• New Report Shows "Sprinkles" are Working to Prevent and Treat Childhood Nutrition Epidemic

Mobile Internet Unit is something of a misnomer, however. The bus can establish Internet access only by stringing a telephone cord to a telephone jack nearby. If one is not available, pupils on the bus surf Web sites stored on the bus's computer server.
To start the program, organizers selected 20 rural schools in the state closest to Kuala Lumpur, reaching out to children from fishing villages, oil-palm plantations and rubber estates. One of the first obstacles was convincing not only educators, but village headmen, clerics and parents as well, that the bus was a good idea.
''Mostly they hear about the negative side of the Internet'' -- like pornography -- ''so they're frightened,'' said Kang Wai Chin, the Mobile Internet Unit's voluble project manager. ''We want parents to understand the value of the Internet to their children.''
The bus program is typically built around an eight-hour course delivered in one-hour installments to 20 children at a time. It starts with such basics as learning how to turn the computer on and use a mouse, then progresses to basic word processing, e-mail, Web browsing, even manipulating spreadsheets and designing simple Web pages. A visit, typically lasting one day every two weeks, can also include a teacher-training session at the lunch hour.
The Mobile Internet Unit's organizers leave behind a PC, a modem and an Internet account so that pupils can practice and teachers can find ways to work computers into the curriculum. There is another goal: to convince parents of the computers' value, prompting them, perhaps, to buy a PC for the home or to raise money to equip the schools with more.
Does all this help the pupils? It may never be possible to know for sure. The participants have yet to take standardized exams to see how they compare with nonparticipants. The Mobile Internet Unit's own progress report charts success in at least improving computing skills and awareness. Its surveys of participants showed that 39.7 percent could use a spelling checker on a document after the course, compared with only 8.9 percent before. Slightly more than half had mastered e-mail, compared with 16.6 percent before boarding the bus.
Ms. Kang concedes the project has its skeptics among Malaysian educators, many of whom feel such skills are of dubious benefit in the countryside. Their criticisms are mirrored in the broader development community, where some say money for computers in poor rural schools would be better spent for chalk, teachers or even food.
While seemingly irrelevant in an agrarian context, such skills will be crucial to those children who eventually want to move out of the shrinking agricultural sector, Ms. Kang says. At the very least, she says, computers are a way to augment anemic libraries instantly.
The project has also won fans among teachers whose schools have taken part in the program. Loh Tzu Lee, an English teacher at Sungei Pelek secondary school in Selangor state near Kuala Lumpur, one of the first schools the bus program visited, says CD-ROM's and the Internet offer a wealth of helpful, interactive lessons. ''We can't prepare those kinds of activities in time for them,'' she said.
After he completed the bus program, Hafiz Handzalah, a Sungei Pelek ninth grader, persuaded his father to buy a computer for him to use at home. His grades have since gone up, he said, as the quality of his reports improved -- as did his spelling, perhaps not only because of a spelling checker but also because of the increased amount of reading he does online.
Back in Tunjang, the headmaster, Zulkeflee Alwi, hopes the Mobile Internet Unit will do the same for his pupils. Like Nafizah, most come from rice-farming families. ''They're not exposed to what's happening,'' Mr. Zulkeflee said. ''They just know their area only.'' The Internet, he said, may make the larger world more tangible and relevant to his pupils -- who lag behind their urban counterparts on nationwide exams -- and build their confidence.
Tunjang represents a new approach for the Mobile Internet Unit. Instead of concentrating only on children, the bus is opening to their parents, as well. Because of the town's remoteness, the bus has visited about every two months rather than every two weeks, but instead of leaving only one PC at the school, it left 10, so that the school's computer lab will stay open on weekends. ''When students aren't going to school, the school is empty,'' Ms. Kang said. ''That's a waste of resources.''
Malaysia's experience is also raising interest elsewhere, said Mr. Parmar of the Asia-Pacific program. For the United Nations Development Program, ''it's something we can showcase instead of talking about it all the time,'' he said. Poor roads and long distances may make buses impractical in countries like China and India, he said, but the project in rural Ghana could offer a clearer picture of the effect such programs can have.
In the meantime, while Ms. Kang and Mimos are screening new villages to visit with their bus, the country's biggest libraries are wheeling out new buses, increasingly taking over the Internet pied-piper role. Even in less-developed Malaysian Borneo, plans are afoot to find a way to deliver computing to jungle communities that roads have yet to reach. The plan is to build a mobile Internet boat.
Photos: The Mobile Internet Unit is aimed at bridging Malaysia's digital divide by delivering technology to its poorest schools. In Tunjang, Ho Mun Yue helps a student. (Photographs by Tara Sosrowardoyo for The New York Times)(pg. G1); ON THE BUS -- Tunjang, in northern Malaysia, is one of the remote villages to which a bus has introduced the Internet. In Sungei Pelek, near Kuala Lumpur, students waited to board the Mobile Internet Unit bus, top, for a class, left. (Photographs by Tara Sosrowardoyo for The New York Times)(pg. G6) Map of Malaysia highlights Tunjang. (pg. G6)
Document nytf000020010823dx8n0000s
BURKINA FASO - COUNTRY PROFILE.
2,099 words

