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(04/23/03 4:08am)
Ten…"\nWe counted down like the rest of America. "Nine…eight…seven." Here we go; after months of anticipation. "Six…five." This is so exciting. "Four…three." I hope our families are watching. "Two." Bourbon Street can wait.\n"One." Where's Dick Clark anyway?\n"Happy War!" shouted Toby from our downtown New Orleans hotel. We all ceremoniously, and sarcastically, clapped. America's 48-hour window for Iraqi capitulation had passed. MSNBC made sure we knew by counting down the seconds during live telecasts.\nWar was on, whether we wanted it or not. And so was the accompanying TV coverage. It seemed we didn't have much of a choice on that, either. Even MTV, an outlet designed for specifically uninterested youth, covered the opening days of the war, pre-empting Justin Timberlake and the likes. \n"It's like a basketball game," Toby said Thursday, while CBS decided not to air the opening round of the NCAA men's basketball tournament in lieu of war coverage. \nHe was right. You could follow the box score live on television. \nWhen the first reports flowed in Thursday that 17 Iraqi soldiers were captured, Toby played out his parody.\n"That's a start," Toby said, clapping like a coach.\nIn New Orleans, the whole war seemed like a parody -- starting at the very top where everything was about those short one-liners. You know the ones they play over and over while a bar across the bottom of the screen has the same lines in print.\nIt began that Monday, though it began long before that when Bush gave his ultimatum to Saddam Hussein. "The tyrant will soon be gone."\nRemember that? \nOK, maybe not, but at a Thursday afternoon lunch, eight IU spring breakers tried to remember some of the more memorable lines while they watched the drama unfold in New Orleans' T.G.I. Friday's.\n"There was Powell: The time for diplomacy had ended," Amy said.\n"If you're not with us, you're against us," Toby said.\n"The Axis of Evil," chimed in someone else.\nThe list went on. \nThe night before, the group went to Preservation Hall (capacity 104), a New Orleans' historic jazz hall. Created in 1961, though the surroundings are much older, the hall is home to the city's sweetest jazz and one its best deals. For $5, guests get four hours of music.\nThe room is falling apart and packed well past its 104-person limit.\nThe last song we heard was a classic New Orleans funeral march, a macabre tribute for the loss of a jazz great. Next door we saw the first bombs drop on Baghdad from a pizza joint. One group huddled around a TV in the back of the restaurant. An employee watched the Arabic broadcast up front.\nWhat different thoughts we must have been thinking.\nWhat different mindsets we must have been in.\nWhat was next?\n"It's hard to picture people sad," Jamie said, "when we're so happy."
(04/09/03 12:09am)
This letter is to all of the people that find it unpatriotic to oppose the war in Iraq.
(04/08/03 5:02am)
Man dispels rumors about anti-patriotism in local business\nPLYMOUTH, Ind. -- The head of the local chamber of commerce patronized a business while wearing a U.S. flag-embroidered sweater to dispel a rumor that anyone wearing patriotic apparel would be kicked out.\nWasim Latif, who took ownership of the Red-D-Mart a couple months ago, said he had been warned that the rumor had been circulating around Plymouth, about 15 miles south of South Bend.\nDoug Anspach, executive director of the Plymouth Area Chamber of Commerce, said he had heard the misinformation more than once from people calling his organization on the phone.\nAnspach tried to put the rumor to rest by borrowing a white sweater with a large American flag on the chest. On Friday morning, he walked three blocks from his office to get a cup of coffee at Red-D-Mart.\nAfter a cheerful clerk took his money, Anspach took a seat in the back of the store and enjoyed his coffee.\n"I found that I was treated with courtesy and caring as a customer purchasing a cup of coffee," he said.\nAnspach said he also noticed patriotic T-shirts and buttons for sale behind the front counter.\nLatif said he was unsure how to stop the rumors and was grateful for Anspach's help.\nFaculty at IU-South Bend push for on-campus student housing\nSOUTH BEND -- Faculty at one IU satellite campus are pushing for construction of on-campus student housing, saying it would increase enrollment and student retention rates.\n"We've grown from an institution where students simply drop by to take courses into a university," Doug McMillen, a professor at IU's South Bend campus, told IU trustees Friday. "On-campus housing will enhance our academic mission."\nMcMillen said each major improvement on the South Bend campus, such as construction of a student activities center, has improved the academic climate and followed with an increase in the number of students.\nThe addition of campus apartments south of the St. Joseph River and a foot bridge to link them to campus would afford the school another chance to grow, he said.\nOn-campus housing is still in the planning stages, but other faculty members echoed McMillen's thoughts.\n"For a lot of people in north-central Indiana, we are the only face of Indiana University," said Ellen Maher, an associate librarian at the university.\nMaher also urged trustees to increase the number of full-time and tenure-track faculty.\nAs talented as many adjunct instructors are, she said, full-time faculty are best to fulfill the school's mission as a research university.\nSigns damaged at Islamic center in Merrillville\nMERRILLVILLE, Ind. -- Two road signs at the entrance of the Northwest Indiana Islamic Center were damaged in an apparent act of vandalism, the mosque's religious leader said.\n"One of them is completely damaged," Mongy El-Quesny said. "The second one, he knocked some of the bricks off the sign."\nThe vandalism occurred Saturday night when someone drove a truck into the two signs, El-Quesny said.\nIt wasn't the first time the mosque has been vandalized in the suburban town just south of Gary. Shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, vandals stole several American flags from the mosque's property. Another time, someone shot out a lower basement window.\n"What happened after Sept. 11, maybe you can understand that people were angry," El-Quesny said. "Whatever was happening now is done by a person with sickness in their heart. We are Americans, too.\n"I have four children born here. My wife is American," El-Quesny said. "I've been here 20 years. I'm going to live and die here. In spite of the differences of our religion and our culture, we live on one soil."\nEl-Quesny said it will cost several thousand dollars to replace and repair the sign.
(04/08/03 4:31am)
VLADIVOSTOK, Russia -- A fire engulfed an old wooden school in the northern Siberian republic of Yakutia on Monday, killing 21 students and a teacher, emergency officials said.\nTen more students were hospitalized with burns and fractured bones after they tried to escape the flames by jumping out the windows of the two-story building, said Yelena Mineyeva, spokeswoman for Yakutia's Emergency Situations Ministry. The students were between the ages of 11 and 18.\nRussian President Vladimir Putin called the fire a "major calamity" and ordered the federal government to fully cooperate with authorities in Yakutia, about 3,000 miles east of Moscow.\nIn televised comments, Putin instructed his Cabinet to "provide help to the republic and immediately to the families of the victims."\nThe fire erupted at the beginning of the school day in a rural school in the village of Sydybal, said Viktor Beltsov, a spokesman for the Emergency Situations Ministry in Moscow.\nThe village does not have a fire department, so fire trucks had to travel to the scene from a station 12 miles away. By the time they arrived, the 1927-era building was engulfed in flames, Mineyeva said.\nThe chief prosecutor's office in Yakutia opened a criminal investigation into the fire deaths, which is common in such cases.\nIn rural Russian villages, most buildings are made of wood and depend on heat from stoves. Safety standards are sometimes disregarded as people try desperately to keep warm during frigid winters.\nSince the breakup of the Soviet Union, Russia has racked up some of the world's grimmest fire statistics. Fifty people a day die in fires. Most of the fires are caused by people smoking while drinking or being careless.\nRussia's fire death toll is 4 1/2 times greater than in the United States, which has twice the population, and 12 1/2 times greater than in the United Kingdom.
