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LAWRENCE • WORLD
| Thursday, July 28, 2011
Somali militants block famine refugees from aid By Jason Straziuso Associated Press Writer
MOGADISHU, SOMALIA — In a squalid refugee camp beside Mogadishu’s airport, some 2,000 desperately hungry women and children await help, many of them weak and dying in tents made of sticks and cloth. Missing from the camp, however, are large numbers of Somali men. The militants of al-Shabab are trying to stop men from joining the tens of thousands of people who are fleeing the parched regions of southcentral Somalia that the fighters control, refugees told The Associated Press. In many cases, the alQaida-linked militants are succeeding in intercepting the men, with some even being killed by the Islamists, the witnesses said Wednesday. The devastating famine in the Horn of Africa threatens al-Shabab’s hold on areas under its control, with the militants fearing that the disaster will drive away the people they tax and conscript into military service. “They’re godless. They have no heart. They want people to die of hunger,” said one refugee, Fatima Mohammed, who traveled to the impromptu camp near the airport with five children but had to leave two weaker ones with her husband. She told the AP that she and her family tried to walk at night to avoid al-Shabab checkpoints.
Farah Abdi Warsame/AP Photo
FARHIYA ABDULKADIR, 5, from southern Somalia and suffering from malnutrition, lies on a bed Wednesday at Banadir hospital in Mogadishu, Somalia. More than 11 million people are estimated to need help in East Africa’s worst drought in 60 years, in Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea and South Sudan. In the past, the militants have blocked aid workers from helping those in need in Somalia, fearing that foreign assistance would undermine their control. Mohammed said the militants even told the refugees: “It’s better to die of hunger than to accept the West.” There are indications, however, that the militant leaders are bickering about whether to let aid in during the latest crisis. A Somali official says 50 al-Shabab fighters have defected and joined the government in recent weeks. A force of African Union peacekeepers is based down the road from the airport refugee camp. They have delivered water to those
inside the camp, which has no toilets, and have treated more than 50 cases of measles. A World Food Program plane with 10 tons of peanutbutter paste landed Wednesday in Mogadishu, the first of several planned airlifts in coming weeks. That will help, but Lt. Col. Kuamurari Katwekyeire, the civil-military coordination chief for the African Union Mission in Somalia, known as AMISOM, said the U.N. and other aid groups need to do more. Those efforts by the AMISOM troops are helping to win over Somalis and counter the al-Shabab message, although there are no aid groups working inside the camp. The refugees have no
way to get food, and many lie motionless inside the flimsy tents, too thin and weak to move. One young child waved briefly at a reporter but soon lay his fly-covered head back down. Older, stick-thin refugees appeared on the edge of death. Camp resident Hassan Ibrahim said one of his grandchildren — a 4-year-old girl — died and was one of 12 children buried Wednesday in the camp. Ibrahim, 52, is one of the few men at the camp. He said he was one of the first arrivals from the famine-hit Bakool region, but that only days after he left, al-Shabab fighters arrested hundreds of men, beat them and forced them to stay behind. At another refugee camp in Mogadishu, Ambiyo Isee said she fled the Bay region when her 50 goats died. She walked four days with three malnourished children and ended up in an al-Shabab-run refugee camp. She eventually fled toward Mogadishu. “Al-Shabab forced us to either go back to our homes we left because of hunger or to stay in a fenced-in and empty camp,” Isee said. “There was no food or water and the place was thorny, with small insects that gave our children rashes. ... In Mogadishu we get a little food, but it’s rare and not enough. And our children are unfed. No one notices our pathetic condition.”
