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Nation & World News
Foreign leaders to condemn U.S. actions
Leaders from 58 nations
write a draft denouncing
American actions inside
Iraq and against Cuba
By Karen Brooks
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
GUADALAJARA, Mexico — A
meeting here of diplomats from Latin
America and Europe became another
opportunity Thursday for the interna
tional condemnation of the United
States' presence in Iraq and the prison
abuse scandal there.
Foreign ministers from 33 Latin
American and Caribbean countries, as
well as 25 European nations, meeting
this week in Guadalajara, denounced
the abuse of prisoners in Iraq and de
livered a veiled criticism of the Unit
ed States for its refusal to cooperate
with the United Nations.
In a declaration to be issued today,
officials attending the Third Summit
of Latin America, the Caribbean and
the European Union condemned uni
lateral actions that go against
international law and outlined "our
horror at the recent evidence of mis
treatment of the prisoners in Iraqi
prisons."
"We energetically condemn all
forms of abuse, torture and other cru
el, degrading and inhuman treatment
against people, including prisoners of
war, in whatever location they occur,"
the draft reads. "We express our hor
ror at the recent evidence of the mis
treatment of the prisoners in the Iraqi
prisons. These abuses go against inter
national law, including the Geneva
Conventions."
Late Thursday, the European Union
and Latin America were still at odds
over whether to name the United
States and the so-called Helms-Burton
law — part of a package of sanctions
against Cuba — in what has become
known as "Paragraph 73" of the 106
part draft.
Latin American countries want to
mention the law, which punishes for
eign companies that profit from con
fiscated U.S. properties in Cuba, with
a statement exhorting "the govern
ment of the United States to put an
end to its application."
"We reiterate our energetic rejection
of the unilateral and extraterritorial
application of laws and actions con
trary to international law, the free
market and world commerce," the
draft reads. "We express our profound
concern with additional actions" that
threaten the sovereignty of states, in
cluding the Helms-Burton law.
The European Union has proposed
weaker language that says "unilateral
actions against international law rep
resent a serious threat to multilateral
ism," but doesn't name the United
States specifically.
In the previous two summits, the
countries have implicitly denounced
the effects of the law but have never
named it specifically. An approval Fri
day by the presidents and prime min
isters of those nations would mark the
first explicit criticism of U.S. policy
against Cuba.
The draft also backs the interna
tional criminal code, which the Clin
ton administration supported but the
Bush administration does not. The
document must be approved when
the heads of state of the countries
meet today. European Union External
Relations Commissioner Chris Patten
said he expected the leaders would
support a clause condemning prison
er abuse, but didn't say whether the fi
nal version would include a specific
reference to U S. policies.
In Mexico City, President Vicente
Fox and German Chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder also professed their sup
port for multilateralism and the con
demnation of prisoner abuse. They
did not say whether the United States
would be mentioned.
The summit, the third such gather
ing between European and Latin
American countries, is designed to in
crease ties between I^atin America and
Europe and to boost trade.
But the United States quickly be
came a target as Patten and other offi
cials publicly condemned the abuses
of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib in
Baghdad, and any country whose
Turn to CONDEMN, page 5
Mergers to blame for gas price increases
A report conducted by the
General Accounting Office
studied eight mergers
within the oil industry
By Seth Borenstein
and Ken Moritsugu
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
WASHINGTON — Consumers face
higher gasoline pump prices today in
part because a wave of oil industry
mergers over the past decade reduced
competition, according to a govern
ment study released Thursday.
The merger of oil giants Exxon and
Mobil in 1999 — when the two com
panies were number one and two in
the industry — added up to 5 cents to
the price of a gallon of gasoline sold
by the combined company.
I'he General Accounting Office, an
arm of Congress, looked at eight ma
jor oil industry mergers between 1994
and 2000 and found that six of them
led to higher gasoline prices.
Some 2,600 mergers swept the oil
industry since 1990, as firms sought
to cut costs through economies of
scale.
"Market concentration has in
creased substantially in the industry,
partly because of these mergers," the
240-page GAO report says. "GAO's
econometric analyses indicate that
mergers and increased market con
centration generally led to higher
wholesale gasoline prices."
In retrospect, the Clinton adminis
tration may have erred in allowing,
Exxon to take over Mobil, said Joseph
Romm, who was the principal deputy
assistant energy secretary at the time.
"Was it a mistake to let taxon and
Mobil merge? Probably," he said in a
phone interview with Knight Ridder.
