News Digest
Page 2 Daily Nebraskan Wednesday, September 27,2000
Scientists find states fail evoiution education
■Nebraska received a C, while
Kansas was deemed
"disgraceful"and earned an F.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - In a new
chapter of a dispute that pits sci
ence against religion, a national
organization of scientists gave
schools in 19 states unsatisfacto
ry grades for teaching evolution.
The report, released Hiesday
by the American Association for
the Advancement of Science,
grades 49 states and the District
of Columbia on the basis of how
well evolution is included in the
state science education stan
dards. California received the
highest rank. Kansas, whose
standards were described as “dis
graceful,” got the lowest grade.
Nebraska received a C in the
report, which means the stan
dards are satisfactory but not ter
ribly good, according to the
report’s Web site.
Six states, including
California, were graded at 100.
Four states were graded in the 90s
and were given As in the report.
Fourteen states were graded
at B, 7 got Cs, 6 were given Ds,
and 13 flunked. Iowa was not
included because it has no
statewide education standards,
leaving that to each local district.
Linda Holloway, former
chairman of the Kansas State
Board of Education, said the
report was deceptive and “very
unfair.”
“Clearly they have an ax to
grind about evolution,” she said
in a telephone interview.
Kansas last year rekindled the
issue of teaching evolution in
public schools when the state
board of education, lead by
Holloway, approved science
teaching standards that mini
mized the importance of evolu
tion and omitted the big-bang
theory of the origin of the uni
verse.
Other states have considered
similar curriculum changes and
some state legislatures have pro
posed laws that would forbid
completely the teaching of evolu
tion in public schools.
Lawrence S. Lerner, who
compiled the report for the
Thomas B. Fordham Foundation,
"Clearly they have an ax to grind about :
evolution.”
Linda Holloway
former chairwoman of the Kansas State Board of Education
said the conflict “is not really
about science, but about religion
and politics.” He calls creation
ism “a pseudoscientific rival to
evolution that the courts have
repeatedly held to be thinly
veiled religion.”
Lerner, a former professor at
California State University, Long
Beach, said Kansas got such a
poor grade because its guidelines
forbid teaching anything about
the age of the Earth or the uni
verse.
t
Lemer called the Kansas sci
ence education standards “a dis
graceful paean to antiscience.”
Holloway, however, said the
report was part of “a campaign of
deception” and all districts in
Kansas were still teaching evolu
tion.
“All we did was allow local
groups to decide how they want
ed to teach evolution," she said.
“That is a reasonable thing to
do.”
Reno, FBI
defend
Lee query
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - FBI
Director Louis Freeh told
Congress on Tuesday prosecu
tors could have sent scientist
Wen Ho Lee to prison for years
but agreed to let him plead
guilty to a single charge out of
fears atomic-weapons secrets
would become public at a trial.
“The Department of Justice
and the FBI stand by each and
every one of the 59 counts in the
indictment of Doctor Lee,”
Freeh told the Senate Judiciary
and Select Intelligence commit
tees. "Each of those counts
could be proven in December
1999 and each of them could be
proven today.”
Freeh was joined by
Attorney General Janet Reno in
defending the government’s
investigation and treatment of
Lee, who was held in solitary
confinement without bail for
nine months and had to wear
leg shackles.
Lee was not present for the
hearing. In a statement, his
lawyers expressed hope he will
be treated fairly by the govern
ment and said the scientist
hoped in time “the world will
better understand that he has
been and continues to be a loyal
and proud citizen of the United
States.”
The FBI director acknowl
edged in written testimony the
agents who interrogated Lee
should not have reminded him
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were
executed in the 1950s for espi
onage.
Reno said Lee was treated no
worse than other prisoners in
solitary confinement at the
Santa Fe County Detention
Facility. All were required to
wear leg shackles when being
moved outside their cells, she
said.
Ultimately those shackles
were removed, and unlike the
other prisoners in solitary con
finement, Lee was allowed to
have a radio to listen to music,
she said.
