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774892_1 | they still could not explain what caused the Other Office to capsize as it traveled north toward the United Nations at about 9:15 P.M. All 38 aboard were rescued. Passengers yesterday described how the leisurely night turned into a terrifying adventure. For about an hour, the boat remained moored at the North Cove Marina, they said. The guests milled about, eating and drinking and having their portraits drawn. It was still daylight at about 8 P.M., when Mr. Piazza set sail up the Hudson. The Other Office turned back by the Intrepid, the aircraft carrier and museum that is docked at West 46th Street. It headed back around the tip of Manhattan Island, under the sparkling lights of the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges and then on up the East River. At about 9:15 P.M., the boat approached the midchannel buoy, halfway between Roosevelt Island and Manhattan. Just then, the Captain told investigators, a swell crashed against the starboard, or right, side and the boat began to list. At first officials had said they thought the boat was turning when it tipped, but they said yesterday that Mr. Piazza told them he was on a straight-ahead course. That was confirmed by Howard Bialos, 32, a World Copy employee who was sitting on the bridge with the captain. Most of the passengers were standing on the bow and as the boat tilted, the passengers were knocked onto the low side of the boat, pushing it down under water, Mr. Bialos said. "It was very unreal," said Michelle Foley, 25, who was also sitting on the bridge. "The boat started tipping. Everybody thought we hit a wave. You thought it was going to come back but then it didn't. People were running down the wrong side of the boat." While all the other passengers were up on deck, Mr. D'Eri was downstairs in the bathroom. "I felt the boat turn and I got concerned," he said. "I felt like the boat was going to right itself. But when I realized it wouldn't, then there was a sense of fear and urgency to get out." Within seconds, he was in water chest deep and struggling to get out. He ripped off his shoes and pants, he said, and pushed his way out of the cabin. Meanwhile, on deck, Mr. Bialos had jumped over the side of the boat, holding onto the railing and | A Quiet Evening River Cruise Became a Terrifying Adventure |
778070_0 | Like the devil at their shoulders, Automobile magazine inflames Americans' passion for cars and trucks each month, rolling out the sweetest new things that Detroit, Tokyo and company have to offer -- and, incidentally, making that Taurus in the garage seem dowdier than ever. "Sell Your Soul!" the magazine urged on its May cover, tempting readers to buy a 402-horsepower, four-wheel-drive Porsche 911 Turbo. So loyal readers may be surprised by the September issue, now reaching subscribers. "Great Used Cars: Cheap" blares the cover headline. "New cars," the article warns, "are rapidly acquiring the same aura of financial indulgence as new boats." With growing numbers of recent-vintage, well-maintained cars reaching the market, some buyers have already begun substituting used cars for new. But the trend has seemed concentrated among people who may dream of hot rods but can afford only basic transportation. When a magazine serving the country's wealthier car buyers starts praising secondhand merchandise, that is strong evidence that everything old is truly new again, and that the stigma associated with used cars has faded. "You go anyplace where you're apt to run into really serious car people, and they just don't buy new cars," said David E. Davis Jr., the editor of Automobile, which is owned by K-III Communications and has a circulation of 600,000. In fact, the cover article turns the used-car stigma on its head, arguing that unsophisticated buyers are the ones who should be shopping for new cars. "Used cars are an enthusiasm that should be restricted to sharks, not minnows," the article says. This is bad news for the auto companies, which have argued that delight in owning the newest car with the fanciest features -- and the status such ownership confers -- will keep sales humming. Not so, the magazine suggests. "No one wants to spend $300 per month on a new car when worries about job security, medical insurance, and retirement pensions are making them wake up in the middle of the night," reads the article, by Michael Jordan. Mr. Davis said Automobile had never before devoted its cover to used cars. But Automobile, whose subscribers have a median household income of $72,440, is not exactly pushing bottom-of-the-line, dogeared merchandise. Its "Bargain Bin Hall of Fame" includes fare like the Acura NSX ($81,000 for a 1995 model, $42,575 for a 1991) and the BMW 750il ($87,500 for the 1995 model, $26,325 for | For Used Cars, a Leap to a Fashion Pedestal |
778124_0 | To the Editor: "Mr. Chirac Honors the Truth" (editorial, July 18) is just another distortion of the truth of the German occupation of France. As a teen-age girl in Paris during that occupation, I can attest to the hatred millions of my compatriots felt for the Vichy Government. Do you know that any Jew wearing a yellow star who boarded the Paris subway would always be assured of a seat? You might read "Soldiers of the Night," David Schoenbrun's study of the Resistance, and learn about the patriotism and valor of the thousands of men and women, many of whom lost their lives in the service of the real France, before tarring all of us with the collaborator's brush. I risked my own life running messages for the Resistance, so I don't need President Jacques Chirac to lecture me about the occupation. Mr. Chirac is too young to remember much about the German occupation. Former President Francois Mitterrand knows this story from firsthand experience. I agree with him when he states, "the crimes of Vichy had nothing to do with France, nothing to do with the French Republic." MONIQUE GROSS New York, July 20, 1995 | The French Repudiate Crimes of Vichy |
778010_0 | Gerry Adams, the political leader of the Irish Republican Army, today gingerly accepted the idea that an international commission to arrange the disarmament of the I.R.A. might lead to the start of full-fledged negotiations toward a political settlement of its 25-year fight against British rule. The Irish and British Governments have said they are considering proposing such a commission to clear the way for talks involving both governments with Sinn Fein, the I.R.A. political wing, and Protestant Unionist parties. The Protestant parties and the British Government have refused to sit down with Sinn Fein until the process of disarming the I.R.A. has begun. In a statement in Dublin late this afternoon, Mr. Adams, the Sinn Fein president, repeated that the I.R.A. would not dismantle its arsenal, estimated at 100 tons of weapons including explosives, before the start of all-party talks. He castigated the British Government and the Unionist parties for delaying the start of such talks nearly 11 months after cease-fire declared by the I.R.A. But he stopped well short of dismissing the disarmament commission idea, merely challenging Britain to clarify its position on talks over the predominantly Protestant province. Britain and Ireland have not specified how a disarmament commission would work and when it would start functioning. Officials and analysts say the timing is a matter for fine-tuning, that a compromise may lie in announcing simultaneously the creation of the commission and the target date for the start of full-fledged talks. | I.R.A. Gives Nod to International Panel |
773225_6 | conspiracy-minded say the bomb exploded inside the building. The Government's motive for the brutality, Mr. Duke says, was to create a sentiment in the country for stronger powers for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. House Speaker Newt Gingrich is described by Mr. Duke as a "counterfeit Republican," one of the "globalists" who are surrendering American sovereignty to a world trade organization. One of the few politicians on the national level admired in the state sovereignty movement is Patrick J. Buchanan, who has opposed the international pact reached under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and speaks the language of sovereignty. One of the most influential leaders of the far-right wing is Linda Thompson, a former lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union in Indianapolis who now leads a paramilitary group and heads the American Justice Federation, which sells anti-Government books, videotapes and radio programs. For a time, she called for an armed march on Washington, which never occurred. In the case of the Conference of the States, it was noted by the extremists that Governor Leavitt in speeches had used suspicious language, like "global marketplace." This year is the 50th anniversary of the United Nations, the demon organization to conspiracy groups. And some extremists claimed it was more than a coincidence that the Conference of the States would come during the 50th birthday of the U.N. "In the beginning, we didn't anticipate any opposition to the conference," said Dan Sprague, executive director of the Council of State Governments, one of the groups sponsoring the meeting. "We had the support of Democrats and Republicans all over the country." But it was that very unity, it seems, that provoked suspicions among groups on the lookout for conspiracies. At a hearing in California, about 80 foes of the meeting turned out to protest. "There is an American Patriot Fax network out of Las Vegas that reaches hundreds of thousands of people," said Michael Reynolds, a spokesman for the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors extremist groups. "These are basically your suburban neighbors, middle- and upper-middle class people." Advances in desktop publishing, he said, have helped such groups achieve a much more polished look in their journals and magazines. "The old mimeographed newsletters are gone," Mr. Reynolds said. "Now they can put out a publication with a sophisticated look that seems to give it credibility." | Conspiracy Theories' Impact Reverberates in Legislatures |
773242_1 | and the rest of the province were "very quiet," with only a half-dozen incidents of violence and no serious injuries reported after nightfall, indicating that the rioters were heeding the appeal for calm by Sinn Fein's president, Gerry Adams. Sinn Fein asserted that the British decision to free the soldier, Pvt. Lee Clegg, was a ploy by Prime Minister John Major of Britain to win hard-line votes in his leadership fight. Later Mr. Major said in Parliament that Sinn Fein was responsible for the renewed violence. Catholics here said Sinn Fein might have had several motives for encouraging the uprising that ended 10 months of calm in Ulster. The unrest provided a release of the accumulated frustration at the slow progress of the peace effort, and the genuine fury that greeted the release of the prisoner. It served as a warning to Britain of the violence that could result if Sinn Fein was not elevated to the level of a full bargaining partner in talks intended to bring peace to Northern Ireland. Full-fledged talks are predicated on "substantial progress" in decommissioning the I.R.A. arsenal, estimated at 100 tons of weapons, including explosives. And by highlighting Catholic rage at the freeing of the British soldier, Sinn Fein also underscored its demand for a release of I.R.A. prisoners held in British prisons. Sinn Fein was said to be worried that Mr. Major, having won his party leadership battle on Tuesday over right-wing opponents, might now try to solidify his position by appearing to hold a hard line on Ireland. Right-wing members of Parliament, particularly those of Unionist parties representing Northern Ireland, regularly call Mr. Adams a terrorist. Many Republicans, or those who favor unification with Ireland, believe that Mr. Major has made great strides toward settling the conflict, but that his narrow majority in Parliament makes him hesitant to move swiftly toward all-party talks that would include Sinn Fein. The paramilitary violence was suspended after the I.R.A. declared a cease-fire and Sinn Fein said it was willing to talk to the British Government about a political settlement of the conflict between the Catholic minority and the Protestant majority. In interviews Wednesday, Mr. Adams was insistent on the imminent start of full-fledged peace talks and criticized Britain's inaction, saying: "The bigger picture is that the impasse, which I pointed out some time ago has been likely, if not resolved, to lead to a | Belfast Catholics Loyal to I.R.A. Say It Stirred Up Street Violence |
772279_0 | Experts at the Federal Bureau of Investigation spent today poring over the lengthy manifesto written by the self-described anarchist who has engaged in a 17-year campaign of mail bombings, but agents offered no new theories in the case. The man, suspected of having mailed 16 bombs that killed three people and injured 23, disrupted airline flights and mail delivery in California this week by threatening to blow up an airplane. He later said the threat was a prank intended to draw attention to his credo, expressed in a lengthy manuscript mailed to The New York Times and The Washington Post. Despite the opportunity for new insight into the bomber's thinking, the investigators were making no new public disclosures today. The unknown object of their search is strongly supposed to be a white male in his late 30's or early 40's living in or near Sacramento, Calif. His early attacks focused on universities and airlines -- which led investigators to give the case the code name Unabom -- but in recent years he has included scientists, lobbyists and corporations among his targets. He is, by his own word, an anarchist disgusted with modern life and determined to focus public attention on high technology and its potential for harm. The letter sent to The Times used the return address of Calgene Inc., a company best known for making genetically engineered tomatoes, a spokeswoman for the firm acknowledged. The company has offices in Davis, Calif., a city 15 miles west of Sacramento that is home to a branch of the University of California. The suspect mailed two bombs in 1993 in packages with the return address of Sacramento State University. Two of the three men killed by his bombs were in Sacramento; the last was a timber industry lobbyist, Gilbert Murray, killed in his office by an exploding package on April 24. After two months of silence, the man re-emerged three days ago with a threat to blow up a commercial airliner leaving Los Angeles International Airport. Then, on Wednesday, a letter to The New York Times said the threat was a hoax, intended to regain public attention. "Since the public has a short memory we decided to play one last prank to remind them who we are," the letter said. "But no, we haven't tried to plant a bomb on an airline (recently)." The bomber said in the letter that he wanted | F.B.I. Checks Bomber Credo For New Clues |
772279_4 | carriers will be affected. No date has been set for ending the new security requirements, prompted by threats from the serial mail bomber. TRAVELERS Exact procedures may vary from one airport to another. The F.A.A. advises that passengers may have indentification checked more than once, and warns against leaving baggage unattended. Officials also urge travelers to report any suspicious packages or baggage. Getting to the Airport Official in San Francisco and Los Angelas advised travelers to arrive at the airport two hours before flight time. Checking-In All passengers must show photo identification that matches a ticket. People without such identification will be subjected to a search of all carry-on and checked luggage. Screening Baggage Where passengers and bags pass through X-ray machines and metal detectors, passengers will also be asked to turn on pagers, cellular phones and portable computers to assure that they are operable. Accompanying Passengers Many locations allow only ticketed passengers are past security checkpoints. PACKAGES The postal service has halted the shipment of all mail on passenger flights from California. Mail sent to California, as well as fourth-class (surface) mail and international surface mail, are not affected. Express Mail, Priority Mail, First Class Mail, International AIR mail and military mail. Under 12 Ounces Normal collection, transportation and distribution are taking place. Over 12 Ounces Postal clerks will not accept mail. Collection Boxes All mail weighing 12 ounces or more will be screened and returned to senders. Screening involves visual inspection, and X-ray if a package does not pass the first examination. Signs taped to the mailboxed throughout the state wearn customers not to mail packages over 12 ounces. Commercial Customers Large, well-known shippers are being allowed to send packages over 12 ounces, but these packages are not being transported on passenger airlines. PRIVATE MAIL CARRIERS The three major private mail companies said they were fully complying with F.A.A. requests but would not discuss internal security measures. United Parcel Service Mail Centers Shippers are required to open all packages for inspection. Photo identification is required as well. Mail Pickup Shippers are asked to leave the package open for inspection. Photo identification is also required. DHL Worldwide Express Procedures Vary Visual inspection and photo identification are required "in some cases." Clerks had been trained to look for clues. Regular commercial shippers are not subject to the same scrutiny. Federal Express Spokesmen were reluctant to discuss increased security. But a | F.B.I. Checks Bomber Credo For New Clues |
772193_0 | To the Editor: The obituary of Dr. Jonas Salk (front page, June 24) omitted mention of a major figure in his career. Basil O'Connor, law partner of Franklin D. Roosevelt during his brief venture into private practice, was drafted by the President to organize and conduct the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. The enormously successful March of Dimes, raising more than $50 million a year in the late 1940's -- $250 million in 1995 dollars -- financed not only the iron lungs in the communities where the funds were raised but also a crash program of research mounted by the foundation on O'Connor's initiative as a national effort and aimed at the early development of a polio vaccine. In those days, before Federal funds began to flow in support of what is now called "biomedical research," the foundation supplied the principal support for pediatric virology. O'Connor soon grew impatient with the timetable set by the country's pediatric virologists, who were committed to developing a live-virus vaccine. They were having trouble, especially with stabilizing the attenuation of the type-II polio virus. O'Connor was impressed, as were others, with the spectacular wartime success of the killed-virus vaccine for influenza. He became convinced that its analogue might offer the short cut to the elimination of polio. On the advice of Thomas Francis, at the University of Michigan, who had headed the wartime flu-vaccine effort, O'Connor recruited young Jonas Salk to spearhead the effort to develop a killed-virus vaccine for polio. O'Connor, with foundation funds, established Jonas Salk in his professorship at the University of Pittsburgh. Salk's applications for funding of his research and development had to pass muster, however, with the foundation's scientific advisory committee, made up of the most distinguished pediatric virologists. They twice rejected Salk's applications. Upon his third try, the committee delegated one of its members (Frank Horsfall, then at the Rockefeller Institute, later president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering, and my informant in this aspect of the story) to assure O'Connor that they would not stand in the way of the grant. The Salk-O'Connor campaign succeeded in getting the killed-virus vaccine through clinical trials in 1954 and made possible the national immunization campaign that all but eliminated polio from the population by 1960, before the live-virus effort had a safe vaccine ready for general use. Outraged by the determination of the profession thereafter to supplant the killed-virus with the live-virus vaccine | How the March of Dimes Got Behind Dr. Salk |
772249_1 | nationalization of American-owned companies proceeded, his counsel of quiet negotiation was largely ignored in Washington. Without notifying him, the Eisenhower Administration suspended Cuba's sugar import quota -- three million tons -- in July 1960, in response to Havana's sale of a million tons of sugar to the Soviet Union. Mr. Bonsal opposed this and other economic sanctions against Mr. Castro as likely to drive him further into the Soviet orbit. He was recalled to Washington in October 1960 in retaliation for a Cuban demand that the United States Embassy staff in Havana be sharply reduced. He never returned. Six months later an American-trained force of Cuban exiles invaded Cuba at the Bay of Pigs and were ignominiously defeated. Mr. Bonsal summed up his experience in a 1971 book, "Cuba, Castro and the United States," published by the University of Pittsburgh Press, in which he did not spare Mr. Castro harsh criticism. But he wrote, "The Cuba of the future must be primarily the creation of Cubans living in Cuba." Mr. Bonsal, fluent in Spanish, was no stranger to controversy. As Ambassador to Colombia from 1955 to 1957, he stirred the wrath of the dictator, Gen. Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, by consorting with opposition politicians and intellectuals. He had the satisfaction of returning shortly afterward to attend the inauguration of General Rojas Pinilla's successor after a coup. Later, as Ambassador to Bolivia, he sought out oil workers, miners and intellectuals, enabling him to establish good relations with the new Government of the National Revolutionary Movement and help steer it toward centrist politics. He later served as Ambassador to Morocco, and retired in 1965. Philip Wilson Bonsal was born May 22, 1903, in New York City, the son of Stephen and Henrietta Bonsal. As a journalist for The New York Herald, the father reported on the Spanish-American War, after which Spain ceded Cuba to the United States in 1898. Stephen Bonsal later became a diplomat. Philip attended schools in the Philippines and Switzerland, and earned a bachelor's degree at Yale. He worked in Latin America for the International Telephone and Telegraph Company, then joined the Federal Communications Commission as a telephone specialist and from there went to the State Department in 1937. His first foreign assignment was Havana. He later served in Madrid, The Hague and Paris. He is survived by his wife of 66 years, the former Margaret Lockett of Knoxville, Tenn. | Philip W. Bonsal, 92, Last U.S. Envoy to Cuba |
772317_0 | Ancient Greeks built the Parthenon, wrote the Iliad and put an indelible stamp on everything from philosophy to battlefield tactics to the city-state. But the modern Greeks do have at least one edge on their ancestors. They play basketball. In fact, they play it very well, and tonight in the quarterfinals of the European championships, they finally earned a spot for Greece in the Olympic Games that their forefathers invented. They earned it with a 66-64 victory over Spain, and they earned it in a sport that packs in this era's Greek public like Sophocles and Aeschylus used to pack in the ancient one. "I think the whole country has tears in their eyes right now," Greece Coach Makis Dendrinos said. There were tears for a different reason six years ago when Atlanta was chosen over Athens to play host to the 1996 Summer Games. At least now, the Greek basketball stars will not miss out on the Olympic festivities. Greece will be in fine European company. The other three teams to qualify for Atlanta tonight were Lithuania, Croatia and Yugoslavia. The Lithuanians beat the Russians, 82-71, in the first quarterfinal, getting 33 points and 14 rebounds from their imposing center, Arvidas Sabonis, soon to be a Portland Trail Blazer. The Croatians struggled, but survived to beat the Italians, 71-61, getting 24 points and 10 rebounds from their forward Toni Kukoc of the Chicago Bulls. Last and most convincingly, the Yugoslavs, who were barred from qualifying for the 1992 Summer Olympics, qualified for Atlanta by dominating a good French team, 104-86, behind 24 points from guard Predrag Danilovic, a future member of the Miami Heat. In Saturday's semifinals, Lithuania will meet Croatia and Yugoslavia will play Greece. But it is doubtful that those matchups will generate the emotion of the quarterfinals. "These were no-tomorrow games," said Croatia Coach Aleksandr Petrovic. "If you lose the semis, you can play for the bronze. If you lose in the quarters, there is no medal here and no chance for a medal in Atlanta." The biggest name missing from the Atlanta field will be Russia, which finished second to the United States at last year's world championships with much the same cast and the same coach, Sergei Belov. But after being upset by Spain in group play, the Russians were unable to lift their game against their former teammates from the Soviet Union. Although | For Greece, Olympic Aspiration Is a Reality |
776123_1 | assistant manager for loss prevention at Ameritech Cellular. According to industry statistics, 25 million Americans now use cellular phones and subscribers are growing by 28,000 every day. Fraud victims are not responsible for the counterfeit calls, estimated to have cost the industry more than $1 million a day last year and heading toward half a billion dollars for this year. Although the cost of fraud is reflected in consumer prices, Mike Houghton, a spokesman for the Cellular Telecommunication Industry Association in Washington, said it was difficult to say how much fraud inflates phone bills. A spokesman for the mobile phone company that Mr. Duquette uses, the United States Cellular Corporation, in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., explained that electronic bandits had aimed a cellular telephone scanner at his car, probably when he was at one of the New York City airports, and picked up his electronic serial number and mobile identification number. Using ordinary computers and special software, the thieves transferred the numbers to other cellular phones. "In the last three months we have been getting reports of fraud in Ulster County, N.Y.," said Christine Maietta, the fraud prevention representative for United States Cellular. "We're getting about 10 to 12 customers coming in a month, including two of our employees." Phone cloners typically set up operations at spots with high traffic volume and aim the scanner at cars. Cellular phones emit a radio signal every 15 minutes that identifies them to transmitters. Picking up numbers, authorities say, can be as easy as fly fishing in a trout hatchery. According to law enforcement authorities, illegal cellular phones are frequently used by drug dealers who desire untraceable calling. Cellular phones can be tapped, but it is more difficult when phones and numbers are changing constantly. "These people are not looking for free phone service," said Roseanna DeMaria, formerly a narcotics specialist with the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, who now works for Cellular One. Sometimes the counterfeit phones are rented or sold to those who seek free, unlimited calling -- that is, until the cellular company catches on and cancels the account, a process that usually takes two to six weeks. (The typical sale price is $100 to $200.) "These people even offer a one-month guarantee with the phones," said Robin Traum, a spokeswoman for Cellular One. "If your phone gets shut down, you go back and they program it | Web of Cellular Phone Fraud Widens |
