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October 21, 1997 - Image 2

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The Michigan Daily, 1997-10-21

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2 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, October 21, 1997
NATiON/WORLD
Soros to give $5 nadto Rssia

M Billionaire hopes to
improve mother-child
care, bacteria infections
MOSCOW - U.S. financier-phil-
anthropist George Soros announced
yesterday he will spend up to half a
billion dollars on Russia in the next
three years, investing in such projects
as improving health care, spreading
Internet know-how and helping
reform the country's chaotic armed
forces.
The new gifts would make him a big-
ger donor to Russia than the United
States, which gave the country $95 mil-
lion in foreign aid last year.
"For planning purposes, we are using
a target of $300 to $500 million over a
three-year period, but I want to empha-
size that until we have the proper man-
~Agement in place, our plans will remain
just that - plans,' he said.
The health program, a response to
Russia's declining birthrate, will target
mother-and-child care, widespread
tuberculosis and treatment of drug-
resistant bacteria.
Soros also plans new Internet cen-
ters in many universities, legal and
public libraries. "Our intent is to
make the Internet broadly available
to the public at public places rather
than limiting it to the relatively few

who can afford their own comput-
ers," he said.
His charity, the Soros Foundation,
will offer retraining for those being
demobilized from Russia's army,
which under long-promised military
reforms is to be cut from its huge
Soviet-level size. A similar program
in another former Soviet republic,
Ukraine, has allowed 50,000 people
to retrain, about 80 percent of whom
have found civilian jobs or started
small businesses.
Soros has spent the past two weeks
traveling across Russia, inspecting
the results of his 10-year philanthrop-
ic involvement in the country.
During that decade, the Hungarian-
born businessman has contributed
more than $350 million, much of it on
programs to shore up Russia's scien-
tific community and support educa-
tion.
Soros, who is critical of the "robber
capitalism" he believes has developed
in Russia since the collapse of the
Soviet Union in 1991, said he wants to
underpin the growth of legitimate capi-
talism here. He called for Russia's top
half-dozen bankers, who wield
immense power in Russia, to lead the
way.
"The consolidation of the oligarchy
into legitimate capitalist entities
would be a step forward for the coun-

AROUND THE NATIQ!N
Commission proposes health changes
WASHINGTON- A terminally ill patient could appeal if an experimental treat-
ment was turned down. A man with chest pain could go to the emergency room
without worrying so much whether his HMO would pay the bill.
Americans frustrated by managed care would have a host of new guarantees
under a proposed bill of rights a presidential advisory commission is expected
recommend this week.
Because the commission includes representatives of both the managed care
industry and consumer groups, many hope the work will lay the foundation for
future federal laws.
But some consumer rights advocates say the bill of rights, as written, doesn't go
far enough, and they are considering a dissenting report if the commission does not
expand it.
"I must say, this is a slice of a slice;" said commission member Ron Pollack,
president of the consumer group Families USA. He likes what's in the bill of rights.
"But it is inadequate."
Others are more optimistic.
"If we can succeed in getting those proposals enacted into law, it will have a pro-
found and lasting impact on health care," predicted commissioner Stephen
Wiggins, chair of Connecticut-based Oxford Health Plans.

AP PHOTO
Billionaire financier-philanthropist George Soros announced that he would spend as
much as $500 million to improve facets of Russia's health care systems.

try," he said. "I think they are the
players at the present time, and they
must make the transition from acting
as robber capitalists to legitimate cap-
italists."
He also shrugged off Russian sus-
picions that he is one of the "robber
capitalists" he criticizes. Many
Russians remain wary of the motives

behind Soros' aid to and investment in
Russia, suspecting that his commit-
ment to open government masks a
desire to enrich himself at their
expense.
"I have a political objective, which is
to help foster an open society, and I
have absolutely nothing to be ashamed
of," Soros said.

The Psychology Peer Advisors Present
on Tuesday, October 21, 1997, from 7:00-9:00 p.m.
"Are You Interested in Majoring in Psychology?"
featuring:
Dr. Patricia Gurin
Department of Psychology

Supreme Court
votes unanimously
on abortion law

Greenhouse gas
emissions increase
WASHINGTON - Releases of
heat-trapping "greenhouse" gases by
U.S. industry soared last year, con-
founding efforts by the Clinton admin-
istration to craft a proposal for upcom-
ing climate talks that would protect
American business.
An Energy Department report said
yesterday that carbon emissions rose
more than 3 1/2 percent in 1996, com-
pared with a growth of 8 percent over
the preceding six-year period. Carbon
dioxide is the predominant "green-
house" pollutant.
The report came amid continuing
debate within the administration over
how far the United States should go to
curb heat-trapping emissions. Talks are
under way in Bonn, Germany, in an
attempt to work out an agreement on
mandatory emission caps to be signed
in Kyoto, Japan, in December
President Clinton is expected to dis-
close additional details, including how
deep a reduction in emissions the United

States would accept, later this week for
presentation at the Bonn discussions.
But White House press secretary
Mike McCurry said yesterday that no
decision has been made. "There are
remaining issues that are very im
tant to the position that we 'Tl
advance, that are still unfolding,'
McCurry told reporters.
Microsoft accused of
stealing customers
WASHINGTON - The Justice
Department accused software gignt
Microsoft Corp. yesterday of using '
dominant Windows 95 computer ope
ing system to steal customers from rival
Netscape's popular Internet browser.
The department's antitrust division
sought an unprecedented $1-million-a-
day fine that would take effect if a
judge orders a halt to the challenged
activity but the company persists.
"Microsoft is unlawfully taking advan-
tage of its Windows monopoly to protect
and extend that monopoly,"Attor
General Janet Reno told reporters.

