Researchers discouraged
by newborn HIV cases
CHICAGO—The number of cases
of mothers passing the AIDS virus to
their newborns has leveled off to about
1,600 a year in the United States, but
government researchers remain dis
couraged at the numbers.
“What it really says to me is that
there is a continuing problem with
HIV infection in children,” said Dr.
Susan F. Davis of the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention in
Atlanta.
More than 15,000 babies were bom
with HIV, the vims that causes AIDS,
between 1978 and 1993, Davis and
her team reported in Wednesday’s is
sue of The Journal of the American
Medical Association.
Twelve thousand of those children
were still alive at the beginning of
1994, all needing medical and social
care, and many destined for foster
care because their mothers will die of
AIDS, Davis and her team said.
In 1993, about 6,530 HIV-infected
women gave birth in the United States,
and about 25 percent passed the dis
ease to their babies, producing 1,630
HIV-infected newborns that year, the
researchers said.
That’s fewer than in 1992—when
1,750 infected infants were bom. In
1991,1,760 were bom. In 1990,1,690
were bom. And in 1989, 1,590 were
, bom.
The reason for the leveling off after
1989 is unknown. Researchers said it’s
possible that fewer women of
childbearing age are being infected with
HIV, or that infected women are less
fertile or are having more abortions.
The researchers noted that a recent
study showed treating infected women
during pregnancy and their newborns
afterward with the drug zidovudine,
also known as AZT, reduced the rate
of mother-to-child transmission by
two-thirds.
They also called attention to re
cently issued CDC guidelines urging
that all pregnant women receive HIV
testing and counseling so that treat
ment can be started when necessary
and newborn infections averted.
Dr. John L. Sullivan, who studies
newborn AIDS as a pediatrics profes
sor at the University of Massachusetts
Medical School in Worcester, said the
research is consistent with trends in
his state.
“We know that a majority of (in
fected) women are not getting access
(to treatment) because they don’t know
they’re HIV infected, and that’s be
cause they haven’t been offered HIV
testing,” said Sullivan, who was not
involved in the CDC study.
Sullivan supports mandatory
screening and also a resumption of the
CDC’s nationwide data-gathering ef
fort to track the infection rate among
Source: Journal of the AP
American Medical Association
newborns. The agency suspended the
tests, which were done anonymously
and without consent, this spring after
mothers protested that they weren’t
told their babies were HIV positive
until after they became sick.
“I think it’s incredibly important
that it continue,” Sullivan said. “It’s
the only way we ’re going to find out if
we’re doing our job.”
Davis said the possibility of re
suming the testing newborns is being
debated within the CDC, and she
doesn’t know when or if the statistical
sampling would resume.
Trader charged with hiding
bank’s $1.1 billion loss
NEW YORK — In a scandal
strikingly similar to the one that
brought down Britain’s venerable
Barings Bank, a bond trader at
Japan’s Daiwa Bank was charged
Tuesday with doctoring records to
hide $1.1 billion in losses.
Federal prosecutors said 44
year-old Toshihide Iguchi lost the
money through 30,000 unautho
rized trades over the last 11 years at
Daiwa’s New York branch.
“Something this size is unprec
edented,” said U.S. Attorney Mary
Jo White.
The debacle was the latest in a
recent rash of cases against traders
accused of single-handedly conceal
ing huge losses from bank superi
ors.
But the scope and size ofDaiwa’s
loss left some financial market ex
perts wondering how it could have
gone unnoticed for so long in one of
the world’s biggest banks — par
ticularly so soon after Barings’ col
lapse.
Daiwa, however, said it is in no
danger of collapse and expects to
report a $70 million first-half profit
despite having to write off the tosses.
It also said that no depositor or
customer lost any money.
Iguchi, a permanent U.S. resi
dent, was arrested over the week
end in New Jersey, where he lives,
and ordered held without bail Tues
day. Appearing somber and wear
ingblue jeans and a striped sweater,
he made no comment. His lawyer
also declined to comment.
Iguchi could get up to 30 years
in prison and $ 1 million in fines. He
could also be ordered to make res
titution.
