Standard-Speaker from Hazleton, Pennsylvania • Page 3

Hazleton Standard-Speaker, Friday, July 5, 1996 3 Holiday World briefs Terrorists made failed attack on shopping center dissident of dollars of business with Saudi Arabia. In March, a judge blocked his expulsion and the government agreed to let him stay for four years. Troops (Continued from page 1) In Sarajevo, U.S. troops threw a bash for themselves and others taking part in the 32-nation peace force. The fireworks were Hungarian, the parachutists French, the food Italian but the suds were American.

Fireworks are normally out of the question in war theaters, but Brig. Gen. John B. Sylvester, the operations deputy chief-of-staff in Bosnia, said he made an ex LONDON (AP) Terrorists tried to bomb a Saudi Arabian shopping center frequented by American civilians three days before the lethal attack on a U.S. military complex in Dhahran, a Saudi dissident said Thursday.

"The most worrying aspect is those who planted the bomb are obviously regarding every American as the enemy. That is most dangerous," said Mohammed al-Masari, who publishes reports from his London base on alleged human rights abuses by the Saudi royal family. Al-Masari told reporters the earlier bombing attempt was at a shopping mall in Jeddah, and that the bomb was defused. He said he received the information from three sources in Saudi Arabia, including one in the security services. "It seems as though it was a small package, but it would have been devastating," al-Masari said.

He did not specify what group planted the bomb or who defused it, or say whether American authorities were aware of the alleged attempt. His claim could not immediately be confirmed. In a statement, he said that the June 23 bombing at a U.S. Air Force base in Dhahran was part of a larger campaign. "It is only one manifestation of evolving reality of the coming battle being forced on all Muslims, not only those of the Arabian Peninsula, by the U.S.

occupation of Arabia and the existence of the illegitimate, racist and genocidal Zionist state of Israel," read the statement from his Committee for the Defense of Legitimate Rights. Another Saudi appearing at a news conference said anti-government forces believe "all foreign forces in the country are legitimate targets." "We do advise the Western public and people to put pressure on their regimes to withdraw their forces otherwise there will be many casualties," said Omar Bakri Mohammed, founder of al-Muhajiroun, an Islamic group based in Britain. A member of a leading Saudi family and a physics professor at King Saud University, al-Masari was arrested in May 1993 and held for six months before he fled to Britain. He said he was tortured while in custody. Britain denied him asylum and wanted to expel him, saying his presence jeopardized billions Fire ception because the mission has been peaceful.

Staff Sgt. Koley Scott, a native of Decatur 111., organized the Sarajevo party. Scott said he collected what he could from where he could: Fireworks were flown in from Hungary, ribs and burgers from Naples and beer from back home. He would not say where he found ice, a rare commodity in Sarajevo: 'That's top-secret." Many of the troops at Tuzla headquarters were given time off so they could attend the celebration. They played basketball, horseshoes, volleyball and tug-of-war.

They munched on hamburgers and chicken barbecued on open grills. They swigged alcohol-free beer from Germany and tried to imagine it was the real thing. But the high point was the show. Spc. Michael Grubb came not to hear the band but to ogle the cheerleaders.

"But don't tell my wife," joked the 29-year-old radio operator from Baltimore, Ohio. The cheerleaders also appeared at Independence Day parties at some of the Americans' other Bosnia camps. "I think we really boosted these guys' morale," said Tara Snellbacher, a 22-year-old cheerleader from Sunnyvale, Calif. "We brought a little bit of home to them," said 24-year-old Emily Camarema of Fresno, Calif. (Continued from page 1) little excitement.

They just got a lot more than they wanted." Todd Hall, 24, of Proctorville, was charged with eight counts of involuntary manslaughter and jailed pending an arraignment today. The charge carries up to 25 years in prison. Lawrence County Prosecutor J.B. Collier Jr. said Hall suffered a head injury years ago that may have affected his mental behavior.

