The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 77

E3 Ihf UHIH. KONllfit, UTUttUV. it IU001 REVIEW 0 THE WECK'S TOP 10 STORIES Steinbeck spotted 'embeds'problems 1 i Clone doubt Rrtttaivher at the Univtr-sityof Pittsburgh say it may be Impossible to clone a human. They have failed repeatedly to clone monkey, saying there Is something in primates" cell machinery that makes cloned embryos produce the wrong numler of chromo-somes in a clutot ic jumbla. Embryos look normal but do not survive pregnancy 1- ft i McctingolT Financially troubled Air Canada has told its shareholders that Its annual meeting, scheduled for May 13.

being postponed to "a date yet to be determined." The airline is operating under bankruptcy protection. A Greenpeace anti-war protester hang from the bow ol HMAS Sydney at the Austrian Irigate depart Irom Sydney Tueiday, bound lor the Per wan Gull Police cut the man Iree, Another protester clinging to the back ol the ship wa also removed. Blood ban OAVIOfOlMNfU aiTimor( Sun ft lhiiJ.iuSi'UttxK'di!.wiiwfi,,",,, 7 Smmd t14 War wrieunj'iM and tHilJMi lWHart4lviMieaurtl Ojh Thm Wa A War. one mi oVJiwml a par tkiiLuty acidic assnMnent; They art perkd pieces, the attitudes archaic, tlm jjnjHiW romantic and. ii light of everything tltat has hinit 11 tol Me bub' of VkuV untrue and warped ami one-sided," The critic a Steinbeck himself.

Almuly a wvll-regarded novelist ty uV time llu United States civ terd the war. Steinbeck was one of the first true "rinded." His generation of war corretipwdents eagerly trawied with combat Utiop. wearing uniforms and sharing uVir muds, pdty owwii utd front lur perils white compiling material 6 their report. The mtsi famous members of the press co-hurt included Ernest Hemingway, whose writing had Influenced Steinbeck Ernie Pyle, wiw would be killed in the I'ncific at the end of the war. and I lomer I ligart of the New Yojk Times.

But 15 years later, when reviewing his own articles. Steinbeck, who covered the ar for the New Yoik Herald Tribune, articulated misgivings about his writing Uiat anticipated many criticisms of today's war coverage. "The events set down here did hapjen." Steinbeck wrote in his introduction to the collection. "But rereading this reportage, my memory becomes alive to the other things, which also did happen and were not reported" "There was," he warned, "a huge and gassy thing called UV War Effort Anything which interfered with or ran counter to the War was automatically bad." More than 600 journalists have been Integrated into US. and British military units In the Persian Gulf during the current U.S.led Invasion of Iraq.

Under the contemporary system, participating reporters are told by officers what subjects or details are temporarily not to be published Unlike the Sec-omd World Warcorrespondents whose work was routinely censored, the reports of today's journalists are not reviewed before being transmitted back to newsrooms at home. Yet the cautionary notes Steinbeck sounded still echo today Steinbeck wrote from England and North Africa and Italy Some of his pieces were deeply impressionistic gentle essays about the queasy jumble of sentiments felt by soldiers sent from home at a young age Others were sprightly narratives of humour amid boredom and uncertainty Looking back. Steinbeck concluded the natural sympathies of correspondents for the troops they accompanied led them to filter their reports. Urged by editors of the 1958 compilation to insert the precise locations of very general datelines, or give more details about some of his anonymous sub- Canada's two blood agencies have been ordered by the federal government to stop accepting donations from people who have recently visited Asian counties affected by the respiratory ailment SARS. 3 Glass palace Massive cost overruns aren't the only problem with the new Montreal-headquarters of the Calsse de depot et placement du Quebec Some workers are complaining that the floor to-ceiling windows are making them nervous.

Also, they find the open concept of the offices distracting. They'll get used to it said an official. UHS Dr Ian Wilmut, leader ol the team that created Dolly the sheep the world's first mammal cloned from an adult cell laces her as she goes on display at the National Museum ol Scotland in Edinburgh on Tuesday. Dolly, born July 5, 1996, was euthanized in February when was discovered she had a progressive lung disease. jet ts.