776284_0 | NEWS BRIEFS INTERNATIONAL SQN##386430##SERBS SAY THEY TOOK 'SAFE AREA' The Bosnia Serb army said it had captured the besieged "safe area" of Zepa, but the Bosnian Government in Sarajevo denied the claim and U.N. officials said they were unable to verify it. SQN##386332##ALLIES CAN'T AGREE ON BOSNIA Rejecting a French plan to reinforce U.N. peacekeepers in Bosnia, President Clinton sought allied support for a large-scale program of air attacks on the Bosnian Serbs. But the Western allies could not reach an agreement. SQN##385808##DOLE GAMBLES ON THE BALKANS News analysis: In criticizing President Clinton's actions in the Balkan war, Senator Bob Dole is venturing into the shoals of Bosnia policy, and is taking a big political risk. SQN##392502##TAIWAN PONDERS ITS IDENTITY One question dominates every element of life in Taiwan, from domestic politics to foreign policy: What is the island's national identity? SQN##386839##INTRIGUE IN ARCTIC RUSSIA Beneath a dispute over rights on the Varzina River in the Kola Peninsula above the Arctic Circle lies a tangled web of political intrigue, money and whispers of corruption that are part of doing business in Russia. SQN##387290##JAPAN'S ELECTIONS ON SUNDAY MAY RESHAPE ITS POLITICS AGAIN Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama may not be formally competing, for voters will choose only members of the upper house in Parliament, but a poor showing for his Socialist Party could force his resignation. And that, in turn, could lead to the collapse of the governing coalition of three political parties, and then a political realignment. SQN##387134##CHINA'S PLANS TO MAKE FAMILY CAR ARE RECEDING China's "family car" project, an idea that got Western auto makers salivating when they were invited to submit prototypes last year, is likely to be delayed until well into the next century. SQN##387371##FOR FIRST TIME, JUNTA TELLS BURMESE THE TOP DEMOCRAT IS FREE The Burmese junta admitted to the public today what millions of Burmese have known for more than a week -- that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Prize-winning oppositionleader, has been freed from house arrest. SQN##387185##DARWIN JOURNAL: BITTER ABORIGINES SUE FOR STOLEN CHILDHOODS Australia's Stolen Generation seeks restitution. NATIONAL SQN##386413##DEMAND FOR FOSTER FILES Senate Republicans demanded a more complete disclosure from the White House of the files removed from the office of Vincent W. Foster Jr. after he d | |
774402_0 | Just one month after a study found that women who took hormone replacement therapy after menopause had an increased risk of breast cancer, another study has found no such effect. The new study, being published today in The Journal of the American Medical Association, compared some 500 women aged 50 to 64 who had newly diagnosed breast cancer with a similar group of healthy women. The authors found no link between use of the hormones and breast cancer. In fact, they found that women who had used hormones for eight years or longer had, if anything, a lower risk of breast cancer than those who had never taken them. The latest development, scientists say, is good news tinged with great uncertainty. The previous study, published on June 15 in The New England Journal of Medicine, followed 122,000 nurses for 14 years and found that hormone replacement therapy increased the risk of breast cancer by 30 to 70 percent. Researchers say the conflicting results of the two highly regarded studies underscore the fact that this is science in progress: they are nowhere near obtaining a completed picture of the risks and benefits of taking hormone replacement therapy after menopause. Other researchers are sharply divided in their interpretation of the studies. Some think the cancer risk from hormone therapy is nonexistent, or virtually so. Some, on the other hand, are convinced that the hormones do slightly increase the risk of breast cancer. But, they say, because this increase is small, as a matter of chance some studies will detect it and some will not, which may be why the new study saw no effect. Indeed, the author of the study of nurses responded to the new research yesterday by saying that its results might have been skewed because the study was smaller than his own and because some prospective subjects had declined to be interviewed. In the meantime, women going through or anticipating menopause are facing the momentous decision of whether to take hormones for the rest of their lives. It is already established that hormone replacement therapy reduces the risk of heart disease and bone fractures from osteoporosis. As a result, many doctors encourage women to take hormones. In fact, Wyeth-Ayerst's postmenopausal estrogen, Premarin, is the nation's best-selling prescription drug. Nonetheless, many women are troubled by the idea of taking a drug that, whatever its benefits, might increase their risk of | Cancer Link Contradicted By New Hormone Study |
774397_2 | of fresh ingredients available year-round." As with salsas, the interest in olive oils, especially flavored ones, hardly seems to have peaked. Not with 176 brands -- even an Israeli one, Land of Canaan, blended with souri olives from 2,000-year-old trees. Though "Jurassic Park" and "The Flintstones" are not among this summer's movies, there were a number of primitive-sounding products, like chocolate Trilobites and Protoceratops Eggs, from a line of novelty sweets called Fossil Bars made by Immaculate Confections of Hayward, Calif. Night Crawlers were seasoned fried pasta tidbits from Carolina Swamp Stuff in Morehead City, N.C. There were also Bone Suckin' Sauce, a hot sauce made by Ford's Foods in Raleigh, N.C., and Wild Things vinegars and condiments from Beverly Hills, Calif. Along with such silly stuff, the Fancy Food Show can also be counted on for some good, new, serious products, and buyers for stores across the country nibble their way through miles of aisles to see what to add to their shelves. For example, crusty Tom Cat bread, made in Long Island City, Queens, was there for the first time; Consorzio of Saint Helena, Calif., showed new tomato and mustard flavors in its commendable fat-free line of Vignette dressings, and Desert Rose Foods of Tucson, Ariz., offered cactus-flower jelly candies with a tart-sweet flavor and a naturally brilliant magenta color. Others worth noting were More Than Gourmet Glace de Viande; Jasper Wyman & Son dried wild Maine blueberries; Nielsen-Massey powdered unsweetened pure vanilla; Blackwing Ostrich Farms lean ostrich meat; mellow chocolate maple syrup from Maverick Sugarbush of Sugarbush, Vt., and Charles Leary's distinctive Chicory Farm cheeses made in Mount Herman, La. The Canadian pavilion presented a number of unusual, first-rate products, including Thyme and Truffles hors d'oeuvres, Beetroot Delights' sweet condiments made from beets, Clos du Minot's sparkling apple ciders and Mezban chutneys. There was an arresting display of artfully packaged, handmade breads from Manoucher Food of Toronto, many in unusual shapes and with names like Lost Dreams and Persian Nights. Sobaya, a 10-year-old company in Quebec that makes soba noodles, was a first-time exhibitor at the show. Its owner, Jacques Petit, learned to make the buckwheat noodles in Japan. The show was also awash in iced tea, including Blue Parrot from Australia, a liquid concentrate in a pouch. Mountain Chai Indian-style spiced tea, made in Boulder, Colo., was good either hot or cold. There were plenty of | Fancy This, Fancy That |
774427_0 | Scouring the vast Amazon wilderness for gold in the late 19th century, cricket-playing British miners and hard-bitten Venezuelan panners missed the mark by only 88 kilometers. That 55-mile distance south of the town of El Dorado, engineers at a jungle camp here hunched over computer models one recent morning, drawing blueprints for what is to be the largest gold mine in Latin America. "Every day, we will mill 35,000 tons of ore to produce 40 kilos of gold," predicted Klaus Essig Torkuhl, camp manager for the project, which is owned by Placer Dome Inc. of Vancouver. Wearing boots to navigate through the mud -- 10 feet of rain falls here annually -- he added, "It would mean investing over $400 million." Plans for this huge mine are part of a continent-wide surge that is pushing South America past North America to become the world's largest center for new mining investment. Free-market policies, less red tape and looser environmental restrictions are creating a boom from the Amazon to the Andes. "North America has been pretty well raked over by geologists," H. Brooke Macdonald, Placer Dome's Venezuela manager, said in Caracas. "This is a new frontier. No one has ever been to some of these places." It is a frontier that will not be conquered easily. Sometimes called Venezuela's "wild south," this thinly populated mix of forest and highland savannah has supported independent gold panners for generations. And small miners, blaming foreign companies for fencing off the most productive areas, have staged protests, sometimes invading mines. Such disruptions may only slow things down. "Mining is blossoming throughout Latin America, and Venezuela could be an important mining country because of its coal, nickel, bauxite and gold," said Rosemary H. Werrett, publisher of the Lagniappe Letter, a business newsletter. In Peru, surging foreign investment has led to forecasts that gold production will quadruple, to 100 tons by the end of the decade. In Brazil, Congress is erasing legal restrictions on foreign mining. And Venezuela, spurred by a deep recession, is moving in fits and starts to abandon half a century of nationalism and encourage foreign investment in its vast resources. Just over a century ago, Venezuela was the world's largest gold producer; prospectors hacking through the rain forest today occasionally turn up rusting hulks of wood-burning steam engines imported from Liverpool. In towns like El Dorado and Callao, old-timers can still point out where | In Venezuelan Hinterland, Gold Beyond Imagining |
774447_0 | Strap on the electrodes and rev up the car battery. It's time for President Clinton to administer another jolt of shock therapy to Britain's Prime Minister, John Major. He's gone wobbly again on Northern Ireland. The cease-fire in Northern Ireland is fast approaching its first anniversary, Sept. 1, and yet efforts to build on this longest pause to the fighting in Belfast for 25 years are totally stalled. There is blame aplenty to go around, but clearly the strongest, most influential actor in this drama -- the British Government -- could do the most to get peace talks going now and instead is doing the least. London is paralyzed by a deep ambivalence about dealing with the Irish Republican Army. Even though it is ready in principle to negotiate with the Irish Catholic militants, the British Government seems to be looking for any excuse not to do so. It's time to get on with it, and if the Major Government won't act, then President Clinton should start dabbling again in Irish politics. It was his initial intervention last year -- trading the I.R.A. leader Gerry Adams a visit to the U.S. in return for agreement on a cease-fire -- that was instrumental in bringing about this 10-month pause in the fighting. The Brits hated Mr. Clinton for doing it, but they grudgingly responded to the I.R.A.'s cessation of fighting. Since it seems that Mr. Major can only be shaken from his ambivalence by the fear of more international meddling, Mr. Clinton should start meddling some more. Go ahead, Mr. President, dabble away, drive John Major crazy. You will be doing him and Northern Ireland a favor. This is urgent. Last week, the cease-fire was challenged for the first time when Catholic rioters in West Belfast torched 100 cars in protest over Mr. Major's decision to give early parole to a British soldier sentenced to life imprisonment for the 1990 killing of a Catholic woman who ran through a security checkpoint in a stolen car. Mr. Major signed the parole on the eve of his re-election battle in a ploy to shore up support among Conservative Party hard-liners. That may have been good politics. But his failure to follow up such an incendiary move with a token release of some Catholic and Protestant prisoners was brain-dead diplomacy. The fact that the cease-fire has held this long demonstrates that a majority of | Foreign Affairs; Meddling For Peace |
774435_1 | a benchmark for future surveys. Airline Update Beginning today, first-class and business-class passengers who fly Northwest Airlines to Europe can select from new menus created by three chefs, Waldy Malouf of the Hudson River Club in New York, Brian Polcyn of Acadia in Auburn Hills, Mich., and Todd English of Olives in Boston. Six weeks ago Northwest introduced new menus on its flights from Europe to the United States created by chefs in Paris, London and Frankfurt. The meals offered beginning today are a far cry from the usual airline fare. They include smoked pork loin chop on black beans with apply chutney, seared shrimp and scallop primavera risotto with grated pecorino, and grilled breast of chicken with Southwestern salsa, black beans, rice and grilled vegetables. On Delta international flights, first-class and business-class passengers will soon notice changes in the amenity kits. Such popular items as toothbrush, toothpaste, eye shades and slipper socks will remain, and first-class kits will contain an in-flight exercise book. Earplugs, razors and shaving cream will be available on request. And the first-class kits will come in several designs, so that they can be reused as document organizers, sports packs and disk storage cases. Three perennials are falling victim to changing tastes: shoe horns, nail files and lint brushes. By the end of the week, Southwest Airlines will be testing wireless hand-held computers to expedite check-in and confirm reservations for the 30 percent of its customers who use Southwest's ticketless travel system. The new technology will allow skycaps access to reservations by a passenger's name, confirmation number and flight number, and will allow those passengers to check bags at the curb and thus bypass the ticket counter. After preliminary testing in Dallas, Houston and Oakland, Calif., the hand-held computers will be expanded next month to 10 additional airports served by Southwest. The Hotel Scene Like customers for the Ford Model A, who could have whatever color they wanted as long as it was black, most banquet guests have a similar choice when it comes to the entree -- they can eat it or not. But the JW Marriott Hotel in Washington, a leading convention hotel, now allows banquet guests to select any of four entrees, appetizers or deserts from a menu presented as they are seated at the tables. According to the hotel, the more personalized service requires a ratio of 1 server to every 10 | Business Travel; A travel industry study shows it's best to keep on the move to avoid becoming a victim of crime. |
774434_1 | a benchmark for future surveys. Airline Update Beginning today, first-class and business-class passengers who fly Northwest Airlines to Europe can select from new menus created by three chefs, Waldy Malouf of the Hudson River Club in New York, Brian Polcyn of Acadia in Auburn Hills, Mich., and Todd English of Olives in Boston. Six weeks ago Northwest introduced new menus on its flights from Europe to the United States created by chefs in Paris, London and Frankfurt. The meals offered beginning today are a far cry from the usual airline fare. They include smoked pork loin chop on black beans with apply chutney, seared shrimp and scallop primavera risotto with grated pecorino, and grilled breast of chicken with Southwestern salsa, black beans, rice and grilled vegetables. On Delta international flights, first-class and business-class passengers will soon notice changes in the amenity kits. Such popular items as toothbrush, toothpaste, eye shades and slipper socks will remain, and first-class kits will contain an in-flight exercise book. Earplugs, razors and shaving cream will be available on request. And the first-class kits will come in several designs, so that they can be reused as document organizers, sports packs and disk storage cases. Three perennials are falling victim to changing tastes: shoe horns, nail files and lint brushes. By the end of the week, Southwest Airlines will be testing wireless hand-held computers to expedite check-in and confirm reservations for the 30 percent of its customers who use Southwest's ticketless travel system. The new technology will allow skycaps access to reservations by a passenger's name, confirmation number and flight number, and will allow those passengers to check bags at the curb and thus bypass the ticket counter. After preliminary testing in Dallas, Houston and Oakland, Calif., the hand-held computers will be expanded next month to 10 additional airports served by Southwest. The Hotel Scene Like customers for the Ford Model A, who could have whatever color they wanted as long as it was black, most banquet guests have a similar choice when it comes to the entree -- they can eat it or not. But the JW Marriott Hotel in Washington, a leading convention hotel, now allows banquet guests to select any of four entrees, appetizers or deserts from a menu presented as they are seated at the tables. According to the hotel, the more personalized service requires a ratio of 1 server to every 10 | Business Travel; A travel industry study shows it's best to keep on the move to avoid becoming a victim of crime. |
774268_2 | of fresh ingredients available year-round." As with salsas, the interest in olive oils, especially flavored ones, hardly seems to have peaked. Not with 176 brands -- even an Israeli one, Land of Canaan, blended with souri olives from 2,000-year-old trees. Though "Jurassic Park" and "The Flintstones" are not among this summer's movies, there were a number of primitive-sounding products, like chocolate Trilobites and Protoceratops Eggs, from a line of novelty sweets called Fossil Bars made by Immaculate Confections of Hayward, Calif. Night Crawlers were seasoned fried pasta tidbits from Carolina Swamp Stuff in Morehead City, N.C. There were also Bone Suckin' Sauce, a hot sauce made by Ford's Foods in Raleigh, N.C., and Wild Things vinegars and condiments from Beverly Hills, Calif. Along with such silly stuff, the Fancy Food Show can also be counted on for some good, new, serious products, and buyers for stores across the country nibble their way through miles of aisles to see what to add to their shelves. For example, crusty Tom Cat bread, made in Long Island City, Queens, was there for the first time; Consorzio of Saint Helena, Calif., showed new tomato and mustard flavors in its commendable fat-free line of Vignette dressings, and Desert Rose Foods of Tucson, Ariz., offered cactus-flower jelly candies with a tart-sweet flavor and a naturally brilliant magenta color. Others worth noting were More Than Gourmet Glace de Viande; Jasper Wyman & Son dried wild Maine blueberries; Nielsen-Massey powdered unsweetened pure vanilla; Blackwing Ostrich Farms lean ostrich meat; mellow chocolate maple syrup from Maverick Sugarbush of Sugarbush, Vt., and Charles Leary's distinctive Chicory Farm cheeses made in Mount Herman, La. The Canadian pavilion presented a number of unusual, first-rate products, including Thyme and Truffles hors d'oeuvres, Beetroot Delights' sweet condiments made from beets, Clos du Minot's sparkling apple ciders and Mezban chutneys. There was an arresting display of artfully packaged, handmade breads from Manoucher Food of Toronto, many in unusual shapes and with names like Lost Dreams and Persian Nights. Sobaya, a 10-year-old company in Quebec that makes soba noodles, was a first-time exhibitor at the show. Its owner, Jacques Petit, learned to make the buckwheat noodles in Japan. The show was also awash in iced tea, including Blue Parrot from Australia, a liquid concentrate in a pouch. Mountain Chai Indian-style spiced tea, made in Boulder, Colo., was good either hot or cold. There were plenty of | Fancy This, Fancy That |
775823_1 | impulse, a sentimental expression of yearning for the buggy and village blacksmith. Not at all. It was based on my studies of how technology works on us all. These studies made it obvious that the Internet simply had to produce a breakdown in good manners, the very collapse in civility which is now occurring. First, the nature of technology: Technology is a great blessing, and what do we know about blessings? That every blessing has its trade-off, or curse. The greater the blessing, the nastier the curse. For instance, the curse we accept for the blessing of the automobile is an annual casualty list of dead and maimed that exceeds the average annual casualty rate of the Vietnam War. Another curse is technology's tendency to separate people from the consequences of their worst behavior. Where once we had to kill enemies with cleavers, swords and clubs, technology now lets us do it from high in the sky. Even from a switchboard on a faraway continent. When insulated from the mayhem, how much easier it is to be insouciant about killing thousands than when you are required to wade about in their gore. Advances in communications technology show the same principle at work: Technology makes savagery easier by keeping people from having to cope face-to-face with the consequences of their rotten behavior. The obscene telephone caller and the telemarketing industry are just two of many trade-offs we accept for the blessing of 911. Recent developments in the once-civilized talk-radio field dramatize how technology brutalizes public discourse. In backward centuries when slandering people often involved meeting one's victims in the flesh, there were restraints on the viperish tongue. Technology ended that. Now famous professional slanderers sit in remote studios and encourage amateurs to phone from the far side of Nowhere, and the abuse flows casually with no risk at all of being punched in the nose, receiving a sword in the liver or being challenged to pistols at dawn. Here is technology helping cowardice rise to new heights in public esteem. The Internet was clearly destined to deepen the isolation of Technological Man from the unhappy consequences of using this blessed electronic system. Isolation was inherent. A human alone with his machine talking to machines activated by other humans alone. Easy to hide in that maze. Be as bestial as instinct wishes and so what? Hard to catch you, punch your nose, | Observer; How the Going Got Bad |
775621_0 | ASTRONOMERS say that if the multibillion-dollar mobile telephone industry continues to expand without safeguards, radio astronomy will be swamped by a sea of radio interference. The warning was issued this month by the European Science Foundation from its headquarters at Strasbourg, France. "Great fleets of new generations of low-earth communication satellites are planned," said Dr. James Cohen of the Jodrell Bank radio observatory in Britain. "Some of the frequencies at which these communications satellites plan to operate sit right on top of frequencies that are vital to radio astronomers." In particular, he said in an interview, the International Telecommunications Union (I.T.U.) has allocated a frequency of 1410 megahertz for use by satellite-operated mobile telephone systems. This frequency almost touches a frequency of 1412 megahertz, which is the natural frequency of the hydroxyl radical, a molecular fragment consisting of an atom of hydrogen bound to an atom of oxygen. This molecule is widely distributed in space and is used by radio astronomers to map galaxies and interstellar clouds. "The problem is that side-band emissions from the mobile phone traffic may be very small, but large radio telescopes are so sensitive that even the slightest interference spilling over from commercial frequencies can have devastating effects when you're looking at a quasar billions of light-years away," Dr. Cohen said. The I.T.U. will meet next November to settle various disagreements between astronomers and commercial satellite system operators regarding the allocation of frequencies. Dr. Cohen, chairman-designate of the European Science Foundation's committee on radio astronomy frequencies, says astronomers fear the political influence that may be brought to bear on the international regulatory agency. Communications companies are prepared to spend many billions of dollars on systems that will allow mobile telephone users to communicate from any part of the world. American radio astronomers said they fully supported the views of their European colleagues. Dr. Peter Napier, assistant director of the United States National Radio Astronomy Observatory, said American astronomers shared "the concern of the European Science Foundation regarding potential threats to radio astronomy posed by the proliferation of satellite communication systems." Although these systems are designed to avoid interfering with each other, he said, common engineering practices "are inadequate to prevent severe disruption to radio astronomy." To assure harmony between satellite operators and radio astronomers, he said, it will be essential for the two sides to coordinate their interests with mutually satisfactory regulatory assistance by the | Radio Astronomers See Mobile Phone Threat |
775669_1 | admission is welcome. It does more than aerate and mend the wounds of a not-too-distant past. It also reclaims the French Republic's founding principles of liberty, equality and fraternity, principles once again under challenge from racist politicians who would deport immigrants and harass ethnic minorities. Mr. Chirac spoke on the anniversary of the Vel d'Hiv roundup, when French police helped gather 13,000 Jews into a Paris cycling stadium before shipping them off to German death camps. Paris was then under German occupation, but French authorities were actively collaborating with Nazi policies, including the final solution. France had a nominally sovereign Government based in Vichy under Marshal Petain. It sponsored its own anti-Semitic laws and promoted the deportation first of foreign Jews living in France and then, under German pressure, of French Jews too. In all, some 76,000 Jews were sent from France to Auschwitz and other death camps, of whom only 2,500 survived. Of the 330,000 Jews in France in June 1940, a quarter million were still alive at war's end. After the war a succession of French governments placed all blame on the Germans, treating the Vichy Government as if it had been an entirely foreign creation. President Francois Mitterrand, who served the Vichy Government himself as a young man, always insisted that the French Republic was not involved in Vichy's crimes and had nothing to apologize for. Even now, his Socialist Party clings to that same repellent sophistry. History tells a more complex story. After the defeat of June 1940, France's elected Parliament handed power to Marshal Petain. Though acting under the shadow of German power, the men of Vichy collaborated willingly, in some cases eagerly. Vichy's anti-Semitism and proto-Fascism had deep roots in French politics. Its crimes were indeed French, as Mr. Chirac acknowledges. Mr. Chirac's two months in office have been marked by a plain-spoken bluntness that contrasts sharply with the nuanced ambiguities of his predecessor Mr. Mitterrand. This has been evident in his decision to resume French nuclear testing, his calls for a more active defense of Bosnian civilians and, now, his candor on French responsibility for the deportation of the Jews. On the nuclear testing issue, where Mr. Chirac feels bound by Gaullist ideology, his bluntness has damaged French interests abroad. On Bosnia and Vichy, where he has felt freer to act on his own sense of decency, he has brought credit to France. | Mr. Chirac Honors the Truth |
775629_0 | WHY do some people in their 80's look, act and feel vigorous and energetic while others need help just to get through the chores of daily living? A good part of the answer may lie in their hormones. If studies now under way bear out their initial promise, hormone treatments for people over 60 may help to turn back the clock and, though without extending life, greatly enhance its quality. Researchers are exploring the rejuvenating effects of several hormones that are known to undergo rather striking declines with age. These include, but go beyond, replacing estrogen, which declines sharply in women after menopause. The safety of estrogen replacement, particularly with regard to the risk of breast cancer, is hotly debated and raises a cautionary note about the wisdom of replacing other hormones that fall with age. A major focus of the new research is growth hormone, a product of the pituitary gland that gradually declines with age and until recently was not thought important to older people. Researchers are considering replacing testosterone loss in older men. There is also keen interest in a hormone of the adrenal cortex called DHEA or dihydroepiandrosterone, which is said to enhance immune function and life span in rats. Whether or not nature has some hidden agenda for the ebbing of these various hormones with age, for example in slowing people down as the life span wanes, it is now recognized that as people live to their 80's and beyond, the effect of declining hormones may contribute significantly to chronic, debilitating and costly illnesses. "For every major hormone system that's been studied, we find age-related changes that suggest they could have meaning to the aging process," said Dr. Marc R. Blackman, chief of endocrinology at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore. Among the well-known attributes of aging that hormone loss may bring about are the loss of muscle mass and strength, an increase of body fat, particularly fat around the abdomen, a weakening of the bones, a decline in immune responses and a general loss of energy. While no one expects to turn a frail 80-year-old into an iron man, the hormonal effects under study could help to save old people from some of the burden of illness and to preserve their independence. More than seven million Americans now need long-term care costing tens of billions of dollars a year because they are | Restoring Ebbing Hormones May Slow Aging |
