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Aggieufe: Aerobic hustle • Page 3 Opinion: A poorly behaved guest • Page 7 rr<T T T"' Tfc A rr^rf-i a y tt THE BATTALIO Volume 109 • Issue 38 • 8 pages www.thebatt.com Titesday, October 22, 2002 Group to protest Chinese president’s visit k *11 „ Thursday, Oct. 17, Presidential Conference Center ^ 3 a.m. - lO a.m. * Falun Gong will meditate and protest 11:15 a.m. Chinese President. Jiany Zemin will speak MANOY ROUQUETTE • THE BATTALION By Sarah Walch THE BATTALION Members of Falun Gong were on campus Monday handing out pamphlets to share their objections to the Chinese president's visit to the George Bush Presidential Library this week. Falun Gong is a group of practi tioners of healthy living and medi tation who are typically dissenters of the Chinese government. Members based in Houston will protest with a meditation outside the site of People’s Republic of Chinese President Jiang Zemin’s speech Thursday morning. The group has been barred from practic ing in China since 1999. Liang Lihua, a graduate interna tional affairs major and an exchange student from Beijing, said she feels Falun Gong is a cult whose members set themselves on fire. Liang worked at a state-run television station in Beijing before coming to the United States. ‘The government has banned them for a reason,’’ she said. Falun Gong activist Lilian Tee Chan of Houston said the Chinese government fabricates stories about what Falun Gong is and what it does. “The police don’t treat people right. People have the right to speak. They just shut you up,” Chan said. Chan pointed to several pictures in the magazine, A Witness to History which capture instances of violence against protesters and false representations of the group that the Chinese government propagates. “We just want to get the truth out there, for people to realize what’s going on,” Chan said. Pamphlets and magazines Falun Gong members handed out include graphic pictures of the results of imprisonment and torture of mem bers by the Chinese government. Robert Nappi, a Falun Gong member from Washington, D.C., participated in a protest in Tiananmen Square recently and was confined in a room with 20 other protesters while being closely See Protest on page 2 [Police question two men in sniper case RICHMOND. Va. (AP) ’olice trying to establish contact niththe Washington-area sniper aid Monday that a phone call liad come in but was too mud- led for authorities to under hand. They pleaded with the lerson to call back. “The person you called could mi hear everything you said. Die audio was unclear and we rant to get it right. Call us back io that we can clearly under stand." Montgomery County. 'Id.. Police Chief Charles tee said. Moose said he could not dis miss the message further. Moose made no mention of a levelopment in Richmond earli- Monday in which police two men for questioning the attacks. Hanover County Sheriff tart Cqok said the nien were |fa into custody about 8:35 i. at or near an Exxon station [in suburban Richmond. “The two people we have in atstody are being questioned as sgards the sniper shootings,” Cook said. “When we have fur- F r information that we can give to the public ... that we’ve concluded this case we’ll do so, pt that’s not the case at hand.” He refused to describe the fe'en as suspects in the string of ■seized shootings that have left nine people dead and three wounded. During an earlier news con ference. Moose focused on establishing a dialogue with the unidentified person who left a message and phone number Saturday night near a Virginia steakhouse where the latest vic tim was shot. On Sunday, he had publicly pleaded with the note writer to call authorities. On Monday, he said: “The message that needs to be delivered is that we are going to respond to a message that we have received. We are preparing our response at this time.” Moose did not specify whether the message was a new communication or the same one they discovered at the steakhouse. He refused to answer questions. The nature of the message that investigators say was left at the Ashland shooting scene was not disclosed. The flurry of activity raised hope there had been a break in the search for the sniper who has roaming Virginia, Maryland and Washington since Oct. 2. Schools in Richmond and nearby counties were shut down Monday because of fears raised by the sniper’s south ward march. Down for the count Senior manufacturing engineering technology major Justin Beutley (left) and sophomore mechanical engineering major Samuel Robles (right) go through a starting exercise JOHN C. LIVAS • THE BATTALION Monday night at G. Rollie White. Both Beutley and Robles are members of the A&M wrestling team, whose season will