i
mcAOomaMtUHKESS
SEATTLE—A poweffiil earth
quake rocked the Northwest on
Wednesday, shattering windows,
showering bricks onto sidewalks,
and sending frightened people
running into die streets of Seattle
and Portland, Ora
At least 25 people were
injured. The strongest quake to hit
Washington state in 52 years shut
down the Seattle airport, lnwrlmH
out power to hundreds of thou
sands of people, cracked the
dome atop the state Capitol in
Olympia and briefly trapped
about 30 people atop a swaying
Space Needle in Seattle
“Everyone was panicked,”
said Paulette DeRooy, who scram
bled onto a fire escape in a Seattle
office building.
The magnitude-6.8 quake hit
at 1055 am. and was centered 35
miles southwest of Seattle,
according to the National
Earthquake Information Center in
Golden, Cola it was felt in British
Columbia and parts of Oregon 300
mflesaway
Buildings in downtown
Portland swayed for nearly a half
minute.
“I thought a car had hit my
building,” said Sam Song, who
owns a restaurant in Everett, 30
“Then the ground started
moving around.”
Itonty-five people were treat
ed at Seattle* Haibonfew Medical
7 thought a car had
hit my building.”
restaurant owner
Center, four of them for serious
injuries, a spokeswoman said.
There were no other immediate
reports of injuries from around
the region.
Screams erupted at a Seattle
hotel whereMiciosoft founder B31
Gates was addressing an educa
tion and technology conference.
He was whisked away as his audi
ence bolted for the exits. Some
people were knocked down by
others dying to get out Overhead
lights fell to the floor
There was damage to a num
ber of other buildings, mostly
minor cracks and broken glass.
Bricks fell from the top of
Starbucks headquarters onto cars
parked below and piled up on
sidewalks of die popular Pioneer
Square neighborhood, the scene
of Mardi Gras celebrations die
night before.
Mayor Paul Schell said city
crews were examining buddings
for safety. He said preparations
and seismic remodeling had paid
oft
T think the city has been very
mindful of earthquake risks,”
Schell said. “We have no cata
strophic damage”
The sMewaisaadcm are ep»a^wlrtbrittaa^t»»o^«rt5idcaff»«MT^jnffiiightd«fc hi Seattle
earthquake »easurtq6J hit the dty carter in the day.
rm Crosby/Newsmakers
Wednesday. Aa
U.K. train-truck crash kills 13, injures more
GRICT HECK, England-With a high
speed passenger train bearing down on his
Land Rover stuck on the train tracks, the
frantic motorist called an emergency
number, but it was too late.
“The train's coming!* he shouted into
his mobile phone-just before it hit
In a bizarre wreck that left at least 13
dead and more than 70 injured, die pas
senger train smashed into the Land Rover
and a trailer it was towing - which them
selves had tumbled down an embankment
and onto the trades from a roadway above
- then plowed into an oncoming freight
train on a parallel track.
"The carriage roof was tom off, and I
was flung down the length of the corridor;”
said passenger Laurie Gunson of the
northern city ofYork, one of dozens of
dazed survivors ofWednesday’s crash out
side the village of Great Heck, about 200
miles north of London.
Rescuers were met with a chaotic
scene.
Sheared-off undercarriages and man
gled rail care were strewn across a muddy
Geld, and crews had to use cranes to pry
open the twisted cars. Coal carried by the
freight tram was scattered about in heaps.
The last survivor was pulled out five
hours after the eariy-moming crash, but as
night fed, bodies were stiO being retrieved
from the wreckage, and police said the
death toD could rise.
Work crews brought in generators and
lights to woik through the freezing night
The smell of diesel fuel hung in the air
"It is a tremendous tragedy and a huge
mess,” said Police Superintendent Tony
Thompson. It could take weeks to reopen
the rail line, he said.
Prime Minister Tony Blair promised
lawmakers "die fullest possible inquiry”
into the crash, Britain's fourth fatal train
wreck in three and a half years and the lat
est blow to its troubled rail system.
After a foil day, it was still not certain
how many people had been on the train.
Thompson, the police superintendent,
said 144 passengers had booked tickets,
but there could have been greater or fewer
actually aboard.
