8A = THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS BRIEFS
TUESDAY,APRIL22,2003
STATE
Abortion bill vetoed by governor yesterday
TOPEKA—Gov. Kathleen Sebellus vetoed a bill yesterday that would set minimum health and safety standards at abortion clinics, saying medical personnel —not legislators—should develop such rules.
House Speaker Doug Mays promised to seek to override the veto when the Legislature returns April 30 from a long recess.
Abortion opponents had pushed the legislation, framing it as a public health measure. Critics said the real goal was to close abortion clinics — there are seven in Kansas — or make their services too expensive for many women.
The bill orders the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to set minimum standards for clinics' supplies, equipment, lighting and ventilation as well as minimum sizes of interview rooms, bathrooms and dressing rooms.
In addition, the bill requires that every clinic have a doctor as its medical director; have a female staffer present during any procedure done by a male doctor; and have ultrasound equipment if it offers abortions after the 12th week of pregnancy
Asked whether an override would be attempted, Mays said, "You can just count on it."
Overriding a veto requires two-thirds majorities in both legislative chambers — 27 votes in the 40-member Senate and 84 votes in the 125-member House. The bill had been passed on votes of 24-16 in the Senate and 87-33 in the House.
NATION Students lose Internet for illegal file sharing
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Pennsylvania State University cut off high-speed Internet connections for 220 students in their residence halls because they were sharing copyrighted material, the school said yesterday.
Penn State spokesman Tysen Kendig said the move was made after the university received a complaint from a source he would not reveal.
"Upon investigation, we found that the students had publicly listed copyright-infringing materials on their systems to
other members of this network," he said.
Music and movie industry groups have urged universities to crack down on the sharing of copyrighted files.
The connections will be restored once the copyrighted material has been removed, Kendig said.
Plan B applies to sell pill over-the-counter
WASHINGTON—The maker of a morning-after pill applied for government permission yesterday to begin selling the emergency contraceptive without the doctor's prescription now required.
The maker of Plan B pills hopes to win Food and Drug Administration approval for over-the-counter sales by next year.
The FDA typically won't move a drug from prescription to non-prescription status unless the manufacturer makes the request. Yesterday, Plan B's maker, Women's Capitol Corp., said it had.
The morning-after pill can prevent ovulation or fertilization when taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex. The pills won't work if the woman already is pregnant.
Morning-after pills already are sold without a prescription in Britain and several European countries.
They also are available without a prescription through a network of pharmacists in Alaska, California and Washington state.
Two brands of morning-after pills, Plan B and Preven, have been sold in the United States by prescription since 1998. Especially high doses of regular birth control pills taken after unprotected sex work, too.
Gay-rights groups urge for removal of Senator
WASHINGTON — Gay-rights groups, fuming over Sen. Rick Santorum's comparison of homosexuality to bigamy, polygamy, incest and adultery, urged Republican leaders yesterday to consider removing the Pennsylvania lawmaker from the GOP Senate leadership.
A coalition of groups in Washington and Pennsylvania compared Santorum's remarks to
those by those last December by former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott about Strom Thurmond's 1948 segregationist campaign for the presidency. Shortly afterward, Lott was forced to resign as Republican Senate leader.
Santorum is chairman of the GOP conference in the Senate, third in his party's leadership, behind Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee and Assistant Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Santorum criticized homosexuality while discussing a pending Supreme Court case over a Texas sodomy law.
Santorum spokeswoman Erica Clayton Wright said the lawmaker's comments were "were specific to the Supreme Court case."
The White House did not immediately return a call seeking comment, and a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Frist declined comment.
Singer Nina Simone dies of natural causes
NEW YORK — Nina Simone, whose deep, raspy, forceful voice made her a unique figure in jazz and later helped define the civil rights movement, died yesterday at her home in France, according to her personal manager. She was 70.
Clifton Henderson, who was at Simone's bedside at her death, said she died of "natural causes" in her sleep after a long illness. He refused to provide the name of the town where she lived.
