2A - THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS IN BRIEF
MONDAY,SEPT.24,2001
NATION
Nine-month-old girl in serious condition after kidnapping, rape
TAMPA, Fla. — A 9-month-old girl was kidnapped, raped and abandoned in a wooded area, and was hospitalized in serious condition yesterday.
Randolph Standifter, 21, was charged with kidnapping, capital sexual battery and attempted first-degree murder, and was being held without bail. He faces a possible life sentence if convicted.
Standifer told detectives he took the baby from her crib Saturday morning, said Hillsborough County Sheriff's Col. David Gee. Standifer, a friend of the baby's family, had spent the night at their home after a party.
Gee said Standifer failed a polygraph, and then admitted the attack and gave police directions to the spot where he had left the child.
Deputies expected to find the girl dead, but Detective Mike Conigliaro saw a tiny hand thrust up from beneath a layer of leaves and branches.
"She reached for [Conigliaro], grabbed him and wouldn't let go," Gee said. "She probably couldn't have survived there much longer."
The baby was dehydrated and covered with insect bites after being in the woods for 10 hours, officials said.
Genetics may help explain high blood pressure variations
CHICAGO — Researchers have identified a marker on the male chromosome that may partly explain why high blood pressure affects more men than women until middle age. The discovery supports the belief that genetics contributes to the risk of developing the condition.
The marker is a genetic variation that was found in 51 of 155 men studied in southern Poland, or about 30 percent of participants.
In men who tested positive for the marker, average blood pressure readings were 145/90. A reading of 140/90 is considered high.
Their average systolic pressure — the higher number, measuring pressure inside arteries when the heart beats — was 10 points higher than in men without the marker. Diastolic pressure — the lower number, measuring pressure between beats — was five points higher.
A report on the study by University of Glasgow researcher Fadi J. Charchar was prepared for presentation yesterday in Chicago at the American Heart Association's fall conference on high blood pressure research. Scientists from Silesian School of Medicine in Zabrze, Poland, contributed to the study, which was funded by the British Heart Foundation.
An estimated 50 million Americans age 6 and up have high blood pressure, which significantly increases the risk of heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular ailments. The prevalence in adults is estimated at 25 percent in the United States and other developed countries, and may be slightly higher in Poland, said Anna Dominiczak, leader of the Glasgow research group.
From age 20 to 34, men are more than twice as likely to have high blood pressure than women. The disparity remains until around age 55, when many women have gone through menopause.
Exploring the suspicion that genetics also plays a role, the researchers collected DNA and used an enzyme that helped them distinguish two forms of the Y chromosome, which determines male gender.
NATION & WORLD
New Miss America adds patriotism to her platform
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — As Miss Oregon, Katie Harman had already outlined what her mission would be if she won the Miss America contest: She would promote support for terminally ill breast cancer victims.
The Associated Press
But in the wake of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, the newly crowned Miss America 2002 decided to expand her platform to raise the country's spirits during a time of grief, uncertainty and war.
"This is an opportunity for Miss America to go and rally the hopes of the American people," she said yesterday. "I want to make sure that this tragedy does not bring down America."
The ceremony Saturday night took on added significance and security after the attacks - fans were subjected to hand-held metal detectors, and bomb-sniffing dogs were at the entrances of the arena.
It also had a somber, patriotic element. The stage set included images of waving flags, and
host Tony Danza mourned the lives lost in the Sept. 11 attacks and defended the decision to go ahead with the pageant.
When Danza ended his opening monologue by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, the crowd of 13,800 spontaneously joined in before erupting into applause when it ended.
It appeared for a while that contestants representing one of the cities targeted in the Sept. 11 attacks might win. Miss District of Columbia Marshawn Evans and Miss New York Andrea Plummer both made it to the Top 5, but Plummer finished fourth runner-up and Evans third runner-up.
Harman, the first Miss Oregon to win the pageant, took home $75,000 in scholarship aid. She plans to use some of it to earn a master's in bioethics.
Until then, she will tour the nation, promoting support for terminally ill breast cancer victims and helping the nation recover from the terrorist attacks.
Votes cast in Chinese enclave
The Associated Press
MACAU — Pro-Beijing and business candidates won the majority of directly chosen seats in the legislature yesterday in Macau's first election since China regained sovereignty over the gambling enclave from Portugal in 1999.
Of the ten popularly elected seats, the proBeijing camp captured four seats, with probusiness candidates winning another four. The pro-democracy alliance won two seats, one more than in 1996.
Ten other seats, chosen by special interest groups, were uncontested, while the remaining seven seats in the 27-member Legislative Assembly will be appointed by Macau's top political leader, Chief Executive Edmund Ho.
Despite their defeat, pro-democracy candi
dates captured 21 percent of the total votes the highest number won by any group. It was a stark contrast from the mere 6,332 votes they obtained in 1996.
"I'm overwhelmed and pleasantly surprised at this. Before now, we were worried that we wouldn't even get one seat," said opposition pro-democracy leader Antonio Ng Kuokcheong.
Officials said 83,619, or 52.3 percent of eligible voters had cast ballots, down 12.2 percentage points from the 1996 election.
The election result was a much needed morale boost to the democracy politicians, whose influence in the legislature waned after Ng, a staunch critic of China, became the sole voice in 1996.
