News, 15-16/8/00
hyt...@my-deja.com
* "Total understanding" between Arafat, Vietnam: foreign ministry
ATTENTION -with Arafat departure, quotes ///
HANOI, Aug 15 (AFP) - Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat held talks with
Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong here on Tuesday on the third leg of
a whirlwind tour of Asian capitals, officials said.
"Arafat informed his Vietnamese counterpart Tran Duc Luong of recent
developments in the Middle East peace process," the foreign ministry
said in a statement.
It described the talks as "friendly, cordial and carried out with total
mutual understanding."
Luong was quoted as saying that "the party, the government and people
of Vietnam have always supported the just cause of the Palestinian
people and their inalienable national rights ..., including the right
to an independent Palestinian state."
The ministry statement did not specifically state however whether the
president supported Arafat's intention to proclaim a Palestinian state
on September 13.
"Vietnam suppports the Middle East peace process and all efforts to
find an fair and lasting solution to the conflict ... and hopes that
the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations resume soon," Luong said.
Arafat has visited Pakistan and China as part of an Asian tour which
follows the failure of the Camp David peace summit on July 25.
He left Hanoi for Kuala Lumpur and is scheduled to go on to Jakarta and
other Asian cities.
Arafat last visited Hanoi back in April 1999. Vietnam has consistently
supported the Palestinian cause, whilst also looking to develop its
economic ties with Israel.
* Vietnam aims for big cuts in vast public sector
HANOI, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Communist-ruled Vietnam aims to cut back its
vast public-sector workforce by 15 percent by the end of next year by
banning new recruitment, implementing early retirement and farming out
contracts, official media reported. Tuesday's Vietnam News said five
million workers in administrative bodies and state-run enterprises were
now being paid from the state budget, but up to 30 percent were
unqualified for their jobs.
The government aimed to cut the workforce by a total of 15 percent by
the end of next year, the state-run paper said. Among measures to
accomplish this would be a ban on recruitment of staff and on
establishment of new state bodies. It said retirement ages of 60 for
men and 55 for women would be strictly implemented and early retirement
applied in cases of reorganisation, or where workers were deemed
unqualified. Early retirees would be eligible for pensions equivalent
to 75 percent of their monthly salaries, the report said.
It said ministries and local people's committees would have personnel
and spending limits imposed from this year and employees now providing
services under labour contracts would be assigned to work on a job-
contract basis.
In addition, the paper said, establishment of public services not
funded by the state would be encouraged. The report said the government
had adopted new policies on allowances, insurance and retraining to
facilitate the reforms and to ensure the rights of those facing
retrenchment.
Vietnam News said the total number of people currently receiving
pensions after retiring early or getting allowances from the state
budget was more than two million.
Overstaffing and inefficiency dog the public sector in Vietnam, a
hangover from the days of old-style communist central planning when no
private business was allowed. The country embarked on market-orientated
reforms in the mid-1980s, but the state sector has remained bloated and
grindingly inefficient.
Foreign aid donors have long urged Hanoi to tackle administrative
reform, saying bureaucracy and corruption have become big obstacles to
foreign investment.
In 1998, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai said Vietnam could learn much
from neighbouring China's cutbacks in its administration and the
government has made administrative reform a priority in its draft
economic plan for the next five years.
* Vietnam highway to use forced labour -rights group
GENEVA, Aug 15 (Reuters) - The Vietnam Committee for the Protection of
Human Rights on Tuesday denounced a national highway project in the
Communist country which it said would rely on forced labour.
Vo Van Ai, chairman of the Paris-based group, said that recent
legislation ordering Vietnamese aged 18 and 35 to work without pay 10
days a year on public construction, violated the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights.
``Only the payment of a 'substitution tax', based on the legal minimum
wage, or presenting a replacement, will get someone exempted from
having to perform this forced labour,'' Vo told the the U.N.
Subcommission on the Protection and Protection of Human Rights.
