rNews “pril3. 1988 THANKS From All of Us At the NEC ‘Our Back on T rock benefit was would orvene who at tended and o special thanks to Burt Campbell tor his outstan: ding effort as our M.C. and his super ticket salesmanship. To the Rotarians and teachers for turning out in mass To Roy Bystrom and Henry Senetza of the Lions Club tor running the bar To all the entertainers; Mt High school Jazz conducted by Rick Cingaard Roland and Leonardo mu: Wally Walper belly dancers Kassara and Deborah, and the Audrey Maxwell Dancers To the artisans who donated their work; John Marilyn Kolstad Donohue, Peipp Bos, Moraine Kennedy, Barbora Hunter Mousi Tchir, Nancy Kni Darlene McDowell, Mary choi and Pat Freschi To the ticket outlets; Oliver's Books and Cratt Connection in Nelson; Alpine Drugs in Rossland, Collage Boutique in Trail; the library, the Chamber of Commerce, the College Book Store and Madeleine's in Castlegar And to Anna Boel and her statf for the good food Once again, OUR THANKS to everyone who attended in support of the NEC. We hope you had a good time, maybe we'll do it again next year P.S. Come by ‘the centre’ and Funeral homes refusing to handle AIDS victims By The Canadian Press A growing fear of AIDS infection has spread to fun eral homes, with some un dertakers wanting more pro- tection and others refusing to handle the bodies of people who have died from AIDS related ailments. “I wouldn't touch them with a ten-foot pole,” says funeral director Bert Land and all should be well! Yes, by 9.a.m. Sundays you should be’ enjoying your Sun: day Castlegar News It you're not, we want to correct the matter Hf you fail consistently to get yo", Sundey Castlegar News y 9 a.m., then phone us Monday and complain. Cail 365-7266 and ask tor cir- culation. See us, you'll enjoy the visit. se astlegar News 197 Columbia Ave. 365-7266] ae — @ Provincial J Tickets Is Your Name in OPEN MONDAYS? LOOK NOW! Honour Castlegar’s CITIZEN OF THE YEAR riault of Roselawn Funeral Home in Vancouver, “There's no way. It's too new a disease. They don't pay us enough money.” A Toronto AIDS support group says Landriault’s atti- tude is spreading to funeral homes across Canada. “It’s happening all over,” said Phil Shaw, spokesman for the AIDS Committee of Toronto. “There's only a small number of funeral homes that we can refer to, even here in He said undertakers are afraid they'll contract ac- quired immune deficiency syndrome through exposure to blood and other bodily fluids in embalming and dis posal processes. It's a fear based on fact, said Doug Enright of the Ontario Ministry of Health, because bodily fluids from recently deceased AIDS suf. ferers are infectious. Howeyer, Andy Doyle, spokesman for the Ontario Funeral Directors Associa tion said most undertakers accept the risk as part of the job. “I can understand the feelings of some funeral dir. ectors, but I do not know of any cases -where we have refused to prepare an AIDS vietim for viewing,” he said ina telephone interview from Ottawa. He said the federal and provincial governments have issued directors with guide- lines on the proper handling of victims of the AIDS virus, which attacks the body's immune system. Despite the guidelines, a growing number of funeral directors are expressing re servations about handling the bodies of AIDS victims. Loomis loses bags of cash TORONTO (CP) — Loomis Armored Car Service Ltd. has fired a guard who watch. ed in astonishment as three bags of cash fell off his truck on to an inner-city express- way. Dean Boyd, 23, was first suspended with pay, then suspended without pay be fore he was handed a term ination notice Thursday by a superior. Boyd was in the back of the truck and closed its rear door March 23, the day $322,000 in cash fell in to~éncoming traffic. Loomis, which has recovered about $15,000, says he should have dead. T. JUDE © Holy St. Jude, Apostie and Martyr, Great in Virtue and Rich in Miracles, near kinsman of Jesus Christ, Faithtul inter. cessor of all who invoke your special patronag need, to you | have recourse from the depth of my heart and humbly beg to you, St Jude, Worker of Miracles and Helper of the Hopeless, whom God has given such great bolted the door from the in- side. Boyd and his union, team- sters Local 419, will fight the firing on grounds inadequate maintenance caused the acci dent. “I saw one (bag) hit the bumper of the ear (behind) and money explode all over the hood,” Boyd said in an interview. “It was like a ticker-tape parade in New York on the Fourth of Jujy% The truck's driver and another guard have returned to work. Boyd, who has been with Loomis for 14 