TODAY
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DAILY NEBRASKAN
Pan Am witness comes up short
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CAMP ZEIST Netherlands - A CIA spy
testified Tuesday that two Libyans kept
bricks of explosives in a desk at Malta air
port for at least two years, until a few
weeks before Pan Am Flight 103 blew up,
killing 270 people.
But the Libyan, who became a CIA
mole four months before the bombing on
Dec. 21, 1988, unexpectedly ended his
testimony after less than a day Tuesday,
providing only tenuous links between two
Libyan defendants and the explosives.
Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi and
Lamen Khalifa Fhimah are charged with
murder and conspiracy to murder the 259
passengers on the Boeing 747 and 11 peo
ple killed by the flaming debris that
plunged 30,000 feet onto the Scottish
town of Lockerbie. Most of those on the
plane were Americans.
i
Identified by the pseudonym Abdul
Majid Giaka and billed as the prosecu
tion’s star witness, Giaka said he worked in
Malta since 1986 for Libya’s Jamahriya
Security Organization, using his job as the
assistant station manager for Libyan Arab
Airlines as a cover.
He said Fhimah, his immediate boss,
kept bricks of explosives locked in a desk
at Malta airport for two years — until just
a few weeks before the bombing.
Fhimah “told me he had 10 kilograms
(22 pounds) of TNT delivered by Abdel
Basset,” Giaka said, referring to the co
defendant, Megrahi. He said he was told
to keep the existence of the explosives
quiet.
Giaka also said he saw Megrahi, who
had been in charge of airline security, with
a “brownish” suitcase similar to the one
the indictment says contained the bomb
that blew up the airliner.
Oleg Nikishiin/Newsmakers
ALL IN A DAY'S WORK: To earn money for her family, a little girl dances on Arbat Street on Tuesday in downtown Moscow.
Runoff could escalate tensions in Yugoslavia
■ Other countries, including
the United States,are pushing
Milosevic to concede defeat.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -
Slobodan Milosevic conceded
Tuesday that his challenger fin
ished first in Yugoslavia’s presi
dential election and declared a
runoff - defying demands at
home and abroad that he step
down.
Opposition candidate
Vojislav Kostunica rejected an
Oct. 8 runoff, calling it a "fraud”
and insisting he Won Sunday's
election outright. At the same
time, he warned against any
moves that could raise tensions
and called on the opposition to
keep to a “nonviolent” response.
The opposition called for a
rally tonight in downtown
Belgrade to “celebrate its victo
ry” - apparently hoping for a
show of strength to demonstrate
to Milosevic the public’s refusal
of a runoff.
President Clinton said it was
clear the opposition had defeat
ed Milosevic, who has led
Yugoslavia for 13 years. He said
the United States would take
steps to lift economic sanctions
if the election result was hon
ored.
The announcement of a
runoff raises the stakes in the
confrontation between
Milosevic and the opposition.
The opposition faced the
choice of accepting a runoff it
considers fraudulent or trying to
pressure the hard-line leader -
believed to have a firm grip on
the top ranks of police and mili
tary - to back down.
Two days after the voting, the
State Elections Commission
released its first results Hiesday,
saying Kostunica finished first
with 48.22 percent compared to
40.23 percent for Milosevic. The
law provided a runoff Oct. 8 if
none of the five candidates
received more than 50 percent
of the votes cast.
State television said the
turnout was 64 percent, far
below the 74 percent figure
given by the opposition.
“We are talking about politi
cal fraud and blatant stealing of
votes,” Kostunica said. “This is
an offer which must be reject
ed.”
But he said the opposition
would avoid “careless moves
which could raise tensions in
society, which could lead to
unforeseeable consequences.”
“We are talking about political fraud and
blatant stealing of votes. This is an offer which
must be rejected.”
Vojislav Kostunica
opposition candidate
Tens of thousands of
Yugoslavs jammed the main
squares in Belgrade and other
major cities for two straight
nights after the balloting, cele
brating the opposition win and
demanding Milosevic step
down. Both nights, the rallies
ended without friction with
police, and Tuesday night there
were no crowds in the streets.
The influential leader of the
Serbian Orthodox Church,
Patriarch Pavle, met with
Kostunica on Tuesday and urged
the ruling coalition “to accept
the electoral will of the people
and contribute to the welfare of
the nation and the state.”
