Newspaper Page Text
2A I Friday, August 25, 2006 | The Red & Black
NEWS
UGA TODAY
>- Sandy Creek Trail Guide
Training. Volunteers lead
small groups of school kids
down the center’s trails. 9:30
a.m.-12:30 p.m. Sandy Creek
Nature Center. Contact Carly
Robinson (706) 613-3615 ext.
227
> Campus Coffee Hour.
11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Memorial Hall Ballroom.
Sponsor: Amnesty
International and Liberty in
North Korea. Contact
careyk@uga.edu, (706) 542-
5667.
Saturday
>- Get Active Athens. Free
health screenings, fitness
supplements and exercise
classes. Proceeds go to
Habitat for Humanity and the
Athens Area Humane Society.
9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Bishop Park,
705 Sunset Drive.
www.accleisureservices.com
Sunday
>- Live Radio Show.
Nationally syndicated
“Mountain Stage,” with host
Larry Groce. Tickets available
at the Performing Arts Center
box office. 7 p.m. Hodgson
Hall, Performing Arts Center.
Sponsor: WUGA-FM. Contact
thaxtona@uga.edu, (706)
542-4400, (706) 542-9842.
Monday
> Reception with Michael
Adams. 5:30 - 7 p.m.
Railway Express Building, 201
Plant Avenue, Waycross.
Sponsor: UGA Alumni
Association. Contact (800)
606-8786, tgardner@uga.ed .
>- Blood drive. 2:30 - 7:30
p.m. UGA Catholic Center.
Sponsor: American Red
Cross.
Tuesday
>■ Butterfly Ramble.
8:30 a.m. State Botanical
Visitor Center, Classroom A.
Sponsor: State Botanical
Garden. Contact
sbgeduc@uga.edu.
>■ Social Swing Dancing.
9:00 p.m. The Ritz. Cost: $3.
Sponsor: UGA Swing Club.
Contact
www.uga.edu/ugaswingclub.
Wednesday
>■ Open Studio: Life
Drawing. 5:30 p.m. - 8:30
p.m. Cost: $3.
Sponsor: Georgia Museum of
Art, Ed and Phoebe Forio
Studio Classroom.
Contact (706) 542-4662,
www.uga.edu/gamuseum.
Thursday
> Mark Richt Speech.
7 p.m. Georgia Hall, Tate
Center. Sponsor: H.E.R.O. for
Children. Contact Bonnie
Williams, bonniew@uga.edu,
(678) 234-9995
— Please send submissions
for UGAToday to
ugatoday. @ randb.com.
CORRECTIONS
There was an error in
Wednesday’s Red &
Black story “Faculty
finds plus/minus sys
tem faults. ” The
University provided
The Red & Black with
a table listing the
incorrect grade per
centages for Summer
2006 grade breakdown.
The correct percent
ages are:
Summer 2006:
A = 29.87
A - = 10.13
B+ = 8.88
B = 13.96
B- = 5.42
C+ = 3.92
C = 5.49
C- = 1.57
D+ = 0
D = 2.48
F = 1.51
WF = .23
A = 41.73
B = 28.44
C = 10.65
D = 2.21
F = 1.28
WF = .26
Grades ofW, I, S, NR
and audit were not
included.
Editor-in-Chief:
David Pittman
(706) 433-3027
dpittman@randb.com
Managing Editor:
Lyndsay Hoban
(706) 433-3026
lhoban@randb.com
TOP STORIES FROM AROUND
THE STATE, NATION AND WORLD
CHARLIE RIEDEL | Associated Press
A Pharmacist Matt Hartwig holds up a dose of Plan B, the
morning-after pill, at his pharmacy in Excelsior Springs, Mo.
Momiug-after
pill approved
for 0TC sales
WASHINGTON — Women
can buy the morning-after pill
without a prescription, the
government declared
Thursday, a major step that
nevertheless failed to quell
the politically charged debate
over access to emergency
contraception.
The manufacturer, law
makers and other advocates
said they will press the gov
ernment to let minors pur
chase the pills over the
counter.
The Food and Drug
Administration said women
18 and older — and men pur
chasing for their partners —
may buy the Plan B pills
without a doctor’s note, but
only from pharmacies.
Girls 17 and younger still
will need a prescription to
buy the pills, the FDA told
manufacturer Barr
Pharmaceuticals Inc., in a
ruling on an application filed
in 2003.
The compromise decision
is a partial victory for
women's advocacy and med
ical groups, which say easier
access could halve the
nation’s 3 million annual
unplanned pregnancies.
“While we are glad to know
the FDA finally ended its
foot-dragging on this issue,
Planned Parenthood is trou
bled by the scientifically
baseless restriction imposed
on teenagers.
The U.S. has one of the
highest rates of teen preg
nancy in the Western world —
anything that makes it hard
er for teenagers to avoid
unintended pregnancy is bad
medicine and bad public poli
cy,” president Cecile Richards
said.
Opponents contend that
nonprescription availability
could increase promiscuity
and promote use of the pills
by sexual predators.
