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ARE YOU SICK OF BEING
FAT??
*We bring the
gym to you!
CALL NOW!!!
979-680-0239
August Graduates
The Official
Texas A&M
Graduation Announcements
Order via the web!
http ://graduation.tamu.edu
All orders and payments must be received by
June 16!
MSC Box Office
M-F 9:00am-4:30pm
979-845-1234
1-888-890-5667
$7.00 per hour!
Part-Time Opportunities
College Station
Want to learn how to build a successful career?
UCS knows success! A worldwide corporation in business since
1970, we have over 600 employees in our College Station office
and over 800 in our Houston headquarters, many of whom are
AGGIES! Come see what we have to offer!
• PC/Tech Support
• Clerical
• Customer Service
• Hardware Repair
• Assembly
We offer flexible hours between 6am-10pm, and real world work
experience. All majors are considered and training is provided.
EOE. To apply, please call our Personnel headquarters or visit our
website.
UCS, Inc.
409-595-2609
www.universalcomputersys.com
UCS hires non-smokers only
We’ve Moved!!!
CarePlus Medical
has relocated to temporary facilities in the
Lacks Shopping Center behind Quizno's.
Summer hours:
CarePlus Medical:
8:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Mon. - Sat.
1:00 - 7:00 p.m. Sunday
We apologize for any inconveniences!
CarePlus
696-0683
10% A&M / Blinn Student Discount
(self-pay only)
$7.00 per hour!
Part-Time Opportunities
College Station
Want to learn how to build a successful career?
Monday, June 12,2000
UCS knows success! A worldwide corporation in business since
1970, we have over 600 employees in our College Station office
and over 800 in our Houston headquarters, many of whom are
AGGIES! Come see what we have to offer!
• PC/Tech Support
• Clerical
• Customer Service
• Hardware Repair
• Assembly
We offer flexible hours between 6am-10pm, and real world work
experience. All majors are considered and training is provided.
EOE. To apply, please call our Personnel headquarters or visit our
website.
UCS, Inc.
409-595-2609
www.universalcomputersys.com
UCS hires non-smokers only
NEWS
THE BATTALION
Ripe for the picking
Gas prices up nine
cents in three week
• Punk
Local (
find su
when sti
new
Linda Roesler, 14, of Cook's Point arranges home grown veg
etables at a farmer's market in Bryan on Saturday. Roesler and
her family along with many local farmers sell their produce at
these markets each week.
CAMARILLO, Calif. (AP) —
Gasoline prices climbed 8.82 cents a
gallon in the past three weeks as a
new kind of reformulated gas made
its way to the pumps, giving some
cities an average price of more than $2
a gallon.
High crude oil prices, rising de
mand and new antismog regulations
affecting 17 metropolitan areas
pushed the nationwide average cost
to $1.6723 a gallon Friday, analyst Tril
by Lundberg said Sunday.
That compares to the May 19
Lundberg Survey of 10,000 stations
nationwide that found a national av
erage of $1.5841.
''We are in a nightmare of patch
work-quilt environmental regula
tions which wreak havoc with gaso
line supply and price stability/'
Lundberg said. 'The wide variety of
regulations affecting formulas has
created wide price disparities around
the country and made distribution of
gasoline more problematic.''
Metropolitan areas with some of
the worst air pollution in the nation
were required by June 1 to start using
a new kind of gas that is designed to
preserve air quality.
Dealers in the Midwest, where
many cities use a kind of reformulat
ed gas that is blended with the corn
derivative ethanol, are paying 26
cents more at wholesale, Lundberg
said. Consequently, some ret
have sacrificed profit margintij
main competitive.
In Chicago, one of the 17metn|
eas affected by the new regulak;
the average price for a gallon
serve regular was $2.13, Lum
said. That price marks the first
on record that a city's overall a\
price for gas has topped $2,slii
By contrast, Phoenix cameiii
the lowest average price withagj
of self-serve regular costing$1.1
Lundberg predicted gas
Tording to tin
U i by the Exec
liscussed Mor
liate calls upo
I earliest time
prices might drop slightly inc« I
weeks, especially if the Organic
of Petroleum Exporting Com
(OPEC) decides to increasepnA
tion this month. But the price\ri!|
come near last year's weighteda
age on June 11 of $1.19.
Although the latest pricesag
to be the highest on record, tfe
actually lower than gas prices
their peak in 1981, Lundberg| ofbonfft . e tod
The March 1981 national
price, adjusted
$2.66, she said. |force should s
The national average p|event."
gasdline, including taxes, atsi The suggested
pumps on Friday was $1.63 merstudents, p.
