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Rumsfeld hears Managua worries

MANAGUA, Nicaragua - The recent military buildup in Venezuela by U.S. nemesis President Hugo Chavez has other countries in the region worried that the weapons could end up in the hands of terrorists, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Monday.

"I can understand neighbors being concerned," said Rumsfeld, who is attending a meeting of Western hemisphere military leaders in Nicaragua this week.

Asked whether he believes Venezuelan officials' contention that the weapon buys are strictly for defense and not a threat to the region, Rumsfeld said, "I don't know of anyone threatening Venezuela - anyone in this hemisphere."

Venezuela's defense minister, Gen. Raul Isaias Baduel, who is also attending the meeting, said Monday that his country's recent military spending spree wasn't "an arms race," despite Washington's protests.

Chavez, however, has repeatedly charged that United States is planning to invade his country, a claim American officials dismiss as preposterous. And he said Sunday that he has heard the Bush administration is plotting to assassinate him or topple his regime.

U.S. Army Gen. Bantz Craddock, chief of U.S. Southern Command, called the accusation "mindless" and "way over the top." He agreed that Venezuela's recent deal to buy roughly $3-billion worth of arms from Russia - including rifles, jet fighters and helicopters - is triggering "more concern from more countries."

Recorders are uncovered at Brazil plane crash site

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Rescue workers found cockpit voice and data recorders in the wreckage of an airliner that crashed in the Amazon rainforest last week, killing all 155 people on board.

Investigators continued questioning the American pilots of a business jet that Brazilian authorities say they believe collided with the larger aircraft in midair. A senior executive of ExcelAire Service Inc., a New York-based aircraft charter and management company that had purchased the smaller jet in Brazil and was bringing it back to the United States, was also being questioned.

By late Monday, the remains of only a few victims had been recovered.

With debris and the remains of passengers scattered in a diameter that could extend dozens of miles, investigators said they feared that the bodies of many victims might never be recovered.

"The scene is much more difficult than any of us ever could have imagined," Brig. Jorge Kersul, an air force commander directing salvage operations, told reporters near the crash site on Monday.

Afghan bomb injures 6; 12 are killed elsewhere

KABUL, Afghanistan - A suicide bomber blew himself up next to a NATO convoy in Afghanistan's capital on Monday, wounding three soldiers and three civilians, while 12 people were killed in other violence around the country, officials said.

The suicide bomber jumped in front of the convoy in eastern Kabul, said Ali Shah Paktiawal, a senior police official. The attack came two days after another suicide bomber killed 12 people and wounded more than 40 outside Afghanistan's Interior Ministry.

"I saw an American four-wheel drive entering Kabul and suddenly a guy who was standing next to a pump station ran toward the vehicle and detonated himself," said witness Sayid Rahman, 22.

Honeymooner in Kenya is trampled by elephant

NAIROBI, Kenya - An elephant trampled and killed a British man on his honeymoon in Kenya, officials said Monday.

Patrick Smith, 34, was killed in front of his wife, Julie, in the Masai Mara National Reserve on Sunday, officials said. His wife managed to leap out of the way.

The couple, who were staying at the luxury Richard's Camp lodge in the game reserve, set out for a nature walk Sunday morning with a Masai guide and were just 330 yards outside the camp when the elephant attacked, said Connie Maina, spokeswoman for the Kenya Wildlife Service.

"We think the elephant must have been at very close proximity to the couple and was surprised," she said. "They don't normally do this kind of thing. It is terrible.

Jake Grieves-Cook, chairman of the Kenya Tourist Board, said the elephant knocked over the guide.

[Last modified October 3, 2006, 01:05:52]