``This ordinance is particularly unwelcome in the context of extreme
poverty and growing unemployment in Vietnam,'' he added. Vo's speech to
the U.N. rights forum, holding its annual meeting in Geneva, followed a
statement on Tuesday by five leading environmental groups who said that
the Ho Chi Minh Highway posed a serious threat to endangered species.
Construction of the highway, which began in April, will eventually run
1,690 km (1,056 miles) from near Hanoi in the north to Ho Chi Minh City
(formerly Saigon) in the south. The budget for the first phase has been
put at $380 million.
The road will follow parts of the legendary Ho Chi Minh Trail, a maze
of jungle tracks, named after Vietnam's independence hero, used to move
men and supplies from communist North Vietnam to U.S.-backed South
Vietnam during the Vietnam War. The war ended with a communist victory
in 1975. ``The left wing of the Communist party sees this highway as a
huge symbol of the victory over the Americans,'' Penelope Faulkner,
vice-chairman of the rights group, told Reuters. ``It is a ridiculous
project and will cost a fortune.''
Vo also condemned ``systematic violations by Vietnamese authorities of
the right to freedom of expression and religion.'' Monks of the Unified
Buddhist Church of Vietnam continue to be harassed and their pagodas
destroyed, according to the group. Thich Huyen Quang, its 83-year-old
patriarch held under house arrest in Quang Ngai province without trial
since 1982, was subjected to ``long interrogations, acts of harassment
and intimidation'' after appealing for national reconciliation on the
25th anniversary of the fall of Saigon last April, it added.
* Death is the life of a sniper
NYP, 14/8/00 - When the president and first lady address the Democratic
National Convention tonight, security in Los Angeles will be extra
tight.
Cops will line the streets to the Staples Center. Secret Service agents
will shadow the first couple, ready to take a bullet.
And, while they'll do their best to stay out of sight, the highly
trained snipers - which no SWAT team or law-enforcement agency can do
without nowadays - will be on rooftops, keeping their eyes peeled for
trouble.
Theirs is the loneliest detail.
To become a sniper is to join a potentially lethal profession in which
a split-second decision can mean life or death. It's the reality of
killing - some might even say coldblooded mass murder.
Not that anyone would think that after talking to Charles B. Mawhinney.
He doesn't look like some serial killer with 319 victims - but that's
how many people he's killed.
He's a tall, rangy man of 51, with a goatee and a quick smile, who
lives happily in Oregon with his wife, Robin, three sons, a dog, a cat
and a tortoise, in a house with a shady back porch.
But before this cozy domestic scene took shape, Chuck Mawhinney was
perhaps the best sniper in the world. Certainly, the best in the
Vietnam War.
Thirty-two years ago, he was the most efficient one-man killing machine
in the killing fields of Asia. Then he came home, took up his life
again and became a forest ranger. For 30 years, he kept quiet, not
because he was ashamed, but because he did not think anyone would be
interested.
But then his kill rate was noted by author Joseph Ward, another Vietnam
veteran, in his book, "Dear Mom: A Sniper's Story."
Suddenly, Mawhinney's quiet life was turned upside down. Police forces
and elite sniper units around the world wanted to know how he did it.
So now, Mawhinney teaches the techniques of marksmanship, camouflage,
stalking and that vital imponderable: the feel and smell and giveaway
noises of what he terms "the ultimate hunt."
He has lectured Americans, Britons, Russians, Czechs, Slovaks,
Austrians and Germans. He helps police forces set up sniper teams. He
trains law-enforcement agencies, such as the FBI, the Drug Enforcement
Agency and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
He is a range master, safety officer and referee at international
police-sniper competitions.
MAWHINNEY'S home is in a little backwoods town where men carry rifles
in pickup trucks. Families skin and butcher their own meat. Killing is
a way of life.
Mawhinney the sniper was something different. Even in Vietnam, some
soldiers did not like to be anywhere near the scout-snipers. They said
the snipers had the smell of death on them, and for a couple of months
after news of his war record came out, Mawhinney felt the cold shoulder
everywhere he went.
"I went out and people didn't want to talk to me," he recalls. "There
was a real uncomfortable feeling."
Close friends, he's sure, were not bothered by what he had done.
