Dubai places $6.6 billion order for Boeing 777s

Dubai’s Emirates airline has placed its largest aircraft order ever, signing deals to buy 58 planes from Boeing Co. and Airbus Industrie for $15 billion.

The order was announced Sunday following the opening of the Dubai International Airshow and will increase the airline’s fleet to 100 planes by 2010.

The company ordered 25 Boeing 777s for $6.6 billion, and 22 Airbus A380s worth $7 billion, eight A340-600s for $1 billion, and three A330s worth $415 million.

“The timing of this order – hard on the heels of recent events – is no coincidence. We are determined not to allow present difficulties to deflect our resolve,” Emirates chairman Sheik Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum said.

With people cutting back on travel for fear of terrorist attack or because of the possibility of an expanding war, and insurance costs rising, many airlines have announced cutbacks.

Emirates flies to 56 destinations from its hub in Dubai.

SeaTac

Returned to Philippines: Two men detained by federal authorities in an anthrax scare at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport have returned to their native Philippines. Neither man posed a threat, and both chose to return home, said Bob Okin, deputy district director for the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Their names were not released. The two men had visa papers from the Philippines, but did not have valid tourist visas, Okin said.

It appeared the anthrax hoax Wednesday – which also delayed a plane at San Francisco – was directed at them, he said. Federal officials received a tip that someone flying from Manila to Seattle “could pose a threat to public safety,” said Charles E. Mandigo, the special agent in charge of the Seattle FBI office. When the men were determined not to pose a threat, they were turned over to the INS. No hazardous material was found on the plane.

Vancouver

Mount St. Helens gets jitters: A swarm of about 200 small, shallow earthquakes were recorded on Mount St. Helens through Saturday night, the U.S. Geological Survey’s Cascades Volcano Observatory reported. The quakes occurred over 24 hours at depths of less than half a mile, and they were too small to register on the standard magnitude scale. They could be detected with specialized equipment, geologist Ed Klimasauskas said. The swarm was believed to be linked to recent heavy rainfall, but its precise cause was unknown, the observatory said. The quakes may increase the likelihood of small landslides, debris flows and small steam explosions. Geologist said a large eruption of the volcano was unlikely without additional significant activity. Mount St. Helens erupted May 18, 1980, killing 53 people.

BC

Two presumed drowned: Two men were presumed drowned after a small tugboat was spotted Saturday without its crew. The Canadian Coast Guard searched the waters of Stuart Narrows, about 20 miles north of Port McNeill on north Vancouver Island, for the bodies of the deckhand and the skipper of the Nanaimo Flyer. The search was being turned over to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said Coast Guard Officer Bryan Pennell of the Victoria Rescue Coordination Center. The 40-foot tug left Port McNeill early Saturday morning on a scheduled run. It was towing a barge believed to be carrying logging equipment. At 7:38 a.m., the rescue center received a report that the tug was seen traveling in circles in Stuart Narrows. Its engine was running and it was going full ahead. A private helicopter and a Labrador helicopter from Canadian Forces base Comox were sent to the scene, along with private vessels and an RCMP boat. A hat, a cooler and a rope were found floating in the water. All the safety equipment, including lifejackets, were inside the tug.

Idaho

Historic jail: Beverly Young sees more than broken glass, crumbling plaster and junk as she shines a flashlight around the old Rathdrum jail. What Young sees is 111 years of colorful history, stories that just earned the Rathdrum Jail a spot on the National Register of Historic Places. “There’s so much historical value not only to Rathdrum but to Kootenai County,” said Young, the Westwood Historical Society secretary-treasurer. With the National Historical Registry blessing, Young said, it is time to turn the jail into a museum. The historic designation will help attract grant money, and Young is ready to start stripping the wood paneling. Most of the renovation work will be done by volunteers. The eight-cell facility housed all types of criminals who were sentenced in the neighboring courthouse. A 6-by-8-foot solitary room upstairs next to the bell tower was reserved for women prisoners and the mentally ill. Later on, the county built an extension for those inmates. The jail closed sometime around 1910, two years after voters elected to move the county seat to Coeur d’Alene. That fact still pricks Rathdrum locals who felt the vote was rigged.

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