Zimbabwe to due to easing By ANGUS SHAW Associated Press Writer HARARE, Zimbabwe The government announced yes terday it will lift a quarter-century-old state of emergency next week because of easing regional tensions and political harmony at home. The announcement followed repeated demands by church, student, labor and human rights groups for an end to the emergency powers. It was the latest move toward democrat ic reform in sub-Saharan Africa, where traditional one-party rule and broad government powers have come under increas ing attack. "We are really overjoyed," said Nicholas Ndebele, head of the Roman Catholic Justice and Peace Commission in Harare. "Now our people are going to experience real inde pendence, real freedom. "We are sure normal laws will suffice," he said. The state of emergency, enforced by four different govern ments since its introduction by white minority leader lan Smith in 1965, was scheduled for renewal by the 150-seat House of Assembly next week. 222 W. Hamilton Ave. II Offer Only Valid With Coupon, Looking for a new roommate? ian Classified Ads ************************************************** isaiMs P•Almi lift 25 year state of emergency of tensions, political harmony Earn Penn State credit while living and studying in It is educational and affordable, plus... it fulfills your language requirement had the time of my life and would do it again in a flash." Melinda McCane, Spring 1990 Spring 1991 Application Deadline: October 1, 1990 Learn more about the possibility from However, the home affairs minister, Moven Mahachi, told legislators that the government and security services no long er felt the emergency powers were necessary. Mahachi said the government will lift the emergency at midnight July 25. Since the two main rival political parties merged in Decem ber 1987, Zimbabwe had enjoyed peaceful conditions that Mahachi called "the best for a long time in the history of this country." . . Zimbabwe was often criticized for keeping its own emer gency laws while denouncing the state of emergency in neigh boring South Africa. On June 7, South African President F.W. de Klerk ended four years of emergency rule in all but one province, Natal, where factional violence has cost more than 3,000 lives. Zimbabwe often cited the threat of destabilization from South Africa as a reason for its state of emergency, but Maha chi told legislators that conditions in South Africa had changed following reforms by de Klerk. In Zimbabwe, the emergency was frequently invoked to allow for the detention without trial of political opponents. Church groups said these provisions of the emergency were frequently abused. igilmihaw SAN GERMAN, Puerto Rico Office of Education Abroad Programs 222 Boucke Building (814) 865-7681 PF NNSTATi 'Sex trigger' believed found By DANIEL Q. HANEY AP Science Writer BOSTON The body's sex trigger, the elusive gene that determines whether an egg will grow to be a boy or a girl, may have been found at last by scientists. The gene is a switch that starts an embryo down the path to sexual development after eight weeks in the womb. Those who inherit the gene from their parents become male; those who don't become female. Many scientists, though not all, believe that such a single master sex gene exists. But its precise location and nature have remained a mystery despite intense searching by sev eral rival teams of researchers. Tracking down the sex trigger might someday open ways of treating infertility and problems of sexual development. However, its greatest importance is likely to be the insight it will provide into one of the basic questions of biology. The search competition seemed to be finished in 1987 when Dr. David Page of the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, Mass., announced the apparent discovery of the gene, which he called ZFY. However, last December, a rival team from the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in London shot down the theory with strong evidence that Page's discovery is not the sex trigger, at least not all by itself. Now, the London group has put forth its own nominee for the gene that makes a man a man and, by its absence, a wom an a woman. In last Thursday's issue of the British journal Nature, they announced the discovery of "sex-determining region Y," or SRY. In their study, they say it is "proposed to be a candidate for the elusive testis-determining gene." But they are careful not to sound overly confident. "The evidence is good so far, but I wouldn't stick my neck out until we have the rest of the data in," said Dr. Andrew House Democrats unveil S&L proposal By MATT YANCY Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON, D.C. House Dem ocrats unveiled legislation yesterday aimed at stopping savings and loan swindlers from transferring assets to their spouses or children and using bankruptcy protection laws to avoid government seizure. House Speaker Thomas S. Foley, D- Wash, said Democrats want the pack age to be even stronger than a similar measure containing new enforcement tools approved by the Senate last week as part of a broader crime bill. "To bring these S&L criminals to jus- Sinclair, the lead author of the latest research However. Page and some other researchers now speculate that a cluster of genes, not just one, is necessary for determin ing sex. If so, both his gene and the London group's discovery could turn out to be partners in triggering sexual differences. Like Page, the London group pinpointed its gene by a proc ess of elimination. Everyone is born with 46 strings of genes called chromo somes. Two of these, called X and Y, are the sex chromo somes. Women have two X's; men have an X and a Y. Scientists reason that the gene that makes men different from women trust be located someplace on the Y. Scientists have concentrated on apparent exceptions to the rule, so-called XX males. To all outward appearances, these people usually are physically normal men. But their cells con tain the double X's of women. Through a genetic mix-up, one of their X's contains a tiny fragment of Y, enough to make them men. The London group narrowed the search to a narrow stretch of the Y chromosome in which they have located one gene. They cite several reasons to think that this is, indeed, the long-sought sex gene: ■ While men have the gene, women do not possess any thing like it. ■ The gene actively makes a protein in men's sex organs but not in other parts of the body. ■ In mice, the gene is turned on at precisely the moment in development when sexual differences appear. Critics of this work point out that some of the XX males who carry just the newly discovered gene have some, but not all, male sexual features. To be completely male, they argue that people need at least one more gene, perhaps Page's ZFY. "This is a very important piece of work. There is no doubt about that," Page said. tice, we want to go further and enact provisions that seek to prevent anyone from obstructing the investigators," said Foley. At the same time, the Democrats urged creation of a national fact-finding commission, along the lines of the 1960 s Kerner Commission on urban riots, to probe what went wrong in the savings and loan industry. The package was the latest in a flurry of legislation that has arisen out of the growing congressional debate and fin ger-pointing pegged to the multibillion dollar thrift scandal. "People want answers and the atmo sphere in Congress has gotten kind of The Daily Collegian Thursday, July 19,1990- ■ Other kinds of male mammals have similar genes rancorous," said Rep. Charles Schum er, D-N.Y., the principal author of the legislation. "A commission could look into it and really get the answers to what happened. This is a big enough cri sis like civil rights and the problems of the inner cities were to deserve that kind of thing.- The 12-member bipartisan study commission would be structured along the lines of the commission established after inner-city riots in Detroit, Los Angeles, Washington, New York and other cities in 1968. Foley said the new proposals will be included as part of a crime bill he plans to bring to the House floor next week.
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