News Digest
WSU students harassed
1 PULLMAN, Wash. — Some
Washington State University
students with similar names are
receiving harassing phone calls.
Pullman police began getting
calls over the weekend from
women who had received tele
phone calls from a man who ad
dressed them by name.
“We think he’s gone through a di
rectory and sorted it by name,” said
Pullman Police Sgt. Jim Corcoran.
Pullman and WSU police have
received almost a dozen reports
about the telephone harassment,
considered a gross misdemeanor.
The man’s pattern was to call
several different groups of women
with the same first name, police
said. Corcoran said investigators
believe the caller was selecting
women with a specific first name.
Corcoran said the man allegedly
claims to have the women under
surveillance and threatens them if
they mention calling the police.
Most of the people who re
ceived the calls were distressed
because the caller identified them
by name, he said.
Corcoran said he considered the
threat of violence unlikely.
“Given the volume of calls, it
would be difficult to keep this
many women under surveil
lance,” he said. “(The caller) used
their first name to add credence to
his threats.”
Twenty-five cases
of dengue confirmed
2 DALLAS, Tx. — Texas has
recorded 25 cases of dengue
fever since July, including the
only cases of the tropical disease
acquired in the United States this
year, health officials said.
At least five cases were acquired
in the United States, while some
were believed caught in Mexico
and Brazil. Others are still being
investigated.
It’s the state’s largest outbreak
since 1995, when 29 people
caught the disease, seven ac
quired in the state, officials said
Wednesday.
Texas is the only state that has
reported locally acquired cases of
the virus in the last 50 years, said
Vance Vomdam, a microbiologist
for the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention. Although
diseases like dengue, yellow fever
and malaria were common in the
United States earlier this century,
they have been mostly wiped out.
Dengue symptoms include
high fever, severe headaches,
joint and muscle pain and nausea.
The disease usually lasts about
two weeks and is rarely fatal.
There is no vaccine or cure for
dengue.
The CDC confirmed 90 cases of
dengue in the United States last
year, all acquired in other coun
tries. Since dengue is rarely fatal,
many cases might go unreported
or misdiagnosed.
Texas is experiencing spillover
from an outbreak in northern
Mexico, where 7,000 cases have
been reported this year. Arizona
had three suspected travel-related
cases of dengue fever this year and
California had a handful of cases.
Two stockbrokers found
shot to death
3COLTS NECK, N.J. — Two
brokers who sold penny
stocks via the Internet were shot to
death gangland-style inside a
mansion in a crime that has baf
fled investigators.
“This was an execution. Rea
sons, we’re not certain yet,” Mon
mouth County Prosecutor John
Kaye said.
Friends found Alain Chalem,
41, and Mayir Lehmann, 37, face
down early Tuesday on the mar
ble floor of the estate Chalem
shared with his girlfriend and her
13-year-old son.
Chalem had been shot in the
chest and five times in the head,
while Lehmann, who lived in
Woodmere, N.Y., was shot in the
leg and once in the back of the
head.. Their cellular telephones
were inches from their hands.
The men traded stocks for in
vestors on a Web site operated
from the mansion. Investigators
said they had no idea if the trad
ing had anything to do with their
slayings. And Kaye said there was
no sign of burglary.
The prosecutor said he had no
suspects and no murder weapon.
“In this county, there are about
a dozen homicides a year and
they are not ‘whodunits,”’ Kaye
said. “This is an unusual killing.”
Nurses end Ireland’s biggest
strike
4 DUBLIN, Ireland— Union
leaders representing Ireland’s
27,500 nurses ordered an end to
their eight-day strike—the largest
in the country’s history — after
winning key concessions from the
government Wednesday.
Most of the Irish Republic’s
nurses walked off their jobs last
week in hopes of winning higher
pay and status.
The state and union leaders
agreed on a plan Wednesday to
give new ranks and extra wages to
at least 6,500 of the nurses.
The striking nurses agreed to re
sume work while the union voted
on the proposal in the next several
days.
Prime Minister Bertie Ahern’s
government had resisted the nurs
es’ original demands for fear of en
couraging strikes by other state
paid workers.
But the government and union
leaders accepted a compromise
plan by Labor Court Justice Fin
barr Flood that proposed creating
a new, highly paid grade of senior
nurse.
Flood’s suggestions addressed
one of the nurses’ biggest com
plaints — that their current pay
scale stops at $30,000, regardless
of their years in service or special
training.
Rebel group takes news
photographer captive
5 BOGOTA, Colombia — Left
ist rebels seized a Reuters
news agency photographer while
he was on assignment in a moun
tain town and said they would
put him on trial for publishing a
photo of a rebel leader’s face.
Henry Romero, a freelancer
who works regularly with the Lon
don-based agency, was detained
by guerrillas of the National Liber
ation Army, or ELN, on Tuesday
evening in Jamundi, a town near
the western city of Cali.
Reuters’ editor-in-chief, Mark
Wood, urged Romero’s immediate
release. “Reuters considers it to
tally unacceptable that a photog
rapher who works for us should be
held captive by the National Liber
ation Ajrmy in Colombia,” he said
in a statement.
Fall Career Fair
with participating Graduate & Law Schools
November 3 (One day fair)
11 a.m. - 4 p.m. EMU Ballroom
Check out the list of participating firms and schools at uocareer.uoregon.edu
Special Pre-Fair Presentation
How to Gain Admission to Highly Competitive Graduate Schools
by Don Asher
Monday, November 1 Noon
Alumni Lounge, Gerlinger Hall
^National expert and author of “Graduate Admissions Essays: What Works, What Doesn’t and Why”
Register with the Career Center
to gain access to more services
and programs.