Nor'easter soaks East and floods West Virginia homes, hundreds of flights canceled
By: Associated Press - | ∞
NEW YORK -- A powerful nor'easter pounded the East with wind and pouring rain Sunday, grounding airlines and threatening to create some of the worst coastal flooding some areas had seen in more than a decade.
The storm flooded people out of their homes in the middle of the night in West Virginia and trapped others. Other inland states faced a threat of heavy snow.
One person was killed as dozens of mobile homes were destroyed or damaged by wind in South Carolina. The storm system already had been blamed for five deaths on Friday in Kansas and Texas.
The Coast Guard had warned mariners to head for port because wind up to 55 mph was expected to generate seas up to 20 feet high, Petty Officer Etta Smith said Sunday in Boston.
Airlines canceled more than 400 flights at the New York area's three major airports, said Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Kennedy Airport, on the wind-exposed south side of Long Island, had sustained wind of 30 to 35 mph with gusts to 48 mph, said weather service meteorologist Gary Conte.
The storm forced the cancellation of five major league baseball games Sunday and gave runners in Monday's Boston Marathon something to worry about besides Heartbreak Hill. The race-day forecast called for 3 to 5 inches of rain, start temperatures in the 30s and wind gusts of up to 25 mph.
"I don't like that," professional Kenyan runner Stanley Leleito said playfully, burying his head in his hands when told of the forecast. "The problem is that wind," he said. "But only rainy is OK."
Heavy rain and thunderstorms extended from Florida up the coast to New England on Sunday. Wind gusted to 71 mph at Charleston, S.C., the weather service said.
Storm warnings and watches were posted all along the East Coast, with flood warnings extending from North Carolina to the New York area. Winter storm warnings were in effect for parts of New England and eastern New York state.
More than 5.5 inches of rain fell in the New York region by Sunday evening, the National Weather Service said. Up to 6 inches had been predicted to fall by Monday, and Conte said Sunday night's high tide was likely to bring coastal flooding on Long Island and in parts of New York City.
Gov. Eliot Spitzer sent 3,200 National Guard members to potential flood areas. On Saturday he said the storm could cause the most flooding New York has seen since a December 1992 nor'easter, which washed away beach and sand dunes, knocked out power and left thousands of people temporarily homeless, their houses standing in feet of water.
Fallen tree limbs had cut off power to 1,500 households on Long Island and Fire Island Ferries suspended service to the island, off the south shore of Long Island.
Some residents of low-lying areas along the New Jersey shore packed up to leave.
"This is going to be bad," Shaun Rheinheimer said as he moved furniture to higher spots at his house on New Jersey's Cedar Bonnet Island.
Several highways were flooded around New Jersey. "We have crews out there helping disabled motorists, but my one word of advice is to stay home," said state Transportation Commissioner Kris Kolluri.
The storm also caused flash flooding in the mountains of southern West Virginia, where emergency services personnel rescued nearly two dozen people from homes and cars in Logan and Boone counties early Sunday. Two people were unaccounted for.
"It's about as bad as it can get," said Logan, W.Va., Fire Chief Scott Beckett. "This thing came down at 2 or 3 in the morning, when people were sleeping in their beds. They just didn't know what was happening."
Some remained trapped in their homes because roads were blocked by high water or mud, said Dean Meadows, Wyoming County emergency services director.
"Our houses sit in the middle of the hill, and it's all around us. I'm surrounded, it's like a lake completely around us," said Samantha Walker, 29, who was visiting her grandmother in Matheny. "We can't get out even if we wanted to get out.
Gov. Joe Manchin planned to issue an emergency disaster either Sunday evening or Monday morning, spokeswoman Lara Ramsburg said.
Up to 2.5 inches of rain had fallen in southern West Virginia since early Saturday and streams were still rising Sunday, said weather service meteorologist Dan Bartholf in Charleston.
At least 3 inches of rain fell in eastern Kentucky, where a 50-foot section of highway collapsed near Pikeville, said State Police Sgt. Jamey Kidd. No vehicles were caught by the collapse, he said.
Dozens of homes were destroyed or blown off their foundations in several areas of South Carolina's Sumter County, but authorities didn't immediately know if the cause was a tornado or straight-line wind, said county emergency management director Robert Baker Jr. One person was killed and four were seriously injured, he said.
