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2 I Wednesday, December 5, 2001 | The Red & Black
NEWS
QuickTake
A glance at the morning’s news and the day ahead
Best Bet
> It’s your last chance this semester to catch
Ghost Trane, a jam band playing tonight at 10 at Tasty
World. Tickets are $5. Information: 543-0797.
National & World Headlines
Newspaper fined for British murder story
LONDON — A judge fined the Manchester Evening News
$42,666 on Tuesday for publishing an article about the killers of
toddler James Bulger. «
The publishers were found in contempt of court for breach
ing an injunction forbidding publication of the new identities
or whereabouts of Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, both
18. Judge Elizabeth Butler-Sloss also ordered the publishers to
pay court costs of $170,664.
The newspaper said it supported the injunction for the
teen-agers’ safety but may appeal the ruling. “Counsel has
advised that there are substantial grounds for an appeal and
the Manchester Evening News is considering that course of
action,” the company said.
The article was published June 22, the day Thompson and
Venables were released from a reformatory where they spent
eight years following their conviction in the 1993 murder of the
2-year-old.
The Manchester Online Web site, managed by the newspa
per’s sister company, published the article the same day, also
breaching the injunction.
Venables and Thompson were 10 when they lured James
from a shopping center in Bootle, near Liverpool in northeast
England, as the toddler waited outside a butcher’s shop for his
mother. Security cameras caught images of James being led
away by the two older boys.
Firm asks senate to
not restrict cloning
WASHINGTON — The
president of the company
that claims to have cloned
the first human embryo
defended his firm’s actions
Tuesday and urged senators
not to hastily pass a bill
restricting the practice.
“We’re not talking about
the cloning of humans,”
Michael West, president of
Advanced Cell Technology,
told a Senate appropria
tions subcommittee. “We’re
talking about the cloning of
cells.”
“I would argue rather
than slow medical research,
we take the time to carefully
learn these issues,” West
said.
The Worcester, Mass.,
company sparked a world
wide debate last month
when officials announced
they had succeeded in
cloning a human embryo for
the first time, growing it to
six cells before it quit
developing.
The company’s ultimate
goal is to cull, from a cloned
embryo, stem cells that
could then be grown into
custom medical treatments
for patients. The company’s
first embryo was too small
to generate stem cells.
Some Republicans made
an unsuccessful bid Monday
to have the Senate take up
a bill that would place a six-
month moratorium on
cloning until lawmakers
could have extensive debate
in the spring.
Sen. Sam Brownback (R-
Kan.), a leading abortion
opponent, told lawmakers
they should take “time out,
let’s just think a little bit”
before allowing scientists to
proceed.
Prescription drug
abuse targeted
KISSIMMEE, Fla. —
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush intro
duced legislation Tuesday
that would establish a com
puterized prescription drug
database to stop the misuse
of pharmaceutical drugs
such as OxyContin.
The legislation would
also establish penalties for
doctors who illegally pre
scribe medication and put
in place safeguards to pro
tect the privacy of patients
in the database.
“There are many legal
drugs that when prescribed
right and used right have
tremendous benefits ... but
there are potentials for
abuse in legal substances as
well,” Bush said after speak
ing at the Florida
Statewide Drug Prevention
Conference in Orlando.
Prescription drugs
databases already exist in
18 other states. The
database would be exempt
ed from Florida’s public
records laws and available
only to doctors, pharma
cists and law enforcement
officers, who could use it to
monitor if certain people
were overfilling the drug.
Under the measure, doc
tors who illegally prescribe
drugs could be charged with
a felony and face five to 15
years in prison.
“This is a crime and peo
ple have lost their lives,”
Bush said. “To me, that is
the equivalent of murder
and it should be treated
severely.”
Water authority
sued over death
MACON — The family of
a Macon Water Authority
employee who fell 55 feet
to his death early this year
has filed a lawsuit in feder
al court alleging the
authority violated the
worker’s civil rights.
Walter Frank Jones, 56,
died Jan. 19 at the Town
Creek Reservoir water
treatment plant. He was
part of a crew assigned to
clear sand out of intercep
tor pits, which are used to
pump water from the
Ocmulgee River to the
Town Creek Reservoir.
Jones was killed when
he fell out of a bucket
being used to lower him
into the pit.
His wife, Vanessa Jones,
48, and children are seek
ing unspecified damages.
Defendants include each
water authority board
member, former executive
director Gene Holcomb
and several supervisors.
