Pilot rescued after crash

Pilot rescued after crash

BILLINGS, Mont. — A student pilot whose plane crashed into a snowy mountainside survived a freezing night by wrapping himself in a tarp, then hiked a mile through waist-deep snow in shorts to meet rescuers Wednesday. The Rocky Mountain College freshman was on a solo training flight to Powell, Wyo., when his small plane crashed into a forested slope on Big Pryor Mountain after taking off from Billings late Tuesday.

Andrew Scheffer, 18, apparently veered off course and hit near the top of the mountain about 40 miles south of Billings, authorities said. When he met up with rescuers around 11:30 a.m., Scheffer was suffering from hypothermia. He was taken to St. Vincent Healthcare in Billings, where he was in critical condition Wednesday afternoon, hospital spokeswoman Jeanelle Slade said.

Saddam paid for trip

WASHINGTON — Saddam Hussein’s intelligence agency secretly financed a trip to Iraq for three U.S. lawmakers during the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. The three anti-war Democrats made the trip in October 2002, while the Bush administration was trying to persuade Congress to authorize military action against Iraq. While traveling, they called for a diplomatic solution.

Prosecutors say that trip was arranged by Muthanna Al-Hanooti, a Michigan charity official, who was charged Wednesday with setting up the junket at the behest of Saddam’s regime. Iraqi intelligence officials allegedly paid for the trip through an intermediary and rewarded Al-Hanooti with 2 million barrels of Iraqi oil.

Fireworks explosion

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A massive explosion at a fireworks warehouse sparked a raging fire that raced through an industrial zone in Dubai on Wednesday, killing at least two people. When the fire first erupted, ambulances and fire engines struggled to the scene through the city’s dense morning rush hour, while helicopters hovered above the ruined warehouse in Dubai’s al-Qouz Industrial Zone.

Heavy winds spread the flames quickly, engulfing at least 20 other warehouses and raising a pall of smoke visible for miles. After nightfall, the fire was still raging.

Two people were killed and two others were hurt, the Civil Defense said.

Girl rescued from well

NEW DELHI, India — A 2-year-old girl who fell into a 45-foot well was rescued late Wednesday after 27 hours, officials said.

Rescuers spent much of Wednesday trying to pull the girl, identified only as Vandana, from the narrow well in a village near Agra, the site of the famed Taj Mahal, said Mukesh Meshram, the top official in the district south of New Delhi.

Rescuers used heavy earth-moving equipment to help get the child out. In video footage broadcast on Indian television, hundreds of people who gathered near the scene could be seen surging forward as a man flanked by soldiers carried Vandana from the hole to a waiting ambulance. She was being held overnight for observation at a nearby hospital.

Monks disrupt tour

LHASA, China — A group of Tibetan monks disrupted a tour by foreign reporters to Lhasa today, complaining that there is no religious freedom and that the Dalai Lama is not to blame for recent violence there.

About 30 monks surged into a carefully stage-managed visit to the Jokang Temple in Lhasa by foreign reporters. They yelled “Tibet is not free. Tibet is not free.”

They also said their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, had nothing to do with recent anti-government riots by Tibetans in Lhasa, where buildings were torched and ethnic Han Chinese were attacked. The government has said the March 14 riots were supported by “the Dalai clique.”

No longer in solitary

BATON ROUGE, La. — Two former Black Panthers held in solitary confinement in a Louisiana prison since the 1970s have been transferred into quarters with other inmates, state corrections officials said Wednesday.

Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox were moved into a “maximum security dormitory” on Monday, said Angie Norwood, assistant warden at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. Wallace and Woodfox had been in solitary since 1972, after their convictions in the death of a guard.

The men, known to supporters as the “Angola Three,” have said their 36 years of solitary confinement at the prison amount to cruel and unusual punishment. Both are appealing their convictions.

Associated Press