7 August 2001

Africa Review World of Information

QEDAFR

1

English

(c) 2001 BY Janet Matthews Information Services, Sidcup, UK. JMIS and publishers assume no liability for the consequence of reliance upon any opinion or statement contained in this database
Historical profile
Formerly an ancient African kingdom, the area was taken over by France in the nineteenth century.
1958 Given self-government.
1960 Granted full independence from France as Upper Volta.
1980-82 The first president, Maurice Yameogo, was ousted by Colonel Sangoule Lamizama, who was in turn deposed by another colonel, who was ousted by a group of sergeants and corporals, later joined by some officers.
1983 Captain Thomas Sankara took over as President, and changed Upper Volta's name.
1987 Sankara was assassinated. Captain Blaise Compaore seized power on 15 October.
1991 Compaore was elected President in November, following the withdrawal of opposition candidates.
1992 Legislative elections postponed from January took place on 24 May, when the Organisation pour la Democratie Populaire-Mouvement du Travail (ODP-MT) (Compaore's party) won a convincing victory. The President appointed a coalition seven-party cabinet.
1998 Compaore won 87.53 per cent of the votes in the November presidential elections which were boycotted by opposition parties.
1999 Prime Minister Ouedraogo and his cabinet resigned on 8 January but he and his cabinet were reinstated by presidential decree on 11 January.
2000 Student demonstrations were broken up by police who allegedly killed and tortured some of the protestors. The IMF and World Bank agree US$400 million in debt relief under the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative.
Political structure
Constitution
Military rule ended on 2 June 1991 and a constitution was adopted allowing for multi-party politics.
Constitutional changes were adopted by the National Assembly in January 1997. These included the abolition of the limit of two seven-year terms for the president, and an increase in the number of seats in the legislature from 107 to 111.
Form of state
Unitary and secular state.
The executive
Executive power is vested in the head of state (the president), who is elected by universal suffrage for a seven-year term, and in the government, which is elected by the president.
National legislature
Multi-party Assemblee des Deputes Populaires (ADP) ( National Assembly) with 111 members, elected by universal suffrage for a four-year term.
Last elections
15 November 1998 (presidential); May 1997 (legislative).
Next elections
2001 (legislative); 2005 (presidential).
Political parties
Ruling party
The government is made up of a coalition of Congres pour la Democratie et le Progres (CDP) (Congress for Democracy and Progress), Rassemblement Democratique Africain (RDA) (African Democratic Rally), Alliance pour la Democratie et la Federation (ADF) (Alliance for Democracy and Federation) and six other parties.
Population
11.62 million (1999).
The annual population growth was 2.7 per cent in the period 1990-98; life expectancy: 44 years (1998); infant mortality rate: 104 per 1,000 live births (1998); child malnutrition: 33 per cent of children under five (1992-98). Approximately 46 per cent of the population is under 15 years.
Population density: 39 inhabitants per square km (1998). Urban population: 17 per cent (1992-98).
An estimated two million Burkinabes live in neighbouring Cote d'Ivoire.
Ethnic make-up
There are a number of ethnic groups, the most numerous of whom are the Mossi in the north (49 per cent), the Gourma in the east, and the Bobo in the south-west. Other sizeable groups include the Fulani, the Hausa, the nomadic Tuareg with their Bella domestic serfs in the north-west, and the Lobi in the south.
Religions
Animist (55 per cent), Muslim (40 per cent), Catholic (5 per cent).
Health
Life expectancy: 44 years (1998). Infant mortality rate: 104 per 1,000 live births (1998). About 33 per cent of children were malnourished (1992-98).
There are an estimated 350,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in Burkina Faso - 20,000 are under the age of 15 (2000). Around 3 per cent of the population is infected. With over 70 per cent of sex workers testing positive, there is a distinct chance that the pandemic will hit the country badly in coming years. According to studies by UNAIDS, the economic impact is being felt at the household level with AIDS expenditures double the GDP per capita income. This is exacerbated by the decline in agricultural incomes caused by AIDS deaths in the agricultural sector. The UN-affiliated organisation claims that there is a serious shortfall in public expenditure on scaled-up care and preventative measures. Moreover, it states that the loss in GDP per capita income is likely to be 0.8 per cent by 2010.
Main cities
Ouagadougou (estimated population 900,000 in 1998), Bobo Dioulasso (250,000), Koudougou (50,000).
Languages spoken
French is the official language and the universal medium for documentation.
African languages include More, Dioula, Gourmantche and Peul.
Media
Press
Dailies: The main national dailies are Sidwaya (government-controlled), Le Pays, l'Observateur (Burkinabe daily newspaper) and 24 Heures, published from May 2000 by the Journal du Jeudi media group.
Weeklies: Weeklies published from Ouagadougou include Independent, Intrus Journal du Jeudi, Observateur and Le Journal du Soir.
Periodicals: Several periodicals mainly economic and industrial are published.
Broadcasting
Radio: Radio Burkina broadcasts in French and 13 African languages. Also private FM stereo radio (Horizon FM).
Television: Television Nationale du Burkina provides transmissions seven days a week to Ouagadougou and Bobo Dioulasso, Koudougou and Ouahigouya, in French and African languages.
Economy
The government is heavily in arrears on domestic and foreign debts and depends on foreign aid.
The services sector contributed 40.3 per cent to GDP in 1998. It grew 4.5 per cent in 1998, compared with 8 per cent in 1997.
In September 1999 the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a US$53.65 million three-year loan under the enhanced structural adjustment facility (ESAF) to support the government's 1999-2002 economic programme.
In July 2000, under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, Burkina Faso received US$400million in debt relief from its external creditors.
External trade
Exports
Main exports include cotton, gold, live animals, hides and skins and manufactures.
Main destinations: China, France, Italy, Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, UK, Japan.
Imports
Main imports are food, fuel and energy and capital goods.
Main sources: France, Cote d'Ivoire, Italy, USA, Ghana, Netherlands.
Agriculture