In February, Barings was
brought down by the nearly $1.4
billion in losses blamed on Nicho
las Leeson, a rogue trader in
Singapore. Like Leeson, Iguchi was
in charge both of trading and of the
backroom operations that monitor
trades, meaning he was policing
himself.
Risk management experts said it
was unusual for a trader to have
oversight for accounting of his own
trades. . '
“The fact that someone could
hide all these trades is nearly im
possible” at most banks, said Heinz
Binggeli, managing director at
Emcor Risk Management Consult
ing in Irvington, N.Y.
Daiwa, said it learned about the
trading loss when Iguchi wrote a
confidential letter, dated July 13, to
Daiwa’s president in Japan con
fessing to wide-ranging unautho
rized trades.
In addition to losing about $1.1
billion, Iguchi made unauthorized
sales of the bank’s government se
curities to cover up his losses, au
thorities said.
News f
in a JBj
Minute1
Judge refuses female lawyer wearing pants
COLUMBIA, S.C. —A judge refused to let a female lawyer enter a
plea for her client because she was wearing pants.
“If a man were to come to court without a tie, I’d ask him to put on a
tie,” Circuit Judge Joseph Wilson said after calling off Monday’s
hearing.
Heather Smith’s client, who faces fireanxis charges, will have to enter
her plea at a later date. Smith declined to comment Tuesday.
Her colleagues were surprised by the judge’s move.
“I’ve seen pldnty of women in courtrooms across the state wearing
pantsuits,” said Sue C. Erwin, president of the South Carolina Women’s
Lawyers Association.
Rules that used to specify what was considered appropriate court
room attire no longer exist, Erwin said. Judges have the power to control
their courtrooms and differ in what they think shows disrespect, she said.
“As long as people are neat and clean... I don’t think it should make
a lot of difference,” said Lee Robinson, president of the Charleston
County Bar Association. “It’s kind of a silly issue.”
Irish government overturns ban on Playboy
DUNDALK, Ireland—Government censors have ruled that Playboy
magazine can be sold in Ireland, overturning a 34-year ban that had sent
•its fans hopping over the border to Northern Ireland to buy it.
In this town a few miles from the border, the news got some
commercial pulses thumping. Gerry and Margaret Molloy said they
were eager to sell Playboy in their Dundalk shop, even though some
neighbors disapprove.
“They say I’m an idjit (idiot), but I’m here to make money. There’s
a clear demand for the stuff, and it’s harmless,” said Molloy, noting that
other shops had sold Playboy under the counter for years.
The Censorship of Publications Board, which bans a range of periodi
cals and books from this predominantly Roman Catholic country of 3.5
million, approved Playboy’s appeal for distribution rights on Monday.
The magazine had been banned from the Irish Republic since 1961, but
could go on sale here as soon as next week.
“We were conscious of the fact that Playboy was very widely
available internationally,” said board chairman George Birmingham.
“The only other country in what could be described as the West that
banned it as well as Ireland was Turkey.”
NetS^kan
* FAX NUMBER 472-1761
- The Daily Nebraskan(USPS 144-080) is published by the UNL Publications Board, Ne
braska Union 34, 1400. R St., Lincoln, NE 68588-0448, Monday through Friday during the
academic yean weekly during summer sessions.
Readers are encouraged to submit story ideas and comments to the Daily Nebraskan by
ohonind 472-1763 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The public also has
access to the Publications Board. For information, contact Tim Hedegaard, 436-9253,9 a.m.
11 lubscriotion price is $50 for one year.
Postmaster Send address changes to the Daily Nebraskan, Nebraska Union 34,1400 R
Steal-me Levi’s ads yanked in NY
NEW YORK — An ad campaign
expected to encourage looters to break
bus stop shelters to yank out a pair of
Levi’s khakis was itself yanked Tues
day after complaints from the mayor.
Levi Strauss & Co. began putting
actual pairs of the $50 pants in bus
shelter ads in New York City and San
Francisco this week, with the full ex
pectation that people would steal them.
In fact, the company was so sure
that the crowbar-and-brick crowd
would stoop to vandalism to get at the
pants, it designed the ads for pre- and
post-theft presentation, and paid in
advance for repairs.
