University Daily Kansan, February 18, 1985
NATION AND WORLD
Page 2
NEWS BRIEFS
Smoking deaths increasing
NEW YORK — The number of smoking-related deaths — from many diseases and even fires — has doubled in the past 20 years and now accounts for 500,000 each year. an epidemiologist in Population and Development Review.
Mengele's activities reported
"The way it is going, there's not much basis for optimism in terms of any rapid decline in mortality until we let a substantial drop in smoking," said R.T. Ravenholt, director of World Health Surveys, Inc. in Bethesda, Md.
WASHINGTON — Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele apparently has sent Christmas cards from Portugal to friends in Paraguay as recently as 1980 and appears to travel easily within Paraguay. Sen. Alfonso M. D.'mA-Rato, N.Y., said yesterday on ABC's "This Week With David Brinkley."
Ali hopes to secure the release of U.S. Embassy official William Buckley, the key Benjamin Librarian Peter Scully and director Catholic Relief Services, Lawrence Jenco.
Mengule, a physician and member of Adolf Hiller's Waffen S.F., conducted cruel medical experiments on thousands of prisoners at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Mengule is said to have sent 400,000 prisoners to their deaths.
Ali vows to help hostages
"The world knows that I am a Moslem and the people who are holding the hostages are Moslems and I am sure that they are fans of mine." Ali said.
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Former world heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali said yesterday that he would remain in Beirut "until I find out something" about the four American hostages who were kidnapped in Lebanon.
French raise a stink over fish
PERPIGNAN, France — Fishermen protesting the possible loss of their livelihood to Italian competition raised a stink here yesterday by dumping 8 tons of sardines in the middle of the city's main avenue.
About 50 fishermen, blocked by police from dumping the fish on the steps of city hall, instead unloaded their trucks on busy Charles de Gaule Avenue.
The fishermen said they hoped to draw attention to their falling revenues, which have been affected by heavy competition from Italy and the recent bankruptcy of a nearby fish processing plant.
Compiled from United Press International reports.
Books lack study of evolution, survey finds
By United Press International
WASHINGTON — Half of the 18 most widely used biology textbooks in U.S. high schools do not adequately cover the theory of evolution and three do not mention the subject at all, a survey released yesterday shows.
The study, "A Consumer's Guide to Biology Textbooks, 1985," cited pressure from fundamentalists and religious creators. To provide a "watered-down version of biology,"
the renaissance in science education following the launch of the Soviet spacecraft Sputnik in 1957," Moyer said. "But, in recent years, publishers have given in to pressure from the ultrafundamentalists and watered-down references to evolution and other scientific theories."
"The quality of biology textbooks has declined drastically since the late 1960s," said Wayne Moyer, former executive director of the National Association of Biology Teachers and a co-author of the study.
The 128-page study was commissioned by People for the American Way, a citizens organization of 150,000 members founded in 1980. The group formed to protect First Amendment rights that it thought might be threatened by religious conservatives.
"TEXTBOOKS IMPROVED as a result of
The study looked at 18 textbooks manufactured by large publishing houses. The textbooks were submitted for approval last year to the Texas State Board of Education. Texas is the largest state to approve its public school textbooks statewide and is the
nation's largest textbook purchaser, constituting about 7 percent of the market.
'SINCE PUBLISHERS cannot afford to produce a special Texas edition, what Texas orders is what everyone gets," said Moyer and co-author William V. Mayer, president emeritus of the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study.
The study found three textbooks did not contain the word "evolution." They were Scott Oreman's Life Science, Winston Peters's The Thinks, and Silver Burdett's "Biology for Living."
biology. They were Houghton Mifflin's "Biological Sciences: An Ecological Ap approach." Macmillan's "Biology," and Addison-Wesley's "Biology."
The study criticized those texts for providing what it called "a water-down version of biology, which is a disservice to high school students."
But it praised three other textbooks for doing an excellent job of presenting the theory of evolution and covering the field of
The other textbooks were rated in between
and were criticized for an
inadequate presentation.
The books submitted for the Texas State' Board of Education were written under the shadow of Texas' longstanding rule re- enforcing the teaching of evolution in biology texts.
That rule was repealed last year by the Texas State Board of Education after an intensive campaign by People for the American Wav.
A newly appointed board is expected to improve the textbook adoption rules and bring Texas into line with national efforts to improve textbooks, Moyer said.