The agricultural sector accounted for 32 per cent of GDP in 1998 and employed 75 per cent of the workforce. It accounts for around 50 per cent of export earnings. Over 90 per cent of the population is engaged in subsistence farming and nomadic stock raising.
Principal food crops are sorghum, millet, yams, maize, rice and beans.
Burkina Faso is prone to drought and has poor soil. Only 10 per cent of the total land area is cultivated. There are plans to mechanise farming and open up new areas for development.
Cotton is the main cash crop; others are sheanuts, sesame and sugar cane.
Livestock production is concentrated in the north, mainly for export to Cote d'Ivoire (which has severely restricted its Burkinabe beef imports in recent years) and Ghana.
Farming
Industry and manufacturing
The industrial sector as a whole contributed 27.8 per cent to GDP in 1998 and employed 10 per cent of the workforce; manufacturing contributed 21.4 per cent.
Production is centred on the processing of agricultural commodities (flour milling, sugar refining, manufacture of cotton yarn and textiles) and production of consumer goods including moped/bicycle assembly, footwear and soap manufacture.
Foreign investment is minimal and development remains handicapped by the chronic shortages of raw materials and spares.
Tourism
The tourism sector employs around 10,000 people directly, and more than 20,000 indirectly.
Mining
The sector contributed 6.5 per cent to GDP in 1998 and employed 2 per cent of the workforce.
Activity is confined to extraction of gold-bearing quartz at Poura (reserves estimated at 30,000kg), marble and antimony.
There are viable deposits of zinc and silver at Perkoa, and some 15 million tonnes of manganese deposits at Tambao, as well as known reserves of limestone, bauxite, nickel, phosphates and lead.
Exploitation of resources is hindered by weak infrastructure.
Burkina Faso has a geological structure similar to those of the world's richest gold producing areas.
Hydrocarbons
Burkina Faso has no known hydrocrabons reserves and its downstream industry entirely relies on imported refined oil.
Energy
The rural population relies on wood as a fuel for cooking, which is causing problems of deforestation and desertification in some areas.
Electricity supply is overseen by the Societe Nationale Burkinabe d'Electricite (Sonabel). Installed generation capacity is estimated at 78MW. Only 7 per cent of the country has access to electricity and there is no national electricity grid. Thermal power generators supply 70 per cent of electricity. A US$5.6 million hydroelectric plant at Diebougou was commissioned in 1999 with a capacity of 12MW.
Government policy is directed towards reducing Sonabel's production costs, thereby reducing its extortionate prices. Moreover, electricity development is regarded as crucial to the country's development and the government is keen to extend transmission lines and improve supply to meet growing demand.
Financial markets
Burkina Faso has no stock exchange.
Banking
Banque Centrale des Etats de l'Afrique de l'Ouest (central banking authority for the members of the West African Monetary Union)
Main financial centre
Ouagadougou.
Time
GMT.
Geography
Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa, bordered by Mali to the west and north, by Niger to the east, and by Benin, Togo, Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire to the south.
Climate
The climate is tropical. The dry season runs from November-March, when the Harmattan wind blows keeping the humidity low. Temperatures in Ouagadougou range from 14 degrees C at night to over 35 degrees C during the day. The main rainy season is from June-October. The highest rainfall is in the south, lowest in the far north where an arid desert climate prevails.
Entry requirements
Passports
Required by all except holders of national identity cards issued to nationals of Benin, Central African Republic, Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Togo.
Passports must be valid for six months after departure.
Visa
Required by all except nationals of Benin, Cape Verde, Cote d'Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.
An onward or return ticket is also required.
Currency advice/regulations
There are no restrictions on the import/export of foreign currency or local currency.
Health (for visitors)
Mandatory precautions
Yellow fever vaccination certificate.
Advisable precautions
Typhoid, tetanus, hepatitis A and polio vaccinations are recommended. Malaria prophylaxis should be taken as risk exists throughout the country. Water precautions are also advisable. There is a risk of rabies. Visitors should seek advice with regard to vaccinations for diphtheria, heptaitis B, meningitis and tuberculosis.
Hotels
Hotels are available in Ouagadougou and Bobo Dioulasso with limited availability elsewhere. It is advisable to book in advance. Service is included in bills and gratuities are customary for taxis and porters.
Public holidays
Fixed dates
1 January, 8 March, 1 May, 4 August (National Day), 15 October, 1 November (All Saints' Day), 1 December, 25 December.
Variable dates
Easter Monday, Ascension, Whit Monday, Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, Ashura, Prophet's Birthday, Al Hijra.
Working hours
Banking
Mon-Fri: 0830-1130 and 1530-1630.
Business
Mon-Fri: 0730-1230 and 1500-1730.
Government
Mon-Fri: 0730-1230 and 1500-1730.
Shops
(Mon-Sat) 0800-1300 and 1500-1900; (Sun) 0800-1200.
Telecommunications
Telephone/fax
Dialling code for Burkina Faso: IDD access code + 226 followed by subscriber's number (there are no area codes).
Electricity supply
220/380V AC, 50 cycles.
Getting there
Air
National airline: Air Burkina.
Airport tax: No information available.
Surface
Road: Most practicable during dry seasons - from Mali (Bamako) and Niger (Niamey), when buses operate on these routes. The road from Ghana is being improved. Also possible from Cote d'Ivoire, Benin and Togo.
Rail: Daily express service from Abidjan (Cote d'Ivoire) to Bobo Dioulasso and Ouagadougou. Sleeping and dining cars.
Getting about
National transport
Air: Air Burkina serves Ouagadougou, Bobo Dioulasso and other main centres. Light aircraft can be chartered from Air Burkina. The airline also operates flights to surrounding countries, Mali, Togo, Benin, Cote d'Ivoire and Niger.
City transport
Taxis: Unmetered and available in main centres. A 10 per cent tip is usually given.
Car hire
National licence plus permit or international driving licence required. Use of chauffeur-driven cars advised. Copyright: Walden Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved. Walden Publishing Ltd and Quest Information Ltd assume no liability for the consequence of reliance upon any opinion or statement.
Document qedafr0020010808dx870000p

