Page 6 The Behrend College Collegian - Thursday. April 2, 1998 Clintons mingle with beasts on African safaris By William Douglas-=(c) 1998 Newsday GABORONE, Botswana -- Presi dent Clinton has been accused of fol lowing the Republican road on policy matters. Monday, he happily followed the GOP's symbol down a dusty jungle dirt trail. Clinton saw the beauty and brutal ity of nature on two picture-taking safaris in Botswana's Chohe National Park. Clad in a green short-sleeved shirt and green cap, Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton bounced along in a canvas-topped jeep, stop ping along the trail to observe hippos, baboons, impala, water buffalo and a lioness and her cubs. But what caught Clinton's eye was the size and majesty of an elephant with immense tusks. The Clintons' safari vehicle slowly followed the pachyderm from a respectful distance. "It's amazing," Clinton said after a 30-mile ride around the park. "It's been an amazing day." During an afternoon safari ride, the Clintons found more elephants cool ing themselves on the banks of the Chobe (pronounced CHOH-bay ) River. About 45,000 elephants roam the park's 4,200-square-mile area. The Democratic president expressed a great admiration and respect for the giant beast that is the symbol of his political rivals. "Yes, and I like to see them con centrated here," Clinton said to laugh- Witnesses silent as beaten man dies By Torn Kenworthy=(c) 1998, The Washington Post DENVER Residents of a Denver apartment house watched four men beat a taxi driver early Sunday morn ing and dump him in the trunk of his cab without notifying authorities, Denver police said. The man died. Only after police, responding to a 911 call placed by a friend of the vic tim, knocked on doors at random were "Maybe if we had been able to get there sooner, we might have been able to start some sort of resuscitation. Numerous people were looking out, and nobody even came down, nobody notified the police until they went door to door.- Denver Dear( lite Virginia Lope: they informed that the man had been beaten and placed in the taxi's trunk, said Denver police Detective Virginia Nearly 50 minutes elapsed between the time police arrived and when they discovered the body, and Lopez said the delay might have cost the man his life. "Forty to 50 minutes is a crucial amount of time," said Lopez. "Maybe if we had been able to get there sooner, we might have been able to start some sort of resuscitation. Numerous people were looking out, and nobody even came down, nobody notified the police until they went door to door." Mostapha Maarouf, 27, was driv ing a cab in Denver to send money back to his family in Youssofia, Mo rocco, where he planned to return in July to get married, his friends told the Associated Press. Police responded to the area after Maarouf's friend called 911 from a nearby store and reported he and his friend were being beaten and robbed by four men. Officers detained one person as a possible suspect and were looking for two or three others. "I find it very disturbing and very disappointing . ' that witnesses did not immediately help police locate the ter. "Actually, I was kind of jealous that the Republicans appropriated such a nice animal as their symbol. I think they're fascinating, these el ephants are." Down by the water, the Clintons were treated to a symphony of snorts "Actually, I was kind of jealous that the Republi cans appropriated such a nice animal as their sym bol. I think they're fasci nating, these elephants are." President BO Clinton from nine hippos as a 12-foot croco dile !umbered by. The Clintons also saw nature's somber side. They saw a water buf falo that guides said had been severely slashed by a lion, exposing the animal's bright red stomach. "He won't survive, will he?' Clinton asked guide Richard Randall. "Probably not," Randall said. The Clintons began the day in the morning darkness, hearing a cacophany of birds near a safari lodge that had few of the comforts of the White House. Dark woods dominated the decor of the thatch-roofed lodge. The Clintons' room was like every other, TV series enrages some Israelis for unique perspective By Marjorie Miller=(c) 1998, Los Angeles Times JERUSALEM History is written by the victors, it is often said, hut in Israel even the winners do not agree on how to portray their past. State-run Israel Television is airing a 22-part documentary series for the 50th anniversary of the Jewish state that has enraged many Israelis and apparently enlightened others by tell ing the story of their country's found ing from the perspective of the van quished as well as the victors. Side by side with the country's he roes, the series gives voice for the first time on national television to marginalized immigrants, Arab citi zens who lost their land and identity to the Jews, and Palestinians who en gaged in terrorism to fight for the re turn of their land. To some viewers, the series is a watershed event that exposes Israelis to a different, more critical view of their history. To others, it is simply blasphemy. "Does Zionism really have to sit on the defendant's bench in a series run by public broadcasting in Israel?" Communications Minister Limor Livnat asked. "Do we have to produce films that ... internalize the views