Ferry disasters leave 133 dead
Manikganj, Bangladesh Three ferry accidents in Bangladesh in the past week have left at least 133 people dead, officials said Friday as hope faded for 187 people still missing.
Twelve bodies recovered Friday in the Padma River were from the M.L. Raipura, a double-deck ferry that went down during a storm Tuesday with about 250 people on board 25 miles northwest of the capital, Dhaka. Strong currents hampered recovery efforts.
In southern Bhola district, rescuers searched for about 30 people missing after a trawler with more than 100 aboard sank in a storm Thursday. No bodies had been recovered.
Last Sunday, a ferry carrying a wedding party sank in a storm in southern Patuakhali district, killing at least 88 people.
Slim hope for troops lost in Andes storm
Los Angeles, Chile At least 41 soldiers lost in an Andes “snow tsunami” are probably dead, the commander said Friday as survivors spoke of comrades too tired to make it out.
The soldiers, 40 young draftees and one officer, hadn’t been seen since Wednesday, when the worst storm in decades slammed into a training march. The military recovered the bodies of four soldiers who froze to death.
The weather cleared enough Friday for 14 patrols to search for the missing, but not for helicop- ters to join them. Much of the area was under 6 feet of snow.
Fox plans radio talk after stirring criticism
Mexico City President Vicente Fox is taking to the airwaves to convince Americans he isn’t racist.
An interview on activist Jesse Jackson’s radio program today will be Fox’s first public comment about a firestorm he ignited a week ago by saying Mexicans take U.S. jobs that “not even” blacks want. It roiled relations between U.S. blacks and Hispanics, and angered the U.S. government.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People invited Fox to its July convention to explain himself. Activist Al Sharpton demanded Fox apologize when the two meet Monday in Mexico City.
IRA threatens family rallying against killing
Dublin, Ireland Members of the outlawed Irish Republican Army are threatening to attack a Belfast family that has focused global attention on the IRA’s killing of a Catholic man, the victim’s sisters said Friday.
The five sisters and fiancee of Robert McCartney, who was stabbed and clubbed by IRA members outside a Belfast pub Jan. 30, have been campaigning to bring his killers to justice.
While the family’s efforts have won support from the European Parliament and White House, witnesses back home have been afraid or unwilling to help police.
Earlier this month, police warned the McCartneys that “criminal elements” were threatening to burn down their homes and a sandwich shop run by one of the sisters because of their urging locals to help police.