44 killed in crash of Russian jetliner

44 killed in crash of Russian jetliner

MOSCOW

A passenger jet crashed late Monday on a highway in northwestern Russia, killing 44 people, officials said. Eight people survived the crash.

The Tu-134 plane, belonging to the RusAir airline, crash-landed en route from Moscow to the city of Petrozavodsk, Emergencies Ministry spokeswoman Olga Semyonova told The Associated Press.

Her ministry said in a website statement that 44 people were killed. Eight people who survived the crash, including a 10-year-old boy, were hospitalized in critical condition in Petrozavodsk.

Australian AG decries prison stats

CANBERRA, Australia

Australia’s attorney general on Tuesday condemned as unacceptable the burgeoning number of young Aboriginal prisoners that a parliamentary report branded a “national crisis.”

Aboriginal children are 28 times more likely than other young Australians to be sent to a juvenile detention center, according to the report on indigenous youth in the criminal justice system released Monday.

Attorney General Robert McClelland said the “alarming statistics” would redouble his efforts with state governments to find alternatives to jail.

Olbermann returns

NEW YORK

Keith Olbermann has returned to the air five months after his abrupt departure from MSNBC.

The outspokenly liberal host premiered on the Current TV network Monday night.

His new weeknight show, like the old one, is called “Countdown.” It also features the left-leaning point of view and attitude that made Olbermann the most popular host on MSNBC.

Police: Prof ran prostitution website

HACKENSACK, N.J.

A New Jersey physics professor is in police custody on charges of running a prostitution website involving about 200 women and more than 1,200 johns, authorities said Monday.

David Flory of New York City, a professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University, was arrested Sunday while sitting in a Starbucks in Albuquerque, N.M., said Lt. William Roseman of the Albuquerque police. Flory, who ran the site mostly from New York, had long owned a vacation home in Santa Fe, N.M., Roseman said.

Flory was charged with 40 counts of promoting prostitution and other charges. He was being held in Albuquerque on $100,000 bail late Monday.

Combined dispatches