of the Arabs, who for 100 years have been claiming that we are imperial ists, colonialists and occupiers?" Livnat, who has called for the se ries to be canceled, was so furious about the Sunday night shows that she announced she has stopped allowing her son to watch them. Infrastructure Minister Ariel Sharon, a key figure for most of Israel's 50 years, wrote a letter to Education Minister Yitzhak Levy complaining that the series "distorts the history of our redemption, aban doning every moral basis for the es tablishment and existence of the state of Israel" and urging him not to use the programs in Israeli schools. And the host of the series, Yehoram Gaon, quit halfway through the pro gram rather than appear on a segment that presents the views of Palestinians who carried out terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians. "I felt good with the first episodes, which discussed the past and re minded me of my childhood," Gaon wrote in his resignation letter, "hut I find it hard to forget my feelings when presenting 1)1,, World and Nation lodge officials said: a bedroom with a large dressing table, a writing table and a bathroom with separate shower. To keep pesky mosquitoes at hay, a hug net encircled their bed. The lodge, with a restaurant that overlooks the Chohe River, has no television or radios because "if one comes to experience the hush, you need to experience the hush and tran quillity," said Koos-Jerrard Louw, a lodge consultant. The Clintons ended the day with a sunset river cruise, accompanied by gunboats and frogmen. Despite the hack-to-nature theme, the Clintons could not totally escape official Washington. Secret Service agents followed their safari vehicle in one of their own. Another vehicle con tamed presidential spokesman Mike McCurry none the worse for eat ing a fried worm for reporters on Sun day national security adviser Sandy Berger and presidential attor ney and first friend Bruce Lindsey. Bringing up the rear was a small crew of reporters who monitored the Clintons' every move. Unfortunately, a radio reporter at another game park near Gaborone was not watching the moves of a cheetah it jumped him from behind while he was taking a colleague's picture. Shouts drove the animal away and a White House physician gave the re porter a tetanus shot and some antibi otics. He returned to work, more em barrassed than injured. the present Supporters of the series say its vir tue is precisely that: It does not make Israelis feel good with the official line hut raises painful questions and pro vokes debate. "There is no objective history," said Yoel Rappel, a historian and radio To some viewers, the series is a watershed event that exposes Israelis to a different, more critical view of their history. To others, it is simply blasphemy. commentator. "The series is a trigger kind" for terrorist attacks in the 1950 s so that young people will go to the The controversial segments of the hooks and movies to learn about Is- television series, which begins in raeli history. Whether or not you agree 1936 with a wave of Jewish settlement with the programs, they are raising the in British-ruled Palestine and ends right questions. The only way to find with the assassination of Prime Min a solution between Israelis and Arabs ister Yitzhak Rabin by a Jewish law on the land is to raise the right ques- student in 1995, adopt many of the lions. That is the first step on a long views of the new historians that crit ics have branded "post-Zionism." The series accuses Israel's Euro pean, or Ashkenazi, majority, of hav ing mistreated Middle Eastern Jew ish immigrants, known as Sephardim. It accepts matter-of-factly that about 700,000 Palestinians fled Pal estine out of fear or under military threat during the 1948 war to become refugees. This goes far beyond other mainstream accounts of history. While officials such as Livnat and Sharon see the "Tekuma" account of history as destructive, series producer Gideon Drori defends it as a healthy step forward for a secure and mature society. "Criticism can be judged by the re sults it yields. In my opinion, this is constructive criticism," Drori told the weekly newspaper Kol Hair. "What is destructive about a society which is examining itself and asking ques tions? That weakens us? In my opin ion, it strengthens. ... We are not less patriotic Israelis than those people who have trouble looking at them- journey The public controversy over "Tekuma" ("Rebirth"), as the series is called, mirrors a debate that has been going on in Israeli academic journals for more than a decade. At issue is the story of the revival of the Jewish nation in the Holy Land. For traditional Israeli historians and critics of the series the narra tive of Israel's founding is this: Ide alistic Jewish pioneers settled a wide open land called Palestine that was sparsely populated with Arab natives. The Jews came to live peacefully with the Arabs and to enhance the quality of life for all. They believed in com promise but were confronted with Arab aggression and were forced to fight hack. During Israel's 1948 War of Inde pendence, local Arabs left their vil lages in Palestine at the urging of the region's Arab leaders, who promised they would be able to return after Is rael was destroyed. But the