Factiva Insurance Risk Summary - May 10, 2001.
3,251 words

10 May 2001

09:12 AM

Factiva Insurance Risk Summary

FIRS

English

(c) 2001 Dow Jones Reuters Business Interactive LLC, trading as Factiva
*Foot-and-Mouth Appears Controlled, EU Food Safety Commissioner Says
*Swiss Ease Foot-and-Mouth Measures as Threat Wanes
*Officials Reopen 136 Miles of Upper Mississippi River
*Johnson & Johnson Says Patient Deaths Spur Warning on Sporanox
*U.S. Emergency Health Safety Net Unraveling
*Banning Phones While Driving Premature, U.S. Official Says
*Hormone Shots Strengthen Women's Bones
*Chemicals in Strawberries Pose Risk
*Doctor's Race No Factor in Biased Heart Attack Care
*Industry Vows Help to Remove Obsolete Pesticides
*"HomePage" Virus Hits Outlook Again, But Spread Slows
*Fatal U.S. Airliner Incident Prompts Recommendation
*Walking May Help Aging Women Keep Minds Young
*Chavez Warns of Armed Revolution if Policies Fail
*Two Killed in Jakarta Dormitory Bomb Blast
*Britain Shuts Zimbabwe Culture Center After Threat
*Vietnam Road Safety Drive Hit by Helmet Shortage
*China Firm Halts Oil Survey After Pakistan Ambush
*Ghana Mourns 120 in Africa's Worst Soccer Tragedy
*Guatemalan Police Regain Control of Shrimp Port
*Strike Suspended at Peru's Biggest Zinc Plant
*Three People Killed by Bangladesh Tropical Storm
*****************************************************
*Foot-and-Mouth Appears Controlled, EU Food Safety Commissioner Says
NICOSIA, Cyprus (Reuters) - Europe's commissioner for food safety said on Wednesday the EU had successfully tackled foot-and-mouth disease and appeared to have the virus under control. "The situation has improved considerably ... it seems now that it is fairly safe for us to say that we appear to have this thing cracked and that the danger is now considerably reduced," Commissioner David Byrne told a news conference in Cyprus. The airborne virus, which is harmless to humans, led to the slaughter of some 2.5 million animals in Britain, which has recorded about 1,560 outbreaks. "Now we find the daily figures in the U.K. are now dropping very considerably," Byrne said. On Tuesday, the European Commission relaxed EU-wide restrictions on the movement of cattle and pigs within most of the European Union but maintained all curbs on Britain, including meat exports, until June 19.
*Swiss Ease Foot-and-Mouth Measures as Threat Wanes
BERNE, Switzerland (Reuters) - Switzerland is relaxing measures designed to stop the spread of foot-and-mouth disease to the country as the threat of an epidemic appears to wane, the Federal Veterinary Office said on Thursday. With immediate effect, it is relaxing import controls on lamb, game and meat products from all European Union countries except Britain and the Netherlands, it said in a statement. As of May 23, live cloven-hoofed animals will be allowed to enter Switzerland from the EU, with the exception of the same two countries. Standard quarantine and observation periods still apply.
*Officials Reopen 136 Miles of Upper Mississippi River
CHICAGO (Reuters) - River officials said Wednesday they reopened a 136-mile section of the upper Mississippi River south of Hastings, Minnesota, downstream to Genoa, Wisconsin, as water levels receded. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reopened locks 3 at Welch, Minnesota, through lock 8 at Genoa, 16 miles south of LaCrosse, Wisconsin. But the four northern-most locks in the Minneapolis area - upper and lower locks at St. Anthony Falls and locks 1 through 2 (Minneapolis to Hastings, Minnesota) remain closed along with locks 9 and 10 at Eastman, Wisconsin, and Guttenberg, Iowa. "Those locks remain closed due to embankment erosion and damage from debris," said Army Corps spokesman Peter Verstegen.
Coinciding with the lock reopenings, the U.S. Coast Guard opened the Mississippi River waterway for that portion of the river. Another 350-mile section of the Mississippi south of Genoa continues to be closed to river traffic as officials wait for water levels to drop.
*Johnson & Johnson Says Patient Deaths Spur Warning on Sporanox
NEW YORK (Reuters)-Healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson said deaths of some patients taking its antifungal treatment Sporanox prompted it to warn Wednesday that people with a history of congestive heart failure should not take the medicine. Later in the day, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a statement in which it estimated that Sporanox contributed to or caused 58 reported cases of congestive heart failure. Thirteen of the patients died, but the agency said "confounding factors" made any link between Sporanox and the deaths "very unclear." Ten of the 13 patients who died had "serious underlying conditions," the FDA added. New Jersey-based J&J said warning language was being added to the package insert label of Sporanox capsules, noting the use of the medicine could aggravate or bring on symptoms of congestive heart failure.
*U.S. Emergency Health Safety Net Unraveling
ATLANTA (Reuters) - The health safety net of last resort in the United States provided by hospital emergency rooms is critically overburdened and in some places in a state of near collapse, a conference heard on Wednesday. The Society for Academic Emergency Medicine heard a series of presentations that painted a scary picture of the situation in the nation's emergency health system.
"In Arizona we have the perfect storm, a disaster situation where a combination of things makes you take on water so fast you can't fix it," said Todd Taylor, vice president for public affairs at the Arizona College of Emergency Physicians. "Most Americans still have no idea how dangerous it has become to be ill or injured and go to an emergency room. The chance of surviving a heart attack now depends more on the time of day, the day of the week and your type of insurance than any other factor," he said.
*Banning Phones While Driving Premature, U.S. Official Says
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The use of wireless phones in vehicles has become a "significant highway safety concern," a top U.S. auto safety regulator told lawmakers on Wednesday, but it would be premature to ban their use while driving. "We believe it's premature to push for federal legislation in this area," National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) executive director Robert Shelton told a congressional hearing. The role of cell phones in traffic accidents has been hotly debated, as the number of U.S. cell phone users growing rapidly from a few hundred thousand in 1985 to 115 million today. Shelton said NHTSA was gathering data on the entire range of distractions inside automobiles that can lead to car crashes, including navigation systems and on-board computers that deliver e-mail and Internet data.
