Brazil’s government shows photos of Amazon Indians

Brazil’s government shows photos of Amazon Indians

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — Brazil’s government agreed to release stunning photos of Amazon Indians firing arrows at an airplane so that the world can better understand the threats facing one of the few tribes still living in near-total isolation from civilization, officials said Friday.

Anthropologists have known about the group for some 20 years but released the images now to call attention to fast-encroaching development near the Indians’ home in the dense jungles near Peru.

Shot in late April and early May, the foundation’s photos show about a dozen Indians, mostly naked and painted red, wielding bows and arrows outside six grass-thatched huts.

Homeless woman hides in apartment closet

TOKYO — A homeless woman who sneaked into a man’s house and lived undetected in his closet for a year was arrested in Japan after he became suspicious when food mysteriously began disappearing.

Police found the 58-year-old woman Thursday hiding in the top compartment of the man’s closet and arrested her for trespassing, police spokesman Hiroki Itakura from southern Kasuya town said Friday.

The resident of the home installed security cameras that transmitted images to his mobile phone after becoming puzzled by food disappearing from his kitchen over the past several months.

One of the cameras captured someone moving inside his home Thursday after he had left, and he called police believing it was a burglar

Crane collapse kills 2

NEW YORK — A construction crane snapped and smashed into an apartment building with a thunderous roar Friday, killing two workers in the city’s second such tragedy in 2 1/2 months and renewing fears about the safety of hundreds of cranes towering over the New York skyline.

The collapse happened despite stepped-up inspections and a shake-up in the city Buildings Department after the earlier accident, which killed seven people in March.

City officials could not immediately say how the 200-foot crane fell apart on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, where contractors were building a 32-story luxury condo complex.

Mother-child reunions

SAN ANGELO, Texas — More than 400 children removed from a polygamist sect’s ranch will be returned to their parents beginning Monday, state officials chastened by a state Supreme Court ruling said Friday as they hammered out an agreement with the families.

The children won’t be able to leave Texas but they will be allowed to move back to Yearning For Zion Ranch, where child-welfare officials have alleged that underage girls were pushed into spiritual marriages with older men. The parents say there was no abuse, and two courts ruled that the state overstepped its authority in removing all children from the ranch, from infants to teenagers.

Iraqis rally against plan

BAGHDAD — Tens of thousands rallied in several cities Friday against a proposed U.S.-Iraqi security agreement, raising doubts that negotiators can meet a July target to finalize a pact to keep U.S. troops in Iraq after the current U.N. mandate expires.

Although U.S. officials insist they are not seeking permanent bases, suspicion runs deep among many Iraqis that the Americans want to keep at least some troops in the country for many years.

President Bush and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki signed a statement last December on the future of U.S.-Iraqi relations, saying they planned to finalize a new security agreement by July 31 — in time for Iraq’s parliament to approve the deal before a U.N. mandate expires at the end of the year.

3 die in jet crash

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — A Miami-bound jetliner overshot a runway, raced onto a busy street and slammed into an embankment in the Honduran capital Friday, killing the pilot, a passenger and a motorist on the ground.

More than 75 people were injured, including Brazil’s ambassador to Honduras, Brian Michael Fraser Neele. Police said he was being treated at a private hospital and his wife was missing.

The nose of the Grupo Taca Airbus 320, which was landing with 124 people on board, smashed into an embankment and its fuselage buckled and broke in places, trapping the pilot and co-pilot inside.

Associated Press