Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Injured Israelis are helped into an ambulance at the border between Egypt and Israel at the Israeli town of Eilat, across from the Egyptian resort of Taba. 3 bombings devastate resorts during: Tewish holiday, kill 3 0 By SARAH EL DEEB THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CAIRO, Egypt — Three explosions shook popular resorts on Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula on Thursday night as many Israelis vacationed at the close of a Jewish holiday. Officials said at least 30 people were killed and 114 wounded, and witnesses gave unconfirmed reports that all three explosions were caused by car bombs. The first blast, about 10 p.m., shook the Hilton hotel in the Taba resort, only yards from the Israeli border, and Israel’s army radio quoted Israeli security officials as saying they were convinced it was a car bomb."The whole front of the hotel has collapsed. There are dozens of people on the floor, lots of blood. It is very tense,” witness Yigal Vakni told Israel’s Army Radio. “I am standing outside of the hotel, the whole thing is burning and they have nothing to put it out with.””We know of other people trapped under the ruins of the hotel,” rescue worker spokesman Yerucham Mendola said. The explosion could be heard and felt strongly a mile away, said Selma Abu el Dahab, who works at another Taba hotel. She said a worker from her hotel returned from the Hilton and told of the blast before collapsing. However, Egyptian officials said they had no evidence of terrorism.Egyptian security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Taba explosion occurred among gas tanks in the kitchen of the hotel, which is next to the casino where many tourists were at the time of the blast.The explosion came a month after the Israeli government urged citizens not to visit Egypt, citing a “concrete” terror threat to tourists in an area. The warning, issued on Sept. 9 by the counterterrorism center in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s office, identified Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, where Taba is located, as the target of a potential attack.About midnight, two smaller blasts struck the area of Ras Shitan, a camping area near the town of Nuweiba south of Taba, witnesses said. “I heard one very big explosion coming from Taba direction and then, after a while, I heard two smaller explosions from Nuweiba,” near Ras al Shitan, human rights activist Abdel Raziq said by telephone. A car rental manager at the Hilton, Mohammed Saleh, said he was in the storeroom at the Hilton when the first blast occurred and couldn’t see where the explosion originated, but he said several people at the hotel claimed it was caused by a car bomb outside the reception area. Some witnesses reported seeing the wreckage of a car. Amsalem Sarrag, whose uncle and cousin own camps in Ras Shitan, said both told him that Israeli cars exploded outside their camps. The two blasts were only five seconds apart, he said. He said the camps were full of vacationing Israelis, but he had no information on the number of casualties. Israeli police confirmed at least 30 dead at Hilton blast.An official at Taba Hospital, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said his institution had taken in 27 bodies from the Taba explosion and two more from Ras Shitan. An official at the Nuweiba hospital said two more bodies arrived there. Israeli police said at least 30 were killed in the Taba blast alone.Taba Hospital was treating at least 100 injured, and Nuweiba 14. In addition, Israeli medics said they had transferred 22 injured to Israeli hospitals in ambulances and helicopters.Israeli rescue workers who entered Egypt told The Associated Press they had evacuated 39 wounded people from the explosion, five of them in serious condition.Egyptians reportedly did not at first allow Israeli rescuers to enter the country but later relented after Sharon called Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The two countries signed a peace treaty in 1979, but relations have been chilly as as result of Israeli military actions in Palestinian areas. Sinai shares a border with the Gaza Strip, where 84 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli offensive that began on Sept. 29 to stop militants from firing homemade rockets into Israel. Taba is the main crossing between Israel and Egypt and the gateway for thousands of Israelis who travel to the hotels and resorts on the Red Sea. Thursday is the last day of the weeklong Jewish festival of Sukkot, when thousands of Israelis vacation in the Sinai. Egyptians also were in the midst of a long holiday weekend marking the anniversary of the start of the 1973 Arab Israeli war, so popular resort towns along the Sinai coast were packed. Vakni said most of the people at the Hilton were Israeli. A witness told Israel Radio the hotel was filled with Israeli Arabs and Russian tourists from Moscow. “I was in the casino when it happened,” he said. “There was a massive explosion and the left wall came down. People started to run around like crazy.” Taba, a small Red Sea beach resort, was awarded to Egypt by international arbitration in 1989. Israel had controlled the tiny Red Sea resort since the 1967 Middle East war, and an Israeli-owned, $41 million hotel complex there has become a favorite winter vacation spot. Egypt had demanded return of the land for years, and the dispute was a sore point between the nations. It began when Israel refused to hand over Taba in 1982 when it left the Sinai peninsula under terms of the U.S.-brokered Israeli-Egypt peace treaty. In 1986, the two sides agreed to take the dispute to an international arbitration panel in Geneva for a binding ruling. The panel drew a border that put Taba in Egyptian territory. The five-member panel in Geneva awarded the border pillar closest to the resort to Egypt. Non-Greeks at home among Homecoming competitions By JACOB DAVIS STAFF WRITER While Greek organizations have traditionally played a large role in Homecoming ceremonies, other campus groups play an equally important role but receive less recognition. The Homecoming king and queen will be presented to USC at halftime of the Ole Miss game Saturday, during a ceremony during which student organizations will receive awards. One of the awards, the Community Service Award, is given to an organization for outstanding volunteer work through a specific service project. Ben Bryan, a representative of last year’s Community Service Award winner, Baptist Collegiate Ministry, said his organization is in the running again this year. “We won the Community Service Award last year, and we feel we have a strong chance for it this year,” he said. This is also the first year of The Carolina