Solly ®ar Brrl
Watered Down
By fall 2001, all Greek houses must contain sprinkler systems to comply with a town mandate.
Twelve houses have yet to install the systems and will do so at the following times.
■ Kappa Alpha fraternity fall 2000 (summer 2000 - summer 2001)
House will be closed
■ Kappa Sigma fraternity fall 2000 (fall 2000 - summer 2001)
House will be doswl
■ Tau Epsilon Phi fraternity fall 2000 (summer 2000 - summer 2001)
House will be closed
■ Delta Sigma Phi fraternity summer 2001
■ Delta Zeta sorority summer 2001
■ Kappa Delta sorority summer 2001
■ Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity summer 2001
■ Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity summer 2001
■ Pi Lambda Phi fraternity summer 2001
■ Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity summer 2001
■ Delta Upsilon fraternity fall 2001 (house tentatively scheduled to be
renovated during fall)
■ St. Anthony Hall coed fraternity fall 2001 (house tentatively scheduled
to be renovated during fall)
SOURCE: OFFICE OF GREEK AFFAIRS
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Top Stories From the
State, Nation and World
In The
News
Clinton, Mandela Call
For Peace in Burundi
ARUSHA, Tanzania - Lending U.S.
prestige to an effort to end one of
Africa’s bloodiest wars, President
Clinton and Nelson Mandela lectured
warring factions from Burundi on
Monday about the consequences of the
collapse of peace talks.
Seven years of fighting between that
land’s ethnic Tutsis and Hutus have
killed 200,000 people.
“When all is said and done, only you
can bring an end
to the bloodshed
and sorrow your
country has suf
fered,” Clinton
said.
Clinton, round
ing out the second
African tour of his
presidency, flew
to Tanzania after a
two-day visit to
Nigeria, Africa’s
most populous
nation, which is
still shedding the
vestiges of corrup
tion under auto
cratic rule.
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President Clinton and
Nelson Mandela
toured Tanzania
Monday, encouraging
warring factions to
resume peace talks.
After his stop in Arusha, Clinton was
continuing on to Egypt for a meeting
with Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak on the Middle East peace
process.
Negotiators in Tanzania had hoped
that Clinton would witness the signing
of a major Burundi peace accord.
But the power-sharing agreement
signed Monday wasn’t approved by
Hutu rebels, who hadn’t participated in
the talks.
Several small Tutsi parties also did
hot approve the agreement.
Mandela, the former South African
president and chief mediator, lashed out
at the Tutsi parties that didn’t sign, accus-
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ing them of ignoring “the slaughter.”
U.S. Officials Accuse
Cuba of Denying Visas
WASHINGTON - The State
Department accused Cuba on Monday
of systematically preventing Cubans
holding U.S. visas from migrating to the
United States, forcing many to try a
high-risk escape by boat
The charge was made in a diplomat
ic note which alleged that Cuba has
failed to abide by a 1994 agreement
seeking to establish ground rules for the
orderly migration 0f20,000 Cubans plus
family members to the United States.
“TTie Cuban government has consis
tendy failed to take effective action in
response to our continuing and legitimate
humanitarian concerns,” the note said.
The note was handed to Fernando
Remirez, chief of the Cuban diplomatic
mission in Washington.
A copy was made available to The
Associated Press.
The note says 117 Cubans from 57
families had been denied exit permits by
the Cuban government in a recent 75-
day period.
All had been granted visas to migrate
to the United States.
A senior State Department official
said Coast Guard personnel recendy
have picked up an increasing number of
fleeing Cubans who have U.S. travel
documents.
Established procedures require that
Cubans intercepted by the Coast Guard
be returned to the island.
The note said the recent death of two
fleeing Cuban brothers “highlights the
growing propensity of Cubans denied
the means to migrate in a safe, orderly
and legal fashion to risk their lives in
desperate sea voyages.”
The brothers were victims of a shark
attack in the Florida Straits.
Rand Set to Propose
Inmate DNA Collection
WINSTON-SALEM - Backers of a
plan to collect DNA samples from any
one arrested on certain violent felony
charges are preparing to renew the fight
for their proposal when the General
Assembly convenes in January.
Proponents of DNA testing say the
results can help solve decades-old
crimes, while collecting DNA from con
victed felons can identify repeat offend
ers as well as solidify evidence against
the guilty or exonerate the innocent.
A measure to create pilot testing pro
grams in Forsyth, Robeson and Halifax
counties stalled in the state Senate last
12 Greek Houses Still Need Sprinklers
By Jessica Joye
Staff Writer
The deadline is closing in for UNC
fraternity and sorority houses to meet
fire safety regulations.
