Basketball: Women's loss to K-State eliminates team from Big 12 Tournament. Page 1B Mascot: Students don Jayhawk costume, exhibit tradition and school spirit. Page 6A
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KS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 3
PO BOX 3585
TOPEKA, KS 66601-3585
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
NEWS 864-4810
FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 1997
ADVERTISING 864-4358
SECTION A VOL.103,NO.113
(USPS 650-640)
U.S. tells Vietnam it's time to pay off debts
HANO1, Vietnam — To clear the way for a trade pact, the United States is asking that Vietnam repay a $100 million debt, which was incurred by South Vietnam.
Before the South Vietnamese government fell to communist North Vietnam in 1975, the United States was the country's biggest benefactor, channeling billions of dollars into military, humanitarian and development aid.
Divided Vietnam then was reunited under communist rule
The U.S. Embassy confirmed that Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Barbara Griffiths was in Hanoi for the talks.
Vietnamese Foreign Ministry representative Tran Quang Hoan said that the talks, which began earlier this week, had not shown any signs of progress.
Hoan also said that Vietnam was prepared to settle South Vietnam's debt although it was incurred by its former enemy.
Neither side would disclose the amount to be repaid, but an official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that the amount was $100 million.
The U.S. wants the loans made for development and humanitarian purposes to be repaid.
U. S. officials and Western diplomats in Hanoi said that the resolution of Saigon's old debts was a prerequisite for concluding a bilateral trade agreement.
WASHINGTON — In a backset for a high-priority Pentagon missile defense project, a Thaad interceptor launched yesterday from a test range in New Mexico failed to hit its target.
It was the fourth miss in four tests since December 1995.
Lt. Col. Rick Lehner, spokesman for the Pentagon office that oversees the project, said the cause of the latest failure had not been determined. He said it was too early to say what consequences the failure might have on the project.
Paul Kaminski, the top Pentagon official in charge of weapons development, told a trade publication last month that if Thaad failed another test the Pentagon probably would push back its goal of fielding the system in 2004.
The multibillion dollar missile project is a top priority for the military, which sees a growing threat to U.S. and allied troops abroad from attack by medium-range ballistic missiles more sophisticated and deadly than the Scud missiles Iraq used during the 1991 Gulf War.
Thad is intended to provide a better defense than the Patriot missile, the only anti-missile missile in use.
Guyana President dies in Washington
GEORGETOWN, Guyana — Guyana President Cheddi Jagan died in a Washington, D.C., hospital yesterday, three weeks after suffering a heart attack, the government said.
Jagan, 78, died at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he had been hospitalized Feb. 16 after being flown to Washington on a U.S. military jet.
Jagan, a U.S.-trained dentist, helped lead Guyana to independence from British colonial rule in 1966. As head of the People's Progressive Party, he was elected president in 1992, ending 28 consecutive years of People's National Congress rule.
Jagan long was an outspoken Marxist but more recently had supported free market economic policies.
Guyana, a country of 800,000 people, is the only English-speaking country in South America.
The Associated Press
Story by Tim Harrington
Illustrations by Andy Rohrback
Five times the size of Halley's Comet, Hale-Bopp will reach its perihelion Apr and the entire astronomy community will be CHASING A
0 n April 1, just a few degrees above the northwestern horizon, the brightest comet seen by mankind since 1577 may appear. Or there may be just a small white fuzzball. KU astronomers and amateur comet watchers can only
Or there may be just a small white fuzzball. KU astronomers and amateur comet watchers can only
wait to see.
Such is the unpredictable nature of comets, which have in the past promised spectacular displays and provided spectacular letdowns.
Comet Hale-Bopp, which should be in its optimum viewing period between March 25 and April 13, shows all the preliminary signs of being a great show.
"When Hale-Bopp was discovered it was very far out, certainly past the orbit of Jupiter," said Tom Cravens, professor of physics and astronomy. "Normally a comet doesn't become active until it gets within a couple Earth-orbits."
Cravens was a former co-investigator on the 1986 Russian, Vega Mission to Halley's Comet.
A couple Earth-orbits translates into roughly 186 million miles away from the sun. Hale-Bopp was discovered at 666 million miles from the sun.
Comets are giant, celestial dirty snowballs which emit jets of gasses and dust when heated by the sun, thus creating the characteristic tail observable from Earth.
Comets are usually undetectable before they become active, and the fact that Hale-Bopp was spotted at such a great distance means that something about it is different.
"It's big," said Craven as he looked at the latest estimates of Hale-Bopp's size.
Scientists cannot be certain, but Hale-Bopp, more formally known as C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp), could have a diameter of 25 miles across, possibly even 35 miles, said Craven.
By contrast, the famous Halley's Comet had a diameter of about 6 miles.
The key is to get as far away from city lights as possible. Then look to the northwestern horizon soon after sunset.
April 1 will be the comet's perilion, its closest point to the sun, and probably the best night to see it.
Although the comet should be easily visible with the naked
eye, Stephen Shawl, professor of physics and astronomy, said that comet watchers would want a pair of binoculars so they can see a large portion of the sky at one time.
"A telescope really magnifies it too much," Shawl said.
Hale-Bopp, which is just now becoming visible in the predawn, northeastern sky, was last seen by humans when bronze knives were cutting-edge technology 4,200 years ago. Missing it this time will mean a 2,400-year wait until Hale-Bopp returns.
Scientists are interested in comets because of what they can tell us about the history of the universe.
"They're undigested remnants from the nebula from which the sun and planets condensed," Cravens said. "It's a link between us and that interstellar cloud 4.5 million years ago."
Cravens said any U.S. involvement would be minor.
Cravens recently returned from a meeting of scientists in London where a mission sponsored by the European Space Agency to land on the surface of a comet was discussed.
