9A -- Thp M ir.hirsan tWhi - Thi irerIn r Pohn mrir 11 1007 -T r v I - uI. I vIIviIc;aniy - I iurusay, reruay y,1J/ , NATE ON IW oRsLD Car phones may contribute to accidents :vc t/: . Drivers at high risk when talking on the phone while behind the wheel The Washington Post Talking on a cellular phone while dri- ving may quadruple a person's risk of havipg a serious auto accident, a new Study has found. The research, reported in today's issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, examined crash reports and telephone billing records of several hundred Canadian drivers with cell phnrles who had collisions during a 14- month period. The authors calculated that within a few minutes after begin- fung a call in their cars, drivers were 4.3 times more likely to have an accident thaff they were when their phones were not in use. at increased risk, they conclude, is "similar to the hazard associated with driving with a blood alcohol level at the legal limit" and drivers should consider additional "road safety precautions" while talking on the devices. In a surprising coinci- dental finding, University of Toronto physicians Donald Redelmeier and Robert Tibshirani also determined that cell-phone "units that allowed the hands to be free offered no safety advantage over hand-held units."' The authors emphasized that their study does not prove that cell phones cause accidents; it only indicates that use is associated with increased risk. There are numerous possible contributory factors, Redelmeier said yesterday, and "we don't know anything about what (the drivers) were doing with their radios or 10 coffee cups" at the time of their colli- sions. "It's very difficult with this kind of study to establish causality," noted Michael Goodman of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is planning to issue a two- year comprehensive review of international research on ". n the subject in late March. S". "It could be," he said, "that the very circumstance that gets the person on the phone - being late for a meeting, involved in an BSm fOme84 argument, being distraught - itself could precipitate the crash." Goodman, the technical manager for NHTSA's forthcoming study, said there is no definitive measure of "the magnitude of the problem, if there is a problem." Nor, he said, is it clear whether any risks posed by car-phone use outweigh the incontestable benefits they provide in notifying police, fire and ambulance services of highway emergencies. Nonetheless, he said, "the process of alerting the public to some of these con- cerns is very important." In a statement in response to the Toronto study, the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA) concurred with the "conclusion that drivers should be vigi- lant." But the group noted that while the cell-phone market has been expanding drastically (in 1995, the Toronto researchers write, "the number of new subscribers in the United States exceed- ed the birth rate") there has been no apparent corresponding rise in accidents. "From 1988 to 1995," CTIA observed, "wireless phone users grew 1,685 per- cent to nearly 34 million subscribers. During the same period, injuries resulting from auto accidents decreased by 16.6 percent and fatalities fell by 26 percent,' House rejects federal term limits WASH INGTON - In the first politically significant vote of the new session of Congress, the House killed yesterday a proposed constitutional amendment to set term limits for federal legislators. Although a majority of the lawmakers voted for the term limits measure, the 217-211 tally fell 69 votes shy of the two-thirds majority the amendment needed to clear the House. "To adopt term limits is to play Russian Roulette with the future," said Ho# Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde (R-1ll.) whose panel sent the propos- al to the floor. If the Constitution is changed and legislators are limited to only 12 years of service, "developing effective leaders would be a roll of the dice - a revolving door leadership with no continuity, no stability and no historical memo- ry," Hyde added. A provision offered by Rep. Bill McCollum (R-Fla.) would have restricted House members to six two-year terms and senators to two six-year terms. The amendment wouldn't have been retroactive to affect time already served by sitting legislators; it would have required ratification by three-quarters, or 38, of the 50 state legislatures within seven years of congressional passage. The House vote effectively ends the matter for this session, avoiding the need* debate or votes in the Senate. E American Airlines nears strike deadline CiAM.GetahedW.GetawayFndthecourse you need. Meet the professor of alime. Leam w est RsyourgoaKnow NeY Now t emost Reach your poteribal & GL. &i t coures in 28Arts & Sin departments induding: 4 : j -and me!.