months, said the company has never en- forced a requirement to dead bolt the rear door. If the truck rolled on its right side, blocking the side door, there would be no way to get to an unconscious guard if the door were dead bolted from the inside, he VANCOUVER (CP) — The Expo 86 site and dozens of other properties the British Columbia Enterprise Corp. holds could be sold as one giant package, says Premier Bill Vander Zalm. But Vander Zalm said Friday the government won't respond to half-billion-dollar offer to buy out the Crown corporation until it has completed its search for a buyer of the Expo lands at B.C. Place. In addition to the Expo property, the corporation has extensive holdings in Victoria, Whistler and 15 other communities, Those properties haven't been offered for sale yet. Peter Toigo, a friend of Vander Zalm's, announced late last week that his company has offered the government $500 million for B.C. Enterprise Corp. and all its holdings. “We have to deal with the B.C. Place proposal first,” said Vander Zalm, “But if we can't get it together, if that deal falls through for some reason, then there's a second opportunity (presented by Toigo).” “I don't mind selling the whole thing. We can sell the whole thing or we can sell it in pieces,” said Vander Zalm. Vander Zalm said Toigo's offer is attractive because it is for the total B.C. Enterprise Corp. package, not just the Expo site. The problem with piecemealing it is that it will go too long,” Vander Zalm said. He acknowledged that because Toigo is a personal friend the government will have to treat the offer with some caution. “I'm aware I'll be watched. We're going to have to Expo buyer sought deal more carefully with him... be more cautious . .. more discreet,” Toigo, president of Shato Holdings Ltd., said in a prepared statement that the offer would involve payment to the province of $265 million cash, with the balance payable over five years.’ Toigo said the tatal price could be as high as $500 million, B.C. Enterprise | Corp, holds 4, 850 hectares of land hout the pr 90 Mectares on the north shore of False Creek and: ‘The corporation also has a net debt of $109.5 million, according to B.C. Enterprise Corp. is i last weeks of “negating the sale of the Expo lands and reportedly dealing an offer by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing. Economie Development Minister Grace McCarthy said B.C, Enterprise Corp. has not yet requested ‘ids for the balance of its assets, excluding the Expo site. “When this process is under way we will be prepared to accept bids in the same manner as we have done for the B.C. Place site,” she said, Negotiations concerning the Expo site have so far been shrouded in secrecy because all the parties involved have signed confidentiality agreements. Toigo’s public offer does not breach the con- fidentiality clause, however, because he is bidding to buy B.C. Enterprise Corp., not the Expo site per se. Further- more, his offer was made directly to the government, not to the corporation. TRUSTEES governance and program decision making. It was based on false assump- and deficits should tions.” district and tax relief measures, such as the homeowner grant, should be accounted as tax rebate items and not as part of the education budget. The 24 recommenda’ False assumptions included a be- lief government can control prices — including labor. The association wants the school tax on business restored to school boards, with finance systems designed Royal Commission — No public on a program-based system. Surpluses continued from front page dent schools. — Establishment of a statutory committee called the provincial board of school goals and curriculum it would review, maintain and change the state- ment of the purposes of schools. — Clear statements of provincial and local powers emphasizing decen- tralization. accrue to the school ns given the includ funding of indepen- jontinued from front page or way-of-the-cross, as the Pope stopped at the 14 stations that sym- bolize Christ's agonizing walk to his crucifixion. Thursday at the Basilica of St. John the Lateran, the pontiff washed apostles. the stairs to St. Pet the feet of 12 priests in a service recalling Christ’s last supper with the Earlier Saturday, workers pre- pared for the outdoor mass by adorning of flowers of a multitude of colors. They hung ruby-colored draperies from the columns around the entry to the Basilica and from the papal balcony. Hundreds of chairs Were placed near the stairs and workeks installed loudspeakers so the huge crowd expected today can hear the Pope. ter’s with thousands Wilderness traded-off VICTORIA (CP) — Forests Minister Dave Parker gave environmentalists and Indians in the Stein Valley area an ultimatum Thursday — if there is no logging in the Stein Valley, the Spruce Lake wilderness area may have to be # - 2 ROBERTA ZUREK ower to come to my Banquet & Presentation Urgent’ petition.” fr Tuesday, April 12 Know B.C. OLDTIME FIDDLERS 7 Q@SSOC. KOOTENAY No. 9 Presents Our Annual known and cause you to be in Marlane Hotel Banquet Room voked Castlegar. 