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Show Thursday, September 29, Alaskans rally around zoo's polar bear By T.A. BADGER Associated Press Writer , '. ' ANCHORAGE, - A Alaska polar bear that chewed on a couple of folks may seem an unlikely cult hero. But this is Alaska, and, well, things are different here. Not that people don't feel sympathy for those nursing their wounds. It's just that Alaskans think you get what you deserve when you act stupid around a wild animal even one that lives in a zoo. . "I feel sorry for the people who got hurt, but in both cases it was their own fault," says Sammye Seawell, director of the Alaska Zoo in Anchorage, where Binky the polar bear lives. The first problem arose in July, when an Australian tourist paid a high price for venturing too close to Binky 's cage. The woman was climbing over the second of two safety rails to get a close-u- p photo when, the bear stuck his head through the bars and grabbed her in his jaws. She escaped with a broken leg and bite wounds. Another visitor caught the scuffle on videotape, including a shot of Binky pacing around his pen later with the woman's red tennis shoe in his mouth. That attack spawned a featuring Binky, the tennis shoe and the words "Send more tourists this one got away . ' ' Alaska shook its collective head and chalked the mauling up to tourist naivete. The woman later earned a measure of local respect by admitting she was at fault and promising not to sue. Six weeks later, the bear was back on the front page. decidTwo Anchorage a after ed long apparently night to take a dip in the of drinking pool Binky shares with his furry companion, Nuka. Police say the pair snuck into the zoo and were stripping down in front of the cage when Binky showed up and locked his jaws onto one of them. it n By DOUG MELLGREN Associated Press Writer ! i) :.;..-a7- OSLO, Norway They have shelled fishing trawlers, seized the ships of activists, wrangled with oil companies, even faced down giant Russia. When it comes to protecting their ocean, the easygoing, diplomatic Norwegians can be vianti-whali- kings. Norwegians award the Nobel Peace Prize, sent mediators to I J , ' former Yugoslavia and brokered peace between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization. They also live from the sea, and fiercely protect their rights to it. To Norway, the sea means jobs, military security, recreation and half of all exports, mainly oil, fish and shipping. Norwegians guard their patch of it zealously, as everyone from Russian submariners to trawler captains have discovered. "We love peace, but we have to protect our rights," Ingvard Havnen, spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, explained after a summer of conflict. This nation of 4.3 million people claims nearly 800,000 square miles of water, an area more than six times its own size and about the size FA AP Photo Binky, a polar bear at the Anchorage, Alaska, zoo, chews on a tennis shoe belonging to an Australian rs The teen was pulled away by his friend, but not before Binky had left him with leg injuries. Both teens face trespassing and underage drinking charges. Since then, it's been woman who was grabbed by the bear when she moved too close to his cage July 29. Binkymania. There are jokes "The state won't be asking for any jail time it already has its for the kid pound of flesh." There are more "Binky for Governor: Take a Bite Out of Crime." hot-selli- rts There is music a local comerevue a worked dy up rap song by "Bad Blood Binky" that includes the lines "Drink a case of Bud and act real coolLike a teenage mutant brain-dea- d fool." There have been editorial car- toons one shows Binky saying to Nuka, "Mauled teen-age- r, my butt how about 'Hero bear prevents youth from drowning?'" And there have been letters to the editor of the Anchorage Daily y. News. Lots of them, all pro-Bin-k- "When foolish people place their name on Binky's dinner menu, we should have the decency to allow Binky to eat his entire meal, in peace," one said. Another encouraged zookeepers to set aside a day for people to come and play with Binky if they want to: "This program would solve two problems. The food bill for Binky would be reduced and Mysterious bench suddenly appears in city park CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) -red marble bench A "with a chiseled inscription from Virginia Woolfs novel "Orlando" suddenly appeared in a park, and police are wondering how it got there. "It just appeared out of nowhere," police spokesman Frank t - Pasquarello. The bench in the sprawling park, Fresh Pond Reservation, is 2 feet high and 2 feet w ide and probably weighs about a ton. The bench stands in a hilly glen covered with pine needles and surrounded by tall