In the late 1950s Simone recorded her first tracks, including "Plain Gold Ring" and "Don't Smoke In Bed." But she gained fame in 1959 with her recording of "I Loves You Porgy," from the opera Porgy & Bess.
But she later wove the turbulent times of the 1960s into her music. In 1963, that killed four young black girls in Birmingham, Ala., and the slaying of Medgar Evers she wrote "Mississippi Goddam," and after the killing of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., she recorded "Why? The King of Love is Dead." One of her most famous songs was the black pride anthem, "To Be Young, Gifted and Black."
Simone enjoyed perhaps her greatest success in the 1960s
and 70s, with songs such as "I Want A Little Sugar in My Bowl," and "Four Women" — the song with the famous line "they call me PEACHES."
She was survived by a daughter, Lisa _ a singer who goes by the stage name Simone. She's currently starring in Broadway's Aida and has recorded with the group Liquid Soul.
Queen Elizabeth II celebrates turning 77
WORLD
LONDON — Queen Elizabeth I celebrated her 77 birthday quietly yesterday, riding on the grounds of Windsor Castle and spending time with her family.
The monarch waved to her granddaughter Zara Phillips Princess Anne's daughter_as she set off on her horse, accompanied by a groom.
At noon, gunners in London's Hyde Park and at Stirling Castle and Edinburgh, Scotland, fired 21-gun salutes to honor the queen.
A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said the queen spent the day privately with her husband, Prince Philip, and other relatives and friends.
She attended Easter services at St. George's Chapel in Windsor with her family on Sunday.
Koreas agree to hold Cabinet-level talks
SEOUL, South Korea North and South Korea agreed Monday to hold Cabinet-level talks next week, as confusion persisted over whether the
communist North has begun reprocessing its spent nuclear fuel.
South Korea hopes to use the talks to persuade the North to give up its suspected nuclear weapons programs in return for aid and better ties with other nations. The agreement came as the United States, North Korea and China prepared for separate talks on the North's nuclear programs. The State Department said three days of talks would begin Wednesday in Beijing.
The U.S. delegation will be led by Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly. The meeting will be the first face-to-face discussion between U.S. and North Korean officials since Kelly led a delegation to Pyongyang last October.
It was during those discussions that North Korea acknowledged it was developing uranium-based nuclear weapons. Since then, North Korea has withdrawn from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and has taken steps to begin production of plutonium-based nuclear weapons.
U.S. begins efforts to rebuild postwar Iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Glimmers of a new Iraq were evident yesterday, as the American charged with rebuilding a ravaged country came to Baghdad, and Muslim multitudes converged on holy cities for a ritual long suppressed by Saddam Hussein's regime.
But the work of rooting out the old Iraq went on. Military officials announced the arrest of a key figure in the bloody suppression of the Shilite Muslim uprising of 1991—Muhammad Hamza al-Zubaydi, the "Shiite Thug" they promised to try on charges of war crimes or crimes against humanity.
U. S. officials also revealed that American experts had discovered ingredients and equipment that could be used to make a chemical weapon.
Efforts to bring electricity to Baghdad progressed. Iraqi engineers started a turbine at the city's biggest power plant, and a few lights flickered in the capital for the first time since April 3.
It was expected that Baghdad would have 90 percent of its prewar power in a day or two.
This, said retired Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, was his top priority as Iraq's postwar administrator to restore power and water "as soon as we can."
Garner's arrival in Baghdad was itself a historic moment. For now, a retired American general has taken charge of an Arab country, as Douglas MacArthur did in Japan after World War II and MacArthur's father did in the Philippines after the Spanish-American War.
Garner, though, said he has no intention of leading Iraq. His Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Aid is to coordinate emergency aid to the 24 million Iraqis and oversee the rebuilding of the nation's infrastructure and establishment of an interim Iraqi government.
— The Associated Press