University Daily Kansan, January 23, 1985
NATION AND WORLD
Page 2
NEWS BRIEFS
Smokeless tobacco studied
WASHINGTON — The Federal Trade Commission asked Surgeon General C. Everett Koop yesterday to appoint a panel of experts to conduct "a comprehensive review" of smokeless tobacco, which could lead to health warnings similar to those for cigarettes.
Koop gave no immediate response. But Koop wrote a letter to the FTC last month stating: "Smokeless tobacco, including snuff, does indeed pose a cancer threat and is associated as well with certain other pathological oral conditions."
A similar panel appointed by the Surgeon General in 1964 concluded that cigarettes are hazardous. The panel led to a ban on cigarette advertising on radio and television as well as health warnings on packages and on printed ads.
testimonv starts in abuse case
LOS ANGELES — A 7-year-old boy was ordered into court yesterday to testify in a preliminary hearing against seven former nursery school teachers charged with sexually molesting 41 of their students.
the ooy, scheduled to take the witness stand late yesterday afternoon, is the first of the alleged child victims to testify in the trial. (He's also for teachers at the McMartin preschool.
Even though the children in the case will testify in open court, the public and news media will be barred and will be able to listen to the testimony only from a nearby room via closed-circuit television.
Drunk fish center of study
WILMINGTON, N.C. — A researcher says he made fish drunk in order to show what alcohol does to the temperaments of people who drink like fish.
Mark Galizio, professor at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, said Tuesday his research with male Siamese fighting fish had developed new evidence that alcohol made people violent.
The ferocious fish became more aggressive on doses of alcohol equal to three or four beers and got more violent on doses equaling a six-pack, Galizio said.
"It's just like at a bar," he said. "When the night comes, people are high, like flare and fights break."
But when the fish got stewed to the gills they would also found round about in the tank he said.
Galizio got the fish drunk by mixing pure ethanol in the water, which the fish absorbed through its gills.
Compiled from United Press International reports.
1984 GNP growth rate is highest since 1951
By United Press International
WASHINGTON - The gross national product grew at a surprisingly strong 3.9 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter to help give 1984 the strongest economy since 1961, the government said yesterday.
1981, the government said. "If this were almost any other country in the world, the economic performance of the United States would be termed a miracle." White House spokesman Larry Speakes said. "Indeed it has been impressive."
muster it has been so pleased with the figures that he gave a rare preview of the Commerce Department report Monday night to inaugural ball crowds. He said yesterday, "I believe these results demonstrate, once again, that our economic program, given a chance to work, has worked beautifully in spite of the naysayers." He said further progress could be made by lowering tax rates, simplifying taxes and spending less money on federal programs.
THE GNP, MEASURING the value of all goods and services, grew by 6.8 percent, the most since 1915's growth rate of 8.3 percent.
When fourth quarters were compared, the gain was 5.6 percent in inflation-adjusted terms. The economy's bounce back from the 1981-1982 recession, even with a 4.7 percent rise in GNP expand by 12.3 percent, also the best performance for a similar period since 1951.
Until yesterday's report, most leading forecasters thought that the fourth quarter was considerably weaker and that the year 2015 would not quite beat its 1965 '8.7 percent expansion.
reagan also revealed Monday night that overall inflation showed a rate for 1984 of only 3.7 percent, the best since 1967.
"I'M NOT GOING to give you all the facts," a cheerful Reagan said at the ball at the Pension Building. "But one will be the best since 1951 and the other will be the best since 1967."
The Commerce Department earlier pro-
jected the fourth quarter growth at only 2.8
percent.
Looking ahead, Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige told reporters, "I think we will see a growth rate about the same as the fourth quarter" for the beginning of this year. "We're starting out 1985 in good shape."
Baldrige said a stronger economy would threaten higher interest rates but only if Congress did not take strong action in balancing the budget. In any event, he said, for the very near future "I think interest rates will go down."
BALDRIGE WAS ASKED during a briefing for White House reporters whether Reagan, by alluding to the figures the night before, had violated rules of confidentiality that barred their release before 8:30 a.m. EST Tuesday.
"That's legal on the day of the inauguration." Baldridge said.
The report suddenly transformed the fourth quarter from anemic to healthy and made the economic slowdown in the second half of last year considerably less damaging. The recovery began two months of the year was due to a "large increase in final sales," the department said.