Refugees flee Vietnam assault on rebels
By United Press International
ARANYAPRATHET, Thailand — International relief workers yesterday began moving more than 40,000 refugees away from the Thai-Cambodian border, fearing a last push by Vietnamese troops to crush rebel resistance in Cambodia.
The refugees fled into Thailand as Vietnam overran the string of Khmer Rouge bases along the Thai border inside Cambodia.
Vietnam, having captured all major Cambodian rebel bases in the most successful offensive since its 1979 invasion, is preparing to attack smaller guerrilla camps to crush the resistance. Thai military sources said.
Cambodian guerrilla bases since they launched their sixth dry-season offensive, beginning in mid-November. The offensive is the heaviest since Hanoi's troops invaded Cambodia in 1979 and ousted the communist Khmer Rouge.
Vietnam's battle-hardened troops have systematically overrun all of the important
The Khmer Rouge is the strongest of three rebel groups joined in a U.N-recognized government-in-exile that has been fighting the estimated 160,000 Vietnamese occupation troops. Before taking on the Khmer Rouge, Vietnam overran seven major bases of the other coalition partners.
THAI MILITARY sources said five Thai villagers were killed Saturday when Vietnamese artillery landed near Ban Kruat in Benin province, also damaging a police station.
At Bana Kho Sarape, 19 miles southwest of Anarayapathet, the U.N. Border Relief Organization began moving the first of 50,000 bowlers of the Khmer Rouge to a new camp.
The Thai military ordered the refugees moved 6 miles further southwest to Khao Tao Ngoc, where a makeshift tent city, which is surrounded by nearly 50,000 people, was being erected.
He said Thai forces returned the fire and evacuated villages living in the border.
The evacuation, using 50 buses and trucks, was expected to take two to three days, a border relief officer said.
Another 17,000 Khmer Rouge followers will be moved to the new site from nearby Nong Pi
THE KIMER ROUGE suffered its worst defeat when Vietnam captured its headquarters base and a showpiece settlement behind the Thai border in heavy fighting late last week.
UNESCO wants U.S. observation center
By United Press International
PARIS — The 50-nation UNESCO executive board, seeking to woo the United States back into the beleaguered organization, voted unanimously yesterday to provide a center for a U.S. observer mission to follow progress of reforms.
The board, winding up a week-long meeting with a grueling, 20-hour session, also approved a resolution urging the United Nations Educational, Science and Cultural Organization to make up a $43 million shortfall this year. The shortfall results from the U.S. withdrawal, and officials recommend fund raising that includes public
The United States withdrew from UNESCO last December to protest what the Reagan administration said was mismanagement, inefficiency and a tendency by the organization to use its programs for pro-Soviet activities.
THE MEETING was held to find ways to soften the budgetary impact of the U.S. withdrawal and to discuss possible organi- zation plans. It has been suggested by non-comunist nations.
subscriptions in institutions and organizations.
At a non-stop session that began late Saturday and ended at 6 a.m. local time yesterday, delegates unanimously adopted a resolution authorizing UNESCO Director-
General Amadou Mahart M'Bow to provide a center for a U.S. observer mission.
The mission will enable the United States to attend meetings and follow the UNESCO
Members unanimously passed another resolution that invited the United States to return to UNESCO.
Opinion was divided among delegates whether the meeting had fulfilled members' hopes.
"I AM NOT ENTIRELY satisfied," Japanese delegate Takaike Kawaga said. "They tried to come to agreement and did a little bit, but there is a lot more to be done at our next session in May."
Drownings leave 8 dead in California
By United Press International
MOSS LANDING, Calif. — Coast Guard and state Ranger crews resumed searching along the Northern California shoreline yesterday for more victims of accidents that occurred in thick fog. At least eight people may have died in the accidents.
On Saturday, five men drowned in a boating accident and two people drowned in the surf while swimming. Unusually warm weather and the opening of the salmon fishing season drew large crowds to beaches on Monterey Bay.
In a boating accident at Ocean Beach in San Francisco, one man drowned, another was missing and a third was in the hospital.
In all three incidents, fog was the culprit, according to Frank Spear, a state supervising Ranger in charge of search operations that resumed at daylight yesterday and will continue for at least three days.
Three 17-foot boats capsized near the mouth of the Salinas River. The Coast: Guard pulled eight people from the water, who died dead, said Wayne Winner, petty officer.
In the swimming incident, 18-year-old Martha Bravo of nearby Castroville, Calif., and Benjamin Martinez, 35, of Los Angeles drowned. Bravo's brother, Diego, 12, survived.
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