(03/25/03 4:56am)
FORT WAYNE -- A debate that has played out across much of the nation has arrived in northeastern Indiana, where several law enforcement agencies are considering letting sponsors pay to put ads on police cars. A few already plan to proceed.\nThe practice can save taxpayers money. But critics say turning police cars into billboards on wheels cheapens the profession's image.\nIn exchange for allowing local and national companies to sponsor a few advertisements, a North Carolina-based company called Government Acquisitions will lease fully equipped cars to municipalities for $1. Such cars typically cost around $30,000 and must be replaced every three to five years.\nKen Allison, president of Government Acquisitions, said the program was started as a way for corporations to help homeland security after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.\n"When somebody shows up with a fire vehicle or a police vehicle -- somebody who has to protect and serve -- and you see an advertiser on there, you know that company is responsible for paying the money used to help the community," Allison told The Journal Gazette for a story published Sunday.\nAds can go on the hood, bumpers, trunk lid, roof and small areas on the side of the cars. Most of the side of a car would still be reserved for police logos and identifiers.\nWhen a department decides to request a vehicle from Government Acquisitions, the first step is to win approval from either the city council or county commissioners.\nA request will then be sent to the company, and Government Acquisitions begins soliciting ads for the cars.\nDepartments have the right to refuse an ad, and Government Acquisitions bars ads for alcohol, tobacco and firearms.\nAn ad's cost depends on its size. A small sticker near a window could run for less than $100. But the cost of bigger ads can run into the tens of thousands of dollars.\nGarrett, a city of about 5,800 people north of Fort Wayne, was among Indiana's first municipalities to pursue the cars and has submitted requests for three.\n"With the budgets and stuff the way they are, any way for me to keep the cost down, I'm always looking at," Police Chief Rex Harpel said.
(03/14/03 6:38am)
CARACAS, Venezuela -- If you think America went crazy over its flag after Sept. 11, you should visit Venezuela.\nVenezuelans do not just decorate their homes with flags. They are wearing them on T-shirts, shorts, skirts, backpacks, fanny packs -- even bikinis.\nIt is a fashion craze spun from the turmoil surrounding President Hugo Chavez's four-year rule, in which pro- and anti-Chavez Venezuelans are fighting to prove which side is most patriotic.\nAlmost every clothing store in town seems to carry items featuring the yellow, blue and red banner with an arch of seven white stars in the middle. On every street in Caracas, at least one person wears some form of the flag.\nNow, Venezuela's haute couture is embracing the trend. On Wednesday -- National Flag Day -- 20 local designers displayed flag-inspired gowns at an evening competition at the Melia Hotel in Caracas.\nThe fashion elite sipped wine while gazing at mannequins sporting gowns ranging from regal to outrageous.\nThere was a simple strapless A-line with layers of yellow, blue and red chiffon.\nThere was also a mini dress made from linked copper and bronze stars. Underneath, was a royal blue bikini. A yellow cape swept down the back, decorated with yellow, blue and red parrots.\nThe winning dress was to be worn by Venezuela's contestant at the 2003 Miss Universe pageant.\n"It used to be cheesy to wear the flag," said designer Octavio Vasquez. "Now it's matter of pride to wear the flag, hold the flag, be the flag."\nIt all started when Chavez bucked a law banning national symbols at political events. During his frequent rallies, Chavez uses them all: the flag, the national anthem and images of 19th-century independence hero Simon Bolivar.\nThe result was a flag war. Vowing to "take back" the emblem, Venezuela's opposition turned its own marches into seas of red, blue and yellow. Opponents unfurled the banner outside their car windows, homes and office buildings.\nBut the power behind the fashion is Venezuela's army of street vendors. Eager to profit from the protests, hawkers got creative, selling everything from flag knapsacks to tricolor beaded jewelry.\nFor some, it's all a bit much. Sitting on a park bench, Jesus Flores, 80, eyes a vendor.\n"Wearing the flag as a bikini isn't patriotic," he grumbles. "The flag is a symbol. We should respect it"
(03/07/03 5:53pm)
HAIFA, Israel -- A bomber blew himself up aboard a bus filled with students in this northern Israeli city Wednesday, killing at least 16 people and injuring 55. The blast spread blood-splattered debris throughout a prosperous hilltop neighborhood, ending a two-month lull in suicide bombings.\nPolice identified the bomber as Mahmoud Hamdan Kawasme, 20, of the West Bank city of Hebron, and said he was carrying a letter praising the Sept. 11 attacks. There was no claim of responsibility for the attack, and it was not known whether he was affiliated with a militant group.\nThe attack followed the establishment of a new hard-line government in Israel and a government pledge to step up military strikes against militant strongholds in the Gaza Strip. Dozens of Palestinians have been killed in more than two weeks of raids, including at least 10 civilians.\nPrime Minister Ariel Sharon called an emergency meeting of senior Cabinet ministers late Wednesday to discuss the bombing.\nBus No. 37 was packed with students from Haifa University when it stopped in the hilltop neighborhood of Carmelia at 2:17 p.m. to let off passengers.\n"I suddenly heard an explosion," said bus driver Marwan Damouni, an Israeli Arab, who was being treated at a hospital. "I tried to move, to see if there were wounded. I couldn't hear anything because of the force."\nThe explosion blew off the bus roof, shattered all its windows and toppled nearby palm trees. Floodlights cast an eerie glow on the scene, illuminating the charred skeleton of the vehicle.\nThe bomb was laden with metal shrapnel for greater deadliness, according to Police Commissioner Shlomo Aharonishki. Crime lab technicians were investigating, but early reports said the blast was caused by 130 pounds of explosives.\nRescue workers and police said they believed one of the 16 dead was the bomber. Dozens were seriously injured, among them passers-by.\nOvadia Saar, who was driving a bus behind the one that was attacked, said he saw "the back of the bus fly into the air, and the windows blew out and a great cloud of dust covered the bus."\n"I got out and ran toward the bus. It was a horrible sight. There were a few bodies in the street," he said. "Those we saw breathing, we evacuated."\nA spokesman for the Islamic militant group Hamas, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, praised the bombing but did not claim responsibility. "We will not stop our resistance," he said. "We are not going to give up in the face of the daily killing" of Palestinians.\nSome Palestinians in Gaza called each other on cell phones, spreading news about the Haifa attack. Some were jubilant.\n"It's about time. They've kept on hitting us and killing us, and now we've struck back," said an ice cream vendor in Gaza, who refused to give his name.\nThe Haifa blast was the first terror attack in Israel since Jan. 5, when a pair of suicide bombers killed 23 people in Tel Aviv.\nThere have been 87 suicide attacks in Israel in 29 months of violence that has left 2,160 people dead on the Palestinian side and 743 on the Israeli side. The violence ended talks on a final peace settlement and helped Sharon win re-election.\nIn the past, Israel has reacted with tough military measures after such attacks and has blamed Yasser Arafat, saying the Palestinian Authority does nothing to prevent terrorism.\n"Once again the bestial hand of Palestinian terrorism has struck at the heart of Israel," said Mark Sofer, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, adding that Israeli forces had thwarted almost 100 attempted attacks in the past two months.\nIsrael might be constrained in any reaction by the possibility of an imminent U.S. strike against Saddam Hussein, because the United States has made clear it wants to keep a lid on Israeli-Palestinian fighting until the Iraq issue is resolved.\nPresident Bush denounced the Haifa bombing, saying terrorists would not prevail. "The president condemns in the strongest terms today's attack on innocents in Israel," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. "His message to terrorists is that their efforts will not be successful."\nBritish Foreign Secretary Jack Straw urged Israel and the Palestinians to work toward peace. "There is no justification for attacks on innocent civilians," he said. "Attacks like these will not help the Palestinian cause."\nPalestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat condemned "any attack that is targeting civilians, whether Palestinian or Israeli." But he added, "We reject the Israel government finger-pointing that the Palestinian Authority is responsible"
(03/04/03 5:09am)