*Hormone Shots Strengthen Women's Bones
BOSTON (Reuters) - Daily injections of a modified hormone given to women with the bone-wasting disease osteoporosis can cut the risk of their breaking a bone by at least 53%, according to a study in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine. About 10 million Americans have osteoporosis and up to $10 billion is spent in the United States each year to treat broken bones caused by the disease, which is characterized by a reduction in bone density accompanied by increased brittleness. Instead of simply reducing the speed with which the body dissolves existing bone, as most osteoporosis treatments do, the parathyroid hormone shots double the rate at which new bone forms, an international team of researchers found. Elderly women who took the drug developed two-thirds fewer backbone fractures compared to volunteers who got a placebo.
*Chemicals in Strawberries Pose Risk
HAMBURG (Reuters) - A German food laboratory found traces of what it called potentially dangerous pesticides and fungicides in six out of 20 random samples of imported strawberries, the weekly Stern said on Thursday. The mass-circulation magazine said a food laboratory in Bremen found traces of the pesticide Dicofol and the fungicide Procymidon and Chlorthalonil in the six samples, three from Spain and three from Italy.
Stern quoted Bremen laboratory head Mehmet Cetinkaya as saying all three substances are suspected of being carcinogenic. "Dicofol belongs to the same chemical group as DDT, it can cause hormone imbalances in humans," Cetinkaya was quoted as saying. But Cetinkaya told Reuters the pesticides and fungicides found in the strawberries are all legal and the amounts found in the samples remain within the permitted threshhold
*Doctor's Race No Factor in Biased Heart Attack Care
BOSTON (Reuters) - Black doctors are just as likely as their white colleagues to under-treat black patients, who are at higher risk for heart ailments and routinely receive less aggressive treatment than white patients. The finding, published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine, added a new layer to the debate over why black patients received less care in the aftermath of heart attacks, strokes and other illnesses. Previous studies tended to suggest some form of racism was at work, or that black patients were suspicious of the medical system or more risk averse. While some of those issues were still being studied it now appeared less clear that racism was a major factor, the new study's authors said.
The fact that the race of the doctor had little effect on the decision to perform a heart catheterization "suggests that racial discordance between the patient and the physician does not explain differences between black patients and white patients in the use of cardiac catheterization," said the team that conducted this week's study, led by Dr. Jersey Chen of the Yale University School of Medicine.
*Industry Vows Help to Remove Obsolete Pesticides
ROME (Reuters) - The Global Crop Protection Federation (GCPF) pledged on Thursday to help developing countries get rid of pesticide waste that threatens the environment and the health of millions. "In Rome, GCPF re-affirmed its commitment to help developing countries dispose of stocks of obsolete pesticides originally supplied by its member companies," the organization said in a statement sent to Reuters. GCPF is an umbrella organization for leading pesticide producers including Aventis, BASF, Bayer, Dow AgroSciences, DuPont, Monsanto, Sumitomo and Syngenta.
The U.N. world food body said on Wednesday more than 500,000 tons of aging pesticide waste was scattered around the globe, with nearly all developing countries under threat. The Rome-based U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a report that the build-up of toxic pesticides that had been banned or expired was far higher than previous estimates of around 100,000 tons.
*"HomePage" Virus Hits Outlook Again, But Spread Slows
NEW YORK (Reuters) - An initially fast-spreading e-mail worm nicknamed "HomePage," the cousin of February's "Anna Kournikova" virus, hit thousands of users of Microsoft Outlook address directories in Asia and Europe on Wednesday. Office workers in banks and telephone companies and government agencies who opened e-mail containing the virus - technically known as VBSWG.X - were suddenly redirected to one of four sexually explicit Web pages, experts said. The virus also triggered a barrage of e-mail to anyone listed in an affected computer's Outlook e-mail address book, which in turn overloaded some organization's e-mail systems, according to anti-virus experts tracking the virus's spread. But while HomePage once again revealed the vulnerability of computer networks to virus attacks, no more than 10,000 or so users were affected, analysts estimated.
*Fatal U.S. Airliner Incident Prompts Recommendation
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Responding to the death of a flight attendant who was sucked out of a parked jet last year, U.S. safety regulators said on Wednesday they want to make sure pilots flying Airbus Industrie A300-600 series planes are better informed about cabin pressure operations. The National Transportation Safety Board, in a letter to the Federal Aviation Administration, said it wanted the FAA to require that Airbus update its flight manual on proper procedures for operating the pressurization system. According to the letter released on Wednesday, investigators want to make sure the crew knows that the plane will not automatically depressurize after landing if the pressurization system is being operated manually.
*Walking May Help Aging Women Keep Minds Young
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Women who walk regularly and engage in moderate exercise are less likely to experience memory loss or other declines in mental function that can accompany aging, a study released on Wednesday found. "We looked at walking because this is actually women's most common leisure activity," said neurologist Kristine Yaffe of the University of California at San Francisco, the study's author. "So, if you could see an association with that, it might be important because this is something that women seem to like to do."
*Chavez Warns of Armed Revolution if Policies Fail
CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Wednesday that if his peaceful crusade to bring revolutionary change to the oil-rich South American nation failed, then "armed revolution" might be the only solution. "We are making a superhuman effort to create a revolution without arms, but it's pretty difficult, pretty difficult, although not impossible," the 46-year-old paratrooper-turned-president said at Maracay, west of Caracas. In a warning clearly aimed at his critics and political opponents, he added: "I am convinced that if for some reason this attempt to forge a revolution without arms fails, what would come next would be a revolution with arms because that is the only way out that we Venezuelans have".
