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Show “THE uani&rtfiofiRNAL’q’sOU'r}“iERN‘tJTAfi Ufimnsm * MONDAY, JANUARY 5, 1998 IR THE NATION 13 ____U.S. DIGEST Food-stamp cuts mean more hunger BLAZE ENGULFS CHICAGO (AP) — Congress’ rewrite of the nation’s welfare law wrung billions of dollars from the main federal program designed to keep the poor from going hungry: food stamps. Now, four months after the last of $27 billion in food-stamp cuts took effect, evidence is FERTILIZER PLANT, FORCING THOUSANDS TO EVACUATE: Thousands of people evacuated homes on both sides of the Ohio River yesterday in Kentucky as a fire in a fertilizer plant burned through tons of potentially explosive and toxic chemicals. Authorities waited for the fire to burn itself out at the Cargill Co. plant, which was not in operation when the blaze broke out at about 2:30 a.m. There was no immediate indication if anyone was in the plant at the time. One firefighter suffered a minor injury. RISKY MANIFESTO GAMBLE PAID | OFF FOR UNABOMBER HUNTERS: Math professor-turned-hermit Theodore Kaczynski, 55, goes on trial today charged in four Sacramento-linked bombings that killed two men and maimed two others. Kaczynski’s arrest sprang directly from publication of the Unabomber’s anti-technology manifesto by Theodore Kaczynski The Washington Post and The New York Times. ““It was our best chance,” says Jim 2ACeVIORL Freeman, former head of the task force and the San Francisco FBI office. “It was potentially a self portrait of the author that would be recognized by someone — and it was.” . mounting of a large increase in the number of people who can’t get enough to eat stamp program worried by the news, charity But many said the blame cannot be placed of the problem. leaders and experts on hunger believe the cuts are at least partly to blame. solely on the 2 changes in the = o < % “The economy is booming by most standards we use to measure it, and g? Men stand in line for food at the Ma tthew House, a servioce center for the homeless on Chicago’s South Side, yesterday. up,” says Sister Christine Vladimiroff, a Benedictine nun who our demand is food-stamp program, which reduced the stamps’ value, % limited to three Turkey yesterday in his bid to become the first balloonist to circle the world. His course could take him over Iraq, but that doesn’t seem to be a problem, said Tony Fitzpatrick, to circle the world. The trip should take 15 to 20 days. and other private programs provided inadequate amounts of food to those helped. Forty-four percent of city officials cited cuts in the foodas a chief cause yet we're saying Chinese permission was being negotiated, but he would not give details. Fossett, a 53-year-old commodities trader from Chicago, took off from St. Louis on Wednesday on his third try percent of those seeking help were turned away, and 46 percent of the cities reported that charities without help. Surprised and BALLOONIST SOARING ACROSS BLACK SEA: Adventurer Steve Fossett headed across eastern Europe toward spokesman for the project’s media center. A flight across China later this week seemed inevitable. Fitzpatrick said food — the largest jump in the 29-city survey since 1992. In addition, the study found that 19 runs Chicago-based Second Harvest, the nation’s largest charity to getting food to the poor. “People come to us because their cupboards are bare,” Sister Vladimiroff said. “We don’t want to have to say, ‘Well, ours are, too.” The U.S. Conference of Mayors released a survey last month that reported average 1997 increases of 16 percent in requests for emergency E months the eligibility of able-bodied, childless adults and denied benefits to most legal immigrants. Other, perhaps larger, factors include unemployment and low,, paying jobs, they said. Second Harvest and groups including the National Council of La Raza, the Jewish Federation and Catholic Charities are lobbying to get President Clinton to push in his State of the Union address for renewed access for legal immigrants. THE WORLD DIGEST POULTRY WORKERS PROTEST MASS SLAUGHTER OF CHICKENS IN HONG KONG: About 700 poultry workers demonstrated yesterday in downtown Hong Kong, saying the government’s slaughter of chickens to stem the spread of a virus is robbing them of jobs and income. The protesters rallied at a public park before marching to the nearby main government building, where they delivered a petition to Hong Kong’s leader, Tung Chee-Hwa. The demonstrators also accused the government of inefficiency in handling the planned killing of Hong Kong's 1.3 million chickens. government response to last week'’s slaughter of Netanyahu to the brink of collapse, Israel’s by militants intent on overthrowing the military government, has been shaken by a new wave of violence that coincides with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Almost two dozen people died in the weekend violence. The government continued to withhold foreign minister resigned yesterday, saying he is “no longer a member of this government.” David Levy denounced Netanyahu's administration for abandoning the peace process with the Arabs. Levy sent a letter of resignation to Netanyahu's office yesterday. By law it doesn’t go into effect for 48 hours — meaning Levy could back down. Netanyahu issued a statement saying he regretted Levy’s decision and hoped he will change his mind. . INJURES MANY MORE: Cranes removed the twisted and charred remains yesterday of several vehicles involved in a fiery crash that killed dozens of people on a narrow rural road in eastern Punjab, Pakistan. Police said 25 people were killed, while rescue workers put the death toll beyond 50. Some news reports said as many as 65 people were killed. Many of the dead were passengers in an overcrowded bus that slammed into an oil tanker, which had burst into flames after being hit PRESS 412 peasants. Algeria, in the grip of a 6-year-old insurgency government of Prime Minister Benjamin by an oncoming truck, authorities said. ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — Scattered shootings, abductions and a bombing left a new trail of bloodshed in Algeria over the weekend, while the opposition yesterday demanded a LEVY RESIGNS, SPARKING CRISIS FOR NETANYAHU: Bringing the FIERY CRASH KILLS AT LEAST 50 PEOPLE, Algerian government criticized after massacre THE ASSOCIATED WORLD comment on Tuesday’s massacre in western A wounded survivor lays in a hospital after Algeria — the deadliest since the insurgency began — and critics accused the country’s town of Relizane, Saturday. leaders of trying to pretend that Algeria is not in throes of a dangerous crisis. “We have to break the silence. There’s tragedy in a country they say is normalized,” said the front page of the opposition and anti fundamentalist newspaper Le Matin. A statement yesterday by the Movement for a Peaceful Society, an Islamic group with representation in Parliament, demanded “reinforcement of security measures.” Despite growing bloodshed, President Liamine Zeroual’s government has insisted in recent months that the violence was “residual the massacre in a village near the Algerian terrorism.” State television, which did not report last week’s massacre until Saturday, made no mention of the killings yesterday. In that attack, armed men slit throats, cut off heads and bashed babies against walls in four hamlets around the western town of Relizane as Ramadan began at sundown, according to survivors. The villagers were not armed and had no telephones to call for help. No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but suspicion fell on the Armed Islamic Group, the insurgency’s most violent movement. |