Jews won the war for their homeland against the Arab armies, just as David beat Goliath. That is the version taught in Israeli schools and the one most Israelis be But a group of "new historians" has taken a skeptical look at that tradi tional Zionist view and begun shat tering what it calls "the myths" of the loitikting the Jewish state. The new Female substance may help fight AIDS By David Brown=(c) 1998, The Washington Post A team of scientists is zeroing in on a mysterious AIDS-fighting, can cer-fighting, anemia-fighting sub stance distilled from a distinctly un likely source the urine of pregnant women. The existence of the substance has been suspected for several years but its precise chemical identity has proved elusive. Now, a group of re searchers headed by virologist Rob ert C. Gallo report they've narrowed the search, and eliminated the lead- ing contender. In Tuesday's issue of the journal Nature Medicine, Gallo and his col laborators say they've gotten crude extracts of the protein, which they name "hCG-associated factor," or HAF. The substance appears to he a pro tein that clings tightly to human chori onic gonadotropin (hCG), a hormone produced in large quantity in the first trimester of pregnancy, when hCG is extracted from urine. "When we have it in its pure form and it's chemically identified, we will be able to learn" how it works, said Gallo, who heads the Institute of Hu man Virology in Baltimore. "It may open up a whole new area of anti-vi ral research." The first hint that hCG itself might have unexpected properties came by accident in 1995. A group of male and female mice, each injected with cells that cause the rare blood vessel tumor called Kaposi's sarcoma, were put in the same cage by mistake. The animals that didn't develop the cancer all had thinkers say they portray Israeli he roes such as Prime Ministers David Ben-Gurion and Golda Meir as hu man beings who made mistakes as well as history. The new historians accuse the founders of having failed to do enough to save European Jews dur ing the Holocaust. They argue that Israel passed up opportunities for negotiations with Arab states and evicted hundreds of thousands of Pal estinians from their villages during the 1948 war. Israel implemented a tough policy of no return and retaliated "in selves." Many Israelis feel that a series com memorating Israel's 50 years should be a festive event celebrating the country's accomplishments and not a critical one. Director Mouki Hadar's segment, however, shows the physi cal and spiritual conquest of the Ar abs. It includes footage never before aired on Israeli television of Palestin- one thing in common they were females that had become pregnant soon after the tumor cell injection. That finding eventually led Gallo's team to try hCG in people with Kaposi's sarcoma, which is relatively common in AIDS patients, especially ones who are gay men. This experi ment produced another unexpected result. The hormone not only shrunk some of the tumors, it also also re duced the amount of AIDS virus in the bloodstreams of several patients. Further research revealed the sub stance had a third effect. It stimulated the body's production of red blood cells and white blood cells, both of which dwindle to unhealthy levels in people with advanced AIDS. HCG is produced in large quanti ties during the first 10 weeks of preg nancy, when its main function is to keep a pregnant woman's body from rejecting the newly formed embryo. Pharmaceutical companies extract the hormone from the urine of women in early stages of pregnancy for a vari ety of medical uses, including the treatment of infertility. Those "clini cal grade" extracts, however, actually include small amounts of dozens of other proteins found in the urine. Gallo's research team used those impure extracts in their initial stud ies, and concluded that hCG was caus ing the observed effects. In the new paper, however, they report that ex tremely pure extracts of the hormone don't do what the cruder samples did, nor does hCG manufactured through recombinant DNA technology. The scientists found, however, that when they filtered the crude hCG and isolated the impurities by the weight of the molecules they contained, two ians who remained in Israel after the war surrendering their weapons to Jewish soldiers, and of Arab school children dancing in the formation of a Star of David, waving Israeli flags on Independence Day. It talks about the fact that Arab citi zens of Israel lived under military rule for 19 years, unable to leave their vil lages without permits. The program points out that about 60,000 Arabs signed up for army service after an Arab draft was announced in 1954 but then were rejected when the govern ment feared they would not fight against their Arab brothers. The Arabs' lack of army service has often been used as a justification for denying them equal rights. Arab citizens also are heard protest ing the confiscation of their lands, an issue they raise each March 30 on the anniversary of the day in 1976 that Israeli troops opened fire on a land demonstration, killing six Arabs. Deputy Education Minister Moshe Peled said he regretted that many schools had bought the series. "I am afraid that in a year or two or 10, the students won't even under stand