National and International News-Thursday

JERUSALEM (AP) - Three Israeli soldiers have been wounded in two separate clashes with Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon. Noword on any Hezbollah casualties. Meantime, Israel is warning civilians in Gaza to get rid of weapons caches or their homes willbe attacked.

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - The United States plans to pick up the pace of evacuating Americans from Lebanon. The U-S ambassador saysup to two-thousand people will leave a day, by sea and helicopter.The first Americans to return to the U-S are due in Baltimore next hour.

WASHINGTON (AP) - After five years of turning down invitations to address the N-double-A-C-P, President Bush has finally said yes.The White House says Bush will speak to the nation's oldest civil rights group today to show his commitment to civil rights.

KIRKLAND, Wash. (AP) - Police in the Seattle suburb of Kirkland say they don't have a motive yet for the killings of a woman, her two young sons and her sister. A neighbor has been arrested. The woman's husband is a soldier serving in Iraq.

ST. LOUIS (AP) - Hundreds of thousands of customers in the St.Louis area are without power after a storm packing 80 mile-an-hour winds blew through last night. The airport lost part of its roof while windows were blown out at Busch Stadium before the start of a St. Louis Cardinals baseball game.