Rural U.S. disappearing? Population share hits low By Hope Yen
Kansas University this month opened a new medical Associated Press Writer school with a class of eight in Salina, a regional hub WASHINGTON — Rural Amer- of nearly 50,000 people, in hopes of supporting ica now accounts for just 16 nearby rural communities that have no doctors at all. percent of the nation’s population, the lowest ever. The latest 2010 census numbers hint at an emerging America where, by midcentury, city boundaries become indistinct and rural areas grow ever less relevant. Many communities could shrink to virtual ghost towns as they shutter businesses and close down schools, demographers say. More metro areas are booming into sprawling megalopolises. Barring fresh investment that could bring jobs, however, large swaths of the Great Plains and Appalachia, along with parts of Arkansas, Mississippi and North Texas, could face significant population declines. These places posted some of the biggest losses over the past decade as young adults left and the people who stayed got older, moving past childbearing years. For instance in West Virginia, now with a median age of 41.3, the share of Americans 65 and older is now
nearly double that of young adults 18-24 — 16 percent compared to 9 percent, according to census figures released Thursday. In 1970, the shares of the two groups were roughly equal at 12 percent. “This place ain’t dead yet, but it’s got about half a foot in the grave,” said Bob Frees, 61, of Moundsville, W.Va., which now has a population of just over 9,000. “The big-money jobs are all gone. We used to have the big mills and the rolling plants and stuff like that, and you could walk out of high school when you were 16 or 17 and get a $15-an-hour job.” Demographers put it a bit more formally. “Some of the most isolated rural areas face a major uphill battle, with a broad area of the country emptying out,” said Mark Mather, associate vice president of the Population Reference Bureau, a research group in Washing-
ton, D.C. “Many rural areas can’t attract workers because there aren’t any jobs, and businesses won’t relocate there because there aren’t enough qualified workers. So they are caught in a downward spiral.” Rural towns are scrambling to attract new residents and stave off heavy funding cuts from f inancially strapped federal and state governments. Delta Air Lines recently announced it would end flight service to 24 small airports, several of them in the Great Plains, and the U.S. Postal Service is mulling plans to close thousands of branches in mostly rural areas of the country. Kansas University this month opened a new medical school with a class of eight in Salina, a regional hub of nearly 50,000 people, in hopes of supporting nearby rural communities that have no doctors at all.
In North Dakota, colleges are seeking to draw in young adults by charging low tuition and fees. It’s part of a broader trend in which many slow-growing rural states are touting recreational scenic landscapes or extending tuition breaks to out-of-state residents who typically are charged more. Many rural areas, the Great Plains in particular, have been steadily losing population since the 1930s with few signs of the trend slowing in coming decades, according to census figures. The share of people in rural areas over the past decade fell to 16 percent, passing the previous low of 20 percent in 2000. The rural share is expected to drop further as the U.S. population balloons from 309 million to 400 million by midcentury, leading people to crowd cities and suburbs and fill in the open spaces around them. In 1910, the population share of rural America was 72 percent. Such areas remained home to a majority of Americans until 1950, amid postWorld War II economic expansion and the baby boom.
BRIEFLY Armed man reason for I-70 closure The Kansas Highway Patrol closed Interstate 70 west of Topeka on Wednesday until they took into custody a man who had barricaded himself in a vehicle. The highway was closed about seven hours. Wednesday was the second day this week that law officers detoured traffic around a 25mile stretch of I-70 west of Topeka. The highway was closed from Auburn Road in Shawnee County west to Kansas Highway 99 in Wabaunsee County, said Kim Qualls, a Kansas Department of Transportation spokeswoman. A highway patrol spokesman said an armed man, 45-year-old Paul R. Berry of Canton, Mich., had barricaded himself inside a motor home near Maple Hill, said he had a weapon and made suicidal threats after a traffic stop for driving erratically a little after 8 a.m. Troopers forcibly entered the mobile home around 3:30 p.m. and arrested Berry, who was combative, suffered minor injuries and was taken to a Topeka hospital, a KHP spokesman said. Troopers also recovered a weapon in the RV.
On Monday, the same portion of I-70 was closed for nine hours due to a bomb threat at a Junction City hotel and a subsequent investigation of a vehicle on the highway. Federal and state officials didn’t find any explosives on Monday, and an Arkansas man was arrested.