Twenty-one out of the 33 Greek hous
es have already met the 1997 Chapel
Hill mandate, which states that all hous
es must be equipped with a sprinkler
system by fall 2001.
The requirements were set after a
1996 fire at the Phi Gamma Delta fra
ternity house gutted the structure and
killed five students.
The Phi Gamma Delta house did not
have a sprinkler system in place.
month due to concerns over costs,
which counties would participate and
privacy questions.
Sen. Tony
Rand, D-
Cumberland, a
former defense
lawyer, plans to
resurrect the issue
when the General
Assembly con
venes in January.
“If you protect
the privacy, you
are doing (the test
ing) as an identifi
cation measure
only,” he said.
“I think society
P-* 5 ® ■ '•’3
State Senator
Tony Rand
will propose a law
to collect DNA
samples from N.C.
prison inmates.
wants the guilty punished, the innocent
freed.”
Rand’s proposal, introduced last year
and revived in the final days of this
year’s session, called for testing anyone
arrested on felony charges.
It would have provided $40,000 to
the N.C. Department of Justice to run
the pilot program for one year, but it’s
not clear exactly how much the program
would cost.
Initial plans called for $500,000 for
the program over two years.
The bill called for health officials to
take the DNA sample and for law offi
cers to send the sample to a lab to be
analyzed.
Ford, Firestone Clash
Over Venezuelan Tires
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Ford Motor
Cos. and Bridgestone/Firestone offered
conflicting information Monday about
whether certain tires manufactured in
Venezuela, reportedly linked to dozens
of accidents there, met the right specifi
cations.
The differing interpretations came as
U.S. congressional investigators ques
tioned executives at
Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. about when
they knew there were safety problems
with their tires.
Company spokeswoman Christine
Karbowiak released a letter the compa
ny sent Monday to Venezuelan authori
ties, who are expected to submit a report
shortly to the country’s attorney gener
al.
That report could lead to fines or
criminal prosecution of Ford and
Bridgestone/Firestone in Venezuela.
The Bridgestone/Firestone letter
states that in June 1999, Wilderness AT
tires P25570R16 and P23575R15, man
ufactured in Valencia, Venezuela, were
mismarked as not containing a nylon
News
Kappa Alpha, Kappa Sigma and Tau
Epsilon Phi fraternities are currently
undergoing extensive renovations to
install sprinkler systems.
Ron Binder, director of Greek
Affairs, said representatives from the
remaining nine houses have told him
their plans for renovations and installa
tions. He said most of these chapters are
planning construction for next summer.
Binder said he expected Delta
Upsilon and Lambda Chi Alpha frater
nities and St. Anthony Hall co-ed frater
nity to close next fall for major work.
The fraternity members plan to
repair walls and stairs, rewire the electric
system and add sprinklers.
strip between the steel belts and the
tread of the tires.
Bridgestone/Firestone said Monday
that the tires did in fact contain the strip,
as requested by Ford, but that the mark
ings on the tires were wrong.
Settlement Approved
In Diet Drug Lawsuit
PHILADELPHIA - A federal judge
has approved a proposed $3.75 billion
national setdement of health claims
stemming from the diet drug combina
tion fen-phen, which has been linked to
potentially fatal heart valve damage.
Under the setdement approved
Monday, fen-phen users would get up to
$1.5 million, though most would get far
less, depending on their level of injury
and how long they took the drugs.
The setdement also includes money
for future medical monitoring.
U.S. District Judge Louis C. Bechde
gave preliminary approval to the setde
ment in November.
Barring an appeal, attorneys said fen
phen users could begin receiving setde
ment checks as early as January.
More than 9,000 lawsuits have been
filed against American Home Products,
maker of fenfluramine, the “fen” in the
fen-phen diet drug combination.
The Madison, N.J.-based company
sold the combination under the brand
name of Pondimin and also made
Redux, a chemical cousin.
L.A. School Vouchers
Succeed, Study Shows
LOS ANGELES - A study that mea
sured the effect of school vouchers on stu
dent performance found that black stu
dents performed better on standardized
tests after switching to private schools.
The study, released Monday, found
no similar improvements among other
ethnic groups, however.
The voucher system, which provides
money to help parents pay for private
schooling, has become a key issue in the
presidential election and in California,
where voters face a voucher initiative on
the November ballot.
The study, led by Paul Peterson, a
government professor at Harvard and a
Stanford University’s Hoover Institution
fellow, examined three privately funded
experimental programs in New York,
Washington, D.C., and Dayton, Ohio.
