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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (May 1, 1989)
The Battalion WORLD & NATION 5 .Monday, May 1,1989 We ked u've and the )ints rint- mon ty of it'si tech m are oge- 5- it d ic le d >g Weekend abortion demonstrations lead to numerous national arrests ASSOCIATED PRESS Hundreds of hymn-singing anti-abortion protes ters were arrested Saturday as they and slogan- chanting counterdemonstrators vied for atten tion at entrances to clinics around the country. Police reported arrests in Colorado, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey and Ohio, and other large protests were reported in other states including California. Bob Nolte, a spokesman in New York for Op eration Rescue, tne group coordinating the anti abortion protests, said actions were planned in 65 to 70 cities, from Anchorage, Alaska, to Gulf port, Miss. In the group’s widest previous pro tests on Oct. 29, he said, 2,600 people were ar rested for blocking entrances of clinics in 32 cities. By midday Saturday, precise figures on the number of arrests nationwide were not tallied, but they numbered at least 300 in the cities where police gave preliminary figures. On Friday, Nolte said, 334 anti-abortion dem onstrators had been arrested in six states, and the protesters succeeded in closing at least three clin ics for the day, one in Charlottesville, Va., and two in Lansing, Mich. In suburban Detroit, Molly Yard, president of the National Organization for Women, appeared Saturday at an abortion clinic to denounce activ ists who were blocking doors. Operation Rescue protesters said they hope to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 decision legalizing abor tion. The court heard arguments last week on a Missouri case the Bush administration has said should be used to overturn the landmark deci sion, but the justices have not yet ruled. Outside a clinic in the Boston suburb of Brookline, one of hundreds of pro-choice advo cates who outnumbered Operation Rescue mem bers attributed her side’s good turnout to public ity given to the Supreme Court hearing. Fraud predicted in Panamanian elections; suspicions heighten as elections draw near WASHINGTON (AP) — Political seers from President Bush on down are predicting widespread fraud in the upcoming presidential elections in Panama. At the same time, a bipartisan consensus, often rare in foreign pol icy issues, emerged saying the de facto ruler, Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega, had to go. Relations between the United States and Panama have been on the skids since February 1988, when No riega was indicted by a federal grand jury in Miami on drug trafficking charges. Then-President Eric Ar turo Delvalle a few weeks later at tempted to force Noriega out, only to be ousted himself by the general. The United States recognizes Del valle, who lives in Miami, as Pana ma’s legitimate president, which has led to a political vacuum that has caused a nost of problems, ranging from snags in Panama Canal treaty negotiations to incidents against American citizens. Neither traditional diplomacy, nor the cutoff of economic and mili tary aid nor economic sanctions have achieved the stated goal: Noriega’s ouster. The elections, scheduled for Sun day, pit Noriega’s candidate, Carlos Alberto Duque, against Guillermo David Endara, running on an anti government coalition ticket. In the United States, Democrats and Republicans alike claim the gen eral will stack the ballots in favor of Noriega. The Panamanians charge the United States with interfering in their internal politics. “In recent weeks, the Noriega re gime has taken steps to commit sys tematic fraud,” President Bush said last week. “The people and the gov ernment of the United States will not recognize fraudulent election results engineered by Noriega.” The Panamanians claim the United States is pouring millions of dollars into the opposition cam paigns. The National Endowment for Democracy, a non-profit, feder ally funded Washington group, pro vided $99,000 this year to an anti- Noriega coalition, Adelina Reyes- Gavilan, senior program director for Latin America, said. The Bush administration, citing security, has refused to comment on reports published in April saying the president signed a secret directive to grant the opposition group $10 mil lion. The State Department recently is sued a two-page statement outlining “the activities the Noriega regime is undertaking to control the results of . . . elections.” The paper cited false voter lists, vote buying, fabricated polls, visas aimed at barring foreign observers, coercion, intimidation and detentions. io Exxon, Alaska butt heads over oil spill cleanup VALDEZ, Alaska (AP) — The chairman of Exxon and Alaska’s governor stepped up their feud over the cleanup of oil from the Exxon Valdez, and a mountain climber i! scaled the company’s Anchorage of- ! fice to protest the spill: Meanwhile, high ^eas and stiff winds sidelined thousands of cleanup workers tackling the na tion’s largest oil spill on Friday, but officials said nature was helping the effort by washing oil off beaches and back into Prince William Sound. Gov. Steve Cowper accused Ex xon Chairman Lawrence Rawl of misleading the public and shirking the blame for responding slowly to the March 24 spill, which poured more than 10 million gallons of Alas kan crude into the sound. Rawl has blamed the state and the Coast Guard for delaying the use of dispersants to control the oil slick. “If an untrue statement continues to be repeated time after time after time after time, and you don’t make an effort to refute that statement, then people will believe it like it was Cowper said in a letter to ,wl on Friday. Public submits ideas for cleanup of oil spill ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — One man wanted to sprinkle pow dered cheese on the nation’s worst oil spill in hopes it would make the oil congeal and easier to pick up. Another would have dropped feathers on the slick, either mak ing the sludge easier to pick up or tarring and feathering Alaska’s coast. Ideas on how to clean up the 10.1 million gallons of oil spilled in Prince William Sound began pouring in before the Exxon Val dez tanker wreck was 24 hours old. A Japanese company sent a box of equipment. The problem was the directions also were in Japanese. It is a big challenge figuring out who is trying to unload a warehouse of some product and who has an answer to Alaska’s problems, said Jeff Mach, coordi nator for the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. Exxon, too, has been deluged with inventions. “They range from the sublime to the ridiculous,” said Exxon spokesman Dennis Stanczuk. “The one thing about all of them, though, is it’s people trying to help.” Rawl shot back with his own letter, which was shared with the Asso ciated