Easter Holiday

BAGHDAD - Iraqi Christians marked a restrained Easter weekend as fear of attacks kept many from openly celebrating their most sacred day of the year and church officials urged them not to give up on the country. At Our Lady of Salvation, where gunmen and suicide bombers killed 52 worshipers and guards in October, the church was tightly locked, guarded by Iraqi police who said the doors would be opened only moments before the Saturday-evening Mass. "It's more like a museum than a church," one of the police officers said.

Six people were killed and 206 others were injured in 484 crashes investigated by Pennsylvania State Police during the three-day Easter holiday driving period, State Police Commissioner Jeffrey B. Miller said yesterday. Miller said alcohol played a role in 55 of the crashes, including three of fatals. The official three-day Easter driving period covered Friday through Sunday. During that period, state police issued 2,791 speeding citations, charged 172 people with driving under the influence, cited 105 for not wearing seatbelts, and issued citations to 14 for not securing children in safety seats.

One day after an infant girl was found abandoned in an Eagleville stairwell, her crib at Montgomery Hospital Medical Center was filled with toys and cards from well-wishers. "She has six bunnies, a clown, three sleepers, a diaper bag," said nursing supervisor Mary Beth Hardnock. "There's lots of people out there who are very concerned. " The hospital has taken dozens of calls from people asking whether the baby - whom the nurses have named "Bunny Doe" in honor of the Easter holiday - needed anything.

Her name - for now - is Bunny Doe. The day before Easter, she was found abandoned under the stairwell of an Eagleville apartment building, naked except for a powder-blue knit cap. She was just 2 hours old and weighed 7 pounds, 13 ounces. Her umbilical cord had been tied off with a white shoelace. Other than that, little is known about the infant. Yesterday, after a week and a half of investigation, Montgomery County officials said they knew even less about Bunny's parents.

When Sir Maurice Gibson, No. 2 Crown judge in Northern Ireland, got blown up the other day, nobody suspected he may have set the stage for his own death. Not intentionally, but through a series of security lapses turned up last month by the London Sunday Times. Some of which Gibson, deputy lord chief justice of Ulster, was responsible for, some not, but all seeming to lead relentlessly to his and his wife's death. Returning from an Easter holiday in England, they were killed as a parked car, crammed to the doors with IRA explosives, blew up the "precise" moment they drove past.

For Charles Else, there are two things that serve as a harbinger of spring: The arrival of tulips and the arrival of the itinerant flower vendors that sprout up around town in the days before the Easter holiday. "Enough is enough," said Else, who has been selling plants and flowers from his garden shop on the Levittown Pike for the last five years. "There are only a few times a year that I can make any money and they sweep in each time and take it away from me. " Township Managing Director Carmen Raddi said the Township has granted nine permits to people wishing to sell flowers in Bristol Township in the weeks leading up to Easter.

Ever since I learned that my dad's parents emigrated from Sicily, I wanted to go there. But even after reaching adulthood and being able to travel, what held me back was my need to first unravel family mysteries to make the trip worthwhile. I only knew that my grandparents came from the same town in western Sicily; previous unsuccessful research attempts left me frustrated. But one day, after having had enough of wondering, I made up my mind to just go. I bought a few books, planned to drive from one end of the island to the other, and reserved airline tickets for my husband and myself.

Ever since the beginning of time, mothers have schooled their daughters in the traditions and customs of their cultures. This year I am initiating my 2 1/2-year old in the all-important tradition of the Easter bonnet. This is what you are supposed to do when you have a daughter. The cross and the bunny may be the universal symbols of the Easter holiday, but the day just wouldn't be the same without Easter hats. Judy Garland immortalized the Easter bonnet in Meet Me in St. Louis.

QUOTE "It's like having a part-time job with a full-time salary . . . and there's very little heavy lifting. " - Pat Sajak on the demands of being a game show host HILL LEAVES A MOUNTAIN OF CASH The $30 million fortune that comedian Benny Hill accumulated by telling sexy jokes and surrounding himself with sexy girls is likely to go to a disabled woman who had been a fan for 42 years. Hill, who spent little on himself, vowed last year to leave his money to two cerebral palsy victims, Phoebe King, 57, whom he called "my kitten" and Jeanette Warner, 58. But Warner died in February so, subject to what it says in the still- unpublished will, King is set to become a multimillionaire as a result of a fan letter she sent to the comedian in 1950.