"I think they were hurt because I never told them. It wasn't, 糎e can't
imagine you doing this stuff.' It was more, 糎hy didn't you tell us?
Didn't you trust us?'
"But it was honestly not that big a deal to me. I was asked to do a job
and I did it. I mean, who really wants to go around telling friends
they've killed over 300 people?"
The upside is that Mawhinney is in huge demand. Sniper units, with
their expert marksmanship and training to spot what others miss, are
crucial to any police force or army.
Think of any crisis, from the Columbine HS shooting to the McDonald's
massacre. It's a certain bet that snipers were on the scene. Then, of
course, there has been Bosnia, Kosovo, Somalia, the Persian Gulf War.
Sniping is as old as conflict itself.
Mawhinney's father was a U.S. Marine marksman in World War II. By the
time Chuck was 6, he was a sure shot with his air gun, zapping flies on
the garden fence at 30 paces. He soon moved up to hunting rifles, and
spent his teens camping out in the mountains.
He had planned to join the Navy after high school, but a Marine
recruiting sergeant made an offer he couldn't resist - he could sign up
after deer season.
His shooting expertise was obvious at training camp, and he was sent to
the Marines' famed Scout-Sniper School at Camp Pendleton, Calif. On the
wall, Pendleton has a Chinese proverb: "Kill one man, terrorize a
thousand."
All graduates were given a little red book, the complete sniper's
manual. It had one sentence printed inside: "Thou shalt kill."
VIETNAM was in one of its bloodiest phases when Mawhinney arrived in
early 1968 as an 18-year-old private. He left two years and one month
later as a sergeant, after picking up a slew of medals and
commendations, including the Bronze Star, the Republic of Vietnam
Gallantry Cross with Palm, and the Purple Heart.
He did not want to leave, but a chaplain decided he was suffering from
combat fatigue. For 16 straight months, he had patrolled with the 5th
Marine Scout-Sniper Platoon in one of the most deadly areas, paddy
fields nicknamed Arizona Territory on the Laos-Cambodia border near An
Hoa.
Army records are extremely accurate because every kill had to be
checked by an officer on the scene and logged for scrutiny by
intelligence officers.
In that time, Mawhinney had 103 confirmed kills and another 216 listed
as probables, because it was too risky to see if his victims were
really dead.
The two-man teams - a sniper and a spotter - carried no radio, and
communicated with base by signal flares. Firing your weapon in
Vietnam's torpid heat was like shooting a bullet through molasses. And
many of Mawhinney's shots were longer than 1,000 yards.
Without using modern computers or laser range finders, he had an
uncanny ability to gauge distance, moisture, wind strength and terrain -
all of which determine a bullet's flight. He also had the patience to
wait hours for the right shot.
Retired Master Gunnery Sgt. Mark Limpic, Mawhinney's Vietnam squad
leader, says, "He could run half a mile, stand up and shoot offhand -
and drop somebody at 700 yards. It was uncanny."
One day, Mawhinney took out 16 soldiers crossing a river, all with head-
shots - because that was all he could see. They went down as probables
because their bodies floated away.
Mawhinney draws on a cigarette and smiles ruefully, "I was in extremely
good shape in those days."
He had to be. He was 6-foot-1, about 145 pounds and he carried a 70-
pound pack. His resting pulse was around 50 heartbeats a minute.
"When you fire, your senses go into overtime. Your vision widens, and
you can smell things like you can't at other times," he says.
Even today, he shoots with both eyes wide open.
"It's a good habit to get into if someone is likely to be sneaking up
on you," he says.
Mawhinney says his rules of engagement were simple: "If they had a
weapon, they were going down. Except for an NVA paymaster I hit at 900
yards, everyone I killed had a weapon.
"Some ask, 践ow could you shoot people down like that?' I reply, 選
knew what I was hitting. Every target I hit was a military target. It
wasn't like going in and hosing down a village, hitting women and kids.
I was frightened of doing that.
"You get to the point where you start living like an animal," he says.
"You act like an animal. You work like an animal. All you think about
is killing. But I never, ever thought I was shooting a person; I never
thought of the person. I thought of the enemy."
