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(06/19/03 4:00am)
After a five-year hiatus, experimentation with orchestras, a fight with Napster and the loss of bassist Jason Newsted, Metallica returns. \nSt. Anger is a long (75-plus minutes), angry opus. With help from producer Rob Rock, who also plays subdued bass on the album, the band's mid-'90s pop sound is gone. What shines through the 11 songs is the combined rawness of Kirk Hammet's lightning-fast guitars, Lars Ulrich's bashing drums and James Hetfield's perpetually pissed-off vocals. Missing are Hammet's signature guitar solos. Annoying is the ping of Ulrich's snare drums. \nThe lyrics on St. Anger are an exploration of Hetfield's tormented soul. In the opener "Frantic," Hetfield wonders, "If I could have my wasted days back/Would I use them to get back on track?" On "St. Anger," Hetfield bears the weight of his sins around his neck. Throughout "Dirty Window," he confronts his distorted, mirrored reflection. Sure, the album's songwriting dwells in self-pity, but fans have always related to Hetfield's introspection. \nSt. Anger demonstrates Metallica's gifted ability to alternate tempo and key at breakneck speeds. Chaos never sounded so well composed. No cover songs, no weepy ballads; only savagery and intricacy. Just monstrous rock and roll from the horsemen of the apocalypse.
(06/19/03 12:08am)
After a five-year hiatus, experimentation with orchestras, a fight with Napster and the loss of bassist Jason Newsted, Metallica returns. \nSt. Anger is a long (75-plus minutes), angry opus. With help from producer Rob Rock, who also plays subdued bass on the album, the band's mid-'90s pop sound is gone. What shines through the 11 songs is the combined rawness of Kirk Hammet's lightning-fast guitars, Lars Ulrich's bashing drums and James Hetfield's perpetually pissed-off vocals. Missing are Hammet's signature guitar solos. Annoying is the ping of Ulrich's snare drums. \nThe lyrics on St. Anger are an exploration of Hetfield's tormented soul. In the opener "Frantic," Hetfield wonders, "If I could have my wasted days back/Would I use them to get back on track?" On "St. Anger," Hetfield bears the weight of his sins around his neck. Throughout "Dirty Window," he confronts his distorted, mirrored reflection. Sure, the album's songwriting dwells in self-pity, but fans have always related to Hetfield's introspection. \nSt. Anger demonstrates Metallica's gifted ability to alternate tempo and key at breakneck speeds. Chaos never sounded so well composed. No cover songs, no weepy ballads; only savagery and intricacy. Just monstrous rock and roll from the horsemen of the apocalypse.
(06/16/03 12:59am)
MECCA, Saudi Arabia -- The Saudi government said Sunday it foiled "an imminent terrorist" attack with an overnight raid on a bomb-filled, booby-trapped apartment in the holy city of Mecca that left five suspects and two security agents dead.\nIt was not clear if the raid was linked to Saudi Arabia's crackdown since suicide bomb attacks May 12 targeting Western residential compounds in the capital Riyadh. The attacks, blamed on al Qaeda, killed 26 people, including nine Americans. Nine Saudi attackers also died.\nAt least five people were arrested in the raid, including two Chadians, an Egyptian and a Saudi, a Saudi interior ministry official said.\nThe unidentified official, whose remarks were carried by the official Saudi Press Agency and state television, said a number of other suspects also were arrested in Mecca, Islam's holiest city, 450 miles west of the capital, following the raid. He did not elaborate.\nAt about 9:30 p.m., Saudi security agents broke into an apartment in al-Khalidiya district about three miles from Mecca's main mosque, where "a group of terrorists ... were preparing an imminent terrorist act," the official said. He did not say what the intended target was and gave no other details on the alleged plot.\nFive suspects were killed in a gun battle initiated by the "terrorists," he said. Two police were killed and five injured; and four bystanders were slightly injured, the official said.\nThe official said the apartment was booby-trapped with explosives. Some 72 bombs of different sizes were found in the apartment along with a number of weapons, including semiautomatic rifles and knives, and communication devices, bomb-making materials and masks.\nSaudi authorities, accused of acting too slowly against Islamic extremism after the Sept. 11 attacks, have taken pains to show their commitment to fighting terrorism in the kingdom, the birthplace of bin Laden and 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers.\nIn a report Sunday, the Saudi newspaper Okaz had said the violence started when traffic police tried to stop a car whose occupants fired on officers and fled to the apartment building.\nThe Interior Ministry did not mention the attempted traffic stop.\nSecurity was unusually tight in Mecca on Sunday, with troops stopping cars for searches and to check drivers' identification on the outskirts and at checkpoints scattered throughout the city. A number of police patrolled inside and outside Mecca's Al-Nur hospital, where those wounded Saturday were taken.\nAbdul Khaliq Reheem Sheik, a 50-year-old Indian driver who was being treated for cuts at Al-Nur Sunday, said three masked men holding guns had approached him as he washed his employer's car in Mecca's al-Khalidiya district Saturday night.\nThe men demanded he drive them away from the area, Sheik told The Associated Press. When he refused, they shot at the car's windows, apparently to frighten him, and he was injured by flying glass. The three then drove away in the car, leaving Sheik behind. It was not clear if the three were still being sought or were among those killed or arrested Saturday night.\nHelicopters hovered over al-Khalidiya into the early hours of Sunday. Sunday afternoon, dozens of police and special forces troops armed with rifles could be seen around the three-story apartment building, whose facade was pocked with bullet holes. Residents who had been kept out overnight were being allowed back in the area, after first stopping at a police check point to have their identities checked and cars searched.\nOfficials have reported violence linked to the crackdown on extremism only once before since May 12. On May 31, Yosif Salih Fahd Ala'yeeri was killed in a gunfight with police in northern Saudi Arabia. He was allegedly carrying a letter written by al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.\nEarlier, Saudi authorities had announced the arrests of a number of people in Medina, Islam's second holiest city, 540 miles west of the capital. Saudi authorities had said the arrests were peaceful, but security in and around Medina has been tight.\nLast week, a Western diplomat said at least seven suspects linked to the Riyadh bombings have died since those attacks, some in clashes with Saudi authorities. The diplomat had no details.\nMecca is the birthplace of Islam and its seventh-century prophet, Muhammad, and the focus of the annual pilgrimage known as the hajj. Muhammad is buried in Medina. Reports of police clashes in those cities could anger Islamic militants who already accuse Saudi authorities of being little more than puppets of the "infidel" United States.
(06/05/03 12:49am)
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Using bulldozers, backhoes and loaders, U.S. Army combat engineers dug through a rubble-filled crater Wednesday, trying to determine whether Saddam Hussein died in an April 7 airstrike on the house where he was believed to be hiding.\nThe site was attacked two days before U.S. forces took control of the capital. The U.S. military said at the time that it had reliable information that Saddam and members of his family and entourage were there.\n"For us to expend the amount of money it took to destroy this place, it must have been a key target," said Maj. Scott Slaten of the newly arrived 1st Armored Division, which is now assuming responsibility for Baghdad.\nAn engineering unit of the Utah National Guard was excavating the site and moving the rubble to an undisclosed location to be examined for human remains, Slaten said.\nThe United States does not know Saddam's fate. Video allegedly taken on April 9 showed him atop a vehicle waving to supporters in the Azamiyah neighborhood. But U.S. officials question the accuracy of the footage.\nFor the six weeks that followed the end of fighting, the two-floor home in the upscale Mansour district -- in which at least 14 civilians are believed to have died -- was left mostly undisturbed.\nOn Wednesday afternoon, Lt. Gen. David McKiernan -- commander of U.S. ground troops in Iraq -- said searchers combing through the rubble in al-Mansour had not yet come across any DNA that would prove that Saddam had been killed.\n"We don't have any evidence of any blacklisted remains," he said, adding that U.S. troops searched the site after they occupied Baghdad.\nDozens of U.S. troops, three Bradley fighting vehicles and concertina wire protected the engineers clearing the debris.\n"We did this initially, (but) it's been apparent that we didn't do a thorough enough job," McKiernan said. "We will account for Saddam Hussein (and his sons) Qusai and Odai at some point."