Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 20, 2000)
t Page 6B WORLD Wednesday, Septembers | THE BATTALION Search continues for eight, Cuban plane forced to land Hijacked aircraft goes down near Key West waters MIAMI (AP) — A sea plane tak ing off from Cuba was hijacked Tuesday morning and went down in rough international waters off Key West with up to 18 people aboard, au thorities said. One person was killed and nine were rescued, the Coast Guard said. It was not clear whether the plane, which is able to land on water, had crashed or had landed after running out of fuel. A Coast Guard jet carrying rafts, a Coast Guard cutter and two Florida Air National Guard fighter jets reached the area Tuesday afternoon but reported no immediate sightings. A U.S. AWACS plane picked up an emergency beacon in the area. White House press secretary Joe Lockhart told reporters. Later, the Pentagon said nine peo ple were pulled from the wreckage and one body was recovered. The nine were picked up by a passing car go ship, the Chios Dream, and were The water's very warm, and that really extends your ability to stay alive." — Jim McPherson Coast Guard Commander to be tlown by helicopter to Key West for medical treatment. Coast Guard Petty Officer Danielle De- Marino said from Miami. Their con Antonov AN-2 Colt A single-engine, propeller-driven biplane taking off from Cuba was hijacked Tuesday and went down off Key West, Fla. Wing span: 59 feet 8 1/2 inches Length: 42 feet 6 inches Height: 13 feet 9 1/4 inches Weight: 12,125 pounds (maximum takeoff weight) Max. cruising speed: 157 mph Range: 562 miles (with maximum fuel) Origin: Russia Source: Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft ditions were not immediately avail able. A search for others possibly on board the plane continued. The Russian-made Antonov AN- 2 Colt took off from Herradura Air port in Pinar del Rio, Cuba, and went down about 90 miles southwest of Key West and 75 miles northwest of Havana, U.S. officials said. “Apparently it was hijacked, and the pilot indicated they only had l l/2 hours fuel," said Lauren Gail Stover, associate director of Miami-Dade County Aviation Department. The Federal Aviation Adminis tration received unconfirmed re ports of 14, 16 or 18 people on the plane. Coast Guard Lt. Prince Neal said there was a report of two chil dren aboard. Seas in the area were 4 to 6 feet, rough conditions for small boats or small float planes, the Coast Guard said. However, the water temperature was warm. “The water’s very warm, and that really extends your ability to stay alive. That’s why we’re extending so many assets,” Coast Guard Cmdr. Jim McPherson said. The long-range single-engine bush plane is equipped with pon toons for taking off and landing on water. It is used for passenger flights, crop-dusting and forest fire suppression. Air traffic control in Havana no tified the air traffic control center in Miami at 8:45 a.m. that an aircraft was being hijacked and Hying northwest out of Cuba, said Kathleen Bergen, an FAA spokeswoman in Atlanta. The FAA had no voice or radar contact with the aircraft, Bergen said. Learning the ropes re; ofh stror STUART VILLANUEVA Titt Birry Senior agricultural development major jody Burrows climbs a rope ladder while junior manac- ment information systems major P.D. Fulham and senior management information systems?’: jor Chris Rider stand ready to catch her during their Venture Dynamics class Tuesday. Vatican against use of condoms VATICAN CITY (AP) — A Vatican official said Tuesday that two' Amer ican Jesuits have distorted church positions by suggesting that the Vatican has become “more toler ant” about the distribution of con doms to fight AIDS. Monsignor Jacques Suaudeau said the Vatican stance hasn’t changed, although the church must not be seen as indifferent to AIDS sufferers and the battle to stop the disease’s spread. Some in the church have been seeking a softening in the position of the Vatican, which has been ac cused by some governments of hin dering the AIDS battle. Join the I TT '•A. ■ ■ ■ . evolution National Instruments Day Texas A&M University Wednesday, September 20, 2000 Zachry Engineering Building Technology Open House 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Info Session 6:00 - 8:00 p.m. Join us for cool technologies, free food, and prizes! Engineering, computer science, math, physics, and marketing majors welcome! CT NATIONAL ^INSTRUMENTS ni.com/jobs (800) 433-3488 11500 N Mopac Expwy • Austin, TX 78759-3504 Tel: (512) 794-0100 • Fax: (512) 683-8775 • jobs@ni.com l (\(\ —IBEST COMPANIES TO WORK F0R| jlOvjt FORTUNE 2000 National Instruments is an EEOC employer. We offer an excellent compensation/benefits package. © Copyright 2000 National Instruments Corporation. All rights reserved. Product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies. News in Brief Writing in the Sept. 23 issue of America, a Jesuit magazine, the au thors pointed to an April article writ ten by Suaudeau in the Vatican newspaper. They said it contained important signals: That while some individual bishops have repudiated local HIV prevention programs that include the distribution of condoms, “the Roman curia is more tolerant on the matter." Oil prices high, yet economy good PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AP) — Surging oil prices and the sinking euro are rattling markets, but the In ternational Monetary Fund predicted Tuesday th e world econom f demonstral te better growth tl^ than it has in more than a decs Econom ies should also r.