NEWS
6A THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN ▼ WORLD
TUESDAY, MAY 2, 2006
Natural gas fields occupied
Painted and pretty
President of Bolivia wants control of industry
BY. ALVARO ZUAZO
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
the entire chain of productions Morales sent soldiers and engineers with Boliv-
LA PAZ, Bolivia — President Evo Morales ordered soldiers to occupy Bolivia's natural gas fields Monday and threatened to evict foreign companies unless they gave Bolivia control over the entire chain of production.
Morales sent soldiers andia's state-owned oil company to installations and fields tapped by foreign companies — including Britain's BG Group PLC and BP PLC, Brazil's Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Spanish-Argentine Repsol YPF SA, France's Total SA and U.S.-based Exxon Mobil Corp. The companies have six months to agree to new contracts or leave Bolivia, he said.
Soldiers took over major gas fields and refineries and, in the eastern city of Santa Cruz, where much of the industry is based, occupied some oil company offices, said Tuffi Are, news editor at the El Deber newspaper, one of Bolivia's largest. He said about 100 soldiers were guarding the Petrobras refinery just outside the city.
Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera said troops were sent to 56 locations across the country.
bras refinery just outside the city. Morales, a leftist allied with Cuba's Fidel Castro and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez in seeking to blunt U.S. influence in the region, had pledged to exert greater state control over the industry since he won election in December, becoming Bolivia's first Indian president.
VICE President Alvaro Garcia Linera said troops were sent to 56 locations around the country.
"The time has come, the awaited day, a historic day in which Bolivia retakes absolute control of our natural resources," Morales said in a speech from the San Alberto field in southern Bolivia operated by Petrobras in association with Repsol and Total SA.
Sasha Quendo models her hair at the International Beauty Show in New York on Monday. Oquendo works for Alter Ego hair care products, manufactured by Pettenon Cosmetics of Italy.
Posters identifying doctors stopped
BY GINA HOLLAND THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday ended a decade-long fight over the use by anti-abortion protesters of "wanted" posters to identify clinic doctors.
A Portland, Ore., jury had first awarded several doctors and clinics $108 million in punitive damages, but that was reduced by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Activists who created Wild West-style posters and a Web site targeting abortion doctors had been ordered to pay nearly $5 million in damages, and the court refused without comment to take up their appeal.
ment to take the
The 12 activists and two anti-abortion groups were sued under a racketeering law and the 1994 Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which makes it illegal to incite
violence and threaten abortion doctors.
A Portland, Ore., jury had first awarded several doctors and clinics $108 million in punitive damages, but that was reduced by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The anti-abortion groups appealed to the high court, saying that the amount should be reduced more.
'This court has long taught that
public forum political speech menu the highest possible protection — including alleged threats," said Edward White III, the attorney for the anti-abortion protesters, in a court filing.
ming.
White, who is trial counsel for the Thomas More Law Center in Ann Arbor, Mich., said Monday that the case, which dates to 1995, "affects any group that is involved in robust debate, especially on controversial
topics." He said anti-abortion activists no longer used protest posters because of concerns about lawsuits.
Lawyers for the clinics and doctors said that the latest appeal was a rehash of a similar appeal in the same case, which was rejected by the Supreme Court three years ago.
ago. Maria Vullo, the lawyer for Planned Parenthood, said the Supreme Court had "finally put an end to re-litigation of these issues."
"This case has never been about the money. It's about protecting doctors' lives," she said.
The case is American Coalition of Life Activists v. Planned Parenthood, 05-1083.