| Summary: | 6 World September 10,1999 Massive earthquake tears Greece apart ATHENS, Greece (AP) As res-cue teams searched for earthquake survivors among dozens of top-pled buildings, engineers exam-ined those left standing to see if thousands sleeping in the open could return to their homes. Officials also began setting up more than 700 tents Wednesday in some of Athens' hard-struck northern suburbs, the epicenter of the most powerful earthquake to hit this sprawling city of more than 5 million in nearly a century. At least 32 people were killed by the magnitude 5.9 temblor that-struck in mid-afternoon. Thousands of Athenians fear-ing a new quake spent the night in the city parks. Officials reported more than 500 aftershocks, including six over magnitude 4 and a midnight jolt that registered magnitude 4.7. Hundreds of specialized rescue crews were searching among a number of buildings and factories that collapsed around Menidi, where the quake was centered. Fire crews pulled a husband and wife out of the ruins of an apartment building in the Nea Philadelphia suburb near Menidi. They were still trying to reach their two children. More than 100 buildings, from multi-story apartment houses to factories, went down and hun-dreds more were left with deep cracks or crumbled facades. Greek rescuers will be joined by foreign crews, including teams from Israel and Turkey. Turkey's quick offer of assis-tance to its traditional rival was a poignant reminder of Greece's aid to its neighbor after a devastating Aug. 17 quake near Istanbul killed more than 15,000. Some of the crews working in Menidi had just returned from Turkey. Greece was among the first countries to send rescue crews and aid to Turkey, a move that helped thaw decades of enmity. But the quake that rattled Athens, the amount of damage it caused, and the fast reaction of Greek emergency services high-lighted a number of differences. Decades of progressively stricter building codes in quake-prone Greece allowed the huge Athens metropolis to ride out the temblor with much less misery than western Turkey, where shod-dy construction was blamed for near total destruction in some places. Official emergency crews, police and military forces were on the scene within the hour, com-pared to hours and even days in Turkey. Government officials also began an immediate investigation to determine if the buildings which collapsed conformed to building codes. Most of the dam-age and casualties were concen-trated in working-class and immi-grant areas north of Athens where construction standards were apparently lower or building shortcuts were made. "We will be looking at build-ings starting at daybreak and we will see if regulations and laws that have been in effect for some years were kept," said Interior Minister Vasso Papandreou. "We will look at this with great care. We have some of the strictest earthquake regulations around and if they were kept we should not have had this much damage." State television reported at least 32 people dead, including several young children. Most of the victims were crushed and a few suffered fatal heart attacks. The number of missing was not immediately clear, but state media said about two dozen people were trapped in flattened apartment buildings. An estimated 40 work-ers were missing in a collapsed foam products factory north of Athens and about five employees were reported under the rubble of an appliance maker. The fire department placed the Wednesday All-You-Can-Eat Fajitas Fajitas, fajitas and more fajitas.beef or chicken, all-you-can-eat at our regular price. Wednesday's the day and Paradiso'sthe place. See ya there! Dinner's Extra!* www.paradiso.com Water droplets may date to universe's beginning HOUSTON (AP) Tiny water droplets found in a meteorite may date to the beginning of the uni-verse, a NASA researcher said. Droplets about one-tenth the width of a human hair were dis-covered in the so-called Zag meteorite, a 300-pound rock that broke into pieces when it struck a remote area of Morocco. The droplets could be billions of years old. Michael Zolensky, the space agency researcher who found water in both the Zag and another meteorite that fell in West Texas last year, said the discoveries sug-gest water may be trapped in many space rocks. Zolensky and other scientists from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston announced last month they had discovered tiny pockets of briny water in the 4.5 billion-year-old meteorite found in Texas. It provided the first close look at water not originating on Earth. Zolensky's latest discovery came after he took a closer look at a small chunk of the Morocco meteorite found in 1998. The water was located in crystals of sodium chloride that the Zag and West Texas rocks both con-tained, Zolensky said. Team up with Kelly Services this fall. We'll keep you busy when and where you want. You'll enjoy flexible schedules and weeekly pay. IMMEDIATE OPENINGS -OFFICE SUPPORT -LIGHT INDUSTRIAL CALL KELLY! 701 -293-3162 or 1 -800-959-4611 KEiiy SERVICES An equal opportunity employer. Never an applicant fee. BETHANY HOMES Bethany Homes has openings for the following positions: CNA's: (FT or PT Days, Eves or Nights - we'll try to work with your schedule!) Floor Care: (3pm-11pm) Nurses: (Eve or Night) For consideration, apply to Job Service or directly to: Bethany Homes 201 S. University Dr. Fargo, ND 58103 (701)239-3522 www. bethanyhomes. org EOE Good Weekly Income Processing mail for national company! Free supplies, postage! No selling! Bonuses! Start immediately! Genuine opportunity! Please rush Long Self Addressed Stamped Envelope to: GMCO, P.O. Box 22-0740, Hollywood, Florida 33022 number of missing at 45, but it was unclear whether the tally included all sites. In central Athens, there was no apparent damage to ancient sites, including the Acropolis and the towering columns of the Temple of Zeus. The National Archaeological Museum reported some damage to items, but gave no details. Streets throughout the capital were littered with signs of the quake's power: chunks of con-crete, glass shards and shattered marble that rained down on people who raced from offices and homes in the middle of a work day. More than 400 people were hurt by falling debris, police said. The strongest quake in the Athens area this century was a magnitude 6 in 1914, said Vasilis Papzahos, one of the leading earthquake experts in the region. Egyptian mining venture conjures allure for gold SUKKARI, Egypt (AP) A little skepticism is in order when some-one tries to sell you the pharaoh's gold mine. But even with gold prices down, an Australian-Egyptian team is bent on reviving Egyptian gold mining, which had it heyday in the time of the pharaohs. The prospectors have a treasure map, a copy of an ancient cutaway drawing of mine tunnels used dur-ing the reign of King Seti I in 1350-1205 B.C. The original, on papyrus, is kept in an Italian muse-um while geologists and engineers for Pharaoh Gold Mines use dia-mond- tipped drills to probe the area the map shows, a stretch of southeastern desert near the Red Sea coast. Pharaoh Gold Mines combines the undeniable allure of gold with the romance of Egypt's ancient, glorious past, and three years of test drilling have impressed some investment planners. What it does-n't have yet is much gold—full-scale mining is at least a year away. "Getting Egypt back in the forefront of mining is imminent," says an optimistic Sami El-Raghy, an Egyptian geologist who worked in Australian mines for 32 years before returning home to help start up Pharaoh Gold Mines, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Australian-based Centamin explo-ration company. Kris Knauer of Australia's BNP Equities, an analyst with a special interest in emerging companies, has been following the project and likes what he's seen. But he says he would have kept an even closer eye "if gold hadn't done what it's done."' Prices plummeted after Britain's central bank announced in May that it planned to sell off much of its gold holdings and acquire higher-yielding assets. Just below $300 an ounce before the announcement, gold now sells for around $250.
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