The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, September 20, 2000, Image 14

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    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
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'•A. ■ ■ ■ .
evolution
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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,
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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®