In central Florida, a tornado damaged mobile homes in Dundee but no injuries were reported, police said.
The storm also rained out Sunday's Washington Nationals game with the New York Mets at New York's Shea Stadium, the Pittsburgh Pirates home game against San Francisco, the Houston Astros at Philadelphia, the Kansas City Royals at Baltimore, and the Los Angeles Angels at Boston. Last weekend, snow dumped by another major storm system wiped out scheduled Mariners-Indians games at Cleveland for four straight days.
-- Associated Press writers Wayne Parry in Manahawkin, N.J., Daniela Flores in Trenton, N.J., Tom Breen in Madison, W.Va., and Jimmy Golen in Boston also contributed to this report.
On the Net:
Weather Underground: http://www.wunderground.com/
National Weather Service: http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov/
Intellicast: http://www.intellicast.com/
Report: Sudan signs new agreement with U.N., AU on Darfur
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) -- Sudan has signed a joint agreement with the United Nations and the African Union that defines their respective roles in Darfur, the official Saudi news agency reported on Sunday.
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir phoned Saudi King Abdullah and told him the Sudanese government had signed the agreement, the SABA news agency reported.
It quoted the king as saying the agreement "will support Sudan's unity, security, stability and peace."
No additional details about the agreement were provided.
The United Nations and Sudan agreed in November on a three-stage plan to strengthen the undermanned and under-equipped AU peacekeeping force of 7,000 in Darfur. It was to culminate with the deployment of a joint AU-U.N. force with 17,000 troops and 3,000 police officers.
But al-Bashir had since backed off from the final stage, saying he would only allow a larger AU force, with technical and logistical support from the United Nations.
The first phase, a light support package including U.N. police advisers, civilian staff and additional resources and technical support, has already been sent to Darfur. The U.N., AU and Sudan agreed on a second phase last Monday -- including more than 3,000 U.N. troops, police, and other personnel as well as substantial aviation and logistics equipment including six attack helicopters. But Sudan rejected the helicopter gunships.
German army instructor in racial video still on duty, spokesman says
BERLIN (AP) -- A Germany army instructor who ordered a soldier to envision himself facing hostile blacks in New York while firing his machine gun is still on duty, the army said Sunday.
A video of the army instructor telling the soldier to shoot and yell obscenities while thinking of African-Americans in the Bronx aired on German national television Saturday and prompted calls for an apology by the New York City borough's president.
When asked Sunday if the army would apologize, spokesman Florian Naggies said, "The German Army takes the incident very serious and is interested in quickly resolving it."
Naggies said that the case is under investigation, and the instructor "is still working for the army."
The video shows an instructor and a soldier in camouflage uniforms in a forest. The instructor tells the soldier, "You are in the Bronx. A black van is stopping in front of you. Three African-Americans are getting out and they are insulting your mother in the worst ways. ... Act."
The soldier fires his machine gun several times and yells an obscenity several times in English. The instructor then tells the soldier to curse even louder.
The German Defense Ministry said the video was shot in July 2006 at barracks in the northern town of Rendsburg and that the army has been aware of it since January.
U.S. Rep. Jose Serrano, whose district covers parts of the Bronx, sent a letter to Germany's ambassador to the United States on Sunday, condemning the video and asking for an apology.
"What purpose would the German Army have in training its soldiers to shoot African-Americans? Why would the trainees need to imagine themselves in the Bronx?" his letter said. "I cannot think of reasonable responses to these questions and so am left with the unpleasant impression that this training demonstrates a particularly denigrating and seemingly racist attitude that may in fact be prevalent among some elements of the German Defense forces."
Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion Jr. said Saturday that whoever was responsible for the video should be disciplined.
"The German government obviously has work to do to correct something that is insidious. ... Clearly these folks don't know anything about African-Americans or the Bronx," he said.
Russia begins construction of first floating nuclear power plant
MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia began construction of its first floating nuclear power plant Sunday, and plans to build at least six more despite long-standing environmental concerns that they are vulnerable to accidents at sea, Russian news agencies reported.
Russia justifies the program as a way of bringing power to some of the country's most remote areas, also saying some of the plants could be sold to other nations.
The head of Russia's atomic energy agency, Sergei Kiriyenko, said the plants will be safe.
"This plant is much safer than atomic energy stations on the ground," the RIA-Novosti news agency quoted him as saying at a formal ceremony at the Sevmash fabricating plant in Severodvinsk on the White Sea coast.
