Jet with 115 aboard feared crashed

(CNN) -- Searchers in Cameroon on Saturday were working to track down a missing Nairobi-bound Kenya Airways flight reported to have gone down in a forested area southwest of the Cameroonian capital of Yaounde.
African media reports say Kenya Airways Flight KQ 507 -- which was carrying 115 crew and passengers -- crashed near Yaounde.
One local government officer, Alex Bayeck, said villagers reported hearing a "large boom."
"Searchers have gone out looking in this area," including police, emergency workers and military police, he told The Associated Press. The region has few roads and is dotted by small villages.
There was no word yet on survivors, Bayeck said as he traveled to the crash site.
But Titus Naikuni, the company's chief executive officer, refused to describe the incident as a crash. He told reporters that "at the moment you can't make a clear statement until you see the aircraft itself."
The plane took off from the Cameroonian city of Douala bound for Nairobi, Kenya and was scheduled to arrive in the Kenyan capital about 6 a.m., the airline said. There were reports of thunderstorms in the area around the time of takeoff overnight.
An airline official said the last message from the aircraft was an automatic distress signal received soon after takeoff from Douala airport. The plane was just six months old, the airline said.
People from 25 different countries were on aboard. They included one American, five Britons, one Swiss, one Swede, six Chinese, and 15 Indians. The remainder were Africans, including at least 35 from Cameroon and at least nine from Kenya, according to airline figures.
The Associated Press is reporting that Anthony Mitchell, a Nairobi-based AP correspondent, "was believed" to be on the flight.
Relatives waiting at Nairobi's airport were distraught as news reports about the missing plane came in. Dozens of family members cried and collapsed in the airport terminal.
One person there said families there had received no information. "I cannot talk now because there is no news," he told AP, declining to give his name. "We have not been given any information."
Cameroon's military sent helicopters from Douala airport to the believed crash site, AP reported.
Kenyans are sending a delegation to Cameroon, and Naikuni said the United States was helping authorities track the flight location. Naikuni said the location is about 100 kilometers, or more than 60 miles, southwest of Yaounde.
A Kenya Airways flight crashed seven years ago, on January 30, 2000, when a Nairobi-bound flight took off from Abidjan, Ivory Coast. The airline is considered one of the safest in Africa.
Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

