Belgian poultry being destroyed

Thursday, June 3, 1999
PAGE 13A
Laredo Morning Times
LOCAL/INTERNATIONAL
Funeral services announced
rangements may be obtained by
calling 723-7599 or from outside
of
Laredo,
toll-free
at
1-800-232-7907.
Arrangements are under the direction of Hernandez Lopez
and Sons Southside Chapels,
Loop 20 and Zapata Highway,
Laredo, (956) 723-7599.
Evangelina Cavazos
WILLIAM “BILL” WHIPPLE
ALLEN
William “Bill” Whipple Allen
Mr. Allen, 75, passed away on
Tuesday, June 1, 1999 in Laredo.
Funeral
arrangements
are
pending at Joe Jackson Heights
Funeral Chapels, 719 Loring at
Cortez. For additional information
please call 722-0001.
Margaret Smolinski Peña
Margaret Smolinski Peña, 76,
passed away Wednesday, June
2, 1999 at her residence.
Mrs. Smolinski was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and had
made Laredo her home for the
last 44 years.
She was preceded in death by
her parents, Martin Smolinski
and Hattie S. Smolinski and her
brother, Daniel Smolon.
She is survived by her spouse,
Robert Rubio Peña; son, Robert
Jose (Irma) Peña of Freer, TX.,
daughters, Marlene F. (Gilberto)
Garcia of Sinton, TX.; grandchildren, Teresa Martina Peña, Jose
Alberto Peña and LLana Lynn
Gala.
Funeral services are pending
with the Hernandez Lopez and
Sons Southside Chapels, Loop
20 and Zapata Highway. Information regarding the funeral ar-
Evangelina Cavazos, 62, passed
away Friday, May 28, 1999.
Funeral services were held at
8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, June
2, 1999 from the Hernandez,
Lopez and Sons Northside
Chapels, 800 Boston St. at San
Bernardo Ave. Holy Mass was
celebrated at 9 a.m. at Blessed
Sacrament Catholic Church.
Committal services and interment
followed
in
the
Calvary
Catholic Cemetery.
Pallbearers were Rene Xavier
Rigal, Roberto Cavazos, David
H. Cruz, Carlos V. Cruz Jr., Jose
R. Cavazos and Antonio
Cavazos III.
Arrangements were under the
direction of Hernandez, Lopez
and Sons Northside Chapels,
800 Boston St. at San Bernardo
Ave., Laredo (956) 723-2979.
Edith Bonner Sample
Edith Bonner Sample, 76,
passed away Tuesday, June 1,
1999. She was born in Bloomington, TX.
Mrs. Sample was preceded in
death by her husband, Robert
D. Sample.
She is survived by her children,
Grady (Jane) Sample, Gail
(Chuck) Richter, Linda (Bubba)
Haralson, John (Gail) Sample,
Jessie (David) Rogers; 12 grandchildren; two great-grandchildren;
four
sisters
and
one
brother.
Visitation will be at 10 a.m. on
Friday, June 4, 1999 at Hillside
Funeral Home with Interment
at the City Cemetery.
Her grandsons will serve as
pallbearers.
Navy admits uranium use
BY MICHELLE FAUL
Associated Press Writer
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico —
The U.S. Navy headquarters in
Puerto Rico says it has belatedly discovered that uraniumtipped shells were illegally fired
at its range on an outlying
island.
The Feb. 19 firing of 267
shells — of which only 57 were
recovered — has raised new
public health concerns and bolstered calls for the Navy to stop
its exercises on Vieques island.
Vieques already has more
than twice the average cancer
rate of Puerto Rico, and politicians have long blamed the
Navy’s activities there.
Navy spokesman Roberto
Nelson said Tuesday the
Roosevelt Roads Naval Station
was notified of the mishap
March 5 and could not explain
the two-week delay.
“Those are the same questions we are asking, too, and
that is part of the investigation,”
he told the Associated Press.
Puerto Rican officials have
claimed they were not notified
about the firings at all. The Navy
insists Puerto Rico was told.
It is against federal and local
laws as well as Navy regulations to fire depleted uranium at
the firing range at Vieques, an
island the Navy has used to
practice war games since the
1940s. NATO allies also practice on the 22-mile-long island,
home to 9,300 residents.
