Kuala Lumpur's airport to open on June 29
     KUALA LUMPUR - 11 May 1998 02:39 JST, Tokyo time - The Malaysian
 capital's new airport will open on June 29, Transport Minister Ling
 Liong Sik was quoted as saying on Sunday.
     The Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in Sepang, 60 km
 (35 miles) south of the capital, will replace the Shah Alam airport
 which is west of city in Subang. The old airport will become an air
 force base and civil aviation training school.
     Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad will address the opening ceremony
 on June 29, the official Bernama news agency quoted Ling as telling
 reporters. The opening date, which had not yet been announced, is
 several months behind schedule but ahead of the 16th Commonwealth
 Games set for Kuala Lumpur from September 11 to 21.
     KLIA will initially be able to handle 25 million passengers and
 one million tonnes of cargo a year.
     By 2008, the airport will be able to cater for 35 million passen-
 gers, and by 2012 the number is projected to rise to 45 million,
 according to airport estimates.
     A 2.1 billion ringgit ($550 million) express rail system linking
 Kuala Lumpur to the airport is scheduled to be finished in 2000.
 ($1-3.8 ringgit)
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            Marine cockpit videotape reportedly erased
     CAMP LEJEUNE, North Carolina -- May 9, 1998 10:06 p.m. EDT -- A
 videotape taken from the cockpit of a Marine jet that caused 20
 deaths in Italy may have been erased.
     Prosecutors Friday said Italian officials have a videotape taken
 from the cockpit of the jet, but it was not clear what the tape
 would show, the newspaper reported in Saturday's edition.
     Italian prosecutors said there was nothing on the tape, but a
 special agent of the Naval Investigative Service said through a
 Marine spokesman that the tape was "black," rather than the "snow"
 pattern of an unused tape -- meaning that at some point it had been
 taped over, the Times said.
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