776743_1 | halt the construction of a nuclear research reactor that would use bomb-grade uranium in what American critics call a "brazen violation" of efforts to halt the spread of nuclear weapons. 3 France's President is in Africa, leaving many problems behind. 5 Beit El Journal: Jewish settlers establish their own radio voice. 2 National 6-9 WARNING SIGNS AT WACO Congressional hearings into the raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Tex., focused on warnings that apparently fell on deaf ears. 1 THE AGE QUESTION Senator Bob Dole, about to turn 72, faced questions about whether his age should be a factor in his Presidential ambitions. 1 NEWSPAPER CUTS BACK The Los Angeles Times announced that several of its sections and 150 news-gathering positions would be eliminated. 6 TURMOIL AT PLANNED PARENTHOOD At a time when issues it is concerned about are in the spotlight, Planned Parenthood is in the midst of internal upheaval. 6 A NOSE FOR HOT ISSUES Gov. Pete Wilson of California has always shown a knack for finding the right issue at the right time, and the debate over affirmative action at state universities may be a case in point. 7 DUELING SENATORS A committee chairman threatened retaliation against Senator Barbara Boxer for her demands involving the case against Senator Bob Packwood. 9 A $16 BILLION CUT The Senate approved and sent to President Clinton a bill cutting more than $16 billion from current spending. 8 IMAGE UNDER SIEGE A rowdy campout in Tennessee is the latest public relations disaster for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. 8 WHITEWATER AGREEMENT The White House reached a preliminary agreement with a Senate special committee on Whitewater to provide a more complete disclosure of the files removed from the office of the deputy counsel to the President after his suicide. 8 Metro Digest 21 ABUSE FOUND AT DETENTION CENTER An investigation by the Immigration and Naturalization Service has found that a New Jersey detention center where detainees rioted last month was run like a secretive fiefdom where poorly trained, abusive guards preyed on immigrants. 1 Business Digest 33 Arts/Entertainment 11-15, 47 The Duke of Wellington's refurbished home. 11 Whitney cancels Biennial in Prague. 11 Similarities in 2 books. 47 Music: Critic's Notebook 11 311 and the Phunk Junkeez 13 "I Due Foscari." 14 Television: "Naked News." 47 Sports 27-32 Baseball: Mattingly sees Yanks win but may be ready to | NEWS SUMMARY |
773992_3 | services as independent contractors, and they sign nondisclosure agreements. But industry executives say the forum leaders are typically paid a share -- usually about 10 percent -- of the fees collected by the on-line service for time spent by members in their forum. A handful of the most popular forums are multimillion-dollar businesses. As the on-line medium has grown, the issue that has recently received the most attention, and concern from Congress, is obscenity on the Net. But most on-line moderators say that only a handful of messages from members, far less than 1 percent, raise such questions. Still, they do evict people for misbehavior. And the emotional pitch of debate on line can become quite heated, with the forum moderator often the target. Veteran forum leaders say they have been accused of just about everything from dishonesty to being C.I.A. agents, and they have absorbed all manner of insult. Lynne Bundesen, the 50-ish head of the news forum for Prodigy, is an author and former journalist who covered wars and political unrest in Southeast Asia during the 1970's. But nothing, it seems, quite prepared her for being at the receiving end of the personal attacks on line. "You're amazingly vulnerable -- people just come right at you," Ms. Bundesen said. "We should get dangerous duty pay." Occasionally, the response can be particularly nasty. In Alexandria, Va., Tom Gardner, 27, heads a personal-finance forum on America Online with his brother, David, 29. In their forum, called Motley Fool, they warned on-line members about investment scams on the Internet, including one last year from Canada promoting a nonexistent diamond mine in Zaire. "Afterward, my brother and I got death threats on our home phones," Mr. Gardner recalled. Yet experienced forum leaders say the rewards of their craft more than outweigh the drawbacks. They are deeply absorbed by their subjects, and deeply involved in their electronic communities. Elin Silveous, the 38-year-old host of America Online's health and medical forum, ventured into the on-line world after she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1992 and began looking for electronic support groups. To explain what she liked most about her job, Ms. Silveous pointed to a posting from an America Online member suffering from a chronic health problem. For learning to cope with a disease, the dialogue on the forum was "better than any medicine or any advice from a doctor," wrote Lynne451, the | They Let Their Fingers Do the Talking |
774065_0 | To the Editor: We were pleased to read the article explaining the value of stereotactic radiosurgery for treatment of a variety of tumors and other abnormalities in the brain (Health page, July 5). However, the article gives the impression that radiosurgery, which uses highly focused radiation beams, can only be performed using the Leksell Gamma Knife. Comparable precision and results have been obtained for more than 10 years using linear accelerators, or linacs, adopted for radiosurgery. These accelerators have been a standard fixture of conventional radiation therapy for more than three decades. CHARLES S. CATHCART, M.D. CHRISTOPHER J. HAWKINS MICHAEL SCHULDER, M.D. Newark, July 6, 1995 The writers are on the staff of the Stereotactic Radiosurgery Center, New Jersey Medical School. | Tools of Brain Surgery |
779232_1 | because each type of bearing is built to specification, and a ball bearing used in a military aircraft would not be used in commercial aircraft. "None of the parts in question pose any threat to civil aviation," said Anthony J. Broderick, the F.A.A.'s associate administrator for regulation and certification. The nature of the purported defects remained unclear yesterday, as Federal prosecutors and other agencies declined to discuss details of the case. The agencies taking part in the investigation included the Navy, Army and Air Force, the Department of Transportation, the Justice Department, the F.A.A. and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Mr. Belenson said he did not know which bearings were being investigated. "It's hard for me or anybody in the company to conclude what parts they are really talking about," he said. "They haven't briefed us on anything." On Friday investigators seized all the documents needed by MRC Bearings for manufacturing. But MRC was permitted to duplicate some of the documents being examined by investigators Friday so that it could resume partial production yesterday. Investigators said the raid was timed to minimize disruption to the company. More than 900 workers were sent home as a result of the shutdown on Friday. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which has been the lead agency in the case, said the raid grew out of an investigation into accusations made by disgruntled MRC employees that the plants in Jamestown and Falconer, neighboring communities about 60 miles south of Buffalo, were making faulty bearings. Mr. Belenson said the company and the Navy and Air Force investigated one employee's complaints and found no problems. No aircraft had been grounded as a result of the inquiry, and no charges had been filed against any MRC executives. A Navy official said over the weekend that the Navy knew of no safety problems caused by the faulty bearings. In January, Lucas Western Inc. paid $18.5 million in fines after pleading guilty to falsifying inspection records on gearboxes for F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets. Those gearboxes used bearings made by MRC Bearings, Mr. Belenson said. In internal Lucas memos quoted in an article in May in The Salt Lake Tribune, a Lucas engineer said that the vibration caused by unbalanced components in the gearbox "can and will cause bearing failures." Officials investigating MRC could not be reached yesterday to comment on whether Friday's raid was related to the Lucas case. | After a Raid, Ball Bearing Manufacturer Back at Work |
773597_0 | To the Editor: As travelers who have often received vouchers, or cash or both in return for agreeing to be bumped from flights my wife and I agree with all but one of Betsy Wade's suggestions in "Passengers Play the Airlines' Bumping Game" (Practical Traveler, May 21). That suggestion was that would-be volunteers not check bags ahead of time. Whenever we plan to volunteer for bumping we check our luggage but take a small carry-on bag with necessities for an overnight stay. This way, we minimize handling our luggage, and when we finally arrive at our destination our bags are waiting. Our experience with a change in carrier was also quite different from Ms. Wade's. On April 27 S.A.S. offered us $800 in cash or $1,600 in vouchers to give up our seats on their Newark-Oslo nonstop. We were rerouted via London on Virgin Atlantic, arriving in Oslo five hours later than we would have on S.A.S. Virgin readily accepted the documentation from S.A.S., and we had the advantage of room to stretch out on a far-from-full 747. GARY GRULICH Hockessin, Del. | Bumping |
773689_0 | A thousand miles from the Amazon, a new chapter in Brazil's rubber epic is being written in modern plantations where rubber trees are planted like corn. Defying history and Henry Ford, the plantations are thriving, placing Brazil back on the road to self-sufficiency in rubber for the first time since 1950. A century ago Brazil controlled the entire world's rubber supply. "In a decade, Brazil is going to double production and be self-sufficient again," Claudio Richter, an agronomist, said as he walked near here down a shaded alley of rubber trees, each mounted with plastic cup to catch white latex drips. The tree varieties, he noted with a malicious grin, were imported from Malaysia. But these highly efficient plantations may speed the economic demise of collectors of rubber from wild trees in the Amazon. These stalwart defenders of the rain forest won world attention in 1989 when two ranchers killed their union leader, Francisco (Chico) Mendes. Brazil's rubber story started in 1842, when an American, Nelson Goodyear, invented the process of vulcanization of rubber. Holding a monopoly on the product, the raw material for tires, Brazil rode a rubber boom, building mansions and opera houses in the heart of the Amazon. The boom collapsed, as every Brazilian schoolchild knows, because a corrupt Brazilian customs official allowed a British botanist to take rubber seeds out of the Amazon "for research." By the 1920's, British plantations in Malaysia and Dutch plantations in Indonesia were forcing the Amazon back into poverty. In 1927, Henry Ford sought to break Europe's colonial cartels by setting up Fordlandia -- a plantation of 7,000 acres of rubber trees on the banks of an Amazon tributary. But in this natural hothouse, caterpillars and South American leaf blight soon devastated the single-crop plantation. In 1945 the Ford Motor Company sold its $10 million investment to the Brazilian Government for $500,000. In 1950 Brazil started to import rubber. In recent years Brazil's rubber shortage has been blamed for woes ranging from condoms that burst to tires that throw their treads after 20,000 miles. This time, agronomists believe that they have got it right. They are planting in areas like this cool, dry plateau 280 miles northwest of Sao Paulo. Hot during the day, temperatures drop into the 50's on winter nights, cold enough to kill the fungi and insect predators endemic to the Amazon. And they are planting high-yield varieties | Rubber Trees Being Planted in Brazil, the Source |
773809_0 | Central Park's Belvedere Castle is getting a $340,000 rehabilitation as part of $3 million in education grants from the Henry Luce Foundation and the Lila Wallace Readers Digest Fund. The castle, perched on a rock outcropping overlooking the Delacorte Theater near West 79th Street, is to reopen next May as the Luce Learning Center, with exhibits and programs centered on the park as a natural habitat. The castle, a Gothic style Calvert Vaux folly from 1872 that now houses only a weather station (the castle's tower is the highest structure in the park), will get new doors and windows, and repairs to its granite and schist stonework. The project, under the auspices of the Central Park Conservancy, is directed by the architectural firm of Campagna & Russo, which designed the castle's northwest pavilion restoration. The bulk of the restoration, said Barbara Campagna, one of the architects, involves new designs for the 30 or so windows and doors in the castle, which are almost all unique -- and none of which were part of the original building. "It wasn't designed to be inhabited," explained Ms. Campagna. "The windows were put in with the weather station in 1919." The new windows and doors, with wrought-iron security grilles, she said, will replace functional gates from a 1982 renovation. Timothy Marshall, an official at the Conservancy, said that the new learning center would coordinate its programs with those at the Charles A. Dana Discovery Center, which opened at the north end of the park last year, to get people "to go back and forth to parts of the park they usually don't go to." | POSTINGS: A New Use for an Old Folly; A Learning Center for the Belvedere Castle |
773639_1 | divided the region ever since. Most of the marches by the Catholics, commemorating their victories, will come in August. Even if the marches pass without sustained violence or terrorist attacks, the effort to arrange a political settlement must still overcome many obstacles. Most relate to the political will and strength of Prime Minister John Major of Britain, who just won a test to retain the leadership of the Conservative Party, and of Gerry Adams, the president of Sinn Fein, the I.R.A. political wing. The main issues are the decommissioning of the I.R.A. arsenal, estimated at 100 tons of weapons and explosives, the early release of I.R.A. prisoners and the timing of full-fledged negotiations. In such talks, Sinn Fein would sit down for the first time with other political parties here, including Protestant Unionists who vehemently oppose the I.R.A. goal of a Northern Ireland united with the Irish Republic to the south, free of British control. What decommissioning means -- whether giving up weapons or guaranteeing they will not be used -- is a central dispute in the peace process. Mr. Major holds that Sinn Fein may not sit at such a peace table until there has been "substantial progress" on the decommissioning of arms. Mr. Adams holds that this amounts to an unacceptable precondition, arguing that the cease-fire by the I.R.A. is sufficient proof of its intentions. He argues that Britain must release some of the 600 I.R.A. prisoners in British jails as a gesture of reconciliation. Indeed, the two nights of serious violence in Catholic areas on Monday and Tuesday came after the British released a soldier who had been serving a life sentence for killing a Catholic girl who had been riding in a stolen car that ran through an army checkpoint. Mr. Adams has accused Mr. Major of releasing the soldier to gain right-wing support in his leadership contest. Both Irish and British politicians are asking now whether Mr. Major will be enough emboldened by his recent political victory to exchange concessions with Mr. Adams that would lead to all-party talks. "Major has a real opportunity to move forward," Mr. Arthur said. Mr. Major has acknowledged since he won that there is a "logjam" in the peace effort, and his top Northern Ireland officials have indicated some flexibility on the prisoners. The effect of the street violence on Mr. Adams's political strength appears mixed. Tim Pat Coogan, | The Ulster Minefield |
772741_2 | technology front was that while more than half of the respondents last fall gained access to the Internet through educational institutions, that portion has dropped to about one fourth. More than half are now getting on the Internet and sampling the Web through commercial access providers, like Netcom or PSInet. That trend seems certain to accelerate now that the major on-line services, led by Prodigy, but followed by America Online and Compuserve, have begun offering access to the Net and the Web. Some of the Hermes respondents came from the big on-line services. The Web is also attracting an older, more affluent crowd. The average age of a person browsing the Web has increased to 35 years old, up from 31 in the earlier survey. The average household income of today's Web browser is $69,000, according to the responses, an increase of $9,400 from the survey last fall. The Hermes consumer survey is a nonprofit academic project, unlike the various commercial efforts to measure traffic at individual Web sites on behalf of advertisers. The survey is broken into several smaller questionnaires, with the number of responses to questions ranging from 2,100 to 13,000. The results of the survey are posted on line (http://www.umich.edu/sgupta/ hermes/), and are available free to anyone with a computer, modem and access to the Internet. The most commonly cited reasons for getting on the Web are "browsing" (83 percent) and "entertainment" (56 percent), while only 10 percent said they shopped on the Web. Still, a modest 23 percent chose the response "no way!" when asked if they would be willing to pay for services on the Web, while 67 percent said they would if the cost and quality were right. Apparently, security concerns are a big deterrent to doing business on the Web. Respondents said they felt that sending a credit card number by E-mail was less secure than calling an 800 telephone number and telling an order taker the number. The security issue, Mr. Gupta said, has created a big opportunity for "trusted middlemen" to reassure consumers that on-line transactions are safe. Today, people use the Web much more to gather information about products than buy the products. Yet, according to the survey, there are some real areas of opportunity for Web marketing and sales. Beyond the obvious categories of computer hardware and software, the top two fields of greatest interest are books and travel | Technology: ON THE NET; Out, damned geek! The typical Web user is no longer packing a pocket protector. |
772735_1 | drivers to travel up to 300 miles before recharging, and would vastly increase mileage performance in hybrid gas-electric cars. "The battery makes it possible for a car to get 80 miles to the gallon because it will be used for the power surges," Mr. Burghart explained. "You'll use the same internal-combustion engine to run at a steady speed, but that engine is not capable of an efficient power surge needed for going up a hill or accelerating onto a freeway. If you want to accelerate to 65 in a hurry, this battery is capable of a high power pulse, of delivering a chunk of energy in a hurry." Car batteries now use sulfuric acid and lead oxide to produce electricity. A car's gas-driven alternator constantly recharges those batteries. "Our battery is a nickel hydroxide and hydrogen reaction," Mr. Burghart said. "That reaction has been used in satellite space batteries for the past 20 or 25 years. They combine to produce electrons, and are reversible -- meaning the reaction goes in two directions, charge and discharge." But satellite batteries are heavy and generate a lot of heat and pressure. Mr. Burghart said his company modified the technology to suit cars by cycling the hydrogen out of the battery and storing it separately as a solid material. "Doing that enables us to make a low-pressure battery with no corrosion," Mr. Burghart said. "It's a cheaper, simpler and safer cell." Ergenics received patents 5,419,981 and 5,250,368 for its battery technology. Lessening the Mess In Checking the Oil Here's a low-tech device that could make life easier for just about any car owner. Ron DeGasperis, an inventor in Wheeling, W. Va., has designed a small, cup-shaped well filled with an absorbent material. His idea is that this small unit can be attached to a car's engine near the motor oil dipstick. When a driver, mechanic or gas station attendant wants to check the oil level, the dipstick is first cleaned by simply dragging it through Mr. DeGasperis' wiper. Nobody has to go looking for a rag. The absorbent material cleans the dipstick and the old oil drips into the well. Mr. DeGasperis suggests that a cap attached to the underside of the car's hood would cover and protect the well when the hood is closed. He won patent 5,419,002. Patents are available by number for $3 from the Patent and Trademark Office, Washington 20231. | Patents; A hybrid car, with battery and internal combustion engine, may be the bridge to a fully electric auto. |
772727_9 | you back to five-and-a-half hours on Sundays,' " Mr. Almond recalled. "The guy said, 'It's nothing personal. Just a function of money.' " For most workers, an often fruitful route into a permanent job is the temporary help agency, which has displaced the old Main Street employment agency. Temporary agencies hire workers, pay their wages and dispatch them to regular employers for jobs that often become "temp-to-perm" trial runs. The employer typically takes three months to a year to size up a worker, then offers her a permanent job or sends her back to her real employer, the agency. The number of temporary workers, some 2.1 million, seems minuscule in the work force of 124 million. But millions more workers have passed through the agencies into permanent jobs. Six years ago, Ms. Crossett of the Texas Employment Commission said there were 51 temporary help agencies in Fort Worth and Arlington employing 4,937 workers. By late last year, she said, 154 agencies had 15,528 workers on their rolls. "It's really a revolution," said Gary Burtless, a labor economist at the Brookings Institution in Washington. "Essentially, many employers have given up the idea they're going to screen employees and let temp agencies do the screening." For all its turmoil, the job market has mellowed for at least one group of Americans. Carolyn Ulrickson, the director of career services at Texas Christian University here, said that after several lean years, offers flowed freely and starting salaries rose for this year's crop of college graduates. Yet for these workers, too, employers are fussier, Ms. Ulrickson said. "I can remember back in the early 80's, I.B.M. would hire 6,000 graduates a year and Rockwell International 6,000," Ms. Ulrickson said. "Texaco used to schedule recruiting visits here three years in advance." Today, she said, many employers send out only one recruiter or two from offices closest to the university, rather than pay for trips from headquarters. "And we're lucky if they call three weeks in advance," she said. Few of these employers commit to lifetime careers, she said. They have applied to hiring practices their "just-in-time" method of inventory control, buying supplies the instant they are needed rather than stocking up on them. Often, too, these veteran employers now use temporary help agencies. As Ms. Ulrickson explained, "They tell the agency, 'We have a project and we need four accountants. Show us some new graduates.' " | Job Insecurity: A special report.; In New Work World, Employers Call All the Shots |
772954_1 | before the British Prime Minister, John Major, faced a vote on his leadership of the Conservative Party, and was certain to help Mr. Major appease right-wing critics who have long made the imprisoned soldier a cause. Officials of Sinn Fein, the political wing of the I.R.A., said that the release was timed to pander for votes in the Tuesday leadership election. British officials denied it. The soldier, a 27-year-old private named Lee Clegg, was convicted by a civilian court two years ago of the fatal shooting of Karen Reilly, a 17-year-old Catholic who had been riding in a stolen car that broke through a security checkpoint. Sir Patrick Mayhew, the British Northern Ireland Secretary and a close confidant of Mr. Major, said Private Clegg should have been tried for manslaughter, not murder. The political eruption occurred at a sensitive time in the Irish calendar, the beginning of what is called here "the marching season," when first Protestants and then Catholics celebrate major anniversaries in their centuries-old conflict. There was no immediate comment from the I.R.A. military command on today's events, but British and Irish officials were reported to be hoping that the new violence would not lead to a resumption of the sectarian guerrilla warfare that has killed more than 3,100 since 1969 in this predominantly Protestant British province. The I.R.A. has invested much of its credibility and prestige in agreeing to try to come to a political settlement of the conflict, although the peace effort is currently moving slowly, stuck on the issues of the decommissioning of I.R.A. arms and the release of I.R.A. prisoners. The Sinn Fein President, Gerry Adams, has made it clear in recent weeks that he hoped to use the case of Private Clegg to bargain for the release of I.R.A. prisoners. He has said that the British delay in convening full-fledged negotiations including Sinn Fein could lead to a resumption of violence, emphasizing that he was stating a fact, not a threat. All officials and experts agree that a terrorist act resulting in significant bloodshed could seriously damage or end the peace effort. The Irish Prime Minister, John Bruton, sharply criticized the freeing of Private Clegg, whose release had been the result of a vigorous campaign, including speeches and rallies, on the British mainland. He had been convicted after a civilian trial. Mr. Bruton, in a statement in Dublin, said he hoped "the same | VIOLENCE ERUPTS IN ULSTER CITIES |
772939_2 | party of state troopers and park rangers found the bodies of Mr. Waldron and Mrs. Trent in thick bushes about 30 yards from a buried moose carcass. The trail that the victims were hiking has been closed indefinitely while game officials search for the bear, which they say they will kill if they satisfy themselves that it was the one involved in the fatal attack. The killings have heightened fears among outdoor enthusiasts and others who venture into Alaska's wilderness. But Stephen Herrero, a professor at the University of Calgary in Alberta who has written a book on bear attacks and maintains data on all attacks in North America since 1900, said the number of fatal bear maulings has stayed constant at an average of one a year. Mr. Herrero said Saturday's attack was unusual in that two people were killed. It was similar to a Canadian attack about five years ago in Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario. In that case, as in this one, one person was attacked alone and a second person was killed going back to try to save his companion. Bear experts says that bears will often run off if they hear people approaching and that hikers should make noise as they move and be alert for signs that bears are present. But Sterling Miller, a state research biologist, said "making a lot of noise may not have made much impact in this case" because the bear apparently was guarding its food, the moose carcass. "When a bear is defending something, it's not likely to be deterred even if they know it's a person," he said. While there have been several bear maulings in Chugach State Park over the years, including one last month in a section near Eagle River, Saturday's attack was the first fatal mauling in the park's 25-year history. The 500,0000-acre wilderness area, which borders Anchorage, is known to be home to a large number of black and brown bears, though the exact population is uncertain because no census has ever been conducted. There are seven species of bears in the world, the largest of which is that of the big brown bear and includes the Alaskan brown bear, the Kodiak bear and the grizzly. While belonging to the same species as the Alaskan brown bear, the grizzly is distinctive, with white hair interspersed through its brown coat, giving it a grizzled look. | Bear Kills Woman and Her Son in Alaska |
