NATION/WORLD
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Thursday, January 18, 1996
7A
Russian troops risk hostages, storm Chechens
The Associated Press
PERVOMAYSKAYA, Russia — Saying there was little hope left of saving any hostages, Russian forces unleashed a blizzard of rockets yesterday on the tiny village they had been unable to take in three days of fighting with Chechen rebels.
One hostage — an old man whose name was not given — escaped from the village after dark yesterday night and said he did not see anyone alive, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
The assault came despite new terrorist threats by Chechen sympathizers, including gunmen who hijacked a Black Sea ferry in Turkey carrying 200 people and said they would blow it up unless the Russians stopped the battle at Pervomayskava.
In the blowing snow, hundreds of weary Russian troops pulled back yesterday on the steeps around the ruined village, allowing their countrymen to fire volleys from Grad rocket launchers. Pervomayska's cluster of small buildings also was rocketed by helicopter gunships and struck by rounds of artillery shells.
Heavy machine-gun fire in the late afternoon indicated that the Chechens still were resisting. The last Russian
rocket attack came shortly after 8 p.m., ITAR-Tass said.
Reporters were expelled by Russian military authorities from Permovamskaya and neighboring villages earlier yesterday. The region, in the republic of Dagestan, is just across the border from Chechnya.
The Russians began storming the village Monday, breaking a five-day standoff and refusing the Chechens' demands for safe passage to their homeland. Authorities said they resorted to force because the gunmen were killing hostages — a charge denied by separatist leaders in Chechnya.
Yesterday, Russian officials again claimed they escaped the conflict because hostages were being killed Maj. Gen. Alexander Mikhailov, a representative for the Federal Security Service, said the gunmen planned to execute the captives and try to escape.
"Because the situation is becoming more complicated, we have decided to conclude the operation," Mikhailov said.
He said he had little hope for the hostages.
Before the Russian assault, the Chechens were estimated to be holding 70 to 120 hostages, including women and children.
The hostages were among up to 3,000 seized Jan. 9
when Chechen gunmen raided a hospital in the nearby city of Kizlyar. At least 40 people were killed. Taking some hostages with them, the gunmen set out for Chechnya the next day, but were stopped by Russian troops at Pervomavskava.
The subsequent battle, one of the most serious in the 13-month Chechnya war, was typical of the larger conflict where the Russians were being badly outfought.
At least 100 people have been killed and injured in the village.
The rebels, estimated to number between 150 and 250, also have rocket-propelled grenades, and have destroyed several armored personnel carriers.
It was not known if any hostages were killed. Russian news agencies said yesterday that 41 hostages had been rescued.
Chechen snipers and machine-gunners repeatedly drove back troops. One Russian officer, who declined to be identified, said federal forces had suffered heavy losses.
Russia's Interior Ministry said Monday that 60 rebels were killed and an unspecified number captured. No new figures have been released.
The ministry said that at least 18 Russian soldiers were
killed and more than 60 wounded, but figures were believed to be higher.
Russian tanks rolled into Chechina in December 1994 to end rebel leader Dzhokhar Dudayev's three-year drive for independence. About 30,000 people have been killed in fighting.
The group that seized the ferry Tuesday in Trabzon, Turkey, claimed allegiance to Chechen commander Shamil Basayev, a separatist hero. The ship had been headed to Sochi, Russia, and many on board were believed to be Russians.
"This is a warning to Yeltsin," their leader told independent Turkish television Channel D.
Alazad Yuksel, governor of Trazon, identified the ringleader as Muhammed Tokcan, a Turk who has fought with Chechen rebels. He said the ferry carried 144 passengers and 55 crew.
Tokcan reportedly told Turkish officials the ferry was heading to Istanbul, and threatened to blow it up in the Bosporus strait.
The rash of new violence could be a political threat to Russian President Yeltisn, who is expected to run for reelection in June and whose popularity is already battered by the Chechen war.
The Associated Press
BOSTON — A single bad gene appears to cause a significant share of breast cancer in young women, especially Jews, in whom it may trigger more than a quarter of all cases under age 40.
A whirlwind of research during the past two years has pinpointed a gene that is often to blame when breast cancer clearly runs in families.
victim's close relatives.
Now, two new studies show for the first time that this same gene is frequently the cause whenever the disease strikes women in their 20s and 30s, even if there is no strong pattern of breast cancer among the
"This is an important finding," said Richard Klausner, a doctor and director of the National Cancer Institute. "It takes genetic susceptibility the next step — from individuals who are members of preselected families with a history of cancer — and now looks at all young women."
The younger that women are when they get breast cancer, the more likely that the disease is caused by a muisce in the recently discovered gene, called BRCA1.
The discovery of the importance of BRCA1 does nothing to steer doctors toward better treatments, although that may happen someday. However, it does raise the possibility of getting a jump on the disease by testing women for the faulty gene before they develop cancer.
When it works properly, the BRCA1 gene helps prevent cancer.
Two studies on BRCa1 in a total of 498 young breast cancer patients were conducted at Massachusetts
Last September, researchers reported that 1 percent of American Ashkenazi Jews, whose families came from Central and Eastern Europe, carry one particular defect in their BRCA1 gene. The new work shows the role this mutation plays when young Jewish women get breast cancer.
General Hospital in Boston and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. Both studies are in Thursday's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Francis Collins, a doctor and head of the National Center for Human Genome Research, said that taken together, the reports suggest that under age 30, the genetic defect is responsible for 38 percent of breast cancer among Jews and 8 percent among non-Jews. Under age 40, it causes 27 percent of cases among Jews and 5 percent among non-Jews.
The American Cancer Society estimates breast cancer will kill 44,300 U.S. women this year, more
than any other form of cancer excepting cancer.
However, the disease is rare among the young. Before age 30, breast cancer strikes 17 in every 1 million women.
Daniel A. Haber, a doctor and senior author of the Massachusetts General study, suggested screening certain Jewish breast cancer survivors — women who got the disease at an early age or who have a strong family history of breast cancer — to see if they have the bad gene.
"If it turns out to be successful, eventually we can look at the entire Jewish population." Haber said.
However, experts are leery of widespread genetic screening.
Among the reasons:
Even if someone is found to have a genetic susceptibility to cancer, it is not clear what, if anything, can be done to help them avoid the disease.
A negative test result may give a false sense of security. A woman with no errors in her BRCA1 gene probably faces the same 12 percent lifetime risk of breast cancer that other women have.
Those who carry the gene might be shunned by insurance companies.
"It is critical that we create safeguards to ensure that the benefits of testing exceed the risks," Collins wrote in a journal editorial.
The KU Bookstores announce an appearance by sports analyst Dick Vitale Author of Holding Court Reflections on the Game I Love Masters Press, $22.95 who will be at our Kansas Union store on Monday, January 22, from 12noon until 1:30pm.
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