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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 2, 1997)
World marks AIDS Day ■ Activists in European and Asian countries focused on the epidemic. PARIS (AP) — AIDS activists around the world marched, prayed and wore red ribbons Monday to mark the ninth World AIDS Day - while AIDS victims in poor nations did what they did every day: lived, struggled and died in obscurity. On Monday, at least, their lives were honored. In Europe, demonstrators observed the day with candlelight marches and songs. In Asia, govern ments announced new education and health programs aimed at fighting their growing AIDS problems. Thousands marched in Paris at sundox^btawmg'whistlesahd qar rying placards demanding more help for victims! Rallies were also held in other Frertch cities. “They are dying less in France, in 66 (AIDS victims) continue to die more and more in the poor countries Bernard Kouchner French health minister This year's World AIDS day emphasized the plight of HIV-infect ed children. Elsewhere in Europe, 12 Athens radio stations broadcast an hour-long program on AIDS. Greek state-run television stations aired documen taries on AIDS, a Freddie Mercury concert - the singer died of AIDS - and a ballet dedicated to the fight against AIDS. In Helsinki, Finland, lawmakers lighted candles pa the steps pf Parliament. Some 50 artists per formed a free concert in Turku, Finland's former capital on the west coast, with the proceeds going to AIDS support centers. The World Health Organization said new HIV infections in Western Europe have dropped 10 percent. _ j i mance was followed by a serious message. “I understand that young people are our future, but who will work with prostitutes, who will work with drug addicts, who will work with homo sexuals?” AIDS activist Nikolai Panchenkov asked the audience. “No one.” Across Asia, where international health authorities say they believe the number of AIDS and HTV infections is underreported, World AIDS Day was observed with new awareness programs from China to India. In Bombay, demonstrators car ried a wooden effigy of a snake stran gling India through the streets. China said it plans to start broad casting anti-AIDS messages on trains. In Tokyo, hundreds gathered in a rainswept square to sing songs and annpal fnr ciinnnrt ctnA nnHprotonHinn me ricn countries, out tney continue to die more and more it! the poor countries,” said"French Health Minister Bernard Kouchner. Kouchner announced a plan to require that French doctors report the number of patients who test positive for the AIDS virus, though the names would remain confidential. “If we knew, in epidemiological terms, the number of HIV-positive people, this would vastly help us” fight Att>S,/lie said. One in every 100 sexually active people age 15 to 49 worldwide has HIV, and among those infected, only one in 10 knows it, according to UNAlDS and the World Health Organization. Figures released last week show doctors had underestimated the size of the epidemic by 30 percent: 30 million people now are infected with HIV and 16,000 more people are infected daily. Of the 2.3 million peo ple expected to die this year of AIDS, 460,000 are children under 15. wiiiic new uiug meicipico anu increased education has slowed the spread of HIV in many industrialized countries, AIDS infection has accel erated in developing countries, where victims and governments cannot afford the costly treatments. ‘ * ' ‘ ■ More than 90 percent ofUIV infected people live iifflte tfeV&bpiftg world, and the disease is spreading at an alarming rate in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, the WHO's regional director for Europe said Monday. “Eastern Europe is now in the forefront of the AIDS epidemic,” Jo E. Asyall said, attributing the increase primarily to intravenous drug use. In St. Petersburg, Russia, teen age actors dressed as prostitutes and drug addicts, drawing laughter as they did a skit demonstrating the menace of AIDS. But the perfor for AIDS victims. A huge tree was set up in the square, illuminated with electric lights and covered with some from problems'p&fnpted the government to slash funds for a program that bought condoms for prostitutes, and sharply reduced World AIDS day observances in Bangkok. Outside Nairobi, Kenya, workers at a home for AIDS-infected children went about their usual job Monday - trying to prolong and ease the lives of 50 largely abandoned youngsters. “The children look at me,” said program director Protus Lumiti. “If I am strong, they will be strong. But if I am brooding, they will too.” Unabomber defender plugs death penalty to jurors SACKAMhN 1O, Call!. (AP) — As the fourth week of jury selection began in the Unabomber trial, a lawyer for Theodore Kaczynski was caught in a legal contradiction: try ing to persuade prospects to consid er the death penalty. Defense attorney Judy Clarke wants to keep opponents of capital punishment, but they must afleast consider it to be eligible for the panel. So Clarke pressed her efforts Monday to talk death-penalty oppo nents into looking at both sides of the issue. The candidate who provided Clarke with her greatest challenge yet was a white-bearded man who A _i. : j. -1 i i 66 Looking at my beliefs, I don’t believe today I could sign a verdict of death ” prospective Unabomber juror child, for instance - and if the per son had done it before and had been released, and you were persuaded by fellow jurors that without a sen tence of death the person would be released again, would you be inclined to change your position?” The man paused for a long time before speaking. “One side of me says I still could not find for the death penalty,” he said. “But it depends on the circum stances. There's a requirement for looking out for society's best inter ests. I might find in these circum stances -1 might have to do that.” Kaczynski is charged in the mail-bombing deaths of two men and the maiming;of two others. If convicted in the last of the bomb ings - the only one to occur after the federal death penalty was reinstated - he could face execution. “The great irony is she has to take the people with the strongest conviction against