*Two Killed in Jakarta Dormitory Bomb Blast
JAKARTA (Reuters) - A bomb destroyed a Jakarta dormitory for students from the restive Indonesian province of Aceh on Thursday, killing at least two people and wounding several, police and witnesses said. "Looking at the level of destruction we can say it has been caused by a bomb," Inspector-general Sofjan Jacoeb told Reuters. Jacoeb said nine students were being questioned and the bomb squad was investigating. Another police source at the site said it was a home-made bomb. Jacoeb could not confirm the number of casualties but said at least two people had been killed. The dormitory, in the central Jakarta suburb of Guntur, stood opposite a mosque. Witnesses said around 200 onlookers had gathered near the site which police had cordoned off. They said minimal damage was caused to adjoining buildings.
*Britain Shuts Zimbabwe Culture Center After Threat
HARARE, Zimbabwe (Reuters) - Britain has shut its main cultural center in Zimbabwe after threats by self-styled militant war veterans, the British embassy said on Thursday. "The temporary closure of the British Council building is to allow a full review of security," an embassy spokeswoman said. The decision to close the British Council in Harare came after threats from veterans who warned they would attack embassies and aid groups it alleged supported political opposition to President Robert Mugabe. Former colonial power Britain has been rebuked by Mugabe and his ruling ZANU-PF party for standing in the way of a controversial land reform program which has seen veterans violently seize white-owned farm land.
*Vietnam Road Safety Drive Hit by Helmet Shortage
HANOI, Vietnam (Reuters) - A shortage of crash helmets appears to have cooled Vietnam's determination to cut mounting road deaths by forcing motorcyclists to protect themselves. Thursday's state-run Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper quoted Vice Transport Minister Pham The Minh as saying a new rule requiring all riders to wear helmets from June 1 could be unenforceable. "There are seven million motorbikes throughout the country ... we won't have that number of helmets available by June 1," he told the paper. Minh said his ministry would propose to Prime Minister Phan Van Khai that police should stick to enforcing an existing rule for riders to wear helmets on key highways, where most deadly accidents occur.
*China Firm Halts Oil Survey After Pakistan Ambush
QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - A Chinese firm surveying for oil and gas in southwestern Pakistan has halted work there after one of its teams was ambushed, local officials said on Thursday. Unknown assailants fired a rocket on a vehicle carrying the Bureau of Geophysics Prospects (BGP) team on Monday in the Sunny Shoran area of the northern Sibi district, killing a Pakistani driver and wounding a Chinese engineer and two local guards. "The Chinese have stopped the survey work temporarily," an official in Sibi district told Reuters. There was no information about the identity or motives of the attackers.
*Ghana Mourns 120 in Africa's Worst Soccer Tragedy
ACCRA, Ghana (Reuters) - Ghana mourned on Thursday for at least 120 people killed in Africa's worst football tragedy, the soccer-mad continent's third deadly stadium disaster in a month. Authorities promised an inquiry into the stampede, which spectators said was triggered by police firing teargas after fans hurled missiles at the end of Wednesday's game between two of Ghana's leading teams, the arch-rivals Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko. "I have set up an internal probe to investigate this tragedy. We're not going to shield anybody," Ghana's top police officer, Inspector General Ernest Owusu-Poku, told local Joy FM Radio. President John Kufuor summoned his cabinet for an emergency meeting later on Thursday and his aides said that a period of national mourning would be declared.
*Guatemalan Police Regain Control of Shrimp Port
CHAMPERICO, Guatemala (Reuters) - Hundreds of Guatemalan riot police regained control of a Pacific port on Wednesday afternoon following 24 hours of violent protests over fishing territory that left a 14-year-old boy dead. Rosalio Castellanos died from bullet wounds on Tuesday night after police opened fire on some 500 local fishermen protesting a shrimp company's decision to fence off part of a beach the fishermen had used to launch small boats. Townspeople held a lawyer for the company hostage in the town square on Tuesday night, releasing him only when he agreed to present their case to a local manager.
Protesters said that by putting up the fence PESCA, a major local employer with operations on the outskirts of the town, had prevented them from fishing, depriving them of their only source of income. Company officials would not comment on the situation.
*Strike Suspended at Peru's Biggest Zinc Plant
LIMA (Reuters) - A pay strike that caused Peru's biggest zinc refinery, Cajamarquilla, to operate at half capacity for 10 days was suspended on Wednesday pending a week of negotiations with the company, union leaders said. "On Thursday we're going back to work. We have suspended the strike because, with the help of the labor ministry, we have ensured that the company will consider our demands, but if there is no progress, we will strike again in eight days' time," union secretary general Simon Diaz told Reuters. Cajamarquilla, located in the Peruvian capital of Lima with output of around 120,000 tons a year, is 82% owned by Canada's Cominco Ltd and 17% by Japan's Marubeni Corp. Diaz said Cajamarquilla had 510 workers of which 400 were union members and 300 were on strike.
*Three People Killed by Bangladesh Tropical Storm
DHAKA, Bangladesh (Reuters) - At least three people were killed by a tropical storm which uprooted trees and swept away houses in Bangladesh's northeast early on Thursday, the official BSS news agency said. It said the three were killed when their straw houses were swept away by the storm which also snapped power and phone lines. Hundreds of people in the area lost their homes in the storm, the agency quoted local officials as saying. Twenty people were killed by storms and heavy rains which lashed the impoverished nation on Monday and Tuesday.
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Insurance stories appear as they break 24 hours a day on the Factiva products Reuters Business Briefing and Dow Jones Interactive.
Factiva Contact: Marc Donatiello, 609-627-2659, [e-mail].
Document firs000020010712dx5a0002k