BUREIJ REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza Strip -- Israeli troops raiding a Gaza refugee camp arrested a Hamas founder Monday, targeting the political leadership of the Islamic militant group for the first time in 29 months of fighting. Eight Palestinians, among them a pregnant woman, were killed in clashes in the camp.\nTroops also blew up four homes in the Bureij camp, including that of Hamas co-founder Mohammed Taha, 65, who was wounded in clashes with soldiers, the army said. Several adjacent houses and a mosque were damaged by the blasts.\nTaha's five sons were also arrested. One son, Ayman, who was also wounded Monday, is the assistant of the top Hamas bombmaker, the army said.\nThe arrests signaled a turning point in Israel's dealings with Hamas, which has killed hundreds of Israelis in shootings and bombings. Since the outbreak of fighting in September 2000, Israel has killed scores of Hamas militants and rounded up hundreds of activists, but left the political leadership in Gaza alone.\n"This is a continuation of the escalated aggression against our people and our holy places," Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat told The Associated Press. His Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat called for U.S. intervention to stop Israel's actions, saying that "silence to these crimes is an encouragement for their reoccurrence."\nAlso Monday near Nablus, the West Bank's largest city, a Palestinian man was shot by troops as he skirted an Israeli army checkpoint, Palestinian security officials said. Doctors said he was hit in the leg, severing an artery, and bled to death before reaching the hospital. The army had no immediate comment.\nMohammed Taha founded Hamas in 1987, along with the group's spiritual leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin. Since then, the group has emerged as Arafat's biggest political rival. Mohammed and Ayman Taha were among about 400 suspected Islamic militants Israel deported to Lebanon for a year in 1992.\nSince the outbreak of fighting in September 2000, Hamas has killed hundreds of Israelis in bombings and shootings. In response, Israel has rounded up many Hamas activists, including leaders of the military wing. It has not targeted the political leadership, however, instead hitting installations of Palestinian security forces.\nIsraeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Sunday the military would step up strikes against Hamas. "We want to arrive at a situation where the terror organizations invest more and more (effort) defending themselves," he said.\nMonday's incursion began at about 2 a.m. when jeeps and tanks backed by helicopters rolled into Bureij in central Gaza. Fierce fighting erupted, and hospital doctors said eight Palestinians were killed. Five were gunmen and three were civilians.\nThe woman was killed when her house collapsed on her during the demolition of a nearby building, doctors and her family said. Six other family members were injured, including the woman's husband and two of her sons.\nIsraeli soldiers prevented ambulances from evacuating the wounded from Bureij for several hours. Assaf Liberati, an army spokesman, said the first priority was to protect soldiers, and that there was concern that some of the ambulances were booby-trapped.\nThe army said it demolished four houses of militants, including the two-story Taha family home and the home of a suicide bomber. Hand grenades were thrown from the Taha house at soldiers who returned fire, wounding Mohammed and Ayman Taha before arresting them, the army said. In blowing up the house, troops damaged the outer wall of an adjacent mosque where Mohammed Taha was a preacher.\nThe military confirmed that soldiers entered the mosque, looking for weapons. An Associated Press reporter touring the mosque saw windows smashed and bullet holes in the facade, apparently from Israeli helicopter fire; the mosque is in an alley too narrow for ground fighting. The army denied the damage was deliberate.\nThe demolition of the four homes severely damaged another 11 homes, rendering them uninhabitable and leaving about 150 people homeless, said the mayor of Bureij, Kamal Baghdadi.\nAn Israeli army spokeswoman, Maj. Sharon Feingold, said Taha "is one of the most senior Hamas activists and terrorists, and I am happy to say he is in our hands." She said the raid "is a clear message to the terrorists that ... there's a price to be paid"
(02/03/03 4:50am)
Saturday, when we turned our TVs to CBS to watch the basketball game, we saw footage of what appreared to be a falling star. We were to find out that not one, but seven had fallen that day at nine o'clock, and there would be no basketball as a result.\nOur first reaction is shock, followed by amazement and grief. Then, we are transfixed. As with all times when heroes die we looked to the media to honor them, and we tried our best to feel for the families and experience how truly sad unexpected loss is. \nHowever, our daze was lifted when we began to hear those repugnant buzz words that've been floating throughout the media, mixing themselves with every issue on the docket for a year now. \nTerrorism.\nOn a day when families are mourning, and bright, intrepid individuals lost their lives in the pursuit of science, agendas were still being pursued. Despite the phenomenal impossibility of terrorist meddling -- an altitude of 203,000 feet flying Mach 18, well beyond any missle range -- it seems that our nation can not break for a moment from the rhetoric of the day. It was a time to allow a graceful and much deserved moment of reflection for those gone. Infusing their eulogy with politics seemed a disservice.\nFurthermore, the nature of the report had us questioning the media's sincerity. NASA coverage certainly has not been one of their top priorities as of late. There was a time when shuttle launches were major events, watched in grade schools and played on TV's sitting in shop windows; but today, we only hear of our efforts in space when there is either a disaster or a pop-star passenger.\nSo as they issue sound bite after sound bite concerning the honor and glory embedded in space exploration and the mission these brave men and women had embarked upon, we question: Would Dan Rather have been reading poetry and commentating emotional had the flight ended as a success?\nWhich brings us to the true heart of this and every major tragedy that covers our programming, why we search in confusion for the proper emotional response to an event such as this. Since 9-11 we have been forced to re-evaluate how we treat heroes, and still we have come to realize that little has changed. We weep because we can not find the justice in the fact that it takes their death to honor their lives.\nWhy weren't we celebrating the fact that this was perhaps one of the most diverse crews in the history of space exploration? \nAn Indian woman, an Israeli, a black man, their science bridged international and political boundaries. There was once a day in the not too distant past when such a sight would be scoffed at. They however made it happen, but if those cultural bonds hadn't been shattered when the craft went down, we would have never been the wiser.\nAdam Michalec, a researcher at the Space Observatory of the respected Jagiellon University in Poland spoke of them best: "The astronauts gave their lives on the altar of science." They were sacrificed for a knowledge that the majority of us unfortunately do not yearn for. If anything, maybe this event will instill in us that hunger so that Rick Husband, William McCool, Michael Anderson, Kalpana Chawla, David Brown, Laurel Clark and Ilan Ramon would not have died in vein.\n-- JP Benitez and George Lyle IV for the Editorial Board
(12/03/02 4:39am)
MOMBASA, Kenya -- A Kenyan farmer said he spoke with suicide bombers moments before they blew up an Israeli-owned hotel here.\nKhamis Haro Deche, 39, a subsistence farmer and fisherman, lives about a half mile from the Paradise Hotel, where at least 15 people were killed in the attack last Thursday.\n"These are not good people. I shook hands with fire. I did not know. If you shake hands with a fire, you will be burned," the farmer said Sunday.\nPolice have confirmed nine Kenyans and three Israelis were killed; the hotel's Kenyan assistant manager is also believed dead. It was not clear whether two or three suicide bombers carried out the attack, Deputy Police Commissioner William Langat said Monday.\nMinutes before the blast, two Strela missiles narrowly missed an Israeli charter plane departing from Mombasa's airport.\nLangat said police were holding six Pakistanis and four Somalis picked up in a boat at Mombasa's port but had no firm evidence linking them to the attacks. Langat said the Pakistanis had not been extensively questioned because police do not have an Urdu translator.\nMir Mohammed, a Pakistani who was watching the 50-foot wooden vessel, told The Associated Press there had been only three Somalis aboard. Langat refused to comment about the number of Somalis on the boat.\nDeche said that shortly after 8 a.m. Thursday, a brown Mitsubishi Pajero with tinted windows and a red stripe pulled into his yard. He approached the car and saw two men whom he described as Arabs -- a slight young man with a nervous manner in the passenger seat and an older driver with a stockier build.\nHe leaned inside the vehicle to shake hands with both men, and saw no other people in the car. He saw several cellular phones on the dashboard.\nThe passenger spoke in Arabic-accented Kiswahili and told Deche they were waiting for a friend.\nInitial reports spoke of three men in the suicide vehicle, one of whom jumped out and blew himself up in the hotel lobby after the car had crashed through the gate. The hotel is about 12 miles north of Mombasa.\nLangat said police have spoken to seven witnesses who think they saw the brown car; some say they saw three men in the vehicle, but the most credible witnesses, Deche and a hotel security guard, said there were only two. No remains of the suicide bombers have been found, and police have not been able to identify the attackers.\nDeche said he was suspicious of the men because there had been thefts in the area, so he noted the car's license plate. The men drove away in the direction of the hotel, and a few minutes later an explosion shook his house, Deche said. Kenyan police and some "white men" who questioned him a day later told him the men were suspects in the bombing.\nWithin the scorched remains of the Paradise Hotel, Kenyan bomb specialists said parts of the vehicle used to carry out the attack were found up to 2,800 feet from the site.\nInvestigators also said they found parts of two gas welding cylinders, which they suspect were fastened to the vehicle to create a bigger explosion.\nKenyan police said Israeli authorities want to take the vehicle parts and the launchers and missile casings found near the airport back to Israel. Kenyan officials insist the evidence must remain in the East African nation, saying it is their responsibility to handle it.\nThe issue of Kenya's ability to carry out the investigation was raised by Sen. Robert Graham of Florida, the outgoing chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.\nGraham told "Fox News Sunday" that Kenya's "capability to do comprehensive investigation is limited. So therefore, I imagine that it will be primarily U.S. and Israeli intelligence officers who will be trying to unravel what happened in Kenya last week."\nA U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said initial suspicion centered on Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network and al-Itihaad al-Islamiya, a Somali Islamic group that was put on a list of international terrorist organizations after the Sept. 11 attacks.