6 p.m. Social Hour 7 p.m. Dinner TICKETS: $12.50 PER PERSON Available at Pharmasave and Carl's Drugs Publication must be promised. St. Jude pray for all of us who invoke your aid This Prayer has never been known to fail. This Prayer must be said 9 times a day for 9 consecutive days Thank you St. Jude for gran: ting my petition. For Your Convenience We're OPEN MONDAY WIN TICKETS subscribers nemes ere lated below. ¥ your neme appears. you're the winner of Provincial ticket good for draws for the next five F up your FREE ets, drop Inte the Cestleger News ic led- nesday until 5 p.m’ or phone 365-7266 by 5 p.m. Wednesday fo claim. Find your nome below and good luck! CASTLEGAR PRINTING 365-7145 CASTLEGAR NEWs 365-2955 365-2155 Clorke 365-3666 PLUMBING 365-3311 manhiae cieton 365-2175 Aw 750. 10th Ave ¢ 365-7702 365.7252 RESTAURANTS DEPARTMENT ress PuLDs DEPT stORE mbia Av 365-3255 wests verT, store 1217 - 3rd St 365-7782 pave STORES ve TRIOS SHOE SALON 365-7813 5 Columbia Ave 365-7250 NERS. 3rd St., Castiegor woooworK 222:102nd. Costiegor NELSON BUILDING SUPPLIES HARDWARE MAGLIO BULDING conten 29 Government R 352-6661 Yenir STEREO 2 TV LINEAR ELECTRONICS THUNDEREIRO ELECTRIC & PLUMBING SUPPLY Boker St 352-3624 TRAIL RESTAURANTS BOSTON PIZZA, 1612 Boy Ave WANETA PLAZA 368-8285 TRAVEL AGENCY HENNE TRAVEL 1410 Boy Ave. Donalds, 706-21 St SHOPPING CENTRES 18100 Rock Island Hwy (368-5595 “atmoneey Phone 365-5210 REGISTRATION 8a.m.-9a.m. PLAYOFFS: 10 a.m., $2.00 CASTLEGAR ARENA COMPLEX FOR TICKETS OR INFORMATION PHONE 365-2695 Castlegar ° OLDTIME FIDDLER’S CONTEST & DANCE Sat., April 9 368-5901 Trail FINALS: 6:30 p.m., $3.00 DANCE: 9 p.m., $3.00 428-7329 WEIGHT WATCHERS 20% FASTER WEIGHT LOSS We've not only reduced the time it takes to lose weight, we've even reduced the price! Join now and save on our fastest program ever: the New Quick Success® Program. It works 20% faster than before, while keeping you healthy. So come to Weight Watchers for a unique new pro- gram that’s not only faster at reducing —it’s also very reduced! JOIN NOW. HALF PRICE OFFER! SAVE $11.00 Join by April 23 at these convenient times and locations. Nordic Hall Tuesday, Call Toll Free 1-800-663-3354 ~~ ~ "REDUCED 6:30pm THE NEW QUICK SUCCESS PROGRAM” = Aglow to hold lunch Denise Wright will be the featured speaker at the Wo- men Aglow luncheon at the Fireside Place Monday. Wright has been an active member of the Trail Aglow for several years. This fall she became the president of the Kootenay area board of Women Aglow Fellowship International. She is a busy housewife and mother of two small children. The luncheon is open to all women in the area. AAVSSAAINNY SZ = logged. “We are dealing with difficult resource trade-offs in this timber supply area,” Parker said in a news release. “The importance of the forest industry in the communities of Lytton, Lillooet and Boston Bar must be recognized and supported.” Paul George, a director with the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, said Parker's comments are an attempt to il and divide envi al groups by forcing them to choose between two wilderness areas. The 1,350-member Lytton band and the 1,200-member Mount Currie Indian band are both fighting the provincial Forests Ministry decision to allow logging in the 1,100-kilo- metre Stein Valley watershed located in southwestern British Columbia. The steep valley, about 160 kilometres northeast of Vancouver, is a sacred place to the native people. There are hidden caves and ancient pictographs that the two bands say would be disturbed by a road into the logging area. But Spruce Lake, also in southwestern B.C., has been identified by the B.C. Forests Service as having “exceptional wilderness, recreation, wildlife and very significant timber values. “It is not prudent to consider the withdrawal of timber from the Spruce Lake area,” Parker said in the release, “when supply in this area is very tight, unless we are assured that integrated use, which included limited timber harvest, will proceed in the mid-Stein.” But Paul George of the 1600-member Western Canada Wilderness Committee said there's no reason why both areas should not be saved from logging. “They (the government) are trying to blackmail the environmental groups,” he said Thursday in Vancouver. “It won't work with us. We can have both.” The original Spruce Lake park proposal envisioned setting aside 120,000 hectares, said George, adding the area's scenery is spectacular. The minister was out of town and not available for comment. There are two lumber mills — one in Lytton, the other in Boston Bar — that say they will to close unless there is logging in the Stein Valley. The news release said the priority for future wilderness designation is “definitely Spruce Lake and not the mid-Stein.” Avril. 1900 CastlégarNews a3 Briefly KOOTENAY LAKE LEVELS Due to abnormally low preciptiation over the past 12 months and resulting low stream flows, there is a good chance the Kootenay Li o Level as monitored at Queen's Bay could d to 1738.0 over the next weeks. will Over the post 14 year period historical mini levatio have occurred es en — Additional intormation cen obtained by calling West Kootenay Power ot 368-3321 eat: 252 or 283). Q--- = Lawyer guilty VANCOUVER (CP) — Lawyer Ralph Long will be sentenced May 4 after being found guilty of defrauding the B.C. Lions Society for Crippled Children and another client of more than $260,000. A B.C. Supreme Court jury deliberated for more than three days before reaching its verdict against the former society director. Physician suspended VANCOUVER (CP) — The College of Physicians and Surgeons has ‘handed Jr. Joseph Charalambous a fine and ordered his name erased from the medical register and placed on a temporary one because of his relationship with a teenaged patient who later became his wife. Charalambous was also ordered to pay a total of $30,000 and refrain from practising for six mont! after being found guilty of infamous conduct — paar, a liaison with a female patient, who was 15 at the time. Goose hits jet KAMLOOPS, B.C. (CP) — Passengers and crew aboard a Canadian Airlines International flight bound for Vancouver on Friday afternoon had to return here after a bird struck the wing of the airplane. Flight 605 was barely out of Kamloops air space with 98 passengers when the 737 jet apparently struck & goose and caused a large dent, Kidnapping suggested LOS ANGELES (AP) — State Secretary George Shultz urged President Ronald Reagan this week to take strong action against Panama's de facto leader Gen. Manuel Noriega and even proposed kidnapping the general, a newspaper reported. Shultz and Elliott Abrams, a key State Depart- ment aide, argued for several options, including sending combat troops in a show of force and using the CIA to organize a coup, the Los Angeles Times said. Meese not indicted WASHINGTON (AP) — Independent legal coun- sel James McKay has not found sufficient evidence to indict Attorney General Edwin Meese but could issue a critical report about Meese’s conduct, said a source familiar with the case. McKay announced that he would not seek indictments of Meese in connection with the attorney _ general's efforts to help promoters of a proposed Middle East oil pipeline or his investments in telephone company stock “based on the evidence developed to date.” Radio character dies LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jim Jordan, who delighted radio audiences for decades as the well-meaning but bumbling Fibber McGee in the classic show Fibber McGee and Molly, died Friday. He was 91. Jordan had been in hospital for more than a week after a fall at his home caused a blood clot in his brain, said family friend Fran Allison. He never regained consciousness. War hero dead LONDON (AP) — Capt. A-R. Cooper, who spied for Britain during the Second World War and won the Croix de Guerre fighting with the French Foreign Legion at Gallipoli during the First World War, has died, relatives reported. He was 89. Cooper, whose remarkable life was recounted in four volumes of autobiography and in several books by other writers, died Friday at his home at Ditton in southeastern England. No cause of death was stated. Man-powered flight HERAKLION, Crete (Reuter) — High winds forced the cancellation on Saturday of a world flight record bid by the American pilot and power source of the human-powered Daedalus light aircraft. The pilot, Greg Zack, sat in his 32-kilogram glider-like aircraft at Heraklion airport for about 15 minutes before the 119-kilometre flight to the Aegean volcanic island of Santorini was called off. April fools parade SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Hundreds of costumed revellers paraded through the Financial District, cele- brating St. Stupid’s Day sponsored by the First Church of the Last Laugh. | The revellers — most wearing dunce caps, gorilla outfits, roller skates, tap shoes or capes — chanted "free the lunch,” “Hold the mayo” and other non- sensical phrases during the traditional April Fools Day procession Friday. Trade bill dropped WASHINGTON (CP) — Congress decided Thursday to drop from a trade bill a provision that would have required the U.S. to retaliate against trading partners who unfairly block American competition. The provision had been introduced by Richard Gephardt, who recently quit the race for the Demo- cratic presidential nomination. The provision would have required the U.S. to retaliate against countries running consistent trade surpluses with the United States because of unfair barriers. President Ronald Reagan opposed the pro- n Constituency change WINNIPEG (CP) — Sid Green, the leader of the Progressive Party, will run for MLA in the con- stituency of Kildonan instead of Inkster as he announced last weekend. Green said a group of people in the neighboring north Winnipeg riding of Kildonan asked him to run in the area in the April 26 provincial election. TORY CABINET SHUFFLE GEARED ‘FOR ELECTION OTTAWA (CP) — When Prime Minister Brian Mulroney pronounced his shuffled cabinet in “fighting tri Thursday, he was also sending them into the ring to win back before election time the rounds their punch-drunk predecessors squandered. Selling the Canada-U.S. free-trade agreement to a size- able opposition, resolving the reopened and divisive abortion issue, ‘shoring up flagging fortunes in Quebec, defusing harsh reaction to immigration policy — these are some flurries facing freshly minted ministers. International Trade Minister John Crosbie, for example, acquires a signed and sealed trade deal that must be sold in coming months as delivered. And, while the most recent polls suggest Canadians tilt slightly in favor of the agreement, Crosbie has served notice he'll be aiming to whittle down the solid core of opposition. With a more public sense of humor and a more private combativeness than Pat Carney — the woman he su given the important but low-profile Treasury Board presi- dency in the shuffle — Crosbie is being counted on to carry the free-trade message to the land as he carries enabling legislation through the Commons. GETS NEW POST The employment and immigration post is a clear promotion for Barbara McDougall, who retains her duties as minister for status of women and sheds her function of putting Crown-owned firms in private hands. But more significant for her may be a seat in the so-called inner cabinet committee of priorities and planning. There, where important decisions are made for full cabinet to ratify, she can in the weeks ahead argue her views on abortion — a matter she feels is a decision for the pregnant. She belongs to a special cabinet committee reviewing abortion policy, but now will have a more power- ful voice and audience. Where the numbers are bad and not getting better is in Quebec, where former ambassador Lucien Bouchard will set his sights while holding the largely ceremonial secretary of state job. Officials in the Prime Minister's Office expect the two unrelated Bouchards — Lucien and Benoit, the new transport minister — to play prime election and party organization roles in the province. While abortion and free trade could swamp the Commons between now and an election, immigration legislation is by no means finished government business. On Wednesday, a Senate committee again urged changes to a proposed refugee law, a move that should send the bill back to the Commons. BRINGS CHANGE? On this front, Andrew Cardozo, executive director of the Canadian Ethnocultural Council, thinks out loud: “A new minister, in many ways, is a chance to make a policy change.” Cardozo cannot believe that McDougall, from such an ethnically diverse place as Toronto, could carry through a bill that would turn back ships suspected of carrying bogus refugee claimants. On a more positive role, Cardozo sees Gerry Weiner as a “ready-made multiculturalism minister” because he is Jewish and from such an ethnic mosaic as Montreal. Cardozo found him “sensitive and helpful” as a junior immigration minister and hopes he'll be the same in tackling what the council believes are flaws in proposed multiculturalism legislation about to be studied by a Commons committee. “Maybe now, with a new minister, we'll get the change,” Cardozo says. Comet theory LONDON (AP) — Residents of a northwestern English town, suckered by an April Fools’ Day gag, deluged local officials with telephone complaints after a newspaper reported they would be made to buy their own streetlight bulbs. In other teasers, a wildlife park in southeastern England said it had launched a campaign to stop fish drowing and a left-wing weekly said Labor party leaders had been advised to take assertiveness training. The national circulation newspaper Today reported in its April Fools’ editions that the rail tunnel under construction between Britain and France will open next week, a remarkable five years ahead of schedule. A four-page pull-out supplement in the paper bore the headline: Chunnel Opens 5 Years Early — Exclusive leak on Britain's dig to tunnel glory. In northwestern England the Wirral Globe's weekend edition, issued on Thursday before the long Easter holiday weekend, said the borough council was planning to make residents buy their own lightbulbs for streetlamps as part of a cost-cutting campaign. The spoof front-page story prompted a flood of calls from worried residents, and a lot of time was wasted calming them, said the council's secretary, John Goodacre. In retaliation, the council cancelled its advertising with the| weekly freesheet, which is delivered to 140,000 homes in the area. The amount of lost advertising revenue was not disclosed. Globe editor Martin Hovden said: “If we have upset anyone and caused distress obviously I apologize. But we have had at least an equal number of calls from people saying they enjoyed it.” He said the paper had been running April Fools’ Day gags for 10 years. Other cost-cutting measures listed in the Globe's spoof report included a “snatch squad” to force its way into homes to recover unreturned books from the council's lending library and the closure of local schools Mondays and Fridays. The national circulation newspaper the Independent, normally serious-minded, reported: “An elusive creature which is new to British mammal records was photo- graphed last week for the first time, our rural affairs correspondent writes. Plenty of pranks “The has been pi i the Bogart by a small group of conservationists, who have formed a society for its preservation.” The paper printed a photograph of a man with a long pole approaching a creature with a badger's head and a fox's tail against a backdrop of snowy peaks in the Cumbrian hills of northwestern England. The date, April 1, appeared directly above. The left-wing weekly magazine New Statesmen purported to have a leaked memorandum from Peter Mandelson, Labor's director of communications, to Charles Clarke, a member of the staff of party leader Neil Kinnock, SEEK IMAGE The spoof had Mandelson saying Labor should seek a more abrasive image and push its trade and industry spokesman Brian Gould out of the public spotlight because he was seen as “soft and cuddly.” Gould, who planned Labor's campaign strategy in last year's general election, is anything but soft. The story said Labor should call in a psychologist who had advised soccer teams how to brush up their image and an anthropologist to give key party\ members assertiveness training. : Mandelson, in a real-life comment, dismissed the gag s “light-hearted, clever and amusing — if a little too clever by half.” In southeastern England, Alan Breeze, curator of the Brambles wildlife part in Kent, insisted his rescue campaign to stop fish drowning is an absolutely serious conservation measure to boost the toad population. He said breeding toads will try to mate with almost anything and will often cling to the backs of expensive fish like imported Koi carp from Japan in ornamental ponds. He said large fish with up to six toads clinging on were known to become exhausted, sink to the bottom of the pond and “drown.” He didn’t explain how fish can drown but he said the cure was to use a feather to tickle the backs of the clinging toads, which are an endangered species in some parts of Britain, to make them release their amorous grip. Breeze said he was experiencing difficulty getting people to take the campaign seriously. COLLEGE continued from front page According to Fleet and the BCAC, the current provincial government budget proposal will not provide enough money to keep Selkirk oper ating as smoothly as it could under the college's proposed budget. “We haven't got into what we would have to do under this (the provincial government's) budget,” she said. “It looks rather depressing in terms of new programs.” “This budget The largest part of the Selkirk to B.C. colleges budget — about $10 million — comes from the provincial government. The rest of the funds, about $1 million, comes from tuition fees. The College Institute Educators’ Association of B.C., which represents college faculty across the province and at Selkirk, has made it clear it wants the government to commit more money colleges and institutes,” dent Paul Ramsey said earlier this week. “At the same time this govern- ment says it wants to improve access to post-secondary education, it has sing. led out the colleges and institutes (for budget restrictions).” Selkirk president Leo Perra said despite the economic difficulty the college will face if the current govern. ment budget proposal is firm, “The college will make every effort to maintain the instructional program it already has in place.” is a disaster for CIEA presi. questioned PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — Two years after an Iowa physicist_almost ruined his reputation by suggesting that 10 million small, speedy comets hit Earth's atmos- phere annually, a NASA scientist has found evidence supporting Lofis Frank's theory. “I'm happy, but it’s been a long two years,” Frank said Friday, adding that he was met with “total disbelief” and “lost a lot of friends” after proposing that billions of water-bearing comets could have provided enough water to fill the seas during Earth's early history. Other scientists said they remained skeptical of the new evidence, which came from telescope observations by Clayne Yeates, a physicist at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Jet Propulsion Laboratory here. “I'm very convinced that what I'm seeing is real,” said Yeates, who is deputy pro- ject scientist for the planned 1989 launch of the Galileo space probe to Jupiter. “These objects would not have been seen inadvertently during other searches. They're small, they're dark and they're moving fas' The theory by Frank, a physicist at the University of Towa, is “one of the decade's most controversial astronom- ical theories,” said a NASA statement. Frank proposed the theory after ultraviolet photographs of Earth taken by NASA's Dynamics Explorer 1 space- craft between 1981 and 1986 showed countless dark spots that appeared to be tiny holes in Earth's atmosphere. He theorized that about 10 million comets, essentially singanetre-digneter fluffy snowballs with a dark coat ing, plunge into the atmos. phere each year, forming holes, then breaking up and vaporizing. Yeates said his observa tions on the 91-centimetre Spacewatch Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observa. tory in Arizona make him believe at least a million such comets hit the atmosphere annually at a speed of 35,400 kilometres an hour The comets appeared as white streaks on enhanced telescope images, he said. In a telephone interview from Iowa City, Frank said a soon-to-be-published study, in which atmospheric holes were recently observed by Sweden's Viking spacecraft, also supports his theory. “I'ma little skeptical,” said astronomer Anita Cochran of the University of Texas at Austin. “He (Yeates) may be seeing something, but to leap to 10-metre comets is a fairly large leap of imagination.” Cochran voiced the most common objection to Frank's theory: If so many icy comets hit Earth’s atmosphere, th also should strike the moon, creating a lot of water vapor. “I really ama bit skeptical” of Yeates's observations, said Brian Marsden, associate di rector for planetary sciences at the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics in Cambrdige, Mass. “If they (comets) are as numerous as he's talking about, then some of these should show up when the telescope is in more normal operation, and they haven't,” Marsden said. Frank said only two spec ialized telescopes in the United States, including Spacewatch, are capable of observing the comets. Fur trappers worried MONTREAL (CP) — Plans by the British government to label, or ban the importation of, all fur products trapped in Canada could threaten the livelihood of thousands of aboriginal people, a native leader said Friday. Matthew Cooncome, Grand Chief of the James Bay Crees, urged the Canadian government to take a tough stand against the plan and said he intends to raise the issue with External Affairs Minister Joe Clark. Cooncome, 31, made the remarks as he returned to Quebec after a five-day visit to London, where he met with members of Parliament to counter the powerful Bri: tish anti-fur lobby. Quebec Cooncome, who lives in a small town about 90 kilo- metres north of Chiboug- amau, said most of the resi- dents depend on the fur trade for their living “Hunting, fishing, and trapping form our economic base,” Cooncome said. “It's a criminal injustice to intro duce an order that would kill our culture and our liveli