Metropolitan Desk; Section B

Pulitzer Prizes Include 3 for News Coverage of Immigration and Ethnic Complexity

By FELICITY BARRINGER

3,318 words

17 April 2001

The New York Times

NYTF

Page 8, Column 1

English

(c) 2001 New York Times Company
A thumbnail sketch yesterday about the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, ''The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay'' by Michael Chabon, referred incorrectly in some copies to the full surname of a title character of the novel. It is Sammy Clayman, not Clayton.
CORRECTED BY THE NEW YORK TIMES WEDNESDAY APRIL 18, 2001A thumbnail sketch on Tuesday about the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, ''The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay'' by Michael Chabon, referred incorrectly in some copies to the original surname of a title character, as did a correction in this space yesterday. (The name was also incorrect on Sept. 21 in a review of the book.) The character is Samuel Louis Klayman, not Clayton or Clayman. In the novel he changes his name to Sam Clay and is also referred to as Sammy Clay.
CORRECTED BY THE NEW YORK TIMES THURSDAY APRIL 19, 2001
In a year when census figures underscored the growing diversity of American society, three Pulitzer Prizes in journalism were awarded for articles that highlighted the perplexing, sometimes traumatic legacy of immigration and the country's changing ethnic mix.
The staff of The New York Times won the award for national reporting for the series ''How Race Is Lived in America,'' exploring racial experiences and attitudes from military bases to churches to slaughterhouses. The Oregonian in Portland won the award for public service for its examination of abuses and systemic problems within the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
The Miami Herald staff won the award for breaking news reporting for the coverage of the predawn federal raid that took a Cuban boy, Elian Gonzalez, from his emigre relatives in Miami and reunited him with his father, who took him back to Cuba. And an Associated Press photographer, Alan Diaz, was cited by the Pulitzer Prize Board for his photograph of an armed federal agent seizing Elian from his relatives' home.
Martin Baron, The Herald's executive editor, said yesterday that covering an emotional event in a racially diverse community posed difficult challenges. ''Clearly this is one of the issues the profession is having to deal with,'' he said.
The Pulitzer Prizes, administered by Columbia University, also focused on the issue of race in one of the arts awards. David Levering Lewis was awarded his second prize in biography for ''W. E. B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century, 1919-1963,'' the second volume in a series published by Henry Holt & Company. Mr. Lewis had won a Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1994 for the first volume, which covered Du Bois's life from 1868 to 1919.
The award for a work of history went to ''Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation,'' by Joseph J. Ellis, which examines a series of episodes in the relationships of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr.
The Pulitzer Prize for drama went to David Auburn's play ''Proof,'' which examines what is knowable and what is not, through the story of a mathematician's daughter who may or may not have been the author of her father's most celebrated mathematical proof.
Among the journalism awards, the prize for explanatory reporting was awarded to the staff of The Chicago Tribune for that paper's series on the chaos in the country's air traffic control system.
David Willman of The Los Angeles Times won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting for his revelations that seven government-approved prescription drugs were actually unsafe, and for his analysis of the policy changes that inhibited the work of the Food and Drug Administration.
David Cay Johnston of The New York Times won the award for beat reporting for coverage of the Internal Revenue Service. Instead of reporting on bureaucratic abuses of individual rights, Mr. Johnston covered the consequences of legislative attempts to rein in the agency. He revealed, among other things, that poor people were more likely to be audited than wealthy taxpayers.
Two prizes were awarded for international reporting -- to Ian Johnson of The Wall Street Journal for his coverage of the Chinese government's suppression of Falun Gong religious practitioners, and to Paul Salopek of The Chicago Tribune for coverage of Africa's plagues of disease and violence.
Tom Hallman Jr. of The Oregonian won for feature writing for his profile of a boy who chose to undergo risky surgery rather than continue to live with a face that made others turn away.
Dorothy Rabinowitz of The Wall Street Journal was awarded the prize for commentary for articles on issues like the continuing discrimination against people falsely accused of child sexual abuse.
The prize for criticism was awarded to Gail Caldwell, the chief book critic of The Boston Globe. The prize for editorial writing was awarded to David R. Moats of The Rutland Herald in Vermont, for his advocacy of the state's law extending legal benefits to same-sex unions.
Matt Rainey of The Star-Ledger of Newark won the prize for feature photography for his images of two students critically burned in a fire at Seton Hall University.
Ann Telnaes of The Los Angeles Times Syndicate won for editorial cartooning.
In the arts category, Stephen Dunn won the award for poetry for his collection 'Different Hours,'' which was published by W. W. Norton & Company. The award for general nonfiction went to the HarperCollins book ''Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan,'' by Herbert P. Bix.
The prize for music was awarded for Symphony No. 2 for String Orchestra by John Corigliano. Michael Chabon won the fiction award for his novel, ''The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay,'' (Random House).
FICTION
MICHAEL CHABON
''The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay''
