Quito, Ecuador – Guadalupe Larriva, Ecuador’s new defense minister, and one of her children were killed Wednesday when two helicopters collided near a military base in southern Ecuador, officials said.
The crash also killed the pilots of the two aircraft, government spokeswoman Monica Chuji told The Associated Press.
There were no other details immediately available about the crash near Manta, a Pacific port city 150 miles southeast of the Ecuadoran capital, Quito.
The 50-year-old Larriva, who took office with the inauguration of President Rafael Correa less than two weeks ago, was the country’s first female defense minister and the only one to never have served in the military.
Additional nation/world news briefs:
WASHINGTON
GIs’ Afghan tour extended 4 months
The Pentagon has decided to extend the tour of 3,200 soldiers from a 10th Mountain Division brigade in Afghanistan for four months to quell rising violence.
The decision comes a week after Defense Secretary Robert Gates met with commanders in Afghanistan and heard a request for more troops. Ben Abel, a spokesman for Fort Drum, N.Y., where the 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division is based, confirmed that Gates had decided to extend the brigade’s tour.
NASHVILLE, Tenn.
Escapee steals truck in bid to see ill mom
A man who escaped from a prison van in South Carolina made his way more than 300 miles to Tennessee, where he stole a big rig in hopes of seeing his dying mother, police said.
Authorities searched Wednesday for Christopher Daniel Gay, who escaped Sunday night.
“He was trying to get home to see his mom, that’s what I believe,” said Police Chief Michael Douglas of Pleasant View, Tenn.
Gay’s mother has terminal cancer, authorities said. He was being chased by police Tuesday when he drove the truck full of Wal-Mart merchandise into a field just 50 yards away from the mobile home where his mother lives and hasn’t been seen since.
PARIS
Countries gather to finance Lebanon
After 50 days of Syrian- and Iranian-backed protests that culminated in Tuesday’s standoff in Beirut, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and officials from more than 30 other nations are gathering in Paris to see if they can inject enough money into the Lebanese government to prop up the pro-Western prime minister, Fouad Siniora.
Rice, demonstrating the level of concern about the deteriorating situation, said Wednesday that the United States would provide close to $1 billion in aid.
In many ways, the donor conference today will serve as a snapshot of the larger proxy war between the United States – joined by its Sunni Arab allies and Europe – and Iran and Syria.
CARACAS, Venezuela
Chavez says Castro “almost jogging”
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Wednesday that he heard that his ailing friend Fidel Castro was making a recovery.
Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage “told me that Fidel walked I don’t know how many minutes yesterday,” Chavez said Wednesday, noting he suspected Castro, 80, was watching him on TV. “He’s walking more than me, almost jogging. Maybe he’s walking while watching us.”
MOGADISHU, Somalia
2 killed as mortars are fired on airport
Gunmen launched mortars Wednesday on Mogadishu International Airport, killing at least two people a day after powerful troops from neighboring Ethiopia began withdrawing.
Also Wednesday, U.S. defense officials said the United States launched an airstrike earlier this week in Somalia against suspected terrorist targets – the second such attack this month.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the strike was carried out in secret, provided few details and were uncertain whether the intended target was killed.
HELSINKI, Finland
Nu txt msg novel gr8 leap 4wrd?
A novel in which the entire narrative consists of mobile-phone text messages was published Wednesday in Finland.
“The Last Messages” tells the story of a fictitious executive in Finland who resigns from his job and travels throughout Europe and India, keeping in touch with his friends and relatives only through text messages.
His messages, and the replies – roughly 1,000 – are listed in chronological order in the 332-page novel by Hannu Luntiala. The texts are rife with grammatical errors and abbreviations commonly used in such messages.
“I believe that, at the end of the day, a text message may reveal much more about a person than you would initially think,” said Luntiala, who also is head of a company that keeps databases on people living in Finland.
