow these Sejms (Poland's parliament) and councils and so on." The "councils" he referred to are local government units whose officials will be elected in February. Walesa would not explain his remarks, and the party apparently interpreted them as a direct attack on the party and government. Walesa also was quoted in papers and on the radio yesterday as saying. at the Thursday meeting: "of course, a general strike today would be stupidity. At the same time I think that our fancy must not run riot and we must not be carried away by our nerves." Walesa added that the union should not say "aloud" that confrontation is inevitable.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers