Plane with 162 aboard missing in Indonesia

Plane with 162 aboard missing in Indonesia

JAKARTA, INDONESIA

An AirAsia plane with 162 people aboard lost contact with ground control after takeoff from Indonesia on the way to Singapore, and the airline said search and rescue operations were underway.

The plane lost communication with Indonesia’s Surabaya airport 42 minutes after takeoff at 5:35 a.m., which was 5:35 p.m. Eastern on Saturday, Hadi Mustofa, an official of the transportation ministry told Indonesia’s MetroTV. It had seven crew and 155 passengers.

Mustofa said that the plane lost contact when it was believed to be over the Java Sea between Kalimantan and Java islands.

Wanted extremist leader surrenders in Somalia

NAIROBI, Kenya

A leader with the Islamic extremist group al-Shabab, who had a $3 million bounty on his head, surrendered in Somalia, a Somali intelligence official said Saturday.

Zakariya Ismail Ahmed Hersi surrendered to Somali police in the Gedo region, said the intelligence officer, who insisted on anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press.

Hersi may have surrendered because he fell out with those loyal to Ahmed Abdi Godane, al-Shabab’s top leader who was killed in a U.S. airstrike earlier this year, the officer said.

Hersi was one of seven top al-Shabab officials whom the Obama administration offered a total $33 million in rewards for information leading to their capture in 2012.

John Paul II gunman lays flowers at tomb

VATICAN CITY

The Turkish gunman who shot and wounded John Paul II in 1981 laid white flowers Saturday on the saint’s tomb in St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican officials said.

The surprise visit by Mehmet Ali Agca, believed to be his first time in the Vatican since the assassination attempt, lasted a few minutes, a Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Ciro Benedettini, said.

Benedettini said there are no legal matters pending against Agca in the Vatican and he was free to visit. Agca’s trip came on the 31st anniversary of his meeting with the pope. John Paul, who forgave his attacker, visited Agca in a Rome prison Dec. 27, 1983, and intervened to gain Agca’s release in 2000.

Syria ready to take part in Moscow peace talks

DAMASCUS

Syrian state-run TV said Saturday that the government is prepared to take part in peace talks hosted by Russia next month, but the unnamed foreign ministry official it cited suggested the scope of the negotiations would be limited to “preliminary” talks meant to pave the way for a conference in Syria itself.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry had said Thursday that it hoped to host peace talks after Jan. 20 between the Syrian government and its fractured opposition. The nearly four-year conflict has claimed over 200,000 lives, displaced a third of Syria’s population, and nurtured an extremist group, the Islamic State, which now rules over vast swaths of Syria and neighboring Iraq.

Associated Press