ON THE RECORD
Two KU employees were involved in a vehicle collision at Facilities Operations Drive and Sunflower Road at 4:52 p.m. Wednesday, according to the KU Public Safety Office. One of the employees was reversing and struck the other vehicle, causing $700 in damages.
A 19-year-old KU student and a Lawrence resident were involved in a vehicle collision in the Burge Union parking lot at 9:53 a.m. Wednesday, according to the KU Public Safety Office. The student said he saw the resident's vehicle approaching as he reversed. He then stopped to allow the resident to go around his vehicle and he was struck. The resident said he could not stop or avoid the student's vehicle. There were no witnesses. Both cars sustained minor damages. The value of the damages was unknown.
Two 22-year-old KU students were involved in a vehicle accident in the Memorial
Stadium parking lot at 2.30 p.m., Sept. 17. A student, who was driving south-bound, turned and did not see that she was in the other vehicle's path. The student could not stop and later told a public safety officer that she should have been driving slower. Both vehicles sustained minor damages.
A KU staff member reported burglary and criminal damage to property from a Facilities and Operations storage building from 4:30 p.m. Tuesday to 10:30 a.m. Thursday, according to a KU Public Safety Office report. A 7-foot wood door frame was stolen. It was valued at $50
stolen, it was valued at $50.
■ A KU staff member reported theft and criminal damage to property from Watson Library between 11:45 and 11:51 a.m. Sept. 17, according to a KU Public Safety Office report. Two books were stolen, valued together at $50.
ON CAMPUS
The Black Student Union will meet at 7:30 tonight at the Pioneer Room in the Burge Union. Contact Mark Dupree at 864-3984.
University Career and Employment Services will sponsor a resume review workshop from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. today in 110 Burge Union. Contact Gail Rooney at 864-3624.
Vietnam Veterans for Academic Reform will air a program at 7:30 tonight on cable channel 19. Contact Leonard Magrhder at 843-3737.
The Tae Kwon Do club will meet from 6:30 to 8 tonight in 207 Robinson Center. Contact Greg Isaac at 749-4649.
O. A.K.S. Nontraditional Students will have a brown bag lunch from Noon to 1:30 today in the Burge Union. Contact Joan Winston at 864-7317.
KU Green Party will meet at 8 tonight at the Regionalist Room in the Kansas Union. Contact Sarah Hoskinson at 838-9063 or Dalyn Cook at 312-2090.
NATION
Rare pictures of comet flyby taken by NASA space probe
LOS ANGELES — A NASA spacecraft captured dozens of images of a comet during a weekend flyby, providing scientists only the second glimpse ever of the core of one of the glowing bodies of dust and ice.
Scientists said the Deep Space 1 probe flew within 1,360 miles of the comet Borrelly, capturing as many as 50 images of its nucleus at varying resolutions. Scientists expect to receive the last images and other data from the spacecraft today.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials say they will not release any images or data from the flyby until tomorrow. However, scientists gave hints of what the spacecraft saw and recorded, including pictures of dust and ice boiling off the comet's surface.
this data set will make a significant contribution to the body of knowledge we have about comets," Robert Nelson, the mission's project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said yesterday.
WORLD
Party that ended communism in Poland ousted in election
WARSAW, Poland — A leftist party with roots in Poland's former communist regime won a majority in parliamentary elections yesterday, according to exit polls that also indicated the political extinction of Solidarity.
Solidarity — the party that led Poland out of communism 12 years ago but has splintered to a remnant of its former self under a string of defections, infighting and corruption scandals — failed to get any seats, according to two separate exit polls.
If the results hold, Democratic Left Alliance and its small ally, the Labor Union, will have won an outright majority in the 460-seat Sejm, parliament's lower house.
Exit polls by the private polling agency PBS showed the Democratic Left bloc with 44.9 percent of the vote, representing 231 seats. A separate exit poll by the private OBOP agency showed the party winning 240 seats.
American flag causes conflict at event in Puerto Rico
LARES, Puerto Rico — Police whisked away a man who had brought an American flag to an annual event yesterday celebrating Puerto Rico's independence movement because the U.S. symbol was creating conflict.
The 50-year-old man from the central town of Lares brought the flag because he apparently was very moved by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, said Sixto Martinez, commissioner of the municipal police. The incident was resolved peacefully when police escorted the man, whose name was not released, away from the scene.
"Apparently he didn't understand, and he wanted to sit on a bench with a U.S. flag, which brought some protest from people who asked him to leave," Martinez said.
The Grito de Lares event commemorates an uprising in this mountain town in 1868, when the Caribbean island was a Spanish colony. It has become a popular gathering for independence supporters who now oppose the island's U.S. rule.
The Associated Press
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KU COOPERATIVE MINISTRIES
KU Hillel FOUNDATION (Jewish)
www.ku.edu/~hillel
(785) 749-5397
University Christian Fellowship
(Southern Baptist)
www.ukans.edu/~rcbsu
(785) 841-3148
United Methodist Campus Ministry
falcon.cc.ukans.edu/~umcmku
(785) 749-5397
ECUMENICAL CHRISTIAN MINISTRIES
(PRESbyterian, UNited Church of
CHRIST, QUAKER, Church of BRETHEN)
www.ukans.edu/~ecmku
(785) 843-4933
CANTERbury House (Episcopal)
www.qeocites.com/kuchristians.
coopertive.html
(785) 843-8202
LUTHERAN Campus Ministry
www.qeocites.com/kuchristians.
coopertive.html
(785) 843-4948
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