your quick guide to news from around the world
Weapons stash found
in Brooklyn apartment
1NEW YORK — Thirty people
were taken into custody for
questioning today after police
said an investigation of possible
child abuse led to the discovery
of an arsenal in an apartment
house.
Police said they found assault
rifles, shotguns, submachine guns
and thousands of rounds of am
munition in three adjoining
buildings in the Crown Heights
section of Brooklyn. They also
found black powder, which
Deputy Inspector William Allee
said could be a component for
making explosives.
Many of the weapons were
found in a secret compartment
behind a closet, Allee said.
Police were looking at informa
tion that the suspects were mem
bers of a group called the Provi
sional Party of Communists, said
Deputy Inspector Michael
Collins.
The Brooklyn group has no ties
to the national communist party,
according to Terrie Albano, a
Communist Party U.S.A. spokes
woman.
Police and social workers en
tered a four-story brownstone in
the Crown Heights section Mon
day evening after first being
barred as they sought to investi
gate a complaint of child abuse
that had been lodged with the So
ciety for the Prevention of Cruelty
to Children.
Allee said a search was begun
, when, people inside said there
After weapons were discov
ered, the search was extended to
the two adjoining buildings,
where a girl and two boys were
found, along with more weapons,
police said.
Allee said the children’s moth
er, who was not immediately
identified, was charged with en
dangering the welfare of a minor
and assault. He said the children
were in good condition.
A few other suspects were ex
pected to face charges of weapon
possession, police said.
Kevorkian friend
assists in suicide
2 IONIA, Mich. — An ally of Dr.
Jack Kevorkian, herself termi
nally ill with cancer, was
charged Tuesday with assisting
the suicide of a multiple-sclero
sis sufferer.
Janet Good’s lawyer said she’s
unlikely to be alive for trial.
“No prosecutor with any ounce
of humanity would have indicted
Janet Good,” said Michael
Schwartz.
A grand jury indicted Good, 73,
on charges of assisting the suicide
of Loretta Peabody, conspiring to
assist suicide and practicing med
icine without a license.
Kevorkian faces identical charges
in his first legal test outside the
Detroit area. The charges carry a
maximum of 18 years in prison.
Authorities seized a videotape
showing Peabody discussing sui
cide with Kevorkian, who later
acknowledged she was among the
45 people he has helped to die
since 1990.
Prosecutor Raymond Voet said
he may drop the charges if evi
dence shows Good may not live
long.
“Under no circumstances do I
want to martyr somebody,” he
said.
Swiss banks fail to
find victims’ assets
3 ZURICH, Switzerland — Af
ter nine months of research
ing old records, a Swiss bank in
vestigator said Tuesday he has
found only $8,800 belonging to
the heirs of Holocaust victims.
The World Jewish Congress,
which has been campaigning for
Swiss banks to open their
records and find what it claimed
would be $7 billion in such as
sets, called the initial results “pa
thetic.”
Hanspeter Haeni, the banks’
ombudsman, said the figures
“may seem disappointing at first
glance,” but added that his re
search showed that two previous
attempts to return Jewish assets
— in the late 1940s and in 1962
— were largely successful.
The assets were part of $32
million identified by the banks
last January as unclaimed and
possibly belonging to victims of
the Nazi regime.
The Jewish victims whose as
sets were recovered included
three people killed by the Nazis
and two people in Romania who
lost all they owned during World
War II because of discriminatory
legislation, Haeni said.
Hundreds injured in
Peruvian earthquake
4LIMA, Peru — A powerful
earthquake rocked southern
Peru Tuesday, killing at least 15
people, injuring as many as 700
and causing many buildings to
crumble, civil defense officials
said.
Hardest hit by the magnitude
6.4 noon quake was the tourist
city of Nazca, where four people
were killed and 380 injured, civil
defense spokeswoman Lena
Montes said.
The Peruvian Geophysical In
stitute said the quake was cen
tered in the Pacific Ocean about
83 miles west of Nazca, which is
235 miles southeast of Lima.
The quake lasted about a
minute and was felt in Lima —
where high-tension cables fell
across a busy avenue — and as far
away as Tacna, 600 miles south
east of the capital.
Five people were killed in the
mining town of Acari, southeast
of Nazca, and four people died
and 200 were injured in the small
town of Palpa, northwest of Naz
ca, Montes said. Two others died
and 120 were hurt in Chincha, far
ther to the north.
Planes collide over
India killing up to 351
5CHARKHIDADRI, India—A
Saudi jumbo jet climbing from
New Delhi’s airport collided with
a Kazak plane coming in for land
ing Tuesday, creating twin fire
balls that turned the sky red as
dawn and scattered the bodies of
up to 351 people over farmland
below.
If the death toll is confirmed,
the crash would be the third
deadliest in aviation history.
Rescue vehicles tried to navi
gate the area’s poor roads, arriving
at the crash site after the first curi
ous villagers.
The Saudi Arabia-bound
Saudia jetliner with 312 passen
gers and crew members had been
in the air for only seven minutes
when it collided with a Kazakstan
Airlines Ilyushin-76 cargo plane,
which was on a landing ap
proach, aviation officials said.
Seventeen foreigners were on
board the Saudi jetliner, includ
ing two Americans and a Briton,
Press Trust of India news agency
reported.
The plane, arriving from
Shymkent in the former Soviet re
public of Kazakstan, was carrying
39 people, 28 Kazak passengers
and an 11-member Russian crew.
All aboard the two planes were
believed killed. There were no re
ports that anyone on the ground
died.
The American pilot of a C-141
Air Force transport plane who
was bringing in supplies for the
U.S. Embassy in New Delhi wit
nessed the crash’s fiery aftermath
from 20,000 feet.
“We noticed out of our right
hand (side of the plane) a large
cloud lit up with an orange glow
from within the clouds,” the 30
year-old captain told reporters in
a conference call from the Indian
capital.
“The glow intensity of the
cloud became dimmer, and the
two fireballs descended and be
came fireballs on the ground,”
said the pilot, who spoke on con
dition of anonymity.
— The Associated Press
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