The runoff announcement
came despite growing interna
tional calls for Milosevic to
accept an opposition victory.
In Washington, Defense
Secretary William Cohen said
the United States would not
stand by and watch Milosevic
steal the election.
“I think the international
community will look very close
ly, carefully and bring whatever
pressure it can for Milosevic to
abide by the will of his people,”
Cohen said. “The people want
Milosevic out. Certainly the
international community would
welcome that result.”
Clinton held out to
Yugoslavia the prospect of end
ing of the country's isolation. “If
the will of the people is respect
ed, the doors to Europe and the
world will be open again to
Serbia,” Clinton said.
“We will take steps with our
allies to lift economic sanctions,
and the people of Serbia, who
have suffered so much, finally
will have a chance to lead nor
mal lives.”
British Prime Minister Tony
Blair said: “I say to Milosevic:
You lost. Go. Your country and
the world has suffered enough.”
The Associated Press
■Washington, D.C
Poverty rate at322 million,
lowest point in 21 years
The poverty rate in America
dipped last year to 11.8 percent,
the lowest point in 21 years, while
median household incomes
reached a record high, new
Census Bureau data showed
Tuesday.
Last year, 32.2 million
Americans lived in poverty, down
from 34.4 million, or 12.7 percent,
the previous year, according to
the agency’s annual reports on
income and poverty. The all-time
low poverty rate was 11.1 percent
in 1973.
With six weeks left before the
election, Democrats and
Republicans were quick to take
credit for the good news.
President Clinton called it
“another economic milestone”
for the administration, while
House GOP leaders cited their
own leadership on passing wel
fare reform as the reason.
“God bless the economy,” said
Tun Smeeding, professor of eco
nomics and public policy at
Syracuse University. "Overall, this
is the best report I’ve seen in 20
years.”
Others stressed more work
needed to be done.
“Our concern is that there not
be a view out there that poverty
has been eradicated,” said Debra
Roth, spokeswoman for the
National Association of
Community Action Agencies.
“Our main concern is how many
people who have climbed out of
poverty who work two or three
jobs.”
■Louisiana
School gun fight leaves boys
in critical condition
NEW ORLEANS - Two teen
age boys shot and wounded each
other with the same gun during a
fight at their middle school
Tuesday after a 13-year-old
expelled student slipped the
weapon to one of the students
through a fence, authorities said.
The wounded boys, ages 13
and 15, were in critical condition.
Witnesses said the eighth
graders had argued before the
shootings at the school where stu
dents must pass through a metal
detector to enter.
The younger boy got the gun
from outside the chain-link fence
and shot the 15-year-old, only to
have the older boy grab the gun
and shoot him, police Lt. Marlon
Defillo said.
The younger boy will be
charged with attempted murder,
Defillo said.
The boy accused of providing
the handgun, Alfred Anderson,
was being sought, Defillo said. He
was recently expelled from the
school for fighting.
■India
Countries struggle
against monsoon rains
NEW DELHI - Floodwaters
continued to rise Tliesday in West
Bengal state, and an aid worker
said some stranded people were
so hungry and desperate they
were jumping from treetops into
passing relief boats.
More than 700 people have
died in India and Bangladesh
since Sept. 18 when late monsoon
rains flowed over riverbanks and
dams, drowning the tree-lined
frontier between the two coun
tries under 10 feet of water.
An additional329 people have
been killed by flooding in
Southeast Asia, where the
Mekong River has burst its banks.
The floods left more than 10
million people homeless in east
ern India; some 125,000 were
reported^ homeless in
Bangladesh.
■Australia
Romania protests charges
by returning medals
SYDNEY - Romania has
returned its remaining two
medals in the Olympic women’s i
all-around gymnastics competi
tion to protest Andreea Raducan’s
loss of her gold medal for taking
cold medication containing a
banned substance, Romanian
national television reported
Tliesday.
“The gold, silver and bronze
medals have been returned
although initially (Coach)
Octavian Belu favored keeping
the gold and silver medals, which
the Romanians would have won
anyway,” Romanian TV said in the
report from Sydney.