hood.” WORTH MILLIONS Pelts from animals trapped in the wild represent about half of Canada's fur industry, which Cooncome said em ploys about 65,000 trappers and is worth about $600 million annually to the econ omy Under Britain's planned premier raps Trudeau QUEBEC (CP) — Premier Robert Bourassa had dis. missed suggestions that for mer prime minister Pierre Trudeau's attack on the Meech Lake accord might delay ratification of the deal. Trudeau's comments be. fore the Senate could have the opposite effect, Bourassa said Thursday. “There could be premiers having lived through periods of confrontation with Mr. Trudeau who might be hard ened in their resolve to see the Meech Lake accord rati fied,” Bourassa said. The constitutiona! accord must be ratified by all 10 legislatures by 1990. So far, three have approved the deal. Bourassa said there was nothing new in Trudeau's argument on Wednesday that the deal imperils Can ada’s future. Trudeau made similar comments before a Commons hearing last year on the agreement. Trudeau said recognition of Quebec as a distinct society would lead to “two constitutions, two charters (of rights) promoting two distinct set of values and eventually two Canadas.” Bourassa said he considers the agreement “one of the great successes of modern history in Canadian federal ism.” He wouldn't comment on Trudeau's statement that he had outsmarted Prime Min ister Brian Mulroney in con. stitutional talks last year. Court news In Castlegar Provincial Court this week, Eric Gun. derson pleaded guilty to one count of resisting or obstruc- ting a peace officer and was fined $500. * *6* « Gordon Wallace received a $450 fine after pleading guilty to a drinking and driving related offence. legislation, retailers would have to display trapping labels prominently on fur coats or other products von. taining the fur of bobcats, coyotes, lynx, wolf or several species of fox Animal rights groups are hoping the scheme will cur tail the fur trade in Britain just as a similar directive decimated the sale of seal pelts in 1980. But Cooncome said the plan is discriminatory be- cause it requires; all furs to carry a label that says the animal may have been caught by a leg-hold trap, a cruel device that doesn’t immed iatety kill its victim. “It's like asking that swea ters be labelled to indicate that the sheep could have been sheared in freezing weather,” Cooncome said. Most Cree trappers now use a humane trap that kills an animal instantly by break. ing its spinal column, he said. Cooncome said environ- mental groups should direct their efforts at heavy indus- try, which he said is the worst culprit in killing vege- tation and wildlife through pollution. “The Crees have been practising conservation since time immemorial,” he said. “We believe our creator gave us animals for our survival. That's why, through good resource management, we still have them.” Polar explorer to retry trek LONDON (CP) — Despite frosthitten toes and other appendages, the leader of a failed British expedition re- turned to London promising to resume his quest to walk to the North Pole next year. Failure to complete the 684-kilometre trek this year had not dampened his resolve to become the first person to walk to the North Pole un- assisted by dogsled, motor. ized vehicle or airdropped supplies, said Ranulph Fie. nnes About the only thing that would ease his determination was “if some other polar creeps get there first,” he told reporters. The expedition was halted Sunday after three weeks when poor weather and hard slogging through pack ice left the team far behind schedule and only 60 kilometres from base camp on Ward Hunt Island, N.W.T. “We conducted many ex periments, some of which seemed strange to a non- scientific person like myself,” he said. One experiment attempted to study how cold tempera- tures affect certain bodily functions, he explained. People appear to have to relieve themselves more often in cold weather, and members of the expedition were asked to do so into bottles throughout the jour ney to study both frequency and volume, he said. ‘APPENDAGE’ FROZE “It resulted in me being frostbitten on an unusual ap- pendage.” In addition, Fiennes had developed frostbite on two toes and a finger. “['m prepared to risk my foot for an aim but not aim- lessly risk it,” he said. The team was picked up by an aircraft which also air- lifted American Pam Flowers to safety after she was forced to abort her attempt to become the first woman to travel alone to the pole. Flowers, 43, of Willow, Alas- ka, also encountered bad weather and had with a polar bear which ripped up her tent.