772910_3 | the front, with a garment still folded and carried upon the stool on her head. Dr. Connelly said this new interpretation "has far-reaching implications for our understanding of the role of women in Greek myth and culture." Greek writings of the time were making much of the sentiment attributed to Praxithea that just as boys go to war, girls go to sacrifice -- both for the good of the polis, the city-state. Another famous example was Agamemnon's sacrifice of his daughter Iphigenia, which enabled the Greek fleet to set sail for war against the Trojans. In a paper prepared for publication in The American Journal of Archaeology, Dr. Connelly concluded that the new explanation for the frieze "encourages us to re-evaluate our current understanding of the Panathenaic festival itself, an event which may have been more than just the celebration of Athena's birthday." Homer wrote in the Iliad of funeral games established in memory of deceased heroes. So, too, the festivities and games for Athena's birthday might have served as a commemoration as well of the Athenian founding myth of Erechtheus and his daughters. "I think she may be proved right," said Dr. Homer A. Thompson, an emeritus professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., who at the age of 88 is the grand old man of classical Greek archeology. Dr. William St. Clair, a fellow of All Souls College at Oxford University and author of "Lord Elgin and the Marbles," called Dr. Connelly's thesis nothing short of revolutionary, and not unreasonable. Writing in The Times Literary Supplement of London recently, Dr. St. Clair said, "It is surprising in retrospect that nobody familiar with the conventions of Greek temple decoration" had thought of the new interpretation before. He was alluding to one problem with the usual explanation for the frieze that has long troubled scholars. Why would the Parthenon frieze record a contemporary event? The convention in Greek architecture was to decorate sacred buildings with scenes from myth; to do otherwise, as a scholar once wrote, "verged on profanation." Other elements in the frieze also raised suspicions. If this was indeed a Panathenaic procession, where was the wheeled ship that should have been drawn to the temple bearing the sacred peplos of Athena? Where were the maiden basket bearers, the armed foot soldiers or the women water carriers? There were male water carriers, who should not have | New Analysis of the Parthenon's Frieze Finds It Depicts a Horrifying Legend |
775546_0 | To the Editor: The French Navy's raid on the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior II (news article, July 10) is a fitting prelude to France's coming nuclear tests in the South Pacific. Paris has shown disdain for protests against setting off thermonuclear explosions in a part of the world often described as a paradise on earth. How in character that the French respond to the presence of a rickety protest ship with tear gas and helmeted commandos. But, of course, this is an improvement over simply blowing the ship up as the French did a decade ago, when the Rainbow Warrior I was setting off on a similar protest journey. DAVID HAYDEN Wilton, Conn., July 10, 1995 | What France Risks With Nuclear Tests; Overkill Response |
775563_0 | To the Editor: I commend you for calling on the French President, Jacques Chirac, to show courage and statesmanship by canceling France's proposed nuclear tests in the South Pacific (editorial, July 5). His announcement has caused outrage in Australia and other South Pacific countries and is provoking a response from organizations around the world from Greenpeace to the European Parliament. But France's behavior should be of concern to us all, not only because of what is happening in the Pacific, but because of the threat to nuclear nonproliferation and the comprehensive test ban treaty. With the end of the cold war, security priorities have changed. The threat is now from primitive nuclear weapons developed by states beyond the international community's scrutiny. Widespread development would likely see such weapons used in a regional conflict or in state-backed terrorism. Large stocks of sophisticated nuclear weapons and old theories of deterrence are no answer. The indefinite extension of the nonproliferation treaty last month is one very important way the international community can protect itself against this new threat. A comprehensive test ban treaty preventing upgrading or developing of new nuclear weapons is another one. Although the French said they will sign a comprehensive test ban next year, their resumption of testing undermines this commitment. As part of the nonproliferation negotiations two months ago France agreed to exercise "utmost restraint" on testing before a test ban could be signed. Announcing a resumption of testing so soon after such a commitment is seen by many nonnuclear states as highly provocative and will harden attitudes. DON RUSSELL Ambassador of Australia Washington, July 13, 1995 | What France Risks With Nuclear Tests |
775567_0 | To the Editor: Peter Martin (letter, July 11) suggested that the British Prime Minister set a date for all-party talks in Northern Ireland. A good idea. But I would like to make four points: (1) The British Government has been working toward all-party talks. But these will not happen simply by naming a date. Sinn Fein must deliver some movement on decommissioning first. Other parties will not sit at a negotiating table with Sinn Fein while the I.R.A. reserves the option to revert to violence. (2) The British Government is not demanding an I.R.A. "surrender." We do not want everything at once. We want three things from the I.R.A.: agreement in principle to disarm progressively, agreement on the methods and means of decommissioning, and some weapons as a proof of good faith. People who want peace do not need the I.R.A.'s arsenal: Semtex (equivalent to 100 Oklahoma City bombs), mortars, heavy machine guns and ground-to-air missiles. (3) Legal and illegal weapons are not the same. The British Army is in Northern Ireland to uphold the law. For 25 years the I.R.A. killed and maimed hundreds of innocent civilians and destroyed billions of dollars' worth of property. It is a blessing that the bombing and shooting have stopped, but no one should expect special credit just because they have stopped killing people. (4) The British Government is not isolated in asking for some I.R.A. decommissioning. The President and Vice President of the United States gave the I.R.A. the same message. The Irish Prime Minister put the point well in a speech to the Dail on April 25: "It is a very important principle of parity of esteem in democratic dialogue that everybody should approach discussion on the same basis, solely that of their electoral mandate and not by reference to any implied pressure they can exert because of the existence of arms in the hands of associated organizations." PETER INNES Director British Information Services New York, July 12, 1995 | Disarming Must Precede Irish Peace Talks |
775579_0 | As Poland has worked during the last four years to write a new constitution, the Roman Catholic Church has become intimately involved in the process, wielding decisive influence on some important provisions. The church has an official observer on the drafting commission, mobilizing the bishops into action on potential problems. Displeased with the trend of the draft document, the church has threatened to urge its members to vote against the constitution when it is put before the public. Under Communism, the church was an institutional pillar of opposition, with Pope John Paul II, who is Polish, behind it. Now the church is pushing to transform that moral victory into lasting political gains. Priests have campaigned for politicians from the pulpit, and the church has suggested that it will endorse a candidate in the presidential election this year. Under the surface of the church's activities is a general anxiety that Poland may slip its moorings as a traditional Catholic culture, said Jan Turnau, the religion editor of Poland's largest daily, Gazeta Wyborcza. Catholic leaders fear that the country could go the way of largely secularized Western Europe, and that the church could become politically marginalized. The Catholic Church here "is very allergic to this separation of church and state," said Jerzy Turowicz, the influential editor of the independent Catholic weekly, Tygodnik Powszechny, in Cracow. The church's political successes here are manifold. Priests and nuns teach religion in public schools even though many parents and teachers have raised objections. The church has won back vast amounts of property confiscated by the Communists, although successive Governments have failed to pass a general law on the restitution of such property. And, after an era of legal, widely available abortion under Communism, the church lobbied for and won the adoption of one of Europe's most restrictive abortion laws. During the vote on the abortion law, members of the Catholic clergy attended sessions of Parliament, and in general politicians have shown that they listen closely to the lobbying and other pressure exerted by the church. Now, the church is focusing its attention on the new constitution. Six years after the fall of Communism, Poland still lacks a document enshrining the principles of a democratic state. "To make sure institutions control politics you need a constitution, and that has yet to happen in Polish politics," said Mark Brzezinski, a constitutional scholar who specializes in Poland. In the | Shrinking Gap Between Church and Polish State |
775545_0 | To the Editor: Reports from Belfast (July 6, 7 and 9), following the freeing from prison by the British Government of Pvt. Lee Clegg, carried allegations that Sinn Fein was behind the street disturbances after his release. Such allegations are extremely serious in the context of the peace process. They are also untrue. Almost one year after the I.R.A. cessation began there is still no significant movement by the British to consolidate the peace process -- no date has been set for peace talks. This has led to increasing frustration and anger, which is widely shared by Irish nationalists. It was against this backdrop, and ignoring all advice from Dublin and Washington, that the British decided to free a British paratrooper only two and a half years after imposing a life sentence on him for the murder of a nationalist teen-age girl. It also has been viewed in the context of a British policy that, over 25 years, has unashamedly defended its forces from the legal and judicial consequences of their criminal actions. British state forces have killed more than 350 people in that time. In the 1970's, nine British soldiers were tried for the murder of Irish civilians. All were found not guilty in "special courts." In the 1980's, five were tried; one was convicted. In contrast there has been no movement on the 1,200 Irish political prisoners, some of whose conditions of imprisonment have worsened in recent months. We, in Ireland, in Britain and in the United States, who have created the opportunity for peace need to move the peace process into negotiations. MAIREAD KEANE Sinn Fein Representative to the United States Washington, July 11, 1995 | Disarming Must Precede Irish Peace Talks; British Bad Faith |
775479_1 | Federal Express customers tracked 90,000 packages through the Web site. Internet tracking has become one of the most cost-effective ways to track packages, said Robert Hamilton, manager of electronic commerce marketing for the company, whose headquarters are in Memphis. Mr. Hamilton declined to quantify the savings, saying only that they were "significant." Some expenses are involved in setting up a Web site -- mostly software-designer fees and contracting with an Internet provider to make the physical connection to the network. But the cost of package tracking on the Web is minimal. Federal Express has already cut tracing costs by having its big clients use software to link up with Federal Express's tracking computer. These customers remain connected through a private network, which Federal Express maintains. According to Sally Davenport, a company spokeswoman, 60 percent of the package tracing is now done through automated means. The rest has to be handled by service representatives at the Federal Express call center in Memphis. The United Parcel Service has also begun to offer package tracing through the Internet. Since its Web site went up on May 19, customers have tracked 35,000 packages through it, said Steve Heit, network access development manager for U.P.S., which is based in Atlanta. Although the site wasn't started to save money, Mr. Heit said, it clearly is less expensive than other tracking methods. That businesses are using the Web to offer automated customer service is a sign that the Internet may finally be entering its second phase -- going from being the world's largest library of data to being a provider of crucial services. The third phase might come next year as companies begin to offer customers the use of the Internet for financial transactions. Computer and software companies, of course, were the first to discover that the Web can help them save money and improve customer service. Customers can more easily get technical support and software revisions or corrections. For the companies, the Internet is a low-cost alternative to phone banks. The Hewlett-Packard Company of Palo Alto, Calif., uses a Web site to distribute revisions to its Unix operating system and additions to its printer software collection. Andrew Ould, a Hewlett-Packard spokesman, said the company expected "substantial" savings from the Web site. Similarly, Apple Computer Inc. makes software updates available to customers through its Web home page. All that a user has to do is get to | Companies Use Web Hoping to Save Millions |
775477_3 | to determine how many different people are using it. Is a site that is called up 12 times seen by 12 different people or the same person 12 times? The kind of demographic information that advertisers need is also scarce. Some Web sites have gathered such data about their consumers, but usually with the assurance that it will be kept confidential. Last week the Magazine Publishers of America issued a set of guidelines for developing a fair and accurate system for measuring Internet use. They called for a common set of standards and definitions that would also apply to on-line newspapers and television, and said a third party should audit and validate numbers. "This is clearly an evolving media and the way of measuring it is evolving," said Mr. Judson, who is the head of the magazine publishers' task force on Internet measurement. "This entire world is today in an experimental phase." Most on-line magazines are careful to make a clear distinction between editorial and advertising material. But what about Web sites sponsored by marketers? Esther Dyson, president of Edventure Holdings, a computer industry publisher, says that many of these advertiser-sponsored Web sites are offering interesting material and that they are beginning to compete with on-line magazines. Reebok International, for instance, has a Web site that runs profiles of winners of Reebok's annual human rights awards, like the 12-year old Pakistani who worked in a rug factory and became a campaigner for children's rights. Then there is a section called Sole Difference that lists volunteer opportunities around the country. There are also bulletin boards and chat sessions with coaches and athletes, but in all this there is a noticeable absence of the hard sell. "What they are doing is not selling shoes, but a notion, a life style, a bit of counterculture," Ms. Dyson said. "You post a passionate note on the Reebok bulletin board about an experience in the mountains. You say you were wearing Reebok sneaks. And maybe you were and maybe you weren't. The customer doesn't care who is sponsoring this." Many editors disagree, maintaining that consumers want independent information. They say that advertiser-sponsored material is the equivalent of advertorials in magazines and that consumers can tell the difference. "What I am saying is that these are the challenges and the dynamics," Ms. Dyson said. "The world just becomes a much messier place to negotiate." MEDIA: MAGAZINES | Old distinctions blur. Advertising on line now involves audience consent. |
777553_0 | Peace is looking a bit less shaky in Northern Ireland. According to news accounts that have not been officially confirmed, the British and Irish Governments have outlined a plan to break the impasse that has stopped the peace process from going to its next natural stage. That stage would be all-party talks to end the civil conflict. For the first time, it seems that the critical issue of disarming the Irish Republican Army might be resolved. Until now, the British and the Protestant Unionists have refused to sit down with Sinn Fein, the political wing of the I.R.A., until the I.R.A. abandons its weapons. The British and the Unionists, who wish to preserve British rule, insist the arms issue is all that stands in the way of peace talks. Sinn Fein has maintained that decommissioning its weapons amounts to surrender. The Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams points out that the I.R.A. has voluntarily observed a cease-fire for 11 months and that this should be evidence aplenty of its good will. The Irish Government has tried to widen the agenda, encouraging the British to consider issues important to the Republicans. It seems now that London has responded positively to this suggestion, as well as to the idea of conducting two sets of talks to address Unionists' reluctance to negotiate with Sinn Fein. The plan, discussed yesterday by the Irish Foreign Minister, Dick Spring, and Britain's Secretary for Northern Ireland, Sir Patrick Mayhew, calls for an international commission of arms experts to deal with dismantling the I.R.A.'s arsenal. It proposes a formula for all-party talks that would convene in two groups. One would include the British and Irish Governments, Sinn Fein and two political parties, one mostly Catholic and one with a 60 percent Protestant majority. The other would consist of the two Governments and the Unionist parties. The plan also calls for movement on political prisoners, an important issue for Sinn Fein. This proposal should be palatable to both sides. It gives each the opportunity to save face, and forces neither to back down from its declared principles. It appears to allow Mr. Adams to report to his followers that decommissioning will only take place, as he has demanded, as part of high-level peace talks. It would bring the Unionists into the process without retreating from their promise not to sit down with Sinn Fein while the I.R.A. is armed. Ulster | Talking Peace in Ireland |
777502_0 | The British and Irish Governments have drawn up a new plan to deal with the major obstacles that have been impeding the Northern Ireland peace effort. After months of impasse in the effort toward a peaceful settlement of the sectarian warfare that has plagued the predominantly Protestant British province since 1969, the Governments of Prime Ministers John Bruton of Ireland and John Major of Britain have agreed on the outline of plan that would accomplish these things: *The disarmament of the Irish Republican Army. *The setting of target date for the start of full-fledged peace negotiations involving Sinn Fein, the political wing of the I.R.A., and the Protestant Unionist parties, which abhor the I.R.A.'s goal of a Northern Ireland united with the Irish Republic, free from British control. *The early release of I.R.A. and Protestant paramilitary prisoners. The plan was discussed today in Belfast by the Irish Foreign Minister, Dick Spring, and the British Secretary for Northern Ireland, Sir Patrick Mayhew. Sir Patrick and Mr. Spring confirmed after their three-hour meeting that a disarmament commission had been discussed, but they did not elaborate on that or other aspects of the plan. Asked to assess the prospects for the peace effort, Sir Patrick said, "There are sensible grounds for being hopeful." Officials familiar with the plan said it had three parts. First, the disarmament of the I.R.A. would be referred to a commission of international arms experts. Disarmament, called decommissioning by all sides and involving the destruction or impoundment of weapons at a neutral site, has been one of the chief blocks to the advancement of the peace effort. The Sinn Fein president, Gerry Adams, has insisted that decommissioning can only be done as part of full-fledged peace talks, not as a condition to their start. A senior British official, Michael Ancram, said over the weekend that Sinn Fein would not be invited to all-party talks "unless we see the beginning of a credible process" of disarmament. The possible ground for compromise, officials and analysts say, is in simultaneous announcement of the establishment of a disarmament commission and the convening of all-party talks, possibly this year, that would include Sinn Fein. Such a development would allow both sides to save face, telling their supporters that they had not weakened their positions. The second part of the plan envisions inclusive talks, but in two groupings, one including the British and Irish Governments, | New Plan Drawn to Promote Irish Peace Effort |
777465_1 | between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization to extend self-rule beyond Gaza and the West Bank town of Jericho. But many residents interviewed here predicted that today's attack would set back prospects for an Israeli withdrawal any time soon. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel has in the past slowed negotiations on expanding self-rule following acts of Palestinian violence, reflecting concerns by many Israelis that an army withdrawal from West Bank towns close to Israel would put them at risk. Palestinians, for their part, appear to be turning against acts like today's suicide bombing, criticizing them as a threat to their livelihoods and to the spread of self-rule. The shift seems even more pronounced in the Gaza Strip, which has been under Palestinian government for a year, and where suicide bombers were once widely praised as heroes. A recent poll by a Palestinian research group found that only about 30 percent of those surveyed in Gaza and the West Bank support more suicide attacks by Islamic militants. The negative public feeling had apparently contributed to a 3-month-long suspension of such bombings. "We have to cut off the hand of the person who did this," said Burhan Zeit, a fruit-salesman. "This will give the Israelis an excuse to stay here, and now they won't free any more Palestinian prisoners." Hours after today's attack, Abdullah Saleh, a grocery store owner, shared a cup of tea with a supplier from the neighboring Israeli town of Kfar Sava, one of the few Israelis who ventured here today. "This attack was wrong because it was aimed at innocent people and because it will damage the peace process and destroy the economy," said Mr. Saleh. "Our economic base is Israel. We earn our living from each other. Now the Israelis have imposed collective punishment." Some townspeople blamed Israel for the bus attack, though, saying that repeated delays in expanding self-rule had given the militants a chance to strike. "This is the result of foot-dragging by the Israeli Government," said a clothing salesman who spoke on condition of anonymity. "The lesson for the Israelis is to speed up the peace process. It they stop the talks there will be another attack." Only a few people expressed support for the bombing, defending it as retaliation for Israeli killings of Palestinians. "When I heard about it I was happy, because it was a blow to the Jews," said a | Arabs Say Attacks Hurt Them Too |
776589_0 | To the Editor: Re "New Star Scores Home Runs for Democrats" (news article, July 18): Your article describing Representative Bill Richardson's successful human rights initiatives around the globe omitted an important element of his remarkable work here at home on behalf of all Americans. Representative Richardson is providing national leadership to protect Yellowstone National Park and the Clarks Fork National Wild and Scenic River from the notorious New World Mine, a large mine proposed upstream of Yellowstone by a web of Canadian mining corporations. Last month Representative Richardson introduced legislation with bipartisan support to create a Yellowstone headwaters national recreation area (H. R. 1846) and block mining in the mountains upstream of Yellowstone. These mountains are simply the most unsuitable place imaginable for a large mine, posing long-term chronic and potentially catastrophic environmental damage. By far the greatest environmental threat is the proposal to develop an experimental dam reservoir to store millions of tons of acid-generating waste rock. The acid storage dam and reservoir will be vulnerable to flooding, avalanches and even earthquakes in this seismically active region, let alone to human error. Yet the mine plan depends on the dam and reservoir lasting for the rest of time. When it fails, and it almost certainly will, a flood of acid mine pollution will foul the waters of the Yellowstone ecosystem for generations. Representative Richardson's legislation recognizes that the ecological, recreational and fish and wildlife values of these lands to the American public far outweigh the short-term profits, with their long-term environmental damage, resulting from the proposed mine. The Republican Congressional leadership should schedule hearings on Mr. Richardson's legislation and swiftly enact this measure to protect Yellowstone National Park from this ill-advised mining scheme. If Representative Richardson can free American hostages from foreign dictators, perhaps he can also liberate the world's first national park from a foreign mining syndicate. THOMAS J. CASSIDY JR. General Counsel, American Rivers Washington, July 18, 1995 | Hostages Hero Works to Save Yellowstone |
776594_0 | To the Editor: The assertion by Peter Innes, director of British Information Services, that the Irish Republican Army's disarming must precede British-Irish peace talks is disingenuous and discouraging (letter, July 17). Disingenuous because disarming was never part of the initial, secret talks between Sinn Fein and the British, never part of the Irish and British Governments' joint declaration and framework documents, and never part of any request by the United States Government to Sinn Fein. The Clinton Administration, according to The Irish Times July 18, has refuted Mr. Innes's claims that it pressured Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein leader, on the issue at a meeting in Belfast. JOHN J. FINUCANE National President, American Ireland Education Foundation Stony Point, N.Y., July 19, 1995 | Irish Hurdle Raised |
