Chile

When structural engineer Anuj Bansal designs systems for hospitals, university libraries and apartment complexes, seismic safety is a key consideration. But the best way to find out what it takes for a building to withstand a massive earthquake is to analyze the aftermath of an actual event. That's why Bansal, who heads the Los Angeles office of Degenkolb Engineers, traveled to Chile with three colleagues to survey the damage resulting from last month's 8.8 quake that killed 497 people, caused $30 billion in damage and shifted the city of Concepcion 10 feet to the west.

As Chileans vote today for the first time since the death of dictator Augusto Pinochet, analysts say the expected victory of a conservative billionaire says more about voters' craving for better education and infrastructure than a return to authoritarian days. Sebastian Pinera, a Harvard-educated economist who owns a TV station, a soccer team and a chunk of the LAN-Chile airline, is projected to get the highest number of votes but probably not the 50%+1 he needs to avoid a runoff.

Looting spread in earthquake-leveled parts of Chile on Monday even as government troops deployed in armored vehicles and on horseback to restore order and protect shipments of food and water. Scores of people were arrested for violating an overnight curfew. With the death toll creeping higher, Chile continued to reel from Saturday's massive magnitude 8.8 quake, one of the strongest on record. At least 723 people were killed, the government said, and many remained missing. Numerous oceanfront towns, like Lloca, Dichato and Constitucion, were devastated first by the quake and then, minutes later, by a tsunami, a kind of seismic coup de grace.

When the drill finally broke through to the miners Saturday, sounds erupted in a symphony of relief: the cheers of family members, the blowing of horns throughout the mine, and the shouts of the men 2,300 feet below. For more than two months, the 33 miners have been trapped in their pitch-dark claustrophobic refuge after a cave-in at the mine in the Atacama desert in northern Chile. At one point, they were even left for dead. But at 8 a.m., the whine of the rescuers' powerful drill as it punched through the rock to reach a tunnel used by the men signaled that the end of their ordeal could be near.

Barely a building remains standing in this once-pleasant beach resort that slopes up from Dichato Bay, a scenic cove largely shielded from the open Pacific. The row of eateries and bars that once lined the shore are smashed to pieces. The central plaza is a pile of debris: splintered wood beams, bent metal roofs, dented gas tanks, fences, broken trees and kitchen appliances, among other objects. Fishing boats have been tossed a mile into town and beyond. The magnitude 8.8 earthquake that struck Chile last week clearly caused a lot of damage, but here and in other coastal communities it was the ensuing tsunami that proved most destructive.

Virgin Australia , JetStar and Qantas airlines Tuesday canceled hundreds of flights in and out of Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Canberra due to the volcanic ash cloud from Chile, which has circled the globe and swirled into airspace in southeastern Australia. Thousands of passengers were stranded. But airlines planned to resume service Wednesday as the plume appears to be heading toward the Tasman Sea and away from Australian air space. Carriers were shooting for 2 p.m. Wednesday for resuming domestic and international flights in and out of Sydney.

A just judge Re "The judge and the addict," Feb. 28 and March 1 Judge Spencer Letts' common-sense approach to justice -- and his devotion to Michael Banyard's rehabilitation after prison -- is worthy of Olympic gold. How refreshing to find a judge who combines wisdom with empathy, instead of being just another "robot judge" rubber-stamping mandated and often discriminatory sentences where the penalties don't fit the crime. Letts' style is a striking example of how smart justice can replace the trite and simplistic "tough on crime" approach -- which serves primarily to keep jails overcrowded, justice be damned.

About 40 whales grounded on a beach in the Strait of Magellan in the third similar incident in a week.

Your Dec. 30 editorial asserts that the United States is losing business in Chile because of Congress' failure to extend fast-track negotiating authority. In fact, U.S. exports to Chile are growing at a healthy pace, as is our trade surplus. In the first eight months of 1997, U.S. exports to Chile grew by 7%, and our trade surplus grew 14%. You claim that American firms lost out to Northern Telecom, a Canadian company, in a Chilean telecommunications deal because of the Canada-Chile trade agreement.

The election of conservative billionaire Sebastian Pinera as president of Chile is a democratic milestone for that country, just as the election of leftist President Mauricio Funes was for El Salvador last year. Like Funes, Pinera is more moderate than the parties that supported him and, therefore, was able to move the country beyond its violent past and deep divisions. He will take office after two decades of rule by a center-left coalition, in yet another sign that Chile has emerged from the shadow of the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.