INTERNATIONAL

One person killed in Sudan bombing

Associated

NAIROBI, Kenya - An aircraft dropped bombs near an airport used to distribute relief in war-torn southern Sudan amid two days of bombing that killed one person and injured 14 others, the U.N. World Food Program said yesterday.

An aircraft dropped around 30 bombs Friday and Saturday on Mangayath in Bahr el-Ghazal province, WFP said in a statement. The government said it had no information about the bombings.

Some 20,000 people have sought shelter in Mangayath to escape fighting in Raja, 15 miles north, the agency said.

The government, which is in the midst of an 18-year civil war with southern rebels, is the only party in the conflict with aircraft and has been accused of deliberately targeting aid agencies and civilian targets in southern Sudan.

Government spokesman Abdelrahman Hamza said there were no military operations in the area. He said he had no information about the bombings.

"All I know is that the southern region these days is tranquil," Hamza said by telephone from the capital, Khartoum. "To my knowledge, there are no military operations near Raja and no fighting."

Sudan's latest conflict broke out in 1983 and has claimed 2 million lives, mainly through war-induced famine.

In June, the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Front captured Raja, 650 miles southwest of Khartoum. The rebels are seeking greater autonomy for the south.

Up to 1,000 people per day have been arriving in Mangayath to escape the fighting, WFP said.

The casualties occurred Saturday when five bombs were dropped around an airstrip used by the U.N. agency to bring in food to Mangayath, WFP spokeswoman Brenda Barton told The Associated Press. The agency's two workers in the village were not injured in the attacks.

Still, relief operations were continuing, she said. "There are thousands of people whom we need to assist. We sincerely hope that renewed efforts to feed people will go uninterrupted by both sides of the conflict," said Ben Martinson, WFP's operations manager for southern Sudan.

Hurricane Iris aims toward Yucatan after skirting Jamaica

Associated Press

KINGSTON, Jamaica - Hurricane Iris whirled past Jamaica yesterday, uprooting trees but sparing the island the full fury of its 85 mph winds as it churned on toward Mexico and Belize.

The hurricane killed a family of three in the Dominican Republic on Saturday when the retaining wall on a hillside collapsed, crushing their house.

Iris had earlier threatened to make a direct hit in Jamaica, but instead passed to the south. After heavy rains, the sun emerged from the departing clouds.

"The full-fledged hurricane was not over Jamaica," said Lixion Avila, a forecaster at the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.

The hurricane was forecast to pass south of the Cayman Islands and to strengthen as it moved over the western Caribbean toward the Yucatan Peninsula. People in the Yucatan could begin to feel the effects of the hurricane by tonight, Avila said.

In southwestern Jamaica, about 10 people had to leave their homes due to flooding, said Barbara Carby, director of the Office of Disaster Preparedness. Winds of more than 70 mph were reported in the area, officials said.

In Santo Domingo, the Dominican capital, a retention wall on a hill collapsed under the heavy rain Saturday, crushing a wooden house. The collapse killed a 27-year-old mother and her daughters, ages 3 and 8, and two other children were injured, said neighbor Ramon Vasquez.

Vasquez said he and some other men pulled the injured children to safety.

Thirty-five families were evacuated from low-lying Santo Domingo neighborhoods, officials said.

In Haiti, it appeared the hurricane spared most coastal towns. However, it was not immediately possible to reach some remote areas.

Burger King workers burn feet at company retreat

MIAMI - About a dozen Burger King marketing-department workers burned their feet when they walked over white-hot coals at a meeting intended to promote bonding.

One woman was taken to a hospital emergency room, and Burger King brought in a doctor to treat others whose feet were blistered. Some workers used wheelchairs the next day when they went to the airport to leave for another company retreat.

More than 100 employees at the Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo participated Wednesday in the firewalking, a ritual with origins in religions of the Far East.

The Burger King workers had to sign a waiver acknowledging they might get hurt. The injured employees suffered first- and second-degree burns.

Mildred Morse, a Burger King administrative assistant, was the most seriously hurt. She was released from Baptist Hospital on Thursday.

"You're walking over hot coals, and something can happen," said Robert Kallen, owner of The Achievement Group, which ran the event. "The majority of the people get through it without a nick or a blister."

A certified instructor, Kallen has led thousands of participants over coals that can be as hot as 1,200 degrees.

Dana Frydman, vice president of product marketing for Burger King, was injured but had no regrets about the event she helped organize.

"It made you feel a sense of empowerment," Frydman said, "and that you can accomplish anything."