(12/02/02 4:04am)
MOMBASA, Kenya -- Kenya will not heed Israeli demands to turn over some evidence in the attacks on an Israeli-owned hotel and an Israeli jetliner, saying Sunday it would conduct the probe alone. The Israeli defense minister said al Qaeda was the main suspect in the attacks.\nThe dispute threatened to delay the investigation into the suicide bombing Thursday of an Israeli-owned hotel, which killed 15 people, and the failed downing of an Israeli charter jet moments earlier. American and Israeli leaders both questioned Kenya's ability to conduct a thorough probe.\nKenyan police officials said Israeli authorities want to take pieces from a four-wheel-drive Mitsubishi Pajero that exploded outside the hotel on Thursday, killing 10 Kenyans, three Israelis and the bombers inside. Israel also wants the launchers and missile casings from shoulder-launched rockets believed used in the failed attempt to shoot down the Israeli charter plane.\n"None of this evidence is going back to Israel. This evidence is our responsibility," Kenyan bomb specialist Charles Jamu said.\nRaanan Gissin, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said from Jerusalem that Kenya had been cooperating "up to now," but that the Kenyans weren't prepared for the investigation.\n"They were not geared to this kind of a threat or they don't have the necessary resources or technological capabilities that would enable them to deal with that," Gissin said.\nIsrael and the United States have pushed for a rigorous investigation in part because they believe it may have been orchestrated by Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terror network.\nDuring an Israeli Cabinet meeting on Sunday, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said he suspected al Qaeda was responsible for the attack, Gissin said.\n"Formally, of course, we don't have the conclusive evidence to prove unequivocally that it is al Qaeda, but the fingerprints clearly indicate that al Qaeda is involved," Gissin said, referring to Mofaz's remarks.\nJamu, the bomb specialist, said investigators found parts of two gas welding cylinders which they suspect were fastened to the vehicle's underside to cause a bigger explosion at the Paradise Hotel 12 miles north of Mombasa.\nOne man, subsistence farmer Khamis Haro Deche, said a brown Pajero pulled into his yard near the hotel shortly after 8 a.m. last Thursday. He said the slight youngish man in the passenger seat told him in Arabic-accented and halting Kiswahili -- Kenya's official language -- that he and the driver were waiting for friends coming from the hotel.\nThe farmer said the car had tinted windows -- illegal in Kenya -- and when he leaned inside to shake hands, he saw only two people -- the driver, described as a stout middle-age man who did not speak, and the passenger, whom he described as nervous. Previous reports have said there were three terrorists.\nShortly after the car drove off in the direction of the hotel, there was an explosion that shook his house, he said. Survivors at the hotel said the blast occurred around 8:35 a.m.\n"These are not good people; I shook hands with fire," the farmer said in the light of a kerosene lantern outside his mud-and-palm thatch house. "If you shake hands with a fire, you will be burned,"\nAlthough police were still holding several men from Pakistan and Somalia they had picked up from a boat in Mombasa's port for questioning shortly after the attacks, there was no further comment Sunday on the progress of the investigation from inside Kenya.\nSen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., the outgoing chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, echoed Israel's concerns about the probe in an interview with "Fox News Sunday."\n"I imagine that it will be primarily U.S. and Israeli intelligence officers who will be trying to unravel what happened in Kenya last week," he said.\nGraham said the attacks had probably been carried out by a Somali-Kenyan group he called Islamyia, in conjunction with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.\nA day after the bombing, a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity in Washington, said initial suspicion centered on al Qaeda and al-Itihaad al-Islamiya, a Somali Islamic group that was put on a list of international terrorist organizations after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.\nIsraeli Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on ABC's "This Week," also criticized "the negligence and the passivity of other countries that do not take forceful action" against terror networks.\nIsrael said it would also investigate why it was not aware of warnings that Germany and Australia issued two weeks before the attacks of possible terrorist threats.\nGissin said the Israelis never received any such warning, and urged more cooperation. He said Israel had to right to take pre-emptive action against future threats.\n"For example, if we had a warning from Mombasa, we could take action to stop, to prevent them from taking those actions, this is something that is required since we're not alone in this war," Gissin said.\nKenya's Internal Security and Defense Minister Julius Sunkuli told reporters Saturday he had no information about the warning.\nOne of the detained men, Mir Mohammed, a Pakistani in his 40s, said he and the five Pakistani and three Somalis who were detained had been fishing for sharks in the Indian Ocean off Somalia when the boat took on water, forcing them into Mombasa.\nSomalia borders Kenya, and weapons and false passports are readily available there. American officials have said it was a haven for terrorists, including members of al Qaeda.