775853_3 | the French silently or actively supporting the Resistance. Intellectuals, so prominent in postwar France, might have been expected to force the issue. Yet people like Jean-Paul Sartre and Michel Foucault were curiously silent. One reason was their near-obsession with Communism. While proclaiming the need to "engage," to take a stand, two generations of intellectuals avoided any ethical issue that could not advance or, in some cases, retard the Marxist cause. Vichy was dismissed as the work of a few senile Fascists. No one looked closely at what had happened during the Occupation, perhaps because very few intellectuals of any political stripe could claim to have had a "good" war, as Albert Camus did. No one stood up to cry "J'accuse!" at high functionaries, as Emile Zola did during the Dreyfus affair. When Simone de Beauvoir, Roland Barthes and Jacques Derrida entered the public arena, it usually involved a crisis far away -- in Madagascar, Vietnam or Cambodia. Even today, politically engaged writers call for action in Bosnia but intervene only sporadically in debates about the French past. So why President Chirac, and why now? Perhaps it is because he is the first French head of state to be young enough to bear no responsibility for wartime events. Or because he has always been a Gaullist. He is also uninhibited by memories of prewar France, when an obscenely anti-Semitic press, a gnawing fear of war and the establishment of camps for refugees cleared the way for Vichy. President Chirac has done more than face up to French history. He has laid down an uncomfortable marker for the present. If it was a genocidal crime in 1942 to use ethnic criteria to round up people, herd them into camps and deport them, it is no less a crime today. Just as Mr. Chirac was ahead of his countrymen in his apology, so he has surely set an example for the West on Bosnia. In proposing resolute military force, he may even rescue what remains of Western moral credibility, though the chances of that seem slim. It is well that Mr. Chirac has told the truth about the French past, but as citizens we share moral responsibilities over space as well as over time. As the Europeans are forced to confront their old ghosts, new ones prepare to take their place. Tony Judt is author of "Past Imperfect: French Intellectuals, 1944 to 1956." | French War Stories |
776036_1 | has been carping in both parties about the North American Free Trade Agreement. Mr. Clinton is still trying to quell periodic rebellions in his own party over his advocacy of free trade, and today, Representative Peter A. DeFazio of Oregon cited the most recent figures in a letter to House members calling for a commission to re-examine trade policy. Specifically he opposed an expansion of the North American trade pact; this fall, the White House will try to gain accession to the agreement for Chile. The Commerce Department figures showed that exports of goods and services in May totaled $64.8 billion, and imports were $76.2 billion. In almost every key category, both imports and exports rose: Semiconductor exports, for example, were up nearly 11 percent for the year to date, to $25.46 billion, but imports surged 43 percent from a lower base. Similar trends apply to autos and auto parts. The best light that the Administration can place on the figures is that exports continue to rise strongly despite trading partners' problems. Canada's economy is in the doldrums, Japan has been unable to lift itself out of recession, and Mexico, seeking to restore itself to financial health, has vastly reduced the consumption of foreign-made goods. The problem is imports, which rose 1.1 percent in May. Economists had expected a drop because of the weakness of the dollar and a presumed cooling of the American economy. Instead, for the fourth time this year, imports set a monthly record. "I really don't see this as a political problem because when you look at the imports, they are all the kind of capital goods that show that manufacturers are still buying and expanding," said Jeffrey E. Garten, Under Secretary of Commerce for international trade. "That is exactly what you want to see." But if the trend continues, and most economists think that it will until early next year, the widening deficits will grow increasingly difficult to explain. The Administration would obviously like to see a decline over the next few months, so it could declare that the succession of market-opening agreements are beginning to work. Some probably are working. There are signs that exports of flat glass to Japan are on the rise, after an agreement reached last fall. In a speech this week to the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan, Ambassador Walter F. Mondale said, "Sectors that were once the hottest | Big New Trade Gap Deepens Clinton's Political Problems |
774637_1 | as the parade passed for five minutes, they made no gestures, no shouts; they could barely hear the jeers of the Catholics, who tossed a few bottles that fell far short. As tens of thousands of Orangemen marched in dozens of parades in this predominantly Protestant British province, there were fears of violence that would endanger the peace effort. On the eve of the marches, two Orange lodges were burned, and today, there were two hijackings of cars that forced the suspension of some bus service. Today there was scattered violence, but no serious injuries or arrests. Gerry Adams, the leader of Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Irish Republican Army, called for Catholics to be calm. Today is celebrated as the traditional date of the Battle of the Boyne, July 12, 1690. The Protestant William of Orange, having claimed the English crown of his father-in-law, the Catholic James II, then defeated him in the battle. The Protestant English grip on Ireland has been repeatedly challenged over the centuries. The latest challenge was suspended last Aug. 31, when the I.R.A announced a cease-fire in the 25 years of guerrilla warfare that has killed over 3,100. For most people the marches were the same as always: family days with picnics and bonfires. The sun shone and people waved Union Jacks and Orange Order flags. Many Catholics recall that before the present conflict, they enjoyed the Protestant parades. "The Battle of the Boyne is an important strand of our history," said Mr. Adams, who is a Catholic. "Most thinking Catholics would not be concerned about most of the Orange marches. They have that right. There's only a handful of marches that are affected by controversy, those going in areas where they're clearly not welcome." Jeffrey Donaldson, 32, assistant grand master of the Orange Order, and a ranking official in the mainstream Ulster Unionist Party, agreed with Mr. Adams that the offensive parades are few, but disagreed on the cause of trouble. Today, Mr. Donaldson donned the orange collarette of his order and marched as his male ancestors have for 200 years. As he got ready, he asked of Catholics: "Why can't they tolerate an Orange procession for 15 minutes in one year. I don't understand it. If you want to point the finger at intransigence, then I think you point it as those who cannot tolerate another culture on this island." | Ulster Protestants March, Celebrating History, as Catholics Jeer |
774589_1 | for subways and trains. To Germany's political opposition, the Government's readiness to juggle contracts and human rights smacked of scandal. "The Stalin of China is not wanted in Germany," the Green Party said in a statement. The opposition Social Democrats have also urged the German Government to raise human rights violations with Mr. Jiang, and even some lower-ranking officials of the governing Christian Democratic Union say they will present the Chinese President with lists of political detainees to seek their release. But so far, compared with a visit last year by Prime Minister Li Peng of China, when widespread demonstrations disrupted his stay, public protests have been far fewer. And so the Government may feel under less pressure to raise human rights concerns much beyond the level of a nod while pursuing commercial interests. Germany's attitude toward Beijing illustrated the same divergence from United States practice as marks Bonn's relationship with Iran. While the United States has imposed an embargo on Iran because of Teheran's purported support for terrorism, Bonn favors a policy called "critical dialogue," which avoids confrontation, permits German companies to maintain trade ties and, in theory, enables German politicians to talk to Iranian leaders about changing their ways. While American relations with China sour over Taiwan, human rights in general and, most recently, the arrest of the Chinese-American rights advocate Harry Wu, Germany's ties with Beijing flourish. While Bonn's ties to Iran draw political cover from a Europe-wide embrace of "critical dialogue," the friendship with China has a particularly German flavor. Both Britain and France have strained relations with Beijing. China, by contrast, terms its ties with Bonn "excellent," and that, some commentators say, puts Germany in a position to exert influence where the United States cannot. In the pursuit of cooperation, Germany has in the past clearly placed commercial interests before any attempt to exert influence, postponing, for instance, any official encounter with the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader, until long after he had met with other Western leaders, including President Clinton. Germany is now China's biggest European trade partner. Since 1990, according to German figures, annual trade has doubled to $18 billion, with a surplus of some $4 billion in China's favor. After Mr. Jiang visited Stuttgart today, Mercedes-Benz announced that a letter of intent would be signed on Thursday for a $1 billion joint venture agreement to produce vans and engines in China. | Seeking China Deal, Bonn Shuns Rights Issue |
773403_1 | Ambassador to Britain, William Crowe, delivered a "strongly worded" message from the Administration on the subject of arms when he met with Mr. Adams here last week. But one official said, "We have no quibble with that story." The American Ambassador to Ireland, Jean Kennedy Smith, said in an interview that she was aware of Ambassador Crowe's conversation with Mr. Adams and that she had sent an official letter to Mr. Adams in Belfast that simply restated American policy: all sides in Northern Ireland should lay down their down arms and enter negotiations. The policy was outlined by President Clinton last May in a speech in Washington to a conference on economic development in Ireland. But in that speech, the President set no timetable for decommissioning or full-fledged talks including Sinn Fein. Mrs. Smith, said in an interview that she sent a message to Mr. Adams and that she had not taken a hard or tough line with him. Her message to Mr. Adams, she said, "was encouraging and supportive of the peace process and the talks process." Mr. Adams and Sinn Fein consider good relations with Washington essential to their immediate goal: being invited by Britain to join all-party talks on Ulster. Sinn Fein hopes that Washington will continue to press the Government of Prime Minister John Major to convene the talks soon. But Irish officials are worried that American pressure might weaken after this week's rioting, the worst in the 10 months since the I.R.A. declared a cease-fire. British officials and local Catholic residents have said that Sinn Fein and the I.R.A. stirred up the violence, which began in protest of Britain's release on Monday of a soldier who had been serving a life term for the 1990 killing of a Catholic girl in a stolen car that ran through an army checkpoint in 1990. Sinn Fein has denied the accusations that it orchestrated the riots, in which hundreds of cars and trucks were hijacked and torched. The violence ended on Wednesday, after Mr. Adams called for calm. Britain has insisted that the I.R.A. make progress on decommissioning before Sinn Fein is invited to full-fledged negotiations toward a settlement of the conflict between the Roman Catholic minority and the Protestant majority in Ulster. Mr. Adams has said that the I.R.A. cease-fire is adequate evidence of its peaceful intentions and that decommissioning is an unacceptable pre-condition to roundtable negotiations. | U.S. Envoys Press the I.R.A. To Take Steps to Yield Arms |
773409_3 | army, the Government forces and militia carried out what various United Nations bodies and international human rights organizations have said was genocide. In its report to be published next month, African Rights condemns the church leadership in Rwanda generally for "surrender in the face of evil" and for "moral failure." It commends individual priests and nuns for their courage, but adds, "Even more than its silence, the churches must answer for the active complicity of some of its priests, pastors and nuns in the genocide." A woman interviewed by African Rights in Kigali in April said Father Munyeshyaka had "no pity" on the Tutsi who sought refugee in the Sainte Famille Church complex. The woman, Rose Rwango, said that the priest had allowed the Hutu militia into the church and that they had taken out men and women who were later killed. Her daughter was one of them, Mrs. Rwango said. Father Munyesh yaka did not protect her because the young woman had resisted his advances, she said. Tutsi women "who satisfied his needs" were safely evacuated from the church, she is quoted as saying. Other men and women interviewed separately by African Rights gave similar accounts. Father Munyeshyaka told Le Figaro that his father was a Hutu who was killed in last year's violence, but he did not say by whom; his mother is a Tutsi. Under Rwanda's patriarchal system he is considered a Hutu. While the fighting mainly involved killing of Tutsi by Hutu, many Hutu did not take part in the massacres, and some helped protect Tutsi. When Kigali fell to the Tutsi rebels on July 4 last year, Father Munyesh yaka fled to Goma, Zaire, along with nearly a million other Hutu. While there, he and 26 other priests sent a letter to the Pope, which signals their political sympathies and the divisions in the church. The massacres in Rwanda were "the result of the provocation and of the harassment of the Rwandese people by the R.P.F.," the letter, dated August 2, 1994, said, using the initials for the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front. "We dare even to confirm that the number of Hutu civilians killed by the army of the R.P.F. exceeds by far the Tutsi victims of the ethnic troubles." While human rights organizations and the United Nations have charged the rebels with human rights abuses, during the war and since they formed the new | Clergy in Rwanda Is Accused of Abetting Atrocities |
773354_0 | Padding down cow paths in flip-flop sandals or paddling a canoe through piranha-infested creeks, Iraci Macedo da Costa Queiroz lugs from door to door what rain forest dreams are made of: Mesmerize cologne, Forever Fragrance perfume and Cool Confidence deodorant. With no doorbells to ring at the riverside shanties on stilts, this Avon lady of the Amazon claps her hands and calls out cheerily: "Hi, honey! I'm here!" "Women want to give me chickens, manioc flour -- but what am I going to do with a chicken?" this veteran, 52-year-old saleswoman exclaimed on the job one recent morning as her son piloted a motor launch across a quiet Amazon tributary where baby pink dolphins played in the sunlight. Far from being a lone missionary for smelling nice in the tropics, Mrs. Queiroz works at the end of a computerized, 2,500-mile long supply chain, part of a national web that last year boosted Brazil over Mexico to become Avon's largest market outside the United States. Offering food for sociological thought, Avon's sales army in Brazil -- 478,000 "beauty consultants" -- is more than double the size of Brazil's Army: 200,000 soldiers. The power of Latin cosmetics has not been lost on Avon, the world's largest cosmetics company. With sales increasingly stagnant in the United States and Europe, Avon now enjoys its fastest growth in the developing world. The beauty star is Brazil, where Avon's sales are expected to hit $1 billion this year, more than double the 1993 level. Argentina ranks as the fourth-largest market for the New York City-based cosmetics company. While Argentina ranks as the biggest per capita consumer of cosmetics in the world, Brazil beats all Latin markets in volume. Every year, Brazilian women use seven tons of skin cream. Last year, Avon sold 1.5 million jars of Renew, an anti-wrinkle cream. Avon's success has drawn attention from other United States direct-sales companies. Amway, which started its Brazil operations here less than four years ago, now has 200,000 distributors. To blanket Brazil, Avon recognizes that there are many Brazils. Sao Paulo, in the developed south, has gone through a social transformation similar to that of the United States. Doorbells ring during the day to empty apartments: women are at work. Additionally, many urban apartment buildings are encased in high security. Building guards do not allow door-to-door sales. To reach these upper-income urban markets, Avon advertises on cable television, | Careiro da Varzea Journal; Who Braves Piranha Waters? Your Avon Lady! |
774788_1 | while Warner Lambert will market the nonprescription Zantac for Glaxo. Analysts said worldwide sales of the Merck osteoporosis drug might exceed $1 billion a year. An estimated 20 million American women and 5 million men have thinning bones that often break at the hip, spine or wrist. On the Big Board yesterday, shares of Merck rose $1.375, to $50.875, near a 12-month high of $51.25. American Home Products, which will promote Fosamax in a joint venture with Merck, also gained $1.375, to $76.375. Shares of Pfizer Inc. rose $1, to $45.50, while shares of Eli Lilly & Company gained $1.375, to $78.25. The American depository receipts of Glaxo Wellcome closed at $24.25, up 37.5 cents, and shares of Warner Lambert gained $1.875, to $85.375. "Fosamax has added momentum to the stocks," said Mariola Haggar, an analyst at C. J. Lawerence/Deutsche Bank Securities. Neil B. Sweig of Ladenburg, Thalmann said, "Merck shares have risen 18.8 percent since April 1 as investors anticipated good news for Fosamax." Merck, which has a license to make Fosamax from Istituto Gentili of Italy, enlisted American Home Products to market the drug to obstetricians and gynecologists, the prime entry to the market for Premarin, an estrogen drug made by American Home Products. Premarin is sometimes used to ward off osteoporosis and is widely used for discomforting hot flashes after menopause. Studies of women who took estrogen over long periods have recently produced conflicting findings about their chances of contracting breast cancer. Ms. Haggar said the F.D.A.'s recommendation of Fosamax for treatment of women who already have thinning bone mass came only months after Merck filed for approval in March. Drugs deemed less important can take years to get F.D.A. approval. Ms. Haggar added that Fosamax sales might eventually reach $2 billion a year if Merck obtained additional approval next year to sell the drug to prevent osteoporosis. But Merck will have to do "a very strong marketing job" to get the attention of women in their 60's who feel no pain and do not have broken bones, said David F. Saks, an analyst at Gruntal & Company. Ms. Haggar said Procter & Gamble had a similar osteoporosis treatment in the early stages of testing. And Eli Lilly and Pfizer are in late stages of testing a promising class of drugs called estrogen receptor modulators, which they believe will not have the side effects associated with Premarin. | Merck's Drug for Bone Weakness Gets F.D.A. Backing |
774811_3 | initial reactions from Britain and the United States tonight did not reject his latest proposals out of hand. The French suggestion came after sharp attacks by Mr. Millon and Foreign Minister Herve de Charette on United Nations passivity in the face of the Bosnian Serb attack in Srebrenica. "Ultimately they are becoming accomplices to what we have always rejected," Mr. de Charette said, referring to the United Nations peacekeeping force in general. "In that case, it would be better to leave," he said. A communique from Mr. Chirac's office this evening said that the fall of Srebrenica was a major defeat for the United Nations, the NATO alliance and all democracies, one that opened the door for the fall of other "safe areas." "It is thus absolutely necessary to put a firm halt to the abandonment of the enclaves with firm and limited military action," the French communique said. France, the communique said, had made contact with its principal allies, and Mr. Millon said these were the United States and Britain. Britain is also providing 4,000 to 5,000 new troops for the rapid reaction force in Bosnia. The United States has provided air support through the NATO alliance for United Nations operations and has pledged up to 25,000 troops to help the peacekeepers withdraw from Bosnia if they need help to do so. "It is a proposal, not an ultimatum," Mr. Millon said of the French plan. Mr. Millon also repeated President Chirac's warning that if the United States Congress defied the arms embargo on Bosnia and started supplying the Bosnian Government with arms, France would pull its peacekeepers out immediately. French officials also said that the rapid reaction force might be sent into action as early as next week to make sure United Nations convoys can get through to Sarajevo with supplies of food and medicine on the winding route along the slopes of Mount Igman. Serbian gunners and snipers have often prevented convoys from getting through on that route, which passes through Bosnian Government territory. Diplomats in London said after a meeting last night of the five-nation "contact group" seeking to reach a negotiated solution to the fighting that one possibility they were considering was a regrouping of the United Nations troops in Bosnia. The United Nations designated the six "safe areas" in Bosnia in 1993 and the NATO allies vowed in February and April of 1994 to | France Asks Allied Forces to Help Hold 'Safe Areas' |
774806_0 | The Federal Communications Commission proposed rules today that would allow new global satellite communications systems to share a part of the airwaves with a technology for transmitting dozens of television channels over microwave frequencies. The new rules would essentially settle a dispute between businesses that want the same segment of the radio spectrum for two different technologies: a fleet of small satellites that would provide voice and video services anywhere in the world, and a new "wireless cable" technology that could be a potential rival to existing cable television and local telephone services. Today's rules, which came after months of arduous negotiations, would split a substantial part of the airwaves in the upper reaches of the radio spectrum. The satellite technology, proposed by Craig O. McCaw, the cellular telephone pioneer, would involve the launching of 800 satellites to orbit several hundred miles above the earth. The project, developed by the Teledesic Corporation, which Mr. McCaw helped to found, is only in its conceptual stages and has a projected cost of $9 billion. As envisioned, the system would let people send and receive video and large volumes of data from relatively inexpensive transmitters in the most remote parts of the earth. Teledesic executives have promoted the project as something akin to a satellite-based version of the Internet. Several other global communications networks in development, including Motorola Inc.'s Iridium project, would not need to use the same frequencies sought by Teledesic. The other technology that needs the frequencies is known as local multipoint distribution, or L.M.D.S. It was first proposed by Cellularvision, a small company in New Jersey. This system would transmit about 40 channels of television programming over microwave frequencies to antennas small enough to fit on a window sill. Cellularvision already provides the service under an experimental license in the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn. The F.C.C. said Cellularvision would be entitled to a license covering the New York metropolitan area, though the company would probably have to pay the Government something approximating the market value of the license. The agency proposed auctioning licenses for the rest of the country, perhaps some time next year. Shant Hovnanian, president of Cellularvision, said his company planned to introduce its video system in New York City as soon as the commission approved its application. The Bell Atlantic Corporation, J. P. Morgan & Company and Philips Electronics N.V. have invested more than $10 million | F.C.C. Proposes Dual Use For One Part of Airwaves |
774739_0 | To the Editor: Re "Parks in Peril" (editorial, July 4): We agree that the national parks are in need of support and expanded avenues of revenue. However, we take exception to your statement that "many of the park system's 22,000 historic buildings, as any visitor to Ellis Island can confirm, are simply falling apart." This overlooks the $163 million restoration of Ellis Island's Main Building, the largest historical restoration in this country's history, and its conversion into the Ellis Island Immigration Museum, which welcomes two million visitors annually. This project was funded by the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation through donations by the American people. No government funds were involved. Since 1982 the foundation has raised more than $400 million and, working with the National Park Service, has restored the Statue of Liberty, Liberty Island, Castle Clinton and Ellis Island's most historic building. This public-private partnership has been called the most successful in this country's history and could serve as a model for the Park Service. WILLIAM F. MAY Chairman, Statue of Liberty- Ellis Island Foundation New York, July 10, 1995 | Ellis Island Succeeds As Park Restoration |
777804_0 | International A3-11 BOMB ATTACK IN PARIS SUBWAY Four people were killed and 62 wounded when a bomb exploded in a crowded Paris train station near Notre Dame Cathedral in the middle of the evening rush hour. A1 NATO BOWS TO U.N. ON AIR STRIKES Four days after the United States, Britain and France threatened the Bosnian Serbs with air strikes if they attacked Gorazde, NATO officials agreed that no large-scale bombing would start without United Nations clearance. A1 SERBS INDICTED FOR WAR CRIMES The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia indicted the Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic, and others for crimes against humanity. A9 FRENCH DENY PALE BOMBING Despite vehement French denials, senior American officials said they continued to believe that France bombed the Serb headquarters at Pale on Sunday or Monday. A8 TOWN OF ZEPA FALLS Bosnian Serb troops took the town of Zepa, the heart of another United Nations "safe area," but it was unclear how much territory was under Serbian control. A9 C.I.A. FAULTED IN GUATEMALA An internal Central Intelligence Agency investigation into the agency's conduct in Guatemala concludes that C.I.A. officers there improperly concealed their clandestine activities. A1 Entertainment mogul to head advertising for Russian network. A3 After the bombing in Tel Aviv, a new Israeli response. A6 Profound changes debated at Amnesty International. A10 Shanghai Journal: New proof of China's (high) stature. A4 National A12-17 INQUIRIES FOR TOBACCO MAKERS The Justice Department has convened a grand jury to investigate whether tobacco companies misled regulators, and it may convene a second panel to investigate whether executives lied to Congress. A1 SMITH'S HUSBAND IN TEARS Susan Smith's former husband sobbed as he told the jury how all his dreams for his sons died when he learned that his estranged wife had drowned them. A12 NUCLEAR ARMS' WIDE IMPACT A study of nuclear weapons concluded that they have been responsible for much toxic and radioactive waste, widespread environmental damage and untold effects on human health. A12 BLOOD TESTIMONY CHALLENGED An F.B.I. scientist said that blood on the sock retrieved from O.J Simpson's bedroom and on the gate behind Nicole Brown Simpson's home did not contain a preservative, challenging previous testimony. A12 NO PLAN TO CALL HILLARY CLINTON The chairman of the Senate Whitewater committee generally ruled out calling Hillary Rodham Clinton as a witness. A14 'CORRECTIONS DAY' IN HOUSE The House inaugurated a procedure to allow lawmakers | NEWS SUMMARY |