In Vietnam, Mawhinney trained six snipers. He says he gave all of them
the same lecture he received after his first shot: "That wasn't a man
you just killed; it was an enemy. This is our job. This is what war is
all about. You screw up, you die.
"There are people who will never understand Vietnam, and what we did,
because they weren't there," he says. "In the same way, there are
people who would never understand why police have to have snipers. But
if they had a 10-year-old kid and a bad guy holding a pistol to his
head, and a police sniper resolved the situation with one shot, then
they would appreciate what the sniper's training is all about."
DESPITE his life's work, Mawhinney says he's religious in his own way.
"I believe in God, but I don't have any denomination. I am not a
churchgoer. I prayed a lot in Vietnam. Sometimes, I prayed a lot harder
and faster than other times," he chuckles.
His 45-year-old wife, a school secretary, is hewn from the same tough
world. She, too, is a good shot and a keen hunter.
"I knew about his Vietnam life from early on," she says. "I came from a
small community where, in 1965, just about everybody was drafted to
Vietnam. So everybody felt really proud that they went and served.
"I was raised on a farm and we hunted. On a farm, cows don't just drop
dead for you to have meat. People don't just fall flat and die in war.
Chuck's war service didn't bother me."
At the moment, Chuck is advising four police forces on setting up
sniper teams. He is also writing a book, with a journalist friend,
titled "30 Years of Silence," and lecturing at the Camp Pendleton Scout-
Sniper School.
"I believe in our military and what they are doing," he says. "Snipers'
work is now more important than ever. When you have entry teams going
into siege buildings, their only protection is the sniper.
"I was never ashamed of what I did. I was proud of it. I didn't go over
there to kill people. I went to save lives - my guys' lives."
* Researchers Recognize That Men Get Osteoporosis, Too
HealthSCOUT, 14/8/00 - When Samuel Schneeweiss was diagnosed with
osteoporosis, he was flabbergasted. "That's a woman's disease," he
thought. "That happens when they go through menopause and stop
producing the hormone estrogen."
The Manhattan resident, now 80, assumed that his back pain was caused
by a youthful passion for soccer and skiing. But five years ago, when
his doctor gave him a bone-density test, he learned his bones were
frail and brittle. He has since lost about an inch in height.
The masculine struggle with osteoporosis, the "silent" disease that
causes bones to deteriorate and break easily, is only now coming into
the medical limelight. And the bad news is that these aren't isolated
cases.
The good news is that if younger men in their 20s, 30s and 40s take the
necessary steps, they stand a good chance of dodging the illness later
in life. The recommendations: Don't smoke, don't drink excessively, get
plenty of calcium and vitamin D, exercise and drink milk, says Dr.
Manish Suthar of the Texas Back Institute in Dallas.
The disease affects an estimated 2 million men in the United States,
according to current figures from the National Osteoporosis Foundation
(NOF). Another 3 million men are at risk, particularly in the 60-and-
older age range. Although an estimated 80 percent of osteoporosis is
found in women, men make up about one-third of those who suffer hip
fractures.
Yet, the disease in men still is underdiagnosed, underreported and
inadequately researched, NOF reports. Treatments to date for male
osteoporosis are scant, compared to the hormones available for women.
Schneeweiss relies mainly on exercise and getting a lot of calcium in
his diet, along with vitamins C and D.
And there is little specific drug treatment available so far, although
several medications are being tested. The U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) has given its approval to a drug called Fosamax, a
brand name for alendronate sodium, which increases bone density and
decreases height loss in men. Other treatments or preventives include
testosterone replacement therapy, along with calcium and vitamin D.
Significant research planned
Now that men are living longer and there are more diagnosed cases,
researchers are paying more attention.
In what will be the largest study of its kind, the National Institutes
of Health (NIH) has awarded a seven-year, $23 million grant to a team
of researchers, headed by Dr. Eric Orwell, professor of medicine at
Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, to examine osteoporosis
in men. And several universities, including the University of Alabama
in Birmingham, and Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City already
have male-osteoporosis research projects under way.