Steinbeck notel with chagrin that he had dune k-h a ekl jb it reing potiiitially sttiw Infoi -mat ion thai he had no recollection of th detail wlwtaiewr That impulse to withhold information and in-liijt conoti kltHl tle UHUklariei it war reptming tlen ami. ns SteuiU diwtAvred. in tle ym that fitUiiwtL If you were to believe these reports. Steinbeck wrote ith more than a trace of scorn, men no longer wei cajwIOe of veiud sins oiu they were at war. There could be no exploration of cowardice, though examples abounded.

The most low ly private had to be repeatedly assured they held the most exalted role. No commander. In hi words, wa "cruel or ambitkus or ignorant." And. to complete their mythologtzing. the young men In the armed force no longer hungered for the company of women.

It was as though. SteinUvk wrote. "5 million perfectly normal, young, energetic and concupiscent men and boys had for the period of the War Effort put aside their habitual preoccupation with girls. The fact that they carried pictures of nude girls, called pin ups, did not occur to anyone as a paradox. The convention was the Liw When Army Supply ordered millions of ruUx contraceptive and disease preventing Items, it had to be explained that they were used to keep moisture out of machine gun barrels and perhaps they did." What the reporters didn't remove, military censors frequently edited out even when the material had nothing to do with the safety of the troops.

"Once hen I felt a little bruised by censorship." Steinbeck recounted. "I sent through Herodotus's account of the battle of Salamis fought between the Greeks and Persians In 480 B.C., and since there were place names involved, albeit classical ones, the Navy censors killed the whole story." The small view each reporter had of the war offered too narrow a window on the war for any nu-anced understanding, he wrote. Even in his dispatches, he acluww'ledged this liability One report of Oct 6. 1943. datelined simply from the "Mediterranean Theatre," started this way: "You can't see much of a battle.

Those paintings reproduced in history books which show long lines of advancing troops are either idealized or else times have changed." He continued, "What the correspondent really saw was dust and the nasty burst of shells, low bushes and slit trenches. He lay on his stomach, if he had any sense, and watched ants crawling among the little sticks on the sand dune, and his nose was so close to the ants that their progress was interfered with by it" As was noted by U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, whose approval was crucial for the "embed" system, the front-line reporters' accounts in this new conflict cannot be taken as fully representative of the war. But they accomplish two things. Those reports give snapshots of reality for a readily defined group of fighters.

And they can, on occasion, prove a counterbalance to rosy-hued statements from officials at Central Command or the Pentagon about the progress of the war Despite his own dismissive judgment, Steinbeck's writings offered keen observations of military life, blending compassion and whimsy to recount the tales of the men he met. He told the story of an acquisitive private named "Bug" who hauled a large mirror throughout Italy in the vain hope he might be able to lug it home. It shattered the moment he hung it from a hook. Steinbeck chronicled the anguish of a man in a-military hospital in England whose hand had been shot, who worried that his wife wouldn't love him anymore: "I got to get that hand working. She wouldn't like a cripple with a hand that didn't work." And he wrote of a junior US.

navy officer in Italy who tricked a garrison of German soldiers into surrendering. All this was part of Steinbeck's war, and true enough as far as the facts went, and great good reading too. But, as Steinbeck would later warn, his reports were an accurate account of what happened, and yet a horribly imprecise way to cover a war. mm 4J E3 Pringlcgocs Veteran Alouettes running-back Mike Pringle, 35, was released by the club Tuesday Pringle, who lost his starting job last season to Lawrence Phillips, wants to move to a club where he will play more frequently ASSOCIATED PRESS John Mallett, 22, from Liverpool, England, poses Tuesday with Jake, his 12-week-old Staffordshire bull terrier cross and the 18-centimetre knife Jake swallowed. The knife passed right through his stomach into the bowel.

It was discovered when the dog was X-rayed after he was reluctant to curl up. Vets operated and Jake made a full recovery. -i v. 2 I Sl "ft, 1 Not in Montreal From tomorrow, Quebecers will be able to turn right on red lights at most intersections. No turns on red will be allowed on Montreal island.