- at healthy r ates in 2001, lec: powerful 1 J S. expansion, f growth in Ei arope and a conte covery from the Asian finance: the IMF sai d in its latest Wore nomic Outl< 30 k The IMF predicted the globs!?: omv will ££ro’ w by 4.7 percent ttei a 0.5 perce ntage point increase' the last sue -b prediction in May. would mate :h growth last records: 1988. But oil [ irices ho verbal fete unseen sin ce the igSFPerswG 1 crisis could spoil the rosyttoK® officials act snowledged. Gene-based therapy discovered for obesi JERUSALEM (AP)—Australian scientists have identified a new gene responsible for controlling appetite in humans — a discovery experts said could lead to the first gene-based drug to treat obesity and diabetes. Greg Collins, a professor of mi crobiology at Deakin University in Melbourne, discovered the gene while researching diabetes in Is desert Tats. The gene, which he c; Beacon, cranks up the appetite the rat version is identical to the teli led ind hu man one. The find, presented Tuesday at a conference of the European Society for the Study of Diabetes, is the third gene linked to obesity, after leptin and NPy. Sir George Alberti, president elect of the International Diabetes Federation, said a ding based on Bea con could be available sooner than one targeting the other two genes be cause the rat and human genes are a 100 percent match. This means drug research could proceed more quick ly than normal because the results in rats would be more relevant to hu mans, he said. “It is a very exciting develop ment. It could be a very important step in the whole obesity, diabetes pathway,” he said. Collins and his team took sand rats from the Negev desert in Israel to a laboratory in Melbourne for dia betes research. On their cactus diet in the desert, the rats were lean and healthy. But placed in a Western en vironment, where rat chow was abundant, some ate a lot, got fat and developed diabetes; others ate rea sonable amounts and remained lean. This prompted the researchers to look for genetic differences. They re moved the rats’ brains, examined every gene to find whether any were more active in the fat rats and came up with the Beacon gene. Genes direct the formation, or ex pression, of proteins that a cell uses to function, repair or defend^itself, and to divide. In the obese rats, the Beacon gene was working in over drive, forming too much appetite- stimulating protein. Once they had deciphered the se quence, or unique code, of the rat gene, the scientists searched for a match on an Internet gene databank. I hey found an 81-percent: with the earthworm, said Dt Zimmet. professor of dials- Monash University in Cai/ Australia, who participated ini search. About 800 million yearst lution separate the earth wore the Israeli sand rat, saidZic adding that a gene which e served 81 percent over 8001® years of evolution must playi portant role. B's Jeanette The Battalio j The Texa Senate appro B'ednesday and com men tration and / Dr. Ray M. sions regardi Bi mfire. I “So muc criticism hi this admini Bobby Robl ol the aca cbmmittee a litical scienc a group that ginning to c difficulty ol decision, we ‘thank you.’ be commenc ity to lead a \ versity all thi ear open to t students.” The Texa; Resolution, Robbins and tors, discot initiatives f< pus bonfire accordance \ ficial positio I “Let there The student support an bpnfire,” Ro I There wa among stm about why should take discouragin' bjbnfires. i “We [in t are discoun campus bor Will Clark, s half of the *Tt could be very importer step in the whe obesity, dhM pathway.’’ — Sir George^ International Diabetes Fedf* Collins then searched thelifl of human gendtic informalil anything that matched the rsj sequence. He found the $ gene sequence in human DN Josh Rowar The Beacon geneproduceresoultion n tein that stimulates the appetitpostpone Bi does the same thing, wheretf switches off the appetite. In obese people, the body does® spond to leptin. Collins then produced thejf from the human Beacon gene Bv Richard i jected it into the brains oik The Battalion with normal behavior of the ;p oss jble a They gained about 5 percent« ! pfb r y an ’ s s0 own body weight in 7 days, j Mass acth When he injected protei^hemical G both the Beacon and NPy \tochem Co genes, the rats ate even more:® Residents looned by 10 percent in a we®[973 anc j jc Preliminary studies show Jrjyan betwe man gene is the same across^ 0 ih the suit regions and ethnicities, Collii'iarmful chen The next step, Collins sa%ivironment subject the protein to hand® According chemicals to see if any canW'uit Lillian I action. America etal The hope is that a drug coVorked or ov the problem if the gene is pi> n oldfarm-c out too much of the protein. Hitreet in Bryt posed drugs would then be te®0, 1995. Chi rats before being given to hu®