Horoscopes
BY FRANCIS DRAKE
What kind of day will tomorrow
be? To find out what the stars say,
read the forecast given for your
birth sign.
ARIES (March 21 to April 19) You
see the visions that others ache to
create. Set sail toward the horizon
and use your dreams as your
guide. Fantasy has entered the
realm of reality.
TAURUS (April 20 to May 20)
The spontaneous side deep within
you may be itching to get to the surface. If this process is rubbing you
the wrong way, try to get the fibers
to go in the same direction.
GEMINI (May 21 to June 20) A
persuasive person has a great
chance at swaying your thinking. At
the same time, you have the power
to influence the opinions of others.
CANCER (June 21 to July 22)
Watch out for different ideas when
working with others and know that
there is no need to duck if they
swing your way. Respond by calling your intellect to the forefront.
LEO (July 23 to Aug. 22) Your
knuckles turn white as you tighten
your grip on power that starts to slip
away. If it is as fine as sand, let it go
and know that your control isn’t
only expressed by what you can
hold onto.
VIRGO (Aug. 23 to Sept. 22) Your
routine could be thrown into an
uproar, and even the mundane
becomes a bit of a mess. Find new
ways to organize everything
around you and put new systems
into place.
LIBRA (Sept. 23 to Oct. 22) You
find an intellectual connection with
an issue or an individual. When the
power surges, you feel it flow
through you, and it increases the
wattage of all involved.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23 to Nov. 21)
Hone in on the issues at home as
they force themselves to be more
prominent. Confront them face to
face in order to get off on the right
foot.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22 to Dec.
21) The person that you’ve never
met before holds the potential to
become quite a pal. Open your
mind and eyes to seek out those
whom you have yet to consider.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22 to Jan.
19) Your emotions have you swinging from mood to mood, taking little
into account in the process.
Feelings can manifest themselves
in a lash-out that you may regret.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20 to Feb. 18)
Your intense interest in people
makes you an amazing companion
with whom to share any occasion.
You have the ability to empower
people to be the storytellers of their
own stories.
PISCES (Feb. 19 to March 20)
Your thoughts are bouncing around
your brain, and your ideas are colliding at the intersections. Figure
out the timing so that all of the lights
are synchronized.
YOU BORN TODAY Articulation
is one of your many amazing abilities. The expressiveness that you
pour forth is eagerly absorbed by
all of those in your audience. You
find the words that fit the feelings
and the moods that match the
moments. Communication is your
ultimate connection with the world
around you.
Birthdate of: Allen Ginsberg,
writer;
Josephine
Baker,
dancer/entertainer; Raoul Dufy,
painter.
Belgian poultry
being destroyed
BY RAF CASERT
Associated Press Writer
BRUSSELS, Belgium — In its
biggest food scandal since mad
cow disease, the European
Union called Wednesday for the
destruction of Belgian chickens,
eggs and any byproducts that
could be laced with cancer-causing dioxin.
Belgium’s dioxin food poisoning
scandal spread further late
Wednesday when the government issued a slaughter ban on
pigs, fearful that many of them
have also been infected by the
same contaminated animal feed.
All over Europe there was a
scramble to clear shelves of all
things Belgian that had a whiff of
chicken or egg attached to it.
Eight tons of Belgian chickens
were incinerated in Greece and
Russian border guards were
ready to pounce on any Belgian
chickens.
The
EU’s
executive
Commission ordered the measure after a meeting of veterinary
experts and lashed out at
Belgium for moving too slowly
when the European consumer
could be in danger.
“This is completely unacceptable. We reserve the right to take
the necessary steps,” EU Farm
Commissioner Franz Fischler
said, threatening Belgium with
legal action. Belgian government
ministers knew about the contamination a month before making
it public last week.
In Belgium, two officials from a
major animal feed fat producer
were arrested and accused of
tampering with the fat that goes
into animal feed, the likely cause
how toxic dioxins entered the
food chain. Apart from poultry
farmers, the feed producer also
was involved in the pork sector,
raising fears the contamination
may have spread.
“There is a total pig slaughter
ban Thursday,” said Health
Minister Luc Van den Bossche,
hoping it will give him time to
trace any suspect meat from
some 500 firms that may have
used the contaminated feed.
