The Courier-News from Bridgewater, New Jersey • Page 3

THE COURIER-NEWS NATIONWORLD WEDNESDAY. APRIL 27, 1 994 A-3 JAPAN -ft V. Associated Press photo Rescue workers search for survivors in the wreckage of the China Airlines A300-600R Airbus that crashed on landing at an airport in Nagoya, 170 miles west of Tokyo, after a flight from Taiwan on Tuesday night. At least 261 people were killed. plane failed in an attempt to pull back up just before landing.

The right wing touched the ground just before the crash, Chang Tai-hsih, chief of the China Airlines branch in Japan, told reporters. Chang and others discounted reports of engine trouble in Taipei before the flight to Nagoya. Another witness told NHK the plane hit nose-first near the start of the runway and appeared not to have had its landing gear down. Three explosions followed and the plane erupted in flames, he added. Airport officials said they could not confirm if the landing gear was down, or give any information on the crash's likely cause.

Hours after the crash, about 3,000 police, firemen and troops were cautiously lifting wreckage with cranes and searching by hand for bodies. "When I got to the plane, it looked so bad that I thought everyone must have died. But then I heard a woman calling in pain for help and I called for a stretcher and we rescued her," said Takahide Miyagi, an assistant fire chief. The plane crashed several hundred The crash in Nagoya is Japan's second worst aviation disaster. NAGOYA, Japan (AP) A Taiwanese jet apparently trying to abort a landing crashed, exploded and burned beside an airport runway Tuesday night, killing 261 people.

Ten people survived. The crash of the China Airlines A300-600R Airbus was Japan's second worst aviation disaster. Minutes before the crash, pilot Wang Lo-chi radioed that he would abandon his landing attempt and try again, a Transport Ministry official said. The pilot gave no reason. In his last tranmission, he said only: "Going around." A survivor identified as Sylvanie Detonio of the Philippines was quoted by Fuji TV as saying passengers had no warning the plane was in trouble.

Flight 140 carried 256 passengers, including two infants, and 15 crew, bound from Taipei, Taiwan, to Nagoya. Most were from Japan or Taiwan. A witness interviewed on the Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) said the SPENDING SPACE Launch scrubbed at last minute A bad battery on a crucial destruction system forced the last-minute cancellation of Tuesday's planned launch of a Titan 4 rocket and its top-secret cargo, Air Force officials said. The rocket's mission to deliver a top-secret satellite to orbit is being delayed until at least Thursday as a result.

The 20-story Titan came within 17 seconds of getting off the ground. ARMED SERVICES Navy goes after gay officer again The Navy is trying for a second time to discharge an officer who acknowledged his homosexuality a day after the inauguration of President Clinton, who had pledged to lift the ban against gays in the military. The Navy has asked Lt. j.g. Richard Dirk Selland to appear before a board of inquiry to tell officials why he feels he should not be discharged.

No date has been set for the hearing. Selland, who is stationed in Norfolk, told his commanding officer on Jan. 21, 1993, that he was gay, believing that the ban would soon be lifted. INVESTIGATION Rif kin may have had 17 victims Testing on cups of blood found in a wheelbarrow in Joel Rifkin's garage indicate that the confessed serial killer may have had more than the 17 victims he admitted to, a Nassau prosecutor said Tuesday. A blood expert testifying Tuesday at Rifkin's Nassau County murder trial said that the tests conducted on the blood show that it was a few days to a month old.

yards to the right of the runway. Had it gone 200 yards more straight ahead, it would have hit a housing area. The jet ended up just short of hangars of an Air Self-Defense Forces base at the airport. The airmen's quick response was credited with saving lives. Kenji Hayashi, airport manager for China Airlines, said the passengers included 153 Japanese and 101 foreigners, many from Taiwan.

The two infants aboard were believed to be Japanese. The A300-600R, a twin-engine wide-body jet, has not been involved in a crash before, but other A300 models have been involved in six accidents. Reports conflicted as to whether the plane's voice recorder was recovered. The worst aviation accident in Japan and the worst single-plane accident anywhere occurred on Aug. 12, 1985, when a Japan Airlines Boeing 747 crashed into a mountain on a domestic flight, killing 520 people.

Officials said a Filipino, two Taiwanese and seven Japanese survived. Fire official Yoshihito Horiba said many bodies were too badly mangled to identify even by age or gender. Some were thrown hundred of yards from the plane, he said. The bodies, wrapped in blankets, were placed in four large tents set up near the wreckage. A spokesman for Airbus Industrie said the company plans to send an investigative team to the site in Nagoya, 170 miles west of Tokyo.

