President Bush to survey hurricane damage
PUNTA GORDA, Fla., Aug. 15 (UPI) -- President George W. Bush was to survey the devastation left by Hurricane Charley in the Punta Gorda, Fla., area Sunday during a helicopter overflight.
Bush was also scheduled to meet with victims of the worst hurricane to hit Florida since Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Charley claimed at least 13 lives.
At 5 a.m. EDT Sunday the National Weather Service said Charley -- now a tropical storm with a broad an ill-defined center-- was located near latitude 40.8 north and longitude 73.0 west, or near the town of Farmingville in the center of Long Island. It was moving to the northeast at near 30 mph.
Maximum sustained winds Sunday morning were only near 40 mph, far less than the 145 mph winds the storm was producing when it made landfall Friday.
Aside from the 13 deaths, at least three Florida cities were without running water Sunday, 2 million homes had no power, and thousands of Floridians were still being cared for in shelters, the Washington Post reported.
The death toll is expected to rise, once recovery efforts are completed in several flattened trailer parks, the newspaper said.
"It's our Andrew," said Wayne Sallade, director of emergency management in Charlotte County. "The destruction is catastrophic."
The weather service said Charley was rapidly losing tropical characteristics and was expected to become an extratropical low pressure area by Sunday evening.
Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry has directed his supporters in Florida to help the recovery efforts, but said he would not immediately visit the area so as to not distract police from their storm-related duties.
Saddam's lawyers seek Mandela and Clark
AMMAN, Jordan, Aug. 15 (UPI) -- Lawyers representing former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein said Sunday they want South African leader Nelson Mandela to join the defense team.
A statement issued by Saddam's defense lawyers in Amman also said former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark has shown interest in joining in Saddam's defense if the former Iraqi leader requested him.
Clark is an avid critic of U.S. policies in Iraq and met Saddam on several occasions when he frequently visited the country between 1991 and the start of the 2003 war.
Saddam's defense team includes 24 lawyers from Jordan, Belgium, France, the United States, Libya and Sudan, as well as hundreds of legal volunteers from around the world.
Mortar fire kills 3 in Iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 15 (UPI) -- Three Iraqi civilians were killed Sunday when mortar grenades were fired in the "green zone" in Baghdad, where the Iraqi National Conference was meeting.
Iraqi sources said eight others were injured by the explosions that occurred in the area where 1,300 people are attending the national conference. The meeting is expected to select a provisional legislative council that will prepare for January's general elections.
The unidentified sources said the victims were in a public bus that was hit by rocket-propelled grenades. Black smoke was also seen rising from one of the floors of al-Rashid Hotel in the same area.
Iraqi authorities have increased security around the area where the conference hall is located, and imposed a curfew in parts of the capital.
Palestinian prisoners launch hunger strike
JERUSALEM, Aug. 15 (UPI) -- At least 1,600 Palestinian security prisoners Sunday started an open-ended hunger strike.
The chairman of the Mandela Institute for Human Rights, Ahmad Sayyad, told United Press International the prisoners' 24 demands include access to pay phones or private cellular phones, and the removal of glass partitions that separate them from their families during visits.
Sayyad said 4,000 prisoners were taking part in the hunger strike, but the Israeli Prison Authority said the strike was only partial, with approximately 1,600 people refusing food.
In rejecting the prisoners' demands, the Prisons Authority said convicts use phones to plan more attacks. Body contact with visitors allow the prisoners to transmit messages and obtain small cellular phones that women visitors hide in their bodies or in babies' diapers.
The authorities removed TV sets and cooking utensils from the strikers' cells and put medical staff on call.
Public Security Minister Zahi Hangbi said Friday the prisoners -- many of whom had killed Israelis -- could starve themselves to death, but the Prisons Authority said if necessary, the convicts would be pulled from their cells and force-fed.
