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Hot air balloon catches fire, killing 2

By Times Wires
Published August 26, 2007

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA 

A hot air balloon burst into flames over western Canada, burning a woman and her adult daughter to death while their families looked on, officials said Saturday. Other passengers leaped to the ground, some with their clothes in flames, witnesses said. The balloon crashed Friday evening in a recreational vehicle park near the U.S. border in Surrey, British Columbia, a suburb of Vancouver. There were 12 passengers and a pilot on board. Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt. Roger Morrow confirmed the deaths and said relatives of the victims witnessed the fire.

SIX KILLED: A pickup truck plowed through a crowd leaving a prewedding celebration in western Canada, killing six people and injuring 19, police said Saturday. The 71-year-old driver of a truck lost control and ran into 25 to 30 people who were walking along a rural road toward him, police in Abbotsford, British Columbia, said.

NAIROBI, KENYA

Critic of secret prisons missing, family says

The family of a Kenyan Muslim who campaigned against the international transfer of prisoners with alleged terror links said Saturday that he has disappeared. Farah Mohammed Abdulahi, 26, was last seen on Aug. 19 leaving a mosque in Nairobi's Eastlands district, being led into a car by three men in civilian clothing, said his father, Mohammed Abdulahi. "We have tried calling him (Farah) on his cell phone. It rings and nobody speaks. ... We have gone to all police stations, but we cannot trace him," Mohammed Abdulahi said. Earlier this year, an Associated Press investigation into the transfer of prisoners over international borders forced U.S. officials to acknowledge a secret program of transferring terrorism suspects arrested in Kenya to Ethiopian prisons. Farah Abdulahi became a vocal critic after his 19-year-old brother, Abdi, was arrested and imprisoned in Ethiopia in January. Kenyan police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said police were investigating Farah Abdulahi's disappearance, and Criminal Investigation Department officer Isaiah Osugo denied they were involved.

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Lead paint worries prompt recall of toys

Saudi Arabia ordered the recall of 2,300 toys made in China feared to contain high levels of toxic lead paint, the country's official news agency reported Saturday. The Saudi Ministry of Commerce collected 46 samples of toys in the Riyadh markets to examine whether they contained dangerous chemicals, the agency reported. The findings were not revealed. On Wednesday, the same ministry ordered the recall of seven different brands of toothpaste made in China after lab tests discovered high levels of toxic diethylene glycol.

MEXICO CITY

Six arrested with 52,000 sea turtle eggs

Six people suspected of trying to illegally sell more than 52,000 sea turtle eggs were arrested while trying to transport them in dozens of plastic bags, authorities said Saturday. The five men and one woman were caught Friday in the southern town of San Pedro Huamelula, Mexico's Public Security Department said. Mexico is a major nesting area for several species of sea turtles, which are endangered and protected by law.

ANKARA, TURKEY

10 rebels, 2 soldiers killed in fighting

A clash between troops and Kurdish rebels near Turkey's southeast border with Iraq left 10 rebels and two soldiers dead, the military said Saturday. The fighting erupted Friday near Uludere, a town in Sirnak province, when the troops called for the rebels to surrender but were met with gunfire, the military said in a statement on its Web site. The rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party have been fighting for autonomy in southeast Turkey since 1984. About 80 soldiers have been killed since January, most in roadside bomb attacks on military vehicles.

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA

North Korea doubles estimate of flood toll

Floods that swept across North Korea earlier this month killed at least 600 people, double the previously known toll, the country's official news agency said Saturday. Citing North Korea's Central Statistics Bureau, the Korean Central News Agency reported at least 600 people were dead or missing and thousands were injured. The report was the first in North Korean media to specify a precise death toll from the disaster.

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL

Book says agents tortured regime's foes

The government has prepared an unprecedented exhibition and book accusing federal agents of murdering, raping and torturing alleged adversaries of Brazil's 1964-85 military regime, officials and human rights activists said Saturday. The book, The Right to Memory and the Truth, is scheduled to be released in the capital of Brasilia on Wednesday, on the 28th anniversary of the 1979 Amnesty Law that pardoned all Brazilians for alleged crimes committed under the dictatorship. The 500-page book reportedly details the cases of 136 people from the era who are listed as dead or missing.

Elsewhere

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN: Pakistan on Saturday successfully test-fired a new air-launched cruise missile named Hatf-8 or Ra'ad that is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead 220 miles, the military said.

TBILISI, GEORGIA: A special group of Georgia's Interior Ministry left for the Kodori Gorge Saturday to look for a plane allegedly downed in the area after Georgian airspace was violated Tuesday.

[Last modified August 26, 2007, 00:36:51]