Hale-Bopp, however, will have no visitors as it hurts towards the sun at 97,000 mph.
Cravens and Shawl said they didn't know exactly where they would go to see Hale-Bopp, but neither seemed too worried about missing the event. Cravens said that wherever he was he would just look up.
Local cases of AIDS show no decline
By Sean Demory
Kansan staff writer
Last Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control reported a 13 percent nationwide drop in AIDS-related deaths.
This is the first major drop since the AIDS epidemic began in 1981. Infection rates nationwide also have decreased from 6 percent to slightly under 2 percent.
April Ramos, director of the Douglas County AIDS Program, said that infection rates may have increased as much as 6 percent in the past few years.
Infection rates in Douglas County, however, have not fallen.
The reasons attributed to the national decline include reduced potency of the AIDS virus and the use of protease inhibitors.
However, the idea that the AIDS virus has become less lethal, a theory called balanced pathogenicity, is unfounded, said Elizabeth Boyce, associate professor of microbiology.
"It's happened with other pathogens," Boyce said. "If you're a germ, you want your host to live as long as possible to spread your progeny. But with HIV, there's such a long period in which the host can spread the disease, it's not as likely."
A prime force in the decrease is the use of combination therapies and protease inhibitors. Boyce said.
Combination therapies, Boyce said, do not allow the virus to adapt to treatment as quickly as the earlier single therapies.
"Protease inhibitors not only decrease the loads of the virus, but the T-cell rates go up when they're used," Boyce said. "No one can explain why this happens, but it's extremely encouraging."
The new therapies are not without risks, however.
"For the people that the drugs do work for, there are fantastic results. There's no real data on the long term results, though." Ramos said.
Ramos said that the side effects could be debilitating for weeks before any improvement occurs.
"The drugs are keeping people alive, not necessarily keeping them working." Ramos said.
The majority of Ramos' clients are not on protease inhibitors or combination therapies. A very small percentage of people with AIDS, she said, are on the new drugs.
"A lot of people can't afford them, and make take too much money to get federal funding for the drugs but not enough to spend $15,000 a year on medication," Ramos said.
Boyce said that the problem with the combination therapy was the expense.
"It's a great thing for people with insurance or who are in clinical trials. If you look worldwide, though, most people will never be able to afford them," Boyce said.
"Some people think that AIDS could become a chronic disease that is managed, like diabetes," Boyce said. "It seems, though, that could only be possible for the affluent fortunate few."
For more information regarding the Douglas County AIDS Project, call 843-0403.
Television . . . . . . . 2A
Features . . . . . . . 6A
Sports . . . . . . . 1B
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Classifieds . . . . . 5B
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Microstation to invade Lawrence's airwaves Sunday
6-watt KAW-FM to offer community variety of music choices, talk shows
By Paul Eakins Kansan staff writer
Radio listeners flipping through the stations this Sunday will hear a new sound.
The Lawrence Community Radio Station, KAW-FM, will begin broadcasting at 11 a.m. on 88.9 FM, offering a diverse assortment of music, talk shows and other programming throughout the week.
By broadcasting, the six-watt KAW-FM is joining several other community radio stations, or microstations, across the country in opposing the Federal Communications Commission.
In a recent court case in Berkeley, Calif., a district court judge had indicated her reservations about taking a microstation, Radio Free Berkeley, off of the air because of the possible unconstitutionality of FCC regulations.
The FCC wants to move the case to a different court, and the resulting legal situation could take months or years to be resolved. In the interim, people have started microstations in several cities around the country.
KAW-FM, which has been in the works for several months, is an all-volunteer station, composed of both Lawrence residents and KU students, young and old, experienced disc jockeys and those completely new to radio.
With such a diversity of programming and people, Steve Stemmacher, co-program director, hopes to attract an equally
diverse audience.
"Our audience will be a wide hodgepodge of local people," he said.
"It will be focusing on community news and community information," he said. "We don't really have a purely community-influenced radio station."
Bob Oderkirk, co-program director, said that the station was a positive thing for Lawrence.
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Kendra Oglott, a DJ at KAW-FM, said that the station will serve the community.
"We're going to play things that are equally appealing to the community," she said. "Not controlled by money."
And it should be appealing to many. Show themes will range from country, jazz, punk and Native-American music, to spoken word, talk shows about local and national issues, and interviews with local people, among other shows.
Matt Caldwell, Overland Park, junior, who has a talk show on KAW-FM, said that the station would provide services not met by the other radio stations.
Getting the station together has taken a lot of hard work.
"We'll fill a lot of the voids that KJHK can't fill," he said.
Caldwell said the station will not be afraid to explore controversial issues and will strive to allow every voice in the community to be heard.
After acquiring a space in the basement of Liberty Hall, 642 Massachusetts St., the station needed to get equipment, money and volunteers. Money has been gathered through donations, but the search for funds is far from over. Oderkirk said.
"The most difficult area is always raising enough money from donations," said Oderkirk, an experienced DJ. "It is going to be, and will remain, the biggest obstacle."
Pete Laufer, Lawrence resident, prepares for the first broadcast of KAW-FM, a new community radio station, which will begin Sunday.
Although money may have been scarce, the search for volun
teers was a fruitful one.
"In two to three months, we came up with more than 60 shows by word-of-mouth." Stemmerman said.
Coordinating schedules and beginning training were other problem areas, because there were so many people involved, Stemmerman said.
Pete Laufer, a KAW-FM DJ with previous experience, said that getting the station in order could take a while.
"They don't realize all of the headaches they're going to have to keep this together," Lauer said. "They only care about what you're playing on the turntable. They don't realize the dance of bodies going on."
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