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Show - DAILY HERALD Monday, September 13. 2004 A3 FAST FACT At 426 feet Staten Island's To HiN has the highest natural elevation in the New York metropolitan area In fact, it's the highest point on the eastern seaboard south of Maine. Source The Book of Answers Compiled from Daily Herald wire service The NATION US Airways files for bankruptcy protection , The WORLD US ARLINGTON, Va. Airways Group Inc., the nation's seventh-large- st airline, filed for bankruptcy protection Sunday for the second time in two years. The compa- ny's president vowed to continue restructuring the airline into a low-cocarrier during the bankruptcy process. "We have come too far and accomplished too much to simply stop the process and not succeed," said Bruce Lake-fiel- d, US Airways' president and chief executive. "A restructured US Airways with low costs and low fares will be a dynamic competitor.'' US Airways said customers would notice no operational changes as a result of the bankruptcy and that it will seek permission to continue its frequent flyer program. The Chapter 11 filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Alexandria came after US Airways was unable to obtain $800 million in annual cost cuts from its workers' unions that the airline said it needed to stay afloat. Several major airlines also are confronting the need to repair weak finances. United Airlines has been operating under bankruptcy for nearly two years, American Airlines was on the brink of a filing 18 months ago and Delta Air Lines warned that it might seek similar protection soon if it cannot trim its labor costs. Several weeks ago, US Airways Chairman David Bron-ne-r warned that the airline would most likely have to liquidate if it filed for bankruptcy. Lakefield subsequently backtracked from those comments, and on Sunday again sought to assure customers that the airline faced no immediate danger of shutting down. st Ten dead in suspected arson fire at apartment complex in Ohio A susCOLUMBUS, Ohio pected arson fire raced through art apartment com-ple- x in suburban Columbus on Sunday, killing 10 people who lived in the same apartment and forcing others to jump windows to from third-storescape. At least 53 people were left homeless by the blaze in Prairie Township, which destroyed the building's roof and third floor, melted siding and left its wooden skeleton exposed. Antonio Noriega said firefighters pulled him from a ladder as he tried to rescue his brothers and nephews. "My family is dead," Noriega said. Eight of his relatives including three young boys and two friends lived in the apartment, he said. Authorities wouldn't say whether others were still missing. The fire came just six weeks after three fires were set in the same building in an empty apartment and hallway, said Fire Chief Steve FeusteL There were no suspects and no known witnesses to Sunday's y Cessna machinists approve contract WICHITA, Kan. Machinists at Cessna Aircraft Co. overwhelmingly approved a contract new three-yea- r Saturday, granting 4,300 workers salary increases and signing bonuses and protecting their choice of health insurance. The deal gives machinists a $2,500 ratification bonus; annual wage increases of 3 or 4 percent; and pension pay of $48 monthly for each year of service, up from $41. Workers at the air- craft manufacturer voted 79 percent in favor of the agreement, said Bob Wood, a negotiator for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. He said turnout was high but declined to release a specific number. r w " ODED BALILTY Israeli settlers pray at the Western Thousands demonstrate ly to get its way immediately at Monday's meeting in Vienna, ' evacuate to against plan was bolAustria, Jewish settlers from Gaza stered forbuttheits stand term after longer suspected arson, he said. The victims lived on the third floor and tried to escape, Feustel said. "They were out of their beds. They didn't die in their sleep," he said. Two people, including a woman who jumped from a window, were treated and released from a hospital, a nursing supervisor said. an Internet statement (hat it held the initiative in the Iraqi insurgency and possessed the "capability to surprise the enemy and hit its strategic installations European allies agreed to set a at the right time and place." November deadline for Iran to meet international demands to Militants struck Baghdad's Green Zone, the administration suspend uranium enrichment and clear up other concerns ' district, with a heavy barrage about its nuclear program. of mortars, and a suicide In a draft resolution prepared bomber blew himself up outside the city's Abu Ghraib prison. by France, Germany and Britain and made available to The AssoHeavy clashes broke out on ciated Press, the three European Haifa Street, during which a car bomb destroyed a U.S. powers warned of possible "further steps" by November, the Bradley armored vehicle. A U.S. next meeting of the Vienna-base- d helicopter fired on the burning International Atomic Ener- Bradjey to destroy it, killing gy Agency's board of governors. and Wounding several people Diplomats said "further steps" who had gathered around it. was shorthand for referring At least 24 people were killed ' Iran's case to the UN. Security and more than 100 wounded in Council if the Tehran regime violence across the city on Sunhindered the IAEA's nuclear day, the Iraqi Health Ministry probe or if it refused to suspend said. The statement by Tawhid and uranium enrichment. Jihad, posted on the group's Militant group claims Web site, could not be verified. JERUSALEM Tens of thousands of Jewish settlers and their backers demonstrated in Jerusalem on Sunday against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to evacuate all settlements from Gaza and four West Bank enclaves in a rally held against a backdrop of assassination threats and warnings of civil war. The withdrawal plan has upset the Israeli political scene since it was announced last year, turning Sharon's backers into opponents and detractors into supporters. Skeptical Palestinians believe the whole plan is a trick to annex large parts of the West Bank to Israel. The demonstrators filled downtown Jerusalem, shutting down much of the city, to protest the planned pullout. Most of those filling downresponsibility for attacks town were Orthodox Jews, in central Baghdad many