Ministers hold service, say souls haven’t been “defiled”

NOBLE, Ga. (AP) — Ministers in the rural county where hundreds of decomposing corpses have been found at a crematory led a day of prayer Wednesday, assuring family members that the souls of the dead were not defiled.

“Father, we come before you with our hearts heavy and our minds full of confusion,” said the Rev. Gary Bruce of LaFayette Church of God, not far from Tri-State Crematory.

At a modest service, 21 ministers from northwestern Georgia said prayers one by one, asking for wisdom for authorities, strength for the recovery workers and mercy for Ray Brent Marsh, the crematory owner now charged with 118 felony counts.

Pastors joined hands with residents to say the Lord’s Prayer. Ministers said that while the bodies of hundreds had been desecrated Tri-State, their souls — and the soul of the community — remained untouched.

Recovery teams returned to Tri-State for the 13th day of the gruesome search. Authorities said 339 bodies had been found, and 74 of those had been identified.

Authorities plan to drain a small lake where a torso and skull have been found.

Basketball star severely beaten by rival students

PIKEVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A high school basketball star was severely beaten by students from a rival school in what may have been an attempt to knock him out of a tournament, officials said.

Millard High School senior Jarrod R. Adkins suffered a broken hand and a head injury requiring surgery. Several other students were also hurt in the brawl Monday night.
At least six Shelby Valley High students face assault charges. Sheriff’s officials said more arrests were likely.

The two schools were scheduled to play on Friday in the regional tournament. Sheriff Charles Keesee said Adkins’ high school basketball career is over.

Woman hurt in car bomb explosion in Florida

MARATHON, Fla. (AP) — A bomb blew up a car at an intersection Wednesday morning, critically injuring the woman driver.

The 8:40 a.m. explosion blew a hole in the four-door Saturn’s undercarriage, blasted away chunks of pavement and damaged a nearby vehicle, said Becky Herrin, a Monroe County Sheriff’s spokeswoman.

Initially, officials suspected there was another bomb in the car that had not exploded, but no other devices were found and by midday bomb squad officers cleared the way for investigators to begin combing the car for clues, said Herrin.

The 51-year-old Marathon woman, whose identity was not immediately released, was airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital and was in critical condition, said hospital spokeswoman Lorraine Nelson.

Jet lands in London after one engine catches on fire

LONDON (AP) — An engine of a jetliner carrying 123 people caught fire as it landed in England Wednesday. Two passengers suffered minor injuries when they were evacuated.

The control tower at Stansted airport north of London notified the crew of the Ryanair Boeing 737-800 that it could see smoke coming from the engine when the plane landed at 5:20 p.m. on a flight from Dublin, Ireland, police and the airline said.

The pilot of Flight FR296 shut down the burning No. 2 engine, halted the aircraft as it taxied toward the terminal building and lowered slides from the plane for the evacuation, Ryanair said in a statement.

Airport firefighters extinguished the blaze using foam and powder. The two passengers who were hurt suffered minor foot injuries, Ryanair said.

It was not immediately known what caused the fire aboard the plane, which was carrying 117 passengers and six crew members.

57 Hindus die when Muslim mob stones, burns train

GODHRA, India (AP) — A Muslim mob set fire to a train carrying Hindu nationalists home from a disputed religious site Wednesday, killing at least 57 people, officials said. Fearing religious strife could spread, the prime minister appealed for calm.

The fire gutted four coaches in the early morning attack at a station in the western city of Godhra, where Muslims angered by slogans chanted by the Hindus stoned the train cars and doused them with kerosene, according to state officials and witnesses.

Fourteen children were among the dead, district administrator Jayanti Ravi said. State Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who traveled to Godhra, said 43 people were injured, many critically.

The train was carrying about 2,500 Hindu nationalists returning from Ayodhya, a site in northeast India where activists plan to build a temple at the site of a 16th century Muslim mosque.

Violence continues after meeting with security chiefs

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli troops killed four armed Palestinians in two separate gun battles Wednesday, and a Palestinian employee shot dead an Israeli factory manager in an apparent political attack.

The violence came just hours after a tense meeting between Israeli and Palestinian security chiefs ended without agreement on how to end 17 months of fighting. In a four-hour session participants said was marked by angry outbursts, Israel demanded a Palestinian crackdown on militants and the Palestinians insisted on an easing of Israeli travel restrictions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Still, a new Saudi peace initiative generated some hope on both sides, and the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, met in Jiddah on Wednesday with the plan’s author, Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, to explore it further.

The prince has proposed that the Arab world make peace with Israel in return for Israel’s withdrawal from the lands it occupied in the 1967 Mideast war — an initiative that has been welcomed by the Palestinians and some Israeli officials.

20 airport workers charged with lying to get jobs

BOSTON (AP) — Twenty people working at Logan International Airport were charged with lying to get their jobs or security badges.

Samantha Martin, U.S. Attorney Michael J. Sullivan’s spokeswoman, said 15 people were taken into custody in a sweep Wednesday morning. Five more workers were expected to be in custody by the afternoon.

Sullivan scheduled a news conference for Wednesday afternoon to announce details of the charges, which are part of an ongoing investigation to improve airport safety.
The employees work for private companies at Logan, not the airport itself.

NASA postpones space shuttle Columbia launch

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA postponed today’s liftoff of space shuttle Columbia for a day because of the potential for the coldest launch-time temperature since the Challenger disaster in 1986.

Liftoff had been set for sunrise, with temperatures forecast in the 30s. Warmer weather was expected for Friday’s attempt to send Columbia on a mission to overhaul the Hubble Space Telescope.

As forecasters watched the thermometer Wednesday, engineers scrambled to resolve last-minute concerns over improperly manufactured wheel bearings.

A failed bearing could cause a wheel to lock up and the shuttle to skid down the runway with potentially disastrous consequences.

Meteorologists had expected a temperature of just 38 degrees at sunrise today. The temperature should be around 49 degrees at launch time Friday morning.

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TCU Daily Skiff © 2002