Deal reached on climate change

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- Delegates approved the world's first roadmap for stemming mounting greenhouse gas emissions Friday, laying out an arsenal of anti-warming measures that must be rushed into place to avert a disastrous spike in global temperatures.
The report, a summary of a voluminous study by a U.N. network of 2,000 scientists, showed the world has to make significant cuts in gas emissions through the development of biofuels, increases in fuel efficiency, the use of renewable energy like solar power, and a host of other options.
The document made clear that the world has the technology and money to decisively act in time to avoid a sharp rise in temperatures that scientists say would wipe out species, raise ocean levels, wreak economic havoc and trigger droughts in some places and flooding in others. (Watch what proposals could help save the planet )
Under the most stringent scenario, the report said the world must stabilize the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by 2015 -- eight years from now -- to keep global temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over preindustrial levels.
Delegates said the approval of the report should conclusively debunk arguments by skeptics that combatting global warming was too costly, that it would stifle development in the world's poorer countries or that the temperature rise had gone too far for humankind to do anything about.
"If we continue doing what we are doing now, we are in deep trouble," cautioned Ogunlade Davidson, the chair of one of the working groups at the weeklong conference in Bangkok, Thailand.
Delegates hailed the policy statement as a key advance toward battling global warming and setting the stage for an even stronger international agreement to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse emissions when it expires in 2012.
"It's stunning in its brilliance and relevance," Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the group running the conference, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said of the study. "It's a remarkable step forward."
The report "highlights the importance of a portfolio of clean energy technologies consistent with our approach," said the head of the U.S. delegation, Harlan Watson.
Coming out of the meeting early Friday, delegates said science appeared to have trumped politics -- especially opposition from booming China, which wanted language inserted allowing for a greater buildup of greenhouse gases in the environment before action would be taken.
Beijing and its supporters had argued that moves to make deep cuts in carbon dioxide emissions risked stifling its spectacular economic growth, delegates said. But the final report included mention of a stringent emission target mentioned in an earlier draft.
Delegates at the meeting had wrestled over how to share the burden of cutting emissions, how much such measures would cost, and how much weight to give certain policy measures, such as advanced nuclear power, an option supported by the United States.
"This is still an excellent report," French delegate Michel Petit said, adding that China and the other developing countries ended up compromising on all major issues. "Nothing important was removed during the process."
The report follows two studies by the IPCC earlier this year warning that unabated greenhouse gas emissions could drive global temperatures up as much as 6 degrees C (11 degrees F) by 2100, triggering a surge in ocean levels, destruction of vast numbers of species, economic devastation in tropical zones and mass human migrations.
Even the most stringent efforts outlined in the report, however, would not save the globe from suffering. An increase in temperatures to 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F) could still subject up to 2 billion people to water shortages by 2050 and threaten extinction for 20 percent to 30 percent of the world's species, the IPCC said.
Environmental groups said the report demonstrates the world can afford to battle global warming and must do so immediately.
"This is a roadmap that the IPCC is delivering," said Hans Verolme of WWF International. "It's time for the politicians to do more than just pay lip service to the issue of global warming, and to stop climate change before it's too late."
Environmentalists said nations must carry forward this momentum by deciding on concrete actions at the Group of Eight summit of leading industrial nations in June in Germany and at a U.N. Climate Summit in Bali, Indonesia, in December.
"With the final piece of the jigsaw in place, the picture of our options for the future is now in sharp focus," said Stephanie Tunmore, Greenpeace International climate & energy campaigner. "It is quite clear that immediate action to cut greenhouse gas emissions is required."
China, the world's second-largest greenhouse gas emitter after the United States, pushed hard during the meeting, along with India and other developing countries, to raise the proposed cap on carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, delegates said. (Watch how China is on track to being the world's top polluter )
A draft of the report proposed the world limit concentrations of greenhouse gases to between 445 and 650 parts per million, but China sought to strike the lower range over fears it would hinder its booming economy, Michael Muller, Germany's vice minister for the environment, told reporters before the agreement was reached.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

U.S. says terrorist in Jill Carroll kidnapping killed

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A U.S. military commander said Thursday that an al Qaeda in Iraq militant believed to be involved in last year's kidnapping of journalist Jill Carroll has been killed.
He is Muharib Abdul Latif al-Jubouri and was identified as the senior minister of information for al Qaeda in Iraq, said Maj. Gen. William Caldwell.
Caldwell said al-Jubouri was killed in a fight about four miles (six kilometers) west of the Taji air base north of Baghdad; the body initially was identified by photos, then confirmed by DNA testing on Wednesday.
Caldwell said al-Jubouri was believed connected with the 2006 kidnapping of American reporter Jill Carroll, who was released nearly three months later, and Tom Fox, one of four men from the Chicago, Illinois-based peace group Christian Peacemaker Teams, who was found fatally shot in Baghdad in March 2006.
Caldwell also tried to clarify reports of the deaths of two other key insurgents, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the head of the Islamic State of Iraq.
The Islamic State of Iraq is an umbrella organization of Sunni militant groups that includes al Qaeda in Iraq.
Caldwell said the United States does not have the body of either man.
"We have nobody in our possession or know of anybody that does, alive or dead, that is going through any kind of testing or analysis at this point with respect to those two individuals," he said.
Caldwell said it is not known who al-Baghdadi is or whether he exists.
Iraq's Interior Ministry said al-Baghdadi has been killed and that it has his body. Iraqi state TV showed a body that it said was al-Baghdadi's.
Brig. Gen. Abdul Karim Khalaf, an Interior Ministry spokesman, claims al-Baghdadi was seriously wounded in a March 4 battle in the northern Iraqi province of Salaheddin, but he eluded capture. The battle was a result of a joint U.S.-Iraqi operation.
Khalaf said al-Baghdadi later died of his injuries, but it is not clear when.
Iraqi security forces, based on intelligence they have been tracking for some time, intercepted militants early Thursday carrying al-Baghdadi's body in the western Baghdad region of Ghazaliya.
In March, authorities arrested a man originally thought to be al-Baghdadi, but later learned he was a senior member of al Qaeda in Iraq.
On Tuesday, tribal leaders in Abu Ghraib and Falluja told the Iraqi government that al-Masri was killed in fighting.
Al-Masri is the "war minister" in the Cabinet of the Islamic State of Iraq -- which has claimed responsibility for a number of insurgent actions.
Iraqi authorities also said they can't confirm al-Masri's death, reports of which were dismissed by the Islamic State of Iraq.
A statement issued by the insurgent group said al-Masri is "safe" and "still battling the enemies of God." (Watch how al Qaeda in Iraq evolved under al-Masri )
Al-Masri is an Egyptian who replaced Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as head of al Qaeda in Iraq after al-Zarqawi's death in a U.S. airstrike last June.