He wouldn't elaborate, but said a psychological evaluation was planned. Three other people were questioned and released, the sheriffs department said. Burcham said the building was full of fire when he arrived about five minutes after the fire was reported, through a 911 line the county had put into operation only two hours earlier. Investigators continued to search the debris inside the cinderblock walls Thursday. The store, in a wooded hollow near the West Virginia line, was open only the three weeks before the Fourth of July each year in this village of 50 people, about 100 miles southeast of Columbus.

Authorities were using dental records to confirm the victim's identities. But Coroner Burton Payne said he believes that three were from West Virginia and one from Gallia County. Four of the injured were still hospitalized Thursday, three in critical condition, said Paulette Price, a nursing supervisor at Cabell Huntington Hospital in Huntington, W.Va. The others were treated and released. Collier said he hoped to present evidence to a county grand jury meeting on July 18.

Family of 11 massacred ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) A family of 1 1 was massacred Thursday outside the town of Faisalabad in northern Pakistan. The family included four women and three children, the state-run news agency reported. The oldest slain was 70-year-old Fateh Mohammed. Police were investigating whether the family was involved in a feud. In Pakistan's rural regions, longstanding family feuds often result in the slayings of entire families.

Faisalabad is a Punjab town 160 miles south of Islamabad. Copter strafes boat, kills 6 PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (AP) A Papua New Guinean helicopter strafed a boatload of suspected Bougainville separatists in Solomon Islands' waters, killing six people. The Solomons are located near Papua New Guinea's mineral-rich island of Bougainville, where hundreds of people have been killed during an eight-year secessionist war. Bougainville rebels often have sought shelter in the Solomons, and their spokesman used to operate from its capital, Honiara. Newspapers in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea's capital, on Thursday quoted defense force commander, Brig.

Gen. Jerry Singirok, as saying that boat's crew had fired first at the helicopter. The Solomons' foreign minister protested Tuesday's shooting to his Papua New Guinea counterpart. Floods claim at least 121 BEIJING (AP) Summer floods and landslides have killed at least 121 people in southeastern China, and soldiers have been rushed in to rescue 200,000 others stranded by the deluge, the government said Thursday. The twin calamities have forced nearly 450,000 people from their homes and caused more than $1.2 billion in damage in the southeastern provinces of Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Jiangsu and the southwestern province of Guizhou, the Civil Affairs Ministry in Beijing said.

It urged that international and domestic relief aid be sent immediately to the stricken areas. Soldiers in the four southeastern provinces mobilized members of reserve and militia units to rescue 200,000 people, protect state property and transport supplies, the state-run Xinhua news agency said. The disaster area spread on Thursday. Parts of Hunan and Hubei in central China were flooded and Sichuan province in the southwest su ffered landslides after days of heavy rains, the agency reported. Athens under pollution alert ATHENS, Greece (AP) With the temperature in the parched capital reaching 102 degrees, the government banned cars and half of Athens' 14,000 taxis from the city center Thursday.

The traffic ban, intended to prevent air pollution buildup, was in effect in the five-square-mile center from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. and from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday.

The temperature was expected to reach 102 degrees again Friday. By early afternoon, ambulances had ferried 138 people to hospitals with heart and breathing problems from the heat, the National First Aid Center said. Industries in the Athens area were asked to reduce production by 30 percent from 6 a.m. Thursday through Friday to cut emissions. About 4 million of Greece's 10 million people live in the metropolitan area, which is also home to most of the country's industry.

Air pollution builds up quickly in hot, windless weather because the city is built on a coastal plain surrounded by mountains on three sides. Arctic Circle wanders OSLO, Norway (AP) Tourists who have taken pictures of themselves crossing the Arctic Circle may have to come back and take them over again the circle isn't where they were told it was. The Oslo newspaper Verdens Gang revealed Thursday that the Arctic Circle has moved, and is now 913 yards north of where everyone thought it was. "This is like the devil arriving," moaned Alf-Eirik Hansen, who runs The Arctic Circle Center, a cafe, souvenir shop and museum that draws about 230,000 visitors a year, largely because it supposedly straddles the line. Verdens Gang explained that the true Arctic Circle is defined as the northernmost point that the sun can be seen on the shortest day of the year.