— Associated Press
Defense attorneys
confused over Karr
representation
ATLANTA — Three dozen
lawyers have offered to repre
sent John Mark Karr — for
free, in many cases — against
allegations he killed 6-year-
old beauty queen JonBenet
Ramsey.
The tug-of-war among
defense attorneys over one of
the biggest criminal cases in
recent years — one that has
sparked interest because of
perceived flaws in the prose
cution’s case — raises ques
tions about ethics and who
has Karr’s best interests in
mind.
“There’s something inher
ently wrong in hiring a lawyer
who is volunteering to do it
for publicity,” said
Connecticut attorney Mickey
Sherman.
Two California attorneys
say they have been retained
to represent Karr, but anoth
er who was with him at his
only court hearing in the case
said previously that Karr
wanted a Colorado public
defender.
Larry Garrison, a producer
Karr’s family hired to ferret
out book and movie deals,
says they want a big time
lawyer for the job.
Army to re-examine
casualty reports
SAN FRANCISCO — The
Army has opened a re-exami
nation of casualty reports on
American soldiers killed in
Afghanistan, Iraq and else
where since 2001, a response
to complaints that it has not
always given families accu
rate information.
The review covers hun
dreds of casualties in
Operation Enduring
Freedom and Operation Iraqi
Freedom — the campaigns in
Afghanistan and Iraq, two
senior military officials said.
It also includes American sol
diers killed in neighboring
countries in support of the
two operations.
In coming weeks, the
Army will issue a directive
formalizing the review,
according to two military offi
cials. One spoke Thursday on
condition of anonymity
because officers at the high-
NATIONAL
est levels of the Army are still
making minor changes. The
other described the initiative
in memos obtained by The
Associated Press.
GOP percentages
drop with Christians
WASHINGTON — The
number of people who con
sider the Republican Party
friendly to religion has
dipped below half in the last
year, with declines among
white evangelicals and white
Catholics.
But the GOP remains far
more closely tied to religion
than the Democratic Party.
The number of people who
consider the GOP friendly to
religion dropped from 55 per
cent to 47 percent — with a
14-point drop among white
evangelical conservatives and
an 11-point drop among
white Catholics, according to
the poll by the Pew Research
Center for the People & the
Press.
Only a fourth, 26 percent,
considered the Democratic
Party friendly to religion —
about the same as last year.
Religious voters have been
a key voting bloc in recent
elections with the most
devout Protestant, Catholic
and evangelical voters lean
ing strongly toward
Republicans.
“The Republicans had
done a good job of mobilizing
those two groups in 2004 and
that may be cooling a bit
now,” said Scott Keeter of the
Pew Research Center said,
referring to white evangeli
cals and white Catholics
Bush got 78 percent of the
white evangelical vote and 56
percent of the white Catholic
vote in 2004, according to exit
polls.
The poll of 2,003 adults
was conducted July 6-19 in
cooperation with the Pew
Forum on Religion & Public
Life and has a margin of sam
pling error of plus or minus
2.5 percentage points.
— Associated Press
Pluto loses planethood in
new astronomy guidelines
PRAGUE, Czech Republic
— Pluto, beloved by some as
a cosmic underdog but
scorned by astronomers
who considered it too dinky
and distant, was unceremo
niously stripped of its status
as a planet Thursday.
The International
Astronomical Union, dra
matically reversing course
just a week after floating the
idea of reaffirming Pluto’s
planethood and adding-
three new planets to Earth’s
neighborhood, downgraded
the ninth rock from the sun
in historic new galactic
guidelines.
Powerful new telescopes,
experts said, are changing
the way they size up the
mysteries of the solar sys
tem and beyond. But the
scientists showed a soft
side, waving plush toys of
the Walt Disney character —
and insisting that Pluto’s
spirit will live on in the excit
ing discoveries yet to come.
Pluto, a planet since 1930,
got the boot because it did
n’t meet the new rules,
which say a planet not only
must orbit the sun and be
large enough to assume a
nearly round shape, but
must “clear the neighbor
hood around its orbit.” That
disqualifies Pluto, whose
oblong orbit overlaps
Neptune’s, downsizing the
solar system to eight planets
from the traditional nine.
U.N. likely to reject
Iran nuke response
VIENNA, Austria —
Germany said Thursday
that Iran’s response to a
package of incentives to halt
its nuclear program was
unsatisfactory because of its
refusal to freeze uranium
enrichment, and diplomats
suggested Tehran now faces
a greater risk of U.N. sanc
tions.
Two senior diplomats
who were briefed on the
Iranian response told The
Associated Press that world
powers would likely reject it.
The U.N. Security Council
has set a deadline of next
Thursday for Iran to freeze
enrichment and the six
nations offering to talk to
Iran say such a step must
precede the start of any dis
cussions.
But the diplomats said
the 25-page document does
not directly suggest an
enrichment moratorium
even after negotiations
start.
Instead, it includes only a
vague reference to a willing
ness to discuss all aspects of
the country’s nuclear pro
gram, said the diplomats
who spoke from two
European capitals and
asked for anonymity
because they were not
authorized to discuss the
confidential proposal.