He cited the 2000 sinking of the nuclear submarine Kursk as evidence of the reliability of the plants, which will use reactors similar to those on the submarine.
"After the boat was raised, specialists proved that the reactor could be put into service that very moment," he said, according to RIA-Novosti.
The atomic energy agency and Sevmash on Sunday signed a document on their intent to build six more floating power plants, the ITAR-Tass news agency said.
It cited the atomic energy agency as saying that talks were under way on selling the plants to unspecified Asian and African countries as well as to Russian regions.
Reports: Hijacked helicopter used in Belgian jail break
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- Two men hijacked a helicopter Sunday and forced the pilot to land in a prison courtyard, where they picked up an inmate in a dramatic jailbreak, the pilot told Belgian television.
The accomplices paid for a helicopter ride at an airstrip near the city of Sint-Truiden, about 40 miles east of Brussels, saying they were tourists from Marseilles in southern France, pilot Eric Mathieu told the RTL-TVI network.
After takeoff, they produced a pistol and hand-grenade, ordering Mathieu to fly to Lantin prison outside nearby Liege.
"They pointed a revolver at my forehead," Mathieu told RTBF television. "The prison yard was so small, at first I refused to land there, but they threatened to kill me, so I had to do it."
Mathieu said he touched down while about 200 prisoners were exercising in the yard. One climbed on board while his accomplices threw tear gas canisters into the crowd.
The helicopter then landed less than a half-mile from the prison, where the three men got in a waiting car and drove away, VRT television news said.
RTL-TVI identified the fugitive as a Frenchman who was in pretrial detention on charges of fraud and theft. RTBF said he had previously escaped from prisons in France and Spain.
17 dead in bus crash in northeast Kenya, police say
GARISSA, Kenya (AP) -- A crowded bus overturned and burst into flames, killing 17 people and injuring more than a dozen as it rolled three times on a dirt road in remote northeast Kenya, authorities said.
Police used a bulldozer to flip the bus and rescue passengers trapped in the Saturday night accident outside Garissa, 185 miles northeast of the capital, Nairobi.
Officials said 16 passengers were hospitalized with fractures and burns.
Highway accidents are common in Kenya, where roads and vehicles are often in poor repair. Small buses are the main form of public transport and are frequently overloaded, forcing passengers to sit on each other and stand between seats.
Iran says it received signals on releasing 5 detained diplomats in Iraq
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran said Sunday it has received some signals concerning the possible release of five Iranian diplomats held by the U.S. in Iraq, state television reported.
"We have recently received some indications over releasing them," Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said.
He did not elaborate or explain what kind of signals Iran had received.
"We are hopeful the diplomats will be released quickly," he added. "We consider the Iraqi government responsible for their release."
On Thursday, Iran indicated it may boycott the upcoming Iraq conference in Egypt if five Iranian diplomats held by the U.S. in Iraq were not released beforehand.
Mottaki has warned Iraq that the continued detention of its diplomats could damage its relationship with neighboring Iran.
The U.S. detained the five Iranians in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil in January and have refused to release them or allow Iranian officials a chance to visit the men. Washington has accused Iran of providing money and weapons to Shiite militias in Iraq, charges Iran denies.
Man charged with murder, arson in fire that killed 5 children, injured 4 in western Illinois
QUINCY, Ill. (AP) -- A man was charged with setting a house on fire in western Illinois early Sunday and killing five children, police said.
Four other people, including a fire fighter burned on his face, were injured in the blaze. The bodies of four boys and a girl -- ages 8 months to 10 years -- were found on the second story and were likely family members, officials said.
Authorities said they arrested Zachary Q. Meeks, 27, after he was questioned about the fire that began around 3 a.m. in this community along the Mississippi River and about 90 miles west of Springfield. Authorities did not release a motive.
Meeks was charged with five counts of first-degree murder, one count of aggravated arson and one count of arson, police said.
Rescuers arrived to find the two-story brick home engulfed in flames, which were shooting through the windows, authorities and neighbors said. The five bodies were found later.
The surviving victims' identities and details on how they were injured were not released.
One victim was airlifted to a Springfield hospital in critical condition, police Sgt. Doug Schlueter said. Two others were treated and released from Blessing Hospital, spokeswoman Chris Tysinger said.