Gallo says HUD budget priorities are 'all wet' At issue is funding for a program that provides loans for housing construction for senior citizens and the disabled. By DAVID BAUMAN Gannett News Service The Parsippany-Troy Hills Republican, on his first day back on the job since his March 4 hip replacement surgery, called the Department of Housing and Urban Development's budget priorities "all wet" during a House subcommittee hearing. Addressing HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros, who was on hand to defend the administration's spending blueprint before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Veterans Affairs, HUD and Independent Agencies, Gallo charged: "New Jersey, which has one of the highest senior citizen populations in the nation, would be disproportionately hit by this ill-conceived budget." Gallo also told Cisneros that the proposals posed Section 202 funding would cut the program "by more than 90 percent." Gallo, citing a recent telephone survey con-' ducted in New Jersey's 11th Congressional District, told Cisijeros that more than 2,500 senior citizens are on waiting lists for public housing units. "Thousands of senior citizens in my district need assistance and qualify for it, but for every available unit there are three individuals on a waiting list," Gallo said. "The senior housing program is being so gutted by the Clinton administration that the na-tional program in its entirety isn't enough to meet the backlog in my district alone," he charged.

"are another example of efforts to shortchange our seniors." At issue is funding for the Section 202 program that provides federal loans for construction of new units of housing for senior citizens and the disabled. Cisneros, acting on President Clinton's 1995 budget proposals, drafted HUD's budget calling for 18 new programs worth $3.8 billion while making deep cuts in existing programs. Among those is the Section 202 program. HUD's 1995 budget requests only $150 million in construction aid for 1,156 units, down from $1.2 billion for 9,000 units in fiscal 1994. "I object to a federal policy that victimizes our seniors," declared Gallo, noting the pro- WASHINGTON Describing himself as "totally dismayed," Rep.

Dean Gallo of New Jersey on Tuesday denounced President Clinton's plan to spend more money to combat homeless-ness and cut funding for public housing for the elderly. MEMORIAL ISRAEL Shooting sparks demonstrations Demonstrations broke out in Hebron Tuesday after Israeli troops killed a Palestinian they said tried to stab a soldier. Palestinian witnesses said the shooting was unprovoked. The Islamic militant group Hamas, meanwhile, claimed responsibility for killing an Israeli soldier. And officials said two Israeli Arabs were among 27 Palestinians arrested overnight for a suicide bombing of a bus two weeks ago.

Nixon comes home for the last time V', Robert Foley, convicted of murdering four people in 1989 and stuffing their bodies in a septic tank, will be sentenced in Richmond, Ky. NATURAL DISASTER Twister kills 3, destroys 200 homes A building that once housed a bank robbed by Bonnie and Clyde lost all of its second floor. LANCASTER, Texas (AP) A business district dating to the years just after the Civil War was left in ruins Tuesday after a tornado smashed through town, killing three people. As many as 200 homes also were destroyed. "I think there's a lot of hard days ahead, a lot of them," Police Chief Mac McGuire said.

A building that once housed a bank robbed by Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker lost all of its second floor except for a corner facade. A mattress dangled from a tree in front of the 119-year-old Odd Fellows Hall, which lost much of its second floor. The twister struck this former cotton farming region Monday evening. The area has become one of Dallas' fastest-developing suburbs. The deadly weather moved north Tuesday to Gainesville 70 miles away.

A tornado heavily damaged a WOULD Uliil II Associated Press photo Mary Ann Metee of Lancaster, Texas, holds an antique bowl and an Elvis autograph that she found in the remains of her home Tuesday morning. A tornado struck Lancaster and Desoto, Texas, late Monday night killing at least three people. commander in chief," said Bernice L. Collins, an 81-year-old former Nixon campaign worker who sat in a wheelchair nearby. Nixon's daughters, Tricia Cox and Julie Eisenhower, their husbands and four children accompanied the casket on the flight from Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh, N.Y.

The Boeing 707, which was one of two designated Air Force One during the Nixon administration, touched down about 12:30 p.m. The final journey began at the Van-der Plaat Funeral Home in Wyckoff, N. where Nixon's body was brought after his death in a New York hospital Friday night. The former president was laid out in a blue suit, said William Brock, one of the funeral home owners. When the casket arrived at Stewart, howitzers boomed a 21-gun salute and a band played "Hail to the Chief" during a 20-minute ceremony.

A Marine honor guard stood at attention, holding a gun as a tear streamed down his cheek. In California, the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing Band played "Ruffles and Flourishes," "Hail to the Chief" and "America the Beautiful" as four howitzer cannon gave another 21-gun salute. There were no speeches and no prayers at either ceremony. Hundreds of mourners fell silent as the hearse pulled up to the Richard Nixon Library Birthplace. YORBA LINDA, Calif.

