n today's calendar

46 killed as train crashes into platform

CAIRO, Oct 19 (AP) — Rescue teams were working today to pull out people trapped under a train that jumped its tracks and crashed into a crowded platform in north Egypt, killing at least 46 persons.

The train also injured 101 persons when it derailed in Kafr-el-Dawar, 30 km south-east of the Port of Alexandria, late last noon, Mr Nabih Yousef Shaltout, Head of the health in the local province of Buheira, said.

Limbs protruded from beneath the derailed train carriages early Monday and the police held out little hope of survivors.

Mr Shaltout said most of the dead were bystanders, while most of the injured persons were passengers on the train.

The train, which was travelling south from Alexandria, left the rails when the driver changed tracks at a high speed, the Interior Ministry said.

The train derailed because of its speedy entry into a branch lane of Kafr-Dawar station, the ministry added

The engine and the first two coaches of the train overturned on top of several people and kiosks at the station, reports said. Egypt's Middle-east News Agency said the driver had failed to apply the brakes at the station.

Besides security and senior officials, the Health Minister Ismaila Sallam rushed to the site of the accident with a team of doctors.

Paula Jones case: Documents
released on Internet

WASHINGTON, Oct 19 (AFP) — Documents in Paula Jones' sexual harassment suit against President Bill Clinton were unsealed today and released on the Internet.

The documents — which do not include Clinton's deposition — were released by order of Arkansas US District Court Judge Susan Webber Wright.

Tomorrow an appeals court in Saint Paul, Minnesota will hear opening arguments on re-opening the Jones harassment suit, dismissed by a lower court in April.

Jones filed a suit against Clinton alleging that he exposed himself to her in a hotel when he was Governor of Arkansas in 1992.

Last week, Clinton offered Jones $ 500,000 to settle the case. When Jones rejected the offer he raised it to $ 700,000.

24 to face firing squad

FREETOWN, Oct 19 (AFP) — Twenty-four military officers, convicted of treason in Sierra Leone, are to face death by firing squad today while 10 have been granted a Presidential amnesty, the Justice Ministry said.

They are among 34 persons sentenced to death by a military court on October 12 after being found guilty of treason for having collaborated with the military junta that was ousted in February this year.

The other 10 were granted amnesty by a Presidential decree, the ministry said.

Several human rights groups including Amnesty International had called on President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah to grant clemency to the condemned.

According to the Sierra Leonean Constitution, there is no right of appeal to a court martial sentence.