(11/22/02 4:42am)
JERUSALEM -- A Palestinian man wearing a bomb belt blew himself up Thursday on a Jerusalem city bus packed with high school students and soldiers, killing 11 passengers and wounding dozens in a morning rush hour attack.\nFour of the victims were aged 8 to 16, police said.\nThe Islamic militant group Hamas claimed responsibility. The bomber came from Bethlehem, Israel confirmed, raising the possibility Israel might retake the West Bank town from which it withdrew in August. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon convened his security Cabinet for an emergency meeting.\nIslamic militants said attacks would continue, despite efforts by Egypt and the Palestinian Authority to negotiate a freeze in attacks at least until Israel's Jan. 28 election. A continuation of bombings and shootings -- there have been scores in the past 26 months of fighting -- would strengthen Israel's right-wing parties.\nPresident Bush condemned the bombing, but said it remained the United States' goal to see two independent states -- Israel and Palestine -- living side-by-side in peace.\nThe assailant, wearing a bomb belt around his waist, set off the explosives in the middle of the bus at about 7:10 a.m. as it was stopped in Jerusalem's residential Kiryat Menachem neighborhood, police said.\nMaor Kimche, 15, said he had just boarded the bus when the blast went off. "Suddenly, it was black and smoky. There were people on the floor. Everything was bloody. There was glass everywhere and body parts," Kimche said.\nThe 10th grader who had been en route to school in downtown Jerusalem jumped out of a bus window and was scooped up by a taxi driver who took him to nearby Hadassah Hospital. Kimche was lightly injured in the left leg.\nThe youngster said the bus was crowded with high school students, soldiers and elderly passengers. He said he'd ride the bus again once he was well. "How else will I get to school?" he asked.\nThe blast blew out the bus windows. A torso that had fallen over the side of the bus was covered with a white-and-blue checkered blanket. Sandwiches and schoolbooks lay scattered in the street.\nAs rescue workers removed the dead from the bus, the bodies were placed in black plastic bags that were numbered and laid out in a row along a sidewalk.\nEleven people were killed and at least 48 wounded, eight of them very seriously, authorities said. Israel Radio said many of the casualties were school students, though hospital officials declined to give a breakdown.\nIsraeli police identified the bomber as Nael Abu Hilail, 23.\nAbu Hilail's father, Azmi, said he was pleased with his son. "Our religion says we are proud of him until the day of resurrection," Abu Hilail said. "This is a challenge to the Zionist enemies."\nHe said Israeli troops had arrested another of his sons and a nephew soon after the bombing.\nSeveral of Nael Abu Hilail's friends said he was a supporter of the Islamic Jihad group. However, Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was avenging the death of the commander of its military wing, Saleh Shehadeh, killed July 23 by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City.\nRaanan Gissin, an adviser to Sharon, said efforts to bring about a limited truce and withdraw from some Palestinian areas seem futile. "All our efforts to hand over areas .... and all the talk about a possible cease-fire, that was all window dressing because on the ground there was a continuous effort to carry out as many terrorist activities (as possible)," Gissin said.
(11/12/02 7:19pm)
MOSSY GROVE, Tenn. -- Searchers and dazed survivors went from one shattered home to another Monday, picking through splintered lumber and torn sheet metal for any sign of the missing, after twisters and thunderstorms killed at least 35 people in five states.\nMore than 70 reported tornadoes cut a path of destruction from Louisiana to Pennsylvania over the weekend and into Monday. Sixteen deaths were reported in Tennessee, 12 in Alabama, five in Ohio and one each in Mississippi and Pennsylvania. More than 200 people were injured.\n"Yesterday, we had a nice brick house and four vehicles. Today, we don't own a toothbrush," said Susan Henry of Mossy Grove, where seven people were killed and at least 40 were still unaccounted for as of midafternoon.\nThe tiny community 40 miles west of Knoxville was nearly wiped off the map, with about a dozen of the 20 or so homes reduced to concrete foundations and piles of rubble a few feet high.\nHenry, her husband and two children survived after taking shelter in the basement of a neighbor's home that collapsed around them.\n"It was just deafening it was so loud," said 17-year-old Tabatha Henry. "You could hear the wood pop in the house, and that was it. Then all you could hear was the screaming and praying."\nDaylight brought a picture of destruction. In Mossy Grove, clothes fluttered from tree limbs. Power lines dangled from poles. Cars lay crumpled after being tossed like toys. About the only sound was the bleating of a battery-operated smoke alarm buried deep in the rubble.\nSearchers believed that most of the missing in and around Mossy Grove were OK and had simply been unable to get in touch with family members, said Steven Hamby, Morgan County director of emergency medical services. The storm knocked out telephone service and blocked roads.\nNo bodies had been found since early Monday, but Hamby said digging out could take weeks.\n"We're hoping that we're past the bad stuff," he said.\nIn Carbon Hill, Ala., 70 miles northwest of Birmingham, seven people were killed by nighttime storms that sent giant hardwood trees crashing down on houses and mobile homes.\nSheryl Wakefield cowered in her concrete storm shelter and listened to a twister roar down the country road where her extended family lives in six homes. Her sister and niece were killed when their doublewide mobile home was thrown across the street, its metal frame twisted around a tree.\n"Everybody's house is just totally gone. My son doesn't even know where his house is," she said through tears. "It's gone. It's just gone."\nAt the now roofless Carbon Hill Elementary School, fourth-grader Johnny Rosales looked through a window into the rubble that was once his classroom. It was only five months ago that the town's high school burned down, and the boy said he does not know where he will go to school now.\n"I'll guess they'll bulldoze it like they did the high school," he said.\nDan McCarthy of the federal Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said unseasonably warm weather Sunday in the 80s, followed by a cold front, made conditions ripe for the rash of twisters, some of which were estimated to be at least in the F-3 category, with winds ranging from 158 mph to 206 mph.\nIt was the nation's biggest swarm of tornadoes from a single weather system since more than 70 twisters -- some topping 300 mph -- killed 44 people in Oklahoma and Kansas in May 1999.\nBroadcast storm warnings preceded twisters in the most hard-hit areas. In Alabama, National Weather Service forecaster Ken Graham said 46 tornado warnings were issued in an 11 1/2-hour period, and everywhere that had damage was under a tornado warning at the time.\n"We're very proud of that," Graham said. "We think we saved some lives last night."\nThe stormy weather continued into Monday, with tornado warnings posted in Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia. Thousands lost power in the Carolinas and possible tornadoes damaged homes in Louisiana and South Carolina.\nIn northwestern Ohio's farm country, two twisters split into four Sunday outside Van Wert, cutting a 100-mile swath of destruction.\nOne of those twisters hurled three cars into a movie theater that had just been filled with children watching "The Santa Clause 2." Manager Scott Shaffer was credited with saving the lives of some 50 moviegoers by herding them into the bathrooms and a brick hallway.\n"For a few seconds, it got ear-piercing," said Shaffer, the blue seats of his theater now exposed to the cloudy skies. "I was too scared to panic"
(11/05/02 5:57am)
IU graduate Jenny Gibson found her harmonica in working order, though it blows a little smokey. Her favorite T-shirt, emblazoned with Marilyn Manson, made it out only slightly scorched.\nAnd while altered by intense heat, photos of friends and family on her refrigerator remain recognizable.\nBut as Gibson stepped over heaps of insulation, fallen ceiling panels and unidentifiable belongings hours after a fire gutted her Pavilion Dunn apartment Monday, what she was really looking for was her most prized possession, her 5-year-old gray cat, Blue.\n"Blue, where are you?" Gibson called after opening the soot-stained door to Apartment 12. "Blue?"\nTaking a few steps into the pitch black apartment, Gibson repeated her call.\n"Blue, where are you?" she said, coughing on smoke that remained from the morning fire.\n"Meow."\n"Oh my God," Gibson screamed as she walked toward the kitchen, her feet sloshing on wet carpet and drips falling on her head. "Oh my God. Oh my God. I can't believe you were in here this whole time."\n"Meow."\nEarlier, firefighters had searched for the cat but thought it ran away. \nGibson wanted to check for herself.\nThe cat had found its way into a favorite hiding place, Gibson said, a crawl space between a kitchen cabinet and adjacent bathroom. And Blue was content to stay there after much coaxing -- at least for the night.\n"He's been through a lot," Gibson said.\nThe fire, which was first reported at about 11 a.m., damaged four apartments at Pavilion Dunn, 419 E. 7th St., Fire Chief Jeff Barlow said. Gibson's apartment was destroyed. Three others sustained minor smoke and water damage.\nThe fire started when a heating vent ignited bedding in Gibson's apartment, then spread to a mattress and box spring. The three fire stations that responded were able to contain the blaze to one unit.\nHeaters must be kept clear to prevent fires as winter months arrive, Barlow said. Firefighters found three more rooms in the complex with bedding too close to heaters.\nWhile other tenants were cleared to return, Gibson was given a Red Cross allowance for clothes and toiletries and will live with a friend until a new Pavilion Property apartment is ready for her this week, said Ed Vande Sande, director of disaster services for the Red Cross, which is located next door to the apartment complex.\n"We set our all time response record," Vande Sande said. "We never know where stuff will happen. We go wherever we're needed."\nThe fire is only the second in 30 years for Pavilion Properties, which manages over 200 units and requires renters' insurance, said Mark Hoffman, the building's landlord.\nBy noon Monday, firefighters were tossing many of Gibson's belongings out her second-floor window and putting out hot-spots in her apartment.\nBut they couldn't notify Gibson until about 2 p.m. because she was at work.\n"I lost my mind crying when I heard," she said. "But after a while I just couldn't anymore so you have to make a joke about it."\nThat's what she was doing as she sifted through insulation, soggy books and articles of clothing strewn around the apartment complex lawn.\n"My undergarments are in the yard," Gibson said. "That's what I have a problem with right now."\nToday, Gibson plans to clean up more of the mess and see if Blue is ready to come out of hiding. \nIf you'd like to help, call the Red Cross at 332-7292.