what happened here," Peled said. "This is not a program about the resurrection and foundation of the state of Israel. Everything we have been through in the 50 years of the state is presented as though we are the murderers and the Palestinians are the victims." Many of the segments still to be broadcast are likely to prove at least as controversial as the Arab-Israeli segment. On Sunday, a show on the construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank aired, and soon to fol low are segments on Israel's 1982 war in Lebanon and the Palestinian upris ing, or "intifada," that ended earlier this decade. The segment on Palestine Libera tion Organization attacks, scheduled to run next Sunday, is called "Biladi, Biladi" ("My Country, My Country"), the name of the Palestinian anthem that was banned in Israel until Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat signed the Oslo, Norway, peace ac cords in 1993. The title raised such a red flag for Israelis that many officials urged that the piece be eliminated. In response, the Israel Broadcasting Authority al tered the name to "In the Road of Ter ror: Biladi, Biladi" and decided that the broadcast would be followed by a televised debate. Host Gaon, who turned over the segment, said that it gives "the heroic story of the terror organizations." But the director, Ronit Weiss-Berkowitz, said she feels the piecc is balanced. of the "fractions" had the activity they were looking for. Specifically, when those fractions were injected into mice, both the activity of AIDS virus genes and the growth of Kaposi's sar coma tumors were reduced by about 80 percent, compared to untreated ani mals. In cell culture experiments, the fractions stimulated the growth of blood cells 1.5- to three-fold. Isolating and testing the substance "are high priorities," the authors wrote. Gallo's collaborators included Yanto Lunardi-Iskandar and Joseph L. Bryant, both of the Institute of Hu man Virology, and Steven Birken of Columbia University in New York. In a second, unrelated paper, Gallo and another group of collaborators report that people whose immune sys tems produce unusually large quanti ties of biochemicals called chemokines are resistant to HIV in- fection, in some cases even after mas- sive exposure to the virus. Gallo, Daniel Zagury of the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris, and 12 other collaborators, studied 128 hemophiliacs from Milan, Italy. The patients had been repeatedly ex posed to HIV in blood products be tween 1980 and 1985, before a test was available to detect viral contami nation. Despite massive doses of vi rus, 14 of the hemophiliacs never got infected. Those patients lymphocytes produced about 2.5 times the normal level of chemokines, which are hor mone-like substances that help direct the body's immune response. Their report appears in the current Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Changing diet, lifestyle linked to increase in allergies By &ull Efrolf=(c) 1998, Los Ante_ les Times TOKYO The sharp increase in Ja pan in adult and child allergies, which is common to most industrial coun tries, is believed to be the result of a combination of factors. Those include particulate air pollution from diesel exhaust and other sources; an increase in the amount of pollen as more and more cedar trees reach maturity; the advent of Western-style housing that traps pollen, dust and mold; and the changing Japanese diet and lifestyle. Traditionally, Japanese babies were never fed red meat or eggs, because such foods were rare and expensive. But there is growing evidence that the kind of protein an infant is first ex posed to produces a kind of immuno logical "imprinting," said Dr. Sakae Inouye, one of Japan's leading experts on the cedar problem. He said that ingesting meat and eggs before the age of 1 may make children more vulnerable to allergies later on. The Japanese diet became richer in meat and eggs after the 19605, and the ma jority of Japanese allergy sufferers are under age 44, according to a Tokyo metropolitan government survey. There is also growing evidence that people who are exposed to germs and viruses in early childhood are less susceptible to allergies later in life. The rates of allergies in developing nations are considerably lower than in industrial societies. Moreover, a recent study in England found that eldest children, who tend to spend their early years at home and are not exposed to a torrent of infections, are more than twice as likely to develop allergies as third-born children in the same families, who are bombarded in early childhood with the rich soup of viruses their older siblings bring home from school, Inouye said. Another study, conducted in the former East and West Germany, found that East German children, who were typically in day care by the age of 1, had far lower allergy rates than their stay-at-home West German counter parts, even though the East German children were exposed to more pollu tion. Because Japanese families typi cally have one or two children, who are kept at home until kindergarten, this finding has prompted research ers to explore whether a "dirty" im munological environment may actu ally be beneficial, said Inouye .
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers