oy,
A2 Castlégar News September 11, 1988

Pope touring southern Africa

HARARE (AP) Pope John P;
Africa and other forces of destabilizing the region
Saturday, criticized apartheid and called for the release
of South African black-nationalist-leader Nelson Man
dela.

The Pope, at the start of a 10-day tour of southern
Africa, also urged the people of the region to renounce
violence.

“Powerful political, economic and ideological forces
endanger the still-fragile stability of countries which are
only beginning to consolidate their recently acquired
independence,” he said in an arrival speech.

“Those forces impede the self-determination of
peoples, they forment ideologicaln, ethnic and tribal
conflicts, they delay the process of development.”

The Pope did not mention any country by name,
but he said his comments were “true for the grave issue
of apartheid,” South Africa's policy of racial segrega
tion,

He told journalists accompanying him on the flight
from Rome that apartheid is “a racist ideology.”

Hundreds of Zimbabweans cheered wildly as the

cused South

Pope appeared at the door of his Ai Alitalia Boeing 747,
descended a stairway and kneeled to kiss the soil in his
traditional arrival gesture.

Later, thousands of waving and cheering people
stood along the Pope's motorcade route from Harare
International Airport to downtown.

At the airport, Zimbawean President Robert
Mugabe, one of nearly one million Roman Catholics in
the country of 8.5 million people, waited at the edge of a
red carpet to greet the Pope.

GIVES WELCOME

Traditional dancers and church choirs gave John
Paula festive welcome to start his 39th tour abroad and
fourth visit to Africa since he became head of the
Roman Catholic church 10 years ago.

The Pope's three-day trip to Zimbabwe is the first
stop on his five-country tour of southern Africa, his first
visit to the politically troubled region. The other
countries he is to visit are Botswana, Lesotho,
Swaziland and Mozambique.

The five countries are among the youngest in
Africa, and eight-year-old Zimbabwe is the youngest.

The southern states oppose apartheid, but must depend
on the economically and militarily powerful neighbor for

economic survival.

The Pretoria government asked John Paul to “I
include South Africa on his current tour, but the

invitation was rejected.

African detention,
ik for his
place . . . I am full
his firmness,” the

Congress, has refused to sign a statment renouncing use
of violence as a condition for his release frdm South

freedom every day ... It must take
of admiration for him. I am proud of
Pope said,

September 11, 1988

Castlégar News a3

Briefly

Even though he is avoiding South Africa, the tour
is expected to be-one of the most politically charged
trips by John Paul, the most widely travelled Pope in
history.

Speaking to reporters aboard the plane taking him
to Zimbabwe, the former white-ruled British colony of
Rhodesia, the 68-year-old pontiff expressed hope #
future papal trip to South Africa would trigger changes.
But he said no date has been set for such a trip.

He also stopped short of endorsing a U.S. sanctions

The ANC is the major guerrilla group fighting the
South African government.

The Pope also told the bishops: “only a negotiated
settlement of differences can bring true peace and
justice” in South Africa,

“A loss of confidence in the possibility of a peaceful
solution could easily lead to further frustration and
violence, increasing the threat to peace, not limited to
this region,” he said.

He. endorsed U.S.-mediated regional peace talks

bill that ment by U.S. it
from South Africa and a hear-total trade embargo.

After his Zimbabwe speech, John Paul told bishops
from the region, gathered at a Domincan convent, he
prays every day for the release of Mandela.

ving Angola, Cuba and South Africa that seek the
departure of 50,000 Cubans from Angola and have led to
the withdrawal of South African troops involved in the
13-year-old civil war.

The talks also seek to bring independence to South

$10,000 RICHER . . . Paul and

Helen Hadikin

received a pleasant surprise recently when the $10,

scratch and win lottery ticket they purchased paid
000.

Two dead in crash

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL
PARK, WYO. ( AP) — Two Cana
dians were killed in a helicopter that
crashed in Washington state while
fighting a forest fire, said a sheriff
who investigated the crash Saturday.

U.S. Forest Service spokesman
Greg Thayer said the craft, which
disappeared Friday, was found near
a ridgetop north of Wenatchee,
Wash., and recovery teams had to
ride helicopters to the top of the
ridge and hike down.

Chelan County Sheriff Joe Collins
said the HU-204 Huey helicopter
apparently snagged its empty water
bucket to some trees and crashed. He
said the victims are believed to be
Canadians but gave no identities.

On Friday, President Ronald Rea
gan signed into law an emergency
measure that allows Canadian forces,
including 35 firefighting aircraft, to
help combat the fires in the western
United States.

The bill permits the U.S. Forest
Service to reimburse Canada for help
in combatting the fires.

ALberta sent firefighting equip
ment to Boise, Idaho, thise week and
Saskatchewan, British Columbia and
Ontario have also sent help recently-

From Aug. 27 to Sept. 1, 75 fire
fighters from Alberta were in
Oregon fighting blazes in that state

Meanwhile, rain fell on the Old
Faithful geyser in the Yellowstone
National Park on Saturday, as
thousands of firefighters faced high
wind that fanned already enormous
forest fires, and U.S. government
officials inspected damage to the
oldest U.S. national park

A nearby mining town was evacu
ated and non-essential people were
sent out of park headquarters.

The storm front that moved into
the park advanced more slowly than
anticipated, said Linda Miller, a park

For the record

The person identified as Vera
Pudmoreff on the picket line in front
of the Monte Carlo on page two of the
Sunday, Sept. 4, Castlegar News is
not Pudmoreff. Joanne Liber isthe
person in the photo on the left

spokesman at Yellowstone headquar.
ters at Mammoth Hot Springs.

There were scattered showers in
the southern half of the park, and
wind speeds increased to up to 50
kilometres an hour near Mammoth,
with gusts of up to 60 km-h.

“We're kind of sitting tight to see
what happens,” Miller said

She said the rain that fell by mid
afternoon was “nothing of any great
significance,” although it did increase
humidity and assist in firefighting.

Measurable rain fell at the Lake
ands Canyon areas. Fire officials said
puddles gathered in the roads and
the rain quieted fire activity.

All roads and entrances were
closed to visitors Saturday, and re
porters had to travel in convoys es.
corted by park personnel

“We're making sure people don't
get into situations fhey can't get out
of,” said Yellowstone spokesman
Marty Tobias

U.S, Interior

Secretary Donald

Hodel, Agriculture Secretary Rich
ard Lyng and deputy defence sec
retary William Howard Taft arrived
at West Yellowstone, Mont., wher
they were briefed in private by fire
and weather officials before going to
Old Faithful and flying over the park.

“I didn’t think I'd ever see any.
thing quite like Mount St. Helens,
but I did here,” Lyng said.

Fires have charred more than
367,000 hectares of the roughly
one-million-hectare park. Adding
destruction in the national forests
and parks surrounding the park in
Idaho, Montana and Wyoming push
es the figure to about a half-million
burned hectares.

Fires also raged in Alaska, Cali.
fornia, Colorado, Utah and Washin.
gton.

So far'this year, fires in the
western United States have burned
nearly 1.5 million hectares in what
officials called the worst fire season
in 30 years.

Inwood keeps wife
from leaving Canada

TORONTO (CP) — Kirby Inwood,
convicted of beating his Soviet wife
and child, has won a court order
prohibiting his wife, Tanya Sidorova,
from leaving Ontario with their
two-year-old son.

Inwood, awaiting sentencing in
provincial court after a highly pub
licized assault trial, asked for the
court order Thursday. He told court
he fears Sidorova will try to take the
child back to the Soviet Union

If that happened, the former
Toronto advertising executive said,
he might never see his son again.

Inwood said in an affidavit he loves
his son Misha and wants the court to
grant him visiting rights.

A hearing to decide the issue of

access is scheduled for Oct. 25, when
Thursday's order also will be re-
viewed.

In an interview, Inwood said his
wife is taking legal steps to challenge
the order. Sidorova’s lawyer, Martha
Cohen, could not be reached for
comment.

Sidorova has had custody of Misha
since last Sept. 13, when she and
Misha were assaulted by Inwood.

She went to hospital and later took
refuge in a shelter for battered
women. She and the child have since
been living in subsidized housing.

Sidorova’s mother has been in
Toronto for four months and is about
to return to the Soviet Union,
Inwood said.

Street sign named
after former Mayor

TRAIL (CP) — Buddy DeVito
doesn't want anybody to get the
wrong idea now that this Kootenay

Court news

7

In Castlegar provincial court this
week, Ivan Grewcock was fined $300
after pleading guilty to driving with
out insurance. He was also fined $100
after pleading guilty to failing to stop
for a peace officer.

unity has named a street after
him

“I am amazed that people still
introduce me as the ex-mayor of
Trail,” DeVito said after the official
naming this week of DeVito Drive
“But I prefer past mayor — I am not
an ex yet.”

—
Mayor from 1967 to 1973, DeVito

counts a 1973 visit to the Soviet
Union to attend a peace conference
as one of the highlights of his tenure.

“It was exciting to walk on Red
Square in Moscow,” he said

DeVito, 68, had his choice of
streets, choosing one that leads to a
senior citizens complex under con
struction.

“The other streets didn’t lead any
where, which some people might
think would be quite fitting to be
named after me,” DeVito joked.

Mandela, 70-year-old leader of the African National

Couple
wins
$10,0000

A Castlegar couple won $10,000 on
the instant lottery game last) week.
Paul and Helen Hadikin's lucky
day was Friday Sept. 2, when they
walked into The Book Shop in
Castlegar and bought two Zodiac

ickets, one

for their
astrological signs. Helen, 70, scrat-
ched the tickets, looking for three
like amounts.

When she saw, two $10,000 sym-
bols appear, she whispered to her.
self, “One more, one more.”

The Hadikins will share their prize
money with ther family.

African-oceupied Namibia.

Abortion clinic
bills ministry

VANCOUVER (CP) — The prov-
incial government will be billed by
B.C.'s first free-standing abortion
clinic for all costs connected with

per abortion, depending on what
stage the pregnancy is at, is “all
we're required to pay,” -he said,
Hospitals are-reimbursed for facil.
ity and i costs in the

abortions it performs, a
for the B.C. Coalition for Abortion
Clinics said Friday.

Coalition spokesman Joy Thomp.
son said the elinic, scheduled to oper
here next month, “would be demand.
ing the cost of . . . each and every
procedure, including the fees for the
facility and the equipment.”

But provincial health ministry
spokesman Rod Deacon confirmed
the ministry will only pay for doctors’
fees through the Medical Services
Plan, and won't pay for any facility or
equipment costs.

The doctors’ fees of $106 or $175

Mother and son
die after fire

VICTORIA (CP) — A mother and
her three-year-old son died Friday,
bringing to three the number of
family members killed of injuries
suffered Monday in a brush fire that.
police say was caused by gasoline.

Adam Mansell, two, died in the
small fire. His mother, Ethel, 35, who
suffered burns to 70 per cent of her
body, and brother, Norman, three,
who was even more severely burned
than his mother, had been in critical
condition in hospital.

The boys’ sister, Victoria, five,
suffered only minor injuries and was
earlier released from hospital. She
now is under the care of the Social
Services Ministry.

Police said they had not deter
mined if the fire was deliberately set,
but said lab tests showed gasoline
was involved. Autopsies were to be
performed on the victims.

The father of the family is in prison
serving a five-year term for sexually
assaulting a child.

Adam was found by firefighters
about suppertim Monday in a

wooded area near the intersection of
Helmcken and the Trans-Canada
Highway in the View Royal district
of Victoria.

amount of about $200 per abortion
over and above the physician's fee
but Deacon said those payments
come from the hospital's operating
budget paid for by the ministry, not
the health insurance plan.

“We don't give private clinics
operating funding,” he said. “We
don't pay plastic surgeons to operate
their clinics, so we won't pay anyorie
else.”

NDP health critic Lois Boone said
she is not surprised the government
will not cover the entire cost of an
abortion procedure.

“(Health Minister) Peter Dueck
and Premier Vander Zalm have been
very open about their opposition to
abortions, so if they can find a way of
not funding a portion of it then they
certainly will,” Boone said Friday.

She said the NDP has always sup-
ported full government funding for
abortions through provincially oper
ated community clinics which would
also offer family planning and birth
control advice.

Nurses vote on
new agreement

By CasNews Staff
B.C. nurses are voting on a tenta
tive settlement reached with 15 long
term care facilities.

The 15 employers who are mem
bers of B.C. Association of Private
Care (Pri-Care) were represented by
the Continuing Care Employee Re
lations Association in a lengthy
dispute involving about 200 nurses.

No details of the settlement will be
released untila ratification vote has
been held.

“It is taking place over the next
few days,” said Pat Van Horne,

BCNU spokesman.

“They will be finished by the end of
next week,” she said adding that she
was overly optimistic when she
earlier expected results by the end of
this week. we

Bargaining took place at the end of
August with both sides agreeing to a
media blackout while talks were
underway. The dispute involved five
nurses at the Raspberry Lodge.
Contract negotiations broke off in
May

Nurses remained on the job
despite voting 88 per cent in favor of
striking, in April.

was amended Friday to give

opposition proposals to

Epp says the
jurisdi

Epp in committee.

will have to offer at
who use day care.

minority groups that there be

the next seven years.

research.

low-income parents and some recognition of the
diverse needs of minority-group children.
However, Health Minister Jake Epp refused
include criteria‘ in the
legislation to guide provincial day-care standards.
matter is
tion, that the child-care program is still in its
infancy and that provincial agreements to secure
money from Ottawa will specify such standards.
Changes in the bill, requiring special priority for
children from poorer families along with recognition
of ethnic needs, were Isiberal proposals approved by

Epp earlier told the Commons committee, which
now has approved the legislation, that the provinces the
least the same subsidies
available now to families with low or modest incomes

The committee had also heard requests from

Day-care program amended

By MARLENE ORTON
OTTAWA (CP) — Federal child-care legislation

priority help to

Senate.

beyond federal

passage.”

limited to 2.5 days of hearings by the Commons
legislative committee.

Both Liberal
Democrat MP Margaret Mitchell said Friday they
would welcome a more thorough hearing in the

The minister naturally wants the bill through
Parliament quickly.

“I would doubt that the Senate would want to
hold up the child-care act,” Epp told re
would think they

The country's major

little hope after all major améndments proposed by
itis were i

MP Lucie Pepin and New

cy Association saw

LOOPHOLES SEEN
The association wants firm national principles
on child care spelled out in detail and fears that
loopholes in the bill will not guarantee continued

that respect their heritage and language. Epp said
the provinces will be required tagncourage licensed
child care that responds to those’ concerns.

The legislation will create a $4-billion fund to
help the provinces add 200,000 day-care spaces over

FUNDS RESEARCH
The $6.4-billion child-care package also includes
$2.3 billion in tax benefits for families with young
children, along with $100 million for chlid-care

The bill, the first major new social program from

services for |

Currently

The group worries the provinces will use the

child-care fund to build and operate new day-care
centres and drop support for poorer families who
cannot afford day care.
a federal-provincial arrangement
called the Canada Assistance Plan provides day-care
subsidies to poorer families. The child-care fund is
intended to replace CAP eventually,

Other organizations,
women's groups, say the legislation is permissive,
vastly inadequate to support the number of children
requiring day care and lacks any firm national goals.

families.

from labor unions to

Ottawa in years, now requires final approval in the
Commons. It then goes to the Senate ‘where public
hearings could delay the legislation.

One Liberal senator has said the upper chamber
will likely hear from interested groups that were

Others complain that standards should be laid out for
the provinces to follow.

Epp counters that child-care services must be
developed across the country before any demands
can be set out.

Iran, Iraq meet

GENEVA (AP) — The foreign ministers of Iran and Iraq met
Saturday for their first face-to-face peace talks in more than two
weeks.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz led his delegation to the meeting
at the UN office in Geneva. The Iranians, headed by Foreign Minister
Ali Akbar Velayati, came less than five minutes later.

Velayati said he hoped the first round of the UN talks to end the
eight-year-old war would wind up Saturday.

Peace talks on way

MANAGUA (AP) — President Daniel Urtega of Nicaragua said
his government is willing to meet in Guatemala with Colntra rebels to
discuss resuming high-level peace talks aimed at ending the civil war.

Ortega said that Deputy Foreign Minister Victor Hugo Tinoco
would go to Guatemala “to discuss with a Contra delegation a next
meeting in Managua and to hear their concerns (and) fears about
coming to Managua.

The president said in a speech that the preliminary talks should
take place Sept. 19-20 in Guatemala City. :

Diplomat expelled

LONDON (AP) — Britain expelled a Vietnamese diplomat
Saturday who brandished a gun outside his embassy during a
demonstration.

The British Foreign Office said Vietnamese Embassy third
secretary Khang Than Nhan must leave Britain by midnight. The
Vietnamese Embassy said no official would be available to comment
during the weekend.

Vietnamese Ambassador Tran Van Hung, pressed by the British
government about Khang’s actions during the Sept. 4 protest, turned
over a toy gun Thursday. -

Students riot

SEOUL (AP) — Radical South Korean students yelling “Oppose
dictatorial Olympics!” hurled hundreds of firebombs at riot police
today. Student leaders charged the games were being used to cement
military rule.

About 2,000 students from several Seoul colleges rallied at the
capital's Yonsei University, denouncing the Olympics, which begin
Sept. 17, President Roh Tae-woo's government and the United States
for backing the government.

Plane crash kills 75

BANGKOK (AP-CP) — Investigators examined the wreckage of
a Vietnamese jetliner to try to determine what caused the plane to.
crash minutes before its scheduled landing. Seventy-five people,
including some Vietnamese government officials, were killed.

One of the pilots of Air Vietnam Flight 831 reported it was struck
by lightning, said Tran Van Viet, third secretary of the Vietnamese
Embassy. The pilot, Khong Din Phuong, was the only one of the six
survivors who was conscious.

The Soviet-made Tu-134 slammed into a rice field about six
kilometres short of Bangkok's airport Friday and blew up. The crash
occurred during a thunderstorm, three minutes before the jet was
scheduled to land after a flight from Hanoi.

China visit over

SHANGHAI, CHINA (AP) — U.S. Defence Secretary Frank
Carlueci wrapped up his visit to China leaving the Chinese happy
about a decision that could permit Chinese rockets to launch U.S.
satellites.

Carlucci also said he is satisfied the Chinese will exercise
prudence in arms sales to the Middle East and other areas of the
world.

€arlucci said he conveyed the U.S. decision about satellites to
Chinese Defence Minister Qin Jiwei.

Patrols intensifed

BELFAST (REUTER) — Northern Ireland police said their
intelligence reports indicated the IRA is planning “a ‘horrific
remainder to 1988” and police patrols will be intensified to deal with
the threat.

“All the information indicates that the threat from the
provisional IRA is escalating and their intention is a horrific
remainder to 1988,” a police statement said.

General elections held

RANGOON (AP-CP) — The Burmese government decided to end
26 years of single-party rule and announced that general elections will
be held under a multiparty system.

A brief announcement on state-run radio said the decision was
made at an extraordinary congress of the Burma Socialist Program
party. The broadcast did not say when the elections would be held.

The congress was originally scheduled for Monday to decide
whether a referendum on one-party rule would be called. Radio
Rangoon said more than 75 per cent of the delegates decided today
to scrap the referendum idea and to go ahead with elections under a
multiparty system.

Alkali dust flies

BRANDON, MAN. (CP) — People living around Whitewater
Lake say it looks like the snow has already begun to fly,.

Winds which once stirred up whitecaps on the lake now send a
white cloud of alkali dust into the air.

Drought has reduced Whitewater Lake, located between
Deloraine and Boissevain in northern Manitoba, to a massive, dry,
barren field.

Mairjuana discovered

LONDON (AP) — A 13-tonne stash of marijuana was discovered
aboard a Honduran-registered freighter stopped in British waters
last week, a customs official said.

“There's tonnes of it coming out,” Peter Biles of the Customs and
Excise Department said of the discovery on the ship, identified as the
Salton Sea. “It’s . . . a big pro job.”

Biles said the ship's Dutch captain,*three Dutch crew members
and four Colombian crew members were charged with illegally
importing cannabis into Britain and were being held in police custody.

Tuition fees skyrocket

TORONTO (CP) — Tuition fees at Canadian universities have
doubled or tripled during the past decade, an analysis of 10 years of
Statistics Canada data suggests.

It also indicates tuition fees for many undergraduate programs
have far outstrippewd the Consumer Price Index, which has risen by
93 per cent since 1978.

Students say the soaring tuition fees, combined with other costs,
make university unaffordable for some groups and leave many
students in poverty.

Caucus meets

By DAPHNE BRAMHAM

PENTICTON (CP) — After lots of brainstorming
and a little golf, rejuvenated New Democratic Party
caucus members left Penticton on Friday determined to
keep using a scalpel, not a sledgehammer, on the Social
Credit government.

The Opposition party led by former Vancouver
mayor Mike Harcourt has been buoyed by recent
scandals in Premier Bill Vander Zalm's government and
rumors of a split in the Socred party and caucus.

But even thu.gh they smell an upset in-the next
provincial election, NDP members decided this week to
leave personal attacks on Vander Zalm to disaffected
Socreds, said Moe Sihota, one of the NDP’s most vocal
and persistent critics of the two-year-old government.

“It’s not our style to get down in the muck and Mike
made that very clear to caucus,” Sihota said.

“Sometimes a few of us will sling a few more
arrows than others would but Mike has set the style for
us and we're not going to get into mud throwing.”

Sihota said the-caueus agreed the choice they want
voters to make in the next election
“modetate Mike and radical Bill.”

FEELING GOOD

That whiff of victory in an election that doesn’t
have to be called for three years was the focus of their
three-day meeting in this placid Okanagan Valley resort
community.

Their balding, bespectacled leader,
maintained his usual low-key approach.

“There's a clarity and a sense of purpose following
the meetings,” said Harcourt, who met with his caucus
on golf courses and tennis courts as well as indoors.

“We're feeling good about where we are two years
after the last election, but we're not taking anything for
granted.

“There is a tonne of work to be done.”

The NDP holds 22 of 69 seats in the legislature,
while the Socred majority has 45. There is one
Independent and one seat is vacant.

Harcourt made a major switch in his lineup of
legislature critics early in the week, handing more
responsibility to some of the rookies, such as 30-year-old
Glen Clark who takes over finance.

JOBS ASSIGNED

After the shuffle, caucus members got assignments
ranging from a review of the health-care and education
systems toa study of land-use conflicts between loggers

is between

however,

MIKE HARCOURT
. - Penticton caucus meeting

Each task has a deadline to coincide with
Harcourt's plan to hold regional policy meetings next
spring to provide core information for an election
platform.

David Stupich, who has served under five NDP
leaders over 22 years and will resign his Nanaimo seat
to run in the federal election, called this week's retreat
session the best ever. He said for the first time the
caucus was totally united behind the leader.

But Stupich, who served as minister of finance and
agriculture in British Columbia's only NDP government
from 1972 to 1975, said he has no regrets about leaving
even if victory seems etese.

The caucus also spent time discussing strategies for
two byelections to be held within six months and what
role the provincial party will play in the forthcoming

and environmentalists.

federal election.

Tax bill passes

OTTAWA (CP) — Canadians re-
ceived further assurance Friday that
their pay cheques will not shrink as
the Senate passed the government's
tax reform bill.

The 500 pages of complex tax
legislation now needs royal assent, a
formality expected in the coming
week, to become law.

Although Finance Minister Mi
chael Wilson says the reforms will
reduce the income tax burden for 85
per cent of Canadians, the reduction
is from what Canadians would have

paid in taxes this year had the
reforms not taken place, not from
what they paid last year.

And a study using Finance.

And a study using Finance De
partment figures argues that with
the reforms the average family is still
paying $310 more a year in income
taxes this year, not including in
creases due to inflation, than they
were in 1984 when the Tories were
elected.

Only two groups, the very rich and
the very poor, are actually better off

Seoul gourmets
serve dog meat

SEOUL (AP) — Seoul gourmets
continue to enjoy dog stew and South
Korean Olympic stars have been
consuming snake soup despite gov
ernment attempts to ban the trad
itional delicacies during the Summer
Games.

The government has outlawed
sales in Seoul of dog meat, snake,
blood worm soup and other exotic
dishes to avoid offending foreigners
during the Olympics, which begin
Sept. 17.

Officials said visitors might be dis
gusted by the unusual culinary offer:
ings and South Koreans would be
called barbaric.

The ban has had little or no effect
on Seoul restaurants or the eating
habits of their customers. Dog meat
is still a lunchtime favorite in many
backstreet eateries.

“Even the government officials eat
it,” said one restaurant owner who
spoke on condition of anonymity.
“They just tell us not to let for.
eigners see

“The number of customers for dog

hasn't dwindled,” he said with a big
smile. “Not at all.”

South Korean athletes training for
the Olympics have been eating dog,
snakes and deer antlers to help build
up their strength and stamina.

Boxers, wrestlers and others be

lieve eating dog and snake will give
them the endurance and strength of
the animals.
* Seoul newspapers reported the
South Korea Amateur Hockey Asso-
ciation provided the country’s wom
ens’ Olympic team with the equiva
lent of $84,000 Cdn worth of snake
soup.

Association officials declined to
comment.

Star player Kim Kye-sook was
quoted by the Korea Herald as
saying: “I was so surprised when the
association officials brought the
snake soup to us. But after taking the
soup, I felt much stronger,”

Olympic soccer star Choi Soon-ho
was quoted as saying he ate 500
snakes as part of his summer train
ing.

in terms of income taxes than they
were in 1984, says the study

Basically, the reforms reduce tax
rates for individuals and businesses
while lowering the number of tax
breaks.

Many personal tax deductions,
which benefit higher-income people
more than those with lower incomes,
have been replaced by tax credits
that offer the same dollar-for-dollar
break to both groups.

The measures also include a gen
eral corporate tax avoidance rule
aimed at preventing businesses from
taking action solely to avoid paying
taxes, new tax rules for farmers and
increased penalties on late tax pay
ments.

Together the moves are designed
to reverse a recent trend that has
seen an increase in the tax burden
borne by individuals and a decrease
in that borne by corporations.

AIDS test
program
proposed

TORONTO (CP) Thousands of
Canadians, from newborn babies to
military recruits, may be tested for
the AIDS virus as part of a vast
network of studies proposed by
federal officials.

Most of the studies will rely on
“blind” blood samples, in which the
donor doesn't know about the test
and no record is kept of the person’s
identity

However, samples will be grouped
by category of donor — military re-
cruits, prisoners and so on. Because
the samples are anonymous, scien-
tists won't be able to notify those
found to he infected with the virus.

“Right now, we have almost no
idea who is infected with the AIDS
virus,” Dr. Alastair Clayton, head of
the Federal Centre for AIDS in Ot:
tawa, told the Toronto Star. “We
know the virus is prevalent among
homosexual men, but we don't know
much more.”

Details of the studies haven't been
worked out, but preliminary plans
call for testing the blood of preg-
nant women, newborns, military re-
cruits, prisoners, hospital patients,
intravenous drug users and clients of
venereal disease clinics.

Native people may also be included
because there js a high. rate of
sexually transmitted diseases among
them, said Kim Elmslie, also of the
Federal Centre.

HAVE FIGURES

Federal officials have precise fig
ures about the number of AIDS cases
in Canada, but little information
about who is carrying the virus that
causes the disease. As of Aug. 23, the
latest date for which statistics are
available, there were 1,970 cases of
AIDS reported in Canada, of which
1,100 people died.

AIDS is a fatal disease without any
known cure or treatment. It is caused
by a virus transmitted sexually or
through blood.

