The rapes and robbery of students and faculty from St. Mary's College in Maryland, who were on an anthropology tour of Guatemala, have provoked outrage in the United States and calls to end surging lawlessness.
Vowing to obtain justice in the case, Interior Minister Rodolfo Mendoza said yesterday that the two arrested men had provided the names of their accomplices.
"The security forces are trying to capture the other five criminals ... so that they can face the full force of the law," said Mendoza, who declined to discuss the case further.
The pink-and-white bus was forced off the highway Friday afternoon into a break in the green, head-high sugar cane by gunmen riding in two pickup trucks, police said.
The students, 12 women and one man, were returning to Guatemala City after an educational tour of historic and cultural sites. They were accompanied by two male faculty members and a female administrator from St. Mary's College, a public, four-year liberal arts school 70 miles southeast of Washington.
In Washington, President Clinton decried Friday's ambush and said he was confident that Guatemalan authorities will handle the case appropriately.
Richard Seed's cloning plans have sparked a public outcry and a race by Congress and more than a dozen states to ban cloning. With the FDA filling what critics had called a regulatory vacuum, scientists say lawmakers should take more time to ensure vaguely worded anti-cloning bills don't also ban lifesaving medical research.
"It's been a public and media assumption that there is nothing on the books that would even slow or stop Dr. Seed," said Carl Feldbaum of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, which represents biotechnologists involved in cloning research. FDA intervention "creates at least some breathing space."
FDA investigators plan to make clear to Seed that federal regulations require that he file for FDA approval to attempt cloning - permission highly unlikely to be granted.
"We're not only able to move, we're prepared to move," said Dr. Michael Friedman, FDA's acting commissioner, noting the agency can go to court to stop unauthorized cloning attempts.
Attorneys for Minnesota will finally put before a jury the potentially powerful - but still untested - legal theory that U.S. cigarette makers owe the state at least $1.7 billion for costs incurred treating sick smokers. With the possibility of punitive damages and special antitrust damages, the industry's exposure may be much larger.
If further damaging revelations about the cigarette companies emerge, it could result in Congress revising the proposed national tobacco settlement.
01-20-98
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