Airplane crash kills all 15 people aboard
AUSTRALIA
CANBERRA -- An airplane carrying 15 people slammed into a hillside in remote northeastern Australia yesterday, killing everyone on board, authorities said.
A recovery operation was underway today on a rugged hillside in Queensland state where the twin-propeller plane crashed in Australia's worst civil aviation disaster in almost four decades. Peter Gibson of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority told Australian television's Nine Network the plane had been flying in rain, low clouds, and 23-mile-per-hour winds when it crashed. The Fairchild Metroliner, with two pilots and 13 passengers on board, was traveling to Lockhart River, an Aboriginal community of 350 people in Queensland. (AP)
WEST BANK
Abbas seeks to meet again with Sharon
RAMALLAH -- Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said yesterday that another meeting with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel is needed to push the peace process forward. Abbas and Sharon last met at a Feb. 8 summit at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheik, where they declared an end to more than four years of violence. ''We need a meeting to push the peace process forward and to discuss the implementation of the agreements held between us, like that of Sharm el-Sheik, and to talk about the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza," Abbas said. He said there was a proposal for a meeting, but no date has been set. (AP)
VATICAN CITY
John Paul confidant not spy, priest says
A Polish priest who was close to Pope John Paul II's entourage for many years was not a spy, but he spoke too loosely about what he knew about the Vatican, a priest who met with him said yesterday. The Rev. Maciej Zieba, head of the Dominican order in Poland, said he told Vatican officials about his conclusions after meeting with the Rev. Konrad Stanislaw Hejmo, who was recently accused by Poland's National Remembrance Institute of collaborating with the communist regime's secret services. Hejmo, 69, was close to John Paul's entourage but not a member of the pontiff's inner circle. He was an ever-present figure at John Paul's public events, leading Polish pilgrims around and taking selected groups up to see the pope. ''He wasn't a spy -- its obvious," Zieba said, but he added that Hejmo ''was very open in talking with others and might have given information that could have been useful for the secret services." (AP)
NEPAL
5 climbers rescued from Mount Everest
KATHMANDU -- Two Americans, two Canadians, and a Sherpa climber were evacuated from Mount Everest yesterday, two days after they were hit by an avalanche on the world's highest peak and then stranded because of treacherous weather. Snow and high winds abated sufficiently for a rescue helicopter to land at the base camp, where it picked up American climbers James Bach and Jason Barilla and Canadians Jowan Gauthier and Pierre Bourdeau. They were brought to Kathmandu and hospitalized for treatment of injuries. (AP)
EGYPT
Brotherhood leader to run for president
CAIRO -- A jailed leader of the banned Muslim Brotherhood will challenge President Hosni Mubarak in the September election, his lawyer said yesterday, but the powerful Islamist group said it had not endorsed the challenger. Essam el-Erian and three other leaders of the banned Islamist group were arrested and rounded up with 200 others Friday during nationwide protests for political overhauls. Erian ''told his interrogators that he will stand as a candidate in the presidential election," said his lawyer, Abdel Moneim Abdel Maqssoud. (AP)