start in mid-November. A&M considers branch campus in Arab state of Qatar Jowibie location tor A&M wmch campus In tho Middle East Turkey -xzr Y Syna Iraq Iran ’Jordan Saudi Arabia Qatar TRAVIS SWENSON • THE BATTALION By Rob Phillips THE BATTALION Texas A&M is taking under advisement the creation of a branch campus in the Arab state of Qatar that would provide research, intern ship and degree programs for engi neering students. The program would give A&M students increased opportunities for study abroad programs and intern ships in the oil and gas industry, said Dr. Ronald Douglas, counselor to A&M President Dr. Robert M. Gates and former provost. Research programs pertaining mostly to oil and gas also would be offered to graduate and undergradu ate students on both campuses, Douglas said. Qatar is among the world’s lead ers in producers of natural gas. The Qatar Foundation, an institution sup ported by the nation’s royal family, is seeking to establish a university con sisting of branch colleges of American universities. A&M has been targeted by the foundation because of its strong engineering program, Douglas said. The branch program would cost mil lions of dollars a year and would be funded entirely by the Qatar Foundation, Douglas said. Dr. David Prior, A&M’s interim provost and executive vice president, said there are no commitments to the program. A&M officials are continu ing to explore what the University’s responsibilities and benefits would be before a contract is signed. Douglas and several A&M offi cials visited Qatar University last June. The group met with Qatar branch colleges of Cornell University and Virginia Commonwealth. “I was very much impressed by the vision shown by Qatar to create this world-class university and to be the educational center of the Middle East,” Douglas said. Once a contract is signed, a bridge program would be established to make certain the high school back ground and English-speaking capacity of Qatar students is satisfactory. A regular freshman class would begin in September 2004, Douglas said. Qatar students would spend the summers of their sophomore and junior years at A&M, Douglas said. Prior pointed out that globaliza tion and diversity is one of the imperatives of A&M’s Vision 2020, a plan to push A&M into the top 10 public universities by 2020. “This (program) will certainly extend our outreach and relationships with another country,” Prior said. Aerospace research project kicks off b Y Brad Bennett THE battalion , tne kid pitiite for f ano Materi; , 0r Aerospat tevn as Tii] r Ba,le y Hutc £; ch coti will k J 0re enviror S raft an d ndustr ial ap p I am very aae more \ longer,” she AM4 tchison - ^ Presid, S S ’ facul J? Ver Sity 0 Ramies T^nistratic a tlle kick PPmximatel' “The work of this institute will slice deep into the unknown,” Gates said. Tii MS is a cooperative research project including A&M, Rice University, University of Houston, Prairie View A&M University, Texas Southern University and NASA. “(TiiMs) is about developing technology solutions to address real vehicle systems in use,” said Dr. Darrel V. Tenney, director of Aerospace Vehicle Systems Technology Office for the NASA Langley Research Center. TiiMS research will focus on blending microscopic NANO systems, bio materials and multifunctional intelligent systems, such as aircraft bodies that change shape and sense problems. Dr. Michael M. Reischman, special assistant for the Office of See TiiMS on page 2 BRIAN RUFF • THE BATTALION Dr. Darrel V. Tenney, director of the NASA Langley Research Center Aerospace Vehicle Systems Technology Office, speaks to other profes sionals and guests at the George Bush Presidential Library Monday. TWRI to fund A&M research, programs By Eric Ambrose THE BATTALION The Texas Water Resources Institute (TWRI) at Texas A&M announced that it will fund 10 research projects and 13 exten sion programs dealing with soil and water conservation. “The Texas Legislature gives Texas A&M around $250,000 in order to fund these kinds of projects,” said Ric Jenson, com munications manager for the Texas Water Resources Institute (TWRI). “Our institution works with individual researchers to support their studies.” TWRI has been located at A&M in the College of Agriculture since 1964. Each year the institute gives grants to A&M faculty members who want to research soil and water conservation. • TWRI announced the projects that will be funded from September 2002 to October 2003 and almost every one of these projects that will be given grants this year are new, Jenson said. The grants last for one year. One study this year involves developing new kinds of cotton and soil that will use less water. If successful, the results could See Grants on page 2