Paize 4B
Tucsdas. Sepicinber 19,’
THE BATTALION
uMday, Septembei
Explosion
kills three
policemen
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP)
— A bomb explosion at a police
checkpoint killed at least three
policemen on Monday, just a day
after soldiers repulsed a rebel
counterattack in the north that
left 111 combatants dead and
more than 200 wounded.
The explosion near the eastern
town of Kalmunai occurred when
police stopped a van to search it,
said a constable at the Kalmunai
police station, 135 miles east of
the capital, Colombo. Three po
licemen were killed and six were
wounded, police said.
In the northern city of
Chavakachcheri, soldiers re
pulsed a rebel counterattack late
Sunday in a battle that left 111
dead. The clash occurred in the
same city that government sol
diers captured earlier in the day,
said Brig. Sanath Karunaratne,
the spokesman. The city is six
miles east of Jaffna, the former
rebel stronghold.
Some of the dead included
government soldiers,
Karunaratne said. Most of the
228 wounded soldiers were treat
ed for minor injuries, he said,
giving no figure for wounded
rebels.
The bodies of 18 rebels were
recovered and handed to the In
ternational Committee of the Red
Cross, Karunaratne said.
Another 75 bodies of rebels re
mained scattered in the area, gov
ernment spokesman Ariya Rubas-
inghe said in his daily briefing on
the war. He said a 15-year-old fe
male rebel fighter was captured
by the troops.
South Korea begins rebuilding RR for trade
IMJINGAK, South Korea (AP) — South
Korea started rebuilding a railroad line across
the world’s most heavily armed border on
Monday, saying the new link will serve as an
avenue for exchanges with isolated communist
North Korea and trade with fast-growing mar
kets in China and Russia.
When completed by next fall, the railway,
and a new four-lane highway running along
side it, will link the two capitals: Seoul, South
Korea, and Pyongyang, North Korea.
The railway and highway will become the
first direct transport link between the two Ko-
reas since the 1950-53 Korean War and set a
new milestone in improving ties between the
two Cold War foes.
"Today we start
reconnecting our
father land../'
— Kim Dae-jung
South Korean President
South Korean President Kim Dae-jung
presided over the groundbreaking ceremony in
Imjingak, a village just south of the Demilita
rized Zone, which has separated the two Kore-
as since the 1945 division of the peninsula and
the 1950-53 Korean War. •
“Today, we started reconnecting our divid
ed fatherland,” Kim said in a nationally tele
vised speech from a platform above the
groundbreaking ceremony. “For a half centu
ry, the severed rail link has been a symbol of
national division and the Cold War.”
Thousands of colorful balloons were re
leased to celebrate the occasion, and firecrack
ers soared into the clear autumn sky with
plumes of rainbow-colored smoke.
Following the historic summit meeting by
their two leaders in Pyongyang in June, the two
countries agreed last month to reconnect the
major railway.
It continues to Shinuiju, a major city
North's border with China, and was lastii
commercially shortly before the Korean!
started in 1950.
Until now, the only link between the:
countries has been a winding, heavily guak
two-lane road that stops at the truce village
Punmunjom, w hich serves as the solecoirV
point between democratic South Korea and:
North.
A steam locomotive whistled and rolled h e ^2nd
ahh Iihu rail line laid toi Mondas'sceremejM annual
Steering the locomotive was Han Joon-ki.'*®- America
who drove the last train that ran on thee -egion Conven
border line in late 1950, transporting mili joi passed a re
equipment for l S. troops fighting torSodlution on Sept
Korea. otneourage th
Jlited States u
Floods take lives of over 100 Reconnecting Koreas
CHINA
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — The death toll
in Cambodia’s worst flooding in seven decades has sur
passed 100 and fears of food shortages have increased,
the country's top relief official said Monday.
Peou Sarny, secretary-general of the National Com
mittee for Disaster Relief, said 12 more people were re
ported killed in recent days in the southeastern province
of Kompong Cham, raising the nationwide death toll
since July to 109. Most of the latest deaths were by
drowning during evacuations.
With expectations that the raging Mekong River will
fall soon, the next worry for officials and aid workers is
whether people driven from their land by the high wa
ter will have enough to eat, Peou Sarny said.
“It is our biggest concern,” he told The Associated
Press.
Two months of floods caused by early monsoon rains
have forced tens of thousands of families from their
homes in Cambodia and Vietnam, affecting more than
1 million people.
