PANAMA CITY, Panama — Authorities were searching Monday for a small twin-engine aircraft, carrying three Americans and a Panamanian pilot, after the plane lost contact with controllers.
Air and ground searches were being carried out in heavily forested areas of the western province of Chiriqui, where the plane was last reported on Sunday, said Armando Palacios, regional chief of Panama’s civil defense agency.
Palacios said the aircraft — which was carrying a U.S. investor, his daughter and a friend — set out from Islas Secas off Panama’s Pacific coast and was heading for the Chiriqui volcano, about 285 miles west of the capital.
Israel: No cluster-bomb charges
The Israeli army on Monday said it will not press charges against officers who ordered the use of cluster bombs during last year’s war in Lebanon, brushing off international criticism that the weapons unnecessarily put Lebanese civilians at risk. Cluster bombs open in flight and scatter dozens of bomblets over wide areas. The United Nations and human rights groups have accused Israel of dropping about 4 million cluster bomblets during its 34-day war against the Hezbollah guerrilla group.
Palestinian prisoner decision delay
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert failed Monday to immediately win Cabinet support for a plan to make it easier to release some Palestinian prisoners, a change necessary for a deal to free an Israeli soldier captured by Gaza militants. Cabinet officials met to discuss the plan but delayed a decision, saying they wanted to hold more discussions this week.
Egypt: Building collapse kills 3
A 12-story building collapsed Monday in Alexandria, killing at least three people, according to rescuers and the state-run news agency MENA. Umaimah Salaheldeen, an official with Egypt’s Housing Ministry, said the building “was erected without authorization … more than 25 years ago.” He it had been ordered to be torn down or renovated.
Nepal: No more monarchy
The world’s last Hindu monarchy is to be swept aside under an agreement between Nepal’s former communist rebels and its major political parties that sets the stage for the country to become a republic. King Gyanendra is the often-dour and widely reviled head of a dynasty that for centuries held absolute sway over the country — a primacy he sought to reassert nearly two years ago when he dismissed parliament and seized dictatorial powers.
Turkey: Bomber thwarted
Turkish police thwarted a bomb attack in Istanbul on Monday, arresting a 25-year-old man with explosives in his backpack outside a subway station, the city’s governor said. The man was carrying more than seven pounds of plastic A-4 explosives when he was arrested in the Sisli district, one of the most crowded areas of the city, Turkish news agencies reported. The motive was unclear, as was whether it was to have been a suicide attack.
N.Y.: Juror says he was pressured
A juror who helped convict a black man of fatally shooting a white teenager said he felt pressured by other jurors and the judge to change his vote to guilty during a marathon deliberating session. The jury in Riverhead convicted John White of second-degree manslaughter Saturday in the August 2006 shooting of 17-year-old Daniel Cicciaro Jr. White, 54, remains free on bail and plans to appeal. He faces a prison term of five to 15 years. Judge Barbara Kahn said the jury would have to return on Sunday if they didn’t reach a decision. Francois Larche told the Post the judge told them a mistrial would burden the families and the next jury.
Calif.: Ex-Marine said punished
A former Marine drill instructor convicted of abusing 23 recruits has been punished for giving a news interview from the brig in San Diego, his family says. Former Sgt. Jerrod Glass, 25, was stripped of his telephone privileges for 45 days for violating brig policy by talking to the Associated Press by phone earlier this month, according to his sister, Kim Chesnut. Glass, 25, was convicted last month of cruelty and other charges and was sentenced to six months in the brig.
Ohio: Invasion of stink bugs
A thumbnail-size insect that apparently hitched a ride aboard shipping containers to the United States more than a decade ago has become the latest invasive species to arrive in the state, and researchers are trying to determine how big a threat the bug poses to fruit and soybean crops. The brown marmorated stink bug was officially identified in Allentown, Pa., in 1998, and has since spread. It was found in Oregon last year, the first western to report the presence of the insect.
Texas: Ex-pastor kills man, self
A former youth pastor shot and killed his estranged wife’s boyfriend, then committed suicide, Amarillo police said. Michael Beckworth, 30, entered the home of Joe Lee, 31, and shot him repeatedly early Sunday, police said, then he shot himself in the head.Beckworth and his wife had recently separated and were planning to get divorced, police said.
From Herald news services
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