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IE tie 0 am rack Typhoon Bilis leaves Taiwan after killing 11 */ JL by Annie Huang Associated Press TAIPEI, Taiwan —Typhoon Bilis swept over Taiwan, killing 11 people, injuring 80 others and stranding thousands in makeshift shelters before moving over open water Wednesday and whirling in to southern China, where it appeared to be weakening. Rescuers recovered the bodies of sev en farmers and a 6-year-old girl buried in a mudslide in the mountainous village of Jenai, Interior Minister Chang Poh-ya said The victims were washed from a tem porary shelter to the bottom of a creek, but seven other farmers escaped to re port the accident. It took rescuers hours to reach the remote village, moving cranes and tractors through roads blocked by landslides. Rescuers searched late into Wednes day night for a missing man along a rag ing river in central Nantou county. The man was last seen flowing down the river holding on to a piece of wood, of ficials said. Powerful winds ripped off electrical wires that killed a woman outside the cap ital, Taipei, and a construction worker died when a retaining wall collapsed in the suburbs, the government said. A man died after he was hit by a door knocked down by strong winds. About 80 people were injured by fall en utility poles and other objects, offi cials said. In eastern Hualien county, about 250 houses collapsed in the winds, officials said. The typhoon flooded rice paddies and fruit farms, causing $48 million in agricultural damage, officials said. An earthquake of preliminary mag nitude 5.7 struck Hualien early Wednes day, but no immediate damage was re ported, weathermen said. Taipei was latgely unaffected by the typhoon, which hit southern Taiwan late Tuesday night with winds of up to 118 mph. Bilis lost some of its strength as it headed toward southern China’s Fujian province. By early afternoon, it had passed through Taiwan’s outlying Kinmen is lands and made landfall near the coastal city of Xiamen, where it began weak ening, meteorologists said. City workers in Xiamen got the day off Wednesday, and the Xiamen ferry ser vice and a local airline shut down oper ations, according to the state-run Chinese news agency Xinhua. There were no im mediate reports of how severely the city was hit. The typhoon’s winds had weakened to about 78 mph as it approached main land China and it was traveling at 9 mph, said Chien Kuo-chi, a forecaster at Tai wan’s Central Weather Bureau. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, said the typhoon remained in southern China’s Fujian province and by noon EDT Wednesday, the winds had weakened to 75 mph. Typhoon Bilis was the most power ful storm to hit the island this year, but there were differing reports about its strength. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center said it had sustained winds as high as 161 mph. Officials at the Taiwan Central Weather Bureau, which measured the storm at 118 mph, said the discrepancy was partially the result of Taiwan mea suring the storm’s intensity over a longer period. More than 600,000 Taiwanese homes lost power during the height of the storm, and tens of thousands of people across the island were moved into shelters set up by the government. Local and international carriers can celed 76 flights to southern Taiwan and abroad. In southern Taiwan, Kaohsiung haibor — one of the world’s busiest ports — remained closed as waves battered the sea walls. Government offices, banks and Taiwan’s stock market were closed Wednesday. Bilis was the second strong typhoon to hit Taiwan this year. Last month, Ty phoon Kai Tak swept through southern Taiwan with winds of up to 93 mph, leav ing one dead and five people injured. Officials were still searching for a doc tor reported missing during a hike Tues day. Meanwhile, four prisoners had es caped from a window at a detention cen ter in the central county of Taitung. as jail wardens were busy repairing a leaking roof, state radio said. Further south, Tropical Storm Kae mi swamped central Vietnam with up to a foot of rain, causing widespread flood ing and leaving five people dead and one missing, officials said Wednesday. One person was killed when a home collapsed and two were washed away by floodwaters in Quang Ngai province, a provincial official said. Officials in Thua Thien Hue said one person was killed by lightning and an other reported missing in flooding. In Danang, a man was electrocuted by a fall en utility pole. Meanwhile, two people were killed and three others reported missing after two wooden boats carrying tourists were sunk Tuesday by a whirlwind that spun across Halong Bay. Hurricane from page A8 public. A hurricane watch was in effect for the rest of the Bahamas and north ern Haiti. Cuba posted a hurricane watch for its northeast coast and was expect ed to extend it westward. Forecasters may post a hurricane watch in South Florida, Williams said. As a relatively minor hurricane on Tuesday, Debby brought some rain and little apparent damage to the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Vugin Islands and a number of small is lands like Antigua and Anguilla. “This storm was quite confusing in terms of all the various changes it made,” Gene Whlker, emergency response leader in the Vugin Islands, said Tuesday. “We were supposed to have had heavy rainfall, some 10 to 12 inches of rain, and today that was changed to 5 inch es.” The only storm-related death was a San Juan man who slipped from his roof while trying to dismantle an antenna. In Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory of 4 million people, there was relief as Deb by’s eye passed just to the