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dnesday, ()ctober 18,2U Wednesday, October i 8, 2000 nahan Dvernor died plane crash on his npaign rally. Democrat, was le Senate seat held tn John Ashcroft in ost bitterly ces this year. Eugene Carnahan "ree, Mo Jachelor’s degree dministration from tington University; om the University olumbia I: Agent in the U S. ce of Special ; during the Korean tl judge, 1960; state !, 1962-66; majority Missouri House, e treasurer, 1980- : governor, 1988- overnor, 1992-2000 rried; four children; dren WORLD THE BATTALION Page 5B Italy evacuates thousands as rivers flood area towns PIACENZA, Italy (AP) — Italy hurried more than 15,000 people from the path of two raging rivers Tuesday as flood waters that wreaked death in Alpine towns bore down on the medieval villages and cities of the northern Italian plains. The death toll in Italy and Switzerland rose to 25, with the mud- caked bodies of a 1-year-old Italian boy and a woman believed to be his mother among the latest uncovered. A total of 21 people in the two coun tries were missing and feared dead. On Tuesday, emergency crews evacuated whole villages in the paths of the Po, Italy’s longest river, and the Ticino, which feeds into it from the Alps. “Even those who were reluctant to leave their homes, like the elder ly, eventually were convinced,” said the Rev. Pier Luigi Rossi, one of a FRANCE GERMANY LIECHTENSTEIN O Bern SWITZERLAND AUST. Sion Gondo Zermatt # Lake'% Maf’f'h) ITALY • Turin PIEDMONT »Locarno t V LOMBARDY P<> EMILIA ROMAGNA MONACO Gulj of O Genoa n AP few people still in the riverside vil lage of San Rocco al Porto on Tues day afternoon. Water was climbing within inch es of the sandbags newly lining the Po, a few steps from Rossi’s church. He too was leaving soon. The Po already had burst its banks at some points. By Tuesday night, the flood crest was passing the old trade town of Piacenza, home to columned Romanesque churches and a Botti celli painting. The Po divides the rich agricul tural regions of Lombardy and Emil ia Romagna, emptying into the la goons of Venice. Tuesday, it hit its highest level in at least a half-centu ry; its height at Piacenza was the highest ever recorded there. While there has been some flooding of churches, where much of Italy’s cultural patrimony is cached, the water generally has not yet threatened works of art, said Vincenzo Pandolfino of the Culture Ministry's art protection squad. Damage to Italy's countless master pieces was not expected to near that suffered by Florence in a ruinous 1966 flood. In both countries, however, au thorities said overall damage would be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Flooding forced Fiat, the auto gi ant, to shut down two of its biggest plants in its hometown of Turin. Blocked roads and railways and in undated factories made it impossible for suppliers to deliver parts, spokesman Franco Sodano said. Officials were thinking of open ing upstream dikes to ease the threat to communities downstream, said Public Works Minister Nerio Nesi. “We are in a state of anxiety, of high emergency,” Nesi told reporters, adding, “The situation now could be come very dangerous.” Along the Ticino, water lapped at the third floors of evacuated palazzos in the Roman-era Lombard town of Pavia. Firefighters ferrhed food and clean water to the few holdouts who refused to leave. The floods and landslides started Saturday in southern Switzerland and northern Italy after days of pounding rain. Flood water roaring out of the Alps brought Lake Maggiore on the Swiss-Italian border to its highest level in 160 years. Most of the deaths came over the weekend when mud, rock and water rushed through villages and towns, sweeping away even massive stone houses. In the Swiss village of Gondo, perched in the Alps above the Italian border, rescuers digging through mud and rock found only bodies Tuesday. Hopes faded for the 10 people still missing in Switzerland. Jean-Rene Fournier, president of the Valais can ton (state) government, said it now appeared that a body recovered Mon day in Gondo was that of a woman whom rescuers had heard faintly tap ping just hours before. With roads to Switzerland’s famed ski resort of Zermatt blocked, authorities used helicopters to fly out stranded tourists. Seven-hundred had left by late Tuesday; 1,000 more were on a waiting list. THE VICTORIA ADVOCATE Presents Junior Brown WITH SPECIAL GUEST Jack Ingram OCTOBER 28, 2000 8:30 P.M. AT THE VICTORIA AIRPORT HANGAR Doors Open at 7:30 p.m. $2o 00 Ticket Locations: JR’s Boots, Victoria Communications Service, The Victoria Advocate, or At The Door. For more info (361) 574-1287 Food and Beer Available Approx. "c- flight 'S P ath ■§: ILLINOIS Philippine president maintains innocence of corruption claims 0 AO m\\es o 10 kr 0 100 miles 0 100 km ILLINOIS |ht path -rA New Madrid I. Gastello, F. Duckett/*' MANILA, Philippines (AP) — President Joseph \ Estrada faced the most serious threat to his presidency Tuesday as one-time allies — business, political and re- ; ligious — delivered a unified message: step aside. Estrada again maintained he was innocent of corrup- ; tion, denying he received “even a centavo” of the $H .4 I million in illegal gambling money and tobacco taxes he | is accused of pocketing. “I have been convicted without a trial,” the president ! complained. But the accusations already have had a devastating ef fect on the Philippines’ faltering economy. And impeach ment proceedings could jeopardize democracy in the Philippines, former President Corazon Aquino said. The peso plunged to a record low and the stock market dropped to its lowest point in two years Monday. The central bank has had to sharply raise interest rates, threatening growth in an economy that is already one of the slowest in Southeast Asia, four leading business groups said. The “crisis of leadership” has seriously under mined investor confidence, the business groups said Tuesday, urging Estrada to step down to avert eco nomic disaster. The corruption allegations surfaced when provincial Gov. Luis Singson, once a close friend of Estrada’s, tes tified last week that he arranged payoffs of $8.6 million from illegal gambling and another $2.8 million from to bacco taxes. Singson said he decided to step forward about the payoffs after Estrada awarded the franchise for a legal ized form of the numbers game jueteng to Singson’s po litical rival. For the sake of democracy, Estrada should step aside until the allegations are resolved, political and religious leaders said. Aquino wore yellow -— symbol of the “people pow er” revolt she led against ousted dictator Ferdinand Mar cos in 1986 — to call on Estrada to resign or take a leave of absence. “No government can continue with such charges hanging over its head,” she said. Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin joined her at a shrine commemorating the 1986 revolt to repeat his advice to Estrada to step aside. “May God show him the heroic value of relinquishing his post for the • sake of our people,” he said Tuesday. Opposition lawmakers and citizen’s groups said they planned to file a formal impeachment proceedings against the president Wednesday in the House of Rep resentatives. Estrada — whose party holds large majorities in both houses of Congress — welcomed the action, saying im peachment proceedings would vindicate him. “J have been convicted out of trial” — Joseph Estrada Philippine president CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT Nation’s leading Home Builder and Fortune 500 Pulte Corporation (NYSE) seeks successful professionals to contribute to the growth of its Texas Divisions (Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin). Career available in construction management. 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