Israeli foreign minister joins calls for Olmert to resign

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Wednesday that he should resign over his handling of last summer's war in Lebanon.
"I expressed my opinion that resignation was the right thing where he is concerned," Livni said at a news conference after her meeting with Olmert.
But she said whether Olmert goes or not is a "personal decision" for the prime minister.
"I am not trying to oust him. It is a decision he has to make," she added.
Olmert gave no sign he is ready to quit. After the meeting between Olmert and Livni, an Israeli government official told CNN that Olmert told a meeting of the Kadima party he is in an uncomfortable position but he is not shirking from responsibility and will be the one to fix the mistakes.
There have been growing calls from both inside and outside the government since a commission issued an interim report Monday holding Olmert responsible for "severe failures" in the conduct of Israel's campaign against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.
Livni said she does not support new elections but believes that if Olmert resigns, the Israeli parliament -- the Knesset -- can form a new government.
"If the prime minister decides to resign, I believe the Knesset can come up with a government ... a broad-based government," she said, adding, "I will not support a new prime minister from a different political party."
Livni is considered a rising star in Israeli politics but denied she is trying to use the crisis over the war in Lebanon to win the prime minister's job for herself.
"I didn't come to the Foreign Ministry as a way to get to the prime minister's office," she said.
She said she intends to remain in her job.
"I will remain in the government in order to make sure the process is undertaken to correct things," she said. However, she serves as foreign minister at the pleasure of Olmert, and it was unclear if he would fire her after her decision to tell him to resign.
Livni said she does intend to run for leadership of the Kadima party.
"Kadima needs to choose its leadership in a democratic manner, in primary, and when the time comes I plan to submit my candidacy," she said. "Now is the time to restore the public's trust in the government."
Currently the Kadima coalition, which Olmert heads as prime minister, holds 78 seats in the 120-seat Knesset.
But after the report on the war by the Winograd Commission, polls show that Olmert's support among the Israeli public is virtually zero.
On Tuesday, the leader of Olmert's Kadima faction also called for him to quit.
"I am trying to convince the members of Kadima to turn to the prime minister and ask him to resign for the good of the country, the Kadima party and his own good," coalition Chairman Avigdor Yitzhaki said on Israeli army radio. "In light of the findings of the report, the prime minister has no choice but to resign."
But at the start of Wednesday's weekly Security Cabinet meeting, Olmert called for patience.
"The members of the commission made it clear the main issue is learning the lessons derived from the failings," he said. "In my opinion that is the main obligation of this government -- the government that is responsible for the failings and is also responsible for the corrections.
"To all those that are in haste to make political gain I advise, slow down."
The Winograd Commission, in the interim report released Monday, said that Olmert was too hasty to go to war, that Defense Minister Amir Peretz was inexperienced, and that former Israeli army Chief of Staff Dan Halutz acted impulsively without disclosing that the Israeli military was not prepared to carry out a land war in Lebanon.
While there was a heavy loss of life in Lebanon during the war, Hezbollah remained a potent force at the end of the campaign and the two Israeli soldiers whose kidnapping sparked the conflict remain captives.
Cabinet member Eitan Cabel, a Labor Party member of Olmert's Kadima-led coalition, resigned Tuesday and called on Olmert to follow his lead, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported.
The storm gathering around Olmert, including mass protests, like one scheduled for Thursday in Tel Aviv, could force the successor to Ariel Sharon out of office -- and out as Kadima party chairman.
Yitzhaki has pointed to Livni as the natural replacement for Olmert. But Olmert, according to Israel's Channel 10 television, has rejected Livni as his successor

