Section A·Page 8
The University Daily Kansan
Tuesday, September 26, 2000
Nation/World
For comments, contact Lori O'Toole at 864-4810 or e-mail editor@kansan.com
Scientists test Iceman samples
The Associated Press
BOLZANO, Italy — Scientists thawed out the iceman, removing samples of bone, tissue and tooth from the 5,300-year-old mummy yesterday in hopes of shedding light on the life and times of the ancient man who once roamed the Alps.
Museum officials say he will go back on display today.
The temperature in the refrigerated display case housing the Bronze- Age hunter was gradually raised for 12 hours. Then, at 8 a.m., the Iceman was wheeled into a sterile laboratory at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano.
For four hours, scientists in operating scrubs scraped off bone enamel, chipped away bone and snaked an endoscope into his intestines, harvesting samples for study at half a dozen research institutions and universities.
A forensic expert from the
University of Glasgow will try to determine whether the ancient hunter died a natural death or an accidental one by looking at bone and blood samples.
In Zurich, scientists will analyze lead and strontium deposits on his teeth — chemical footprints that can reveal more about his environment.
"We have no solutions, but plenty of questions," said Peter Vanezis, a forensic medicine specialist, at a news conference after the Iceman was returned to his chilled case.
DNA tests will feature largely in the new round of research into the ancient man.
Scientists in Italy and Britain will examine both the Iceman's DNA and that of the microbes in his intestinal tract. The microbes could be a clue to the food he ate, said Italian anthropologist Franco Rollo.
He said the DNA tests also would look at the mitochondria genome, which could reveal a common
ancestry or genealogical continuity between inhabitants of the Alpine regions of 10,000 years ago and those of today.
Previous tests on minute amounts of DNA from the Iceman's lungs suggested he suffered from a lung fungus that could have hastened his death.
Scientists also will try to learn if the crudely carved tattoos found on the Iceman's ankles, knees and calves were an ancient form of acupuncture, or were added after his death for some unknown reason.
Results of some of the tests from the samples taken yesterday should be ready in about six months, said research coordinator Eduard Egartner Vial.
The Iceman was found frozen in a glacier in the Tyrollean Alps on the Italian-Austrian border in 1991 by two German mountaineers and promptly became the center of an international tug-of-war.
ON THE NET
http://www.iceman.it
He was first claimed by Austria and taken to Innsbruck. After a survey showed the discovery site was actually on the Italian side of the unmarked border, he was handed over to Italy.
The transfer date was kept secret following threats from Austrian nationalists who have never recognized Italy's annexation of the South Tyrol after World War I.
Since then, the superbly preserved corpse has been kept in a refrigerated viewing chamber at a museum built to house him. An array of weapons and tools found alongside him, including a copper ax, bow and flint-stone-tipped arrows, also were kept in the museum.
His chamber is kept at 21 degrees Fahrenheit with a humidity level of 96-98 percent.
Danger lurks in springs
Asphyxiation suspected in Northern California deaths through the years
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. — As many as a dozen people luxuriating in the bubbling warm waters of Northern California's Soda Springs may have been asphyxiated in the past by the carbon dioxide that rises out of the Earth.
The springs are currently off limits until safety changes can be made.
The most recent victim of the gas was 31 year-old Stephen Kastner of Napa, who died alone in the pool July 28, said Phil Damon. an assistant field manager with the federal Bureau of Land Management, which owns the land.
The pool is encircled by a natural rock border, but a few years ago, someone built up the wall with bricks and concrete, making it about two feet higher. The higher wall made the basin cozier, but it also apparently trapped the gas close to the surface of the water.
"From our documentation, and it's minimal, we know for sure there have been three deaths and probably there have been four times that many," Damon said last week. "I don't have much doubt about that."
The earliest documented death by asphyxiation at the springs was John "Pop" O'Shea, a former Lake County coroner who died in 1878, Damon said. Another man, who was not identified, died in 1981.
Soda Springs sits at the edge of a small island about 200 feet off the shore of Clear Lake, about 120 miles north of San Francisco. The water in the rectangular 6-by-8-foot pool smells vaguely of rotten eggs, and the basin's natural back walls are encrusted with a multicolored patina of chemicals.
Carbon dioxide comes up through inactive volcanic vents, making the water bubble like a hot tub, or a bottle of soda.
