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Bodies
of drowned victims recovered from canal
LAGOS,
Nigeria (AP) — As onlookers wept and wailed, hundreds of bodies
were pulled out of a canal in Nigeria’s largest city Monday
after they drowned while trying to flee explosions at an army weapons
depot.
Many
victims apparently didn’t realize how deep the water was and
drowned when they ran and drove vehicles into the Oke Afa drainage
canal in Lagos, witnesses said. They were fleeing explosions at
the city’s Ikeja military base, which propelled shrapnel and
shock waves for miles Sunday night.
Rescue
volunteer Ben Nwachukwu said more than 200 bodies were pulled from
just one part of the canal. Other volunteers said the death toll
could be much higher, but getting an accurate count was difficult
— in part because the current was carrying bodies downstream.
Authorities issued no official death count.
Many
children were separated from their families during Sunday night’s
panic, said Lagos State Police Commissioner Mike Okiro. He said
some children were being cared for at police stations until their
families could be located.
Army
spokesman Col. Felix Chukwumah said the explosions began when a
fire spread to the depot, which is surrounded by crowded slums and
working-class neighborhoods. He did not know how the fire started,
but a police officer said Sunday it began at a nearby gas station.
State
and military officials said the fire was accidental and not an indication
of military unrest.
Dozens
of blasts sent fireballs towering over this city of 12 million and
shattered windows six miles away at the international airport. The
explosions continued into the early morning Monday.
Ecuadorean
jetliner still not found after crash
QUITO,
Ecuador (AP) — An Ecuadorean jetliner carrying 92 people crashed
Monday in the fog-bound mountains of the Andes across the border
in Colombia, an airline spokesman said.
The
Boeing 727-100 from Ecuador’s TAME airline lost radio contact
at 10:23 a.m., the Civil Aviation department said in a statement.
It was carrying 83 passengers and nine crew members, the statement
said.
A
TAME spokesman told The Associated Press that the plane, which originated
in Quito, crashed in Colombian territory near Ipiales, a city just
across the border from the plane’s destination, the Ecuadorean
city of Tulcan. “We don’t have any more information at
this time.”
Colombia
offered to help locate the aircraft, Colombian Civil Aviation director
Juan Carlos Velez said, but he added that he could not confirm that
the plane went down in Colombian territory.
The
plane’s planned flight path took it into Colombian airspace
and over Ipiales as it headed to Tulcan, 110 miles northeast of
Quito, the TAME spokesman said. The mayor’s office of Ipiales,
located six miles northeast of Tulcan, said the city’s airport
was closed because of fog.
It
was the second crash this month in the jungle-covered border region.
A
plane from Ecuador’s state-owned oil company with 26 people
on board crashed in Colombian territory Jan. 17 while heading from
Quito to Lago Agrio, an oil outpost in the Amazon jungle 110 miles
northeast of the capital.
Six
days later, searchers found the wreckage of the twin-engine propeller
plane on a hillside a few miles across the border. All 21 passengers
and five crew members on board died.
Tulcan
is about 30 miles northwest of where the oil company plane crashed.
Bible
to be updated with gender-neutral wording
(AP)
— The International Bible Society said Monday that America’s
best-selling modern Bible is about to get an update using gender-neutral
wording, despite past criticism of that idea from conservatives.
The
revision will be called “Today’s New International Version,”
or TNIV. The original “New International Version,” which
has sold more than 150 million copies worldwide since1978,
will remain on the market.
The
New Testament of the latest version goes on sale in April with the
full Bible including Old Testament books expected by 2005.
The
older version’s gender usage became hotly disputed in 1997
when World magazine, a conservative weekly, reported that the Bible
society was working on an inclusive-language revision. The society
had already published such an edition with a British publisher.
Examples
of some changes from 1978 to 2002: “Sons of God” to “children
of God”' in Matthew 5:9, and “a man is justified by faith”
to “a person is justified by faith” in Romans 3:28. Terms
referring to God and Jesus Christ have not been altered.
Like
the 1978 Bible, the new version is aimed at Protestants, and will
not appear in an edition with the extra biblical books recognized
by Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches.
The
major U.S. sales competitor for the NIV has been the venerable King
James Version. All or part of the Bible is currently available in
some 70 English translations.
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