The Courier-News from Bridgewater, New Jersey • Page 4

HEALTH Rabies spreads south from North Jersey i WHAT YOU CAN DOT '7 I j.XfZ-"; i To avoid exposure to rabies, which is found in epidemic proportions across the state, people should stay away from wild animals, even if they appear to need help, said state veterinarian Dr. Faye Sorhage. Call animal control officers or the state Department of Fish, Game and Wildlife for help, Sorhage said. If it becomes necessary to handle a wild animal, wear gloves and avoid contact with the animal's saliva, she said. In addition, vaccinate cats, dogs and any other domestic animals, and don't invite wild animals into yards by leaving out food or open garbage cans.

Sorhage also suggests putting a screen over chimneys to prevent animals from crawling into houses. If you are bitten by a wild animal, wash the wound out immediately and seek medical help. Rabies, if not treated before symptoms appear, is almost always fatal. Symptoms start with a stiff neck, headache, other flu-like symptoms and a tingling sensation in the area of the bite. State is battling the disease, found mostly in raccoons, with the first-ever U.S.

test of a vaccine to immunize the animals. ATLANTIC CITY. (AP) The number of cases of animals infected with rabies is increasing in northern New Jersey counties and spreading steadily southward, a state health official said Thursday. New Jersey is battling the disease, found here mostly in raccoons, with the first-ever U.S. test of a vaccine to immunize the animals, said Dr.

Faye Sorhage, state veterinarian and a nationally recognized rabies expert. "It started in the north (of New Jersey) and then kind of spread across the top half of the state," Sorhage said. "Then it started spreading downward. "Last year, Burlington and Monmouth counties were incredibly hot," she said. "This year, it's more like Atlantic, Gloucester and Cumberland counties and we're just starting to pick it up in Salem (County)." Sorhage added that there have been three cases in northern Cape May County since the end of April.

Experts believe a regional rabies epidemic began in 1977 after raccoons, some carrying the disease, were imported from Florida to Virginia and released for hunting expeditions. Recent minor outbreaks in Hunterdon and Warren counties are the result of a 2- to 4-year cycle in which raccoon populations are decimated by the disease and then renew themselves, bearing large litters of babies without immunities, Sorhage said. "You'll see a big initial wave of rabies when the raccoons first start to get infected that lasts about a year," Sorhage said. "Then they'll have little flare-ups on a cyclical basis." While six cases of rabid raccoons have been reported in northwest New Jersey so far this year, Sorhage said there likely were more. For the past year, officials in Hunterdon County haven't been reporting cases in which possibly rabid raccoons bit vaccinated dogs.

"That was sorted out a few weeks ago," she 1 A Tl Associated Press photo CRIME AND SECURITY 2 terror suspects called in fraud case Three Jersey City people have been charged with defrauding Medicaid. NEWARK (AP) Two of the men accused with a radical sheik of plotting to bomb New York City landmarks will be called to testify on behalf of three Jersey City people charged with defrauding Medicaid, a defense lawyer said Thursday. The bombing conspiracy suspects, who worked as drivers for the accused operators of a medical livery service, have already been questioned by defense lawyers, said Stanley Teitler, a lawyer for one of the livery operators. "The defense is contemplating calling many of the drivers, who we expect would exonerate our clients," Teitler said following a pretrial hearing at U.S. District Court here.

Among the suspects in the plot to bomb the Holland and Lincoln tunnels, the United Nations headquarters and a federal office building, are Amir Abdelghani and his cousin, Fa-dil Abdelghani, who were drivers for Hashim's Medical Livery of Jersey City. 'The government would be precluded from holding them' if subpoenaed to testify. Stanley Teitler livery operation lawyer They are being held without bail. Teitler said "the government would be precluded from holding them" if subpoenaed to testify. Assistant U.S.