(10/31/02 6:25am)
October images fill the streets of Bloomington in preparation of one "spooky" event -- Halloween. Brown, orange and yellow leaves lie helplessly in the road, while scarecrows and paper witches crowd the windows of neighbors down the street. A mixture of children and college students run from door to door, dressed in costume and fighting for every last bit of candy in town. \nBut when light becomes scarce, sometimes parents worry about their kids trick-or-treating in the evening and the pranks of cruel teenage kids that might endanger their safety. \nThis is what Jayne Averitt had in mind when she created the idea of "Boo Bash" last year. \n"(The IU Auditorium), Insight Communications, and other non-profit companies (for this event) wanted to find a safe alternative for kids 12 and under to enjoy a safe Halloween," Averitt said. "We thought of the idea in light of 9/11 as a way to get these kids off the streets and enjoy the day in a safe environment."\nThe second annual "Boo Bash" is hosted by the IU Auditorium to allow small kids and their parents enjoy a safe Halloween experience. "Boo Bash" is free and will be held tonight from 5:30-7:30 p.m. in the IU Auditorium. There will be free parking in the Jordan Avenue parking garage across from the back of the Auditorium.\nA committe was established to prepare for this year's event. It includes Averitt from the Auditorium, Maria Talbert from the IU School of Music, Janice Skinning from the Bloomington Area Arts Council, Tom Boscher from Insight Communications, Paul Kasselman from Hirons and Company (who created posters for the event), and Jennie MackInday and Terri McAuley from B97. \n"Boo Bash" took about six months to prepare, most of the work dealing with advertising, sponsors, and themes for the event. \n"We had to brainstorm ideas to keep the kids entertained. We didn't want to do so much that the kids couldn't partake in all of it," McAuley said. "We wanted to make it so that all ages could come."\nApproximately 3,000 kids (ages 12 and under) and their parents are expected to come and enjoy the festivities the Auditorium has to offer. Trick-or-treating will be held in the lobby at the booth stations, with all candy being donated by Kroger. Two IU students will be juggling for entertainment, and Wonderlab will be holding a special exhibit. \n"Wonderlab will have a ball that the children can touch and when they touch it their hair will raise up, like with static," Averitt said. "The John Waldron Center will be providing art classes for children and the Oliver Winery will be donating pumpkins so that the children can decorate them." \nThere will also be face painting and a few B97 associates will be handing out temporary tattoos.\nThe theme for this year's event is "Hallway of Horrors and Haunts." This hallway will be located on the second floor of the Auditorium and will include a coffin room filled with spiderwebs and black lights, a witches-brew room where three witches will be making a concoction of sorts, a cemetery and a room where three witches will be telling fortunes. \nAveritt insisted these rooms are "child-friendly," so little kids will not be scared away by the scenes. About 50 IU students volunteered dress up in costume during "Boo Bash" to either be props for the Hallway of Horrors and Haunts or to simply be ushers escorting parents and their children. \nAlso, kids and their families are able to register for prizes. About $2,000 worth of prizes will be given out by simply registering to win. \nThe Auditorium will be giving out free tickets to see CATS and Cinderella, the IU School of Music will be giving out tickets to their events, Insight Communications will be giving out free high-speed internet, the Herald-Times will be giving out toys, and B97 will be handing out tickets to events, books about haunted places in Indiana, CD's, t-shirts and videos. \n"In the family prize packages there will be something that each person in the family will enjoy," Mackinday said. \nEach child in the Monroe County School District received a flier about "Boo Bash" and each of the 17 sponsors of this event promoted "Boo Bash" as well. For example, B97 has had announcements regarding "Boo Bash" on its station. \nAveritt said the event is a great example of our college campus creating a bond with its outside community. \n"Last year it was so nice to see the innocence on the faces of these children," Averitt said. "It was a good time and a good experience"
(10/30/02 3:58am)
NEW YORK -- The sounds of boat engines recorded beneath the Hudson River echo through a World Financial Center walkway. In another, photos of landfill containing the twin towers' debris cover windows overlooking the World Trade Center site. \nNine works focusing on changes Sept. 11 wrought on lower Manhattan were unveiled Tuesday in the public spaces of the battered World Financial Center, in what organizers call a vital part of its revitalization. \nFalling steel beams from the collapsing north tower gutted the Winter Garden, the financial center's centerpiece aluminum-and-glass atrium. A $50 million restoration replaced its metal framework, 2,000 panes of glass and 16 40-foot Florida palm trees. \nRepair work continued Tuesday on other sections of the building as office workers hurried past crowds of tourists snapping shots of ground zero from windows. \nOverhead were simulated surveillance cameras, made from cardboard, wax, a shopping bag and other everyday materials by German-born artist Elke Lehmann, to defuse with humor the newfound sense of discomfort and anxiety in many public spaces. \n"All the artists' work in some way responds to this new environment," center spokeswoman Karen Kitchen said. "It's a renewed facility, a new psychological environment in a post-9-11 world." \nIn the upper floor of an entrance atrium, artist Andrea Ray covered five large windows with a panoramic digital photograph of the Fresh Kills landfill, where the wreckage of the trade center was sifted for human remains. \nBleachers face the windows, which overlook the trade center site. Spectators are invited to slip on headphones and listen to a recording following an unnamed person's recovery from an unspecified trauma. \nArtist Charles Goldman asked passers-by to write down stories of their memories, which in turn inspired 120 small clay sculptures that he arranged on metal shelves near a series of retail outlets. \nThe work is meant to evoke the randomness of experience and the loss of those killed in the trade center attack, organizers said. \n"We've lost billions of potential memories in the World Trade Center," said Moukhtar Kocache, director of visual and media arts initiatives for the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. \nThe council's "New Views: World Financial Center" program, which began in May, gave the artists free space and small stipends. Their works make the center more lively and appealing for employees and their families, Kitchen said. \nThe works will be on view through Jan. 17.