At the time, oil prices had collapsed
and the industry was in trouble, so
mergers seemed like a good idea, he
said.
The Federal Trade Commission,
which signed off on the merger, said
in a 23-page official response, which
was included in the report, that the
GAO analysis had "fundamental
methodological flaws," such that "the
report cannot provide a reliable basis
for addressing the issues it claims to
study."
The American Petroleum Institute,
a Washington-based group represent
ing the oil industry, issued a brief
statement citing only the FTC's find
ing that the study was flawed.
Officials at Irving, Texas-based
Exxon-Mobil didn't return a call seek
ing comment.
In six of eight mergers studied, the
report found that prices rose an aver
age of 2 cents a gallon for convention
al gasoline, which is used in most of
the United States. Prices also rose gen
erally for reformulated gasoline,
which is used to reduce pollution in
some urban areas.
In two mergers, gasoline prices fell
about 1 cent.
The Exxon-Mobil deal added 5
cents to the price of conventional
gasoline sold to other retailers and 3.7
cents to gasoline sold at Exxon and
Mobil stations.
The study was requested in May
2001 by Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich„
who was concerned about rising gaso
line prices. He had no immediate
comment on the report Thursday, his
office said.
The oil industry sold the idea of
mergers to the federal government on
the concept that mergers would make
them more efficient and thus could
reduce prices, which makes sense in
principle. But the realities of the ener
gy markets may prevent that, said
Harvard University professor Henry
Lee, a former Massachusetts state en
ergy secretary for Republicans and De
mocrats.
"Any one merger doesn't affect
(prices)," he said. "If they all merge, it
begins to constrain the market."
(c) 2004, Knight Ridder/Tribune
Information Services. On the Web: The
General Accounting Office report on oil
industry mergers at http://www.gao.gov.
Scientists study brain activity of poor readers
Researchers hope to use
brain mapping to discover
better ways to teach reading
By Ronald Kotulak
Chicago Tribune (KRT)
CHICAGO — Teachers can only
wonder what's going on in the heads of
their students, but Yale University re
searchers are looking directly into the
brains of poor readers with new imag
ing technology to measure how reading
lessons reorganize the structure and
function of young minds.
As the slow readers leap ahead in
only one school year, areas of their
brains that meld sounds with letters
to give meaning to words physically
change to resemble those of good
readers.
"Now that we can show that these
changes take root in the brain and that
they're sustainable, poor reading does
n't have to be a life sentence," said Dr.
Sally Shaywitz, a professor of pediatrics
and child study at Yale. She and her
husband, Dr. Bennett Shaywitz, report
ed their findings in the journal Biologi
cal Psychiatry this month.
In what is being hailed as a new era
in learning how children learn, scien
tists are using high technology which is
safe and modified to accommodate
fidgety youngsters to open windows
into the changes that occur in the
brains of infants and youngsters when
good and bad things happen to them.
The goal is to find out what educa
tional strategies or other interventions
rewire the brain in ways that enhance
learning. The studies suggest that most
schools are teaching reading in the
wrong way.
With the aid of magnetic resonance
imaging technology, scientists for the
first time are documenting the dramatic
reanangements that take place in the
brains of young poor readers as their
reading skills catch up to those of their
peers, and in pre-term infants as their
minds quickly mature in a dark, warm,
nurturing environment.
The findings add considerable
weight to the mounting evidence of the
brain's great capacity to grow and adapt
to the outside world, and they show
that early experiences are especially cru
cial.
Harvard scientists, for example, em
ploy the new imaging technology to
show that replacing hectic neonatal in
tensive care with nearly stress-free envi
ronments significantly accelerates brain
development in premature infants. Re
searchers hope to reduce the high risk
of learning disabilities faced by one in
eight babies who come into the world
before their brains are ready.
"This paper is important because for
the first time it shows that not only do
you improve behavior, but we may be
able to get at the underlying hard
wiring of the brain," said Harvard's Hei
delise Als, who reported her findings in
the journal Pediatrics.
Her imaging study of babies who
were seven to 12 weeks premature
showed that when they are cared for
under conditions that mimic the
womb, their brains form more normal
neural tracts compared with preemies
routinely exposed to the bright lights,
loud noise and hubbub of neonatal in
tensive care units.
G. Reid Lyon, chief of child devel
opment and behavior at the National
Institute of Child Health and Human
Development, said the new
Turn to READING, page 12
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