Ion for regular, $1.72 for mi. .land communi
and $1.81 for premium. 1 specifically ac
At fql 1-service pumps, the a.8 '
was $1.93 for regular, $2.02 ferB
grade and $2.09 for premium ^
d to fully and c
tor inflatk emission. If sue
N.C. Barbers giving away free condoms at shoji
MIT
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Atop a candy vend
ing machine in Tom Jacobs' barber sliop sits a glass
jar witln freebies for customers. But it's not filled with
free combs or candy.
Jacobs is giving away condoms.
Customers at LaPorsha's Hair Studio are invited
to take as many as they need — part of a program
adopted l*y hairstylists in five North Carolina coun
ties to combat AIDS and sexually transmitted dis
eases among blacks.
'The barber shop is the kind of place where the
guys come in and talk about what's really hap
pening in their lives," said Jimmy Wiggins, a La
Porsha's customer.
"It's not like church where you hold back a bit.
We really let it all hang out here."
Jacobs said that is why he joined the program.
"There's some people who won't listen. They just
want to come in and talk about how many 15-year-
olds they knocked up," he said. "I want them to
know, 'If you're doing it, be careful.'"
The nearly 10-year-old Positive Connections pro
gram, which operates only in North Carolina, aims
to train 100 barbers and beauticians in the Charlotte
area over the next year. If all goes as planned, they
would counsel 300 men and women each week and
distribute 1,000 condoms and pamphlets a week.
ittei
44
7 just don't want
someone coming to me
in 10 years saying, 'Why
didn't you tell me
about this?' ”
Tom Jacob's
barber
year, and 133 were black. Of the county'sl
cases — the precursor of AIDS — 1,549 imj
blacks. Jacobs and about two dozen blackbaii
and hair stylists attended recent trainingsessio:
counseling customers about prevention andsafi^
giving away free condoms and making refers
As customers began arriving one mominfj'
week, Jacobs put down his scissors and com
walked over to his TV and hit the play buttoncT
video cassette recorder. _
As the narrator recited the grim statistic;Ip T" mou h
Ad their sumr
in book than
ji Carter, Texc
ifigures shov\
pte students I
Statistics from the U.S. Center for Disease Con
trol and Prevention (CDC) show blacks, who make
up 12 percent of the U.S. population, represent 37
percent of the AIDS cases; the CDC estimates one in
50 black men and one in 160 black women are in
fected with HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS.
In Mecklenburg County, there were 157 cases last
banter in the shop fell to a whisper.
Besides offering free condoms, Jacobs even j
plays a 13-minute video on the HlV/AIDSepicj
ic featuring President Clinton and U.S. Surgeon I
eral David Satcher.
lie preli minor
3,051 students.
has been a sli
ersaid. "There
Immer. We ai
■ in the load for
coming to me in 10 years saying, Whydidm B . ^
Srgraduate jun
of the total nu;
Jacobs, 49, said before he joined the prograij
wondered whether all the safe sex talkwoukk
away customers.
"If I've lost some business, no one said anu'J
to me about it," he said. "I just don't want son!
tell me about this?'
Assad nominated for president of Syria
Iter said jun
■because it is
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Bashar
Assad, son of the late Syrian leader,
was appointed commander of the
armed forces Sunday, another indica
tion he will succeed his father as pres
ident in a country where most people
have known no other ruler.
President Hafez Assad, who died
Saturday, was the previous comman
der. The ruling Baath Party also unan
imously nominated Bashar Assad as
the only candidate for president.
In anointing Bashar Assad, the hier
archy is opting for a smooth, stable
transition — instead of the uncertainty
and violence that characterized power
changes in Syria before Hafez Assad
took over in a bloodless coup in 1970.
Hafez* Assad's strong-willed,
strong-arm stewardship ended a se
ries of coups that followed indepen
dence from France in 1946.
It remains to be seen whether
Bashar Assad, who has held no major
political office, will be tough and can
ny enough to hold onto the power he
is inheriting.
But the British-educated eye doc^r
was a favorite with ordinary Syrians,
many of whom seemed incapable of
imagining their country without an
Assad at the helm.
Abdel-Halim Khaddam, one of
two vice presidents, declared as law
Sunday a constitutional change that
parliament made Saturday, lowering
the minimum age for president from
40 to 34. Bashar is 34.
It had long been clear Hafez Assad
was grooming his son to rule after him.
The political apparatus the auto
cratic Assad, 69, left behind began
preparing to carry out those wishes
soon after he died.
