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Japanese jet crashes on takeoff

TOKYO, Japan (AP) — A Japanese fighter jet crashed an instant after takeoff and went up in flames Wednesday at an airport in central Japan, leaving the two pilots with minor injuries, an official for aircraft’s manufacturer said.

The F-2B fighter was on a test flight prior to delivery to Japan’s air force when it crashed, said Hideo Ikuno, a spokesman for the Daiya public-relations firm representing the plane’s maker, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

Footage on commercial broadcaster TV Asahi showed the jet taking off from the runway in Nagoya, only to suddenly tip downward and skid along the ground in flames. National broadcaster NHK showed the pilots jumping from the burning plane.

The flames were extinguished within 10 minutes of the crash, Ikuno said. The two crew members were taken to a hospital with minor injuries, Ikuno said.

Ikuno said the company was seeking further details about the crash. E-mail to a friend

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Oil prices fall ahead of U.S. fed decision

SINGAPORE (AP) — Oil prices dropped below US$90 a barrel Wednesday in Asia ahead of the U.S. central bank’s impending decision on its key interest rate.

Light, sweet crude for December delivery fell 68 cents to US$89.70 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midmorning in Singapore.

The Nymex crude contract fell US$3.15 to settle at US$90.38 a barrel Tuesday, partly due to a research report from influential trading house Goldman Sachs advising clients to sell oil futures to lock in profits.

The general expectation is that the Federal Reserve will cut the interest rate, and there may have been some precautionary profit taking ahead of that, said David Moore, a commodity strategist with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney.

Most investors expect the U.S. Federal Reserve to deliver a quarter-point cut at the end of its two-day meeting later Wednesday. The Fed made a half-point reduction in September.

The market has already factored in a quarter-point cut in the benchmark U.S. interest rate, but a half-point cut could spark a new rally, Koichi Murakami, a broker at Daiichi Shohin, told Dow Jones Newswires.

A larger-than-expected cut would further weaken a greenback already at multiple-decade lows against major currencies. Oil futures have been driven to record levels the past week partly because they offer a hedge against a weak dollar.

A weak dollar also makes oil futures seem inexpensive to traders dealing in other currencies.

Some traders will continue profit-taking sales, but it is difficult to take large positions ahead of the two important indicators, Murakami said.

Besides waiting for the U.S. Fed decision, traders are also watching for a weekly U.S. petroleum inventory report expected to show crude supplies rose last week.

Oil futures’ most recent price rally started a week ago, when the EIA reported a large, unexpected decline in crude inventories.

Analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires, on average, predict that oil inventories rose 100,000 barrels during the week ended Oct. 26, though their estimates vary widely.

The analysts said, on average, refinery use grew 0.5 percentage point to 87.6 percent of capacity; gasoline inventories rose 400,000 barrels; and distillates, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, fell 1 million barrels.

Heating oil futures rose 0.07 cent to US$2.4253 a gallon (3.8 liters) while natural gas futures dropped 1.5 cents to US$8.006 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, December Brent crude fell 53 cents to US$86.91 a barrel on the ICE futures exchange.
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Tropical Storm Noel weakens over Cuba

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(CNN) — Tropical Storm Noel weakened Tuesday over most of Cuba after lashing the island’s northern coast, but heavy rains continued to deluge the Dominican Republic, Haiti and portions of the Bahamas, forecasters said.

Gen. Luis Luna Paulino, director of civil defense for the Dominican Republic, said 16 people have died there and 16 are missing.

Outlying bands of the storm were expected to reach the southeast edge of Florida on Wednesday night or Thursday morning, before veering from the U.S. coast.

Forecasters say a tropical storm watch may be issued for that part of Florida later Tuesday or Wednesday. A storm watch means tropical storm conditions, including winds of at least 39 mph (62 kmh), are expected within 36 hours.

However, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in its 8 p.m. ET Tuesday advisory that Noel’s intensity is not expected to change within the next 24 hours.