"It takes a long time for consciousness to change and for people to
change long-standing perceptions," Orwell says of the current spurt in
research and the fact that osteoporosis in men has long been neglected.
"That (Fosamax) looks very good and I think it will actually change the
horizon quite a bit as people understand there is effective treatment
available," he adds.
As women already know, osteoporosis can have a devastating impact on
quality of life, resulting in bone fractures and surgery that can be
painful and expensive.
Fewer men than women suffer from osteoporosis -- about one man for
every four women -- mainly because men start off with larger, stronger
bones, their bone loss begins later and progresses slower, and they
don't have a rapid hormonal change, as women do in menopause.
However, for men who live into their 70s and 80s and beyond, the bone
loss is about the same as women's. Male risk increases from
medications, including steroids used to treat asthma or arthritis,
anticonvulsants, chemotherapy, and even aluminum-containing antacids,
according to the NIH's Osteoporosis and Related Bone Diseases National
Resource Center.
Early detection is the goal
Chronic diseases, low levels of the sex hormone testosterone, and low
calcium intake also take their toll.
"Because we're all living longer, we're living with chronic diseases,
and many of them, such as lupus or rheumatoid arthritis, can cause
osteoporosis," says Dr. Paula Rackoff, the assistant chief of
rheumatology at Beth Israel Medical Center.
Detecting the disease in men is random. "There are no agreed-upon
guidelines as to when men should be screened," says Dr. Pamela Taxel,
an endocrinologist and assistant professor of medicine at the
University of Connecticut in Farmington. "We do know men on certain
medicine, such as steroids, or those who have X-rays showing bone
thinning, or who are losing sexual function should be looked at."
And podiatrists and dental hygienists can actually spot the disease
early on. Dr. Rodney Tomczak, assistant professor of orthopedics at
Ohio State University in Columbus, says the disease can be detected in
podiatric patients because small foot fractures tend to signal a
warning of osteoporosis.
The same is true of dental hygienists who can tell when your X-rays
show bone loss.
"The real value is finding it early and treating the medical condition
and trying to reverse the osteoporosis," Tomczak says.
What To Do
While bone loss increases with age, you can help slow it down by
stopping smoking, drinking alcohol moderately, taking 1,000 mg. daily
of calcium to age 50 and 1,200 mg. a day after that, and getting into
weight-bearing physical exercise, like team sports, climbing stairs and
lifting weights.
* Health Stores May Mislead Cancer Patients
HealthSCOUT, 15/8/00 - Cancer patients who turn to natural remedies may
get steered in the wrong -- and potentially harmful -- direction if
they seek advice from health food stores about supplements.
A new study by Hawaii researchers found that health food stores often
give spurious recommendations about the effects and actions of
complementary and alternative treatments touted as cancer fighters.
The study, which appears in this month's issue of the Archives of
Family Medicine, underscores the need for doctors to talk about
alternative remedies with cancer patients and guide them in their
decisions about what, if any, nontraditional treatments they use.
Complementary and alternative treatments have become extremely popular
among cancer patients. A recent study by Texas researchers found that
more than 80 percent of patients said they'd used at least one such
remedy. Most turned to prayer and other spiritual practices, but nearly
63 percent reported taking vitamins and herbs.
And in another study, published last month in the Journal of Clinical
Oncology, Canadian scientists found that two-thirds of women with
breast cancer said they used alternative therapies, typically to boost
their immune systems.
Nearly 40 percent said they went to practitioners of complementary
care, such as chiropractors, herbalists and acupuncturists. But only
about half told their doctors about their other treatments.
All of which begs the question: What kind of advice are patients
getting when they seek treatment away from their doctors' offices?
In the latest work, Carolyn Cook Gotay, a researcher at the University
of Hawaii in Honolulu, had a research assistant pose as the daughter of
a breast cancer patient to solicit treatment recommendations from
clerks at 40 Oahu health food stores.
Shark cartilage pushed
Salespeople were quick with information, just not particularly solid
information. The most commonly suggested treatment, for example, was
shark cartilage, a compound that has no proven therapeutic value and
may even cause serious side effects ranging from fever and nausea to
liver poisoning.