\nOfficers said they expected to be done with excavation by June 11. Crews were expected to remain for another week to 10 days to repair nearby homes damaged in the airstrikes and to clean the site and surrounding street.\n"There's nothing interesting here, just a lot of rubble," said Pfc. Walter Phillips, 30, of Chicago, as he stood near his backhoe at the edge of a 15-foot crater.\nIraqis nearby doubted whether the soldiers would find the remains of Saddam, who they suspect was hiding at another house, just yards away.\n"No, no -- Saddam ran away. He's hiding," said Munther Meki, a grocer whose shop -- its front window gone and shelves empty -- is next to the destroyed house.\nMeki said Saddam's government rented a small house opposite the targeted building about six months ago and that official-looking vehicles were parked outside before and during the war.\n"Nobody knew for sure if it was Saddam or someone else," Meki said.\nExcept for the broken windows, the empty, unfurnished house appeared structurally undamaged. Its metal doors were held shut with a heavy chain and lock, and the interior was littered with smashed glass and broken bricks.
(06/02/03 12:26am)
Of the roads surrounding the IU campus, 17th Street, Third Street and Atwater Avenue offer the greatest chance to nab speeders for officers of the IU Police Department. That's why the officers set up "speed traps" more often in these high-traffic areas than any other, IUPD Officer Brice Boembeke said.\nBoembeke said 17th Street has a lot of speeders because it's a long, straight road with virtually no stops. Third Street measures up about the same. In addition, Atwater's speed limit is 25 mph, and Boembeke said most people don't like traveling that slow.\n"Who wants to drive 25 miles an hour," Boembeke said. "We have so many violations on Atwater because people are used to driving 35 mph or above, and they don't make the jump down to 25 when they hit Atwater."\nBoembeke said traffic stops are a necessary thing to keep drivers following the "rules of the road."\nWhen a driver is pulled over by a police officer, the officer has a great deal of "officer's discretion" in whether or not to issue a ticket. If you are pulled over, however, it's very likely that the officer has decided whether or not to give you a ticket before you hand over your license and registration, he said. \nBut many drivers think they can talk their way out of the ticket they're going to get, he said.\n"Most people actually wind up talking themselves into a ticket," Boembeke said. "People say to me, 'I have to get to work.' \n"So leave earlier," he said.\nFor typical speed traps, Boembeke said he looks for places to set-up and watch traffic in areas that give him a high-level of visibility, which equates to a greater amount of time for him to clock traffic and make a decision on whether or not to pull a car over. He said he also looks for areas that give him varying levels of concealment and easy access to traffic. Boembeke said his favorite spot on campus is the Memorial Stadium parking lot adjacent to 17th Street and Fess Avenue; he said this position leaves him totally exposed to serve as a sort of a visual deterrent. This method, Boembeke said, is an effort to get drivers to police themselves instead of him or another officer doing it. \nBut he said he sometimes likes to keep a low profile -- virtually concealed so drivers can't slow down until he flips on the lights and is calling in their license plate to the dispatcher. Boembeke said he has a "favorite spot" for this on Third Street.\nWhile Boembeke was running a speed trap Friday from the Memorial Stadium parking lot, a gray Ford F-150 pickup blew down 17th Street and was clocked going 52 mph in a 30-mph zone. \nBoembeke dropped the radar gun. All in one fluid motion, he used his left hand to throw his Ford Crown Victoria model Police Interceptor into drive and flip on his red and blue warning lights. With a blow or two of his airhorn, he gunned his engine and swung the patrol car into traffic heading west on 17th. \nBoembeke had to speed up to over 65 mph in order to catch up to Richard E. Pearson of Bloomington.\n"'What did I do? I was just following traffic,'" Boembeke said Pearson asked during the initial encounter once he approached the car.\nBoembeke said he decided to pull over Pearson because he was going well over the 15 mph grace he sometimes allows drivers. He said he felt he had no choice but to pull over Pearson and issue him a traffic ticket.\n"He was going faster than everyone else," Boembeke said. "I was looking at the crowd of cars, and you get a feel for everybody's driving. You have to make a judgement call of not pulling over the ones keeping up with traffic, and pulling over those who stick out."