Lawrence safe centers receive grants Gov. Sam Brownback recently announced more than $5.7 million in state and federal funding for agencies that help victims of crime, child abuse, domestic violence and sexual assault. Among the recipients were two Lawrence safe centers: ● The Willow Domestic Violence Center — $210,297. ● GaDuGi SafeCenter — $43,647. These funds are used as matching funds for federal formula grant requirements to support sexual and domestic violence services and to enhance services to underserved areas of the state. The Willow Center also received a $56,687 grant through the Federal Family Violence Prevention and Services Act Grant Program. The program pays for support group activities for women
and children, child care, prevention education in schools and communities, information and referral services, advocacy in obtaining protection from abuse and stalking orders, court accompaniment and outreach into rural counties.
South student’s team 4th at international bee Stefan Petrovic and his fellow teammates representing the United States tied for fourth place at the National Geographic World Championship, an international geography bee in San Francisco. Petrovic, who will be an eighth-grader at South Middle School, and two others equaled Australia’s combined score of 96 points during early rounds of the three-day competition, which ended Wednesday at Google’s world headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. Petrovic said he was proud to represent the United States, but sad his team just missed the finals — a disappointment he attributed to the team having “overthought” bar graphs and charts on a written exam regarding urbanization and city growth rates. “That’s the danger of knowing a lot,” he said, with a laugh. In Wednesday’s finals, Russia finished first, followed by
Canada and Chinese Taipei. The competition drew 17 teams from around the world. Petrovic was chosen for the U.S. team after finishing third and winning a $10,000 college scholarship in the National Geographic Bee, a competition that started with more than 5 million students. Petrovic, whose parents are Uros and Zina Petrovic, had finished fourth in the national bee a year earlier.
Audio-Reader accepting donations Audio-Reader is once again accepting donations of new and gently used music and audio equipment for its annual “For Your EARS Only” benefit sale. Donations can be taken to Audio-Reader, 1120 W. 11th St., from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. during the week, and from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the weekends. The sale is scheduled for Sept. 16-17 at the Douglas County Fairgrounds, 2110 Harper St. Audio-Reader is a program that features volunteers reading newspapers, magazines and best-selling books on the air and online. The service is free for anyone unable to read normal printed material.
L AWRENCE J OURNAL -WORLD
Scientists: It’s not a bird, not a plane; it’s a dino By Malcolm Ritter Associated Press Writer
N E W Y O R K — One of the world’s most famous fossil creatures, widely considered the earliest known bird, is getting a rude present on the 150th birthday of its discovery: A new analysis suggests it isn’t a bird at all. Chinese scientists are proposing a change to the evolutionary family tree that boots Archaeopteryx off the “bird” branch and onto a closely related branch of birdlike dinosaurs. Archaeopteryx (ahr-keeAHP’-teh-rihx) was a crowsized creature that lived about 150 million years ago. It had wings and feathers, but also quite un-birdlike traits like teeth and a bony tail. Discovered in 1861 in Germany, two years after Charles Darwin published “On the Origin of Species,” it quickly became an icon for evolution and has remained popular since. The Chinese scientists acknowledge they have only weak evidence to support their proposal, which hinges on including a newly recognized dinosaur. Other experts say the change could easily be reversed by further discoveries. And while it might shake scientif ic understanding within the bird lineage, they said, it doesn’t make much difference for some other evolutionary questions. Archaeopteryx dwells in a section of the family tree that’s been reshuffled repeat-
Artist’s rendering released by the journal Nature edly over the past 15 or 20 years and still remains murky. It contains the small, twolegged dinosaurs that took the first steps toward flight. Fossil discoveries have blurred the distinction between dinosaurlike birds and birdlike dinosaurs, with traits such as feathers and wishbones no longer seen as reliable guides. “Birds have been so embedded within this group of small dinosaurs … it’s very difficult to tell who is who,” said Lawrence Witmer of Ohio University, who studies early bird evolution but didn’t participate in the new study. The proposed reclassification of Archaeopteryx wouldn’t change the idea that birds arose from this part of the tree, he said, but it could make scientists reevaluate what they think about evolution within the bird lineage itself. “Much of what we’ve known about the early evolution of birds has in a sense been f iltered through Archaeopteryx,” Witmer said. “Archaeopteryx has been the touchstone. … (Now) the centerpiece for many of those hypotheses may or may not be part of that lineage.”
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