pines. The footpath leading to the site gets no wider than four feet, and is covered with pine needles and a slippery network of pine tree roots. No wheel tracks are on the path. Chiseled into the top of the bench is an excerpt from Chapter 5 - Page Dl peacemaker or viking irt teen-age- THE DAILY HERALD, Provo, Utah, Norway can act as 850-pou- ld 1994 the test scores for our schools would certainly rise . " Zoo director Seawell says she's gotten more than 100 letters from around the world, and not one of them blamed the bear. "Everybody thinks people harassing Binky could get him killed," either for killing someone or to save someone who ventures into his cage, she said. "That's the one-quart- er of the United States. "Life all along our coast has always depended on the sea," said William Engseth, chairman of the industry committee in Parliament. "Without it, we have no resources to live on. " Much of cold and rocky Norway is north of the Arctic Circle and only about 5 percent of its area is farmed. But the sea is last thing we want." To protect the bears from the visitors, the zoo has erected two strands of electric wire outside the cage and installed a motion sensor that blares an alarm. On Tuesday, visitors saw Binky's mellow side as he lounged around his pen, though oohs and ahhs rose when he stuck his head rich. Because of its North Sea oil fields, Norway is Western Europe's largest oil exporter. It is a major exporter of fish and has one of the world's largest mermore than ,000 chant fleets and neck through the bars and opened his jaws wide. At the bottom of his thick, muscular legs are paws the size of dinner plates. John Grady, visiting from California, could see how Binky's lethargy might lull someone into a false sense of security. "People want to cuddle up with 1 ships. "The Norwegian economy has three legs: fish, shipping and offshore oil," said Willy Ostreng, director of the private Fridtjof Nansen Institute in Oslo. "And with such a long coastline, the ocean has always been a major security consideration." Norway, a member of NATO, constantly patrols its waters for possible intruders. Among those have been submarines from Russia's huge North Fleet, which use the waters off Norway as a corridor to the Atlantic. Such possessiveness often leads to conflict, and the Norwegians don't always win. This summer, oil companies tired of Norway's stiff taxes and demands for at least half of all oil produced. They threatened to slow , or even halt, development of new fields. With oil production in current fields expected to dwindle after 2000. Norway took the threat to heart. Jens Stolten- berg, minister of industry and ; energy, promised to review the rules. Norway ing about w as less understand- whale-huntin- re- g, suming its commercial hunt of minke whales in 1993 and setting off what new spapers called a "whale war" with environmentalists. In, resuming the hunt after six years, the government exercised its right as a member of the International Whaling Commission to reject the commission's 1986 ban on commercial hunting. The Norwegians contend that the nearly 90,000 minke whales in their waters do not qualify as an endangered species and that the hunt is justified. Norwegian commercial whalers killed 206 minkes last summer. When environmentalists sailed in, determined to stop the hunt, the coast guard was waiting. A ship operated by the mili- tant Sea Shepherd group rammed a coast guard cutler in June, but got away. In July, the coast guard boarded and seized two Greenpeace ships. him and share a Coke," he said. of "Orlando," in which the protagonist, Orlando, "lay folded in her cloak in the hollow by the pool." mm PRESENTS Amy: 1 DAILY HERALD HONOR CARRIERS The Daily Herald recognizes the efforts of the following carriers who achieved excellence in Service, Sales, and Collections during the past month. Adam Bjornberg Brian Fletcher Bradley Wilkerson ill. S ' Adam Dayton Francis Rode Seth Harding Anthony Doyle Abbi Spencer Mike Pound James Hill Josh Hill Matt Freeman Jenni Spencer Lowell Reedy Shaun Alldredge Tom Clark Raeann Newman Gary Fairse Jason Morgan Dane Hanvey Ruth Crown CJ Woodcox Travis Hampton 4. x 9 ua: more than one customer complaint for the month. 2. Bill paid by the fifth of the month. 3. Sell at least three new subscriptions during the month. 1. No m ". P J w JPtetl a$r 11 r 171 ilil 1 p 111 I IMnlfFlflVSl h ' 1- - 1 ' I ' 'S I & I v. I I S,y:- ITV ...Where It All Began BYU MARRIOTT CENTER Wednesday, October 19, 1994 7:30 PM Shawn Bradley's First Utah Pro Appearance -- PLUS- BYU vs U of U Varsity Alumni Game 6:00 PM Tickets on Sale Now TICKETS PRICES $30 $20 - $15 - $10 Marriott Center Ticket Office or call IN to order by phone ASSOCIATION WITH ujc ymuj ttcrnw hiw.mph swtk |