Mystery and confusion surround Russian plane crash in Egypt
Mystery and confusion surround Russian plane crash in Egypt
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — Mystery and confusion surrounded the final moments of a Russian jetliner that plummeted suddenly from high altitude to the Egyptian desert, killing all 224 people aboard. The airline Monday ruled out pilot error or a technical fault, but Russian aviation officials dismissed those comments as premature.
Some aviation experts raised the possibility that a bomb on board the Metrojet Airbus A321-200 brought it down, while others cited an incident in 2001 when the aircraft grazed the runway with its tail while landing.
James Clapper, the U.S. director of national intelligence, said that while there is no direct evidence of any terrorist involvement yet, it couldn’t be excluded that the plane was brought down by Islamic State extremists in the Sinai Peninsula.
“It’s unlikely, but I wouldn’t rule it out,” he told reporters in Washington.
Asked if a terrorist attack could be ruled out, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said: “No versions could be excluded.”
Vatican arrests priest and laywoman in latest leak probe
VATICAN CITY — The Vatican said Monday it had arrested a high-ranking priest and another member of a papal reform commission on suspicion of leaking confidential documents — a stunning move that comes just days before the publication of two books promising damaging revelations about the obstacles Pope Francis faces in cleaning up the Holy See’s murky finances.
The developments threatened to become a new “Vatileaks” — the 2012 scandal that began with the publication of a blockbuster book by Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi detailing the corruption and mismanagement in the Holy See. The scandal ended with the conviction of Pope Benedict XVI’s butler — and Benedict’s resignation a year later.
The latest arrests of two advisers hand-picked by Francis to help in his effort to overhaul Vatican finances threatened to further expose infighting and rifts surrounding the pope’s efforts at reform and a more open church.
Monsignor Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda, a Spaniard, and Francesca Chaouqui, an Italian public relations executive, had served on a now-defunct financial reform commission set up by Francis in 2013 as part of his drive to clean house at the Vatican, especially in its scandal-tainted economic affairs.
A Vatican statement said the arrests followed a monthslong investigation and that the two had been interrogated over the weekend. It said Vallejo Balda was being held in a jail cell in Vatican City, while Chaouqui was released Monday because she was cooperating with the investigation.
Jimmy Carter says he’s feeling fine, builds with Habitat for Humanity
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Jimmy Carter resumed his role as Habitat for Humanity’s most prominent booster on Monday, donning a white hard hat and a worn leather belt stocked with his own tools to hammer and saw with other volunteers building a home in Memphis, Tennessee.
“We haven’t cut back on my schedule yet,” Carter said, seeming invigorated during an Associated Press interview. “I know it’s going to come, particularly if my cancer progresses, but we don’t yet know what the result will be from the treatments.”
The former president celebrated his 91st birthday in October, and is undergoing treatment on cancer found in his liver and brain. But he was sure-footed on the construction site as he moved from one task to another.
Arriving ahead of schedule, Carter installed a hammer, measuring tape and thick pencil on his tool belt. Then he helped place pre-framed walls, hammered nails into place and sawed boards into smaller pieces, occasionally shouting questions or suggestions at the rest of the crew.
His wife, Rosalynn Carter, 88, hammered brackets to secure the walls, pulling the nails from her own leather tool belt. “Hard work,” she said with a soft laugh.
Judge orders Bill Cosby deposition in Janice Dickinson defamation lawsuit
LOS ANGELES — Bill Cosby and his former attorney can be deposed by lawyers for Janice Dickinson in the model’s defamation lawsuit against the embattled comedian, a judge ruled Monday.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Debre Katz Weintraub ruled Cosby and his former lawyer Martin Singer must give their sworn testimony before Nov. 25.
Dickinson, who is among dozens of women alleging that Cosby molested them, is suing Cosby for defamation over statements last year denying the comedian drugged and raped Dickinson in 1982.
The ruling states Dickinson’s lawyers can only seek answ–ers as to whether the denials were made maliciously, and Cosby and Singer can assert attorney-client privilege and refuse to answer some questions.
Dickinson never reported the rape to authorities and has said she was afraid if she did that her career would be damaged and Cosby would retaliate.
Jurors to settle bitter battle of sweeteners
LOS ANGELES — Big Sugar and Big Corn face off in court this week in a bitter, multibillion-dollar battle of sweeteners that boils down to a mix of science, semantics and marketing.
Jurors in the case between sugar processors and corn manufacturers will take up one of nutrition’s most vexing debates and confront a choice common among some consumers: sugar or high fructose corn syrup?
The trial starting Tuesday in federal court grew out of efforts by the Corn Refiners Association to rebrand its high fructose corn syrup as “corn sugar” to reverse damaging publicity that associated it with diabetes and obesity.
By wire sources