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Show Mondav. Auz. 27. 2007 World&Hation Page 3 THE HAWAII SUPERFERRY is seen docked in Honolulu after returning from Maui, Sunday. Loaded with people paying a discount fare of $5, the $95 million Hawaii Superferry launch from Honolulu Sunday for its Maiden voyage to Mauithe first passenger ferry service between the islands. AP photo Ferry connects islands ! I ! ! | X— KAHULUI, Hawaii (AP) - Loaded with people paying a discount fare of just $5, the $95 million Hawaii Superferry made its maiden run Sunday with a rushed launch for a three-hour voyage to Maui _ the first passenger ferry service between the islands. Legal problems threatened to beach the giant catamaran like one of the whales that environmentalists fear it will run over, so the company moved up the debut by two days. More than 500 passengers and crew, and 150 cars, were aboard when the four-deck, blueand-white vessel emblazoned with manta rays pulled away from the dock to a chorus of cheers. "It's beautiful," exclaimed Stephen Imamoto of Honolulu, who was traveling with his wife and 6-year-old daughter. "I don't like to fly ... You can't beat the price." Imamoto said he wanted to try the first voyage to see if he gets seasick. Choppy water and strong wind between the islands have scuttled previous attempts at interisland ferry services with much smaller ships. Even in seemingly calm seas, the Alakai swayed at times Sunday, causing some passengers to become nauseous as the ferry passed the green, rugged mountains of Molokai and Lanai. Inside the 349-foot Alakai built by Austal USA in Mobile, Ala., passengers browsed the gift shop, played cards and ordered breakfast while watching live NFL Sunday football games on high-definition TV screens as the ferry sailed past Aloha Tower. Alan and Terry Kahanu, of Kailua, arrived to board the ferry at 4:20 a.m. They and their four children sat in the first-class cabin, eating doughnuts and sushi. "It's spectacular," said Alan Kahanu. "It's so nice to be able to walk around instead of having to be buckled in." Before Sunday, the only way to travel among the Hawaiian Islands was with highly competitive local airlines now engaged in a fare war. Superferry sold out its first voyage in 30 minutes Saturday, offering $5 one-way fares for passengers and the same for cars. More than 400 of those aboard got right back on the Alakai for the voyage back to Honolulu. Superferry Chief Executive John Garibaldi, who mingled among passengers, said one reason for the service was to avoid a repeat of the effect of the nation's grounded airplanes after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Then, island residents and tourists dependent on air travel were stranded for several days. Garibaldi said the voyage "went very, very well and the response was phenomenal from passengers." Welcome Back Aggies! is BACK! Two bombings hit India, killing many HYDERABAD, India (AP) - A pair 6f bombings minutes apart tore through a popular family restaurant and an outdoor arena on Saturday night, killing at least 37 people in this southern Indian city plagued by Hindu-Muslim tensions. The restaurant was destroyed by the bomb placed at the entrance. Blood-covered tin plates and broken glasses littered the road outside. The other blast struck a laser show at an auditorium in Lumbini park, leaving pools of blood and dead bodies between rows of seats punctured by shrapnel. Some seats were hurled 100 feet away. "We heard the blast and people started running out past us. Many of them had blood streaming off them," said P.K. Verghese, the security manager at the laser show. "It was complete chaos. We had to remove the security barriers so people could get out." Most of the dead were killed in the Gokul Chat restaurant at Hyderabad's Kothi market, said K. Jana Reddy, the state home minister. Some 50 people were injured in the two blasts. While Indian officials often blame Muslim militants for bomb attacks, there were no immediate accusations against Islamic groups in the blasts. The two spots are popular with both Hindus and Muslims. Hindu-Muslim animosity runs deep in Hyderabad, where a bombing at a historic mosque killed 11 people in May. Another five people died in subsequent clashes between security forces and Muslim protesters angered by what they said was a lack of police protection. Two other bombs were defused in the city Saturday, one under a footbridge in the busy Bilsukh Nagar com- mercial area, and another in a movie theater in the Narayanguba neighborhood, a police official said. Latenight movie showings were canceled across the city. "This is a terrorist act," said Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, the chief minister for Andhra Pradesh state, where Hyderabad is located. Much of India's HinduMuslim animosity is rooted in disputes over the Himalayan territory of Kashmir, divided between India and mostly Muslim Pakistan but claimed in its entirety by both countries. More than a dozen Islamic insurgent groups are fighting for Kashmir's independence or its merger with Pakistan. More than 80 percent of India's 1.1 billion people are Hindu and 13 percent are Muslim. But in Hyderabad, Muslims make up 40 percent of the population of 7 million. Fires: Wildfires burn across Greece [J continued from page 3 surrounded by pine-clad hills -near the stadium that hosted the ancient Olympic games for more than 1,000 years after they started in 776 B.C. The site strewn with fallen columns includes the remains of a gymnasium, a wrestling hall, hostels, bathhouses, priests' residences and altars. The 5th century B.C. limestone temple of Zeus is one of the largest in mainland Greece. Helicopters and aircraft covered the ruins with water and foam. The flames reached the edge of the ancient stadium, searing the grass and incinerating the trees on the hill above. Volunteers grabbed buckets of water and joined firefighters. "We don't know exactly how much damage there is in the Olympia area, but the important thing is that the museum is as it was and the archaeological site will not have any prob- lem," Culture Minister George Voulgarakis told The Associated Press at the site. Firefighters remained in the area after dark to ensure the fire did not re-ignite. "It's hell everywhere," said Costas Ladas, a resident of Kolyri near Ancient Olympia, who said the fire covered more than a mile in three minutes. "I've never seen anything like it." Local schoolteacher Gerassimos Kaproulias criticized the government, saying it was totally unable to deal with the fires. . "I am very angry," he said. "Nobody thought that one of the five most highly protected areas in Greece could be burned like this." The fire also blazed into the nearby village of Varvasaina, destroying several houses. As residents rushed to battle the flames, others, stunned, walked the streets holding their heads in their hands. The worst-affected region was around the town of Zaharo, south of Ancient Olympia. Thick smoke blocked out the summer sun and could be seen more than 60 miles away. The worst of the fires have been concentrated in the mountains of the Peloponnese in the south and on the island of Evia north of Athens. Strong winds blew smoke and ash over the capital, blackening the evening sky and turning the rising moon red. In the ravaged mountain villages in the Peloponnese, rescue crews found a grim scene that spoke of last-minute desperation as the fires closed in. Dozens of charred bodies have been found across fields, homes, along roads and in cars. only C\ INCLUDES: A FREE TOffer good for the first week of school and game days only 2281N. North Logan / *3*m Free WIFI Full D.A.I.C license |