Meat from the suspect firms will
also have to be taken out of the
stores, he said.
The scandal broke last week
when a television station reported
that dioxin-laced fat was used to
make poultry feed. Dioxin is a
carcinogenic byproduct in the
manufacture of some herbicides
and pesticides.
The EU decision forces EU
nations to destroy any poultry,
eggs, or byproducts from some
400 suspect farms in Belgium
produced from Jan. 15 to June 1.
In the capital, the food scandal
immediately monopolized the
election campaign for the June
13 polls, especially after
Tuesday’s
resignation
of
Belgium’s health and farm ministers.
Chaos and confusion was rampant, since few consumers or
shopkeepers seemed to know
what byproducts were now
deemed too dangerous to eat.
Mayonnaise contains more than
the 2-percent threshold of poultry
content, but chocolate producers
reacted angrily when they
became involved in the scandal.
The chairman of the European
Parliament’s
Environment
Committee, Ken Collins, called
for an intensive effort to trace all
contaminated products “down to
the last chocolate.”
Belgian chocolate produced
retorted saying not a single egg
went into the production of their
famed produce. “This wrong
information is causing a lot of
damage to this important sector
of the food industry,” the
Choprabisco federation said.
The EU Commission will now
investigate further to see of the
dioxin contamination was accidental “or far more serious — are
we talking about habitual use,”
said EU Consumer Affairs
Commissioner Emma Bonino.
She said “acute (health) effects
appear to be relatively unlikely,”
but added “there are possible
long-term effects.”
“It is impossible to assess the
effects because we don’t know
the rate of exposure,” she said.
The first traces of contaminated
chicken feed in Belgium go back
to January.
Van den Bossche extended a
slaughter ban on chickens for a
day Wednesday until he had a
clearer view on the extent of the
dioxin contamination.
In an earlier food scandal, the
EU Commission imposed a
worldwide export ban on British
beef in 1996. The ban came after
the British government acknowledged a possible link between a
brain-destroying cattle ailment
called
bovine
spongiform
encephalopathy with an equally
fatal human illness, CreutzfeldtJakob disease.
Cuba denies another
rafter crisis brewing
BY ANITA SNOW
Associated Press Writer
HAVANA
—
Cuba
on
Wednesday said it fully intends
to continue respecting accords
reached with the United States
to prevent a repeat of the flood
of emigrants that left Cuba by
sea during the summer of
1994.
Recent U.S. media reports
that Cuba has decided to open
its coastal borders to those
who want to leave are “totally
unfounded,” said an Interior
Ministry statement published in
the Communist Party daily
Granma.
“There is not even the most
remote chance that the maritime borders of Cuba will be
opened to the United States,”
the statement said.
The reports, it said, “form part
of the sustained and unscrupulous enemy propaganda campaigns, directed to create confusion, provoke illegal exodus.”
The Interior Ministry said the
reports were broadcast by the
U.S. government’s Radio Marti
and other media.
The reports appear tied to a
recent wave of detentions of
Cubans trying to enter the
United States. More than 180
would-be immigrants were
detained over Memorial Day
weekend, the vast majority in
and around the Florida Keys,
according to U.S. authorities.
When the Cuban government
briefly lowered its coastal borders during the summer of
1994, more than 30,000 rafters
crossed the Straits of Florida
or were picked up by the U.S.
Coast Guard and sent to the
U.S.
Naval
Base
at
Guantanamo in eastern Cuba.
At that time, virtually any
Cuban who left the communist
country was automatically
granted legal residency by the
U.S. government.
But 1995 accords between
Cuban and U.S. authorities
changed all that, calling for the
repatriation of all illegal Cuban
emigrants who are picked up at
sea by U.S. vessels or cross
into the base at Guantanamo.
In the accords, Cuba vowed
to try to halt all illegal departures for the United States.
The United States agreed to
help legal immigration by
granting at least 20,000 U.S.
visas to Cuba each year.
The statement also noted a
Cuban delegation led by
Ricardo Alarcon is in New York
this week for talks with their
American counterparts on
immigration.