north. Puer to Rico and the U.S. Vtrgin Islands re opened schools and government offices Wednesday, and flights were expected to resume. “We believe the conditions are ad equate to return to normalcy,” Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Rossello said Tuesday. Rains following in Debby’s wake soaked Puerto Rico overnight, flooding and closing some main roads in San Juan. The HOVENSA oil refinery on the U.S. Virgin Island of St. Croix, which cut back production Monday and Tues day, planned to resume normal opera tions Wednesday. Some tourists scrambled to board flights to the U.S. mainland earlier Tues day, but others were more relaxed. “I hope it’s over soon, because I need a suntan by Sunday,” said Diana Chiquito of New York City, sunbathing on San Juan’s Condado beach, where many surfer? enjoyed the higher waves. In Dutch St. Maarten, battered in recent years by a series of hurricanes, officials reported no damage and re opened the airport. “We’ve fared well. I’m looking out ride at my garden, which was devas ated by Hurricane Lenny last year, and t still has flowers,” said Glen Holm, di rector of the tourism bureau on the Dutch island of Saba near St. Maarten. Still churning in the northern At antic was Hurricane Alberto, the longest .ived August tropical storm on record. Mberto, which formed Aug. 4, was mov ng at 20 mph hundreds of miles east of Newfoundland. All visitors were ordered evacuat ed from the Florida Keys on Wednes day as officials prepared for the worst. Monroe County, which governs the island chain, declared a state of emer gency with Debby still hundreds of miles away. Mary Ann Kirkland, dockmaster for Whale Harbor Inn & Marina, said it was business as usual at the Keys fishing re sort on Islamorada, about 65 miles south west of Miami. “The skies are clear — a couple of little puffy clouds up there — but it’s a beautiful day,” she said. Still, a Philadelphia fisherman re booked his weekend trip rather than risk confronting Debby, and some charter boat captains canceled trips set for Saturday. State and county parks and private campgrounds were instructed to close by noon, and all large recre ational vehicles, travel trailers and tent campers were ordered out. Monroe County schools will be closed Thursday and Fridiy. To the north, in Cape Canaveral, Kennedy Space Cen ter workers took plywood and sandbags out of storage to be put up in case the storm veered in that direction. Space shuttle Atlantis could be moved off a launch pad into its hangar if it were threatened Iraq says it won t allow new U.N. inspection team to visit by Leon Barkho Associated Press BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraq said Wednesday it will not permit a new U.N. weapons inspection team to visit, promis ing that the country would stand firm even if threatened with the use of force. Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said Iraq had not changed its position on a U.N. resolution that calls for the re sumption of stalled weapons inspections and promises Iraq a suspension of sanc tions if it cooperates. Asked about Aziz’s comments, U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said: “That’s been their standing policy for some time. Our position is that we will continue to prepare for a new round of inspections.” Eckhard said at U.N. headquarters in New York that the world body hopes that Iraq will change its position, accept the inspection teams “and eventually get to a position where we could declare Iraq in full compliance and see the lifting of the sanctions against that country.” The head of the new inspection pro gram, Hans Blix, is ready to restart in ternational efforts to ensure Iraq has sur rendered weapons of mass destruction and the ability to make and deploy them in compliance with U.N. Security Coun cil resolutions. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright met with Blix Tuesday and expressed full support for his activities. Aziz said Iraq will not allow Blix or any of his inspectors to enter the coun try. “I have said Iraq will not cooperate with Resolution 1284. This means it will not receive Blix or any person related to this resolution,” Aziz told reporters. Blix is a former Swedish foreign min ister who also served for many years as director general of the International Atom ic Energy Agency. The new program is called the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission. It will replace the U.N. Spe cial Commission, the inspection team that left Iraq in December 1998 shortly be fore the United States and Britain launched airstrikes to punish Baghdad for alleged ly failing to cooperate. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher has ruled out the use of force if Iraq rejects the commission. Boucher said Tuesday that Iraq stands to benefit by co operating. He said the United Nations won’t lift its sanctions, imposed to pun ish Iraq for invading Kuwait in 1990, un less it does. Aziz said threats and military action will not compel Iraq to change its stance. “We have become accustomed to threats. Iraq is ready for all challenges,” he said. (well, at LEAST THE CD WE RE GIVING AWAY DOES) FREE TUNES WHEN YOU OPEN A WACHOVIA college account. And a free check card, free use of Wachovia ATMs (they’re all over the place) and free Online Banking. Try to find another bank that gives you all this, plus the music of Train, Josh Joplin, Stir and 10 other artists. TO OPEN A COLLEGE ACCOUNT AND RECEIVE A FRESH CD* STOP BY ANY BRANCH. OR FOR MORE DETAILS, CHECK OUT WWW.WACHOVIA.COM. *One CD per account, while supplies last. Wachovia Bank, N.A., is a member FDIC. Account subject to approval. ©Wachovia Corporation I WACHOVIA Started: 1