The human immunodeficiency
virus can lie dormant in the body for
up to 15 years before causing AIDS,
so the record of people with the ail
ment only shows who was infected
many years before

The blood surveys will show where
the-virus has spread to date and help
block its path in the future, Clayton
said.

By repeating the studies-over-a
few years, scientists can see where
the virus is spreading fastest, then
try to slow its progress.

One study has already begun, a
national survey of venereal disease
clinic patients. Another was an
nounced this summer, a project to
test the blood of 100,000 pregnant
women over the next year.

The United States has launched a
similar series of studies to determine
infection rates. Preliminary results
have found startlingly high rates of
infection among heterosexual men,
women and their children.

Refugee claims
stacking up

TORONTO (CP) Immigration
Department staff Canada
have been ordered to stop processing
refugee claims because the current
system is overloaded, says a de.
partment spokesman

Raphael Girard, director-general
of refugee affairs and settlement,
said Friday that the shutdown was
ordered at the start of September
until Canada’s new refugee system,
which was announced last month,
goes into effect

Immigration Minter Barbara Mc
Dougall™has said the new refugee
system should be in place by January
1989.

across

Hospital waste disposal
methods being studied

TORONTO (CP) — A new method
of treating and disposing of infectious
hospital waste will be tried for the
first time in Canada by a gfoup of
Toronto hospitals, says @ spokesman
for the city’s hospital council.

The Ontario Environment Minis.
try das approved a six-month trial
period to use a machine that shreds
and disinfects such hospital wastes as
used syringes, rubber gloves and
surgical gowns.

The machine shreds waste into
pieces the size of a dime and douses
the mixture with a bleach solution,
Paul Gamble of the Hospital Council
of Metropolitan Toronto told a news
conference Friday.

Solid wastes can then be trucked
to landfill sites, while liquid waste is

diluted before it enters the city's
sewers, Gamble said

By the system is meeting oppos
ition from an environmental group
and residents of the neighborhood
where the waste is to be treated.

The method, already used by sev
eral U.S. hospitals, could potentially
produce more toxic chemicals than it
destroys, said Colin Isaacs, executive
director of Pollution Probe

Using chlorine bleach on some
materials can produce toxins which
might leak into ground water when
the waste is buried, he said

And residents who just. won a
battle to have a garbage incinerator
removed from thtir downtown neigh
borhood are upset they weren't told
of the plan before it was approved.

But Gamble said the process,
unlike incinerators, doesn't emit
smoke or odors and reduces the vol.
ume of garbage by 80 per cent

After the test period of the dis.
posal unit will be closed and an
environmental assessment will be
done, he said.

Hospitals currently incinerate in
fectious wastes on-site or pay to have
them trucked to commercial inciner.
ators in Quebec and Ohio.

The new system to start next
spring — could cut the waste
disposal costs o.f the 30 part icipating
hospitals by more than half, Gamble
said.

The hospital council is negotiating
with the province's heatth ministry
to share the $2.4-million

The Refugee Status Advisory
Committee and the Immigration Ap-
peal Board, however, will continue to
hear refugee cases currently sched
uled until the new system is started,
Girard said.

And the government “has targeted
urgent cases” to move quickly into
the existing refugee process, he said.

These are cases that involve na
tional security, criminal and humani
tarian concerns. The backlog of ref.
ugee cases stands at nearly 59,000,
and about 2,500 to 3,000 new claims
are made each month by people ar.
riving at Canadian airports and entry
points along the Canada-U.S. border,

Meanwhile, immigration lawyers
and refugees’ groups are critical of
the government for leaving an
estimated 15,000 refugee claimants
without the permits they need to
work legally in Canada while await
ing hearings.

Work permits are issued only after
the claimant has had an examination
under oath. But those ¢xaminations
have also been put on hold while-the
new system is set up, Girard said.

Tourist alert

VANCOUVER (CP) — Tourist
Alert issued Saturday by the RCMP.
The following persons, believed
travelling in British Columbia, are
asked to call the person named for an
urgent personal message

Cheryl Amos, Edmonton, call Clin
ton RCMP.

Rene Arturo Segora, Vancouver,
call Bill Scholey