\nSome of the dangers with traffic stops for police officers don't always lie in an armed encounter; many are associated with sharp tongues.\nIUPD Lt. Jerry Minger recalls a traffic stop he conducted several years ago at the corner of Third and High Streets.\nMinger said he was working the graveyard shift from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. when he saw a man speeding down Third Street at around 1 a.m. Minger said he pulled the driver over because he felt the driver may have been driving under the influence. \n"The most rude person in the world," Minger said of the man he pulled over.\nHe said the driver became belligerent, which Minger said he felt provoked into being angry in return. Minger said he behaved calm and cool through the entire encounter until the driver got out of Minger's squad car, where he was being detained for questioning, and slammed the car door so hard it made the car shake. Minger said he made the driver close the door quietly. The driver then returned to his own car and slammed that door so hard, Minger said, the window glass shattered all over the street.\nMinger said in situations like that it's very hard for officers to convey an attitude of professionalism and courtesy.\n"It is a challenge because sometimes it seems like they want to aggravate us," Minger said. "But that's why we teach cadets and officers to retain their composure and not get angry."\nJunior Hillary Morrow said she's no stranger to being pulled over by the police. She said one time she was driving late at night around Bloomington when she was pulled over by a Bloomington Police Department officer. The officer said she committed a rolling stop, failed to yield and was going 50 mph in a 25-mph zone.\n"He was not nice," said Morrow of the officer who pulled her over. But she wasn't given a ticket or a written warning, she said. Instead, the officer simply cautioned her not to drive when she was fatigued.\n"I realize they're doing their job, but they could explain a little more clearly why you're pulled over," Morrow said.
(04/24/03 5:23am)
Dave Hurst has kept a file of thank you notes close to his desk for the past 11 years. But they aren't for scholarship recommendations, although he has written his share. The file makes for a remarkable history album of IU's development. The thank you notes are from faculty, staff, students and parents writing to thank Hurst and his colleagues for a beautiful campus.\nAs Campus Division Manager, Hurst is part of an on-going effort to keep the campus aesthetically pleasing to the eyes of visitors and residents. \nIn 1991, Thomas Gaines compiled a list of 100 campuses and evaluated them for urban space, the quality of architecture, landscaping and overall visual and physical appeal. IU was fifth on the list only after Stanford, Princeton, Wellesley and Colorado universities.\nBut keeping the campus beautiful is not the only task for the Campus Division.\n"We're in charge of all campus grounds except for the athletic facilities," Hurst said.\nWhatever happens on campus, the division knows. \nDIVIDE AND CONQUER\nThe IU campus spans more than 2,000 acres, with a crew of 35 to 50 groundskeepers concentrating on a central 300 acres that have become one of IU's many claims to fame. Hurst said the crews used to consist of around 60 to 65 people. But budget cuts and the 24-7 aspect of the job have diminished the number of crew members, leaving the remaining crews covering a large amount of acreage.\n"We could use more people, but we make do," Hurst said. "Every department on campus feels that way, I think."\nHurst and his colleagues have divided the campus into four quadrants. Each quadrant has its own crew to take care of planting, cleaning, mowing and repairs. In addition, a crew of certified arborists also calls Campus Division home. A construction crew to take care of all outdoor construction and a plant nursery crew to take care of the seedlings complete the roster. \nThe crews take care of trees: removing dry branches and fallen trees as well as planting new ones.\nEach grounds crew is equipped to deal with a diverse range of situations -- from planting flowers and setting up hanging baskets to cleaning up snow, fallen trees and ice. \n"We have the equipment a small town this size would have," Hurst said. "We can deal with everything that comes our way."