European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 12, 1995, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 6 the stars and stripes . Tuesday september 12,1995crash kills skydivers Man on porch Shacklefords a. Api a plane carrying 11 members of a skydiving school crashed into a House and exploded on sunday killing a Man sitting on his Back porch and everyone aboard. The House caught fire but authorities said no one else living in the Row of about 10 houses along a woodsy Lane in Rural Tidewater Virginia was injured. Mattie Byrd was lying in bed when she heard the plane Labouring overhead a i saw the plane in the air and it turned like it wanted to go Back the other Way then it made a nosedive. A i was assuming it was coming in the Back door of my House. It sounded like it was going through something and then it went Boom. By the time we got outside it had blown and there was fire  a body count at the scene confirmed there were 11 people on the plane said Mary Evans a state police spokeswoman. She said their names would not be released immediately. Byrd said her neighbor Vincent Harris who owned a trucking company and Moon lighted As a Baptist minister was killed but his son Vincent jr., who is 8 or Vyas playing outside and Wasny to  the stars and stripes10 years ago sept. 12,1985 a president . Botha said South africans White minority government will set its own Pace toward racial Reform and will not be swayed by pressure from the United states or the soviet Union. 20years ago sept. 12,1975�?the Senate Post office and civil service committee called for an 8.66 percent pay raise for military personnel and Federal employees instead of the 5 percent recommended by president Ford. 30years ago sept 12r 1965 a . Warplanes bombed and strafed a communist stronghold deep in the Mekong Delta described As the permanent Headquarters of a Viet Cong regiment. 40years ago sept. 12,1955 a West German foreign minister Heinrich von Bren Tano said the soviet German conference was a not going so  50years ago sept. 12,1945 a the new York times reported that Strong rumours persisted in Washington that rationing of meat and shoes would end about oct. 1. Sex iranian hostage Dies in Ariz. At 80 Sun City West Ariz. A Robert ode who was held hostage for 444 Days in Iran has died of pneumonia. Lie was 80. Ode and 51 other americans were held at the . Embassy in Tehran. They were freed Jan. 21, 1981, moments after president Reagan took the oath of office. Ode retired with his wife from Falls Church va., to this Community West of Phoenix after his release. A right after the crash there was a couple of people tried to get in there to get him but they . It was All in flames a she said. The fire melted the Vinyl siding on her House about 50 feet from the Harris Home. The plane a Bench Craft Queen air 65, went Down about 6 45 . Just East of Shacklefords about 40 Miles East of Richmond. It crashed about 15 minutes after Takeoff from West Point municipal Airport said Arlene Salac a spokeswoman for the Federal aviation administration. The Pilot and parachutists were from a skydiving school based at the Airport which is about 11/2 Miles from the crash site Evans said. The seats in the twin engine plane had been removed so it could carry As Many As 12 people for skydiving Salac said. A Man who answered the phone at the school declined to comment. The plane was owned by Peninsula skydiving Salac said. There was no Telephone listing for Peninsula skydiving. There was no immediate indication what caused the crash. Faa and National transportation safety Board agents were investigating. Neighbors look Over the remains of a plane in Shacklefords a. The plane crashed into a House sunday killing the 11 people on Board and a Man sitting on his Back porch. Two mutilated african women get opposing Asylum bid rulings by Pamela Constable the Washington Post Washington the two african women both from Sierra Leone endured almost identical ordeals at the hands of secret tribal societies they were abducted gagged and bound their sexual organs were partly Cut away with a knife and they were forced to swear they would never reveal what been done to them or face death by witchcraft. Yet two area immigration judges recently issued strikingly different rulings on the women a requests for political Asylum in the United states. In Arlington va., a judge declared that one woman had suffered a an atrocious form of persecution and granted her Asylum. In Baltimore a judge denied the other woman a request suggesting that she could choose to support the practice which he called important for maintaining tribal Unity. The immigration and naturalization service recently embraced the Issue making this the second country after Canada to include abuse of women As possible grounds for granting political Asylum. But in both Legal cases the ins argued in court against the women a claims. And 10 Days ago ins lawyers appealed the Arlington ruling saying the woman was not credible and the judge had a abused his  human rights groups while hailing the Arlington ruling As a breakthrough for foreign born victims of female genital to i Here is no formula no exact answer. We have had a very limited number of cases and the guidelines Are very new. A Rosemary Melville director of Asylum at the ins mutilation expressed dismay at ins opposition to the women a claims especially in Light of the Agency a High profile efforts to make its staff aware of such abuse. The Arlington ruling a does exactly what the ins guidelines called on judges to do a recognize that women can be persecuted because of sex. For them to Appeal it seems like a direct contradiction a said Regan Ralph director of the women a rights project of human rights watch a nonprofit advocacy group. Immigration officials said they could not comment on individual Asylum cases but stressed that requirements for proving persecution remain very strict and that Many cases of sexual abuse do not qualify As persecution. They said the new guidelines were aimed at sensitizing immigration officers to sexual persecution not at encouraging abused women to seek Asylum. In their Appeal of the Arlington Case ins lawyers said the woman had not mentioned mutilation in her initial Asylum application. A there is no formula no exact answer. We have had a very limited number of cases and the guidelines Are very new a said Rosemary Melville director of Asylum at the ins. A a woman still has to show she has a Well founded fear of persecution based on being a member of a social group and simply having personal problems with a husband who beats her is not going to qualify  in a separate statement an ins spokesman said that the Agency is a striving to be fair and consistent but that a not every applicant who makes a Gen Der based claim qualifies As a  female genital mutilation is performed in More than 40 african countries. . Doctors have decried the procedure in which a girl s genitals Are partly removed and or sewn shut As Barbaric and medically dangerous. Many african governments tolerate but do not endorse the practice which tribal ciders say keeps girls pure for their weddings and wives faithful to their husbands. A the contrasting . Court rulings. Come at a time when female genital mutilation has captured the West a attention. The . General Assembly has denounced it the state department has included it in its annual report on human rights. Up new to old new York apr on the 75th anniversary of its Betty Crocker products general Mills inc. Is creating a new image for the ultimate homemaker a from 75 computer fed photos of real  decades Betty Crocker has graced grocery store shelves As a cheery Bluc eyed housewife with a sensible Hairdo. Its time fora face lift a and a marketing Novelty. A a. The plan Calls for general Mills to select photos of 75 somen a out of a Batch submitted by contestants across America a and digitally meld them into the new Betty the Wall Street journal reported monday. The contest which was to be launched monday is open to a be ttys of All races and any age from 18 to 118. The company also is asking contestants to accompany photos with statements saying what a a Bettye Means to them. A a we re hoping for ethnic diversity which is what a happening with homemakers and society As a whole a general Mills spokesman Craig Shulstad told the journal. A the High tech Betty will look More like the growing Market of americans Blacks and hispanics said Russell Adams chairman of african american studies at Howard University in Washington . And this image will allow general Mills executives to a straddle their conservative Core and their emerging Market a he added. The new Betty Crocker expected to show up on Brownie and cake mixes and other cooking products Early next year said Adams a will be less White bread and More whole