37 killed as Peru jet crashes during emergency landing
Lima, Peru A Peruvian airliner carrying 100 people crashed
Tuesday near a jungle town while attempting an emergency landing
in a storm, killing at least 37 people. The pilot tried to land in a
marsh, but the impact split the aircraft in two, a regional official said.
At least 57 people from TANS Peru Flight 204 were being treated
at hospitals, and it was not clear whether anyone had escaped injury
in the crash, the latest of several major airline accidents around the
world this month.
The Boeing 737 went down near the Pucallpa municipal airport after
the pilot radioed that he could not land because of strong winds
and torrential rains, airport receptionist Norma Pasquel told The Associated
Press. The plane circled the airport, then crashed near a
highway.
Edwin Vasquez, president of the Ucayali region,said the pilot was
trying to land in a marsh to soften the impact. The craft later split in
two, he said.
Jorge Belevan, a spokesman for TANS, said the plane was on a domestic
flight carrying 92 passengers and eight crew members. He
said two of 11 Americans aboard were unaccounted for and that the
others were hospitalized for treatment of unspecified injuries.
OKLAHOMA CITY
Ex-Rep. Watts won’t run for governor
Former Congressman J.C. Watts said Tuesday he will not run for governor of Oklahoma next year.
Watts is the second Republican to decide against making the race; Lt. Gov. Mary Fallin has announced she will run for re-election instead of running for governor. Their moves leave the GOP without a proven vote-getter with wide name recognition to challenge Gov. Brad Henry, the popular Democratic incumbent.
Watts, 47, recently bought a home in the Washington, D.C., area, where he started a lobbying and consulting business after leaving Congress.
TAMPA, Fla.
Exhibit with cadavers sets museum records
More than 12,000 people came to the Museum of Science and Industry in the first four days of an exhibit featuring preserved human cadavers and body parts, breaking records set by a 2003 exhibit about the Titanic, museum officials said.
The 20 cadavers and 260 body parts in “Bodies, the Exhibition” are preserved with a process that replaces soft tissue with silicone rubber. Skin is removed, exposing muscles, bones, organs, tendons, blood vessels and brains. Similar exhibitions have drawn millions of visitors around the world.
MILWAUKEE
Police shortages cited in high murder count
Milwaukee’s murder count for the year hit 88 over the weekend – matching the homicide total for all of 2004 – and community leaders blamed a lack of police presence as the city struggles with a budget-driven shortage of 250 vacancies on its force of 2,000.
Milwaukee had a drastic drop in its murder rate last year, with homicide numbers coming in at a 16-year low. But this year’s climbing murder count has put the city on pace to exceed the average for the last 10 years of 118 homicides.
ZINDER, Niger
Annan visits to draw attention to crisis
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan toured the hunger-stricken desert nation of Niger on Tuesday, and a French aid group criticized the world body for an allegedly slow and “inadequate” response to the crisis.
Annan, whose organization was the first to appeal for help for Niger as far back as November, was on a two-day trip to focus attention on the combined effects of a devastating drought and a locust invasion that have struck a swath of northwest Africa and left more than 5 million people facing severe food shortages.
Annan was welcomed at Zinder airport by President Mamadou Tandja, who has played down the crisis and accused the U.N., aid groups and opposition parties of exaggerating his country’s problems for political and economic gain.
LISBON, Portugal
Cool temperatures aid fight against wildfires
Cool temperatures early Tuesday helped firefighters contain more than a dozen wildfires raging across Portugal, but a large blaze was still burning on the outskirts of Coimbra, its third-largest city, destroying several homes.
Some 2,300 firefighters battled 30 fires nationwide, supported by 659 firetrucks and 14 water-dumping aircraft from other European countries.
Two people died Monday – a 40-year-old man who was run over by a firetruck while aiding firefighters, and an 88-year-old woman trying to flee her home. So far this year, 15 people have been killed by wildfires, 11 of them firefighters.
CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh
High tides partially submerge two islands
Unusually high tides partially submerged two offshore islands Monday in southeastern Bangladesh, forcing nearly 20,000 residents to flee their flooded homes, a relief official said. No one was hurt or missing.
A gradual tidal surge submerged almost two-thirds of Sandwip island under 5 feet of water, Golam Rabbani of the Bangladesh Red Crescent said by telephone from the nearby port city of Chittagong.
“The sea rose slowly since Sunday, so people had time to take shelter,” Rabbani said.
Strong tides also washed away about 100 temporary straw-and- mud huts used by fishermen and salt collectors on Kutubdia Island, near the coastal town of Cox’s Bazar, according to Liton Kutubi, a journalist who lives on the island.
