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A glance at the morning’s news and the dag ahead
Best Bet
► Head over to SGA’s Vice Presidential debate tonight at 8 in
South P-J Auditorium. Information: 542-3000.
L National & World Headlines
EU finance ministers approve mad cow plan
BRUSSELS, Belgium — European Union finance ministers on
Monday approved a $900 million budget for fighting mad cow dis
ease and warned they would not pitch in any more money if it
proved insufficient.
The spending plan, presented last month by the EU’s executive
body, shifts surplus funds from the 2000 budget to cover the cost
of destroying cattle and testing for mad cow disease.
German deputy finance minister Caio Koch-Weser noted that
the spending cap for the EU’s agriculture budget had thus been
reached — meaning any additional funds needed if the beef mar
ket does not recover would have to come from savings or realloca
tion from other programs.
IBM sued for crimes
against humanity
" ^ WASHINGTON — A lawsuit
alleges U.S. computer giant
IBM took part in “crimes
against humanity” by allowing
its machines to be used in
Nazi death camps.
The suit seeks to force IBM
to open its archives and pay
“any ill-gotten gains ... from
;its conduct during World War
II,” roughly estimated at $10
-million in 1940s money, said
/Michael Hausfeld, lead lawyer
’in the case.
(or The suit follows dozens
filed in recent years against
various entities to get com
pensation for survivors,
including those who lost bank
raccounts, were used as slave
labor, or had insurance poli
cies that were never honored.
Hausfeld told reporters the
i IBM suit is another step in
;the process, but that any
money awarded would go to
things like Holocaust educa
tion and not to plaintiffs.
“Over the course of time,
what we have attempted
to do was revisit and
reopen the Holocaust to
determine not only who
were the major perpetrators,
-but also who were the neces
sary accomplices,” Hausfeld
gaid.
mi “IBM U.S.A. implemented,
Sided, assisted or consciously
'^participated in the commis
sion of crimes against human-
nity and violations of human
;iights ... by providing technol-
H&gy, products and service it
knew would be used to facili
tate persecution and geno
cide,” the suit charges.
HI
22 years given to man
:: convicted for pimping
tt fe
!!3 ATLANTA — A man con-
! victed of selling a 12-year-old
;; girl for sex was sentenced
to 22 years in prison Monday.
!! Andrew Moore, 38,
was found guilty last week
in Superior Court of
pimping and statutory rape.
Prosecutors said he made the
girl available to another man
—for $60.
•m Moore’s conviction was
. 4>art of a crackdown on prosti
tution of young girls. The case
• ^was the first of about a dozen
"Xhe Fulton County district
..‘Attorney’s office is bringing
gainst men who peddle chil-
ren for sex — a misdemeanor
£-in Georgia.
;; Prosecutors instead have
•filed felony charges such
-■^as statutory rape, false
^Imprisonment and aggravated
Assault.
— Moore also could face life
in prison as one of 13 people
charged with federal racke
teering violations last month
in an alleged child prostitu
tion conspiracy in which girls
were traded among pimps in
different states and controlled
by violence.
Georgia woman killed
while in Mfexico
MEXICO CITY — A Georgia
woman visiting her husband
was shot and killed during a
weekend robbery in Mexico,
authorities said.
Helen Darnell, 63, of Decatur,
was approached Saturday by
two people as she and her hus
band, Charles, got into a car in
San Angel.
The two suspects demanded
Darnell turn over her money
and belongings, but she resisted
and was shot in the neck, the
city attorney general’s office
said Sunday. Charles Darnell
said his wife did not resist, a
family spokesman said.
The suspects fled without
taking anything, and police have
made no arrests.
Charles Darnell, a vice chair
man with Lithonia Lighting in
suburban Atlanta, was working
on a project in Mexico and his
wife joined him last week for a
short visit, said the Rev. Jasper
Keith, pastor of Decatur
Presbyterian Church. She was
to have returned to the United
States on Monday, Keith said.
Delta pilots vow to strike
if contract talks fail
ATLANTA — Delta Air Lines
pilots voted overwhelmingly to
authorize a strike if contract
talks with the nation’s third-
largest carrier fail, their union
said Monday.
Delta and its pilots have
been negotiating a new contract
for nearly 18 months, with the
pilots increasingly frustrated by
the pace of the talks.
The company and union have
agreed to negotiate until Feb.
28, when they will ask the
National Mediation Board to
arbitrate any remaining dis
putes. If either side then reject
ed arbitration, which is consid
ered likely, they would enter a
30-day cooling-off period.
The pilots then could strike
April 1, barring intervention by
President Bush, who expressed
concern last week about possi
ble work stoppages at Delta,
Northwest, United and
American and said he would
“explore all options.”