At least 27 people have died in Vietnam, including
18 children, a government official said Monday. Areas
of Laos and Thailand also have been hit.
Peou Sarny said nearly 95,000 people were homeless
and 300,000 acres of rice paddy were destroyed. About
335,000 additional acres are flooded, he said.
Acres of verdant rice paddies have been swallowed
by muddy brown water. Low-lying rural roads are of
ten swamped, despite sandbagging.
“The problems associated with this massive flood
ing will be with us for months,” said Richard Neville of
the International Federation of the Red Cross.
He said many farming families have lost virtually
everything they owned and irrigation networks built up
over years have been washed away.
Last week, the Red Cross appealed for $1.9 million
for people in the two countries, with the bulk going to
Cambodia. This week, officials said an additional ap
peal of up to $1.5 million would be launched for Viet
nam alone.
Peou Sarny said the Mekong has probably peaked
and pressure will be easing on villagers in several south
eastern provinces.
The government forecast Monday that the Mekong
would drop half an inch by Tuesday morning in the capital,
Phnom Penh, and continue going down through the week.
Opposition leader Sam Rainsy blamed the scope of
the disaster on a “corrupt government” that allowed
“massive and anarchic logging,” which he said led to
soil erosion and the resulting floods.
Government spokesman Khieu Kanharith dismissed
the allegation as a “cynical attempt to politicize the
tragedy.”
He noted the Roods have also hit Vietnam, where
government officials say 150,000 people have been dis
placed in the hardest-hit provinces of An Giang, Dong
Thap and Long An. More than 200,000 homes have
been Hooded.
Meteorologists say nearly half the three provinces
are submerged, with water levels at or above those of
1996, when floods killed 217 people.
South Korea began rebuilding a railway
line Monday to North Korea for the first
time since the 1945 division of the
peninsula. Seoul will spend dlrs
50 million to rebuild the
20-kilometer (12-mile)
stretch of railway
between Munsan city
and the
Demilitarized • Shinuiju
Zone (DMZ), and
North Korea is ;' ;
expected to rebuild
the 8 kilometers (5
miles) of rail line on
its side of the border,
between the DMZ
and a train station
near Kaesung city.
■ the 38-year-
>ld embargo
igainst Cuba.
pThe Amenc;
mused for takii
igainst the poli<
: ’The embarge
ering for the C
)revented the tr
•atic governmei
^Ironically, tli
NORTH
KOREA
Seen:
jOIH’:
0 Pyongyang
Kaesung
^ Demarci'
line
Rail link to
reconnect
Seoul to
Shinuiju
'•4+ Panmunjom
">• • Munsan
y* ■ o
Seoul
SOUTH
KOREA
50 miles
Yellow
Sea
50 km
Source: Compiled from AP wire reports
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■ Numerous ii
rations to whicl
oelongs also en
;mbargo.
IgThe United
m embargo on
1962, in respoi
:onfiscation of
properties and
I The original
go were to com
Cuba's econom
Jemocracy and
■Jinquish powt
|| After almost
f>|rgo has been
•iods of tension
states and Cub;
Pigs invasion, t
:risis and the E
I The United
he embargo in
[largo is not aci
jf a “peaceful t
He, democratic
nent and respe
ights,” accord
department.
Evidence fre
lichard Garfiel
GRADUATE AND PROFESSIONAL
SCHOOL DAY W0
natioi
MARK YOUR
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Thursday, October 12,2000
10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
MSC 1st Floor
Sponsored by the Career Center and The Office of Professional School Advising
For more information contact the Career Center at 845-5139
For many si
first few week:
are meant for t
in and get to ki
teachers.
However, it
N.Y., the first \
bet'ii a mix bet
celed classes a
teachers.
Educators v
tween the Buff
and the Buffak
(BISD) stalled
The disagre
health insuram
growing probl
throughout the
not paid enou£
While man}
Hillary Clintor
teachers need t
classroom insti
strike, these te;
have been wor
without a conti
since June 199
The critics I
to fealize that t
Dlame does noi
falj solely on tl
eachers.
Teaching is
in [important
ind influential
ob. Many peo
)le do not real-
ze how poorly
nany educator
ire paid.
According t
J.S. News and
Vorld Report,
verage startin
;acher earns $
year, and, evt
ears, a classrc
irely makes o
When comf
lat also requir
;aching has 01
Meanwhile,
ill earn a per;
U.S. News!