Men arrested on
flight released
HAARLEM, Netherlands
Prosecutors said
Thursday they found no evi
dence of a terrorist threat
aboard a Northwest Airlines
flight to India that returned
to Amsterdam, and they are
releasing all 12 passengers
arrested after the emer
gency landing.
The men, all Indian
nationals, had aroused sus
picions on Flight NW0042 to
Bombay because they had a
large number of cell phones,
laptops and hard drives, and
refused to follow the crew’s
instructions, prosecutors
said.
Because of those actions,
the pilot of the DC-10
radioed for help shortly after
takeoff Wednesday and the
plane was escorted back to
Amsterdam’s Schiphol
Airport by two Dutch fighter
jets. The 12 were arrested
after the plane landed.
U.S., Afghan police
dispute killings
KABUL, Afghanistan — A
pre-dawn raid by American
troops in eastern
Afghanistan left seven sus-
WORLD
pected al-Qaida fighters and
one child dead, the U.S. mili
tary said in an account that
was disputed by police who
say those killed were two
families sorting out a feud.
The raid aimed at captur
ing a “known al-Qaida facili
tator” in the village of Asmar
in Kunar province, said Col.
Tom Collins, a spokesman
for the U.S.-led coalition.
The seven dead al-Qaida
suspects included the facili
tator, he said. Four others
were detained.
Afghan officials, however,
said those targeted in the
compound were from two
families trying to resolve a
dispute through village eld
ers. Abdul Sabur Alluhyar,
the deputy provincial police
chief, denied the families
were members of al-Qaida.
More French troops
headed to Lebanon
PARIS — President
Jacques Chirac says France
will send 2,000 soldiers for
the U.N. peacekeeping force
in southern Lebanon, and a
European Union official said
it wants the troops in place
within a week.
In a nationally televised
address that was closely fol
lowed throughout Europe,
Chirac said Thursday that
France will increase its
deployment from an already
announced 400 troops, and
hopes to retain command of
the force. He said the United
Nations had provided guar
antees France sought
involving the mandate of the
force.
EU foreign ministers are
to meet Friday in Brussels
to discuss the force.
Pressure on the Europeans
has grown because Israel
rejected offers of participa
tion from Malaysia,
Bangladesh and Indonesia
— predominantly Muslim
countries that do not recog
nize the Jewish state.
— Associated Press
RODRIGO ABD | Associated Press
A Boys play on a destroyed tank in the Shir Pur neighborhood in Kabul, Afghanistan
Tuesday. President Hamid Karzai’s popularity has dwindled over poverty and corruption.
Tokyo ad to show nude Spears
TOKYO — Tokyo’s sub
way authority will allow a
station advertisement fea
turing a nude and pregnant
Britney Spears, officials said
Thursday, dropping an earli
er plan to censor the photo.
HB Japan Inc., publisher
of the Japanese edition of
Harper’s Bazaar, plans to
rent ad space at the posh
Omotesando station next
week to promote its
October issue with Spears
posing naked on the cover.
The ad, in which Spears
bares her belly but covers
her breasts with her hands,
is the same one used in the
August issue of the maga
zine’s U.S. edition.
Tokyo Metro Co.’s
obscenity screening team
had initially raised objec
tions to the nudity and
asked HB Japan to modify
the photograph during
negotiations last month.
The publisher reluctantly
agreed to blacken out the
image from the waist down
— covering most of the
singer’s belly and thighs —
but had planned to write in
the black space: “in this
place we are not allowed to
exercise the same level of
freedom of expression as
NAMES & FACES
the original Harper’s
Bazaar.”
But on Thursday, Tokyo
Metro said it would allow
full presentation of the
photo as an exception to its
obscenity rule, saying it
understood the publisher’s
intention was to portray a
happy mother — not to be
sexually explicit.
Jamaica bank to
sell Marley coins
KINGSTON, Jamaica —
Bob Marley’s records long
ago went platinum. Now the
Bank of Jamaica is releasing
commemorative coins in
gold and silver with the late
reggae superstar’s dread-
locked likeness.
The 1,000 coins, pro
duced by the British Royal
Mint, are being sold for $100
each, bank spokeswoman
Jacqueline Morgan said
Wednesday.
Though the coins were
intended to mark the 60th
anniversary of Marley’s
birth, which was celebrated
in 2005, the bank is just now
offering them for sale, said
Morgan, who didn’t offer a
further explanation.
Idol sues over
released old tracks
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A
federal judge has temporari
ly barred a producer from
selling songs recorded by
“American Idol” winner
Taylor Hicks when he was
still just a gray-haired bar
crooner from Alabama.
U.S. District Judge
Virginia Emerson Hopkins
issued the ruling Tuesday in
a lawsuit filed by Hicks
against William Smith of
Nashville, Tenn., after two
songs written and sung by
Hicks showed up for sale on
the iTunes Web site.
Hicks claimed Smith and
his companies, William
Smith Productions and
Baldwin Entertainment,
wrongly tried to make
money selling three songs
that Hicks wrote and
recorded with Smith —
“The Fall,” “Son of a
Carpenter” and “In Your
Time.”
— Associated Press