Rutland Daily Herald from Rutland, Vermont • 2

Saturday, March 9, 2002 World Rutland Daily Herald A2 World Digest but rescuers feared that time was running out for the others. As many as 60 people were on board when the boat flipped over Thursday evening, said Lampedusa Mayor Salvatore Martello. Navy boats, planes and helicopters scanned the rough waters between North Africa and Iampedusa island late Friday, more than 22 hours after the boat capsized. We are near the time limit," said Giuseppe Zaccaria, a port official in Palermo, the regional capital of Sicily. It would be unlikely to find someone alive now, but not impossible.

The survivors said they were from Nigeria, Sudan and TUrkey, Zaccaria said. The 12 bodies found were seven men and five women, he said. The boat capsized about 60 miles south of Lampedusa a flat, desolate speck of an island nearer to Africa than to Italy. demonstrated for peace and to demand greater rights. In the Afghan capital, women attending a womens day ceremony shed head-to-toe burqas to celebrate newfound freedoms, but most put them back on when the event was over.

Dozens missing as boat capsizes The Associated Press LAMPEDUSA, Sicily A wooden boat packed with illegal immigrants capsized in rough seas off this tiny Sicilian island, Italian officials said Friday. Ttoelve bodies were found and dozens more passengers were missing. At least 1 1 people were saved, Business Monday THE ASSOCIATED PRESS An Afghan spncial forces fighter (left) stands by as U.S. special forces hide from the photographer at a checkpoint at Mora Jan, Afghanistan, 18 miles north of Kltost looking for al-Oaida sympathizers on Friday. Wounded U.S.

troops describe being trapped by al-Qaida forces Terrorists demand ransom for couple The New Ybrtt Times MANILA, Philippines A gang of Muslim extremists that nas been holding an American missionary couple hostage in the jungles here for nearly 10 months has offered to release the cou- Ple for about $1 million, hilippine officials said Friday. The offer, which came to the Philippine government through another Islamic group, was relayed to the American Embassy here Friday morning, one of the officials said. Although Philippine government policy is not to pay ransoms, tne officials said that some Cabinet members were inclined to do so in this case, but that the government would not act over any U.S. objections. The United States has generally opposed ransom payments, maintaining that they encourage kidnappings.

But the Bush administration modified that stance recendy by agreeing to review each kidnapping and consider a range of options from providing advice on negotiations to American-led commando raids. Ransom payments might be approved if the government believed that the kidnappers ultimately could be captured or denied the benefits of the money. The demand from the Muslim group here, Abu Sayyaf, would appear to present the Bush administration with the first test of this new policy. It is the first concrete demand the group has made since its members captured Martin and Gracia Burnham, American missionaries living in the Philippines, last May, a Philippine official said. Later the group kidnapped a Filipino nurse, Eldiborah Yap, still being held.

On Friday night, a senior Bush administration official said he was unaware of any direct ransom demand in the case, and repeated the governments policy against paying ransom. Were not going to let the hostage-takers get the benefit of any deals, the official said. International womens day held The Associated Press KABUL, Afghanistan Afghan women marked international womens day Friday by demanding more power and schooling, while in India thousands marched to protest harassment and exploitation. Around the world, women Say cheese! Water buffaloes are coining to Vermont Coming Monday In the Rutland Herald stashed their packs, costing them their night-vision equipment, extra rounds of ammunition and McCleave radio. We knew we had to get away from the mortars, but it just so happened that the next mortar landed, and I kid you not, about 10 feet away from where we were, said McCleave, who was hit by shrapnel in his arm and elbow.

He and others lay for about two hours in one of the mountain bowls, but the mortar shells came steadily closer. Woozy from loss of blood and the thin mountain air, he scrambled dizzily to a second bowl. But shrapnel caught him once again, this time in his leg. He made it to the next bowl area, but was largely immobilized after that. When word came that a rescue helicopter had been able to land, he staggered 200 yards to the aircraft only to find that it was already full and he would have to wait.

American AC-130 warplanes were pulverizing the ridges above them, he said, but the enemy fighters seemed maddeningly uncowed. As soon as you could hear the jet of a jet engine or the propeller of a plane or even a helicopter, the firing would cease and they would run for cover," Stanton said. They would just run into their bunkers, hide in their caves. to run from one hiding place to the next, as mortar rounds kept closing in on them. The thin air left many exhausted and dizzy, while the enemy fighters, tucked away in the caves, were able to escape massive bombardment from American warplanes.

We were fighting in their back yard, Stanton said. We were not used to it. They knew every crevice, every cubbyhole, every cave." It seemed clear that American commanders had little idea of what to expect. The soldiers landed by helicopter about 6 a.m. and were trapped almost immediately in the valley.

Though they said command and communications remained intact throughout the ordeal, the last of them were not rescued until 1 1 p.m. The soldiers who spoke here were all members of die Armys 10th Mountain Division. Though most had wounds from shrapnel and bullets, doctors said that the injuries were not serious and that all of the soldiers were in stable condition. In preparation for the operation Sunday, they said, they had been told they might run into combat. But no one was expecting it as soon as they landed.

First they were pelted with gunfire; then the mortars started firing. At first there were only a couple of people firing at us," Stanton said. But as the day proceeded, more people showed up, joining the party. The troops quickly sought protected areas, backing up against the walls of bowl-shaped areas. Many of them unloaded their packs to move more quickly, but a mortar shell landed where McCleave and Stanton had The New York Times LANDSTUHL, Germany The first shots were so erratic that they seemed a form of harassment rather than an attack.

But then came a rain of unnerv-ingly accurate mortar fire, from opposite directions. Army Specialist Robert McQeave had barely stepped out of the helicopter in Afghanistans Shah-i-Kot Valley on Sunday when it became clear that things would not turn out as planned. For more than 12 hours after that, he and scores of others were pinned down. We could hear them laughing at us, Specialist Wayne Stanton, who was trapped close by, said of the all-but-invisible enemy entrenched 200 yards above them. We could hear them laughing when we tried to shoot at diem.

The two, who were among more than 40 Americans wounded in the first three days of the batde, were recovering Friday along with 21 other soldiers in the U.S. regional military hospital here. Eight American soldiers have been killed since the fighting started. American forces were still fighting in the area to conquer one of clast strongholds. American officials said Friday that they were making steady progress and had killed many Qaida fighters.

But what emerged from the descriptions by the wounded soldiers was the picture of an ambush that displayed the strengths of opponents entrenched in and very familiar with the contours of Afghanistans rugged mountains. Wounded soldiers were forced I Clip Save "1 ATLANTIC CITY I GETAWAY April 22 April 25 HILTON CASINO HOTEL 4 days3 nights $229 Double $354 Single $45 Coin Bonus Leave Ames Rutland at 7:30 a.m. If paid in full by 419-Save $10.00 1 $55 Deposit upon registration i LVIDA 438-24 1 9 Bus Trip Boston Flower Show March 16th $42 Call for info 273-2149 after 6:00 p.m. RUTLAND HERALD Established 1 794 Published Monday Saturday morning by Herald Association at 27 Wales Street. P.O.

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