Tribes claim leader of al Qaeda in Iraq killed

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Unconfirmed reports that al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri has been killed come from local tribes and not Iraq's intelligence services or military, an Iraqi government spokesman said Tuesday.
Ali al-Dabbagh, spokesman for Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, said the government won't be able to confirm al-Masri's death until it makes an identification of the body.
"Iraqi security forces do not have the body," al-Dabbagh said on Iraqi state TV. "Iraqi security forces and Multi-National Forces are trying to retrieve the body for visual identification and DNA tests."
The reports of al-Masri's death emerged after a confrontation Tuesday between Sunni tribes and al Qaeda in Iraq at a bridge in an area under Sunni tribal control, al-Dabbagh said.
Al-Masri -- also known as Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Muhajer -- succeeded Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq after he was killed in a U.S. airstrike in June.
If Sunni militants had information that led to al-Masri's death, it may be a sign of a rift among Sunni militants in Iraq, said CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen.
Militant groups in the nation "have been trying to put a more Iraqi face" on their movement and have been trying to "exclude the foreign militants from a public role," Bergen said.
Al-Masri is Egyptian.
Hints of rifts among Iraqi militant groups emerged last month when two claims of responsibility for the April 12 Iraqi parliament cafeteria attack had been posted by the Islamic State of Iraq.
Earlier Tuesday, an Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman said "very strong intelligence" indicated al-Masri was killed in fighting between rival militant groups north of Baghdad.
"We received intelligence reports of al-Masri getting killed in clashes between al Qaeda in Iraq and other militant groups at dawn today" in al-Niba'ie in Taji, north of Baghdad, Brig. Gen. Abdul Karim Khalaf said.
The U.S. military and U.S. Embassy in Baghdad had no information on the reports of al-Masri's death.
"I have no confirmation of what is being reported in the Iraqi media," said military spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Garver.
In February, Iraq's Interior Ministry claimed Iraqi security forces wounded al-Masri in another clash north of Baghdad, but the U.S. military cast doubt on that report. The ministry never backed away from its claim.
Recently, the insurgent umbrella group Islamic State of Iraq posted a list of Cabinet members and named al-Masri as its "war minister."
The group, which includes al Qaeda in Iraq and other insurgents, claimed responsibility for a number of violent acts last month, including the suicide attack at the Iraqi parliament, the killings of nine U.S. soldiers in Diyala province and the execution of 20 security force officers.
On Saturday, the group distributed leaflets in Samarra to police, warning that they have three days to "repent" or be killed.
The insurgent group also told police to use loudspeakers at mosques and marketplaces to announce their rejection of the "apostate state" and their joining of the "Islamic State."
Other developments
President Bush is expected to veto the war spending measure from Congress on Tuesday, reiterating his vow to reject any spending bill with a timetable for removing U.S. troops from Iraq. (Full story)
At least 14 people were killed in a pair of attacks on minibuses south of Baghdad, a police official in Babil province said Tuesday. Police patrols found 11 people shot to death and three others critically wounded near Iskandiriya on Monday night. According to police, the survivors said they played dead to keep from being shot again. The bus was traveling from Hilla to Baghdad. Also Tuesday, gunmen killed three people and wounded five others when they opened fire on a minibus in Lattifiya.
In a decline from the previous month, 1,501 Iraqi civilians lost their lives in sectarian and insurgent violence in April, the Iraqi Interior Ministry said Tuesday. March saw 1,872 civilians killed, and 1,646 died in February. There were 2,334 Iraqi civilians wounded during April, compared with 2,708 the month before, the ministry said.
Poor construction, improper design, substandard materials and lack of maintenance have caused the failure of seven of eight U.S.-funded Iraq reconstruction projects that were recently reviewed by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, according to an Inspector General report. (Full story)
CNN's Jomana Karadsheh and Michael Ware contributed to this report.