Homecoming Cup, which is presented to the group with the most spirit points collected during the week. Groups can earn points in the banner competition, the Spurs and Struts Dance and Carnival Booth, Showcase, Parade and Cockfest. Groups can garner points with wins in the showcase categories of Leadership, Academics and Congeniality, in addition to points earned for claiming any awards such as The Order of the Gamecock. Steven Byrd, the president of USC’s Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian and Straight Alliance talked about his organization’s involvement throughout homecoming week. “We’ve been involved in just about everything,” he said. “We participated in the banner competition, and we’re having a float for the parade this year. We also had an exhibition performance at Spurs and Struts, and we had two members in the showcase.” Ada Owens, president of the Association of African American Students, said her group had also been active during homecoming week. “We were at Spurs and Struts as spectators. Unfortunately, we were not able to cnmnpfp «inrp wp had a scheduling conflict with try-out times, but we did have an information table at the Spurs and Struts Carnival. We had a number of participants in the Showcase, and we will also have a float in the parade, in addition to attending the Comedy Fair,” she said. Kai Wright, in her first-year as Homecoming commissioner, said she’s pleased with this year’s student participation. “the participation by the groups involved and even the people who just showed up to watch was amazing,” she SARAH ZILINKSY/THE GAMECOCK Epsilon Sigma Alpha service sorority members prepare their float for the Homecoming parade today. President Alisha Cooper, top left, said it has been four years since ESA participated in the parade. This year the sorority is participating without a fraternity partnership. said. “I’m really excited that we had such great participation, and our vision for the spirit of Homecoming has come together.” Homecoming’s weeklong festivities started with Spurs and Struts on Monday evening and will continue through the Homecoming game Saturday afternoon. In-between, groups representing the diversity of USC participated in events like Carolina Jam and float building. Today’s activities start with the Homecoming Parade that winds from the Horseshoe Grandstands through downtown Columbia at 4 p.m. and finish with Cockfest at 8 p.m. at Williams-Brice Stadium. Before Saturday’s game, The Great Gamecock Tailgate Party will be held in the Seawell’s parking lot. The Game Day Party, sponsored by the Carolina Alumni Association, will be held two hours before kick-off at the S.C. National Guard Armory on Bluff Road. Comments on this story ? E-mail gamecocknews@gwm.sc. edu ■ ADMISSIONS Continued from page 1 grades.” Pruitt said he thinks USC has seen a remarkable increase in the caliber of entering students in recent years. He also said the personal essay consideration mirrors the College Board’s addition of a writing section to the SAT in order to more accurately assess a student’s verbal and composition skills. One challenge that remains for admissions officials, however, is to deal with the coming year, in which students will have the option to take either version of the SAT. The non-writing version is expected to be eradicated in 2006. Pruitt said the objective of this move toward a greater level of diversity is to have a large and well-qualified applicant pool every year. He said at ‘some universities that have tested the new approach, some qualified applicants, seeing increases in admissions factors and average levels for grades and test scores, decided against applying and caused the number of overall applicants to decrease. “That’s part of our challenge,” Verzyl said. “We don’t want to disillusion or turn away any South Carolina residents from coming here just because they see that higher SAT (score) range.” He added that USC admissions would continue to consider itself in the context of serving the public interest for all parts of the state. Finding ways to increase the size of the applicant pool might also increase USC’s selectivity, which is a calculation of number of applicants compared . to the number of them accepted. Ivy League schools and other private institutions can have selectivity rates as low as 20 percent in a given year. USC’s rate is typically around 65 percent with just under half of accepted students enrolling. USC administrators agree that the best way to increase the size of the applicant pool is to promote USCls successes. “I really think this university is one of the best kept secrets around, and we need to start getting that message o^t to the public,” Verzyl said. Administrators start preparing fdr an incoming freshmen class about 18 months before the students arrive, so changes in the system will appear slowly. In 2003, USC had a record number of more than 12,800 applicants and ended with a freshmen class of 3,491. Pruitt said with a university at the heart of a state with one o^ the fastest improvement rates in SAT scores and a record number of high school students enrolling in Advanced Placement courses, administrators would continue to try to accommodate as many students as possible and predicted a 200 to 300 student increase in the annual freshmen class over the next five years. “We want to have people who are truly interested in this university and who we’re truly interested in,” Pruitt said. With an increase of at least 1 million students in college nationally over the next decade, USC will continue to face admissions issues being analyzed in both terms df fairness and legality. Comments on this story ? E-mail gamecocknews@givm.sc. edu ■ FAIR Continued from page 1 Joe Hlay from Hollywood, Fla., owns his own ice cream stand, “Joe’s Soft Serve,” and has been coming to the fair with his wife, Beverly, for 46 consecutive years. Hlay’s claim to fame is that he served an ice cream cone to Lyndon Johnson when he was running for President. But he’s not bragging. “I just enjoy making ice cream,” he said. Fair admission is $7 for adults and youth, and children under 5 get in for free. Parking near the fairgrounds is $5. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocknrws@gwm.sc. edu Frankfurt $303 Paris $303 Prague $388 Amsterdam $303 Rome $303 Barcelona $359 Fares are subject to change & do not include taxes. Eligibility restrictions appli Depart 10/12/04-3/18/85 (holiday blackouts apply). Roundtrip student 8 youth Rirlare Sale icith the Travel CUTS H TRAVEL CUTS 8oo-592-CUT5(a88^ See the world your way ^B^SQulI!&EQ3iQuBS3SSiQ3SB39^ -THE 1WTH IS IF OUR DELIVERY DRIVERS WERE AIW FASTER THEY'D HAVE NUMBERS ON THE SIDES OF THEIR CURS. t* mmiiwioniwsjBeitnnwTWimogw ^ ^ ^IH llRRw LET THE TRUTH BE KNOWN. ;