Authorities in North Carolina and New Jersey on Thursday were investigating a possible connection between the killing of a woman employed at a medical center at Fort Bragg and Wednesday's murder-suicide in South Jersey involving two doctors. The woman found slain in North Carolina was a girlfriend of Giocondo "Joe" Navek, a former physician at Virtua hospitals and a captain in the Army Reserve who worked at the base and who allegedly shot dead physician Payman Houshmandpour in Voorhees before killing himself.

BAGHDAD - Iraqi Christians marked a restrained Easter weekend as fear of attacks kept many from openly celebrating their most sacred day of the year and church officials urged them not to give up on the country. At Our Lady of Salvation, where gunmen and suicide bombers killed 52 worshipers and guards in October, the church was tightly locked, guarded by Iraqi police who said the doors would be opened only moments before the Saturday-evening Mass. "It's more like a museum than a church," one of the police officers said.

Ever since I learned that my dad's parents emigrated from Sicily, I wanted to go there. But even after reaching adulthood and being able to travel, what held me back was my need to first unravel family mysteries to make the trip worthwhile. I only knew that my grandparents came from the same town in western Sicily; previous unsuccessful research attempts left me frustrated. But one day, after having had enough of wondering, I made up my mind to just go. I bought a few books, planned to drive from one end of the island to the other, and reserved airline tickets for my husband and myself.

Six people were killed and 206 others were injured in 484 crashes investigated by Pennsylvania State Police during the three-day Easter holiday driving period, State Police Commissioner Jeffrey B. Miller said yesterday. Miller said alcohol played a role in 55 of the crashes, including three of fatals. The official three-day Easter driving period covered Friday through Sunday. During that period, state police issued 2,791 speeding citations, charged 172 people with driving under the influence, cited 105 for not wearing seatbelts, and issued citations to 14 for not securing children in safety seats.

On this Easter day, when fighting rages across Yugoslavia, and Christians everywhere pray for peace, the Rev. Dennis Rhodes and parishioner Sally Lackovich may not have much to agree about. Father Rhodes' congregation is largely Albanian, and Lackovich is a Serb. Yet they do have something in common: a biblical metaphor that they believe appropriately describes the plight of people on both sides of the conflict in the Balkans. The crucifixion of Jesus Christ. "I think it's a good analogy," Father Rhodes said.

Her name - for now - is Bunny Doe. The day before Easter, she was found abandoned under the stairwell of an Eagleville apartment building, naked except for a powder-blue knit cap. She was just 2 hours old and weighed 7 pounds, 13 ounces. Her umbilical cord had been tied off with a white shoelace. Other than that, little is known about the infant. Yesterday, after a week and a half of investigation, Montgomery County officials said they knew even less about Bunny's parents.

One day after an infant girl was found abandoned in an Eagleville stairwell, her crib at Montgomery Hospital Medical Center was filled with toys and cards from well-wishers. "She has six bunnies, a clown, three sleepers, a diaper bag," said nursing supervisor Mary Beth Hardnock. "There's lots of people out there who are very concerned. " The hospital has taken dozens of calls from people asking whether the baby - whom the nurses have named "Bunny Doe" in honor of the Easter holiday - needed anything.

For Charles Else, there are two things that serve as a harbinger of spring: The arrival of tulips and the arrival of the itinerant flower vendors that sprout up around town in the days before the Easter holiday. "Enough is enough," said Else, who has been selling plants and flowers from his garden shop on the Levittown Pike for the last five years. "There are only a few times a year that I can make any money and they sweep in each time and take it away from me. " Township Managing Director Carmen Raddi said the Township has granted nine permits to people wishing to sell flowers in Bristol Township in the weeks leading up to Easter.

Ever since the beginning of time, mothers have schooled their daughters in the traditions and customs of their cultures. This year I am initiating my 2 1/2-year old in the all-important tradition of the Easter bonnet. This is what you are supposed to do when you have a daughter. The cross and the bunny may be the universal symbols of the Easter holiday, but the day just wouldn't be the same without Easter hats. Judy Garland immortalized the Easter bonnet in Meet Me in St. Louis.

QUOTE "It's like having a part-time job with a full-time salary . . . and there's very little heavy lifting. " - Pat Sajak on the demands of being a game show host HILL LEAVES A MOUNTAIN OF CASH The $30 million fortune that comedian Benny Hill accumulated by telling sexy jokes and surrounding himself with sexy girls is likely to go to a disabled woman who had been a fan for 42 years. Hill, who spent little on himself, vowed last year to leave his money to two cerebral palsy victims, Phoebe King, 57, whom he called "my kitten" and Jeanette Warner, 58. But Warner died in February so, subject to what it says in the still- unpublished will, King is set to become a multimillionaire as a result of a fan letter she sent to the comedian in 1950.