Police will be out in force tomorrow to explain the rules, which include a warning that pedestrians have right of way, and a reminder not to honk at drivers who have chosen not to turn right on red. Hospital fears Health and government officials denied that there is a secret plan to close the Montreal Children's Hospital Fearing closure, officials at the hospital had sought an urgent meeting with the regional health board. The fears follow the discovery of a plan to close the hospital's burns unit. Justine's Hospital will be the area's only pediatric burns unit. FROM GAZETTE FILES After 15 years, Steinbeck critiqued his own reporting.

ASSOCIATED PRESSFILE (WTO A British Airways Concorde jet leaves London's Heathrow Airport for New York in November A glamorous era in air travel comes to a close this year after British Airways and Air France announced Thursday they will end Concorde supersonic service because of falling demand. Charest I 'He was good in debate' Police OK deal The Montreal Police Brotherhood became the first of the city's unions to reach a collective agreement when it accepted a five-year deal which includes a wage freeze for this year. IK oil: me WINDSOR STAR Detroit Red Wings' Brett Hull laughs during a break in practice Tuesday at the Joe Louis Arena. The Wings are meeting the Anaheim Mighty Ducks in the first round of the NHL playoffs. 5 Cod Ml sues," said John Parisella, a communications consultant and a former top adviser to Premier Robert Bourassa.

Parisella said the turning point for Charest came last summer. "It was when the PQ was really low in the polls, and he was asked if he would be happy if it was wiped off the map. He said no, it's important for the sovereignist movement to have a democratic voice," said Parisella, who is president of BCP, a Montreal consultancy The plaudits came from unlikely sources, like Pierre Bourgault, the sovereignist firebrand and Journal de Montreal columnist Parisella said that was the first crucial step in winning over the nationalist-leaning and preter-naturally skeptical Quebec punditry and political press In the leaders' debate, Charest was pugnacious, confident, and above all, passionate. To some observers, that's the ingredient that's so far been missing as Charest defines himself as a Quebec politician. "There's been a view of Charest as aloof, unen-thusiastic, and that I think is changing," said Jean-Herman Guay a University of Sherbrooke political scientist who has followed Charest's careen "Every politician has to carry the baggage of their past, and that's been a heavier burden for Charest than just about any other leader" sgordonthegazette.canwest.com CONTINUED FROM El Several people interviewed by The Gazette said they were impressed by Charest's debating prowess, but they '11 still be voting PQ.

"He was very good in the debate, he impressed me. But I've never had the impression he really wanted to be premier, I always saw him more as prime minister of Canada," said Matane resident Ginette Carignan, 44. Charest is still prone to lapses that grate on francophone voters' sensibilities in the second week of the campaign he introduced a Quebec City candidate, saying he hoped "that on April 14 Jean Charest will be elected prime minister of Canada." But Charest has worked tirelessly some pundits say too hard at establishing nationalist street cred. "It's all paying oft Bit by bit people are realizing he's a little closer to people's preoccupations than they might have thought," said Andre Morrow, a political consultant with strong Liberal ties. Charest's party is still about 10 points behind the PQ among francophone voters (he trailed by 16 on March 12) and unless that gap narrows over the weekend, conventional wisdom dictates he'll still be opposition leader come Tuesday Some analysts aren't so sure.

"He doesn't need to be ahead, he needs to be close the biggest thing is that Jean Charest has been able to show he understands the subtleties of Quebec politics, and he has the best grasp of the is Hundreds of thousands of cod froze to death in a small Newfoundland bay this week. "I don't think anybody's recorded a fish kill of this size." said a fisheries department biologist. Water in the area is far colder than usuaL No need to butt out It may be the perfect way to reduce smoking a cigarette which goes out when it's put down. But Imperial Tobacco says cigarettes with so-called Low Ignition Propensity (LIP) will be an annoyance, and cigarettes which have to be re-lit taste awful. 5 The real reason for the LIP cigarettes are to reduce the fires caused by smokers, of which there were at least 14,000 in Canada from 1995 to 1999.

A private member's bill would require cigarettes to meet LIP standards. Dollar surges The Canadian dollar hit a three-year high against the US dollar this week. It soared to 68.79 cents US. on Thursday, its highest close since April 6, 2000..