Accident Prevention
Consultants, which was
hired by the authority to
investigate Jones’ death,
issued a report that said
employees were not
trained in safety proce
dures for removing sand
from the pits.
— Associated Press
UGA Today
Announcements
>• ‘How & Why to
Become Involved in the 1
Pro-Choice Movement,’
training given by Tisha West,
president of Campus Now, and
sponsored by the UGA
American Civil Liberties Union.
Tonight at 6 in the Law School
Auditorium. Information:
613-7063.
► Open Studio: Life
Drawing, allows artists to
work with live models. Tonight
from 5:30-8:30 at the Georgia
Museum of Art in the Ed and
Phoebe Forio Classroom. No
instruction offered; bring your
own supplies and $3 fee.
^Information: 542-4662.
> ‘Peppermint Candy,’ a
film by Changdong Lee about
police brutality in Korea.
Tonight at 7:30 in the Georgia
Museum of Art’s M. Smith
Griffith Auditorium. The cost is
$2. Information: 542-4662.
> ‘Miss Diva
Showcase,’ featuring five
University women, Sponsored
by Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.
Tonight at 7 at the University
Chapel. The cost is $3.
Information: June Gray at
316-0291.
— Items for UGA Today
must be submitted in writ
ing two days before the
date to run.
Items may run only one
day and are published on
a first-come, first-served
basis according to space
available.
Officials wary of more terrorism
Homeland Security
Director Tom Ridge has
issued the nation’s third
domestic warning of possible
terrorist attacks since
Sept. 11.
Monday’s initial
announcement was clarified
on Tuesday, with Ridge say
ing the warning was precipi
tated by a “convergence of
information” intelligence
sources have received in the
last few days.
“(The information) rises
to a level above a norm ...
Mindful of the president’s
direction — that when you
get credible evidence of
potential attacks, just share
that information with the
public — that’s exactly what
we did,” Ridge said.
The Washington Post
reported Tuesday that evi
dence was found to prove
Osama bin Laden had been
“obtaining plans or materials
to make a crude radiological
weapon that would use con
ventional explosives to
spread radioactivity over a
wide area.”
Ridge said the warning
had nothing to do with
reports that bin Laden had
developed a “dirty bomb.”
Other intelligence sources
said the information was
actually threats from mem
bers of the al Qaeda network,
according to CNN reports.
Elsewhere in Afghanistan,
U.S.-led forces pounded the
southern city of Kandahar,
hitting the airport east of the
city Tuesday.
One,pf those injured in the
airstrilces is said to be bin
Laden’s top depilty, Ayman
al-Zawahiri, according to
anti-Taliban Pashtun
commanders.
Al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian
exile, is a co-founder of
al Qaeda, according to
sources near the organiza
tion. He also is a leader of
Egyptian Islamic Jihad, and
has served several years in
prison for
his involvement in the 1981
assassination of the Egyptian
president.
Israel continued its quest
for revenge after Palestinian
terrorist bombs killed 28
Israelis over the weekend.
Two Israeli Cobra heli
copters fired at a building
adjacent to the headquarters
of Palestinian leader Yasser
Arafat on Tuesday. But
Israeli army spokesman Brig.
Gen. Ron Kitrey said Arafat
was not an intended target of
the attacks.
“The target is not the
man; the target is the appa
ratuses,” Kitrey told CNN.
But early Tuesday, the
Israeli Cabinet called Arafat's
Palestinian Authority a “ter
rorist-supporting entity” that
must be dealt with
as such.
— Compiled by Leah
Newman
Contributing: Associated
Press, CNN and The
Washington Post reports
Theft poses larger threat during holiday
By MELANIE HORTON
mhorton@randb.com
When finals are over and all papers
have been turned in, students head out
of town and home for the holidays.
Dorms, apartments and Greek hous
es, normally bustling with activity,
become ghost buildings for three weeks.
Students leaving some of their
belongings behind in Athens during win
ter break could become the target of
burglars, said Nancy Zechella, director of
Safe Campuses Now.
“The apartment complexes clear out
(over the holidays),” she said. “It’s not
like a normal neighborhood where peo
ple will still be around.”
University Police Chief Chuck Horton
said while dorms usually aren’t suscepti
ble to burglaries over the holidays, fra
ternity houses are targets.
“Fraternity houses have a history of
being like Swiss cheese,” Horton said.
“They just aren’t difficult to break in to.”
He said University police have found
vagrants inside fraternity houses during
the winter holidays.
Safe Campuses Now has distributed
fliers to fraternity and sorority houses, as
well as to 31 apartment complexes,
detailing safety precautions students
can take to protect themselves over the
holiday break, Zechella said.