As of 8 p.m., Noel’s center was about 25 miles (40 km) south-southwest of Camaguey, Cuba, and about 275 miles (440 km)south of Nassau, Bahamas. It was drifting west-northwest at near 4 mph and was clinging to tropical storm status with maximum sustained winds near 40 mph (65 kmh) and higher gusts, forecasters said. Tropical storm-force winds extended outward up to 175 miles (280 km), mainly to the east of the center.

The storm is expected to gradually turn toward the northwest over the next day, the hurricane center said.

On this track, the center of Noel is expected to remain over Cuba today and tonight but emerge off the northern coast of Cuba tomorrow, the center said in a statement Tuesday.

Preparations were taking place Tuesday at Homestead Air Reserve Base near Miami, Florida. Twenty-four F-16 fighter jets were relocating to Dobbins Air Force Base near Atlanta, Georgia.

As of 5 p.m. ET Tuesday, the government of Cuba had extended a tropical storm warning westward and southward. The provinces of Sancti Spiritus, Ciego de Avila, Camaguey, Las Tunas, Granma, Holguin, Santiago de Cuba and Guantanamo were in the warning area. A tropical storm warning means that tropical storm conditions are expected in the warning area within 24 hours.

A tropical storm warning was also in place for the central and northwestern Bahamas. The storm has been walloping Hispaniola, the island that the Dominican Republic and Haiti share. Watch the latest on the storm

Some airline flights between the Bahamas and the United States were canceled. Royal Caribbean and Carnival Cruise Lines changed the itineraries of some cruises to avoid the worst of the storm.

There have been conflicting reports on the number of deaths in the Dominican Republic.

Provincial officials in San Cristobal told CNN that 25 people have died there, and dozens more are unaccounted for as flooding and mudslides plague the region. The national Center for Emergency Operations counted 11 deaths in San Cristobal. See the scenes of heavy flooding

Noel was expected to drop 10 to 20 inches of rain over the Dominican Republic and Haiti, with possible maximum amounts in isolated areas of 30 inches. Total accumulations of 5 to 10 inches, with possible maximum amounts of 15 inches, are possible over southeastern Cuba and the Bahamas, the hurricane center said.

Juliana Pierossi, a spokeswoman for the aid agency World Vision International, said floods have forced hundreds from their homes in the Dominican Republic, drenched fields full of crops and cluttered the roads of the capital, Santo Domingo, with debris and stalled cars. Watch the devastation brought by water, mud and wind

World Vision has started to distribute food and water for people who are in shelters, but we’re worried about long-term effects, she said.

Hurricane Center spokesman Dennis Feltgen said, This is just one of those storms that tells you the [hurricane] season does not end until November 30. Anything can happen.
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Turkish copters pound Kurd rebels

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s prime minister said Tuesday increased military action against separatist Kurdish rebels was unavoidable and pressed the United States for a crackdown on guerrilla bases in northern Iraq.

Turkish helicopters pounded rebel positions near the border with rockets for a second day and Turkey brought in troops by the truckload in an operation against mountainside emplacements.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told members of his party in parliament it is now unavoidable that Turkey will have to go through a more intensive military process.

But he also suggested he was not seeking an immediate cross-border offensive against the rebels of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, holed up in bases in northern Iraq. The responsibility of leadership does not allow for narrow mindedness, haste or heroism, he said.

We must remember that Turkey is part of this world and diplomacy has certain requirements, Erdogan added, suggesting the world expected Turkey to exhaust all nonmilitary options.

Erdogan flies to Washington on Nov. 5 for talks with President Bush that could be key to whether Turkey carries out its threat of a major military incursion. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is also expected in Turkey later this week.

We will openly express that we expect urgent steps from the United States, which is our strategic partner and ally and has a special responsibility regarding Iraq, Erdogan said.