All that is left is for the rubber-
stamp parliament, which is scheduled
to meet June 25, to approve the nom
ination and for elections to be held.
Hafez Assad routinely ran as the only
candidate in presidential elections,
and just as routinely recorded "yes"
votes of close to 100 percent.
"We have full confidence in Bashar
Like father, like son
Bashar Assad is likely to become the next president of Syria after his
late father Hafez. This could be the first "republican dynasty" created
in the Middle East by fathers grooming their sons to ensure that political
power stays in the family. Here is a look at some Arab leaders who
have helped their sons to positions of political power.
Ahmed All
Abdullah
Saleh.
Yemeni
•President
Son:
Ahmed
► Ahmed is an army colonel,
and has been a member of
parliament since 1997.
Saddam
Hussein.
Iraqi President
Sons:
Odai and
Qusai
Gamal
► Gamal was recently named a
member of the general
secretariat of the ruling National
Democratic Party.
Moammar
► Odai was appointed head of
Olympic Committee, Journalist
Syndicate, and Writers' and
Artists’ Union. Qusai is in
charge of the Republican
Gadhafi,
Libyan
Seif al-lslam
and Al-Saadi
3 have assumed
larger public roles, standing
in for their father at public
occasions.
j: Compiled If'
because he's the only one who can
carry his father's torch, and the Syri
an people don't want anyone else,"
said Kawkab Fares, a 24-year-old civ
il servant who joined crowds Sunday
at the Damascus hospital where As
sad's body was believed being kept
until his funeral Tuesday.
"Bashar, we are with you!" the
crowd chanted.
Arab analysts are closely watching
Syria, hoping for stability in the wake
of Assad's death.
In Sunday's Kuwaiti daily Al-Watan,
columnist Fouad al-Hashem wrote,
"The struggle for power between the
old guard and the new will not be a pic
nic or a walk in the park. The price will
be dear, very dear. May God protect
Syria and its people from all evil."
The Jordan Times, an Amman-based
English-language newspaper, said
that whoever assumes the Syrian pres
idency also will have domestic con
cerns.
"Hafez Assad's successor will in
herit a country with the diseases that
are almost typical in this region: Cor
ruption, a struggling economy in
need of modernization and liberal
ization, and the challenges of de
mocratization lying ahead," it said.
The "Lion of Damascus" — Assad
means lion in Arabic — was one of
the region's longest-serving leaders
and seen as key to a comprehensive
Israeli-Arab peace settlement.
He tried to rally his fellow Arabs to
counter what he saw as Israeli influence
in the Middle East, only to see them one
by one enter peace negotiations or sign
treaties with the Jewish state.
Assad's death could slow already
stalled Israeli-Syrian peace talks.
Though Assad resumed talks with
the Israelis last year after a hiatus of
nearly four years, the talks were sus
pended in January when Syria insist
ed Israel commit to returning to pre
war 1967 borders.
Assad's funeral ceremonies will
stretch from the capital, Damascus,
to his home village of Qardaha, 125
miles northwest.
Strong earthqu!f‘ ld ™ , ’ ar ‘-; 1
'olcan make th
hits central Tai > 4ved in all
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP)-Al
earthquake shook central Tai»f
Sunday, causing rock slides
juring more than 20 people,!
and seismologists said. No
were reported.
The quake, with a preliminaf
nitude of 6.7, was centered af|
TERM
miles north of Mount Yu, Taiwan]
est mountain, about 180 miles $
the capital, Taipei, the Central"
Bureau said.
The U.S. Geological Survey
en, Colo., which uses a differt 1
than the Central Weather Burtf
sured the quake at 6.2.
Taiwan's Disaster Rescue
said more than 20 people wetf 1
in the early morning quake,
hit by falling rocks ominous 1
Total
Total
Unde
Junto
:vie
Cyra G
The Bn
highways or falling objectsat Departrne
State radio reported thatai J &M Unive
injured when it was thrownc ^ to work ,
cradle by the quake. istitutional R<
The quake was followedbv )rc j mac j e U p
tershocks with magnitudesbe' ! | acu [ t y^ S )- a ff
and 5, the Central Weather But- ws research 1
All the quakes, including uman test su
were considered aftershocks ie review boc
magnitude earthquake that^t 220, Metho
ed the region in September-tfch and Sc
2,400 people and destroy! 1 'ed Methods 1
sands ot homes. h, as well as £
Seismologists at the bure. with researcl
is not unusual for aftershock-sebrch invob
major earthquake to contir y Used to stu
he! research i
I or behavion
year or more.