2 die in FedEx plane crash
2 die in FedEx plane crash
TOKYO — A FedEx cargo plane burst into flames after bouncing off a runway in unusually high winds at Tokyo’s main international airport Monday, killing the pilot and copilot and closing a major runway for several hours.
The flight from Guangzhou, China, skipped along the main runway at Narita Airport before skidding to a fiery halt, according to footage from airport security cameras. Firefighters and rescuers immediately swarmed the plane.
The pilot and copilot — the only people onboard the flight — were pulled from the cockpit and taken to a local hospital, where they were later confirmed dead.
Tibetan monks arrested
BEIJING — Hundreds of Tibetans attacked a police station and government officials in northwestern China despite heightened security, prompting the arrests Sunday of nearly 100 monks, state media reported.
Six of those arrested for alleged involvement in the attack were caught by police while 89 others turned themselves in, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. All but two were monks, it said.
The protest appeared to be in response to the disappearance of a Tibetan who escaped from police custody in Qinghai province, Xinhua said.
According to a Tibetan exile, the protest involved up to 2,000 people and was sparked by the apparent suicide of a monk being investigated for unfurling a Tibetan flag.
Pope decries African wars
LUANDA, Angola — Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Mass for the largest gathering of his African pilgrimage Sunday, telling a crowd on the outskirts of this seaside capital that reconciliation on the war-ravaged continent would come only with a “change of heart, a new way of thinking.”
The Vatican said as many as 1 million people turned out on the dusty field near a cement factory to hear the pope at the last major event of his seven-day trip, which began Tuesday in Cameroon.
Speaking from a tented pink altar, the pope said evils in Africa had “reduced the poor to slavery and deprived future generations of the resources needed to create a more solid and just society.”
IRS defends drop in audits
WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service is not living up to its pledge to crack down on wealthy tax cheats, an IRS watchdog group says, citing a drop in audits of millionaires last year.
The tax agency disputes the conclusion, ascribing the “slight” decline in audits to its focus on getting people their economic stimulus checks.
Those with incomes of $1 million and above had a 5.6 percent chance of getting audited in fiscal year 2008, which ended last September, down from 6.8 percent the previous year, according to IRS figures. The actual number of millionaires audited fell from 23,200 to 21,874; the number of millionaires filing tax returns grew from 339,138 to 392,776.
“In the face of growing federal deficits and public calls to lower the tax gap — the amount of taxes due but not reported and paid — the drop in millionaire audits is surprising,” said the Syracuse University-based Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse in a report today.
Shuttle moves, avoids junk
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Confronted with orbiting junk again, NASA ordered the astronauts aboard the linked space station and shuttle Discovery to move out of the way of a piece of debris Sunday.
Discovery’s pilots fired their ship’s thrusters to reorient the two spacecraft and thereby avoid a small piece from a 10-year-old Chinese satellite rocket motor that was due to pass uncomfortably close during today’s planned spacewalk.
Mission Control said keeping the spacecraft in this position for about three hours — belly facing forward — would result in a slow, natural drag of about a foot per second, enough to get the complex out of the way of the 4-inch piece of junk.
New video shows Brit kidnapped in Iraq in 2007
BAGHDAD — The British Embassy said Sunday it had received a new video showing one of five Britons taken hostage nearly two years ago allegedly by Shiite extremists that the U.S. believes are backed by Iran.
Also Sunday, CNN reported Turkey’s prime minister said he would be receptive to allowing U.S. troops to leave Iraq through Turkish territory if President Barack Obama’s administration asks permission.
British Embassy spokesman Sean McColm refused to identify the hostage or say how and when the video was received. He said the video was “clearly a significant development” and that the British government was working for the safe release of all the captives.
Associated Press