\nThe crews also cooperate with other divisions of the department of the Physical Plant. If the Utilities Division needs to dig, the Campus Division has the equipment -- a large backhoe. Campus buildings managers also call on the Campus Division in time of need -- to help install window panes on top floors, build a new garden around the building or help clean up ice on the roofs. \nThe Division also helps preserve campus memory -- Hurst and his colleagues built a plaza honoring Herman B Wells between Owen and Maxwell Halls in 2000. \nFLOWERS AS FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE\nGroundskeepers began planting annual flowers Monday. First, the crews are concentrating on the upcoming commencement ceremonies -- planting flowers around Memorial Stadium, the Indiana Memorial Union and other prominent places on campus. Commencement begins a nearly six-week planting season that includes planting flowers that will last through early fall. \n"We want to make sure the campus looks as nice as possible for commencement," Hurst said. \nAround the campus, tulips and daffodils have been in full bloom, but they are dying out right now. The tulips have been in the ground since Thanksgiving. The bulbs are genetically altered so three varieties of tulips look exactly the same but grow differently. Early, middle and late-bloom tulips mix to create a constant growth of new flowers during most of April. \nThe flowers now at the nursery on the north side of campus are ready to be planted. It takes anywhere from four to six weeks to plant more than 30,000 annuals, including vinca, salvia, wave petunias, pansies and hanging baskets of geraniums. The color scheme changes, but the flowers have remained the same throughout the past several years, said nursery supervisor Carl Scott. This summer's color scheme includes a range of red and cream tones to go along with IU's recent change in school colors. The pansies add a touch of blue and yellow to the red tulips. \n"We like to stay with what everybody likes," Scott said. "These varieties work well for the conditions we have."\nIn the fall, the work isn't done. In fact, it's just beginning. Crews will have to till the tulip beds to prepare them for the Thanksgiving bulb planting. And mums that have been growing near the greenhouses will have to be planted. These will last through the early frost. \nWORKING FOR THE STUDENTS \nTwo weeks before the students come back, crews will be back on campus working hard to make it even more attractive to students and parents. \nAfter the summer, students will see some changes on campus. Hurst said crews are in the process of rebuilding the sunken garden on the southeastern side of the IMU, facing the Chemistry building. The garden will be ready for the fall with flowers adorning the corner of the Union. Hurst said groundskeepers will plant some wave petunias, which will wind onto the Union wall and maybe even survive the winter. \nWATER, AIR, SOIL … AND TRASH?\nAs Mark Twain once said, Indiana weather changes every 10 minutes. Campus Division must learn to cope with the diverse effects of weather -- whether dry and humid or cold and windy. The trained gardeners can identify problem areas. \nGetting rid of weeds and watering the plants in the summer are among the top priorities for the season. \n"We've created our own monster," Hurst said. "Water and fertilizer make weeds grow too."\nWeed whipping is the priority task in the summer. Hurst's division even hires some students who help with the task. Hurst said the summer employees like the work because it's outside. \nBecause the campus isn't as populated and busy in the summer, Campus Division employees have a better chance to take care of problematic areas as they appear. \nPlant and soil disease is another threat to the beauty of the campus. This year, the soil in the shipment of geraniums was suspected of having disease. Nursery workers quarantined the entire shipment for two weeks to make sure the soil was not contaminated. \nBut if you ask Hurst, the Campus Division manager, the biggest challenge to his job isn't the weeds, the inclement weather or budget cuts. He says his biggest challenge is the trails of trash that lead to the residence hall food courts. With students on the go, Hurst said he sees a tendency not to dispose of trash properly. \nOn the other hand, taking care of the campus has been a rewarding experience for Hurst and his colleagues. Despite the occasional middle-of-the-night phone call asking to remove a fallen branch or clean up snow, the thank you notes Hurst keeps remind him and his colleagues of the reason they work so hard.\n"It's very gratifying for me to know that our guys have kept this campus so beautiful," Hurst said. "I'm very proud of keeping the campus beautiful for all occasions"
(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.
