Newsday (Suffolk Edition) from Melville, New York • 16

A16 nation worldbriefs Asia Base in Rise? other million years new hominid is so early 80 primitive and so unexpected that it may well overturn a number of theories about human evolution in Ciochon said A more advanced form Homo erectus actually have evolved within Asia from an ancestor like the hominids found at A question that remains is he said they spread back into Africa and into Europe? Or were there other hominids in Africa and Europe that are cousins but not the same At present Ciochon said the find tipped the balance in favor either of Africa or Asia as the home of Homo direct ancestor it does make both In any case Ciochon said the find shows early people spread out of Africa about two million years ago with Die aid of a very simple stone tool The tools were indeed primitive closely resembling so-called Oldowan tools first identified at Olduvai Gorge in Africa They consist only of broken rocks that could be used to batter things such as bones They were the nicely-worked such as hand axes made by more advanced people Ciochon said By Robert Cooke STAFF WRITER Two teeth crude tools and part of a jawbone found in a Chinese cave indicate that Asia may have played a more important role in early evolution than generally believed scientists reported yesterday The surprise discovery shows that pre-humans reached Asia as early as 2 million years ago soon after they evolved in Africa And possible researchers said that important evolutionary changes perhaps including the evolution of Homo erect us Homo direct ancestor occurred in Asia and were carried back into Africa later Chinese researchers found the fossils and tools in 1988 in Longgupo Cave about 12 miles south of the Yangtze River in Sichuan Province An international team organized by paleo-anthropologist Russell Cio-chon a University of Iowa faculty member joined the Chinese in 1990 to explore the cave further and date the site The new information reported yesterday in the journal Nature the first to demonstrate a direct link between Asia and the well-known early hominid sites of eastern Ciochon The find also pushes the age of pre-humans living in Asia back an Penn Station Funds Congressional lawmakers approved an additional $261 million yesterday for rebuilding New old Farley Post Office building into a new Pennsylvania Station The spending bill approved by Senate-House conference committee fully authorizes the federal $100 million commitment to the $315 million project Sen Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) said the legislation also appropriates $36 million for the Whitehall Staten Island ferry terminal in lower Manhattan It also appropriates $200000 for a study on a magnetic levitation rail link to New York City from its airports The $261 million is in addition to the $515 million set aside earlier for Penn Station Mexico Abuses Alleged Mexican security forces have tortured and executed dozens of citizens this year with impunity despite pledges by President Ernesto Zedillo to improve the human rights situation Amnesty International alleged yesterday In a new study on rights violations in Mexico the London-based rights group said it had documented 40 cases this year alone of extrajudicial execution or arbitrary killing by the security forces and 35 cases of torture this visit we have been able to confirm with great concern a net rise in the number of serious human rights violations especially those with a political Amnesty researcher Morris Tidball told a news conference in Mexico City There was no immediate reaction from the government Newt Faces Ethics Charge House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga) was accused in a new ethics complaint yesterday of improperly letting a Wisconsin businessman use his congressional office to influence telecommunications legislation Gingrich said last week that businessman Donald Jones did inappropriate nor while serving as an unpaid volunteer earlier this year The complaint was filed by the Congressional Accountability Project affiliated with consumer advocate Ralph Nader and by Rep George Miller (D-Calif) The House ethics committee is investigating college course his book deal and other matters Jones had owned extensive telecommunications holdings but sold most of them before volunteering as a Gingrich adviser Gingrich was accused of violating a House rule that prohibits private individuals from performing congressional work Cholesterol's Effects Vasavasorum Vasavasorum If cholesterol levels are too high the vasa vasooim become overloaded and fat deposits begin to accumulate This accumulation lessens the diameter of the artery decreasing the blood flow and hardens the artary artery SOURCE: Sdinoi md Technology MurtnNd Study Backs Anti CHOLESTEROL from Page A7 DC Mayor Has Cancer Washington Mayor Marion Barry has prostate cancer and is deciding whether to fight it with radiation or surgery Either way the mayor said he is confident of a speedy recovery Barry 59 said yesterday that Die cancer was diagnosed during his annual physical Oct 13 Guatemala Runoff Set The first round of presidential election gave voters a runoff choice between a pro-business conservative and the handpicked candidate of a populist former dictator Support from Guatemala's urban middle-class and business community gave conservative Alvaro Arzu of the National Advancement Party 36 percent of the tally in elections with 98 percent of the vote counted by yesterday But the populist Guatemalan Republican Front offset its losses in rural areas and won 22 percent nationwide The runoff between Arzu and Republican Alfonso Portillo will be held Jan 7 COMPILED PROM NEWS DISPATCHES -Cholesterol Drug the Scotland study bolstering the benefits of cholesterol-lowering in secondary heart attacks It took the Scandinavian researchers six months longer about a year to notice the benefits of the drug treatment The results of the Scandinavian study were so dramatic that it was stopped early so that those on placebo could take the medicine In the Scotland study researchers said that an independent monitoring committee began to notice differences in the two groups by about the third year but they wanted it continued to ensure that the drug was safe when given for a long period of time Eventually they determined that patients did not suffer gastrointestinal side effects noted in the older cholesterol-lowering drugs An extract that researchers added to margarine has been shown to significantly reduce cholesterol researchers reported yesterday Finnish researchers reported in the New England Journal of Medicine that putting an extract called sitistanoLester into margarine cut cholesterol levels by about 10 percent in their patients Sitistanol is a substance retrieved from a cholesterol-like molecule in plants called phytosterols Talan reasons to suspect that too much cholesterol leads to coronary heart disease For instance the plaque that develops and hardens in the arteries causing blockages that can lead to a heart attack contains a large amount of cholesterol Additionally populations that eat low-cholesterol as diets such as the Japanese have been shown to have lower rates of heart disease Some doctors have avoided prescribing older forms of cholesterol-lowering drugs because some of the early studies carried out in the 1970s hinted at a greater risk of death in people taking these substances Most of the added deaths were attributed to cancers of the gut But there was no increase in deaths from cancer or any other medical condition among those using the group of drugs known ass ta tins the researchers said Last year Scandinavian researchers evaluated the effects of another drug called simvastatin marketed by Merck Pharmaceuticals as Zocor in 4500 men and women who had suffered at least one heart attack or who hud been diagnosed with angina or chest pain They Also had high cholesterol levels The results of the five-year study were as robust as.