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Ugandan says Sudan crash may not have been accident

YEI, Sudan - President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda said Friday that the helicopter crash that killed John Garang, the Sudanese rebel leader who became vice president, might not have been an accident. He said an international inquiry would determine the truth.

"Some people say accident," said Museveni, whose presidential helicopter was ferrying Garang, a longtime friend and ally, from Uganda to Sudan the night of July 30 when it went down on a hillside in a remote area of Sudan. "It may be something else. I am looking at all the options, all the possibilities."

Most officials in the region, including an array of rival Sudanese politicians, have said all indications were that the helicopter crashed because of bad weather. Still, to conclusively determine the cause, the Sudanese authorities have assembled an investigative team that includes experts from the United States, Uganda, Kenya and Britain. Russia, which manufactured the helicopter, an M1-172, and the United Nations will also take part.

Some Western diplomats said the remarks by Museveni were an attempt to deflect criticism from his government, which allowed the helicopter to fly despite the late hour and may not have checked the weather along the route, which was stormy. Fourteen people died in the crash, including Garang, his security staff and Ugandan military officers.

SHFARAM, Israel - Thousands joined funeral processions Friday for four residents of this Arab-Israeli town killed by a Jewish soldier opposed to the Gaza Strip pullout, and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon sought to calm the nation's angry Arab minority.

Israeli officials struggled to determine how they failed to prevent the attack by 19-year-old Eden Natan-Zada, who recently deserted the army with his weapon to protest the Gaza withdrawal and had been identified as a security threat.

Sharon condemned the attack as "a despicable act by a bloodthirsty terrorist," and Israeli newspapers referred to the shooting as an act of terrorism - language usually reserved for Palestinian suicide bombers.

The prime minister spent the day on the phone with community leaders and Israeli Arab lawmakers "expressing his sheer outrage and shock and sending his condolences to the families of those killed and wounded," said David Baker, an official in Sharon's office.

Natan-Zada's body was held in a morgue as officials tried to determine where to bury him. Jewish law requires swift burial. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz refused to grant Natan-Zada a military funeral, and officials in his hometown of Rishon Lezion and the West Bank settlement where he recently lived refused to accept the body.

MIAMI - The 2005 hurricane season's ninth tropical depression struggled to stay together Friday as it moved toward the Caribbean, while Tropical Storm Harvey moved east over the open Atlantic.

The depression, which formed Thursday, had top sustained winds of about 30 mph. It had been expected to possibly strengthen into a tropical storm by the weekend but began showing signs of weakness later Friday, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.