777693_1 | great wealth scored relatively poorly. Last year, at the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, 180 nations reached an agreement urging all countries to make reproductive health services and contraceptives available to all by the year 2015. The United States did not rank higher largely because of teen-age pregnancies -- its rate is about six times that of European nations -- and a relatively low rate of contraceptive use. Although it still fell in the study's "very low risk" group of countries, the United States ranked behind such emerging countries as Taiwan and Singapore. And Dr. Conly contended that it "is likely to drop even farther if this Congress continues as it has started." A proposal to end public contraceptive services in the United States has been approved in committee, and another to cut aid to developing nations in Africa by one-third may be an indication of what is to come, she said. Some relatively poor countries have made long-term commitments to health care and family planning, Dr. Conly said, and have succeeding in several important measures. "Their programs may not be the Cadillac models," she said, "but they give all people access to health care of some kind." Costa Rica, Cuba and Sri Lanka have maternal death rates lower than 100 per 100,000 births, whereas about half the world's nations have rates of 200 to 1,750 per 100,000. The study also cited Tunisia and Vietnam as having made unexpected progress. The report contained at least two surprises for researchers. One was that Italy ranked best in reproductive health in the world. "We didn't expect this," Dr. Conly said, "because while use of family planning in Italy is high, over half of Italian couples use traditional methods like withdrawal and rhythm, which experts generally consider less effective. However, Italian women appear able to use these methods effectively, largely because safe abortion is available on request." Another surprise, Dr. Conly said, was that countries like Indonesia and Bangladesh, which have become exemplary nations in offering family planning broadly, nevertheless fall in the "high risk" category because their death rates from pregnancy and childbirth remain high. The study looked at three areas for each country: family planning, which the researchers said reduced the risks associated with frequent childbearing and reliance on unsafe abortion; pregnancy and childbirth, including such related health concerns as AIDS and anemia, and post-pregnancy issues like infertility. | In a Ranking of Maternal Health, U.S. Trails Most Developed Nations |
777792_2 | reported that in retaliation for the killing of French soldiers in Bosnia, a single Mirage 2000 had flown from France and dropped a one-ton bomb on the house of an associate of the Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic. The paper said the warplane had traveled with a previously scheduled reconnaissance mission to evade detection by NATO radar and by planes enforcing a ban on flights over Bosnia. It did not say whether the bomb had hit its target. American intelligence agencies quickly confirmed that a French reconnaissance plane had flown over Pale at approximately the same time as the reported explosions. An American intelligence officer in France also reported that a "usually reliable source" had confirmed that the French Government had ordered the raid. Central Intelligence Agency analysts, reviewing the timing, the tip from the source, the reports of explosions and France's growing impatience with Serb attacks on its peacekeepers, told policymakers that it was likely Paris had authorized the raid. "The judgment here is that there was a French plane that hit a site in Pale," a senior American official said today. "The way we understand it, they got permission from NATO for a recon flight, and they flew in with it to do their bombing." There were other theories: French officials said the blast heard in Pale was a sonic boom from an American overflight. An aide to Defense Minister Charles Millon said today that the Liberation story and the American officials' views were "a fantasy." "I wish it were true," he continued. "There were no French aircraft on bombing missions over Pale on Sunday, but there were a couple of American F-14's that broke the sound barrier." Speculation in Washington spread on Monday when French Government officials equivocated in their denials of the first newspaper report: Mr. Millon said on French radio that such a raid "would have been an appropriate response to the logic of war chosen by the Serbs." An American official said that when the day began, few in Washington believed the Liberation report, but that by nightfall the balance had begun to shift in favor of the belief that France had bombed the Serbs. Some American officials expressed irritation at what they perceive as French free-lancing. Others were pleased that after questioning the concept of bombing last week, the French are willing to retaliate against the Serbs. CONFLICT IN THE BALKANS: THE FRENCH | Many U.S. Aides Seem Sure That French Bombed Serbs |
777808_3 | the injured, but it was not known if any tourists were hurt in the bombing. No victims have yet been identified. The train, which was headed south toward St.-Remy-les-Chevreuse, a few miles outside the perimeter of the City of Paris, is normally crowded with commuters, carrying some 400,000 people to, from and within the city each day. Trains belonging to the R.E.R., the Reseau Express Regional, or Regional Express Network, are longer than normal subway cars and they travel faster and make fewer stops inside Paris. Their stations are also deeper than those used by the Paris metro system. At St.-Michel-Notre-Dame, passengers can change to the metro, although the St.-Michel subway stop is not immediately adjacent to the station where the blast took place. President Jacques Chirac as well as the Transport Minister, Bernard Pons, and the Mayor of Paris, Jean Tiberi, were among officials visiting the scene of the explosion, although only Prime Minister Juppe spoke to reporters, noting that presumptions of a bomb blast were "very strong." The Interior Minister, Jean-Louis Debre, called the Government's antiterrorist advisory group to a meeting that lasted late into the night. Mr. Debre also ordered a reinforcement of security measures at Paris's two main airports, Orly and the Charles de Gaulle International Airport at Roissy. Tonight, Adm. Jacques Lanxade, Chief of Staff of the French armed forces, said it was too early to point the finger at any suspects, but French television immediately began speculating as to what groups might be motivated to carry out such an action. France has angered Algerian Islamic fundamentalist groups by clamping down on their support network in France. Algerian militants have pledged not to bring their war against Algeria's military Government onto French soil. But an Algerian religious leader and fundamentalist sympathizer was slain outside a Paris mosque earlier this month. France has also recently taken a strong stance against the latest Bosnian Serb offensive in Bosnia, although it did not win American and British support for its call for a buildup of United Nations troops in so-called "safe areas" of eastern Bosnia. Further, Mr. Chirac has angered several governments as well as worldwide environmental groups by deciding to resume France's nuclear testing in the Pacific. A French consulate in the Australian city of Perth was firebombed last month, apparently in reprisal for the planned tests, but most antinuclear protesters are pacifists. There was even speculation | EXPLOSION KILLS 4 AND INJURES MANY ON TRAIN IN PARIS |
790203_2 | were not American citizens at the time of the 1959 revolution to sue foreign investors in Cuba for damages in Federal courts. The Clinton Administration says this provision will clog American courts, offend American allies and violate international laws by giving American courts jurisdiction over disputes in another country. "These provisions would create tensions in our relations with our allies," Mr. Christopher said in his letter. "We know that this provision allowing lawsuits is already being used by the Castro regime to play on the fears of ordinary citizens that their homes and work places would be seized by Cuban-Americans if the regime were to fail." Representative Robert Mendendez, a New Jersey Democrat, defended the bill, saying it "was about standing up for American interests" and would "give American citizens the right to sue for properties that are illegally confiscated." In Havana, Rafael Dausa, a spokesman for the Cuban Foreign Ministry, told reporters that the bill would not destroy his country's socialist system, but would impede efforts to reduce tensions with the United States. Mr. Christopher recommended a veto even though congressional Republicans had already deleted a key provision opposed by the Administration: one that would prohibit sugar imports from countries with companies that purchased Cuban sugar. While praising the bill's objective of bringing democracy to Cuba, Mr. Christopher criticized the measure for tying the President's hands by setting strict requirements on when the United States could resume aid to Cuba once it has a government moving toward democracy. He also attacked the bill for calling on the United States to cut aid to countries that help complete a nuclear power plant in Cuba or provide goods or loans to Cuba at below-market rates. The bill would also require the United States to reduce its contribution to the World Bank or other international financial institutions if they provide aid to Cuba. During today's debate, the House rejected in a 283-138 vote an amendment that would loosen the 33-year-old embargo on Cuba by allowing the sale of food and medical supplies. Representative Lee Hamilton, the Indiana Democrat who led the fight against the bill, said, "The philosophy of this bill is that if you make conditions in Cuba significantly worse, you will prompt the Cuban people to rise up against their Government." He and other opponents argued that the bill would increase the pain for Cubans without speeding Mr. Castro's demise. | Bill to Tighten Economic Embargo on Cuba Is Passed With Strong Support in the House |
791326_0 | To the Editor: If making peace in Northern Ireland were as straightforward as Thomas L. Friedman suggests (column, Sept. 20), we would have got there long ago. Mr. Friedman criticizes the British Prime Minister, among others, for lack of courage. In less than two years we have had the joint declaration, the joint framework documents, a significant reduction in the British military presence in Northern Ireland, the establishment of exploratory dialogues with the paramilitaries of both sides and the tabling -- by the British Government -- of a compromise, "twin-track" proposal that Mr. Friedman rightly identifies as a reasonable way forward. Did Mr. Friedman assume a year ago that British cabinet ministers would be talking to Sinn Fein, without Sinn Fein or the Irish Republican Army's having begun even to discuss the decommissioning of weapons and explosives? I don't think so. Mr. Friedman says the real need is not to get rid of Irish Republican Army weapons, but to change I.R.A. intentions. Why has the I.R.A. been fighting? To secure a united Ireland. Is Mr. Friedman really suggesting that the British Government should grant the I.R.A. that objective even though two-thirds of the people who live in Northern Ireland wish to remain part of Britain? To aspire to a united Ireland is a legitimate aim. But it must be pursued through "exclusively peaceful methods" -- to use the words of the joint declaration. Sinn Fein must sit down at all-party talks that include the majority, Unionist parties. It isn't surprising that those parties that have never resorted to terrorism want to see the Irish Republican Army and the Loyalist paramilitaries abjure the option of returning to violence if they don't get their way. Sinn Fein is a minority party in a functioning democracy. Ten percent of the vote entitles it to a say in Northern Ireland's future. The I.R.A.'s guns, missiles and Semtex explosives do not. PETER WESTMACOTT Counselor, Political and Public Affairs, British Embassy Washington, Sept. 25, 1995 | Irish Peace Won't Come at Point of a Gun |
787707_2 | storytellers, recreated their agenda in their heads overnight and hand-wrote their document. "When the energy goes, we provide our own," said Gertrude Mongella, a Tanzanian who is Secretary-General of the Beijing women's conference. Rounaq Jahan, a Bangladeshi political scientist and the author of "The Elusive Agenda: Mainstreaming Women in Development," said Asian women agree that much of the exhilaration left in feminism is in the developing world. "While the feminist movement seems to have peaked in the North by the 1970's," she said, "in many countries of the South it is still young and vibrant." Perhaps this is because in the developing world, the women's movement is much more a matter of life and death. Outside a small clinic on the fringe of a slum in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, mothers and children huddling for hours in an open-air waiting room demonstrated the drawing power and the importance of small women's organizations. At this clinic, run by the independent Bangladesh Women's Health Coalition, a bone-thin, seriously anemic woman was slouched on the edge of an examining table waiting for contraceptives. A sympathetic female doctor told her that delaying the birth of another child was not enough; if she did not accept diet supplements and look after her health, mental and physical, she would die. In such small institutions, it is not only women's bodies that matter. Their vocations, habits, needs and desires are treated as important. And the women are encouraged to think beyond their homes. The Dhaka clinic that was mobbed with women and children one day was almost empty on another because both staff and patients had volunteered as neighborhood election observers. In several cities in India, women's organizations are focused on the issue of pervasive, often fatal domestic violence. This summer, for instance, a well known politician was accused of murdering his wife and having her body stuffed into a restaurant's tandoor oven, prompting demonstrations of outraged women. And their involvement doesn't stop with protest. Women often find themselves wading into police and court procedures, civil rights law and media work. Knowing that for many women there is no economic alternative but to remain in abusive homes, women's groups are also trying to promote self-help vocational projects and low-cost housing for the victims of domestic violence. In the last few years, a bold new idea has caught on -- that women are the key to development. | The Second Sex in the Third World |
787688_0 | WITH the flip of a switch on a tiny white-sand atoll close to nowhere, France may have managed to guarantee the end of centuries of Western colonialism in the Pacific. What began in the 1520's when Magellan bravely crossed an uncharted ocean to discover Guam and the Philippines for the Spanish crown could well be drawing to an ugly close because of the determination of a newly elected French President to defy world opinion and test nuclear weapons in the pristine waters of Polynesia. The first of the tests touched off riots last week in Tahiti, the largest of the islands of French Polynesia and a destination that tends to conjure images of a palm-fringed paradise. The image last week was of gutted buildings and terrified foreign tourists trapped in the crossfire of rocks and tear-gas canisters between Tahitian demonstrators and French riot police, with the outside world suddenly aware that many Polynesian want the independence already achieved by virtually all of their neighbors in the Pacific. 'Had Enough' Independence may still be years in coming for the 200,000 people of French Polynesia -- the leading pro-independence party has never come close to taking power in local elections -- but the uproar here over the resumption of French nuclear tests at Mururoa Atoll, about 750 miles southeast of Tahiti, and the resulting melee in the streets of Papeete could certainly hasten the process. "The Polynesian people have been pacifists and calm for many years," said Nelson Ortas, a leader of the independence movement. "And we've had enough of it." The global outrage over the French tests has reminded other Pacific nations why they sought independence in the first place, creating a new sense of pride and solidarity among island lands that until recently thought they had little in common. Led by Australia and New Zealand, the nations of the South Pacific have been virtually unanimous in condemning the decision by President Jacques Chirac of France to lift a three-year-old moratorium and resume nuclear testing here. Pacific leaders have framed their condemnation of France in anti-imperialist tones, with Australia and New Zealand making clear that they see their future as nations of the Pacific, not of the West. Prime Minister Jim Bolger of New Zealand called the resumption of testing "the arrogant action of a European colonial power." Prime Minister Paul Keating of Australia has led the campaign to remove the | Detonation in the French Pacific |
787931_4 | with the required skills, and that's compared to three or four weeks for a company to fill the same position on its own." Mr. Steinberg pointed out that a survey of 47 companies representing about 10 percent of temporary-help services showed that they spent $45 million on training for their temporary employees, according to estimates. For students, temporary work is the career-building strategy of choice, said Jeffrey Newman, the Westchester-Connecticut manager of Accountemps in White Plains, a temporary-staffing service with 180 offices nationwide for accounting, finance and bookkeeping positions. "Students get an opportunity to enter the business world and explore possibilities when they work at different jobs while they're going to school, which allows them to explore a variety of companies and industries," Mr. Newman said. "The experience they gain makes their post-graduate job search much easier." And at the other end of the spectrum, Mr. Newman said, are the seasoned, mature, experienced professionals who can earn as much as $50 an hour taking temporary assignments. "The professional temps we place include accountants, attorneys, sales and marketing executives as well as those in middle and senior management," Mr. Newman said. "And right now, more of them are available to clients than in any other time in recent years." For this group, he said, taking temporary assignments is either a flexible career alternative or a bridge to full-time employment. "We have a lot of retired people who chose to work only several months a year, and we have women who left professional careers for motherhood and they also prefer temporary assignments in order to have more time for family life," Mr. Newman said. "A lot of people take temporary assignments because the flexibility is important to them." Increasingly, he said, companies are hiring temporary consultants for specific assignments like working on detailed year-end tax analysis and tax planning. "Even if they pay a consultant $50 an hour, companies find it cheaper and more efficient to have a tax consultant working in-house, on-call, than they do using the services of an outside C.P.A. firm," he said. "What is happening is that established companies cut staff to the core during the recession and they are depriving themselves of strategic people," Mr. Newman said, adding, "Yet they are still leery about overstaffing, so instead of adding permanent employees, they find they are managing very well by using the services of a temporary professional consultant." | Temporary Work Finds a Permanent Niche |
787911_1 | Ireland policy had been "even-handed" and that he did not expect pressure to make concessions on Sinn Fein positions. Asked if he might accept a commission where the disarmament issue could be "parked," meaning where it could be considered without binding decisions on deadlines and methods of disarming, he said, "We will consider any reasonable proposal." Officials in Dublin said the postponement of the meeting scheduled for Wednesday was partly due to Mr. Adams's refusal to give an explicit commitment that I.R.A. guns and bombs would never be used again and that Sinn Fein would not threaten the resumption of violence by the I.R.A. Mr. Adams denied today that he had been asked for such a commitment, and said that the planned meeting between Prime Ministers John Major of Britain and John Bruton of Ireland had been scuttled by a British demand that the I.R.A. surrender some weapons before Britain would accept Sinn Fein's demand to be allowed to take part in all-party talks toward a settlement of the conflict in Northern Ireland. Asked if he thought the postponed meeting had increased the possibility of a resumption of violence by the I.R.A., he said: "The British are playing a very high-risk game that has bogged down the peace process. The I.R.A. has maintained a cessation despite provocations." Would the cease-fire continue? "I would hope so," he said. "Sinn Fein is absolutely committed to peaceful methods. The peace process is my central priority." Asked if he was pessimistic or optimistic on the peace effort generally, he said: "I am a realist. We are in crisis and the crisis is deepening." He repeated Sinn Fein's position that there could be no movement on disarmament until Sinn Fein was at a negotiating table with the British and Irish Governments and the other political parties in the North, including the Protestant unionists. The unionists want Northern Ireland to remain part of Britain and abhor the ultimate goal of the I.R.A. and Sinn Fein of a united Ireland free of British control. "The hang-up is not decommissioning," Mr. Adams said, employing the term used here for disarmament. "It is the failure of the British Government to name a date for all-party talks. The British Government has been successfully and tactically concentrating on the surrender of I.R.A. weapons. We cannot deliver on that. The I.R.A. has said there will be no surrender, through the back door | Gerry Adams Discusses I.R.A. Arms |
787460_0 | It was billed as a clash of civilizations over how to define the rights of women in language that could influence how all nations act. So when delegates and advocates from 185 nations started converging on the Chinese capital late last month for the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women and a parallel forum of nongovernmental organizations, many people thought that conservative Muslims allied with the Vatican and the anti-abortion coalitions of North America would join forces and storm the ramparts of the meeting halls here. It's not happening. There is plenty of debate -- even passion -- at the United Nations conference, which opened on Monday and runs through next Friday, over how to define the fundamental rights of women, in sexual relations, politics and the economy. The nongovernmental forum, which began on Aug. 30, ended today. But there is little rancor -- at least so far. Donna Shalala, Secretary of Health and Human Services and co-chairwoman of the American delegation, characterized the marathon negotiations going on behind dozens of closed doors here today as marked by "integrity and good will." She pointed out that already there had been "significant steps forward" in shaping a consensus for the 120-page Platform for Action that will emerge from this conference to serve as recommendations for governments to improve the health and status of women. The only person who seemed to be fuming today was Msgr. Peter Elliot of the Vatican delegation, who was trying to correct a Spanish press report that the Vatican had decided to accept all forms of contraception. "As if," he said, as he fumbled inside his briefcase for the Vatican's rebuttal, "we would change our position on an issue like contraception at a conference like this." Privately, many delegates are saying that the most important factor in the conciliatory tone of the Beijing conference so far is the transformation of the Vatican's strategy since last year, when the United Nations held its conference on population and development in Cairo. "The Vatican has been smarting from Cairo," a senior member of the American delegation said, "and from all the bad press it got" by assailing the Cairo majority as "anti-family" on some points. The Cairo declaration held that the best method to control population is to raise the educational and economic levels of women, while providing them with access to health care and family-planning services. "This time, | At U.N. Women's Meeting, An Outbreak of Harmony |
787370_0 | To the Editor: Re "Next Step in Ireland" (editorial, Sept. 5): You assert that Britain's insistence on Irish Republican Army disarmament is causing a stalemate in the peace talks. You mischaracterize the British position, asserting that the British Government is "insisting on the surrender of all arms before talks can begin." Sir Patrick Mayhew, Britain's Northern Ireland Secretary, is reported in a news article of the same day as saying that the I.R.A. need only start to decommission weapons for Sinn Fein, the I.R.A. political arm, to participate in full peace talks. By insisting on progress toward the decommissioning of terrorist weapons, the British Government is representing the wishes of the overwhelming majority of the people of Northern Ireland. A poll published last month in The Dublin Sunday Tribune (hardly a Loyalist mouthpiece) revealed that 71 percent of the population of Northern Ireland believed that paramilitary groups, including the I.R.A., should disarm before they were invited to join the peace talks. It is not the British Government but Sinn Fein and the I.R.A. who are holding up the peace process. Americans who wish to promote peace in Northern Ireland should urge Sinn Fein to drop its "no surrender" dogma and demonstrate a genuine commitment to the democratic process. HENRY LAURENCE Nantucket, Mass., Sept. 5, 1995 | I.R.A., Not Britain, Holds Up Peace Talks |
787433_0 | Hundreds of French riot police and soldiers were deployed today across Papeete, the capital of French Polynesia, after anti-French riots gutted the international airport and dozens of shops and Government offices. Although demonstrators lingered near the blackened terminal building, there was relative calm at the airport and in the business district. The protests were sparked by the detonation of a French nuclear bomb on Tuesday at a remote atoll 750 miles southeast of Tahiti. Despite the violence, France has insisted that it will conduct several more tests at the atoll, Mururoa, through next May, when it has promised to renounce nuclear testing forever. The riots left more than 20 people injured and more than 50 people arrested, including antinuclear campaigners from Japan and Australia. WORLD NEWS BRIEFS | French Troops Impose Peace in Riot-Torn Tahiti |
787449_1 | bureaus dedicated to women's issues, Haiti is one of the few to have a Cabinet-level ministry for them. Its creation came in November 1994, after years of lobbying and organizing by Haitian women, who have doubly suffered as the poorest members of what is already considered the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. The ministry is intended to act as a kind of well-placed advocacy group for the 3.5 million women who make up a little more than half of Haiti's population. If the Planning Ministry seeks aid money from abroad for a development project, for instance, the Women's Ministry is there to insure that women receive some of the jobs. The ministry says it will coordinate its efforts with the hundreds of private groups here that also work to better women's conditions. Even though women are generally regarded as the economic backbone of everyday life here, their contribution is seldom equally compensated. Nearly everywhere they can be seen laboring in mostly menial and manual jobs -- carrying water in buckets atop their heads, tending small farm plots, peddling produce. Women were barred from universities until 1939, and even today their legal and social standing generally remains below that of most Haitian men. The Constitution, for instance, calls for a woman to turn over all that she inherits to her husband; the legal code punishes women more severely than men if caught committing adultery; and the age of sexual consent is 18 years for boys, while for girls it is just 15. Abortion is illegal in this nominally Roman Catholic country. Fewer than 10 percent of women use birth control, according to studies by relief groups, and few women outside the capital have access to family planning. The average Haitian woman will bear six children, often at home without medical attention, and the death rate in childbirth is five times that of women in the United States. "This ministry is the result of the women's struggle," said Ms. Dejean, the Women's Affairs Minister. "It was not a gift." Ministry officials have begun what they described as the first comprehensive study of the social and economic status of women in Haiti. The survey will try to compare women's wages with those of men, measure their strength in the paid work force and document the often unsanitary conditions women labor under in unregulated outdoor markets. The ministry, which has a yearly budget | Port-au-Prince Journal; Haiti Task Force, Battling for Women's Rights |
