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Thirty-nine survive
crash in Korea of Air China jet
KIMHAE, South Korea (AP) — An Air
China jet carrying 166 people crashed into a mountain in rain and
fog Monday as it prepared to land in South Korea’s second largest
city. Thirty-nine people survived, police said.
The
Boeing 767-200, on a direct flight from Beijing, was approaching
Kimhae Airport near Busan when it hit the mountainside near a residential
area, police said. There were no casualties on the ground, they
said.
The
jet hit one side of the 1,000-foot mountain and plowed toward the
peak, leaving a trail of fallen trees 30 yards wide and 100 yards
long.
Dozens
of people were rescued alive, but several of them died in hospitals.
Police said 118 people were confirmed dead, nine missing and 39
alive. Most of the passengers were South Koreans.
Hundreds
of police, military and civilian workers combed through debris,
but their efforts were hampered by rain. Bad roads slowed a land
rescue.
Aviation
officials said many of the survivors were passengers in the front
part of the aircraft, indicating its tail and fuselage hit the ground
first.
Quoting survivors, police said there was no explosion on the plane
before the
crash, an indication that it was an accident, not terrorism.
Aviation
officials said controllers had asked the pilot to change direction
before landing due to a strong headwind.
The
plane’s flight recorder was recovered, officials said.
Pope
to discuss sex scandals with American cardinals
ROME (AP) — Pope John Paul II has
summoned American cardinals to the Vatican for an extraordinary
meeting to talk about sex scandals in the U.S. church.
The
meeting will probably take place next week, the Vatican said Monday,
without providing any additional details.
However,
a source close to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said the
meeting has been scheduled for April 23-24. The delegation is to
meet with several Vatican officials, although it was not immediately
known whether the U.S. leaders would see the pope, according to
the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The
summons comes just days after the top U.S. bishops were in Rome
for their semiannual talks with the 81-year-old pontiff. The sex
abuse scandals dominated the discussions.
The
Roman Catholic Church in the United States and elsewhere is under
fire for its handling of a series of allegations of sex abuse by
priests.
The
church is accused of covering up misconduct by priests, in some
cases by moving known abusers from job to job. It has already paid
millions in damages and faces numerous lawsuits from victims.
John
Paul has spoken only briefly of the scandals and some critics have
sharply faulted the Vatican for a lack of leadership in a time of
deep crisis.
Al-Jazeera
airs video with bin Laden footage
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) — A man identified
as a Sept. 11 hijacker in a video excerpt broadcast Monday delivered
what appeared to be a farewell message, saying “it’s time
to kill Americans in their heartland.”
The
tape also includes clips showing Osama bin Laden and his top deputy.
It
wasn’t clear when the tape, broadcast on the Arab satellite
station Al-Jazeera, was made. But the appearance of an apparent
hijacker in one segment indicates that at least some parts of the
video were filmed before the attacks on the World Trade Center and
the Pentagon.
Defense
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said the material on the tape appears
to be outdated.
Al-Jazeera’s
editor in chief, Ibrahim Hilal, said the hour-long video, complete
with narration and graphics, was delivered by hand to the station’s
Qatar offices a week ago.
Al-Jazeera
also aired a segment of a man, identified on the video as a Sept.
11 hijacker, speaking to the camera in a style similar to videotapes
made by Palestinian suicide bombers before attacks.
An
Al-Jazeera subtitle identified the man only as Alghamdi, the surname
used by three of the Sept. 11 hijackers. But Hilal said the man
in the video was Ahmed Ibrahim A. Alhaznawi, a hijacker who was
also a member of the Alghamdi clan in Saudi Arabia.
U.S.
officials say Alhaznawi was one of four attackers on United Airlines
Flight 93, which crashed in rural Pennsylvania.
Hilal,
the Al-Jazeera editor, said the tape was titled The Last Will and
Testament “of the New York and Washington Battle Martyrs.”
The title shot included photos of the 19 hijackers, and Hilal said
the tape might have been delivered from inside Afghanistan.
Bush
and Cheney campaign for Republican Congress
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House
drive for control of Congress was sending both President Bush and
Vice President Dick Cheney on Midwest fund-raising swings Monday.
Cheney
was on his way to Illinois and Bush to Iowa, where the president
was marking the tax-filing deadline with a renewed call for permanent
income tax cuts.
In
the weeks following Sept. 11, Bush and Cheney stayed separate to
ensure the continuity of government in the event of another terrorist
attack. That rule has eased, but with fund raising increasingly
shaping their travels, the president and vice president often find
themselves thousands of miles apart anyway.
For
his 16th fund-raiser of the year, Bush was heading to Cedar Rapids,
Iowa, to help collect campaign dollars for Rep. Greg Ganske, who
is running for the GOP nomination to challenge Democratic Sen. Tom
Harkin in November.
Iowa
is a key state politically because it is home of the nation’s
first presidential contest, the Iowa caucuses. In the 2000 presidential
contest, Bush was narrowly defeated in Iowa by Democrat Al Gore.
Bush
wants to recapture the Democrat-controlled Senate, where many of
his initiatives have bogged down, and retain control of the House,
which the GOP narrowly holds. He and Cheney have been traveling
heavily to help finance Republican candidates.
Several
D.C. banks close due to bomb threat
WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI warned
banks in the nation’s capital of a bomb threat Monday, and
several downtown branches closed temporarily.
An
FBI memo distributed to banks said a telephone call from the Netherlands
was received by Washington police Sunday, warning that a bomb would
explode at a national bank in the center of the city at noon Monday.
The hour passed without incident.
“The
caller answered several questions asked by (the police); he mentioned
that he learned the information from an informant and mentioned
the type of explosive the bomb would contain,” read the memo,
obtained by The Associated Press.
The
memo did not ask banks to shut down, but several did.
New
York companies resume work in attack area
NEW YORK (AP) — Deloitte & Touche
LLP started moving back into the World Financial Center on Monday,
one of the first major tenants to return to the complex next to
the World Trade Center site.
The
company said it plans to return 3,000 employees by the end of August
to the four-building World Financial Center complex, which was evacuated
after it was heavily damaged in the Sept. 11 attacks on the trade
center’s twin towers.
“This
is our home and we’re glad to be back,” said Bill Freda,
who heads the firm’s financial services industry practice.
“Our return marks an important milestone for the firm, our
clients and our people.”
Deloitte
& Touche moved 400 employees back to 1 World Financial Center
on Monday, said spokesman Chris Faile.
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