Damon said locals had erected the wall to cloister the springs from the lake's waters, which tended to lap in and cool the 90-degree pool.
The BLM tore down the wall last week, and the springs now are off limits. Warning signs sit in the effervescent waters, strung together
"From our documentation, and it's minimal, we know for sure there have been three deaths and probably there have been four
times that many."
Phil Damon assistant field manager, federal Bureau of Land Management
bv a chain.
The plan now is to reopen the springs when the BLM determines carbon dioxide levels are safe, then install a wall that can be adjusted to the changing lake levels to allow for ample circulation, Damon said.
Without proper air flow, dangerous levels of carbon dioxide hover over the surface, said Cathy Janik, a U.S. Geological Survey geochemist.
"I'll tell you, I wouldn't want to sit in the spring, just because there's so much gas," she said.
Stephen Kastner's father, Bill Kastner, said all mysterious deaths at Soda Springs should have been taken seriously.
"We've been going there with the boys since they were 8 or 10," said Kastner, who has a summer house nearby. "Back then, there was no wall. In the past few years, someone built the wall, then the BLM knocked it down, and then someone built it back up again and BLM knocked it down again."
Officially, the cause of Kastner's death has not been determined, and lab results are expected to take several weeks, according to Russell Perdock, Lake County's coroner. Preliminary autopsy results showed that Kastner drowned, he said.
But Damon said he believed the young man was asphyxated, and Kastner's father said drowning as the cause of death was basically impossible as far as he was concerned. He said Stephen was an accomplished water skier, swimmer and diver.
The waters attract legions of visitors, especially during the summer.
"A as kid, this was adventure, this was discovery," said Rolf Kriken, 55, who spent youthful summers at Clear Lake and moved back nine years ago to raise his two sons. "It's a very spiritual, healing place."
Korean leaders pledge to ease border issues
The Associated Press
CHEJU, South Korea — In their first-ever meeting, the defense chiefs of South and North Korea pledged yesterday to work for reconciliation across the Cold War's last frontier.
South Korean Defense Minister Cho Sung-tae and Kim II Chul, minister of the People's Army of North Korea, agreed to open military talks to discuss clearing mines to reconnect a rail line between the two Koreas, South Korean officials said.
The meeting between Cho and Kim on this resort island was one of the most significant steps toward rapprochement on the divided peninsula since a June summit of the leaders of both Koreas.
It was the first meeting between the heads of the two militaries, which stand guard at the last flash point of the Cold War. The border is guarded by nearly 2 million troops on both sides, barbed wire, minefields, and artillery and missiles that can reach each other's capitals.
In their talk, Cho and Kim decided that their militaries should support the agreements of the summit at which the two Koreas agreed to seek eventual reunification, said Brig. Gen. Yoon Il-young, representative for Seoul's Defense Ministry.
"The two ministers said South and North Korea should end the mistrust and confrontation of the past and move toward an arena of mutual trust and reconciliation." Yoon said.
Following their June summit, the two Koreas agreed to reconnect a cross-border railway line and build a highway linking the countries.
Up to 100,000 mines planted in the area of the rail corridor will have to be removed. Yesterday, the defense ministers agreed to coordinate the mine-clearing project between the two armies operating in the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas.
South Korean officials doubted whether sweeping measures that will ease tension across the peninsula can be achieved in this first meeting.
The Pentagon regards the North's military as one of the greatest security threats in northeast Asia. Washington keeps 37,000 U.S. soldiers in South Korea as a deterrent against the North.
The Korean Peninsula was divided into North Korea and the pro-Western South at the end of World War II.
Plea bargain reached in microwave killing
The Associated Press
NEW KENT, Va. — A woman accused of killing her month-old son by putting him in a microwave oven and turning it on pleaded to involuntary manslaughter yesterday.
Elizabeth Renee Otte, 20, could get up to 10 years in prison at her sentencing in December. She originally was charged with first-degree murder, which carries up to life behind bars.
She entered an Alford plea, under which she did not admit guilt but acknowledged that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict her.
According to experts, Otte suffers from epilepsy, and her seizures often are followed by blackouts of up to 50 minutes. Prosecutor C. Linwood Gregory said that given such testimony,
Otte told authorities at the time that the last thing she remembered was feeding the baby.
