Fire in Moroccan prison kills at least 49 inmates

Fire in Moroccan prisonkills at least 49 inmates
RABAT, Morocco -- A fire erupted early today at an overcrowded prison, killing at least 49 inmates and injuring dozens of other people, authorities said.
The fire started about 1:30 a.m. at the Sidi Moussa jail in coastal El Jadida, about 110 miles south of the capital city Rabat, the official MAP news agency said.
About 90 inmates and two guards suffered injuries from burns, smoke inhalation or other causes. A breakdown of the injuries was not immediately available, but authorities said at least eight people were listed in critical condition.
It was believed to be the worst fire ever at a Moroccan prison.
The injured were taken to the regional Mohammed V Hospital or to a burn unit in Casablanca, about 56 miles away, the news agency said.
Deputy Interior Minister Fouad Ali Al Himma told The Associated Press that the cause of the fire was not immediately known and that an investigation was under way. An earlier report said the cause was electrical in nature.
The Atlantic Coast prison was built in 1994 for 1,000 prisoners but holds more than 1,300.
Police to keep an eyeon rappers after murder
NEW YORK -- Fearing a new rap war, police brass ordered cops Thursday to watch over hip-hop figures after the mysterious killing of Jam Master Jay, law-enforcement sources said.
The clampdown -- engineered by a new NYPD unit that monitors the hip-hop world -- came as cops struggled to find a motive for the slaying of the Run-DMC disk jockey, who had a squeaky-clean reputation and no history of violence.
Cops were watching "a number of people with connections to Jam Master Jay who might possibly be in jeopardy of being targeted," a police source said.
"I just want to know who killed him and why," said Bonita Jones, the rap star's sister, during an interview in their childhood home in Hollis, Queens. "Why did they do this?"
Detectives combed the business records and computers of the 24-7 recording studio owned by Jay, whose real name was Jason Mizell.
The cops also probed the possibility that rivalries between New York and California rappers could have triggered the shooting.
Prime minister says hewill not change policies
JERUSALEM -- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon says he will not change the basic policies of his government in an effort to woo extreme right parties into his coalition.
The moderate Labor Party, the largest faction in Sharon's coalition, quit the government this week over a budget dispute. That left the government without a majority and makes it vulnerable to a no-confidence vote in parliament that could force new elections.
Sharon is looking to small, far-right parties in an attempt to maintain a viable coalition, but he said he would not change his positions to accommodate them.
"I am on the way to forming a government with a different makeup," he said in today's edition of the Maariv newspaper.
He stressed that the "policy lines will remain exactly the same policy lines, and its goals won't change: war on terror, renewing political negotiations and reaching an agreement."
Government asks forinput on smallpox study
WASHINGTON -- The government is seeking public input before it decides whether to let a few dozen toddlers and preschoolers be vaccinated against smallpox, a study to test the best children's vaccine dose but one raising thorny questions about safety and ethics.
The vaccine is made of a live virus called vaccinia that can cause its own infections until the injection site scabs over, so researchers plan to keep inoculated children out of day care or school for a month. But still there is a chance that youngsters could tear off their bandages and put relatives, playmates or others at risk.
There also is the question of whether it is ethical to test in healthy children a vaccine that could cause a life-threatening reaction when the children probably won't benefit from it -- unless a bioterrorist attacks with smallpox.
After research oversight boards reached mixed conclusions on these issues, the Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday that for the next month it will accept public comment on whether the University of California, Los Angeles, and Cincinnati Children's Hospital should inoculate 40 2- to 5-year-olds with smallpox vaccine. They would be the first children to get the shots since routine vaccination ended in 1972.
It's highly unusual for the FDA to seek public opinion on research.
Combined dispatches