putting this man to death and try to pull them the other way,” said Laurie Levenson, associate dean of Loyola University Law School in Los Angeles. “But she hopes they will later spring back like rubber bands,” Levenson said. “What she has to do is a temporary conversion.” Monday's session recessed for the day with a total of 54 prospects in the pool of tentative jurors. The judge wants to clear 64 prospects, from which lawyers will select the final 12 jurors and six alternates. Kaczynski, who had been absent from last week's final session after reacting negatively to discussions of his mental state, returned to court Monday. He sat silent and motion less as the day began, but later chat ted amiably with his lawyers and took notes during jury questioning. liij ryyji rv agamsi auui liuil uau solidified his anti-death penalty views. “Looking at my beliefs, I don't believe today I could sign a verdict of death,” the man told Clarke. In.a slow, methodical line of questioning, Clarke suggested it was important to have differing viewpoints represented on a jury. “I agree,” the man said. The defense attorney pressed further. “If you consider a crime so hor rible - the intentional murder of a Judge warns girls to play fair ...or else MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. (AP) — Stepping into a hair pulling, name-calling dispute that went from the schoolhouse to the courthouse, a judge Monday ordered two 10-year old girls to play nice or risk going to jail. “If one of you looks cross eyed to the other, you're going to come back here,” Circuit Judge Michael Schwartz warned fifth grade classmates Kytan Schultz and Cassandra Reibel in an after-school hearing. “No more harassment, no more threats, no more obsceni ties or vulgar names, no more pulling hair, no more threats to the family, no more threatening calls to each other or relatives,” he said. “If one of you causes problems to the other, Pm going to put you in the juvenile hold.” Schwartz, who didn't specify how long he could confine them, Cracked down on both girls dur inrr o Kparinrt in iv/Vti/iVt Via moo girls couldn't be on the same piece of property together - meaning Cassandra could have been in violation simply by going to school. Cassandra stayed home from school last week for fear of being arrested, but she showed up Monday. Kytan was in school last week but stayed home Monday. The new order to behave applies to both girls and allows them to remain in the same classroom “in sight of each other.” Cassandra's attorney, Michael Dennis, said the ruling was “definitely a solution.” “I think he was trying to send a message to each of them and say that you two are going to have to get along,” Dennis said. In a 1996 case in Boston, a 3 year-old girl's mother obtained a restraining order against a 3 year-old boy whom she claimed kicked her daughter in the head while playing. A judge ordered that the mothers keep the chil dren supervised and separated while at the playground. At Flpmpntarv asked to lift another judge's per sonal protection order issued Nov. 21 on behalf of Kytan. The girls only nodded during the stern lecture and stuck close to their parents as they left court. The fact that the case was in court at all caused a furor in this Detroit suburb. A prosecutor called it an abuse of the court system, and educators say it could subvert their efforts to teach children how to get along. “Where did we get this idea that every dispute between chil dren has to wind up before a cir cuit court judge?” asked prose cutor Carl Marlinga, who was not involved in the case. “I think it's a ridiculous waste of time.” Kytan's mother, Deborah Schultz, said her request for the original order was a matter of taking care of her child after a year of abuse. “When your children are hurting, isn't it the parent's responsibility to see to the pro tection?” Deborah Schultz said. “I’m sick of it and I'm not going to take it anymore.” Under the original order, the School, where Cassandra and Kytan a,re in the same class room, educators say a court order is unnecessary and poten tially harmful. “The public needs to trust us,” said Assistant Superintendent Karl Klimek. “We're not trying to hurt either child. We're trying to resolve this so that it becomes a positive learning experience.” To Marlinga, the prosecutor, the case shows that the laws gov erning personal protection orders need to be changed. As it stands, a personal protection order can be filed against virtu ally anyone without any sort of a previous relationship. “You could get it against the pope,” Marlinga said, adding that hundreds of orders pour into the court system every week and 90 percent are issued without much screening. “Everything else would come to a screeching halt if judges had to evaluate every one of these.” Editor. Paula Lavigne Questions? Comments? Ask for the a****»~*»«*<**mm-*» Assistant News Editor: - Jeff Randall or e-mail dn@unlinfo.unl.edu. Assignment Editor: Chad Lorenz Opinion Editor: Matthew Waite Asst Online Editor: Amy Pemberton Sports Editor: Mike Kluck General Manager: Dan Shaltil A&E Editor: Jim Goodwin Publications Board Melissa Myles. Copy Desk Chiefs: Nancy Zywiec Chairwoman: (402)476-2446 Kay Prauner Professional Adviser: Don Walton, Photo Director: Ryan Soderlin (402) 473-7301 Design Chief: Joshua Gillin Advertising Manager: Nick Paitsch ' Art Director Aaron Steckelberg (402)472-2589 * Online Editor: Gregg Steams Assistant Ad Manager: Daniel Lam Fax number: (402) 472-1761 World Wide Web: www.unl.edu/DailyNeb The Daily Nebraskan (USPS144-080) is published by the UNL Publications Board, Nebraska Union 34,1400 R St, Lincoln, NE 66588-0448, Monday through Friday duming the academic year; weekly during the summer sessions.The public has access to the Publications Board. Readers are encouraged to submit story ideas and comments to the Daily Nebraskan by calling (402)472-2588. Subscriptions are $55 for one year. Postmaster: Send address changes to the Da3y Nebraskan, Nebraska Union 34,1400 R St, Lincoln j NE 68588-0448. Periodical postern paid at Lincoln, NE. ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1997 THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