A firefighter also was treated for his injuries and released, said Keith Frank, an assistant fire chief.
Police said Meeks was being held in the Adams County Jail.
'Disturbia' grabs movie-goers' attention with $23 million debut
By: DAVID GERMAIN - AP Movie Writer
LOS ANGELES -- Movie-goers put the Peeping Tom thriller "Disturbia" under strong surveillance as the film took in $23 million to debut at the top of the weekend box office, according to studio estimates Sunday.
Starring Shia LaBeouf as a housebound teenager who suspects a neighbor (David Morse) of murder, "Disturbia" continued a solid year for DreamWorks Pictures, whose No. 1 hits include "Blades of Glory" and "Norbit."
"We're kind of hoping this could be habit-forming," DreamWorks spokesman Marvin Levy said.
"Disturbia" launches a breakout year for LaBeouf, whose long-rumored casting in the fourth "Indiana Jones" movie was confirmed Friday by producer George Lucas and director Steven Spielberg, one of the founders of DreamWorks.
This summer, LaBeouf provides the lead voice for Sony's animated penguin comedy "Surf's Up" and stars in the science-fiction saga "Transformers."
"The person you want to be right now is Shia LaBeouf. I want to be Shia LaBeouf. I want to be 20 and have all this happening to me. It's really great for him," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers. "2007 is Shia's year. He proved he can open a movie all by himself."
"Blades of Glory" slipped to second place after two weekends on top, taking in $14.1 million to raise its total to $90.2 million.
Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's double-feature "Grindhouse" tumbled in its second weekend. Released by the Weinstein Co., "Grindhouse" fell to No. 10 with $4.2 million, down a steep 63 percent from its surprisingly weak debut of $11.6 million over opening weekend.
Harvey Weinstein -- the company co-chairman whose previous outfit, Miramax, had great success with Tarantino and Rodriguez's films -- said last week he might re-release the two filmmakers' chapters of "Grindhouse" as separate movies down the road.
Rodriguez directed the zombie fest "Planet Terror" and Tarantino made the highway psycho killer tale "Death Proof" for "Grindhouse," their homage to the gory B-movies they grew up on.
The Warner Bros. battle epic "300" grossed $4.3 million to lift its total to $200.8 million, the first movie this year to cross that mark.
Other new wide releases had so-so to poor debuts, led by Sony's "Perfect Stranger," the Bruce Willis-Halle Berry thriller that took in $11.5 million to finish at No. 4. Berry plays a tabloid reporter who goes undercover to investigate an advertising executive (Willis) she suspects of murder.
20th Century Fox's "Pathfinder," with Karl Urban as a Viking boy raised by Indians in pre-Columbus North America, came in at No. 6 with $4.8 million.
Chicago Releasing's auto thriller "Redline," a street-racing tale featuring Eddie Griffin, debuted at No. 11 with $4 million.
First Look Pictures' animated "Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters," a big-screen adaptation of the cult TV cartoon centered on three manic fast-food products, opened out of the top 12 with $3.1 million.
Lionsgate's crime thriller "Slow Burn," starring Ray Liotta as a prosecutor taking on a gang leader (LL Cool J), flopped with just $800,000.
In limited release, Paramount Vantage's comic drama "Year of the Dog" opened with a strong $112,346 in seven New York City and Los Angeles theaters. Starring Molly Shannon as a lonely woman who goes to extremes to fill a void after her beloved dog dies, the film expands to the top-10 markets this Friday.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "Disturbia," $23 million.
2. "Blades of Glory," $14.1 million.
3. "Meet the Robinsons," $12.1 million.
4. "Perfect Stranger," $11.5 million.
5. "Are We Done Yet?", $9.2 million.
6. "Pathfinder," $4.8 million.
7. "Wild Hogs," $4.6 million.
8. "The Reaping," $4.6 million.
9. "300," $4.3 million.
10. "Grindhouse," $4.2 million.
Universal Pictures and Focus Features are owned by NBC Universal, a joint venture of General Electric Co. and Vivendi Universal; Sony Pictures, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; DreamWorks, Paramount and Paramount Vantage are divisions of Viacom Inc.; Disney's parent is The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is a division of The Walt Disney Co.; 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight Pictures and Fox Atomic are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros., New Line, Warner Independent and Picturehouse are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a consortium of Providence Equity Partners, Texas Pacific Group, Sony Corp., Comcast Corp., DLJ Merchant Banking Partners and Quadrangle Group; Lionsgate is owned by Lionsgate Entertainment Corp.; IFC Films is owned by Rainbow Media Holdings, a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corp.