(AP) Former President Nixon flew home Tuesday for the last time. Nixon's flag-draped casket was flown from New York, where he died Friday, to El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, and was taken 20 miles by motorcade to Yorba Linda, his birthplace and site of his burial today. His coffin was carried by the same blue and white plane that flew the 37th president to California after he resigned as president nearly two decades ago. Hundreds of mourners fell silent as the hearse pulled up to the Richard Nixon Library Birthplace in a thunderstorm. The body was to lie in state in the library lobby until the funeral, which will be attended by every president to serve since Nixon.

First in line for the viewing was Bill Anderson, 47, of Barstow, who left home at 6 a.m. "to show honor to the president" and to see his 21-year-old son, Albert, a member of the military honor guard. "For any man to give his whole life for this country, I would have to have a strong feeling for him," Anderson said. "I'm here to pay my respects to my APR. 27 i.g.

4.4 British troops 0 surrounded at Imphal said. No serious injuries were reported. By Tuesday morning, the weather on the northern Plains had reverted to winterlike conditions. Up to 8 inches fell in northeastern Wyoming and a foot fell in the Black Hills of South Dakota, closing some roads and schools. Blizzard conditions clogged roads across North Dakota and Gov.

Ed Schafer closed the state Capitol. Early estimates of insured losses in Texas may reach $250 million, mostly in Lancaster but with some damage in surrounding communities, said Jerry Johns, president of the Southwestern Insurance Information Service. trailer park and tore apart billboards and other structures. The tornado occurred as storms stretched from Texas to the northern Plains. Another tornado ripped through Talihina, damaging houses and injuring at least six people.

About 25 homes were destroyed in the town of 1,300 residents near the Arkansas state line. In Nebraska, a tornado hit the outskirts of Central City, ripping roofs off several buildings, and several were spotted in South Dakota. In Minnesota, homes and other buildings sustained heavy damage Tuesday when a tornado touched down west of Stillwater, authorities in far-eastem India fight desperately against besieging Japanese forces, trying to hold on until monsoon rains begin and bog down military operations. In the jungles of northeastern Burma, the American soldiers of "Merrill's Marauders" and allied Nationalist Chinese troops take up positions to resume their offensive against the Japanese at Myitkylna. Source: "2194 Days of War," W.

H. Smith Publishers Inc. Call the Courier-News Info line for conditions qaa 770 Cftrtrt around the nation and the world, 95 per minute I u'OUvw 1T.S8 Plalnfleld Somervllle libany SETS: 7:49021 RISES: 6:02 ESQ 1 WyfSi Forecast for CONN. 2.60 2.53 Thursday, Month-to-date April 28,1994, Mostly sunny, warm and breozy. High: 86-91.

NIGHT: Partly cloudy. Low: 55-60. 0 jr vs' 18.24 Total for year 2 Baltimore 88 62 clear Boston Chicago 69 46 cloudy 82 63 cloudy Detroit 72 50 rain Houston 84 73 cloudy PA i Plainfield 78598 May 24 May 2 May 10 May 18 I Clinton 7255S M. J) Low en Tides lor tomorrow High Mixed sun and clouds. High: 72-77.

NIGHT: Partly cloudy. Low: 55-60. 1 mfjm iRaritan Bay YESTERDAY Plalnfleld Somervllle 11.30 Itiis Somen -Wi I Trenton 78 Ik I Psn: Low fTHl lis rTrl LOSAngeies or oo ciouay 49 Asbury Park I. 46 10:00 Norma! high Branchburg 7558S 'Capo Hay "'75675 rnarrvtan 79 Mixed sun and cloud3. High: 66-71.

NIGHT: Fair, ft- Low: 39-44. Ft PMsa PMsant 861942 871990 8:45 Record high I Edison 7675BS 3.00 9:25 9:50 8:40 Seaside Heights 3:10 3:35 iiaanvino biuuuy Orlando 89 69 cloudy San Francisco 63 50 cloudy Seattle 63 44 cloudy Humidity Abmp.at7p.rru Winds 65 52 stately NE-4mph SW10-mph Vlneland 79" Mostly sunny. High: 64- 69. NIGHT: Fair. Low: 39 44.

Qln Gardner 7255S Philadelphia 8060S Princeton 766WS TODAY fNormal high" 941915 911990 Record high Record low" Last year's high Atlantic City 70 I 7457s DEL Measures how far the day's mean temperalure (ell bekm 65. TotalNormal 54605176 Snow in Northsrn Rockies, shuwars in Northern Plains. Scattered showers In Northeast and Central Plains, Fair elsewhere. 62 Increasing clouds. High: ItiiidufT-I Hast year's low 41 43 63 52 rain 83 85 High for this year Shomm T-Xoma Hm flurtt Sno lot Sunny ft.

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