One tip is for students living in apart
ments is to place alarm identification
stickers on their doors and windows.
These stickers are available at the
Safe Campuses Now office at 337 South
Milledge Ave.
Becca Conn, property manager of
Whistlebury Condominiums, said her
staff will distribute the Safe Campuses
Now fliers to tenants and suggest that
tenants activate their alarm systems.
Shellene Harrison, community man
ager of The Reserve Apartments, also
said she will ask residents in the complex
to turn on their alarm system.
“We ask residents to stop their news
paper delivery,” Harrison said. “We also
make rounds more often and ask
HOLIDAY PROTECTION TIPS
► Leave a radio set to a talk show station.
► Set interior lights on a timer or leave on light.
>• Turn on outside lights to illuminate possible
entry sights.
>■ Ask police to check on your premises.
>- Take valuable items home.
>• Engrave driver’s license number on TVs and
stereos.
>■ Stop mail and newspaper delivery.
► Do not leave a message on your answering
machine saying “Gone for the holidays.”
>• Keep all winoows and doors locked.
— Source: Safe Campuses Now
Athens-Clarke County police to do extra
drive-throughs.”
Horton said he advises against leaving
valuable items behind over the holidays.
He recommends that if students are
leaving their electronic equipment at
school, they should make note of their
serial numbers. In the case of theft, stu
dents can use the serial numbers to iden
tify their stolen property.
Torch relay heats up Classic City
By GREG BLUESTEIN
gbluestei@randb.com
Hundreds of Athens citi
zens and University students
piled outside the Classic
Center Tuesday night, waiting
for the Olympic torch to pass.
As the bustling crowd
milled around, a variety of
bands played.
“It’s a great way to watch
the torch come in,” said
Jessica Wener, a sophomore
from Atlanta. “It’s a creative
way to celebrate a
cool event.”
Event organizer Summer
Williams, a City of Athens
Public Information Office
intern, said everything went
as planned.
“Of course, anything of this
magnitude will have minor
problems, but everything is
going well,” said’ Williams, a
junior from Colquitt.
When the idea to stage
such a large event in Athens
was first proposed, she said
some of her superiors were a
little hesitant.
“I told them we had a
whole school of 32,000 people,
and I knew we could get some
volunteers,” Williams said.
She said she appealed to
the Interfratemity Council to
Man’s body identified
A body found Friday after
noon by Athens-Clarke
County police has been identi
fied.
Levi Jackson, a 20-year-old
man from Tompkins County,
N.Y., was found dqad on
Talmadge Drive, located off
East Broad Street.
“He was a transient,” said
A-C police spokeswoman
Hilda Sorrow. “He moved
from place to place and ended
up in Athens.”
According to an A-C press
release, Jackson’s mother
received an anonymous phone
call that her son had died in
Athens.
Police identified Jackson
through a photograph and fin
gerprints sent to detectives.
Sorrow said Jackson’s
cause of death has not yet
been determined.
— Melanie Horton
Thrashers vs. Flames 7:30pm
Ice Dogs vs. Yellow Jackets I0:00pm
See 2 games for the price of 1!!!!
On January 11, 2002 following the Atlanta Thrashers -
Calgary Flames hockey game at Philips Arena in Atlanta,
The University of Georgia Ice Dogs will battle the Geor
gia Tech Yellow Jackets in a rematch of last year’s
classic.
Discount seats are on sale from Georgia Hockey for $24 (nor
mally $36) and can be purchased at the Tate Center Ticket
Window. For group sales, please contact Brooke @ (706)
369-1234. Seats are limited, Don t miss your opportunity to
see the Ice Dogs battle the Yellow Jackets!!
www.ugahockey.com
gather volunteers from the
Greek community and the
Golden Key National Honors
Society.
Volunteer Scott Scharf, a
sophomore from Marietta,
said he was surprised at the
community’s support.
“It’s a big turnout,” he said.
“It’s been really great to see all
Summer’s work come to
fruition.”
Torchbearer Jim Edwards,
who ran the leg from Atlanta
Highway to Briarcliff Road,
said the “wildest” run of his
life did not pressure him.
“The two things I had
heard were ‘don’t fall’ and
‘don’t drop the torch.’ I wasn’t
worried at all, and I didn’t do
either of those things,”
he said.
He said the torch run will
be a “rallying point” through
out the nation.
“With all that’s going on in
the world, I think this will be a
great way for Americans to
show their support,” he said.
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