- iSiiTefat Columbia Now's the time to think about summer in The City- graduates and undergraduates alikeThis can be your best summer ever! Summer I begins May 27. Summer 11 begins July?. as a isin Over 1,200 courses or credit, and our post-bac prebusiness program! "IFA2820 Be sure to specify for which term you are aodyino. sp-inf% lumbia.edu hitw coumbieduicussp A term or longer F. What in the World Can You Do With Your Education? =[~hr. TEACH in a developing country MPACT communities EXPERIENCE other cultures l WorldTeach 1-800-4-TEACH-0 . infoaworldteach.org www.ige.org/worldteach The Washington Post WASHINGTON -- President Clinton yesterday urged American Airlines Inc. and its pilots union to set- tle their contract dispute, but declined to intervene in the matter before tomor- row night's strike deadline, despite entreaties from congressional leaders from several affected states. As negotiators for both sides report- ed little progress yesterday in their agreement to reach a new contract, American announced it had canceled about 129 round-trip, long-haul foreign flights beginning tomorrow, to avoid stranding crews and aircraft abroad. Cancellations will affect mostly flights to South America, Japan and Europe. Flights to London will leave as scheduled tomorrow. American, which carries one out of every five air passengers in the United States, has said it will shut down its entire worldwide operation if members of the Allied Pilots Association strike at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. A strike would hit the airline at the start of the Presidents' Day holiday weekend, the nation's second-biggest air travel holiday of the year. Members of the Senate aviation subcommittee have unanimously urged Clinton to intervene by appointing a special Presidential Emergency Board that would auto- matically force a 60-day cooling-off period. One American official said yesterday the company would prefer the president to ask both sides to sub- mit, the dispute to arbitration rather than appoint an emergency board. But White House aides said Clinton is loathe to get involved. "This issue has huge implications for our country and in particular for specif- ic parts of our country," Clinton told reporters during an event on improving aviation safety. "I have been following it very close- ly. Today I want to say that the time has not expired and I want to encourage the parties to make maximum use of the mediation-board process," he said. Clinton's language seemed to track the provisions of the law, which man- dates that he determine that a strike would pose "a substantial economic threat" to deprive a region of a "central transportation service" to intervene. During a meeting with White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles yester- day, several senators pushed for the president to step in more quickly, not- ing that waiting until the deadline expires would set off a chain reaction that would scramble flights across the country, no matter how quickly the mat- ter could be settled at that point. Mississippi bans same-sex marriages JACKSON, Miss. - Gov. Kirk Fordice denounced same-sex relation- ships as "perverse" yesterday as he signed a law making Mississippi the 17th state in a year to ban homosexual marriages. "For too long in this freedom-loving land, cultural subversives have engaged in trench warfare on traditional family values," Fordice said. Mississippi's law also denies recog- nition of homosexual marriages per- formed in other states. And Fordice said the law would ensure that gay couples do not enjoy benefits of marriage such as health insurance. "Insurance benefits for dependents were never intended for perverse rela- tionships such as the same-sex mar- riage'"he said. "They were intended for traditional families." State Rep. Jim Evans, one of three lawmakers who oppose the bill, said the governor should "be giving it a see- ond thought before he begins to moral- ize right now." Mississippi lawmakers were responding in part to a gay rights case in Hawaii, which is appealing a judge's ruling that the state must grant mar- riage licenses to gay couples. "The whole nation has felt threate by the actions in Hawaii," Fordice said. Sackson, wife may ave new baby boy LOS ANGELES - KNBC-TV, cit- ing hospital sources, said Michael Jackson's wife gave birth to a baby boy yesterday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. However, a source close to the hose tal who requested anonymity told The Associated Press that Debbie Rowe Jackson had been admitted to the hospi- tal but had not given birth by late after- noon. Her due date is Valentine's Day. Medical center officials and Jackson representatives said they could not con- firm that Mrs. Jackson was even at the hospital. to be masters of their country ... killed when they (Russians) wanted to kill, burned when they felt like it, labeled 'bandits' when they felt like it, deport- ed when they felt like it." As part of the festivities outside Chemists' Palace of Culture, hundreds of bearded former fighters in fatigues fired guns triumphantly in the air. Abright's roots no secret to Israel JERUSALEM - Two years ago, long before last week's public dise sure and before Madeleine Albrig t said she knew herself, the Israeli gov- ernment learned of her Jewish roots, according to current and former Foreign Ministry officials. Gad Yaacbbi, who served as Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, said he received information about this mat- ter" in late 1994 from George Weidenfeld, an Austrian-born Jew who knew Albright's father in London. - Compiled from Daily wire reports. I RE LOOKING R PEOPLE ITH A H LEVEL OF WMIT ME NT. [ ife is good at InstallShield. We're located just outside Chicago. Which means that the pizza here is great. And by and large, most everyone is nice to work with. Aside from being a pretty