Press, accusing Cowper of spreading a fantasy. “Unfortunately for all concerned, vour letter of April 28 does not set the record straight,” Rawl wrote. “In fact, it perpetuates a good many wrong assertions.” Cowper said the Coast Guard ap proved tests of dispersants to control the spill the day it occurred. The state asked for restrictions only after Exxon sprayed the dispersant care lessly, hitting Coast Guard and oil company workers, he said. Rawl said that barring state re strictions, there was enough dispers ant on hand and en route to the scene to control the entire spill. He said the chemical was safe for the en vironment and marine wildlife. Because of the slow start, quick sea currents carried the oil down Alas ka’s southern coast, where it has claimed the lives of thousands of sea birds and hundreds of otters. On Friday, thousands of workers were sidelined in the sound and the Gulf of Alaska for a third straight day because of foul weather. Low clouds over the gulf kept sheen-spotting planes and the oil skimmers they serve at bay, said Coast Guard spokesman Kathleen Donohoe. In Anchorage, Michael A. Turney climbed out onto the roof of Exxon’s office and rappelled halfway down the eight-story building before at taching a sign that read: “Oil Spilled, Exxon Kills, Remember The Sound.” Students chase South African consul off campus ints s to iar- Or- jes ust PHILADELPHIA (AP) — More than 300 chanting students at Temple University forced a representative of the South African government to flee the campus shortly after he was trapped in an elevator facing an angry crowd. As campus and city police led John A. Davies, the South African consul in New York, off the school’s campus Friday, protesters formed a gantlet and yelled, “Don’t come back!” and “Rac ist!” Students drummed their fists on the city police I car that took Davies away, breaking windows on I the vehicle but causing no injuries, detectives l said. Davies was on campus to give a speech, but the demonstration forced him to cancel his appear ance. Davies, escorted by guards, had walked into the elevator before the talk, but was stalled there with the elevator’s doors open for more than 20 minutes in front of hundreds of angry demon strators. Security guards and police stood be- | tween Davies and the protesters. Davies appeared upset by the experience, said Kostas Markou, a Temple senior and native of Greece who was also in the elevator. “He was shaking,” Markou said. “I said to him, ‘You must know, I am Greek and the whole world does not like your government.’” “Why should we allow him to speak when our brothers and sisters are not allowed to walk into another town (in South Africa)?” — Taneshia Nash, a black protester Police and school officials said it was not clear whether the elevator was not working or whether protesters had sabotaged it. Students said they were pleased that Davies’ talk was canceled. “Why should we allow him to speak when our brothers and sisters are not allowed to walk into another town (in South Africa)?” said Taneshia Nash, a black protester. Davies said later he had planned to discuss the need for stability in South Africa so reform ef forts could work. He said blacks would lose their jobs and progress would be slowed if economic sanctions were put into effect. University administrators said they were sur prised at the protest, occurring on the final day of spring semester classes. PL Patrick Swygert, vice president for adminis tration, denounced the protest of Davies’ talk, which was arranged by the chairman of the uni versity’s department of political science. “It is the right of the professor to invite anyone who he thinks is representative of a point of view,” Swygert said. “It would be a terrible prece dent for this or any other university to censor that access.” >80 Researcher claims information in AIDS report inaccurate ATLANTA (AP) — One federal health report seemed to suggest many AIDS patients survive for up to eight years after their diagnosis, but a researcher says most presumed survivors have actually died and their deaths have not been reported. A monthly report from the Cen ters for Disease Control listed 14 adults and two children who were di agnosed with AIDS more than eight years ago and still are not listed among the dead. If those statistics are an accurate portrayal of AIDS in America, as many as 20 percent of the known pa tients from the disease’s earliest known days — when the number of patients was a fraction of what it is today — are still alive, giving rise to a hope that AIDS is survivable in a number of cases. But GDC scientists and other AIDS experts acknowledge that most of those early “survivors,” along with many others from more recent years, probably have died, their deaths unreported to the fed eral government. But at least some people are living for five years or more and have been confirmed to have the disease. “People who are not listed as dead are not necessarily alive,” Dr. Ann Hardy, who spearheaded a GDC study into the report, said. “Are they really alive? Did they really have AIDS?” Hardy asked. Hardy, who has since transferred to the National Center for Health Statistics, said her study managed to track down at least some informa tion on 780 people who, by statistical count, seemed to have survived AIDS since being diagnosed in 1983 or before. In fact, the GDC study confirmed that 475, or 61 percent, of those 780 presumed survivors had indeed died, but local health officials had not reported their deaths to the fed eral government. An additional 186, or 24 percent, “are lost to follow-up,” she said. “What we would probably guess is that a good proportion are dead, but they went out of the country, or to another state, and the local health departments lost track of them.” The remaining 119 pre-1984 AIDS patients were still alive at the time of the study, which was con ducted in 1987-88. Researchers tried to have those patients tested to con firm that they actually had AIDS; since AIDS tests did not come into use until the mid-1980s, many early AIDS diagnoses, based on symptoms alone, may be wrong, they reasoned. Out of 47 people diagnosed with AIDS before 1984 who agreed to blood tests, six showed no sign of AIDS infection. The remaining 41 were confirmed as living patients of acquired immune deficiency syn drome. The GDC study found nine peo ple diagnosed with AIDS in 1981 or earlier who were still alive — but none would agree to blood tests to confirm that they actually had AIDS, Hardy said. Scientists have reported in recent years that the survival time for some AIDS patients is lengthening. Diag noses nave improved and doctors now can use drugs to treat some of the deadly diseases let in by the weakened immune systems of AIDS patients, such as a rare form of pneumonia and even tuberculosis. 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