Colorado inmates sue over mosquitoes, claim repeated bites exposed them to risk of disease
DENVER (AP) -- Three prisoners serving potential life sentences in Colorado say their lives have been threatened -- by mosquitoes.
The inmates at Walsenburg and Limon prisons sued, saying they were at risk of contacting West Nile virus or other diseases after they were bitten repeatedly by mosquitoes and suffered "the emotional and mental distress of whether or not each mosquito's bite would result in death or serious bodily injury."
Stephen G. Glover, Alan Smith and Michael Freeman said the bites caused high fever, headache, neck stiffness and muscle weakness.
"Each attack constituted bodily injury, which the (Department of Corrections) had the power to prevent, but consciously elected not to," wrote the inmates, acting as their own attorneys.
But the Colorado Court of Appeals swat down their case and upheld a lower court's decision to throw their case out.
Prison officials said no confirmed cases of West Nile virus have ever been found in the prison population, and inmates are provided mosquito repellant.
Wisconsin woman narrowly misses getting crushed by construction equipment in her driveway
LA CROSSE, Wis. (AP) -- Friday the 13th turned out to be lucky for one Wisconsin woman.
Sara Wrobel narrowly missed a 15-to-20 ton piece of construction equipment that became unhinged from a dump truck and fell in front of her as she backed out of her driveway.
She said she walked out of her house a few minutes early Friday and pulled out of her driveway, and as she waited for her garage door to close the equipment -- a rock screener -- fell.
"I heard this weird noise, and the thing crashed right in front of me," said Wrobel, who is pregnant and due any day.
The screen became unhinged from the dump truck, hit a telephone pole, flipped over the embankment and landed on the driveway, she said.
Wrobel wasn't too upset about the damage to her concrete, for which the equipment's owner Kraemer Co. will pay, she said.
"They were wonderful," she said of the company. "I was actually really calm. The driver came by and was shaking like a leaf. It was an accident. You don't plan these things."
City of Round Rock, Texas, settles free-speech lawsuit with high school protesters
ROUND ROCK, Texas (AP) -- Students who claimed their civil rights were violated when they were issued citations for leaving school to attend immigration protest marches have settled their lawsuit with the city, officials said.
The city and the Round Rock school district agreed to drop charges against the 70 students, pay $91,750 in legal fees and eliminate the incident from students' records. The students must attend a three-hour seminar on civics education.
The conditions of the agreement were reached after mediation among the parties.
The protests were part of a series of marches nationwide against immigration laws last spring.
Police issued 209 citations against the Round Rock High School students who marched to a neighboring school March 31, 2006, accusing them of violating the city's youth curfew or disrupting class.
The settlement applies only to the 70 students included in the suit against the city and school district. They had claimed their rights to free speech and to assemble had been violated.
"I think it was a good settlement for all sides," said Jim Harrington, director of the Texas Civil Rights Project, the organization that found pro bono attorneys to represent the students.
Round Rock Mayor Nyle Maxwell said Friday that the city settled to save the time and expense of a federal lawsuit.
Documents show NASA paid more than $26 million to family members of shuttle Columbia
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- NASA paid $26.6 million to family members of the astronauts who died on the space shuttle Columbia in 2003, a newspaper reported Sunday, citing recently released documents.
Documents obtained by the Orlando Sentinel through a federal Freedom of Information Act request show that former FBI Director William Webster helped negotiate out-of-court settlements with the families.
NASA obtained money for the settlement through a congressional appropriation in 2004, NASA spokesman Allard Beutel said.
The U.S. space agency had never before disclosed the settlement to protect the privacy of the Columbia families, Beutel told The Associated Press on Sunday.
"Everything has been done to help the families as much as can be done," Beutel said. "It's a public event but yet it's very personal to them."
Webster told the Sentinel that the families did not wish to discuss the matter after it was settled.
"The members of the families wanted this to be a private matter," he said. "They were healing, and they were ready to discuss, properly, their rights. ... Everyone felt it had a better chance of coming together without seeing their name in lights."