Attorney Robert Mintz, who is prosecuting the livery case, said he has not been informed of defense plans yet and could not comment on what the government response would be. The Abdelghani cousins were indicted in the bomb plot Aug. 25, along with 13 others, including Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman of Jersey City. The sheik was also accused of conspiring to kill Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The sheik has been linked to the seven suspects in the bombing of the World Trade Center and had been cleared in Egypt of inspiring the assassination of President Anwar Sadat.

Egypt is seeking the sheik's extradition on charges of inciting a 1989 riot. Jury selection in the Medicaid fraud trial is to begin Oct. 4 before U.S. District Judge William G. Bassler, who said he expects the case to take a month.

On trial are Hashim Hassan Mo-hamed, 28, his brother Khalid Hassan Ahmed, 26, and Ahmed's wife, Afaf Kamal Merghani, 26. They were arrested and detained in January. 'There was a consistent pattern of inflating the mileage and falsifying said, predicting an increase of reported cases in that area. To keep the disease from moving to the state's southern tip, officials are distributing fishmeal-covered vaccine capsules in a 10-mile-wide swath of raccoon habitat in Cape May, Cumberland and Atlantic counties. About 90,000 capsules have been deposited, by helicopter and hand, at a cost so far of $300,000 to $400,000, plus labor, she said.

"We're trying to see if we can create an immune barrier so we don't get rabid raccoons in the bottom of Cape May County," Sorhage said. Sorhage said officials are optimistic the program will work, although it's too early to tell. Since November 1989, 2,467 cases of animal rabies have been reported in New Jersey: 2,019 in raccoons; 274 in skunks; 79 in cats. STUDENTS GET COMPUTER NOTEBOOKS: Former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean has trouble holding onto a computer as he passes them out to incoming students during orientation at Drew University in Madison on Thursday.

The new students are the first to trade in their looseleafs for the lightweight Panasonic notebook computers, which are suitable for homework and in-class note taking. Kean is president of Drew University. POLITICS Ad wars: Dems take credit for gun ban; GOP taxes mercials this week, then held news conferences Both parties began running stood up for you. Defeat the NRA." As the words are spoken, red juice flies from a watermelon being splattered by gunfire. The GOP is seizing on tax increases enacted in 1990 and the loss of 286,000 jobs since Democrat Jim Florio's been governor.

The much softer commercial uses interviews with "ordinary people" who say things like, "The Democrats are just tax and spend, tax and spend." The spot concludes that Republicans will "clean up the mess." Peter Sheridan, state director of the GOP, complained the Democrats' ad is an effort to divert attention from the top issues of jobs and the economy, while painting Republicans and the NRA as one and the same. But Democratic State Chairman Raymond Lesniak held up a check at his news conference made out to Republicans for $350,000, the amount he said candidates had received from the gun lobby since 1989. He said that while Democratic candidates got about $50,000, "They didn't cave in. They didn't make a deal with the devil." A state senator from Elizabeth, Lesniak was flanked by Democratic candidates at his news conference and frequently held up a 9mm Uzi for dramatic effect. Thursday to criticize their opponents' spots as unfair and inaccurate.

In a hard-hitting spot, the Democrats' advertisement features police siren wailing as the picture shows a close-up of a semiautomatic gun being fired. A voice says such weapons "have one purpose to kill people often children in the cross fire" as a child's face appears in front of the gun's muzzle. The commercial says the National Rifle Association is out to get Democrats for "having the courage to ban these weapons" and asks viewers to "stand up for the Democrats who television commercials this week, then held news conferences Thursday to criticize their opponents' ads. By The Associated Press TRENTON The ad wars of campaign '93 have begun. Democrats and Republicans both began running generic party-building television com- COURTS Menendez became abusive when criticized, brother-in-law says 0 0 THE LOCAL ANGLE f4 I (il4 Uver 500 Luxurious The Menendez family moved from Illinois to West Windsor in 1977.