(10/02/02 5:19am)
Freedom on wheels rolled through IU's campus Tuesday when IU alumnus Harry Wunsch from Sacramento, Calf., stopped by to show off a 1977 Chrysler New Yorker that he and his son, Tyler, had transformed into "America's Car." \nFrom July 24 to Aug. 12, the duo drove cross country from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Atlantic Coast. The purpose: to visit the World Trade Centers, Pentagon and Flight 93 site.\nThey decided to take the trip Sept. 12, 2001, and since Wunsch is an independent entrepreneur, he had the time and finances to make it happen. \nHis cropped white hair pokes out the side of his Port Authority cap, and his light green eyes occasionally morph to hazel when he tears up when recounting stories from their trip. His tan is set off by a navy blue 7 Engine FDNY shirt, and his left arm is significantly darker from driving with it propped on the window ledge. \nThe Chrysler has more than enough space for comfort and decoration. It's almost 20 feet long, six feet wide and weights 6,200 pounds. It gets a "fuel-efficient" 11 miles to the gallon, 12 if they were fortunate enough to be going downhill.\nWhile Wunsch already seems to have the world's largest car, he said his goal is to take that title a step further and have it be America's largest car flag.\nOn the hood is a flag drawn in permanent marker, which Wunsch intends to preserve with a clear coat of lacquer and eventually give to a museum. The blue represents the police department and the red represents both the fire department and those affected by Sept. 11, and both sections are signed by corresponding groups. \nProfessionally-made "Let's Roll America" lettering runs across the rear. A USA decal is stuck to the hood ornament, and photos of the New York City skyline are pasted to the flip headlights.\nInside is a box of blue and red Sharpies for signing, and two Sept. 11 and Notre Dame Fire Department hats rest on the dashboard.\nFather Theodore Hesburgh, retired president of Notre Dame, gave the two a blessing when they passed through the University. He blessed their car, its drivers, passengers and the sand, dirt and water they were carrying in jugs and a plastic fruit juice container. The materials were collected from both coasts and the three disaster sites. \nThe blessing was indeed successful because save for one small accident, the trip was disaster-free and the two gained access to almost anywhere they wanted to go, Wunsch said. \nThey were even on 65 television programs, some of them international.\nWunsch is also garnering local attention from passersbys who kept craning their necks to get a better view.\nIU employee Mike McAnally is one of the uninhibited few who walk right up to it, dropping his sunglasses a notch to peer at the decorations strategically placed around the car.\n"The car's great," McAnally said. "It's a nice, non-violent act that supports the victims of Sept. 11. It isn't putting anyone down or offending anyone … except the ones who did this, of course."\nTyler, a freshman at Chico University, is already back in school and recouping from the trip, but Harry is taking his sweet, publicity-filled time making his way home.\nA map of Bloomington is spread across his passenger seat with giant, $2 spectacles lying across the top so Wunsch can read and navigate better "in his old, 50-something age." \nBut he could probably do fine in Bloomington without the map or glasses, since he graduated from IU in 1974.\nWunsch said he would probably head down to Kirkwood Avenue and get a stromboli from Nick's English Hut, and that he's not too concerned about finding a legal place to park because he parks wherever he pleases.\n"Officers have never given me a ticket," Wunsch said. "I mean, they signed the car -- what are they gonna do? Kick me out? Yell at me?"\nWunsch has designs to park creatively and drive across the country again next year, only this time with his 23-year-old son, Ryan, who missed the 2002 Tour for Freedom because he had to work two jobs.\nWunsch said the trip is by far one of the most emotional experiences he's had, and he would recommend it to anyone because it helped him develop a comprehension and new perspective on Sept. 11 and its effect on the country.\n"There's nothing like going on the road and touching and feeling people's hearts -- to get to the heart of America"
(09/26/02 5:12am)
Visa woes cancel Cucho Valdes concert\nCHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- An Oct. 4 performance by Grammy Award-winning jazz pianist Chucho Valdes has been canceled because the federal government won't let the Cuban musician enter the United States. \nA new federal law enacted after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks prevented Valdes from getting the proper travel visa needed to embark on his American tour, which was scheduled for a stop at UNC-Chapel Hill next Friday. \nValdes was one of 22 Cuban musicians unable to obtain a visa in time to attend the Latin Grammy Awards in Los Angeles last week. Valdes won for best pop instrumental album, his first Grammy after decades of work. \nState Department officials said last week the performers weren't denied visas. Instead, they were required by a law enacted in May to clear a lengthy screening process, one that had not yet been completed. \nAt UNC, word came down late last week that Valdes, scheduled to kick off the Carolina Union's 2002-03 performance series, wasn't coming to town. \n"It was a huge problem, a scramble," said Don Luse, director of the Carolina Union. "As a result, we have rescheduled another performer."\nThe university quickly chose a salsa and jazz act, Ray Barretto and New World Spirit, to fill the spot. Tickets for the Valdes performance will be honored at the Barretto appearance. \nControversial Sept. 11 artwork removed\nNEW YORK -- An arts center has removed a window display of silhouettes depicting people who jumped or fell to their deaths in the World Trade Center attacks. \nThe Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning in Queens, New York said the artwork, which went up Sept. 11, was taken down on Tuesday because of complaints that it was insensitive. \nThe center had planned to show the work through Oct. 5. \nThe display -- placed in the window panes of the center's neo-Renaissance building -- is the second artwork depicting falling trade center victims to be removed in less than a week in New York. \n"I'm delighted and relieved. Taking it down was the appropriate thing to do," said Queens Borough President Helen Marshall. \nThe artist, Sharon Paz, said on her Web site: "My interest was to explore the moment of falling to bring the psychological human side of the event, the moment between life and death."\n"I think it is a strong piece, but I didn't mean in any way for it to be offensive or insensitive."\nLast Wednesday, a bronze statue of a naked woman in a somersault was removed from Rockefeller Center because of complaints. "Tumbling Woman," by Eric Fischl, had been on view about a week. \nCNN, ABC news talk about merger\nNEW YORK -- Executives have been discussing a merger of the CNN and ABC news operations, a deal that could help cut costs for troubled parent companies AOL Time Warner, Inc. and Walt Disney Co. \nBoth companies confirmed the talks, which were reported Tuesday in the Los Angeles Times, but said no deal was imminent. \nCNN, owned by AOL Time Warner, has held merger discussions with both ABC and CBS in recent years that bogged down over questions about control of the news divisions. \n"We've had conversations for the last 18 months and no deal has been reached,'' said Zenia Mucha, Disney spokeswoman. \nOne scenario being discussed would be to spin off ABC and CNN's news operations into a separate company. AOL Time Warner would own a majority stake, from two-thirds to three-quarters, with ABC's parent Disney owning the rest, according to the Times. \nThe two divisions would have a combined revenue of more than $1.6 billion, with more than $1 billion coming from CNN, the report said. \nRelations between ABC News and Disney have been tense due to the company's unsuccessful pursuit of David Letterman to take a late-night slot, upending ABC News' "Nightline." Some at ABC News felt undermined by those discussions. \nLance Bass back at Cosmonaut Center\nMOSCOW -- Pop star Lance Bass is back at Russia's cosmonaut center for a new training session, despite being excluded from the crew of a rocket heading to the international space station next month. \nThe 'N Sync singer, who was ordered to leave the Star City cosmonaut training ground earlier this month after failing to pay for the trip, has returned to the center outside Moscow, said Yuri Nikiforov, general director of Atlas Airspace. \n"He will not go in October for sure, but he just doesn't want to interrupt the program,'' Nikiforov said by telephone. He spoke after Russia's Interfax news agency quoted an unnamed official at the training center in Star City as saying officials there had decided Saturday to let Bass resume training. \nLast week, Russian space agency spokesman Sergei Gorbunov didn't deny Bass might return, but stressed that if he did he wouldn't be training for the October flight or any other space mission. \nBass began training in July, hoping to rocket away from Kazakhstan on Oct. 28, boosted by corporate sponsors and a seven-part television documentary. But TV producers failed to raise the estimated $20 million fare, and Russian space officials said on Sept. 3 that he would not be part of the crew. \nAt 23, Bass would have been the youngest person ever in space. He also would have been the third paying space tourist after California businessman Dennis Tito and South African Internet tycoon Mark Shuttleworth, who flew to the station on Russian rockets. \nJury sees video of Lennon with family\nNEW YORK -- A jury hearing Yoko Ono's case against a former assistant over her late husband's personal property watched home videos Tuesday showing John Lennon frolicking with his family in his final days. \nShot in the months before the former Beatle's 1980 murder by a deranged fan, the video was introduced at a federal trial in which Ono is accusing the former studio gofer and personal assistant of pilfering Lennon's stockpile of mementos for profit. \n"Oh, my God, it's beautiful," Lennon said off camera as he videotaped Yoko Ono and their son, Sean, then 5, rolling around on the waterfront lawn at their Long Island vacation home. \n"You're out of the shot," he said later. "You mind playing a little nearer to the camera?"\nThe video showed Frederic Seaman snapping pictures, which Ono's lawyers say was one of his official duties. \nOno, 69, sued Seaman in 1999, alleging he violated a confidentiality agreement by publishing the family photos. She also claims he profited by stealing mementos and selling them to collectors, which Seaman denies. \nTestifying for a second day, Ono accused Seaman of also raiding her late husband's wardrobe in the year following the former Beatle's death. \nThe lawsuit demands Seaman surrender the rights to 374 photos he took of Lennon, turn over about $75,000 from the sale of the rock legend's papers and pay unspecified damages.
