.
Section A·Page 8
The University Daily Kansan
Wednesday, September 22, 1999
World
Quake toll hits 1,712 in Taiwan
Thousands trapped, 100,000 homeless after massive temblor
The Associated Press
TAIPEI, Taiwan— Twenty-four hours after a powerful earthquake hit Taiwan, toppling high-rise buildings and destroying homes across the island, rescue workers pulled bodies from the ruins one by one. The death toll topped 1,700 early yesterday.
More than 100,000 Taiwanese were left homeless by the quake, which shook millions awake at 1:45 a.m. yesterday (12:45 p.m. CDT Monday), buckled roads, severed bridges and cut off electric service
by early Wednesday, officials said 1,712 people were dead, more than 4,000 were hurt and almost 3,000 were thought to be trapped in the rubble. Another 216 were missing, according to the Interior Ministry's disaster management center.
"We're pulling the dead out one by one, but it's hard to get an overall picture of the number of fatalities," said Chen Wen-hsiun, a rescue official in the central city of Fengyuan. In the hills above the city, a concrete Buddhist temple folded in on itself during the quake, killing at least three people.
With a preliminary magnitude of 7.6, the quake was about the same strength as the devastating temblor that killed more than 15,000 people in Turkey last month.
The quake's epicenter was 90 miles south of Taipei, near the central city of Taichung. More than 700 people died in Taichung County and about 500 died in nearby Nantou County. The area has seen a burst of development in recent years, often shoddlily constructed.
Chinese President Jiang Zemin extended condolences following the quake, and offered aid to quake victims, even though the disaster occurred at a time of tense relations between China and Taiwan. China considers Taiwan a breakaway province.
"(The quake) hurt the hearts of people on the mainland as the Chinese people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are as closely linked as flesh and blood," according to China's state-run Xinhua News agency in a paraphrase of Jiang's remarks. China's Red Cross said it would provide $100,000 in disaster aid and $60,000 in relief supplies.
Most of the structures that collapsed in Taiwan were new high-rises. The foundations of some of the apartment blocks in the cities crumpled into piles of concrete boulders, sending the structures crashing into neighboring buildings. Soldiers raced out of buildings with bloodied victims moaning in pain on stretchers.
Nantou County Executive Peng Paishsen appealed for donations of bulldozers, cars, quilts and food, saying 100,000 people were left homeless in the county. He said morgues were full of bodies, and the county needed body bags and freezers in the summer heat.
One distraught woman told local television her parents were trapped in a Taichung apartment building.
"I don't know what happened to my dad and mom," said the sobbing survivor. "We live in different rooms. I haven't seen them."
In the small city of Puli in Nantou, roads buckled under the stress of the quake, forming large asphalt waves. An apartment building that lost its foundation was left leaning 45 degrees.
But Taipei, with a 2.7 million population, was spared much of the damage. The government called off work and school across the island, leaving the capital's normally congested streets relatively empty.
President Lee Teng-hui flew by helicopter to Taichung to direct rescue work, while Vice President Lien Chan went to Nantou.
the quake was Taiwan's worst since a 7.4 magnitude temblor hit the island in 1935, killing 3,276 people. Taiwan is hit by dozens of quakes each year, but most are centered in the Pacific Ocean east of the island and rarely cause damage.
Israeli prime minister stresses peace with Syria
The Associated Press
JERUSALEM—Speaking at a memorial for Israeli soldiers killed in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Prime Minister Ehud Barak appealed to Syria yesterday to negotiate what he called a peace of the brave, and prevent further bloodshed.
However, Barak's foreign minister, David Levy, who until recently was upbeat about the prospects of peace with Syria, said the Syrian position was hardening.
"Syria is becoming more intransigent," Levy told Israel radio. "It is raising the level of its demands."
Both leaders spoke before leaving on trips in which restarting Israeli-Syrian negotiations will play an important role. Barak flew to Germany yesterday and then will go to France. Both nations are involved in U.S.-led efforts to revive the peace talks.
peace talks. Levy left for New York, where he was to address the U.N. General Assembly. Levy said that he understood that the United States would try to arrange a meeting in New York between him and his Syrian counterpart, Farouk Sharaa.
In his election campaign, Barak said his aim during his four-year term of office was to achieve peace with Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinians. Israel-Syrian negotiation
tions have been suspended since February 1996.
1990
"To our Syrian neighbors, who also suffered many losses in the Yom Kippur War, we say: This is the time for the peace of the brave," Barak said. "Enough of wars! Enough of bloodshed!"
Though of blood, Barak has made similar appeals in the past, including in his first speech as prime minister to Israel's parliament in July when he urged the region's leaders to negotiate peace treaties with Israel.
the peace. Israel and Syria disagree on the terms for resuming negotiations. Syria maintains that the late Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, promised to withdraw from the entire Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 war. Syria's president, Hafez Assad, insists the negotiations must resume from the point where they were broken off.
Israel says Rabin made no such promise but merely asked what kind of peace Assad was prepared to give if Israel did give back the Golan Heights.
Barak wishes to retain certain areas on the lower slopes of the Golan, where some of Israel's water sources lie. Levy expressed disappointment with recent Syrian statements and said that officials in Damascus insisted on recovering all of the land right down to the shores of the Sea of Galilee.
Savannah
fine lingerie
735 MASS ST
843-6500
Mike's Auto Service
1008 East 12th Street Lawrence, KS 66044
Monday-Friday 8:00-5:00
(785) 843-3953
Michael D. Fator
Owner
Legal Services for Students
Questions?
864-5883-148 Burge Union Jo Hardesty, Director
Have someone
take a closer look...
FOR FREE.
OVER INVOICE COST
Coors Light
- Guaranteed Selection •
• 6 Days A Week
842-1473 • 9th & Iowa
-Disagreements over your lease?
-Fender bender have you in a crunch?
MAXWELL HOUSE COFFEE
NATIONAL BRAND POP 24 PACK, 12 OZ. CAN
NATURAL LIGHT BEER 12 oz. CAN
ACORN SQUASH
A&E
SOUR CREAM
78¢
14.
80% LEAN FRESH
GROUND
BEEF
ARN & HAMMER
ADVANCE WHITE
TOOTHPASTE
$2.89 EA
JUMBO YELLOW
ONIONS
OVER INVOICE COST
NEW CROP
MISSOURI JONATHAN
OR ROYAL GALA
APPLE
SNOW WHITE
88¢ EACH
FRESH CRISP
GREEN
BEANS
FROM THE BAKERY
FRESH BASED
MULTI-GRAIN
BREAD
SUPER-TRI
TURKEY
BREAST
479
PLEASE MAKE DINNER SO SAVED
TURKEY BREAST
Nutrition Labels
SPLIT WITH RIB BONE
FRYER BREASTS