12A NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2, 2008
WORLD
Ted Turner partners with churches to fight malaria
BY RACHEL ZOLL ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — Ted Turner, who once called Christianity a "religion for losers," launched a $200 million partnership Tuesday with Lutherans and Methodists to fight malaria in Africa, apologizing for his past criticism of religion and calling faith a "bright spot" in the world.
Turner, 69, said he had only made a few disparaging comments a long time ago and that he is "always developing" his thinking as he grows older.
"I regret anything I said about religion that was negative," he told The Associated Press ahead of a
In the 1980s, the CNN founder criticized Christianity, wrote his own version of the Ten
"This will be the largest campaign of its type ever for Lutherans."
ia project with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and the United Methodist Church. The Protestant groups have been working overseas to fight poverty and prevent disease for more than a century.
"Religion is one of the bright spots as far as I'm concerned, even though there are some areas, like everything else, where they've gone over the top a little, in my opinion," Turner said. "But I'm sure God, wherever he is, wants to see us get along with one another and love one another."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Commandments and in 2001 asked employees who commemorated Ash Wednesday whether they were "Jesus freaks," saying they should work for Fox. He apologized at the time.
Turner now says he does not consider himself agnostic or atheist, as he had sometimes described himself previously. He prays for sick friends because "it doesn't hurt," he said, and maintains several churches on his properties for employees and others who live nearby.
On Tuesday, Turner's United Nations Foundation, which he started in 1997 with a $1 billion donation, launched the anti-malar-
REV. JOHN NUNES President of Lutheran World Relief
mote the campaign in churches. The Protestant groups together have more than 15 million U.S. members.
Turner's foundation had been working with many
groups, including the Methodists, on the Nothing But Nets campaign, which provides insecticide-treated bed nets in needy communities. Lutheran World Relief also had been helping malaria-infected cities and villages.
But their new joint project has an even more ambitious goal: to stop deaths from malaria, which kills more than 1 million people a year.
The United Methodist Church will raise $100 million for the project. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, with their humanitarian arm Lutheran World Relief, will raise
Ted Turner, chairman of Tumer Enterprises and the his United Nations Foundation, speaks during a news conference Tuesday at United Nations headquarters. Turner announced a $200 million partnership with Lutherans and Methodists to fight malaria as part of achieving the Millennium Development Goals in conjunction with the U.N.
between $75 million and $100 million.
"This will be the largest campaign of its type ever for Lutherans," said the Rev. John Nunes, president and chief executive of Lutheran World Relief. Texas Bishop Janice Huie, president of the Methodist Council of Bishops, said the money will be raised over several years.
The two denominations were chosen because of their overseas experience and their ability to advocate for the project in the U.S., said Elizabeth Gore, the foundation's executive director for global alliances. The money will be used for prevention, treatment and improving health care in areas at risk for the disease through the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
ECONOMY
Oil chiefs don't want blame
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sean Dickey with Pinnade Construction, installs a sign on a new fuel pump at a Chevron gas station in Anchorage, Alaska, on Tuesday. The BP building and fuel prices are seen in the background. Top executives of the country's five biggest oil companies said Tuesday they know record fuel prices are hurting people, but they argued it's not their fault and said their huge profits are in line with other industries.
Democrats demand explanations for high costs, profits
BY H. JOSEF HEBERT ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Don't blame us, oil industry chiefs told a skeptical Congress.
Top executives of the country's five biggest oil companies said Tuesday they know record fuel prices are hurting people, but they argued it's not their fault and their huge profits are in line with other industries.
"On April Fool's Day, the biggest joke of all is being played on American families by Big Oil." Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., said, aiming his remarks at the five executives sitting shoulder-to-shoulder in a congressional hearing room.
Appearing before a House committee, the executives were pressed to explain why they should continue to get billions of dollars in tax breaks when they made $123 billion last year and motorists are paying record gasoline prices at the pump.
"Our earnings, although high in absolute terms, need to be viewed in the context of the scale and cyclical, long-term nature of our industry as well as the huge investment requirements," said J.S. Simon, senior vice president of Exxon Mobil Corp., which made a record $40 billion last year.
"We depend on high earnings during the up cycle to sustain ... investment over the long term, including the down cycles," he continued.
Several lawmakers noted the rising price of gasoline at the pump, now averaging $3.29 a gallon amid talk of $4 a gallon this summer.
While Democrats hammered the executives for their profits and demanded they do more to develop alternative energy sources such as wind, solar and biofuels, Republican lawmakers called for opening more areas for drilling to boost domestic production of oil and gas.
"I heard what you are hearing. Americans are very worried about the rising price of energy," said John Hofmeister, president of Shell Oil Co., echoing remarks by the other four executives including representatives of BP America Inc., Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips.
What would bring lower prices? asked Rep. James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, the committee's ranking Republican
of energy supply," replied Robert Malone, chairman of BP America, adding that 85 percent of the country's coastal waters are off limits to drilling.
"We need access to all kinds
Exxon is spending $100 million on research into climate change at Stanford University, replied Simon, but current alternative energy technologies "just do not have an appreciable impact" in addressing "the challenge we're trying to meet."
But Markey wanted to know why the companies aren't investing more in energy projects other than oil and gas — or giving up some tax breaks so the money could be directed to promote renewable fuels and conservation and take pressure off oil and gas supplies.
The appearance Tuesday before the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming was not the first time that oil executives had faced the harsh words of a lawmakers frustrated over their inability to do anything about soaring oil and gasoline costs.
"Why is Exxon Mobil resisting the renewable revolution," asked Markey, noting that the other four companies together have invested $3.5 billion in solar, wind and biodiesel projects.
》 WORLD
Drug lord sentenced to 30 years
BY TALES AZZONI ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAO PAULO, Brazil — A reputed Colombian drug lord whose cartel is accused of having shipped hundreds of tons of cocaine to the United States was sentenced Tuesday to more than 30 years in prison in Brazil for crimes com-
mmitted in that country.
Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia, who was arrested last year in Brazil, was found guilty of money laundering, corruption, conspiracy and use of false documents in this South American country. Besides the sentence, Ramirez Abadia must also pay a fine worth $2.5 million.
"It was proved that after July of
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2004, Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia has channeled his business in Brazil mainly toward the acquisition of properties, vehicles, and other objects using the money resulting from drug trafficking in Colombia." Judge Fausto Martin de Sanctis said in a statement.
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President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will have the final word on whether he stays in Brazil to serve his sentence or is extradited immediately to the United States.
In his ruling, the judge advised against extraditing Ramirez Abadia until he has served his time in Brazil.
Brazil's Supreme Court has said the United States must agree not to sentence Ramirez Adabia to more than 30 years in jail, the maximum allowed under Brazilian law, in order for the extradition to take place.
Ramirez Abadia claims he left Colombia for Brazil because he feared he might be killed by rival drug gang members and said he was not involved in drug trafficking in Brazil.