The released documents did not note how much money each family received, but Jon Clark, husband of Columbia astronaut Laurel Clark, said the figures were on the "low side" of what families were seeking.
He said parents, children and spouses were all compensated and astronauts with doctoral degrees received a bit more than those who held master's degrees.
"It wasn't a lot of money. A few million (dollars) isn't much," he said. "We had to prove our loved ones were worth something."
An investigation found that Columbia was brought down in 2003 because a piece of insulating foam broke off the shuttle during liftoff and caused damage. Searing gases penetrated the shuttle upon re-entry and it disintegrated over Texas. All seven astronauts aboard died.
The Orlando Sentinel also reported that two astronaut families had ordered preflight insurance policies through NASA, but the agency failed to obtain the additional coverage before the accident. All the families threatened to go public before the agency paid the two families the additional insurance, the newspaper said.
Beutel said he was unaware of the details on the insurance policies.
Ohio newspaper says more examples found of photographer altering news pictures
TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) -- A photographer for The Blade who digitally changed a front-page photo of an Ohio baseball team also altered 57 other pictures that were published in the newspaper or on its Web site this year, the newspaper said Sunday.
Allan Detrich, a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1998, erased people, tree limbs and utility poles from some of his photos, Ron Royhab, The Blade's vice president and executive editor, said in a column.
After reviewing Detrich's work, the newspaper said it found that 79 of the 947 photos he submitted since Jan. 1 had been altered.
"It is impossible to make sense of why this happened, and we are embarrassed by it," Royhab wrote, apologizing to readers in the column.
Detrich, who began working for The Blade in 1989, resigned April 7 after acknowledging that he altered a photo of Bluffton University baseball players kneeling March 30 at their first game following the bus crash that killed five players in Atlanta. Photos of the team in other Ohio newspapers showed the legs of someone standing in the background. The legs did not appear in The Blade photo, taken from a similar angle.
Detrich told his editors he altered the baseball team photo for his personal files and mistakenly sent it to the newspaper.
In an e-mail sent Sunday to The Associated Press, Detrich declined to comment on The Blade's findings. He previously has said the baseball photo was a bad mistake. When he resigned he said he had been planning to leave The Blade anyway and was looking forward to life outside the news business.
The altered baseball photo was also published in The Cincinnati Enquirer and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The Blade did not know whether any of the other altered photographs had been published elsewhere.
The newspaper, which has a weekday circulation of 135,000, plans to review photos Detrich submitted before this year, Royhab said. It is removing Detrich's photographs from its Web site and has blocked access to his photographs in the newspaper's archive.
"Journalism, whether by using words or pictures, must be an accurate representation of the truth," Royhab wrote.
The Associated Press has removed access to 50 images created by Detrich from AP's photo archive. Last year, the AP removed images from its archive that were created by a Beirut-based freelance photographer who the Reuters news agency said manipulated two photos.
Detrich also has worked for The Advertiser-Tribune in Tiffin and The Xenia Daily Gazette. He was a Pulitzer finalist in feature photography in 1998 for a series of photos of children who fled abusive parents.
The Blade, owned by Block Communications Inc., has a circulation of 180,000 on Sundays.
On the Net:
The Blade: http://www.toledoblade.com/
Remains of WWII flyer from Michigan identified after 63 years; pilot had crashed in Croatia
PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) -- The remains of a World War II navigator listed as missing in action for almost 63 years have been identified two years after they were found in Croatia, the brother of the deceased pilot said.
Air Force 1st Lt. Archibald Kelly's B-24 crashed on July 22, 1944, south of Dubrovnik, Croatia, near the Adriatic Sea. The plane carrying 10 crew members was returning from a bombing raid on oil fields in Romania.
Fellow crew members who survived the crash told Sam Kelly that his brother was the first to jump from the damaged aircraft, but he was struggling to straighten out his parachute and crashed into a mountain. He was 23.
"The irony is that my brother had been on 45 missions and had five more to go and he would have been discharged," Sam Kelly, 83, told The Oakland Press.
Kelly said he and his wife, Katie, were notified in February by the Defense Department that dental records matched the skeletal remains found in a shallow grave near the village of Cavtat.
The remains, first discovered by children in 2005, also included a button from an American military uniform, said Capt. Robert Frazer, a casualty assistance officer.
Kelly's remains were being held in a military facility in Hawaii and until they are shipped to Michigan for a May 12 funeral.
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