Plenty of waiting
AP Photo
A stranded passenger waits for his suburban train to start as a surprise transport strike snarled traffic throughout the French capital
Wednesday. French transport workers, furious at the brutal attack on
a ticket inspector in the Metro, launched a strike Wednesday that paralyzed public transportation in Paris and its suburbs.
South Africa holds
all-race election
BY DANIEL J. WAKIN
Associated Press Writer
JOHANNESBURG,
South
Africa — The Nelson Mandela
era
ended
peacefully
Wednesday with a joyful election almost certain to propel the
African National Congress to
another overwhelming victory
five years after South Africans
cast off the evil of apartheid.
On a day bathed in good will,
millions of voters stood in lines
— some that snaked for miles
— and others turned out hours
before dawn. Black mothers
with babies on their backs
stood beside elderly white men
in suits. Voters wrapped in blankets stood in the cold morning
air. Some rural residents went
to polling stations on horseback.
Together they tested the
strength of their young democracy on a continent where two
consecutive free elections are
rare. And the black majority had
its first chance to vote since the
all-race elections of 1994 ended
white minority rule and sent
Mandela, who spent 27 years
as a prisoner of the apartheid
state, to the presidency.
With 22 percent of voting districts reporting early Thursday,
the ANC had 50 percent; New
National Party, successor to the
apartheid ruler, 17 percent;
once liberal but right-leaning
Democratic Party, 16 percent;
and Zulu nationalist Inkatha
Freedom Party, 8 percent.
Smaller parties divided the
rest. The ANC’s portion was
expected to grow as urban
results came in later.
Turnout was around 85 percent, said Chief Electoral
Officer Mandla Mchunu.
The moment also marked the
close of a period of racial reconciliation
nurtured
by
Mandela, who plans to retire,
and the arrival of a new generation of ANC leaders. They
include pragmatic administrators, such as the intellectual
and articulate deputy president,
Thabo Mbeki.
Mbeki is expected to be chosen president by the newly
elected National Assembly and
inaugurated June 16. He will
face the monumental task of
quickly improving living standards for blacks.
Scattered problems surfaced
around the country.
Some polling stations opened
late, ballot papers did not arrive
in time or ran out, poll officials
handed out the wrong ballots
and several ANC poll workers
were accused of intimidating
rival party supporters.
Wednesday’s voting extended
into early Thursday after many
pollings stations still had long
lines at the 9 p.m. closing.
Election officials ordered them
to stay open until voting was
done.
Tension surfaced where thousands of people continued to
wait
as
the
deadline
approached. Fights broke out,
and a surging crowd in a Cape
Town slum broke the windows
of a church used as a polling
station.
By late Wednesday, the counting of ballots had begun, but
officials said they had no idea
when significant results would
be released because this was
the first time they were operating a new ballot-counting system.
Overall, voting went smoothly.
No election-related violence
was reported by the evening,
said security minister Sidney
Mufamadi, who deployed more
than 100,000 soldiers and
police to keep order.
“It gives me a wonderful feeling,” Mandela said after voting
at a country club in his upscale
Johannesburg neighborhood.
Polls predicted Mandela’s former liberation movement would
capture more than half the ballots of the nation’s 18.2 million
registered voters. Fighting for
the leftovers were the apartheid
era ruler, the declining New
National Party; the rightwardturning Democratic Party; the
Zulu
nationalist
Inkatha
Freedom Party; and several
other tiny parties.
Suspense lay in secondary
issues of whether the ANC
would gain the two-thirds majority needed to change the constitution, whether it would take
power in the two of nine
provinces it doesn’t control and
whether the Democratic Party
would overtake the New
National Party as official opposition.
In the wealthy Johannesburg
neighborhood of Dunkeld, people lined up along the edge of a
park for up to five hours, most
of them black maids, gardeners
and shopworkers in the mainly
white area.
Janet MacBean stood on line
with her housekeeper, Sarah
Makuwa.
Hugging
Ms.
Makuwa’s 20-year-old daughter, Ms. MacBean said: “The
good will of this country is a miracle, considering the regime we
went through.”
Peace held in the previously
violent province of KwaZuluNatal, even though two female
ANC members were killed
Tuesday evening in Richmond,
where dozens have died the
past year in fighting between
supporters of the ANC and the
rival
United
Democratic
Movement.
Police said it was “possible”
Tuesday’s shootings were politically motivated.