786358_0 | James Dulligan's passion for antique cars and trucks began in childhood. In 1946, at the age of 13, he took $75 he had earned as a paper boy and as a hired hand in a repair shop and bought his first truck, a Packard roadster that was used as a service truck during World War I. Since then, Mr. Dulligan has collected and restored many old cars. He kept some, sold others. To share his passion, Mr. Dulligan, now 63 and semiretired from his construction business, co-founded the Antique Truck Club of America and the Antique Car Club of America. Over the years, his backyard on 215th Street has become an auto orphanage of sorts. People who didn't know what to do with vehicles like a 1940's Divco bread truck took them there. He now has about 30 cars and trucks, he says. Those that have been restored are in a garage in Bayside. And those needing repair, about 20 as of last week, are parked in his yard and on the streets in front of his three-story Victorian house. His favorite is a rusty green 1926 Autocar with an open cab. "Guess I always liked them," he said. "Don't know why." But not everyone shares his enthusiasm. Some of his neighbors in this well-kept working-class block say the cars in Mr. Dulligan's yard attract rodents and ruin the neighborhood's appearance. "It's a junkyard," said Frank Skala, president of the East Bayside Homeowners Association. "It devalues the surrounding properties. If he wants to have a museum, let him acquire commercial property." The homeowners' association complained earlier this year to Community Board 11, which brought the matter to the attention of the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Sanitation Department. But neither agency could do anything because all the cars are insured and most have up-to-date inspections and registrations. Mr. Dulligan said some of his restored cars have appeared in every Bayside Little League parade and Bayside Historical Society parade since 1960, and one of them, a 1940 Chrysler Royal, was repainted to look like a taxi and used in the films "The Godfather" and "The Way We Were." Most, however, sit in his yard in need of work. Some are rusty; others have broken windows and slashed seats. Mr. Dulligan said his dream is to finish restoring them all. A neighbor, who asked not to be named, built a fence | Safe Haven For Old Cars, Or Junkyard? |
786578_0 | No country without a revolution or a military defeat and subsequent occupation has ever experienced such a sharp a shift in the distribution of earnings as America has in the last generation. At no other time have median wages of American men fallen for more than two decades. Never before have a majority of American workers suffered real wage reductions while the per capita domestic product was advancing. So on Labor Day this year, as with a lot of Labor Days, most laborers don't have a lot to celebrate. The median real wage for full-time male workers has fallen from $34,048 in 1973 to $30,407 in 1993. Wages of white men are falling slightly faster than those of black men, and the young have been clobbered: wages are down 25 percent for men 25 to 34 years of age. Median wages for women didn't start to fall until 1989, but are now falling for every group except college-educated women. The pace of decline seems to have doubled in 1994 and early 1995. The tide rose (the real per capita gross domestic product went up 29 percent between 1973 and 1993), but 80 percent of the boats sank. Among men, the top 20 percent of the labor force has been winning all of the country's wage increases for more than two decades. Adding to the frustrations, the old remedy for lower wages -- more education -- no longer works. True, wages of males with only a high-school education are falling faster than the pay of those with college degrees. But investing in a college education doesn't get one off the down escalator and onto an up escalator -- it merely slows one's descent. No one knows exactly how much of the decline can be traced to any particular cause, but we do know the set of causes that has been responsible. New production and distribution technologies require a much better-educated work force. If decisions are to be pushed down the corporate hierarchy, those at lower levels have to have skills and competency beyond what was required in the past. With our global economy, where anything can be made anywhere and sold everywhere, the supply of cheap, often well-educated labor in the third world is having a big effect on first-world wages. One month's wages for a Seattle software engineer gets the same company an equally good engineer in Bangalor, India, for | Companies Merge; Families Break Up |
786426_0 | The French Navy today towed two protest ships away from the site of planned French nuclear protests in the South Pacific after seizing the vessels and arresting dozens of their passengers and crew, including an American congressman and the leader of a Polynesian independence movement. Word that the independence leader had been arrested led his supporters to set up roadblocks on the outskirts of Papeete, the capital of French Polynesia, snarling traffic for more than 12 hours and forcing tourists trying to reach the international airport to abandon taxis and return to their hotels. The roadblocks came down after the independence leader, Oscar Temaru, was released by the French military police at dawn today. French military officials said Friday that among the others arrested on the protest ships was American Samoa's Delegate to Congress, Eni Faleomavaega, a Democrat. The phone at his office in Washington was not answered on Saturday, and the State Department said it had no information on his whereabouts. French naval commandos stormed aboard the two protest ships, the Rainbow Warrior II and the Greenpeace, on Friday as the vessels approached Mururoa Atoll, the site of planned series of French underground nuclear tests that have outraged foreign governments and environmental groups. The ships are owned by Greenpeace, the international environmental group that over the years has staged frequent protests in the waters around Mururoa, which has been France's principal nuclear testing site for nearly three decades. The two ships were being towed to Hao, an island 375 miles north of Mururoa. Hao served as a prison for two French secret agents who were found guilty of involvement in the bombing of another Greenpeace ship in a New Zealand harbor in 1985. President Jacques Chirac has said French scientists must carry out a final series of seven or eight nuclear tests in the South Pacific before ending the testing program once and for all next May, in time for France to sign a comprehensive global test-ban treaty. The French Government has said the tests are needed to study a new generation of warheads. The Government has refused to say when the tests will begin or exactly when they will end, although Friday was the first day of the testing period announced by Mr. Chirac. French officials say they expect the tests to stretch over several months at least. The nascent independence campaign in French Polynesia has tried to | French Tow Ships off Site Of Atom Test |
786402_4 | a bite and said, 'Now I know why people put sugar on tomatoes.' It was like somebody opened the tomato, poured sugar in it and closed it up." Mr. Cavanaugh ordered from heirloom-seed companies. There are scores, mostly quite new, the most prominent of which is Seed Savers, a nonprofit exchange in Decorah, Iowa. He met other organic growers of heirloom produce. He apprenticed with a farmer from Edison, Al Prehodka, now 82, who had always farmed organically and whose tomato plants were 14 feet tall. "I asked him, 'How do you do this?' " Mr. Cavanaugh said. "Al said, 'Do you really want to learn?' " Mr. Cavanaugh did. He learned about composting, planting soil covers, natural pest-killers. "Everything he grew was superior to anything I'd seen before or since," he said. Each year, he said, in the half-acre backyard plot, he experimented with 40 new varieties of tomatoes -- 2,000 in all -- and scores of peppers, ranging from bright sweet bells to egg-shaped white Hot Eggs to habaneros, probably the world's hottest. He tried fruits like the Cape Gooseberry, a piquant-tasting ground cherry, and Luther Hill corn, which grows sweet, four-inch-long ears with an intense taste, the most popular in western New Jersey at the turn of the century but now nearly extinct. He got the Schimmeig's Striped Hollow from Seed Savers, red with yellow stripes, with a natural hollow, like a pepper's, that Mrs. Cavanaugh fills with tuna for lunch. Neighbors would casually slip him seeds after church, he said. "I'll grow them out and they'll be incredible." Mrs. Cavanaugh added: "We get so spoiled, eating things this tremendous all the time." The passion, first and foremost, was Mr. Cavanaugh's. Organic growing of heirloom seeds is practically a religion, definitely a cause. "I'm dead serious," he said. "I'm not into this for money. I'm trying to preserve the old-time things in New Jersey. I want to help family farmers." He figures that offering exquisite-tasting vegetables will help small farmers compete against cheaper but duller supermarket-chain vegetables. He turns away criticism that heirloom plants are less disease-resistant and less healthy. "If you had a pepper that wasn't healthy," he said, "would you save the seeds and pass it down through your family?" Mrs. Cavanaugh tries to keep the soaking, drying, sorting, counting, storing and mailing from taking over the house and their lives. "We'll be sorting seeds | History You Can Eat |
786400_0 | To the Editor: Richard Nuccio, the White House special adviser on Cuba, is dead wrong in stating (front page, Aug. 27) that American businesses are not losing out with respect to investment opportunities in Cuba, as the rest of the world opens its doors to trade and investment with the island nation. Cuba is busy settling its debts and differences with all of Latin America, and has just been admitted to the newly formed Association of Caribbean States, some 15 countries including Haiti, the nations of Central America, Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela that are committed to democratic principles, human rights and expansion of regional trade. Anyone visiting Cuba can't fail to notice vastly increased foreign investment in many parts of the economy. Life is still very rough for the average Cuban, but Cuba has definitely hit bottom economically and is moving forward. Although committed to Socialist principles, the Cuban Government is ready to do business. It is especially noteworthy that Israel, the only country in the world to support the United States embargo, is developing in Cuba what will be the world's largest citrus growing project. THOMAS R. MILLER Director, Association for Free Trade With Cuba Oakland, Calif., Aug. 27, 1995 | U.S. Embargo on Cuba Slows Pace of Reform; Business Loses Big |
786406_0 | To the Editor: This is the first anniversary of the cease-fire in Northern Ireland, but the peace is tenuous. The British Government is now calling for decommissioning arms as a condition of Irish Republican Army participation in peace talks. This new condition is both unrealistic and unnecessary in light of the critical need to bring all parties to the table. A group of social workers just returned from Londonderry, where we discussed community needs and services with local leaders. Institutions such as police and social services were only beginning to re-emerge in this fractured city. The possibility for change is dim, however, without the promise that all interests can be represented. A recent survey showed that most people believe a return to violence is imminent if peace talks are not begun soon. MARGARET E. MARTIN Associate Professor of Sociology Eastern Connecticut State Univ. Willimantic, Conn., Aug. 31, 1995 | Irish Peace Talks Are Waiting for Britain |
786509_5 | remote control. The watery muck was dumped into a special mud barge and the water separated and filtered by hydrocyclone cones, which are ordinarily used in oil fields to separate mud from oil. That process proved to be too time-consuming, according to Mr. McVay, who said the cleanup crew spent more than a year using the tedious system. At any one time, the mud barge was filled with 5 percent contaminated soil and 95 percent water. "We realized," Mr. McVay said, "that we were getting nowhere." They switched strategies, using a barge equipped with a crane wielding a covered clamshell dredge to take bites out of the bay floor. Fearing that the dredge could spread a cloud of dirty soil toward the oyster beds, they fashioned a special plate around the clamshell bucket to contain the drifting plumes. For added protection, a yellow wall of fabric was built underwater with a border of booms, dragging six-foot skirts. The strategy worked in the more open areas, but workers were forced to revert to more primitive techniques when they tried to clean the hard material that had collected around the submerged pilings that were originally part of rail lines used to lower boats into the water. The bite of the clamshell bucket was too large. That is when the 1902 edition of the Sears catalogue became the cleanup crew's oracle. The $3.48 vintage road scraper was redesigned for use with an electric motor to break up the hard bottom area around the pilings. A dairy farmer weighed in with advice about drying the muck with sawdust after Mr. McVay noticed that the wet contaminated soil looked remarkably like cow manure. Now there is little left to do at the shipyard except wait for the state's ruling on the results. The town of Oyster Bay has already opened negotiations with Moran to buy the site for the construction of a marine education center. The Friends of the Bay, which lobbied hard for the purchase, are so well satisfied with the cleanup that they would like to reopen neighboring Beekman Beach for swimming. However, there is one environmental hitch. An abundant population of ducks and swans has raised the bacteria count in the water to unacceptable standards. Of the humans who have created the problem with their handouts of bread, Ms. Miller said, "I guess that we still have a little educating to do." | Old-Style Drudgery Bests a Modern Foe; Workers Use Scoops and Scrapers To Get the Lead Out of Oyster Bay |
786228_5 | Newsweek and Forbes, that were encouraging women to take control of board meetings and get mammograms. With all the choices, mainstream women's magazines still leave plenty of women in the dust. Few of the books tend to have much to say, for instance, to lesbians, outside of the occasional piece written by a straight woman about how her best friend made unwanted advances. Non-Caucasian women, too, are underrepresented in the copy and photo spreads, which may help to explain the success of Essence magazine, a book for black women with an average paid circulation of over a million copies between January and June of this year. An older audience has also been largely ignored. Lear's, a book that reached for the mature and affluent reader, closed in March 1994, after a six-year run. Mirabella, started in 1989 by Ms. Mirabella, who had just been dropped as editor in chief of Vogue, had a mission to distinguish itself from the masses of beauty books that seemed to talk to women in their 20's. Ms. Mirabella and Ms. Gross said then that they wanted a sort of anti-fashion magazine that would speak on issues, mainly the arts, with a sprinkling of clothes and beauty mixed in. In March, Mirabella was sold by Rupert Murdoch's News America Publishing division to Hachette Filipacchi Magazines, the owner of Elle, where Ms. Gross had become the editorial director. Hachette promptly suspended publication of Mirabella. A few focus groups later, Ms. Gross was ready to try again. She said that she found that women were still cold on high-fashion. "We wanted to be an oasis, a quiet place to be thoughtful," Ms. Gross said. "Being the first on the block to know something seemed tiring, and hearing from the women confirmed that." Being the only women's book at News America Publishing hurt the old Mirabella, and some analysts think there is potential now to team the product with Elle for package advertising deals that are considered essential to business. "There was always a soft spot for the Mirabella concept," said Mr. Walker. "As a beauty-service magazine for someone who wasn't in their 20's and was willing to admit it. It stands a very good chance of being successful now, because most of its problems were where it was." Ms. Gross hinted that the loud new issue may have been designed to pull in newsstand readers and that | What Do Women Want? |
786706_1 | have had to stand by while Grupo Domos, a Mexican corporation, recently signed a huge deal to overhaul Cuba's telephone system. Louisiana rice growers would love to recapture what was once their biggest export market. Otis Elevator fears that Japanese manufacturers will move in to replace Otis equipment installed throughout Havana before Fidel Castro took power. Executives confronting Assistant Secretary of State Alexander Watson at a recent State Department briefing, however, received the worn, formulaic response: "This Administration will maintain the embargo until major democratic change takes place in Cuba." The business people at the meeting were not mollified. They pointed out to Mr. Watson the inconsistency in Washington's stance towards other Communist countries, notably China and Vietnam, where trade has gone forward despite the presence of authoritarian governments. As Mr. Watson noted at the meeting, however, Cuba is a special case. The primary reason is the influence of the Cuban exile community. The Cuban American National Foundation, which has worked tirelessly for the overthrow of Mr. Castro, contributes heavily to Congressional campaigns and sways a large bloc of voters in Florida. Few politicians, including Presidents, have chosen to tangle with so powerful a lobby. But the unity of the exile community is beginning to crack. Its leaders' messianic insistence on deposing Mr. Castro has begun to alienate a younger generation and more recent arrivals from Cuba. In June, Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo, a man with impeccable anti-Castro credentials -- he spent 22 years in a Cuban jail -- visited Havana and spent three hours talking with Mr. Castro. Mr. Gutierrez represents a new, moderate faction in the Cuban diaspora, a faction recognizing that many Cubans still support Mr. Castro. Cuba has kept its commitments to the United States on immigration. With the end of the cold war, it poses no security threat to the United States. Yet the sanctions on Havana are tighter than those imposed on Iraq. Legislation now before Congress -- which President Clinton has sensibly threatened to veto -- would tighten sanctions even further. The legislation has clearly alarmed many business people. Some of its provisions would threaten their subsidiaries in other countries that already do business with Cuba. If the executives are serious about changing Cuba policy, they need to help the Administration find the courage to take on the conservative exile lobby, and make their wishes known to Congress. They are on the right track. | Helpful Corporate Pressure on Cuba |
786688_2 | the cheap shot: "THEM TOO: Reuters recently issued a correction to a story 'to correct headline on Dutch item.' Rather than the story headlined 'Dutch Protestants Unionize to Protect Rights,' editors were asked to use the version headed 'Dutch Prostitutes Unionize to Protect Rights' instead. (Reuters) . . . Just in time: Hugh Grant was about to change churches." Mr. Cassingham, who earned a degree in journalism but never wanted to be a reporter, now works at redesigning business processes for an aerospace company in Southern California. The column sprang from an office hobby he started some eight years ago. "I loved clipping stuff out of newspapers and writing comments on them, sending them to my friends," he said. "Then people at work said I should write a column, and it all fell together. I figured I could syndicate it myself and distribute it over the net. "So I went through my address books and found 50 friends with E-mail. That blew me away -- not just that I had 50 friends, but 50 with E-mail -- and I started." Using software known as list servers, Mr. Cassingham set up his subscription service. List servers, often referred to by their product names like Listserv and Majordomo, automatically manage electronic mailing lists and document distribution over the Internet. Once the software is set up, list servers are a nearly effortless way to send stuff directly into the E-mailboxes of any number of willing subscribers. Anyone with an Internet-connected server and list software can set up such a service. Some Internet providers even administer and manage the lists as part of their standard package of services -- Netcom On-Line Communications Services, for example, does so for Mr. Cassingham and more than 900 others -- although this is likely to change as more people discover the power and utility of list services. Automated though distribution may be, Mr. Cassingham's life as an Internet publisher is a great deal of work. Outside his day job, he spends at least 30 hours a week on nights and weekends researching and writing "This Is True." He answers 200 to 400 E-mail messages a day. He persists, he says, because he thinks that by distributing his work free over the Internet, he will increase his name recognition sufficiently that newspapers -- who get the column a full week before he sends it out -- will buy the | Technology: DIGITAL COMMERCE; An author with global ambitions uses the Internet to break into print. |
786656_0 | The women still wash in the chestnut-brown river and the men launch sleek canoes to fish and hunt in rituals as old as the rain forest itself. Life here seems unchanged and unchanging, but when the Granman Matodja Gazon looks into the future what he sees is sorrow for the forest and for his people. "When our ancestors fled the city they were not guided to liberty by anyone who knew the way -- it was the forest itself that saved us," said the 85-year-old chieftain of this village of around 500 Maroons, descendants of African slaves who ran away after they were brought to South America by Dutch sugar plantation owners in the 18th century. "If something does good for you like that, you cannot just let it be cut down." Long ignored, the dense and tangled Amazonian rain forest that surrounds the Granman's village for mile after unbroken mile and extends over 80 percent of this small former Dutch colony on South America's wild northern coast has suddenly become an object of intense desire as much inside Suriname as throughout the world. Desperate for money, Suriname wants to grant several huge Asian companies the rights to selectively cut the ancient trees to make plywood, ornamental moldings and furniture. If all the concessions are granted, Suriname, which now has only a limited timber industry, would allow up to 12 million acres, or 40 percent of the country, to be logged under an experimental plan that is supposed to protect indigenous villages and allow the forest to renew itself in 25 years. In exchange, the companies promise to invest more than $500 million in sawmills and factories, generate more than $60 million a year in royalties and taxes, and create tens of thousands of jobs. For poor Suriname, the plan seems a dream come true. But environmentalists here and around the world think the dream would soon turn into a nightmare. They acknowledge Suriname's right to use the forest but warn that the expected jobs and anticipated revenues will never be realized because the concessions are too large and Suriname's Forestry Service -- two professionals and a broken-down Jeep -- will be incapable of policing the contracts. Even with strict compliance, the forest would end up pockmarked and crisscrossed by logging roads bringing trucks and cars within a few miles of the Granman and about 10,000 other traditional people, including | In Suriname's Rain Forests, A Fight Over Trees vs. Jobs |
786658_0 | International 2-5 STANDOFF AT CHINA MEETING Groups meeting in advance of the world conference on women decided to keep meeting despite China's surveillance, increasing the likelihood that the problem will remain when Hillary Clinton arrives. 1 BATTLE OVER SURINAME'S FOREST The country of Suriname, desperate for money, wants to grant logging rights to up to 40 percent of its Amazon forest. But environmentalists there and elsewhere say the agreement would be a disaster. 1 NATO ULTIMATUM TO SERBS NATO issued a new ultimatum to Serbs to remove their artillery from around Sarajevo, and a road was reopened without Serb approval to send a message that United Nations policy has changed. 3 REV. MOON LINK TO BUSH VISIT Former President George Bush will visit Japan to speak at meetings of a group linked to Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church, and the appearance is seen by some as lending the group legitimacy. 2 FRENCH SEIZE THIRD PROTEST BOAT The French Navy seized a third protest boat near its nuclear testing site in the South Pacific, and the environmental group Greenpeace contended that its protests were forcing the tests to be delayed. 2 A bomb exploded in a crowded open-air market in Paris. 3 THORNY PATH TO KOREAN ROOTS Seoul Journal: Every summer, many Korean families overseas send their children home to learn about their roots and perhaps meet a special someone, but the result is often an identity crisis. 4 JAPAN'S COMPUTER RUSH In the wake of American computer makers flooding Japan with PC's selling for half the price of local varieties, Japanese manufacturers have cut prices sharply, producing a sales boom that is bringing the nation into the information age. 35 National 6-8 TEACHER UNIONS UNDER FIRE Teachers' unions, for decades the most conspicuous voice in American education, are under assault, victims of Republican electoral successes, disenchantment with the nation's schools and the weakened clout of labor in general. 1 LOOKING AT POWELL'S OPINIONS Although Gen. Colin Powell has fended off reporters' questions about his political views, more is known about those views than is generally acknowledged. 1 Powell says he was approached by two administrations. 8 TARNISHED VIEW OF POLICE The taped bigotry of Mark Fuhrman at the O. J. Simpson trial convinced many Americans that the police still have a long way to go to shed their reputations as enforcers of the prevailing white culture. 1 TOUGH ROAD | NEWS SUMMARY |
786623_1 | said that the sailboat, the Kidu, and its crew of two were seized by commandos this morning after the boat entered the 12-mile exclusion zone around Mururoa. Lieut. Col. Yves Bourboulon, a spokesman in Papeete, the capital of French Polynesia, said that the Kidu pierced the exclusion zone three times and was warned away before the commandos arrested the crew. While the French Navy has insisted that the actions of a 25-vessel protest flotilla around Mururoa have not delayed the testing, news reports in France have suggested that the first test was supposed to have been carried out before dawn on Friday. It was early Friday that the lead Greenpeace ship, the Rainbow Warrior II, taunted the navy by entering the zone, and that two Greenpeace divers managed to reach the atoll aboard inflatable dinghies. The French Government plans to end a three-year moratorium on nuclear testing in French Polynesia and carry out seven or eight tests from September through May before renouncing nuclear testing forever. France has said that it intends to sign a global comprehensive test-ban treaty next year. The two Greenpeace vessels remain under the control of the French Navy and are reportedly being towed away from Mururoa. Another Greenpeace ship, the Manutea, joined the protest flotilla off Mururoa last week. On Saturday, an estimated 3,000 protesters, led by dozens of foreign officials, gathered in the streets of Papeete to demand that France cancel the nuclear tests. -------------------- Airliner Is Briefly Seized GENEVA, Sept. 3 (Reuters) -- A 33-year-old Spaniard briefly hijacked a French airliner on Majorca today and threatened to blow it up to protest France's plans to resume nuclear testing, then surrendered in Geneva without a struggle after releasing 298 passengers and crew. An official at Geneva's Cointrin Airport described the man as unbalanced. The plane, an Air Inter Airbus A-300, was flying from Palma, on Majorca, to Paris when it was hijacked. Officials said the hijacker was carrying what was described as a remote-controlled detonator, which turned out to be a mobile telephone with extra batteries taped to the outside. The hijacking did not appear to be linked with any of the organized demonstrations against the decision by President Jacques Chirac of France to resume nuclear testing. The environmental group Greenpeace, which has led a worldwide protest against the decision, issued a statement in Spain denying any involvement in the hijacking and condemning it. | French Navy Seizes a Third Ship At Site of Planned Nuclear Tests |
