News in brief
September 24th, 2002
Violence continues in Ivory Coast
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast
U.S. troops headed to West Africa yesterday to safeguard 100 American school children holed up in a rebel-held city after the bloodiest-ever uprising in the Ivory Coast. Frightened residents reported heavy artillery and gunfire.
French troops moved closer to the central city of Bouake as well, ready to rescue their nationals and other Westerners if Ivory Coast's government makes good on a pledge to root out forces behind a bloody coup attempt Thursday.
"A very welcome development," said a relieved James Forlines, director of Free Will Baptist Foreign Missions, a Nashville, Tenn.-based church group that had sent calls for help overnight for the mission school in the cut-off city after rebels breached the school's walls, firing from its grounds.
"It has been a very trying day. It has been a very trying five days," mission official Neil Gilliland said, speaking by telephone from the United States.
The scrambling to safeguard Westerners in the Ivory Coast came amid clashes and growing tensions after the failed coup. At least 270 people have died so far.
An American expeditionary force and British troops already were on the ground in Ivory Coast, Ghanaian and French military and government officials said. "The U.S. European Command is moving forces to be in a closer position to provide for the safety of American citizens," a statement from the command said.
Gunmen storm Hindu temple in India
GANDHINAGAR, India
Attackers sprayed gunfire through a temple crowded with Hindu worshippers yesterday, killing at least 30 people and fueling fears of new rioting in western India, where vicious religious clashes between Muslims and Hindus killed 1,000 people earlier this year.
Hours after the attack, the gunmen remained in control of part of the Swaminarayan temple complex - and some worshippers were still inside, officials said. Bloody bodies were carried away on stretchers and many wounded limped out, their clothes stained with blood. About 45 people were wounded.
Hundreds of commandos swarmed into the sprawling temple complex after the attackers stormed in, setting up positions around the main temple, said R.B. Brahmabhatt, the city's acting police chief.
A senior police official inside the complex, speaking on his mobile phone, said between 40 and 50 people had been taken hostage.
There were two attackers inside, and security forces were "waiting until they exhaust their ammunition," to launch their offensive, said G.M. Singhal, another official involved in the operation.
Moussaoui linked by FBI to possible attack
WASHINGTON
An FBI supervisor, sounding a prophetic pre-Sept. 11 alarm, warned FBI headquarters that student pilot Zacarias Moussaoui was so dangerous he might "take control of a plane and fly it into the World Trade Center," a congressional investigator said in a report yesterday.
The supervisor said he had no reason to believe such an attack was planned but made the argument Aug. 27, 2001 - 15 days before the attacks - to convince higher-ups of the need for a search warrant for Moussaoui's computer. Moussaoui has since been charged with conspiring in the Sept. 11 attacks.
His effort failed.
The Moussaoui case was one of two glaring examples of FBI agents recognizing the dangers of terrorists striking from the skies in the weeks before the attacks, only to be stifled by legal restrictions.
U.S. poverty rises while income falls
WASHINGTON
Income declined while poverty levels rose last year, the Census Bureau reported yesterday, a double dose of bad economic news that coincided with the first recession in a decade.
After nearly a decade of decline, the U.S. poverty rate stood at 11.7 percent last year, up from 11.3 percent the previous year, which was the lowest level since 1974. More than 32.9 million people lived in poverty last year, 1.3 million more than in 2000.
The median household income declined 2.2 percent to $42,228 after remaining flat the previous year. It was the first statistically significant decline in a decade. Median income refers to the point at which half of households earn more and half earn less.
Income levels fell for every group except the very richest and very poorest. All racial groups experienced a decline, although Asians and blacks experienced the most substantial drops.
West Nile vaccine could come soon
WASHINGTON
A vaccine to protect the elderly from West Nile virus could be available in as little as three years, and a way to test the blood supply against the infection might be in place next summer, federal scientists told Congress yesterday.
The mosquito-borne virus has infected 2,000 people in 32 states so far this year and killed 98. Particularly worrisome are recent discoveries that West Nile apparently can be spread through blood transfusions if someone donates blood shortly after becoming infected, and that it occasionally causes a polio-like paralysis.
Still, public health specialists are expressing cautious optimism. While West Nile virus is here to stay, they expect infections to be dramatically lower in coming years - possibly as early as next year - as more people become immune and communities act quickly each spring to destroy mosquito eggs and breeding grounds.
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