Police said the driver of the Land Rover
had called Britain’s equivalent of 911 just
before the crash.
"While die operator was speaking to
him we heard him shout The train’s com
ing!’ and then there was a bang,” a police
spokesman said.
Hie driver, who was not identified, was
being interviewed by police.
"He's completely devastated knowing
what happened as a result of his vehicle
going onto the tracks," said Thompson.
Investigators were photographing the
wreckage hum all angles and searching for
a data recorder that had been aboard the
freight train. They were also checking die
condition of guardrails on the M62 high
way above from which the Land Rover
(dunged.
"We believe there were crash barriers
in the area, and our examiners will look at
all aspects of this incident," said Detective
Superintendent Nick Bracken of British
Transport Police.
Carole Hutchinson, 45, who works
near die crash site, said die weather was
bitter Wednesday morning.
"ft was snowing badly. Although it was
n’t settling; it was heavy and not far off a
blizzard."
Someone had placed a bouquet of daf
fodils, wrapped in pink paper, on the brick
and-stone bridge above the tracks.
Passengers described screaming and
shouting as the passenger train, traveling
at 120 mph, careened off die tracks, and
the lights went out
“I held onto the table in front of me,
and then there was a huge impact My car
riage was on its side," said 22-year-old stu
dent Janine Edwards. “The man opposite
me was streaming with blood. The window
next to him was smashed, and the frame
had come out and hit him. His wife sitting
next to him was covered in his blood.”
At the crash site, the passenger train’s
engine was pointing into the air, jackknifed
at a 45-degree angle. The freight train was
partially derailed, with its front end com
pletely off the track and lying on its side. It
had slid into the back garden of a house.
The track is part of the east coast main
line from London to Edinburgh in
Scotland. Four people were killed on that
line at Hatfield, 25 miles north of London,
on Oct. 17 when a rail broke and a passen
ger train derailed.
That accident led to speed restrictions
and disruption throughout Britain’s rail
network during an emergency program of
replacing cracked rails.
The railway confirmed that one of the
locomotives involved in Wednesday’s
crash had also been one of the two loco
motives on the train that crashed at
Hatfield.
World/Nation
The Associated Press
■ Washington, D.C
GOP piansa readi-out effort
to attract more minorities
GOP national chairman
Jim Gilmore told a largely
Republican audience of blacks
Wednesday that efforts to
broaden the party’s appeal to
minorities would take “a
steady and long-term
approach.”
The Republican Party has
invested a lot of effort in the
past year leaching out to black
voters, but has little to show for
it, the Virginia governor told a
crowd of several hundred gath
ered for a celebration of Black
History Month.
“I intend to make this party
a party of all the people once
again,* Gilmore said after
reminding the audience of the
Republican Party’s role under
Abraham Lincoln.
He urged those in the
crowd to find people in their
communities who had a lead
ership role but were not close
ly aligned with either party and
write to him with the results of
their talks.
■ Italy
Lenten period begins with
blessings from Pope Paul II
ROME - Dabbing ashes on
the foreheads of cardinals,
lesser clergy and laity, Pope
John Paul II opened the Roman
Catholic Church's Lenten peri
od of penitence Wednesday
evening with a solemn cere
mony in an ancient Rome
church.
The 80-year-old pope, who
looked tired, read his homily
but did not lead the celebra
tion of the Mass in fifth-centu
ry St. Sabina Basilica on the
Aventine Hill, one of the seven
hills of ancient Rome.
He told the faithful “in
today’s world, the need for
pacification and pardon is
growing."
Ash Wednesday marks the
beginning of Lent, a period of
reflection and penitence in
preparation for Christianity’s
most important feast day,
Easter, which falls on April 15
this year. John Paul has sched
uled a period of spiritual exer
cises during Lent.
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Cloudy Partly cloudy
Score! 2nd vice president Fitch wins
Even though his running mates face a few days
of uncertainty - their fates will be sealed in a run
off election'Riesday- the Score! Party’s second vice
presidential candidate won’t have to face another
election.
Nick Fitch, the new second vice president for
student government, said he’s excited to take on
the new role.
