Monday, November 17, 1986^The Battalion/Page 7
World and Nation
icaraguan judge says
‘no pardon’ for Hasenfus
ire
T tOdfj
is Aw
stana
m. in
15 MANACiUA, Nicaragua (AP) —
JN \\ j|stice Minister Rodrigo Reyes re-
-awremBcted on Sunday the possibility of
I on “[Birdoning American Eugene Ha-
7pm| scnfus, who drew 30 years in prison
fir his part in a weapons delivery
Unife' flight to U.S.-backed Contra rebels.
“There is no reason to pardon
him,” Reyes told The Associated
ess by telephone one day after a
political court handed down the ver-
idder diet and the sentence. “The Nicara-
10an gu ; * n penitentiary system will guar
antee that he fulfills his sentence.”
^Earlier remarks by President Dan
iel Ortega had fed speculation that
Hasenfus, 45, of Marinette, Wis.,
Bight eventually be pardoned.
~ B Ortega has not commented on the
"^Bse since the American mercenary
'SB 18 convicted and his stand on a pos-
s ' 11 - sible pardon is not known.
’ Reyes, chief prosecutor, said, “If a
rdon is applicable, I am sure there
11 be a rejection by the population
and the authorities would have to
explain that step very well.”
Pro-government newspapers on
Sunday billed the verdict against Ha
senfus as a conviction of the United
States as well.
“The 30 years for Hasenfus are a
penalty for Yankee interventio
nism,” El Nuevo Diario said.
It quoted unidentified Nicara
guan legal authorities as saying “this
sentence should hit the eardrums of
President Reagan (who should) ob
serve that his obstinate intention of
destroying the revolution will have
severe responses.”
The sentence handed down Sat
urday by the three-member People’s
Tribunal includes the maximum 30
years in prison for violating the
maintenance of order and public se
curity and the maximum three years
for criminal association, with the
sentences to be served concurrently.
Hasenfus was the lone survivor
when Sandinista forces in southern
Nicaragua on Oct. 2 shot down a C-
123 plane that he said was carrying
small arms to U.S.-backed rebels.
Hasenfus on Saturday told the
court he wanted to appeal the sen
tence. His Nicaraguan attorney, En
rique Sotelo Borgen, said that he did
not know if he would appeal.
Presidential spokesman Manuel
Espinoza said Sunday that for the
time being, Hasenfus will not be al
lowed to give interviews.
In Washington, a White House
spokesman, Donald Mathes, said
Saturday, “The outcome was de
cided before the trial even started. It
served no purpose other than to
make propaganda.”
State Department spokesman Pete
Martinez said, “The Nicaraguan
government’s treatment of Mr. Ha
senfus violated many of his basic due
process rights under both interna
tional and Nicaraguan law.”
'A-Gd
11 hear
tken fi
Sinei
.S. allies may get less aid
after cuts in military budget
■ WASHINGTON (AP) — A num-
| bei of close U.S. allies face sharp
I qits in military aid because of con-
Bessional budget reductions that
Bagan administration officials say
^uld seriously damage American
curity interests.
I Officials are now making final de
cisions on which countries will bear
the brunt of the cutbacks, which left
the administration $1.6 billion un
der its $6.5 billion request for fiscal
1987. Countries where the United
States has military base agreements
may be hit hardest.
Congress required that Egypt and
Israel receive $3.1 billion of the $4.9
billion total aid program, with an
other $345 million earmarked for
Pakistan, a key ally because of its
tuife
U
Filipino labor leader:
uns may be required
to guard democracy
MANILA, Philippines (AP) —
Thousands of demonstrators
marched through downtown Ma
nila on Sunday denouncing De
fense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile,
and a labor official told them
guns may be needed to protect
democracy.
Nick Elman, an official of the
leftist May 1st Movement labor
union, said the 500,000-member
union would strike nationwide
Thursday to coincide with the fu
neral of its slain leader, Rolando
Olalia, a supporter of President
’ 1 1 Corazon Aquino.
The union, the Philippines’
largest, has also called for a gen-
eral strike on Monday in Manila.
“But it is not the workers alone
but the whole population that
must move, if necessary with
guns, to defend democracy,” El
man, a union secretary, told
about 3,500 demonstrators.
I il The demonstrators chanted
^ ^ slogans accusing Enrile in last
week’s killing of Olalia. They
shouted, “Welga, welga!” mean-
| ing “Strike, strike!” in Tagalog.
At a rally by about 15,000 peo
ple in downtown Manila on Sun
day, Aquino said: “I want to be
known as a leader of peace, but if
there is no other choice, I am re
ady to lead a war.”
Before his death, Olalia
warned that his union would
launch a general strike if the mili
tary attempted a coup. Rumors
have been widespread that offi
cers linked to Enrile planned to
overthrow Aquino’s government
because of her peace overtures to
communist rebels.
Gen. Fidel V. Ramos, the
armed forces chief of staff, said
on Sunday that Olalia’s killing
should not be “aggravated by
hate and reddened with further
bloodshed.”
Presidential spokesman Teo-
doro Benigno announced Sunday
what he said were important
leads in the killing. Olalia’s body
was found last Thursday off a
highway in northeastern Manila.