788905_2 | label nicotine an addictive drug, for instance, and to reduce sales to teen-agers -- the tobacco industry is pouring money into Republican coffers. In the first half of this year, the industry contributed $1.5 million, five times as much as last year's first six months. Nearly half that sum came from Philip Morris. Representative Henry Waxman said the tobacco industry "has gotten its hooks into the Republican leadership." And the head of Common Cause called the heavy donations "a desperate last effort." But a spokesman for Brown & Williamson -- also a donor -- cited his company's belief in the Republican vision of "less government, less red tape." COMMUNICATIONS Policing the Internet Computer networks are indisputably glorious things. No stamps, no paper, no fuss. A generation that thought letter-writing had surely died in a sun-washed 19th-century morning room has suddenly started to communicate. Now, alas, comes the dark side. Some people are using this strange new toy to send out child pornography or even lure children to sex. This gets complicated, for even if you get past the ethical question -- isn't private communication private? -- a huge practical one remains: how can you possibly monitor the zillions of 1's and 0's zooming through cyberspace? You can't always, of course, but last week -- after a four-year F.B.I. investigation -- came dozens of arrests for on-line porn and solicitation. THE WORKPLACE Women's Progress, Stalled Are women moving steadily closer to equal status in the workplace? Surely nothing could stop the momentum of recent years. Or could it? In a poll out last week, only 56 percent of women said the role of women was continuing to change -- down from 73 percent five years ago. Do women "face more restrictions" than men? Yes, said 84 percent, with 77 percent saying sexual discrimination "remains a serious problem." And 76 percent said there was sexual harassment in the workplace. STATISTICS Do-It-Yourself Inflation Numbers flow mercilessly from the Government -- statistics with little apparent purpose except to keep statisticians busy -- and many are easily ignored. But not the Consumer Price Index. "This is real," said Pat Moynihan. "Everything else is talk." This mighty inflation gauge, after all, dictates cost-of-living increases for Social Security and adjustments in tax brackets, and the tiniest blip translates into billions of dollars. What a gift to budget-cutters, then, if the index was found to be flawed. Sure | Diary |
788978_2 | result of a 34-year-old economic embargo, one provision of which prohibits American citizens from spending money in Cuba. But in testimony to the Puerto Rican Senate, Mr. Fortuno also warned that "in the medium to long term," the resurgence of the Cuban tourist industry creates "the possibility of a disastrous impact here as well as in the rest of the Caribbean." At recent meetings of Caribbean nations, officials from some 30 countries have noted that Cuba was in a construction drive that would double the number of hotel rooms and was receiving an increasing number of charters from Germany, Italy and Spain. "Obviously Cuba is a competitor and will continue to be one as it takes in more business," said Jean Holder, president of the Caribbean Tourist Organization, which held a convention in Havana this year for the first time in more than 30 years. "Their basic infrastructure for tourism is very good." Mr. Castro has scoffed at the notion that Cuba "poses a terrible threat" to the region, telling his fellow heads of state at a conference last month that "we don't want to compete, we want to cooperate." Of the 13 million tourists who visit the Caribbean each year, more than half are Americans. But the number of European and Latin American visitors to the region is growing rapidly, and tourist officials maintain that Cuba's ability to market itself as a new, unspoiled and exotic destination offers a powerful appeal to the same kind of adventurous, experienced traveler who traveled to China when tourism first resumed there. As a result, some of Cuba's rivals are trying to develop joint programs with Havana. Jamaica, for instance, has begun air and sea service to Santiago, at the eastern end of the island, and introduced "dual destination" packages that have been popular among European visitors. In addition, a Jamaican company, the Superclubs group, recently opened a hotel in the beach resort of Varadero and is building another. Jamaica's Minister of Tourism, John Junor, explained: "For the European or Japanese visitor coming to the Caribbean for three or four weeks, the opportunity to visit two countries with very distinct cultures and languages is a very attractive prospect. Cuba is a very large island that has its own charms and advantages, and we don't take the view that we should have it all. We just want our fair share." TRAVEL ADVISORY: CORRESPONDENT'S REPORT | Cuba's Drive for Tourists Stirs Neighbors to Action |
789079_1 | produced abroad was illicitly brought into this country. Exports from the United States are legal. The producers argue that they are even desirable, because they will forestall countries like India and China from building their own factories, which they might not shut down when their deadline arrives in 2005, said David J. Stirpe, a spokesman for the Alliance for Responsible Atmospheric Policy, an industry group. Smuggling CFC's into the United States means that no duties or excise taxes are paid. The illegal shipments could also mean that the total use of CFC's in the United States exceeds the quota set by the Montreal Treaty, but that cannot be determined. Ozone Action said CFC's were being smuggled from Russia and other countries in the former Soviet Union to avoid paying charges of almost $6 a pound. The group said that a 30-pound cylinder that costs $70 in Europe is sold in the United States for $242. If 22,000 tons were smuggled in yearly, the group said, the duties and excise taxes lost would amount to more than $200 million. Thomas A. Watts-FitzGerald, an Assistant United States Attorney in Miami who has prosecuted several CFC smuggling cases, said in a telephone interview that there was an informal consensus among Government officials last year that about 10,000 tons of CFC's were smuggled into the country every year. He said the quantity had probably declined because of recent prosecutions. On Friday, the United States Attorney in Miami, Kendall Coffey, said two dealers in the chemicals, Robert Pennell, 50, of Ronkonkoma, L.I., and Sam Alfano, 63, of Plantation, Fla., had pleaded guilty to importing the material without the required permits. They face a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail and fines of $8.8 million. In another case this year, Jose Prieto of Hialeah, Fla., was convicted of importing CFC's without permits and Paul J. Zborovsky of Cape Coral, Fla., pleaded guilty. The material seized from smugglers is given to the Defense Department, which stockpiles it for use in older equipment, said John Passacantando, executive director of Ozone Action. Older equipment cannot use the less damaging chemicals intended to replace CFC's. The level of smuggling is very important to the health of the ozone layer, Mr. Passacantando said, as the scientific studies that led to the Montreal Protocol's limits on ozone production "all assumed 100 percent compliance" with the quotas and other limits set for | Group Sees Ozone Danger In Illicit Chemical Trade |
789324_0 | AFTER resisting for years, Robert Post finally succumbed to electronic mail. Mr. Post, a curator of technology at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of American History and a fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, had long watched with amused detachment as E-mail became first fashionable and then pervasive in academic circles. But more recently, he felt the peer pressure to join the E-mail community. "I was made to feel out of it because I didn't have an E-mail address," Mr. Post said. "Then, earlier this year, I was sort of good-naturedly told that I had to get one." If Mr. Post was a reluctant conscript in the forced march of technology, he has plenty of company these days. With banks merging and their branches closing, customers have little choice but to deal with automated-teller machines, because the ranks of human tellers have been winnowed to near extinction. And with Microsoft's introduction of Windows 95 last month, there was a flood of phone calls from thousands of befuddled customers, suggesting that not everyone is finding the path to computing's new world a smooth one. The promise of technology is that it is a liberating force, giving people more freedom, more choice and more free time. Yet technology often seems to be just another form of tyranny or just a new strain of consumerism. It is demanding, it forces people to learn new skills and jargon, and it takes time and money. Is this really progress and, if so, is it worth the cost? Many intellectuals have their doubts. In "Rebels Against the Future: The Luddites and Their War on the Industrial Revolution," the author, Kirkpatrick Sale warns against the concentration of power in the hands of the people who control information. In "The End of Work," Jeremy Rifkin, an economist, sees the danger of social unrest, as a huge and growing class of technological have-nots becomes increasingly separated from an elite core of affluent knowledge workers. Technopoly In "Silicon Snake Oil: Second Thoughts on the Information Highway," Clifford Stoll, an Internet pioneer, worries about the quality of the time spent on computer networks: "You lead a much more shallow life online than you do in the real world," he says. Neil Postman, a professor at New York University, asserts that we live in a "technopoly," a society in which all forms of cultural life are subordinate to technology. It cannot be | Reluctant Conscripts In The March of Technology |
789350_0 | To the Editor: Re "Ireland's Path to Peace" (Op-Ed, Sept. 12): Sir Patrick Mayhew does himself and the world a disservice when he states that only Sinn Fein has been associated with violence in the North of Ireland. The violence of the British Army; the massacre of civilians and Bloody Sunday; the sectarian slaughter by Protestant paramilitaries, and the partisanship of the Royal Ulster Constabulary are all part and parcel of Ulster's tragic and gory history. For Sir Patrick to present himself and therefore the British Government as totally innocent and uninstrumental in the "Troubles" of the last 25 years is to play the card of self-deception. Is such a hollow self-righteousness the stuff of leadership or even fair play? EDNA O'BRIEN Amsterdam, Sept. 13, 1995 | For Fair Play on Ireland |
789018_1 | issuing proclamations that lead to breathtakingly few concrete results. Has anything changed? This time, delegates promised that the governments that agreed to the platform would be required to make commitments to implement specific items. Yet monitoring their progress is a sprawling, almost impossible job, because women's rights are challenged and limited in every nation, and at virtually every level of government and society. "There isn't a single country in the world -- not one -- where men and women enjoy equal opportunities," said Gro Harlem Bruntland, Norway's Prime Minister. "We cannot maintain the illusion that someone else is going to do the job and establish equality with men," she said." We must fight for that freedom." Few of the conference's delegates had grandiose illusions about what could be done. They did not expect that governments, particularly in countries low on resources or religious tolerance, would magically adopt new laws or practices to expand women's rights. Change is likely to come only incrementally, and only where advocates, in most cases non-governmental organizations, fight existing practices, laws and customs. "No change happens anywhere until you fight for it," said Bella Abzug, the longtime advocate who is, in her way, the mother of all non-governmental organizations. Ms. Abzug's plan of action in the United States, among other things, includes a women's network that will be mobilized to get out the women's vote in 1996. She is also hoping to persuade individual states to hold their own women's conferences to identify the laws and practices that discriminate against women. But in many ways, the U.N. platform can be most useful in poor countries where the perils facing women in daily life -- like kidnapping and bride burning and genital mutilation -- are more daunting. It is in such countries, which often have traditional societies and limited legal systems, that carrying out change is hardest. Can a human rights document, issued by the U.N. and monitored by non-governmental organizations, make a real difference? Activists say it can, sometimes in unexpected ways. Alice M. Miller, a lawyer with the International Human Rights Law Group in Washington D.C., tells the story of a women in Costa Rica who was diagnosed with uterine cancer and whose doctor recommended a hysterectomy, only to be told by her husband that he would not permit her to have such an operation, even if she risked death, until she bore him more | Women of The World Disperse. To What? |
790882_1 | He has succeeded in doing much of what he set out to do when he was elected Pope 17 years ago. As the Polish Pope -- the first non-Italian to head the church in 455 years -- he played his part in the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe. As one of the most charismatic pastors in centuries, he has made 67 trips outside Italy, teaching, comforting and admonishing his flock with a prodigious volume of messages, encylicals, letters, addresses and, last year, a book that became a best-seller around the world. A strict taskmaster, he has tried to impose discipline on an often unruly church and has upheld its conservative positions on matters ranging from contraception to women priests, to the dismay of many Catholics. As a moral leader, he has repeatedly issued warnings against a creeping "culture of death," as he so harshly refers to the selfish materialism and social Darwinism that he sees in the modern age. Yet in the last few months, the Pope has shown signs that he, too, may be ready to come to terms with modernity, or at least some aspects of it. In a letter to women issued this summer, he spoke clearly and forcefully on behalf of equality for women and even apologized for the Catholic Church's role in the oppression of women over the centuries. As theologians point out, John Paul's letter to women was not so much new as timely. They say he has always embraced equal rights for women as part of his tireless campaign for human rights. But at a moment when many women in the Catholic Church were feeling shut out by his preachings on other subjects, his strong, clear message struck a chord. "Do you know what it means to have a Pope apologize?" asked the Rev. Timothy Dolan, head of the Pontifical North American College, a seminary in Rome. "I would say this Pope has his ear to the ground. He is a good professor, and in that sense he can recognize a teachable moment." The letter may not pacify critics, who are still waiting to see whether nuns and lay women get a greater voice in Vatican councils. Nor does it reflect any change in the Pope's views on the natural differences between men and women, or his opposition to abortion and artificial methods of birth control. And for those who feel pushed | Much-Traveled Pope Ready for U.S. Whirlwind |
789860_2 | the suggestions: * Don't give out personal information, like a home address or telephone number, in a public message such as in a chat room or bulletin board. Don't give out personal information in an electronic-mail message unless both the parent and child are sure of the identity of the recipient. * Never respond to messages that are suggestive, obscene, belligerent, threatening or make you feel uncomfortable. * Never allow a child to arrange a face-to-face meeting with another computer user without a parent's permission. If a meeting is arranged, make the first one in a public spot, and be sure a parent goes along. Most of the guidelines seem obvious. But in the new medium of computer communications, parents and children often need to be reminded of the dangers as well as the benefits. On computer networks, anonymity is more easily achieved than in the physical world, and so is deception. The person surfing through cyberspace as a 12-year-old girl just might be a 50-year-old man. "Cyberspace can give parents a false sense of security -- that your child is in his or her room instead of out on the streets," said Ernie Allen, the president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. "For kids, they sometimes approach computer networks with a sense of unreality, like it's just a computer game." "Parents and children should keep in mind that cyberspace is an interactive medium," Mr. Allen added. "There are people sending the things that appear on your screen. And like people everywhere, there are all kinds." Some schools have computers linked to the Internet these days, and teachers in those programs deal with the issues of computer-network use by children daily. Paul Reese runs an experimental computer program for 160 students, grades four through six, at the Ralph Bunche School in Harlem. The students, age 10 to 13, get a lecture at the start of the school year about what is appropriate and what is not. Last spring, a 12-year-old boy had his computer privileges suspended for two weeks, after he tapped into Playboy magazine's World Wide Web page, which displays centerfold nude shots. There are judgment calls, but Mr. Reese has an all-purpose recommendation for parents: "It's a lot like the rules for television," he said. "You've got to get involved in what your kids are doing in this medium and help them make good choices." | Practicing Safety On the Internet |
789600_5 | the conference. "They have a probabilistic effect that makes us more likely to act one way or another, but that action is always done in conjunction with the environment." Summing up a common sentiment among many participants, Dr. David Comings, a medical geneticist at the City of Hope Medical Center in Duarte, Calif., said, "'My feeling is there is certainly no 'gene' for criminal behavior. There are genes which predispose people to an increased frequency of impulsive-compulsive behaviors and that put them at greater risk of being involved in criminal behavior." Several scientists suggested that the influence of genes on aggressive and violent behavior was about 50 percent, while others shied away from making any tidy breakdown between innate and learned factors. Some scientists complained that the conference was so weighted toward the ethics and implications of the work that it slighted the science itself, and they chose to stay away. Other prominent figures in behavioral genetics were not listed on the program, but said they might go as observers. Notable among them is Dr. Frederick K. Goodwin, now the director of the Center on Neuroscience, Behavior and Society at George Washington University in Washington. While serving as director of the Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health Administration in 1992, Dr. Goodwin touched off an uproar by suggesting that studies of monkey behavior could have relevance to understanding some pathologies in inner cities and saying that maybe it made sense to "call certain areas of certain cities 'jungles.' " In fact, the commotion over those widely reported remarks helped sink the University of Maryland conference that year. Now, Dr. Goodwin complains that the conference was designed by its organizers to be "controversial" rather than sober and scientific. "I think it would have been more effective to have a meeting on the broader theme of the genetics of behavior and personality," he said, "and then talk about violence or aggression in that context." Controversy about the meeting has already spilled out on the Internet, where advisories ask those opposed to the research to mass in front of the building for an "emergency vigil." Attempts to reach the protest organizer were unsuccessful. Those who argue that biology and behavioral genetics have much to offer to understanding criminal behavior insist that their work and motives are misunderstood. For one thing, they say that the study of behavioral genetics is not the study of | Disputed Meeting To Ask if Crime Has Genetic Roots |
789594_1 | say the Vandals have broken into the cathedral of fly-fishing," said Dr. Karl M. Johnson, a virologist who in the 1970's discovered the Ebola virus as a human killer and who now is one of many experts grappling with whirling disease. He moved here for the fishing, and his expertise has made him a central figure in the struggle to understand the scourge. Whirling disease gets its name because the parasite, a tiny animal organism with a bizarre life history straight out of "Alien," often drives young trout to a frenzy of frantic tail-chasing before they die. Not only the Madison is affected; the parasite has infected many streams in the Rocky Mountains, on both sides of the Continental Divide, and there are fears that it could eventually wipe out not only most strains of rainbows but also the cutthroat -- the trout of Lewis and Clark -- in much of the West. The cutthroat is an important forage item of many other animals, including the threatened grizzly bear. The parasite has been documented in at least 20 states from coast to coast, including New York, although only a few have so far experienced trout population declines. Here in the Rockies, the infestation typically advances downstream 15 to 20 miles a year, and once infected a river apparently is infected for good. No one knows for sure how far the infestation will spread. "I think we can only speculate," said Dr. Johnson, "but you probably have to start out with the reasonable assumption that sooner or later it's going to spread downstream" through the entire Missouri River watershed of which the Madison is a part. In many areas, he fears, rainbows "are going to get slaughtered." Wildlife biologists say that what is happening here is a striking illustration of the way in which humans are stirring the evolutionary pot around the world. Rainbow trout never encountered whirling disease before the parasite was inadvertently transplanted here from Europe, and unlike their European cousins, the brown trout, they apparently have evolved no widespread immunity to it. Rainbow populations will either adapt, as the European cousins presumably did in ancient times, or die out. The West could be witnessing an especially dramatic instance of natural selection in action, said Richard Vincent, the regional fish manager for the State of Montana, whose studies of Madison River trout populations have made it one of the | Bizarre Parasite Invades Trout Streams, Devastating Young Rainbows |
789605_0 | On a day so bright it seemed to hide no secrets, the 500 or so landless men, women and children of Santa Elina thought they had won in their occupation of a virgin forest belonging to an estate more vast than Manhattan and the Bronx combined. Faces painted with coal, brandishing sticks, slingshots, sickles and chain saws, they had faced down the military police sent to evict them, and drawn hope from a hint that they might win the soil of their common dreams. Euphoric after 24 days together, the homesteaders hugged, lit firecrackers and raised their hunting rifles to the sky. But the scene just a mile away would have stopped their celebration cold. Soldiers were pitching tents and unloading cartons of ammunition and tear gas. Some strolled with machine guns on their shoulders. That night, the military police, bolstered, witnesses said, by hired guns working for local landowners and a special forces team wearing black ski masks, stormed the encampment in a surprise attack. The police battered and killed the squatters, using women as human shields and torturing, killing and stomping on prisoners, according to victims and medical and autopsy reports. They shot a 6-year-old girl dead as she tried to walk to safety by a towering tree, forced one prisoner to eat soil mixed with his blood and another to eat the brains spilling from a battered body they had ordered him to carry, the victims said. "It was a message," said Rosalvo Braz do Nascimento, 38, a survivor who brought his family from the distant state of Paraiba. "If you invade land, you're going to be annihilated." Even by the standards of Rondonia, a frontier state of Amazonia where land disputes are often settled in blood, the scale of the brutality on the night of Aug. 8 -- in which 10 homesteaders and 2 policemen were killed, 9 homesteaders disappeared and hundreds of homesteaders were wounded -- has shocked sensibilities and prompted state and federal investigations. The violence was also stark testimony to the failure of the grand promises that built Rondonia. One of the few parts of the Amazon with fertile soil, Rondonia was the site of widespread forest clearing in the 1980's, assailed by environmentalists but justified by the government as a way to give land to settlers who poured in from the south. Instead, it has become the most volatile of all the | Brazilian Squatters Fall in Deadly Police Raid |
788414_1 | Back home in London he drinks tea, but in the United States, the Archbishop said, "the coffee is so good and the tea is not." The Archbishop, who will turn 60 on Nov. 13, looked more like an unpretentious businessman occupying the next seat on a bus than the exalted head of the Anglican Communion, which claims more than 70 million believers in 164 countries, including 2.4 million Episcopalians in the United States. He wore a bishop's purple rabat, or clerical vest, under his slightly rumpled tan suit, with the pectoral cross of his office tucked in an inside pocket. In the direct manner that has endeared him to Anglicans around the world, the Archbishop talked about school prayer, family values, women as priests, homosexuality and other concerns. He was reminded of a recent survey that found that only 2.4 percent of Britons attended church weekly, a far smaller percentage than that for Americans. Archbishop Carey said the study referred to Sunday attendance only. "If we were in some way to take away all the churches from our society, the hole will be unfillable," he said. "I continue to claim that the church is the largest single voluntary society in British society," active in schools, prisons, hospitals, youth clubs and universities. "We don't give credit to what it's doing." When Archbishop Carey was enthroned in April 1991, he broke the mold of his predecessors, who traditionally were selected from the upper crust of Britain's elite class system. He was born in a working-class neighborhood in the East End of London, the oldest of five children of a hospital porter. As a boy, he looked beyond the gritty horizons of the public housing project where he lived in suburban Dagenham, and aspired to sail the world as a radio officer on a merchant ship. "But God had other plans," he recalled. He left school at age 15 and joined the Royal Air Force at 18 to become a radio operator. After his discharge, he worked as a clerk in a utilities office before bootstrapping his way into the University of London and eventually the Anglican priesthood. He served in a succession of churches, seminaries and colleges until, as Bishop of Bath and Wells, "suddenly, unexpectedly, I was elevated to Archbishop of Canterbury." The odds against his doing so were put at 20 to 1 by the British press, "but outsiders win | AT BREAKFAST WITH: The Archbishop of Canterbury; An Outsider And Leader Of the Flock |
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