The United States, Iraq and other countries have been calling on Turkey to refrain from a cross-border campaign, which could throw one of the few stable areas in Iraq into chaos. A Turkish incursion would also put the United States in an awkward position with key allies: NATO-member Turkey, the Baghdad government and the self-governing Iraqi Kurds in the north.

White House press secretary Dana Perino said Bush’s discussions with Erdogan would include the fight against terrorism — in particular our joint efforts to counter the PKK.

Turkish Cobra attack helicopters blasted suspected PKK targets in the Mount Cudi area, near the southeastern border with Iraq for a second day, trying to hunt down some 100 rebels believed to be hiding in mountainside caves, the private Dogan news agency reported.

The fighting has claimed the lives of three Turkish soldiers and six guerrillas, local news reports said.

Transport helicopters flew in commando units to block possible rebel escape routes on Cudi, Dogan reported.

An AP Television News cameraman said attack helicopters escorted four Black Hawk helicopters on Cudi, as they airlifted soldiers to the mountain and picked others up. Smoke could be seen rising from areas that had been hit in the attacks.

Dogan reported a 100-vehicle military convoy traveling from Cizre toward the border.

A Kurdish political party warned that the fighting threatened to increase animosity between the Turkish and Kurdish populations in Turkey.

Turkey is moving toward a dangerous war in our region which will seriously damage historical relations between Turks and Kurds, Nurettin Demirtas, a senior party official, told reporters.

Erdogan’s Cabinet scheduled a meeting for Wednesday to discuss possible economic measures against groups supporting the Kurdish rebels.

Deputy Prime Minister Hayati Yazici said Turkey was considering a series of sanctions against the self-governing Kurdish administration in Iraq’s north.

Yazici would not give any details, but the Iraqi region is heavily reliant on Turkish electricity and food imports, as well as Turkish investment in construction. There has been talk of shutting down the Habur border crossing — the only vehicular route into Iraq from Turkey.

Jamal Abdullah, a spokesman for the Iraqi Kurd regional government, complained that economic sanctions would represent a collective punishment against Kurdistan’s people.

He warned that Turkey and the U.S. Army also would suffer if the border crossing was closed. About 70 percent of U.S. air cargo headed for Iraq goes through Turkey, as does about one-third of the fuel used by the U.S. military there.

Massoud Barzani, the leader of Iraq’s Kurdish region, called for a peaceful solution to the crisis.

We believe that military action is not the solution. We are not part of this problem and we will not allow anyone to drag us into a war that is not our war, Barzani said at a news conference after a meeting of the regional parliament in Irbil.

At least 46 people have been killed by the PKK in Turkey over the past month, according to government and media reports. Those included at least 30 Turkish soldiers killed in two ambushes that were the boldest attacks in years and increased domestic pressure on Erdogan to act.
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Entertainer Robert Goulet dies at 73

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) — Robert Goulet, the handsome, big-voiced baritone whose Broadway debut in Camelot launched an award-winning stage and recording career, has died. He was 73.

The singer died Tuesday morning in a Los Angeles hospital while awaiting a lung transplant, said Goulet spokesman Norm Johnson.

He had been awaiting a lung transplant at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after being found last month to have a rare form of pulmonary fibrosis.

Goulet had remained in good spirits even as he waited for the transplant, said Vera Goulet, his wife of 25 years.

Just watch my vocal cords, she said he told doctors before they inserted a breathing tube.

The Massachusetts-born Goulet, who spent much of his youth in Canada, gained stardom in 1960 with Camelot, the Lerner and Loewe musical that starred Richard Burton as King Arthur and Julie Andrews as his Queen Guenevere.

Goulet played Sir Lancelot, the arrogant French knight who falls in love with Guenevere.

He became a hit with American TV viewers with appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and other programs. Sullivan labeled him the American baritone from Canada, where he had already been a popular star in the 1950s, hosting his own show called General Electric’s Showtime. E-mail to a friend

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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