10A NEWS
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2009
CONSERVATION
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Lutty, an endangered Amur tiger, roams in his cage at the Wild Animals Rehabilitation Center in Sikhote-Ali. Russia wants to double the tiger population by 2022.
Russia hopes to hold tiger summit
BY GARY PEACH
Associated Press
MOSCOW — Vladimir Putin has made headlines by championing the endangered Siberian tiger — posing with a cuddly cub and placing a tracking collar on a full-grown female in the wilds of his country's Far East.
Now Russia is helping plan an ambitious program it hopes can double the global tiger population by 2022.
Russia hopes to hold a "tiger summit" in the Far East city of Vladivostok in September to coordinate multinational efforts to protect the Amur tiger, its habitats and increasingly scarce food sources, representatives of Russia's Natural Resources Ministry, the World Bank and the World Wildlife Fund said Wednesday.
"We decided that this time we should do something serious in order to preserve tigers on our planet," said Igor Chestin, director of the Russian branch of the World Wildlife Fund. "The situation is catastrophic."
The meeting would be hosted
by Putin, Russia's powerful prime minister, and include leaders of countries such as India and China, according to Chestin and Deputy Natural Resources Minister Igor Maidanov.
The goal of the program, which could involve as many as 13 countries, would be to double the number of tigers worldwide to some 6,500 by 2022.
Chestin said this would require a total $1 billion from all participating countries — a target he said could be met with both government funds and private sponsorship.
Putin's support, which Maidanov said was expected, would likely give the effort a major boost.
Last year, Putin was given an Amur cub on his birthday and showed it off to journalists inside his home before putting it in other hands.
Months earlier, Russian television networks showed him patting a grown female on the cheek after shooting it with a tranquilizer gun as part of a program to track the rare cats on a Russian wildlife preserve.
NATIONAL
Mormon church backs gay rights laws
BY ERIC GORSKI
Associated Press
It looked like a stunning reversal: the same church that helped defeat gay marriage in California standing with gay-rights activists on an anti-discrimination law in its own backyard.
On Tuesday night, after a series of clandestine meetings between local gay-rights backers and Mormons in Salt Lake City, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced it would support proposed city laws that would prohibit discrimination against gays in housing and employment.
The ordinances passed and history was made; It marked the first time the Salt Lake City-based church had supported gay-rights legislation.
The Mormon church — which continues to suffer a backlash over its support last year of Proposition 8, the measure banning gay marriage in California — emphasized that its latest position in no way contradicts its teachings on homosexuality.
But the action is one of the strongest signs yet that even conservative religious groups that oppose same-sex marriage might be willing to support legal protections for gays that fall short of that.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Frank Schubert, campaign director for Stand for Marriage Maine, talks to supporters Nov 3, 2019. This is the first time the Church of Latter-day Saints has supported marriage jesusidation.
Playing along
Baby Jay sits on the court as Big Jay looks into a newspaper during the introduction of Pittsburg State Tuesday night at Allen Fieldhouse. The Jayhawks won 103-45 in the exhibition game.
THE RIVALRY
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE KANSAS WALKS ALL OVER MISSOURI
ISSUE DROPS NOVEMBER 16
INTERNTIONAL Head of U.N. food agency fasting to raise awareness
ROME — The head of a U.N. food agency called on people around the world Wednesday to join him in a day of fasting to highlight the plight of undernourished people, whose ranks have surged past 1 billion in the
Associated Press
Jacques Diouf, director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organization, said he hoped the move would encourage action by world leaders who will take part in a three-day food summit at the agency's headquarters starting Monday.
global economic crisis.
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MILITARY
Missing soldier's body found by divers
BY ELENA BECATOROS
Associated Press
KABUL — Military divers have found the body of a U.S. paratrooper who disappeared last week along with another soldier as the two tried to retrieve airdropped supplies from a river in western Afghanistan, NATO said Wednesday.
Afghan and international forces are still searching for the second missing paratrooper in the remote, Taliban-infested province of Badghis, which borders Turkmenistan. He has not been identified.
Relatives said they believe Spc. Benjamin Sherman of Plymouth, Mass., died after jumping into the river to try to save his comrade, who was also swept away by the current.
Sherman's wife, Patricia, said military officials told her that the circumstances of his death remain under investigation, but his family believes Spc. Sherman died trying to rescue his friend.
"I know that day he jumped into the river to try to save his comrade was not because he didn't just see another soldier in the water, he saw his brother," said his sister, Meredith Sherman. "He didn't jump in because he was trained to, but because that's what his heart told him to do."
The two paratroopers, both from the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, disappeared Nov. 4 in the Bala Barghab area of Badghis during a routine resupply mission.