Slightly more than half the clerks pointed the "daughter" to literature
and other information on nontraditional treatments. But only five asked
any details about the make-believe mother's condition, and none
mentioned the potential for adverse reactions with traditional drugs
she might be taking.
Some clerks gave bizarre, pseudoscientific recommendations. These
included that the "patient" have her blood tested for parasites and
crystals; and that she undergo a "give way" test in which she would
hold vials of various compounds until her muscles flagged -- thus
indicating the best remedy.
When asked about mechanisms of action for the various treatments, which
had vast swings in price from store to store, most clerks said the
compounds worked to stimulate the immune system.
"While the term 'immune-boosting' might have significance for both
[complementary and alternative medicine] and biomedical practitioners,
the therapeutic potential of an immune-booster, and its application in
cancer, are only marginally understood," the researchers write.
Even so, they argue, health food stores are a source of authority for
cancer patients. "Physicians and other providers are in a key position
to assist cancer patients in making informed choices when considering
health store products."
Dr. Harold Burstein, a cancer expert at Harvard Medical School who
studies the use of alternative and complementary remedies, says most
women who use them don't expect a cure.
"Most of these treatments aren't so much about treating cancer as they
are about helping people feel better," Burstein says -- not just
physically but emotionally, too.
Wendy Potts, who manages the patient Helpline for the Susan G. Komen
Breast Cancer Foundation in Dallas, says she and her colleagues
frequently field calls from women looking for advice on nontraditional
treatments.
"We do discourage alternative treatments, because there's just not data
to support them," Potts says. "But we're in full support of
complementary therapies when [patients] use them with traditional
therapies."
* Tan in a Bottle?
Ask Dr. Weil
How bad is it to self-tan? Is it any better for you than the sun?
-- Anonymous
People just can't seem to get away from the idea that a tan is healthy
and beautiful, and so you have self-tanning lotions and tanning salons.
The lotions are harmless, but they never quite look like a natural tan
to me. Fortunately, these days there are improved formulas that at
least don't make you look streaked with orange. The new products are
made with dehydroxyacetone, which interacts with proteins in the
surface cells of your skin to darken the color. Some people complain
about a slight chemical or metallic scent, but that goes away in a few
hours.
To avoid blotches, you need to be careful when applying the lotion.
First, get rid of dry, flaky skin with a sponge or washcloth. Remove
your rings and other jewelry, and apply the tanner lightly just like
you would a body lotion, blending well. Put only a little on your knees
and elbows -- the dry skin will absorb more color than the rest of your
body. Try not to get the lotion under your nails because it will
discolor them, and wash your hands immediately so your palms don't look
unnaturally tan. Then, remember that even though your skin is more
brown, it's not protected by the melanin produced by a natural suntan.
So be sure to use lots of sunscreen, and select the kind that protects
against the whole range of the sun's rays, both UVA and UVB. Apply this
only after the tanning lotion is completely dry.
As for tanning salons, my advice is to stay away. The rays in a tanning
parlor can be a lot stronger than ordinary sunshine. A study in Sweden
a couple of years ago found that people under age 30 who used tanning
salons more than 10 times a year had a seven times higher risk of
melanoma than other people. Most skin cancer is related to UV
radiation, and melanoma is the deadliest kind. There's no such thing
as "tanning" rays, as distinct from "burning" rays. The UVA light of
tanning salons is as harmful as the UVB rays you get during peak
sunlight hours.
Sometimes people go to tanning salons before they go on a winter
vacation in order to avoid a sunburn. A better technique is to expose
yourself gradually to the sun once you've arrived, and be sure to use a
sunblock of at least SPF 15.
I'm not one of those doctors who would have you avoid sun at any cost,
but a tan is definitely not a sign of health. The only good thing about
a suntan is that it means you've been outdoors, where you may have been
getting exercise and enjoying relaxation. To get tan in a shop, without
the associated healthful activities, is not quite what the doctor
ordered.
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.