Asia study tours funded for UH community colleges

Kapiolani Community College has received a $1.2 million grant that will allow students at all of the community college campuses to study and live in Asia, the University of Hawaii announced.

The Freeman Foundation grant will continue the International Language Study and Service Learning Abroad program for two more years. It's the second $1.2 million grant awarded by the Freeman Foundation to KCC.

The program consists of a two-stage training program for up to 10 students each semester to study in China, Japan or Korea.

Students learn language skills, as well as the history and culture of China, Japan or Korea. In addition, there is a community service aspect to the program.

"This program goes beyond the textbooks and classroom to give students a deeper and richer understanding of language and culture and how to be engaged in their community," said Leon Richards, acting chancellor of Kapiolani Community College.

The Freeman Foundation was founded in 1993 after the death of Mansfield Freeman, one of the founders of the American International Group. Freeman, an educator and scholar, began a lifelong love affair with Asia when he took up a teaching position in the early 1900s at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

The KCC program will be accepting applications for the Korea program until March 6; the program begins next summer. April 1 is the deadline for the Fall 2006 semester Japan language program. The China language program will accept applications in Fall 2006 for the spring semester 2007. Complete details and applications can be found at www.kcc.hawaii.edu/academics/abroad.

Police, Fire, Courts

By Star-Bulletin staff

NEIGHBOR ISLANDS

Woman dies from injuries in Hawaii Belt Road crash

A 60-year-old Mountain View woman died Friday from injuries received in a two-vehicle crash on the Hawaii Belt Road and Kipimana Street, at the entrance to Shipman Industrial Park.

Patricia Farley was driving a 1994 Nissan sedan eastbound on Kipimana Street when she failed to yield the right of way and collided with a 1998 Ford pickup truck that was traveling south on Route 11, police reported.

Officers were called to the scene at 5:17 p.m. Friday, said Police Sgt. Christopher Gali.

Farley and her passenger, a 13-year-old boy, were taken to Hilo Medical Center by fire rescue workers. Farley was pronounced dead at 7:42 p.m. The boy was treated for minor injuries and released.

The driver of the Ford truck, a 44-year-old Pahoa man, and his 30-year-old male passenger were not injured, police said.

Police didn't know yesterday whether alcohol or speed were factors in the accident. Police have ordered an autopsy to determine Farley's cause of death.

This is the 34th traffic fatality on the Big Island this year, compared to 39 at the same time last year.

LEEWARD OAHU

Man saved after falling from his watercraft

A 21-year-old Salt Lake man was rescued yesterday from the ocean outside Pearl Harbor after he apparently fell off a personal watercraft.

The Coast Guard and Honolulu Fire Department responded to a report at 2:28 p.m. of an unoccupied watercraft about one mile south of Pearl Harbor, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Michael De Nyse.

The Coast Guard used a helicopter and a 47-foot boat to search for the man and the Fire Department used a helicopter and a rescue boat.

Shortly before 4 p.m., the man was picked up by the private vessel Monalee about a quarter-mile south of Ewa Beach, De Nyse said. The man was dehydrated but otherwise in good condition and was not taken to a hospital, he said.

HONOLULU

Home's living room is damaged by fire

Two men escaped injury when fire broke out yesterday in their two-story home at 1430 Houghtailing St. at 6:40 a.m., the Honolulu Fire Department reported.

The multigenerational home was occupied by 11 people -- five adult women, five men and a young girl, said Fire Capt. Emmit Kane.

He said only the two men were home at the time of the fire, which appeared to start in the living room. The cause is under investigation, he said.

Eight fire companies and the Red Cross responded to the blaze, which was confined to the living room area, he said.

Unattended candle sparks Nuuanu blaze

A candle left unattended in a bathroom was the apparent cause of fire that caused $170,000 worth of damage to a Nuuanu home on Friday night, Honolulu Fire Department Capt. Emmit Kane said yesterday.

The three-bedroom, wood-frame house at 2173 Booth Road is uninhabitable, and the family of five who live there is staying with nearby relatives, Kane said.

One teenage girl was taken to a hospital for treatment. Kane said he did not know the extent of her injury.