The Air Line Pilots
Association said Monday that a
record 99 percent of Delta’s
9,800 pilots returned strike-
authorization ballots by Friday’s
deadline, and 97 percent of
them voted for a walkout.
Delta spokesman Russ
Williams said the vote result
was not unexpected.
“It does not imply that a
strike either is imminent or
that a strike is inevitable,”
he said. “With this vote ALPA
has neither called a strike or
set a specific deadline for a
strike.”
— Associated Press
Today
Meetings
► Worldwide Discipleship
Association 8 p.m. today in room 149
o! the Pharmacy Building. This week’s
meeting covers “Christ in the Old
Testament” and features speaker Micah
Lott. For more information, call Dane
Johnson at 759-2176.
► Delta Epsilon lota general
meeting at 6:30 p.m. today in room 127 of
ihe Tate Center.
► UGA G.L.O.B.E.S.
Wednesday at 7 p.m. in room 116
Of the Visual Arts Building. This
month's meeting features “At The Movies
Si/ith Miranda," a special Valentine's show
ing of “Relax... It’s Just Sex." Speaker:
jProf. Miranda Pollard. For more
information, call 546-4611.
Announcements
► The Bloody BaH Wednesday
at 8 p.m. in the Memorial Ballroom.
Sponsored by the Pagan Student
Association. For more information, call
549-0064.
>- Dance Marathon is now
accepting applications for next year's exec
utive committee. Applications can be
picked up in room 222 of Memorial Hall and
are due March 2. For more information, call
542-7962.
► The Mortar Board National
Honor Society is now taking applica
tions for new members. Applications are
available at the Tate Student Center
Information Desk and are due Feb. 19. For
more information, call Dr. Ayers at
542-3772.
— Items for UGA Today
must be submitted in
writing two days before
the date to run. Items may
run only one day and are
published by a first-come,
first-served basis according
to space available.
Young Democrats speaker to discuss abortion
By JAMAR LASTER
jlaster@randb.com
Beth Cope, president of the
Georgia Abortion and
Reproductive Rights Action
League, will be the guest at
tonight’s Young Democrats
meeting, which will also serve as
a forum for discussion on
abortion.
“It’s really important for us to
have speakers on controversial
subjects to stimulate debate
and the free exchange of
ideas,” said Mara Gassmann,
executive director of Young
Democrats.
Trey Pollard, communications
director of Young Democrats,
said Cope’s visit was inspired by
recent events, including
President George W. Bush’s
decision to reinstate the Global
Gag Rule on Abortion — which
affects funding for international
organizations, such as Planned
Parenthood, which provide or
fund abortions.
Gassmann said the Gag Rule,
which was revoked by former
President Bill Clinton, is some
thing that tends to change with
new administrations.
“It tends to be instated with
conservative presidents and
revoked by more liberal presi
dents,” she said. “It is just as bad,
if not worse, to hinder some of
the impoverished women that
have abortions.”
She also said the Gag Rule
could have international
implications.
EVENT
What: Speaker Beth Cope, president of
the Georgia Abortion and Reproductive
Rights Action League
When 8i Where: Tonight at 6 in room
411 of Memorial Hall.
“The effects are going to be
much more felt overseas when
women don’t have access to
abortion,” she said, citing the
economic stability that most
American women enjoy.
Pollard Said he hopes the
forum will give greater insight
into politics and the new presi
dential administration.
“We just want to get a discus
sion on the issue and have the
opportunity to come and hear
her point of view and how it cor
relates with politics in general,”
he said.
The meeting also will feature
two Student Government
Association presidential tickets
— Richard Butler and Susan
Maples and Haylee Vance
and Allison Smith — who will
present their platforms for the
upcoming elections.
Pollard said he believes the
meeting will be instrumental
in educating students and
forming opinions about the
issue.
“Having (Cope) as a speaker is
an opportunity for students to
hear a pro-choice point of view so
that they can formulate their
own position on the issue,” he
said.
Professor awarded Fulbright scholarship
By JOHNNY OXFORD
joxford@randb.com
A professor in the University’s Classics
Department has been awarded an opportuni
ty to lecture at the University of Lisbon in
Portugal.
Charles Platter, associate professor of clas
sics, was awarded the Fulbright Fellowship in
December. He will be in Portugal during the
spring 2002 semester.
“I am very excited and honored to receive
this award,” he said.
Richard LaFleur, Classics Department
head, said he was very pleased that Platter
won the award.