The khakis were placed between
the same hard plastic panels used for
conventional two-dimensional adver
tisements, with ad copy that reads,
“Nice Pants.” Once they disappear, an
outline of the khakis remains with the
words, “Apparently they were very
nice pants.”
New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani
was not amused at the thought of New
Yorkers shopping with crowbars on
cky streets. He condemned the ads as
“a terrible mistake... exactly the wrong
message to be teaching to people.”
By the end ofthe day, New York’s
Department of Transportation, which
regulates bus shelters, and Gannett
The thought did cross our mind that some pairs
might be stolen. But we think that adds to the talk
value of the ads. ”
BRAD WILLIAMS
senior marketing specialist with Levi Strauss & Co.
Outdoor Advertising, which sells the
ad space in both cities, decided to pull
the ads in New York.
“We both agreed these ads will be
pulled,” said Transportation Commis
sioner Lee Sander. “They will all be
down by tomorrow night.”
James Reyes, a spokesman for the
San Francisco Municipal Railway, said
Gannett hadn’t been asked to pull the
ads there by midaftemoon, but they
were getting plenty of phone calls
asking what they would do.
The controversy surrounding the
ad campaign was just what Levi’s
wanted: free publicity.
“The thought did cross our mind
that some pairs might be stolen,” Brad
Williams, senior marketing specialist
with the San Francisco-based com
pany, said Tuesday morning, before
the ads were pulled in New York. “But
we think that adds to the talk value of
the ads.”
Later Tuesday, Williams did not
return a call seeking comment on the
city’s decision to remove the ads.
At least one pair of pants was al
ready gone from a West Coast ad and
another pair was missing from a shel
ter in Manhattan, Sander said.
“We factored the vandalism into
their contract,” Doug Watts, a vice
president at Gannett, said earlier.
Gannett charged Levi’s an extra fee,
anticipating the replacement of shat
tered plastic ($300 a sheet) and twisted
panel boxes ($2,000 apiece).
The New York Police Department
had announced a harder line: Anyone
caught pants-napping could be charged
with vandalism and theft, said Officer
Sara Carpenter, a police spokes
woman.
Congress. Clinton seek middle ground
WASHINGTON — Agreement
appeared near Tuesday on keeping
the government operating for six weeks
while congressional Republicans and
the Clinton administration battle over
whatfederal socialprograms will look
like next year.
But Democrats demonstrated that
the long-range budget dispute will be
hard to resolve as they declared that
GOP cuts in three big 1996 spending
bills were so drastic that they would
simply let the measures move to the
White House by week’s end — for a
presidential veto.
“They’re extreme in every way,”
Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle,
D-S.D., said of planned Republican
reductions in education, job training
and other programs that are part of the
GOP drive to balance the budget by
2002. “They devastate families, they
devastate workers, they cripple the
economy.”
With fiscal 1996 to begin Sunday,
Congress sent to President Clinton on
Tuesday the first two of the 13 annual
spending measures needed to keep
agencies operating. They’re likely to
send him one or two more, at best,
before Sunday, necessitating a stop
gap measure to keep agencies from
sending some workers home.
But fearing blame by voters weary
of stalemate in Washington, both sides
were working toward an agreement
that W9uld keep the government oper
ating until Nov. 13 at lower spending
levels than this year’s. Officials from
both sides said they were moving to
ward a compromise on a financing
formula, and a deal seemed imminent.
“We see no reason for any kind of
layoffs,” House Speaker Newt
Gingrich, R-Ga., told reporters. “We
see no reason for any problems at
the beginning of the fiscal year.
We’ve taken rational steps to make
sure that the government can £pn
tinue over the next six weeks, ^
we complete” work on the remain
ing spending bills.
House leaders planned to bring the
stopgap measure to the floor Thurs
day, with the Senate acting as early as
that day, too.
As the two sides sought middle
ground on spending bills, the Senate
Finance Committee commenced writ
ing the biggest chunk of the GOP
balanced-budget package: legislation
cutting projected growth of Medicare
and Medicaid.