Her son, Joseph Lewis Martinez, was found dead in 1999, crammed inside the 18-inch-wide microwave in the home Otte shared with the baby's father. According to experts, Joseph probably died after 10 minutes in the oven, when his blood reached 106 degrees.
a jury might have acquitted Otte.
She had stopped taking medication when she became pregnant. The baby's father, Joseph Anthony Martinez, told authorities that Otte had more than 50 seizures before and after the birth, even dropping the baby one time.
Red tide spreads along coast of Gulf of Mexico
The Associated Press
CORPUS CHRISTI. Texas — A bloom of toxic red tide algae is spreading along the Texas Gulf Coast, shutting down some oyster fishing and killing millions of fish whose rotting remains are fouling beaches.
State environmental officials say it's the largest concentration of red tide since 1986, when more than 22 million fish died in four months.
"We do not have an accurate number yet. But we are estimating several million fish have been killed so far," Dave Buzan, representative for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Kills and Spills Team, told the Corpus Christi Caller-Times.
Buzan said there was a major bloom off Matagorda Bay Sept. 18.
"It is so big it can be detected on satellite imagery," he said. High concentrations of the
For humans eating contaminated fish or shellfish, the toxin can cause numbness, dizziness, nausea, fever and muscle paralysis. The most serious cases can result in respiratory arrest and death. In addition, people who swim in affected bodies of water can suffer breathing and eye irritation.
algae called red tide produce a toxin that kills fish by affecting the central nervous system.
Elsewhere along the coast, officials in Houston said Sunday that red tide was spreading from the gulf into Galveston Bay and other inland waterways.
Commercial harvesting of oysters in Galveston Bay has been shut down since Sept. 5 because of red tide. State Department of Health officials were reviewing whether similar restrictions need to be issued elsewhere along the coast. Oyster season doesn't open at Corpus Christi until November.
The Associated Press
ABC to air news in Spanish
day.
NEW YORK — ABC News next week will begin providing a simultaneous Spanish-language version of its nightly World News Tonight newscast in 33 markets.
The Spanish versions will be heard on the Secondary Audio Program channel. SAP is an audio channel that can be received on stereo television sets. A button for the service is usually on the remote control or in front of the set.
ABC has made sports broadcasts such as Monday Night Football and occasional movies and news specials available on SAP, but this is the first regular newcastle it is presenting in Spanish, the network said yester-
"This is something we have wanted to do for a long time," said newscaster Peter Jennings. "We hope that those who speak primarily Spanish will get a broader view of the world by having access to our broadcast."
More than 30 million Hispanic Americans live in the United States, and they are the fastest-growing audience segment, ABC said.
NBC's Nightly News and the CBS Evening News are considering doing the same thing, said representatives for each broadcast. CBS is providing Spanish translations of the upcoming presidential and vice presidential debates, a representative said.
The Etc. Shop
928 Mass. • 843-0611 Brihan
Internetstedel im Malking? Sure Justice is Served!?
The Student Senate Judicial Board guarantees expedient, fair, representative due process rights to the students and student organizations of the University of Kansas, and resolves conflicts between students, student organizations, and Student Senate.
Apply to be on the Student Senate Judicial Board!
The Judicial Board Selection Committee is looking for the following to be Associate Justices:
One (1) Law Student
One (1) Graduate Student
Two (2) Undergraduate Students
Applications are available in the Student Senate office, 410 Kansas Union, and are due Friday, September 29th. For more information please come by or contact the Student Senate office at 864-3710
GET IN SHAPE! STAY IN SHAPE!
Two Floors of Fitness!
Cardio Theater
Treadmills
Recumbent Bikes
Upright Bikes
Stairsteppers
Reebok Ellipticals
Full Schedule of Classes.
Tanning Specials Universal Machines Icarian Machines Crossline Circuit Juice Bar Personal Training
Free Weights
FLITE Machines
Racquetball
Whiripools
Saunas
Child Care
Yoga
Cardio Blast
Butts & Guts
Cardio Kickboxing
Cardio Interval Stretch-n-Tone Aerobox Super Sculpt
2500 W. 6th Street - 841-6200
www.fitness-kd.com
Name ___
Address ___
City ___
Home Phone
FREE Trial Membership
Age
---