(09/24/02 4:00am)
MERIDA, Mexico -- Residents of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula began sweeping water out of their homes and repairing rooftops early Monday after Hurricane Isidore ripped up trees, knocked out power and left at least two people dead.\nIsidore was downgraded to a tropical storm as it dumped rain across the peninsula and battered the region with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph. At 11:00 a.m. EDT, Isidore was 55 miles south of Merida and slowly drifting eastward.\nThe National Hurricane Center said the storm was expected to head west and back over the Gulf of Mexico, where it would likely regain strength and again become a hurricane on Tuesday. It could turn north--possibly toward the U.S. Gulf coast where it could hit this week. Residents of coastal Louisiana towns started heading north.\nIn Mexico, Yucatan Gov. Patricio Patron said that because of ravaged communications, officials had little immediate information about damage. He said the storm had caused at least two deaths, including one person who was electrocuted in Merida and another who was killed in a storm-related accident on a highway outside the capital.\nThe storm snapped trees and shattered windows in Merida, home to spectacular colonial buildings, delicate ecological reserves and majestic Mayan ruins that draw thousands of tourists every year. Telephone service was disrupted and roads were blocked.\n"This is a disaster. We don't have enough information, and we don't have enough communication," Patron told The Associated Press early Monday between meetings with disaster officials.\nLater, he toured the town of Motul, 20 miles northeast of Merida, where residents were starting to clean up under a light, steady rain.\n"Nothing is left," Maria Eleana Dizib said, gazing at her empty, concrete-block home, which like many others was flooded and roofless. "Everything flew away."\nAfter causing heavy flooding in western Cuba, Isidore ran along the Yucatan shore with 125 mph winds and fearsome waves on Sunday as officials tried to evacuate approximately 70,000 people from coastal communities.\nIt veered inland to the southwest Sunday afternoon. While its center barely avoided Merida, Yucatan's state capital with 800,000 residents, winds and sheets of rain shattered windows, downed trees and power lines and collapsed the balconies of elegant old houses. Almost all of Merida was left without power.\nClasses were canceled statewide so that schools could be used as temporary shelters. Nearly 150 miles east in the resort city of Cancun, rain and winds ruined beach vacations, but no major damage or injuries were reported.\nIn Merida, winds howled over toppled branches piling up in the main plaza as residents huddled in darkened homes, hotels and public buildings. The winds were strong enough to ring church bells throughout the city.\nThe state oil monopoly, Petroleos Mexicanos, evacuated more than 8,000 workers from drilling platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, leaving skeleton crews aboard.\nIsidore dumped 12 to 20 inches of rain on the sparsely populated northern coastline and caused havoc with phone and power services across the peninsula. In the coastal town of Progreso, coast guard officials said they received reports of destroyed homes.\nFar to the south, Nicaraguan officials said outer bands of rain associated with Isidore caused flooding that killed two people and forced the evacuation of others.\nAlso Monday, a tropical depression closed in on the Caribbean and was expected to become a tropical storm before crossing over the Lesser Antilles and later the Caribbean Sea, forecasters said.\n___\nOn the Net:\nNational Hurricane Center, http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/
(09/20/02 5:58am)
TEL AVIV, Israel -- A Palestinian blew himself up on a crowded bus Thursday in downtown Tel Aviv, killing at least five other people and wounding 49, the second suicide bombing in two days. In response, Israeli tanks charged into Yasser Arafat's West Bank headquarters.\nThe shrapnel-studded explosives tore through the bus on Tel Aviv's Allenby Street while it was passing through the heart of a teeming restaurant and business district at lunchtime. The driver, his body blackened, slumped at the wheel. Passengers jumped out of shattered windows.\nThere was no immediate claim of responsibility, though Israeli media outlets reported conflicting claims by the militant Palestinian groups Islamic Jihad and Hamas.\nIn the evening, as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met with his Cabinet, Israeli tanks entered Arafat's city-block-sized headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where the Palestinian leader was holed up in his offices.\nAn official inside the compound said the Israeli tanks had advanced to the area of a helicopter landing pad outside Arafat's office building, which is protected by piles of sandbags.\nIsrael has held Arafat's Palestinian Authority responsible for anti-Israeli attacks, saying it has not done enough to crack down on militants. Israeli troop have held Ramallah under siege for most of the year, with tanks breaking into the compound several times, destroying some buildings. Arafat has been confined to his office building most of the time since December.\nThe Israeli military did not comment on the new incursion, though military sources confirmed an operation was underway. Palestinian officials said two guards were injured during the incursion.\nAfter past terror attacks, hardline Israeli Cabinet ministers have called for Arafat's expulsion, but Sharon has resisted pressure to do so.\nIn other violence Thursday, a 12-year-old Palestinian boy was killed in the West Bank town of Ramallah when he broke an Israeli curfew to buy cigarettes for his father. Witnesses said he was shot by Israeli soldiers. The military said it was checking the incident. In Abu Dis, a West Bank suburb of Jerusalem, Israeli bulldozers razed the family homes of two Palestinians who blew themselves up in Jerusalem on Dec. 1, killing 11 bystanders.\nBefore this week, there had been no suicide bombings in Israel since Aug. 4. The renewed attacks came a day after Israel rejected a Palestinian proposal for a two-stage truce. Israel said the Palestinian offer to halt attacks in Israel proper during the first phase implied Palestinians still would feel free to strike Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.\nPresident Bush said he strongly condemned the back-to-back suicide bombings. "All parties must do everything they can to reject and stop violence," Bush said at a meeting in the Oval Office.\nAfter Thursday's blast, Hamas spokesman Ismail Abu Shanab told The Associated Press he expected to see "a series of operations against the Zionist enemy, as a result of the daily brutal crimes against our people." But he stopped short of claiming responsibility.\nIslamic Jihad claimed responsibility for Wednesday's attack, in which a suicide bomber blew himself at a bus stop in northern Israel, killing an Israeli policeman.\nThursday's explosion went off just after 1 p.m., outside one of the major synagogues in Tel Aviv, across the street from a Starbucks coffee shop and a block away from the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.\nHerzl Ben-Moshe, a store owner trying to rescue passengers, said he saw several people lying on the floor of the bus, including one man whose legs had been blown off. "People were yelling, 'Take us out of here,'" Ben-Moshe said.\n"People were hurting, screaming, wounded. We saw pieces of people," said Zohara Pillo, 27, a visitor from Haifa. "The driver was sitting in his seat and his hands were on the window and he was dead, he was all blackened," she said.\nThe blast scorched the bus and blew out its windows. One man with blood over his bare chest was wheeled away by paramedics. Another man sat on the sidewalk, crying. Religious volunteers in white overalls later searched the area, picking bits of flesh and placing them into plastic bags. Jewish law requires burial of the entire body.\nMark Sofer, an official in the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said that "once again, the utter bestiality of Palestinian terrorism has reared its ugly head, on a bus in Tel Aviv." Sofer held the Palestinian Authority responsible, saying it had done nothing to rein in militants.