In this large (639 pages), virtuosic novel, Mr. Chabon conjures the collaboration of a Czech immigrant and his American cousin, two hopeful creators of superheroes during the golden age of comic books.
Mr. Chabon's book begins in 1939, with World War II on the horizon. Real people including Orson Welles and Salvador Dali play cameo roles in an adventure that moves from Greenland Station to the top of the Empire State Building while maintaining a metaphorical as well as historical relevance.
Mr. Chabon, 37, has written two previous novels -- ''The Mysteries of Pittsburgh'' and ''Wonder Boys'' -- and two collections of short stories.
GENERAL NONFICTION
HERBERT P. BIX
''Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan''
In a major study of the role Emperor Hirohito played in shaping modern Japan, Mr. Bix, a Boston-born historian who teaches at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, rejects the accepted portrait of the emperor as a hapless pawn of the Japanese military during the 1930's and 40's.
Mr. Bix argues that the emperor sanctioned atrocities in China, approved an alliance with Hitler and Mussolini and prepared Japan for the war in the Pacific; the argument has already stirred controversy in Japan.
The myth of the innocent emperor, Mr. Bix suggests, was calculatedly created by Gen. Douglas MacArthur after Japan's defeat. Mr. Bix's research, using documents released after the emperor's death in 1989, was partly shared with John W. Dower, who was trained at Harvard University along with Mr. Bix, and who won the Pulitzer Prize in nonfiction last year for his study of Japan after its defeat.
HISTORY
JOSEPH J. ELLIS
''Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation''
How, really, was a United States of America forged out of the competing interests of the newly freed and squabbling colonies and who, really, were the men who accomplished it? These are the central questions that Mr. Ellis, a history professor at Mount Holyoke College, addresses in his work, which has spent 18 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list.
In an anecdotal approach, he follows the remarkable fraternity of George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr as they grapple with a half-dozen crises that determined the shape of the new republic and changed the world ever after.
POETRY
STEPHEN DUNN
''Different Hours''
Mr. Dunn, the author of 11 collections of poetry, is sometimes called a poet of middle-class life.
No fancy metaphors for Mr. Dunn, who is 61, no sense that he is writing with his thesaurus; instead, his poems are conversational in tone, self-deprecating, a celebration of suburban life, marriage, adolescent children.
''. . . I wake before/ the sound of traffic, amazed'' he writes in the title poem of ''Different Hours,'' ''that the paper has been delivered, that the world is up and working./ A dazed rabbit sits in the dewy grass./ The clematis has no aspirations.''
BIOGRAPHY
DAVID LEVERING LEWIS
''W. E. B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century, 1919-1963''
Mr. Lewis, a history professor at Rutgers University, won his first Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1994, with the first volume in his life of W. E. B. Du Bois, one of the towering figures of the early American civil rights movement. Now the second volume has won Mr. Lewis a second prize, making him the first biographer in Pulitzer history to win for back-to-back volumes.
The second volume picks up Du Bois's life after 1919, when the co-founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People began to move away from his early integrationist ideals and shift toward more radical leftist politics. The second half of his life was fraught with contradictions, as he battled other black leaders, as well as white society.
He joined the Communist Party in 1960, long after other American socialists had left it. At the age of 95, he died in voluntary exile, celebrated by the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China (he had renounced his United States citizenship) in Ghana on the eve of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s march on Washington in 1963.
Mr. Lewis, who met Du Bois as a child, told one interviewer that he had sought to present ''a conflicted figure whose attempt to achieve his ideals caused him to contradict many of them.''
DRAMA
DAVID AUBURN
''Proof''
Mr. Auburn, a Brooklynite who, at 31, has only one other produced play to his credit, edged out two more experienced writers -- Kenneth Lonergan and Edward Albee -- with a deftly constructed drama that began at an Off Broadway nonprofit theater and became a surprise Broadway hit.
''Proof'' focuses on the madness and death of a famous mathematician, his ardent student and his two daughters, one of whom may have inherited her father's genius, his illness, or both. Structured as a mystery about the authorship of a mathematical proof, it is really about more ethereal mysteries -- the chemistry of love, the nature of genius.
''I never knew that this small play with mathematicians as characters and set on a back porch could attract so much attention,'' Mr. Auburn said.
MUSIC
JOHN CORIGLIANO
Symphony No. 2 for String Orchestra
Mr. Corigliano, 63, is a composer of symphonic, vocal and chamber music that is colorfully scored and often makes great demands on performers' virtuosity, even as its accessibility and eclecticism have won it a large following.
The five-movement Symphony No. 2 is a considerable expansion and revision of his String Quartet (1995), and touches upon a variety of musical dialects, from evocations of Morocco to dense contemporary counterpoint.
PUBLIC SERVICE
THE OREGONIAN
The Oregonian of Portland was honored with a Pulitzer for its detailed reporting on inefficiency, misconduct and other systemic problems in the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Four reporters -- Richard Read, Julie Sullivan, Kim Christensen and Brent Walth -- worked with Amanda Bennett, the paper's managing editor for projects, to produce the series.
The articles examined the contradictions raised by the agency's dual missions of service and enforcement, and highlighted the callous treatment by the I.N.S. of immigrants and asylum seekers.