unique collection of characters, we're also the world leader in tools for enabling software deployment to all Windows platforms. Our products are used to distribute hundreds of world-class applications: Intuit's Quicken, Netscape Navigator, Borland's Delphi, Microsoft's Front Page...you get the idea. At this point in your career, you may be wanting to take the first job that offers a half-decent paycheck. If that's the case, do us both a favor and turn the page. If, however, you're looking to make a real commitment and make the most of your professional life, read on. Here are a few adjectives used to describe the kind of people we're looking for: creative, aggressive, smart, entrepreneurial. If you're at all interested in any of the positions listed below and feel that you can favorably impact our future, take a minute to visit our web site. If you like what you see, send us your resume and salary requirements via email: jobs@installshield.com. Dorks need not apply. JOIN 106 YEARS. OF TRADITION. WRITE FOR THE DAILY. CheChnya swears in new president % MOSCOW - A new president for post-war Chechnya was sworn in yes- terday, in a ceremony which marked a formal end to two years of war with Russia's armies in the separatist southern region but which a grumpy Moscow still treated with scant grace. In the Chechen capital of Grozny, Aslan Maskhadov, a moderate whom Russia has grudgingly accepted as the least objectionable of the military lead- ers who defeated Moscow's troops, swore his presidential oath on the Koran. He pledged to realize the dream of independence for which his ances- tors and contemporaries have always fought. "Now it is the duty of each and every one of us to realize the expectations of our ancestors, our heroes fallen in holy war, of the right to live freely and inde- pendently," he said in his inaugural speech. "For hundreds of years, our people were not allowed to live freely, I r eta DiP dvr EtfeCUU The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday during the fall and winter terms by students at the University of Michigan. Subscriptions for fall term, starting in September, via U.S. mail are $85. Winter term (January through April) is $95, yearlong (September through April) is $165. On-campus sub- scriptions for fall term are $35. Subscriptions must be prepaid. The Michigan Daily is a member of the Associated Press and the Associated collegiate Press. 0 ADDRESS: The Michigan Daily, 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1327. PHONE NUMBERS (All area code 313): News 76-DAILY; Arts 763-0379: Sports 647-3336; Opinion 764-0552; circulation 764-0558; Classified advertising 764-0557; Display advertising 764-0554; Billing 764-0550. E-mail letters to the editor to daily.letters@umich.edu. World Wide Web: http://www.pub.umich.edu/daily/. EDITORIAL Editor NEWS Jodi S. Cohen, Managing Editor EDITORS: Jeff Eldridge, Laurie Mayk, Anupama Reddy, Will Weissert. STAFF: Janet Adamy, Brian Campbell, Prachish Chakravorty, Jeff Enderton, Megan Exley, Marla Hackett. Jennifer Harvey, Heather Kamins. Amy Klein, Jeffrey Kosseff, Marc Ughtdale, Carrie Luria, Chris Metinko, Tim O'Connell, Katie Plona. Susan T. Port. Alice Robinson, Matthew. Rochkind, David Rossman, Ericka M. Smith, Ann Stewart, Ajit K. Thavarajah, Michelle Lee Thompson, Katie Wang, Jenni Yachnin. EDITORIAL Erin Marsh, Editor ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Paul Serilla. EDITORIAL ASSISTANT: Jason Stoffer. STAFF: Emily Achenbaum, Kristin Arola, Ellen Friedman, Samuel Goodstein, Scott Hunter, Yuki Kuniyuki, Jim Lasser, James Miller, Par th Mukhopadhyay, Zachary M. Raimi, Jack Schillaci, Megan Schimpf, Ron Steiger, Matt Wimsatt. SPORTS Nicholas J. Cotsonika, Managing EditO EDITORS: Alan Goldenbach, John Leroi, Will McCahill, Danielle Rumore. STAFF: Nancy Berger, TJ. Berka. Evan Braunstein, Chris Farah, Jordan Field. John Friedberg, Kim Hart, Kevin Kasiborski, Josh Kleinbaum, Andy Knudsen, Chad Kujala, Andy Latack, Fred Link, B.J. Luria, Brooke McGahey. Afshin Mohamadi, Sharat Raju Pranay Reddy. Sara Rontal' Jim Rose. Tracy Sandier, Richard Shin, Mark Snyder, Barry Sollenberger, Nita Srivastava, Dan Stillman, Jacob Wheeler. ARTS Brian A. Gnatt, Jennifer Petlinski, Editors WEEKEND, ETC. EDITORS: Greg Parker, Elan A. Stavros. SUB-EDITORS: Lise Harwin (Music), Hae-Jin Kim (Campus Arts), Bryan Lark (Film). Elizabeth Lucas (Books), Kelly Xintaris (TV/New Medial' STAFF: Dean Bakopoulos, Cohn Bartos, Eugene Bowen, Neal C. Carruth, Anitha Chalam, Kari Jones, Emily Lambert, Kristin Long, Stephanie Love, James Miller, Aaron Rennie, Julia Shih, Anders Smith-Lindall, Philip Son, Prashant Tamaskar. Christopher Tkaczyk, Michael Z ilberman, PHOTO Mark Friedman, Sara Stillman, Editor* STAFF: Josh Biggs, Jennifer Bradley-Swift, Aja Dekleva Cohen, John Kraft, Margaret Myers, Jully Park, Kristen Schaefer, Jeannie Servaas, Addie Smith, Jonathan Summer, Joe Westrate, Warren Zinn. COPY DESK Jason Hoyar, EdI STAFF- I dri Al ah. Allv n Huber Jill Litwin. Matt Soewak. David Ward. Jen Woodward. : W ydi AIspaCn Mysonu rwer ,il iwin mat Spe , , YaV e "uwd. ONLINE STAFF: Julio Gurdian, Scott Wilcox. GRAPHICS STAFF: Lisa Bellon. Seder Burns, Sumako Kawai, Marcy McCormick. Erin Rager, Jordan Young. Adam Pollock, Editor Tracey Harris, Edits' ", I ~ ~ Iiu*m" a .7INT1' crrn caacryrraa.ncy QNaEEE4; .'f E:EQEEQ 4E I