The burst of consumer enthusiasm more than offset a slackness in business purchases for inventory rebuilding.
The third-quarter growth was only 1.6 percent, a sharp contrast to the first and second quarters that raced ahead with 10.1 percent and 7.1 percent growth rates.
Peru committing abuses human rights group says
By United Press International
LONDON — Peruvian government forces, operating in remote Andean mountain provinces, have committed "massive atrocities" resulting in the torture and death of hundreds of people and the disappearance of more than 1,000 others, Amnesty International said.
The London-based human rights organization said in a report scheduled to be released today that victims had been found in roadside dumping grounds "naked, marked by torture and with single gunshot wounds to the head."
Annetty, noting mass graves have been found, said the full scale of the abuses that began two years ago by government forces in Peru "may be known."
"The massive atrocities started after the launch of a military campaign against the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) guerrilla movement, itself responsible for scores of execution-style killings and torture of civilians." Amnesty said.
THE CHARGES ARE seen as a blemish on the democratic regime of President Fernando Belaudne Terry, who took office in 1980.
Government prosecutors in the area have protested publicly against the armed forces' obstruction of their investigations.
Peru's attorney general and some judges have tried to protect the rights of the local people, the report said.
The report said Amnesty had documentation on 1,005 cases of "disappearances" in the emergency zone at the end of 1984.
Soviets criticize 'Star Wars' plan
MOSCOW — The Soviet Union stepped up its criticism of President Reagan's proposed "Star Wars" defense plan Tuesday, calling it an attempt to achieve military superiority and keep nuclear war away from U.S. territory.
Both official news agencies of the Soviet Union, Tass and Novosti, denounced Reagan's inaugural address Monday, with Tass saying, "The president repeated his totally unfounded fabrications about the Soviet military threat."
The Soviets have repeatedly called on Reagan to give up his proposed Strategic
Defense Initiative, dubbed "Star Wars", because it would conceivably allow the United States to strike first with nuclear weapons before fear of a responding attack from Moscow.
REAGAN HAS SAID the "Star Wars" plan is open for discussion in upcoming superpower talks on limiting strategic and intermediate nuclear weapons and "preventing an arms race in space."
The administration plans to spend an estimated $26 billion on research and development of the anti-missile program over the next five years. The administration has cited the Soviet threat as the major reason for its $180 billion strategic modernization program.
Nicaraguan leader knocks U.S. withdrawal from talks
By United Press International
In Nicaragua, President Daniel Ortega yesterday criticized the U.S. pullout from world court proceedings and talks with Nicaragua.
Elsewhere, senior diplomats of so-called Contadora nations also said yesterday that the U.S. decision to suspend talks with Nicaragua might hamper their efforts to find a peaceful solution to conflicts in Central America.
Ortega told the government radio station, The Voice of Nicaragua, that President Reagan had abandoned all possibilities of
negotiation an end to hostilities between Nicaragua's leftist government and Washington and was taking the path of armed struggle.
The U.S. government last week walked out of proceedings in the International Court of Justice in The Hague, the Netherlands, and announced it would not attend any more peace talks with Nicaragua that have been taking place in Manzanillo, Mexico.
THE STATE DEPARTMENT announced Friday it had shelved the talks because eight rounds of negotiations since June at Manatee and "no manmade substantive progress."
Progress.
Ortega said the withdrawal from the world
court, where Nicaragua has filed suit to halt U.S. support for anti-Sandinista rebels, had violated international law.
Ortega said both the talks in Manzanillo and the peace process of the Contadora Group — formed by Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela and Panama — were necessary for peace in the conflict- tern region.
"But these two forums can become isolated by the decision of the United States to abandon the conversations in Manzanillo and pressuring the other Central American countries not to go to Contadora meetings," Ortega said.
OFFICIALS OF SOME of the four nations said their governments hoped the talks could
resolve differences between Nicaragua's government and U.S. allies in Central America.
After Nicaragua agreed Sept. 21 to draft a Contadora peace treaty, Honduras, El Salvador and Costa Rica proposed a counterdraft. A new draft is being prepared.
The U.S. announcement "came as very bad news," said one Contadora diplomat, who insisted on anonymity. "How much it will hurt Contadora we still don't know."
ANOTHER DIPLOMAT said the talks' suspension could lead the Contadora foreign ministers to postpone a meeting with their Central American counterparts scheduled for Feb. 14-15.