Benigno said police have
pieced together a composite pic
ture of one of five men seen near
Olalia’s home before his disap
pearance Wednesday. Three ve
hicles used by the five have also
been identified.
proximity to Soviet-occupied Af
ghanistan.
“How do you distribute the pain?”
asked one official, summing up the
administration’s dilemma in decid
ing which countries’ programs
should be trimmed.
State Department spokesman
Charles Redman said on Friday that
congressional insistence on giving
some countries an irreducible
amount “exacerbates the effect” of
the overall cuts on other recipient
countries.
“Obviously, we are not satisfied
with the outcome . . . and we’ll ex
plore alternative ways of dealing
with the situation,” he said.
Announcement of the administra
tion’s decisions is expected on Mon
day, which is 30 days after the bud
get resolution approved by Congress
became law<< M ,u .
Secretary of State George Shultz
has expressed concern about the
budget cuts, contending that the ad
ministration’s foreign policy cannot
function properly unless there are
substantial resources to back it up.
A U.S. official, who asked not to
be identified, said he believes that
some of the countries with which the
United States has base agreements
will undergo the largest aid reduc
tions.
Specifically, the official men
tioned Portugal, Spain, Turkey and
the Philippines. He added, however,
that aid to virtually all of the 70
countries which take part in the mili
tary grant program or the foreign
military credit sales program will be
cut back.
Under base agreements signed
with each country, the Reagan ad
ministration has pledged its best ef
forts to win from Congress $910 mil
lion in military aid and so-called
economic support funds for Turkey,
$412 million for Spain, $205 million
for Portugal and $180 million for
the Philippines.
In effect, the aid program is the
“rent” the U.S. pays for the right to
maintain forces at military bases in
these countries.
iscoveries offer promise of help
for victims
BOSTON (AP) — Scientists are
eeling away the mystery from Alz-
eimer’s disease, with discoveries re-
orted in recent days pointing to-
ard the cause and perhaps the cure
of the leading cause of senility
among elderly Americans.
“We are at an exciting time in this
esearch,” said Dr. Andrew Monjan,
acting chief of the neuroscience of
aging branch of the National Insti
tute on Aging. Potential causes and
cures are getting closer, he said.
( Three new pieces of work coming
out last week were exciting, agreed
Dr. Katherine Bick, deputy director
of the National Institute for Neuro-
.Alogical and Communicative Disor
ders and Stroke.
T “The data show that we haven’t
<Teen barking up the wrong trees in a
Mpumber of the areas that are being
'|||dealt with,” she said. “But I don’t
‘pthink this is the last word on any of
these things. We’ve just moved a step
Jglforward and now are going to be
■'! able to ask a few more sophisticated
uestions.”
Alzheimer’s disease destroys el-
erly people’s memory, their speech,
their mobility and even their ability
o feed themselves. An estimated 2.5
illion Americans have it, and
100,000 die from it each year.
Despite its prevalence, however,
Izheimer’s disease is tough to rec
ognize. Until now, there has been no
lear hallmark of the disease. Diag
nosing it amounts to ruling out ill
nesses with similar symptoms.
At a scientific meeting last week in
Washington, Dr. Peter Davies of Al
bert Einstein College of Medicine in
New York told of tracking down a
protein called A-68.
“The earlier we can inter
vene ... the greater the
likelihood that we can
make an impact. ”
— Dr. Andrew Monjan, of
the National Institute on
Aging.
If this work holds up to further
scrutiny, it could be the basis of the
first test for Alzheimer’s.
It appears as though large
amounts of this protein occur in the
brains of Alzheimer’s victims but not
in those of healthy people. This
means it may be possible to diagnose
the disease in its early stages with a
spinal tap. Such early diagnosis will
probably be essential if medicine is
to be successful in stopping the dis
ease before it destroys the brain.
Finding such a test has been a top
goal of government-sponsored re
search, Monjan said.
“If we are able to come up with a
treatment,” he said in an interview,
“the earlier we can intervene in the
development of the disease, the
greater the likelihood that we can
make an impact on the outcome of
the disease.”
No such cure exists for Alzheim
er’s disease, and none is imminent.
But a new study suggests a possible
way to at least relieve some of the
worst symptoms. Dr. William K.
Summers of the University of Cali
fornia, Los Angeles, last week pub
lished his experiments with a long-
forgotten drug that seems to
sharpen victims’ memories.
While taking this drug, patients
were able to help care for them
selves, recognize relatives, and in less
severe cases, even play golf or work
part-time.
Summers is the only researcher to
achieve success so far with this ex
perimental drug, called tetrahydroa-
minoacrine, or THA. Monjan said
the medicine will have to be sub
jected to more studies before experts
can be certain it is truly effective.
Another thread of evidence re
vealed last week was the isolation of
the gene responsible for a protein
that may play a key role in Alzheim
er’s. This gene, found by Dr. Dmitry
V. Goldhaber and colleagues from
the National Institutes of Health,
makes a protein that clogs the brains
of people with the disease.
Learn about Overseas
Opportunities.
Come to TAMU
Overseas
Day!
November 18
10 - 2
First floor MSC
MSC • TOWN • HALL
Presents
THE RETURN OF
THE JUDY’S
MOO
8:00-11:00 Nov. 21 at Deware Fieldhouse
Tickets $4. 00 at MSC BOX OFFICE