European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 22, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 8 the stars and stripes thursday february 22,1990 world today former salvadoran Leader near death from cancer san Salvador. Al Salvador a former president Jose Napoleon Duarte suffered a relapse in Bat tic against terminal cancer his doctor said tuesday. Duarte has difficulty breathing which could Lead to coagulation in his respiratory passages said or. Jose Luis Saca Duarte s personal physician. He said Duarte. 64, could die within two Days. Saca said a major invasion of inc cancer in other areas of the Abdomen had been detected. Duarte has already outlived doctors prognoses. In May 1988, doctors at Walter Reed army medical Cen Ter in Washington diagnosed the incurable stomach cancer. They removed 60 percent of his stomach and said he had six to 18 months to live. Since then Duarte has been near death at least twice. Saca said the former president continues fight ing to hold onto life. He said Duarte was in grave condition tuesday with his liver functioning at Only 10 percent. Fire Burns Down Complex near London s St. Paul s London a a big fire swept a five Story 9f fice Complex on a Block in the City London s financial District near St. Paul s Cathedral Early wednesday. Workers on night shift for nearby construction Sites were evacuated As a precaution police reported. Scotland Yard said in a statement that part of the front Wall of the glazing Complex in Ludgate Hill col lapsed into the Street a few Yards from the Cath Draland police closed the area to pedestrians and traffic. Flames shot High into the air. Engulfing the Block which was undergoing renovation. No casualties were reported in the predawn Blaze and St. Paul a where Prince Charles and the then lady Diana Spencer were married in 1981, was undamaged. Completed in 1710. It stands on the site of another Cathedral destroyed in the great fire of London in 1666. Eighty firefighters were called to put out the fire. The London fire brigade said the burned Oul com plex was dangerous and scaled off the Block. Since Ludgate Hill is a major traffic Artur Between the City and the rest of London Rush hour travellers faced delays wednesday morning. Black history month Spike Lee through Spike Lee s direction the motion picture do the right thing was a critically acclaimed movie that dealt with the altitudes of Blacks and whiles. The picture won awards from the los Angeles film critics association for the Best Pic Ture and Best director in 1989. Be s next film love supreme is about the late jazz saxophonist John Coltrane. This is one in a series of paint Ings by spec. James Scott appearing in the stars and stripes this month. Forest firefighters were called in wednesday so the regulars could take a break from battling the tire ire. Field of burning tires May bring Oil spill disaster expert warns by the los Angeles times halters Volle. Ontario a fire burning for More than a week in a tire dump the size of 18 football Fields is threatening to become a major environmental disaster in Southern Ontario province officials say. If the intense fire s heat liquefied just half of the estimated 14 million tires in the dump they could produce More Oil than last year s notorious Exxon Val Dez Oil spill in Alaska a Canadian expert on tire Recy cling said. That Oil contains toxic chemicals that would be even harder to clean up than the Exxon spill said Brian Lallo. A mechanical engineering professor at the University of Ontario. If the Oil goes Down into the soil. Of can t clean in. Whereas on the sea. At least you can clean it with  Lastlo said. Police said they believe an arsonist started the fire. Hundreds of area residents were evacuated last week As the lop layers of the tires burned and huge Clouds of Lack smoke billowed into the sky. Now. However the top layer has melted into a la alike ooze covering the burning tires below and creating a Structure resembling an oven. Less Black smoke is eident now. And some of the residents have ventured Home. But the fire is still Bur Ning and latin said there is enough oxygen beneath the pile s surface to fuel the Blaze for weeks or  the United states tire fires have burned for six months or longer. The tires Are a Beautiful Rabbit Warren for air to get in. Like Wood in a  he said adding that tempera Tures inside the pile could be As High As 4,532 degrees fahrenheit hotter than the melting Point of steel. Extreme heat turns rubber into Oil and a single tire can generate about 2 Gallons of Oil when it liquefied. Thus if half the pile at Hagersville were to melt about 14 million Gallons of toxic Oil could seep into the Farmland and ground water nearby. The Exxon Valdez leaked about 11 million Gallons of Oil into the sea. Latto noted that this is a worst Case calculation and that the Hagersville fire could ultimately Send much less Oil into the ground water depending on wind soil conditions and other factors. Even so the Oil from the burning tires contains can cer causing benzene and toluene along with other chemicals. The fire broke out at Edward Straza s Tyre King Tyre recycling ltd., where neighbors said Straz bought unwanted tires from service stations charging garage owners so cents to is apiece to dump the tires on his land. Most of the tires were heaped in piles at least 30 feet tall. Colombian rebels threaten death to gringos target . Interests Bogota Colombia a a leftist guerrilla group holding two americans captive tuesday threat ened death to gringos and said they had targeted All . Interests in Colombia for attack. President Virgilio Barco called an urgent meeting of the National Security Council. Earlier tuesday at Barco s urging a Federal court pardoned 35 members of another guerrilla group the april 19 movement known As the m-19 accused of taking pan in the 1985 takeover of the Palace of Justice that killed 95 people including 11 supreme court justices. Tuesday s threats came from the National liberation army known As the Len one of six guerrilla groups in Colombia. The die hard rebel group is under the command of Manuel Perez a former Catholic priest and has been attacking throughout Colombia in the past five Days. The Len sent a letter to the families of two Ameri cans kidnapped last week by its guerrillas in the North Western City of my Dullin. According to colombian news reports. The my Dullin daily Al colomb Umo published the letter tuesday. The letter in Spanish was directed to the families of James Donnelly a 65-year-old mechanical Engineer from Detroit and David Kent a 40-year-old school teacher from Indianapolis. Len said it abducted the two men on feb. 13 to protest president Bush s visit to the port City of Carta Gena last thursday to attend an anti drug Summit. We Are inclined to give a lesson in respect to the government of the United states and if it intervenes in Colombia there will be an uprising like in Vietnam and Al Salvador the letter said. Our position will change Only when North America suspends its ways of intervening and of military aggression in latin  accounts read on the radio identified some of the . Targets As Occidental Petroleum Texaco and other . Oil companies and enterprises. The defense ministry estimates that Len has about2,000 of the 10.000 guerrillas believed to be operating in  National liberation army blew up an electrical Tower shortly before Midnight monday and blacked out most of Cartagena the City of 530,000 where Bush met with presidents Barco Alan Garcia of Peru and Jaime Paz of  then attacked a police station and five neighbourhood police command posts a National police communique said. It said five policemen were wounded