NATION/WORLD
Wednesday, June 10, 1992
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
7
Report on forest destruction alarms Earth Summit parties
The Associated Press
RIO DE JANEIRO. Brazil — Tropical forest destruction increased by 50 percent during the past decade, a U.N. study released yesterday at the Earth Summit shows.
The European Community pressed ahead yesterday with its own declaration on curbing carbon dioxide emissions, saying it will adopt limits the United States imposes.
German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and six other heads of state were due to arrive at the summit yesterday. Another 67 representatives, including U.S. President George Bush, are expected there today and tomorrow.
The report by the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization, or FAO, said that 41 million acres of forest land are destroyed annually, mostly in South and Central America. About 70 percent of all deforestation takes place in rain forests.
About 41.7 million acres were destroyed last year, compared to 27.9 million acres in 1980, the FAO report stated.
The United States has proposed increasing its aid for saving rain forests by $150 million. The initiative has been slowed because poorer nations, which have most of the world's forests, want to control how the money is spent.
"The latest statistics confirm the alarming tendency of recent years," said FAO official Hollis Murphy. Conservation, management and sustainable use of forest resources were urgently needed, he said.
The U.N. study said that the world had 12.25 million acres of forests but that the amount of forest land destroyed annually surpassed the amount which is replanted.
Half of the Latin America's land is covered by forests, as is 33 percent of Asia and 27 percent of Africa.
The European Community delegation yesterday confirmed that the 12 EC nations would sign a declaration on Saturday calling for the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions to 1900 levels by the year 2000, said EC delegation representative Lauren Jan Brinkhoorst.
The EC had wanted that provision included in the global warming treaty prepared for the Earth Summit, but the United States agreed to sign the treaty only after it was watered down to make emissions reductions voluntary.
The declaration also will introduce an EC-wide tax on carbon dioxide emissions — believed to contribute to global warming — and other tax incentives to encourage saving energy.
we honestly believe it will stimulate new thinking on the issue by the United States," Brinkhoorst said. The declaration would be binding among the EC nations, he said.
The EC declaration is separate from the so-called like-minded countries declaration, a non-binding document that calls for strong emissions controls. The declaration is being circulated at the summit for signing.
European officials said that U.S. representatives sent letters to Austria, Switzerland and Britain urging them not to support the declaration. But Michael Young, deputy head of
the U.S. delegation, denied that the United States was pressuring anybody.
The issue could widen the rift between the United States and some of its allies over Washington's steadfast opposition to another treaty which is designed to preserve the globe's biological diversity.
On Sunday, Bush reiterated his position that the biodiversity treaty would hurt U.S. industry and cost U.S. jobs.
Environmentalists hailed the creation of a new U.N. body that will monitor compliance with environmental treaties approved at the meeting.
The U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development was created Monday after 21/2 years of negotiations. Although the commission's regulations will not be legally binding, they will create what Kathy Sessions of the U.N. Association of the United States called soft law, which may lead to legally binding treaties.
"I think it's one of the most significant accomplishments", Sessions said.
NATIONAL BRIEFSS
MINEOLA, Texas — A church van carrying youths to camp ran a stop sign and was struck broadside by a cement truck, authorities said. Five people were killed and 10 teen-agers injured.
The van's driver, Bettim Lay, 26, of Dallas, was among those killed in the accident Monday, 80
Nine teen-agers remained hospitalized late Monday, seven in critical or serious condition. At least three of the five killed were teen-agers.
TRENTON, N.J. — New Jersey residents will have to find something else to yolk about: their state has repealed its ban on the serving of runny eggs in restaurants.
The state Public Health Council voted 5-0 Monday to drop the regulation, which banned eggs sunny-side up or in any other partially cooked style. Violators had faced fines of $25-$100.
The Jan. 1 ban was intended to curb salmonella poisoning, which causes fever, vomiting and dehydration, and can be fatal.
"What this means is if customers want to take the risk of becoming ill from salmonella by ordering raw and undercooked eggs, they can do it," a Health Department representative said.
Italy's tough anti-mafia measures allow police to round up mobsters
The Associated Press
ROME — Police in southern Italy rounded up hundreds of convicted mobsters and suspects yesterday, hours after tough anti-Mafia measures were passed by the government.
About 700 people were detained, Interior Minister Vincenzo Scotti said. Of those, at least 560 were in Sicily, Calabria, Campania and Puglia, the southern regions where organized crime is concentrated.
Those rounded up had been either under house arrest or free on their own recognition with the obligation to check in periodically with police after being charged or convicted in organized-crime cases. In Italy, convicted defendants can stay out of jail until losing their final appeal.
The Cabinet decree changed the way police and courts can handle organized-crime cases after a national outcry over the May 23 murder of Judge Giovanni Falcone, Italy's leading anti-Mafia investigator and a national hero.
A bomb blast outside Palermo killed Falcone, his wife and three bodyguards.
Organized crime is steadily growing more violent and extending its grip northward.
Falcone, who held a high Justice Ministry position when he was killed, had designed some of the measures, which had long been under discussion.
Justice Minister Claudio Martelli said the decree was the result of a careful study that was launched long ago.
One of the new provisions gives more protection to mobsters who turn state's evidence. Another, whose first effects were felt yesterday, makes it harder for mob suspects who will not cooperate to be granted house arrest.
Another measure doubles from six to 12 months the length of time Mafia cases can be investigated before charges must be brought to court or the case dropped.
While serving as an investigative magistrate in the 1980s in Palermo, Falcone was the force behind the convictions of hundreds of mobsters for drug trafficking and murder. He also worked with the U.S. authorities investigating the so-called Pizza Connection, a drug network involving American and Italian mobsters.
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