Researchers found that between 1997
and 1999, black children on vouchers
raised their percentile rankings on stan
dardized math and reading tests on
average by 6.3 points.
The Associated Press
Binder said the representatives from
the remaining houses have indicated
they will not undergo extensive renova
tions. He said they will merely add
sprinkler systems.
Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity Fire
Marshal Drew Youngblood said his fra
ternity is in the midst of a capital cam
paign to raise money for the needed
construction, slated for summer 2001.
“We believe these renovations are
extremely necessary, so we are working
hard in order to meet the mandated reg
ulations in time,” Youngblood said.
Other fraternities and sororities
showed their commitment to safety last
spring, when a record 11 houses had
Forest Fires Threaten
Homes, Close Road
The Associated Press
RED LODGE, Mont. - A fast-mov
ing wildfire closed the scenic Beartooth
Highway to Yellowstone National Park
and threatened up to 150 houses
Monday, some of them million-dollar
trophy homes in the Montana woods.
Elsewhere, a firestorm in an Idaho
forest destroyed most of the buildings at
a guest ranch, and a second guest ranch
was ordered evacuated.
The fire near Red Lodge became the
No. 1 firefighting priority in Montana,
but ground crews with shovels might
not be on the job before Tuesday
because so many other blazes across the
West are demanding their attention.
“Even if we got everything we want,
it may not be enough,” Forest Service
Ranger Rand Herzberg told residents.
“This is going to be a tough one, folks.”
Les Linn, 76, said he packed up and
got out of his house when the fire was
about half a mile away.
“We loaded up the back of the pick
up,” Linn said. “The thing I made sure I
Ramsey Parents Pledge
Help to Colorado Police
The Associated Press
ATLANTA -John and Patsy Ramsey
pledged their cooperation to police
Monday as they arrived at their lawyer’s
office to answer investigators’ questions
about the 1996 death of their daughter,
Jonßenet
The couple, who now live in Adanta,
arrived at about 8:10 a.m. for the meet
ing with police from Boulder, Colo.,
where the 6-year-old beauty queen was
slain in their home in 1996.
“They say they need our help. We’re
here to help," Patsy Ramsey said as the
couple arrived.
She was to go first in the questioning,
followed separately by her husband. It
was the first time in more than two years
that they had faced questions from
Boulder authorities. They were ques
tioned separately in April 1997 and
again in June 1998.
Tuesday, August 29, 2000
perfect fire inspections.
“The fact that so many houses had
zero violations really proves that frater
nities and sororities are taking the issue
very seriously,” Youngblood said.
The fire safety rules have become
more stringent to enforce the gravity of
this issue, Binder said.
He said renovation efforts are run
ning smoothly at this point.
“The Greek houses have been coop
erative thus far,” Binder said. “I am con
fident that everyone will make the dead
line.”
The University Editor can be reached
at udesk@unc.edu.
got first were my guns.”
The Willie fire - so named because
Willie Nelson was headlining a music
festival in Red Lodge - started Sunday
when a motorcycle crashed and caught
fire a few miles south of town on the
Beartooth Highway that leads into the
northeastern comer of Yellowstone. The
fire quickly grew to 3,000 acres on the
west side of the highway, which was
closed on Sunday.
Many tourists had to find another
way out of the park after the closure of
the 65-mile route to Red Lodge.
“We’re moving everybody back
toward Yellowstone Park, telling them to
turn around,” said a spokeswoman for
the Montana Highway Patrol.
Flames were just feet from some of
the evacuated houses.
“One side of the road has homes, the
other side has fire,” said fire information
Officer Scott Fitzwiiliams.
A few of the houses evacuated were
worth as much as $1 million, but most
were middle-class homes, Sheriff Luke
Schroder said.
Jonßenet was found strangled and
beaten in the basement of her family’s
Boulder home Dec. 26, 1996. No sus
pect has ever been named, and the
Ramseys deny any involvement.
The seven-member investigative
team from Boulder was being led by
Police Chief Mark Beckner, who said
the questioning would focus on evi
dence developed over the past two
years and statements the Ramseys made
in their book, “The Death of
Innocence,” which came out earlier this
year.
Some of the new evidence has come
from additional forensic testing.
Beckner said the Ramseys are still
under suspicion.
“Either they’re involved or they’re
witnesses,” he said. “They’re critical to
this investigation. Certainly, there are
going to be some tough questions, but
we’re not going to be confrontational.”
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