of them teenage girls in or skirts A militant CAIRO, Egypt long youths wearing knit skullcaps. A huge banner group linked to claimed responsibility for a sebehind the stage set the theme: ries of mortar and suicide at"Disengagement tears the peotacks on US. and Iraqi governple apart." Many waved ment buildings in central BaghIsraeli flags. dad on Sunday. Organizers pledged to prevent incitement to violence, but The Tawhid and Jihad group, led by Jordanian militant Abu there were also some ominous Musab boasted in Only in Nevada is Bush's environmental record likely an issue WASHINGTON For environmentalists hoping to turn anger at President Bush into electoral votes for John Kerry, the biggest and perhaps only field of dreams is a nuclear waste dump site in Nevada. Lesser hopes are pinned on mercury-pollutewaterways in Wisconsin and Florida, and woodlands threatened by g and other development in Arizona, New Mexico and Oregoa Voters upset at Bush's environmental record might give Kerry a boost in all those states. But Nevada, where Bush wants to entomb a waste from atomic power plants, is the only state where an environmental issue can realistically swing the outcome, according to environmental leaders and political analysts. Environmental groups are mostly staying away from Nevada, aware their unpopularity in the state might hurt Kerry, a Massachusetts . d road-buildin- 's Three reported killed as demonstrators clash in protest of firing of Khan 2 z !' 1.. :! v 0 . ProKABUL, Afghanistan testers angered at President Hamid Karzai's sacking of a warlord governor in the west of the country ransacked UN. compounds and clashed with security forces Sunday, leaving as many as three people dead and dozens wounded, including three US. troops who were hit with stones. Interior Minister spokesman Latfullah Mashal said there were no deaths. d interim The leader, facing a fresh security crisis ahead of Oct. 9 elections that already are threatened by Taliban militants, denounced the rioting and said he would ' deal with it "strongfy." the took to Angry protestors streets after Saturday's an-- ; nouncement that Gov. Ismail Khan, the regional strongman, had been "promoted" to a Cabi-- . net post in the caphaL Mobs chanting slogans against the government and in favor of Khan turned their wrath on the United Nations, storming and looting two of its compounds and forcing its staff to flee to an American military base. Iran refuses to halt nuclear program in the face of critical meeting 7 . ft PAUL VERNON the remains of a J Fire officials look through in third-stor- y Associated Press fire at an i apartment complex Prairie Township, Ohio, where ten died Sunday- The fire came about six weeks after three l fires were set in the same building in an empty apartment and peo-t',p- le - ,. hallway, said Fire Chief Steve FeusteL AO ten victims, inctud- third-floo- r unit, Feustel said. . ,. ing a child, lived in the same Northern Ireland peace hangs in balance . BERLIN Iran's refusal to give up uranium enrichment and banish suspicions it seeks ' nuclear arms set the stage ' Sunday for confrontation before a UN. atomic watchdog agency, with the United States lobbying to have Iran taken be- ' fore the Security Council for . possible sanctions. , . Washington appeared unlike- , . BELFAST, Northern Ireland Northern Ireland's fragile peace process enters a makeor-brea- k period this week as British, Irish and U.S. mediators stalework to end an mate among feuding sectarian parties. Mediators say they remain hopeful a deal can be struck to Good Frirescue the day peace accord, brokered in Belfast in 1998 to end three decades of violence. But party leaders representing Northern Ireland's main Roman Catholic and Protestant constituencies say they have low expectations for a breakthrough Reconciliation talks mediated by British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern broke down in October over the sensitive issues of arms decommissioning and the dissolution of paramilitary groups. The tw.o prime ministers will renew their efforts Tuesday at Leeds Castle near London. Since the breakdown, leaders of Northern Ireland's two dominant Protestant and Roman Catholic parties have refused to speak or even sit in the same room with each other. The legislature has been suspended since 2002, and Northern Ireland's government is being run from London. Protestant unionists, who support British sovereignty over Northern Ireland, say they can live comfortably under the current arrangement. Catholic republicans, who favor an end to British rule and unification with the Republic of Ireland, warn that they won't permit the stalemate to continue indefinitely. 108-se- at mmmm Aft? ' . "My A v, V, M i US.-backe- ', Associated Press Wall, Judaism's holiest site, in Jerusalem's Old City on Sunday. Settlers arrived in large numbers to show their disapproval for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Gaza pullout plan. 3 ' 4' v 1 1 1 s EMIUO MORENATTIAssociated . Press Pakistani prisoners line up after their release from prison in Kabul on Sunday. The group of 363 Pakistani war prisoners jailed for fighting for the Taliban were released as a gesture meant to heal the Asian neighbors' scarred relations. ki , Taliban fighters freed in Afghanistan KABUL, Afghanistan Hundreds of Pakistanis jailed for fighting alongside the Taliban were released from an Afghan prison Sunday a major gesture meant to better strained relations between the neighboring countries. Pakistani officials met the 363 prisoners as they, emerged from jail in the Afghan capital, Kabul, smiling and clutching with their few Elastic bags ki Thousands of Taliban fighters were captured by Afghan factions who helped the United States oust the Taliban regime and scatter its allies after the Sept. 11 ati tacks, Some are believed to have ended up in mass graves in northern deserts. Many others have languished in crumbling Afghan jails, waiting for politicians to deckle their fate. "They could have done this much sooner," Pakistani Am v bassador Rustam Shah Mphmand said of the er release by Afghanistan. "StilL I appreciate it, and the Afghan and Pakistani governments want to have good ; relations." The prisoners gathered in a large tent across the road from the prison, listening to speeches from Mohmand and Afghan officials before boarding buses for the bumpy ride to the Pakistan border. . |