NewsSeptember 12, 2002
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba -- For many of the 598 detainees at this U.S. outpost thousands of miles from Ground Zero, Sept. 11 was just another day behind bars. The men from 43 countries -- all of whom are accused of links to either Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network or Afghanistan's fallen Taliban regime -- have no calendars and were not told what day it was...

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba -- For many of the 598 detainees at this U.S. outpost thousands of miles from Ground Zero, Sept. 11 was just another day behind bars.

The men from 43 countries -- all of whom are accused of links to either Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network or Afghanistan's fallen Taliban regime -- have no calendars and were not told what day it was.

"We're not making any special announcements to them," said Brig. Gen. Rick Baccus, in charge of the detention mission in Guantanamo.

The 1,600 U.S. military personnel at the U.S. naval base on Cuba's eastern tip honored those killed in last year's terror attacks in the United States with somber ceremonies.

Dozens of soldiers guarding the detainees stood as taps was played Wednesday, but the tent housing the ceremony near the Camp Delta prison was half-empty on a day that remained largely business-as-usual.

Death toll reaches 105 in Indian train crash

RAFIGANJ, India -- Rescue workers used cranes and blow torches to rip apart the mangled wreckage of a luxury train Wednesday as they continued searching for survivors two days after the Rajdhani Express jumped the tracks at 80 mph and killed at least 105 people.

As investigators tried to determine why the train derailed at a colonial-era bridge, the government backed away from sabotage theories and furious relatives bitterly criticized rescue efforts as too slow.

The train -- carrying 535 passengers and 70 railway crew from Calcutta to New Delhi -- derailed late Monday at the British-built bridge near Rafiganj, about 420 miles southeast of New Delhi.

One car fell into the Dhave River, two were left dangling from the bridge and at least three others piled up in a heap.

At least 92 bodies have been recovered from the wreckage, said area administrator Hem Chand Sirohi. Thirteen others died in hospitals, doctors said. More than 170 people were injured.

Storm hits Hong Kong, stops stock market

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HONG KONG -- A severe tropical storm lashed Hong Kong with rains and high winds Wednesday, churning toward mainland China and prompting authorities here to shut businesses and cancel a Sept. 11 memorial gathering.

At least 32 people were hurt, including two women and a man struck by broken window glass as they rode a tram, authorities said. Five people were admitted to hospitals, with two in serious condition, a government spokesman said.

Tropical storm Hagupit -- a Filipino word for a whipping or flogging -- packed winds of up to 62 mph as it moved toward the western part of China's Guangdong province. By late Wednesday, it was about 105 miles southwest of Hong Kong, meteorologists said.

An evening "International Memorial for Peace" scheduled for the anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington was canceled because of the storm, according to organizers at the American Chamber of Commerce.

International chess team defeats Russian players

MOSCOW -- An international chess team pulled off a major upset on Wednesday by defeating the Russian team in a Kremlin tournament called the Match of the Century.

The international team, known as the Rest of the World, beat the Russian side 52-48.

In similar events in 1970 and 1984, teams from the Soviet Union defeated teams drawn from the rest of the world, and some had expected this tournament to end the same way.

But playing the match for the first time as the Russian Federation instead of as the Soviet Union, the Russian side stumbled.

"If it had been the former Soviet Union against the Rest of the World, the Soviets would have won," said Alexei Shirov, an ethnic Russian from Latvia who is now a Spanish citizen and a player on the international team.

All but four players on the Rest of the World team hail from the former Soviet Union.

--From wire reports

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