Dr. Lance Sandelands
Professor of Psychology

Dr. Warren Holmes
Professor of Psychology

ALL ARE WELCOME!
All Focus Groups will be held on the 4th Floor Terrace in E.H. Enter
through the Church St. Entrance. The elevator is to the left. Go to the 4th
floor and follow the signs to the Terrace.
http://www/personal.umich.edu/-hsy/PeerAdvising.html

High court decides
that judges can't have
more power over young
girls' decisions
WASHINGTON - The Supreme
Court, in a rare near-unanimous vote on
an abortion question, refused yesterday
to give judges more power over young
girls' decisions to end pregnancies.
The court's 8-1 vote left in shreds a
Louisiana parental-consent law found
by lower courts to unduly interfere with
some girls' abortion rights.
Only Justice Antonin Scalia, one of
the court's most fervent opponents of
any constitutional right to abortion,
voted to review the state's appeal and
consider reviving the law.
Louisiana Attorney General Richard
leyoub had argued that the case "cuts to
the core of this nation's ability to pro-
tect the welfare of children."
Janet Benshoof of the Center for
Reproductive Law and Policy applauded
the court's action. "Louisiana's passion
over making a political statement on
abortion far exceeds its ability to draft a
law that will withstand constitutional
scrutiny," she said. "But this is not the end
of any story; it's the end of one episode."
The court's action was not a ruling and
therefore set no national precedent. It
continued, however, the court's five-year
record of denying full review to any case
dealing directly with abortion rights.
The court in 1992 barred states from
banning most abortions, voting 5-4 to
uphold the core of its 1973 decision in
Roe vs. Wade that said women have a
constitutional right to end their pregnan-
cies.
Since then, the justices only have

granted full review to disputes involv-
ing protests outside abortion clinics.
Several disputes more directly involv-
ing abortion rights have resulted in
unsigned decisions issued without full
briefing or oral arguments, and others
have been turned away after languishing
on the court's docket for months.
"The real question is, when is the
court going to come out of the closet on
abortion and debate the issue in the
open?" Benshoof said.
Most states have laws requiring
unmarried girls under 18 to get the per-
mission of one parent before having an
abortion, and the nation's highest court
has upheld such laws.
But those past rulings have required
a judicial bypass - letting judges act
without parental consent to permit
abortions for girls deemed mature
enough to decide on their own or when
telling a parent would not be in a girl's
best interests.
Before 1995, Louisiana's parental-
consent law said judges "shall" autho-
rize abortions without telling a parent
in those cases in which a girl's maturity
or best interests are argued and proved
in her favor.
The 1995 law said judges "may"
authorize abortions in such circum-
stances.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals struck down the law, ruling in
April that it unconstitutionally imposed
an "undue burden" of young girls' abor-
tion rights.
"Louisiana stands alone on this
front," the appeals court said. "As far as
we are aware, every state with a
parental consent or notification statute
has used the mandatory 'shall' lan-
guage in their bypass schemes"

AROUND THE WORD

Peace talks focus on
Gaza Strip airport
JERUSALEM - In a first sign of
progress after months of crisis, Israeli
and Palestinian negotiators said yester-
day they were closer to agreement on
the operation of a Palestinian airport in
the Gaza Strip.
Israeli leaders, meanwhile, hinted
at flexibility on Jewish settlements,
suggesting they were willing to
shelve new construction projects for
a few months.
Opening the airport, which
Palestinians envision will bring in a
half-million passengers a year, is of
enormous symbolic as well as practical
importance to the Palestinians. Most of
Gaza has been autonomous since May
1994, but Israel has maintained strict
control over the airspace.
The lack of a working airport con-
tributes to Gaza's economic and com-
mercial isolation.
Even fledgling Palestinian Airlines
has to fly in and out of the
Mediterranean resort of El Arish,
across the border in Egypt.

The status of the airport is being dis-
cussed by one of nine committees
working on outstanding issues fr
already signed peace accords.
"The Palestinian side wants imple-
mentation on the ground - that's what
counts, and that's what we are here to
achieve," said chief Palestinian nego-
tiator Saeb Erekat.
U.S. hopes China
will free dissidents
BEIJING - U.S. officials red
hopeful that China will release one or
more of the country's prominent political
dissidents before President Jiang Zeinin
visits Washington next week for the first
formal U.S.-Sino summit in 12 years.
"The Chinese have taken the posi-
tion this is a legal question that has to
be resolved by the Ministry of Justice;'
a senior official with the U.S. Embassy
said yesterday, "but they don't fore-
close the possibility of certain di r
dents being released on medi l
parole."
- Compiled from Daily wire reports.

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EITRA STAFF Jsh htE itriChe
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Mo:re,'BUSINSS STFF MeTaganMM~imnnE~

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