The Index-Journal from Greenwood, South Carolina • Page 11

Sunday, December 16, 2001 World The Index-Journal, Greenwood, S.C. 11 A European Union on road to major expansion member parliaments. Bulgaria and Romania are not expected to join for at least three years after the others, and Turkey, which has serious economic and human rights problems, has not yet begun negotiations for membership. The EU leaders named former French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing to head the debate at the convention, which is set to start March 1 and hammer out proposals to be considered in 2004. More than 100 representatives of governments, the European Parliament, national legislatures and the candidate countries excluding Turkey will participate.

In the past decade, EU governments have consistently failed to agree on durable reforms amid discord over how much authority the organization should have and how much should be left to each nation. Germany, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands want to give more muscle to the EU's executive arm, the European Commission. Britain, France, Denmark and Sweden have strong reservations about giving the EU more powers at the expense of national governments. Citizens in the EU want "more results, better responses to practical issues and not a European superstate or European institutions inveigling their way into every nook and cranny of life," the leaders said in the Laeken Declaration, named after the where their two-day GUY VERHOFSTADT Brussels suburb summit was held. ruirm 2c) (3 7n r- la I I "There are weaknesses in the EU that must be said Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt of Belgium, the current EU president and summit host "It will be a process of one year of fundamental debate." The EU leaders had lunch with the heads of the 13 candidates for membership and issued a statement saying negotiations with ten of them Slovenia, Hungary, Estonia, Malta, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Latvia, and Lithuania should be wrapped up next year, enabling them to join Jan.

1, 2004 after approval by EU s. dan fn fZ fi 0 I) raw an BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) The leaders of the 15 European Union nations set the EU on the path to expansion Saturday, pledging to make it a more open, efficient organization as it pushes eastward in the coming years. To prevent the EU from becoming unwieldy when it nearly doubles its membership beginning in 2004, the leaders set guidelines for a convention that will gather next year to reform the union's administrative rules and defme it either as a tight-knit organization with strong central power or a limited, looser grouping. 25 killed by fire in prison riot ASUNCION, Paraguay (AP) Rioting inmates set off a fire that swept through a prison in the border city of Ciudad del Este on Saturday, killing at least 25 inmates and injuring about 200 others, authorities said. The fire started after inmates apparently bent on escaping attacked a guard with a homemade knife and the jailer fired back, killing the man, Paraguayan television stations reported.

More than 500 inmates then began rioting, with some apparently setting mattresses on fire. The fire spread through the cell-blocks, spewing clouds of smoke that asphyxiated inmates, Canal 13 television reported. Firefighters had put out the fire by midday Saturday, and authorities said they found many blackened bodies in the cells. One cell alone contained six bodies and a total of 25 had been found by late Saturday. Some inmates survived by fleeing to a back prison yard where they were doused with water, one station reported.

Others, trapped in the flames, cried out for help from their cells as fire consumed a large part of the building. South Africa's ANC old guard reminisce at site of police raid RIVONIA, South Africa (AP) The old guard of South Africa's national struggle gathered Saturday at the site of a 1963 police raid that led to the Rivonia trial a turning point in the history of the country's fight against apartheid. Sixteen African National Congress leaders, arrested at the Liliesleaf Farm in suburban Johannesburg, were charged at their 1964 trial with sabotage and attempting the overthrow of the government. On Saturday, the gray-haired former commanders garnered at their former hide-out to mark 40 years since the founding of the Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the ANC. President Thabo Mbeki told the crowd the legacy of the movement and the men who sacrificed their lives for it must be passed on to the next generation.

Abbeville-Greenwood Regional Library Schedule of Hours 2001 Greenwood County Library Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday 9 to 9 Friday and Saturday 9 to 5:30 Sunday 2 to 5:30 Telephone: 941-4650 Main Desk: ext. 4650 Children's Room: ext. 4656 Ninety Six Branch Library Monday 9 to 7:30 Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 9 to 5:30 Saturday 10 to 12 Telephone: 543-4749 Wire Shoals Community Library Monday and Wednesday 7:30 to 5 Tuesday and Thursday 7:30 to 7 Friday 7:30 to 5 Sunday 2 to 5 Telephone: 456-2813 Abbeville County Library Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 9 to 5:30 Tuesday and Thursday 9 to 7 Saturday 10 to 1 Telephone: 459-4009 Calhoun Fall Branch Ubraty Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday 12:30 to 5:30 Friday 5 to 8 Telephone: 447-8724 Agnn Brarx Library tf Donek Monday and Wednesday Tuesday and Friday 2 to 5 Teleohone: 379-8568 (mm (MB IM(D0GI3ClaPTO (MtMiiiHiE) HDIMEDJiOS wagPmVMP 'walaiaTaaFrr (lEflnCEiHMnp we get it! 1-877-CALL SUN SunCom Member of the Wireless Network AW SunCom store location Greenwood 474C West Bypass 72 (near OfficeMax) 864-341-6400 shop onlin www.SunCoffl.com Limit id Mi offer. fM offtr onds Dtctmbor 24, tvadtbat m4im ininf your pnont on SunCom, ATM and affihttai SunCon rvMrvw int ngra your aysomont it mart 2001 mon sat 9a-8p, sun 1p-6p Wans inchidt Mitsubishi TOO digital phono Phont ss taction may wry. mmnwmmmi tuny wwrnn nvt niuuvmu, wiai iwww WWCI avawOW PWH1W tir cgm wry uuim lavuivnun aWT- Special Holiday Hours: 12-month aaraamant raowrod.

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