Fitch won the election with a total of 1,430
votes, or 55.9 percent Wednesday night. His oppo
nent, Alisa Hardy of the No Bull party, got 981
votes, or 38.4 percent
Fitch said that he had mixed feeling about die
possible outcome of the election.
1 had a good feeling, but at the same time I was
extremely scared because I had that good feeling. If
I lost, it would make it that much worse," he said. *
Fitch said Hardy was a quality candidate to run
against
“She definitely has some really good ideas,* he
said. “She has a chance to really have an impact on
whatever she puts her mind to."
Nathan Fuerst, Score! presidential candidate,
and Jessica Lopez, Score! first vice-presidential
candidate, will be in a run-off election Tuesday.
Fitch said even though his campaign is over, he
will still work hard to get his running mates into
office.
“For the next week it's going to be all about help
ing Nathan and Jessica,* he said. “After that, I'm
going to make the most of the position.”
Fuerst said he was thrilled that Fitch won.
Tm really excited,” he said. "He’s going to do a
great job."
Fitch said he is confident he will work hard at
his new position.
“I do fed that I’m going to make the most of this
position,” Fitch said. "I really want to do something
that’s going to have an impact on the students."
Fuerst said that he's sure that Fitch will live up to
his campaign promises.
Fitch, who is a residence assistant in Schramm
Hall, also is a fraternity member and has also lived
off-campus.
During the campaign, he said he wanted to
bridge the divide that exists among the groups.
Said Fuerst "I have no doubt that he’s going to
accomplish everything he said he’s going to
accomplish and more."
Old senate has work to do before year's end
After a new crop of senators was
electedWednesday to take their seats,
the current ASUN senators are sched
uled to get to wodc on two possibly con
tentious bills tonight
The regular Wednesday student
government meeting was moved to
tonight because ofASUN Election Day
The meeting begins at &30 pun. in the
Nebraska East Union.
One bill die senate will consider
asks the university to join an anti
sweatshop group to help ensure
Husker apparel isn’t sweatshop-pro
duced.
The government bill would recom
mend UNL administrators have the
university join the Worker Rights
Consortium at a price of around
$15,000.
Joel Schafer, ASUN president said
he though the money to join the group
would come from the sale of Husker
apparel
The university already is a member
of the Fair Labor Association, an anti
sweatshop group
Schafer said he wants the bill to
pass because sweatshops are a prob
lem.
“A lot of Husker apparel that the
university sells is manufactured in
sweatshops,” he said.
The Worker Rights Consortium is
made up of community leaders in the
areas of factories in question, Schafer
said.
The consortium investigates
human rights violation complaints.
The Fair Labor Association, to
which the university already belongs,
oversees factories by performing
scheduled checkups.
Industry members save on the Fair
Labor Association, Schafer said.
“So really it’s industry watching
industry, so a lot of violations aren’t
caught,” Schafer said. “Its oversight
ASUN
realty isn't as good as it should be.”
Schafer said he wants the universi
ty to bdong to both organizations.
“Hopefully they will complement
each other well and make sure that
none of the apparel with the University
of Nebraska's name on it is made in
sweatshops,” he said.
In other news, the senate will vote
on the student fees allocations made by
the Committee for Fees Allnratinnx.
Student fees come in two parts:
Fund A fees, which total $11.74 each
semester, are used to fund student
groups, including ASUN, the Daily
Nebraskan and the University Program
Council, whose funding includes UPC
programming and Lied Center student
discounts for events.
Fund B fees are used for bond pay
ments, such as those to pay for the
Nebraska Union renovations, staff
\ . V
salaries and operating costs for student
services, including those at the
Campus Recreation Center and the
University Health Center
All of die allocations to die groups
are presented in separate bills for
ASUN to approve. ASUN can amend
the bills.
ASUN members that serve on CEA
can't vote
After ASUN amends or approves
the budgets, Fund A fees then have to
be approx by the chancellor. Fund B
fees have to be approved by the Board
ofRegents.
Brent Stanfield, chairman ofCFA,
said he doesn’t plan to make any
amendments. But he said he expects
there to be an amendment by an ASUN
senator to the Daily Nebraskan^ budg
et
He also said there might be discus
sion regarding the budgets for UPC,
Campus Recreation and the Nebraska
Unions.