It said that point moves a few yards a year because of variations in the Earth's rotation. "If we were going to keep up, we'd have to jack the whole center up and put it on wheels," joked Hansen at the center, which is near the town of Mo i Rana, about 435 miles north of Oslo. Hansen said he doesn't feel obliged to tell tourists, since maps support the center's claim by putting the Arctic Circle at 66.33 degrees north latitude, or right through the center of the Arctic Circle Center. "Besides, it's an invisible, imaginary line," he said. "And it will come back someday." Scientists predict that the Circle will start moving south again in years.

Bomber kills 21 in Sri Lanka COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) A Tamil suicide bomber with explosives strapped to her body leapt at a government minister's motorcade Thursday in Jaffna city, killing a senior army commander and 20 other people. Nearly 50 people, including the minister, were wounded in the first major Tamil Tiger attack on the Jaffna peninsula since government forces captured the rebel stronghold seven months ago. The military officer in charge of northern Jaffna city, Brig. Ananda Hamangoda, died in the assassination attempt, said Brig. Sarath Munasinghe, the military spokesman.

Also killed were the chairman of the state-owned Lanka Cement two police constables, a retired police superintendent working for the minister, four soldiers, other government officials and 10 civilians. (Continued from page 1) "Before today, you had homes in 34 countries all over the world," said Richard Moe, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. "After today, you all have the same home: America." In addition to the traditional parades, fireworks and other celebrations, in towns large and small, Americans took note of Independence Day 1996: Campaigning in Youngstown, Ohio, President Clinton told a crowd of about 5,000 that he had just seen the movie "Independence Day," in which alien spaceships destroy the White House. "I hope it's there when I get back," he joked. In Rhode Island, the 211th Bristol Independence Day Parade, the oldest continuous one in the country, attracted nearly 250,000 onlookers.

It began in 1785 as a prayerful walk to celebrate independence from the rule of King George III of England. In Irondequoit, N.Y., couples rose from their deck chairs, 1 children waved little flags and cheers rang out loudly for the Vietnam War veterans at the Lake Ontario town's parade. "I think they've been slighted so long that people feel a special attachment to them," said Ross Willink, 70, a retired school administrator. In Luckenbach, Texas, singer Willie Nelson had his somewhat annual Fourth of July picnic for about 10,000 fans, this year benefiting drought-stricken farmers in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. In Los Angeles, rival Independence Day demonstrations On illegal immigration turned violent.

Six people were injured when protesters struck each other with fists, picket signs and filled soda cans. In Arleta, Joe Crowley, 74, saluted about a dozen flags that fluttered in front of his house as "Taps" blared over a loudspeaker, a ceremony he has repeated every day since a terrorist bomb killed 19 American servicemen in Saudi Arabia in June. "This is not just some light thing," said Crowley, a combat engineer in World War II. "It's very precious to all of us." In New York, 1,234 people, many of them homeless and also veterans, lined up at a Manhattan church soup kitchen for cheeseburgers, baked beans, potato salad, ice cream sundaes and lemonade. Red, white and blue streamers and stars lent a festive-as-possible ambiance.

Eight teen-age visitors from Canton, Ohio, gave up their holiday to help serve the holiday meal. Former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres and Jordan's King Hussein were honored with the Philadelphia Liberty Medal for their efforts to bring peace to the Middle East. "Preventing hatred of your fellow man, and extending love to him, are the two sides of true liberty," Peres said as he accepted the medal in a ceremony outside historic Independence Hall. "Liberty is not merely individualism, but also a social commitment, the creation of a system of social values which respects human life and safeguards human dignity." Peres also paid tribute to former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was shot and killed Nov. 4 at a peace rally in Tel Aviv.

"He paid with his life but did not abandon his task," Peres said. "He was murdered. His mission will continue." Hussein, who did not attend, sent his regrets in a message read by Jordanian Ambassador Fayez Tarawneh. The ceremony was the centerpiece of city celebrations marking the 220th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, which was adopted July 4, 1776, in Independence Hall. "For us, this medal symbolizes liberty from war," Peres said.

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