They later lived in Hopewell Township, before moving to an exclusive Princeton estate. In 1986, after Jose Menendez, a Cuban-born self-made millionaire, failed to become president of U.S.-based operations of RCA he went to work for Car-olco Pictures, prompting a move to Calabasas, Calif. But when Menendez, his wife Kitty and son Erik went west, another son, Lyle, remained in New Jersey. Lyle, who had had a lackluster academic career at Princeton Day School, took courses at Trenton State College before he was able to gain admission to Princeton University in September 1987. rugs emnanfs in all n6 size wZo' ana cod conea hose rooms dorm 0 Peter Cano was the latest of a string of relatives to testify in brothers' murder trial.

LOS ANGELES (AP) Jose Menendez was cruel to his young sons and became abusive when criticized for ill-treating them, his brother-in-law testified Thursday at the trial of the brothers charged with slaying their wealthy parents. Peter Cano was the latest of a string of relatives to testify that Menendez and his wife, Kitty, mistreated their sons Lyle and Erik, who are accused of murdering their parents in 1989. Prosecutors say the brothers gunned down their mother and father in the TV room of their Beverly Hills mansion in a cold-blooded move to inherit their $14 million fortune. Defense attorneys argue that Lyle, 25, and Erik, 22, killed their parents in self defense after years of emotional, physical and sexual abuse. The brothers lived in the Princeton, N.J., area before moving to Beverly Hills.

While in New Jersey, they attended a private school while touring the amateur tennis circuit. Lyle attended Princeton University, bought a condominium near the campus and dreamed of owning a string of restaurants. The Menendez family moved to West Windsor in 1977 and later lived in Hopewell Township before moving to an estate in Princeton. 1 Price Drastically Reduced Savings California, but Lyle, who went to Princeton Day School, stayed behind to take courses at Trenton State College before gaining admission to Princeton University. Cano said Thursday that he once watched as Jose Menendez grabbed a 5-year-old Lyle and said something so cruel that the child wet himself.

When Cano told his brother-in-law that he thought that kind of dispinline information on the claim Robert Mintz assistant U.S. attorney Over government objections, they were released May 10, but must remain in the home they share in Jersey City. All three appeared in court Thursday, with Merghani dressed in a traditional robe and veil that exposed only her eyes. Teitler, who represents Ahmed, suggested to the judge that potential jurors be questioned on their feelings toward Muslims, noting that the defendants share religious beliefs with those accused in the World Trade Center bombing. The judge agreed.

Teitler and lawyers for the other defendants did not advise the judge they intended to call suspected terrorists as witnesses. The medical livery suspects are charged with 96 counts of submitting false Medicaid claims in connection with their business, which provided transit to and from clinics in the Jersey City area. Mohamed and Ahmed are also charged with six counts of extortion, accused of threatening and beating drivers of competing liveries. lylo rina we re worm looiang tor. off1.

was "out-of-line," Jose responded by striking the boy with his fist. The father then told Cano that if he "didn't like that, I could leave his house, that he could raise his children as he saw fit." In 1986, Jose Menendez went to Over 200 Name Philly Dupont StainMaster Plus 16 tatesl (ashwnable cobs on jole fc tveetend Offy Capture Dry Carpet Cleaner on Sale For Complete Kit Armstrong and Congoleum No Wax Vinyl Rolls ana Remnants in all the latest Stylet and Patterns a savings of up to Brand Rolls of Stock Carpet Ready for Delivery a savings of up to eno RESTAURANT $34" Installed over heavy prime pad Oft ft Installed over prime I 2" pad Stirling Rd. Warren (Across from Chanticler Chateau) 754-5500 Specialize in exquisite German Cuisine A la Carte Menu Available LUNCHEON BUFFET Tues Fri ua-3 La All-U-Can-Eat Shrimp, Salad Bar 8 Hot Chafing Dishes, Soft Ice Cream Bar, Coffee $8.95 Peaces Wondervue Orchards 17 Ramsey Road Lebanon, NJ 08833 Rt. 22, turn at Blossom Hill follow Blossom Hill Rd. 1 mile, turn left on Ramsey Road 236-2301 Sat.

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