Platter will lecture about the works of
French philosopher Michel Foucault. The
focus will be on Foucault’s series of books
titled “The History of Sexuality” and self-
identity in ancient Greece.
The series of Foucault’s books is about
ethics rather than sex, Platter said.
“It’s about how people construct ethics for
themselves,” he said.
The opportunity to give
the seminar on Foucault’s
work, along with making
new colleagues, is
a chance Platter doesn’t
normally get.
“It’s a specific opportu
nity to lecture on texts I’m
not able to do here,” he
said.
LaFleur said the
Fulbright award is good for
Platter, the department
and the University as a
whole.
“It’s a no-lose situation (for everyone),” he
said.
It gives the department international
exposure, and it allows Platter to learn ideas
from his Portuguese colleagues that he can
transfer into his teaching at the University,
LaFleur said.
Platter is the first professor to be chosen
from the Classics Department for the
Rilbright Fellowship. He is not, however, the
first professor to teach overseas.
Almost all of the professors in the
Classics Department have had the opportuni
ty to take part in a study abroad program,
LaFleur said. The programs include
opportunities to travel to Rome, as well
as Athens, Greece. There’s also an archeolog
ical excavation in Carthage, Tunisia, to
study the conflict between the Rome and
Carthage.
LaFleur said these programs were benefi
cial to both students and faculty interested in
classical studies.
“The name of the game is to get involved,”
he said. “If this is your field of study, it’s
important, wherever possible, to visit these
sites.”
The department takes part in these
programs with the American Academy and
the Inter-Collegiate Center in Rome,
the American School of Classical Studies in
Athens and the Vergilian Society.
The Classics Department does much more
than look at classical literature of ancient
Rome and Greece, LaFleur said.
“We look at every aspect of ancient life of
the Mediterranean,” he said.
Athens stands to lose more in recession
By MITCHELL GRAHAM
mgraham@randb.com
With analysts expressing-con
cern about recent slowdowns in
the U.S. economy, faculty and
students are worried that Athens
may be hit harder than the rest of
Georgia by a recession.
The city is very vulnerable to a
possible recession, or two consec
utive quarters of negative growth
in the economy, said Jeff
Humphreys, director od the
University’s Selig Center for
Economic Growth.
Athens was hurt more than
the rest of the state during the
last recession in 1990-91 because
its economic livelihood is linked
closely to state funding for the
University and to student spend
ing, both of which dry up during
hard times, Humphreys said.
Some economists disagree on
whether a recession can be
averted.
Rahim Quazi, Terry College of
Business teaching fellow for eco
nomics, predicts that a recession
is imminent.
“Every time the Republicans
come into power, they somehow
(initiate a recession),” Quazi
said.
President George W. Bush’s
proposed $1.6 trillion tax cut
would help in the short
term to boost consumption, he
said, but the cost is a drop in
government revenue.
Federal, state and local gov
ernment would shrink, with less
tax revenue to spend on main
taining roads and infrastructure,
employing civil servants and in
some cases granting subsidies to
public universities.
Humphreys said now is the
time for a tax cut to stimulate
the economy. He doesn’t favor a
deep tax cut, but instead a small
er, faster one that will reach and
have an impact on the economy
in time to stave off recession.
Humphreys advised students
graduating soon not to panic, but
to “try to get out there early and
find a job — to work hard now
instead of in June.”
The labor market is still good
for college graduates, Humphreys
stressed, but job seekers might
not find businesses as eager to
recruit them, or as willing to hire
less-than- qualified employees.
Some students, such as Lane
Seabolt, may put off entering the
job market for a few years by pur
suing a graduate degree, some
thing Quazi said many students
did during the last recession.
Seabolt, a senior from
Marietta majoring in math and
religion, is hopeful he can find a
job teaching math but is wary of
the current economy.
“I would say that I’m still not
excited about the prospects of
finding a real job,” Seabolt said.
“That’s why I’m considering grad
school, to put off the decision for
a few years.”
There is still a slim possibility
that Georgia won’t go into reces
sion, said Humphreys, who fore
casts a 55 percent chance of
economic expansion.
“The big factor here
is consumer psychology,”
Humphreys said.
More Americans than ever are
investing some portion of their
earnings into the stock market,
he said, and recently they have
seen their fortunes shift with the
stock market’s steep decline.
“The question now is, how low
can consumer confidence and the
markets go,” Humphreys said.
Confidence in the market has
weakened among consumers as
stock values have dropped,
resulting in the lowest recorded
January level of consumer confi
dence in four years, Humphreys
said.
Consumers’ increased pes
simism, bolstered by an unem
ployment rate that has risen two-
tenths of a percentage point in
January, only serves to further
depress the economic outlook.
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