Nation and world in brief

| New Mexican wire services

4/18/2008 -

FAA to alert officials when inspections are missed

WASHINGTON — The Federal Aviation Administration is going to begin alerting its top headquarters officials when field inspectors miss airline safety inspections, Transportation Secretary Mary Peters announced Friday.

Peters also demanded the FAA and American Airlines explain to her within 14 days why 250,000 U.S. air travelers endured canceled flights last week. American grounded its MD-80 jetliners and canceled 3,100 flights to inspect or redo wiring that was supposed to have been completed between Sept. 5, 2006, and March 5, 2008.

She said she didn't think federal regulators had overreacted in the wake of revelations about the FAA's lax supervision of Southwest Airlines. Last month, it was revealed the FAA allowed Southwest to fly dozens of Boeing 737s without inspecting them as required for fuselage cracks, and Southwest's system for complying with FAA safety directives had not been inspected by the FAA since 1999.

But Peters wanted to know "why so many aircraft had to be grounded and so many travelers had to be inconvenienced" to "help us avoid similar disruptions" as the FAA completes an audit of all major airlines' compliance with safety directives. The audit was ordered after the Southwest debacle came to light and helped uncover the MD-80 wiring problems.

Feds looking into lead dangers in artificial turf

TRENTON, N.J. — The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is looking into the possible health hazards of lead in artificial turf installed at schools, parks and stadiums across the country.

Two fields in New Jersey were closed this week after state health officials detected what they said were unexpectedly high levels of lead in the synthetic turf and raised fears that athletes could swallow or inhale fibers or dust from the playing surface.

The artificial-turf industry denied its products are dangerous. But the CPSC said it is investigating.

"We have a great deal of interest into any consumer product that could be used by children where children could potentially be in harm's way because of lead exposure," CPSC spokesman Scott Wolfson said.

The United States has about 3,500 synthetic playing fields made of various materials, including nylon and polyethylene, and about 800 are installed each year at schools, colleges, parks and stadiums, according to the industry's Synthetic Turf Council.

Quake shocks Midwest, causes little damage

WEST SALEM, Ill. — Residents across the Midwest were awakened Friday by a 5.2 magnitude earthquake that rattled skyscrapers in Chicago, homes in Cincinnati and nerves across the region but appeared to cause no major injuries or damage.

Dozens of aftershocks followed, one with a magnitude of 4.6.

The quake just before 4:37 a.m. was centered six miles from West Salem, Ill., and 45 miles from Evansville, Ind. It was felt in such distant cities as Milwaukee, Des Moines, Iowa and Atlanta, nearly 400 miles to the southeast.

NYC Freedom Tower plans found in trash

NEW YORK — The government agency building a 102-story skyscraper at the World Trade Center site is investigating the discovery of two sets of blueprints for the building that a homeless man says he found in the trash.

The schematic documents for the Freedom Tower, under construction at ground zero, were marked "Secure Document — Confidential," the New York Post reported Friday.

The documents, dated Oct. 5, 2007, contain plans for each floor, the thickness of the concrete-core wall, and the location of air ducts, elevators, electrical systems and support columns, the Post reported.

Oldest known person turns 115 in Indiana

SHELBYVILLE, Ind. — Maybe it was a lifetime of chores on the family farm that accounts for Edna Parker's long life. Or maybe just good genes explain why the world's oldest known person will turn 115 on Sunday, defying staggering odds.

Scientists who study longevity hope Parker and others who live to 110 or beyond — they're called supercentenarians — can help solve the mystery of extreme longevity.

"We don't know why she's lived so long," said Don Parker, her 59-year-old grandson. "But she's never been a worrier, and she's always been a thin person, so maybe that has something to do with it."

Divers deployed for pope perform a rescue

NEW YORK — This is the tale of the pope and the beaver.

For the 4-foot-long, 40-pound critter, the timing of Pope Benedict's appearance at the United Nations was crucial: The beaver, laboring in the East River, was rescued by a New York Police Department scuba team deployed to patrol the waters near the home of the world's governing body.

Shortly after the pope left the building, divers noticed an unidentified dark object in the East River waters, said commanding officer Lt. John Harkins.

The divers found the beaver on its side, struggling to swim and "breathing heavy," Harkins said. Divers put a life preserver around the beaver, brought it back to a police boat and placed it in a plastic bucket.

Once ashore, the rodent was taken to an animal hospital.

Typhoon hits southern Chinese island province

GUANGZHOU, China — Typhoon Neoguri weakened into a tropical storm Friday after hitting China's southern island province of Hainan, where 120,000 people fled low-lying areas and thousands more were stranded at an airport, state-run media reported.

The typhoon — the first to threaten China this year — began lashing the city of Wenchang on Hainan's northeast coast late Friday night. Xinhua News Agency reported it blacked out the city but Neoguri, which means "raccoon" in Korean, had been packing winds of 75 mph before weakening to tropical storm strength at 67 mph.

The storm was on course to hit southern Guangdong province with a weakening force and heavy rains this afternoon, Xinhua said.

About 3,000 passengers were stranded at the airport in the provincial capital, Haikou, after 76 flights were canceled because of Neoguri, the report said.

Helicopter crashes in Mexico, killing 11 soldiers

MEXICO CITY — A military helicopter crashed in western Mexico on Friday, killing 11 soldiers and seriously injuring another, the Defense Department said.

The soldiers, including an army major, were on their way to raid a marijuana field when their helicopter lost strength and crashed outside the city of Uruapan in the western state of Michoacán, the department said in a news release.

It said only one soldier survived, and he was flown to a military hospital in Mexico City where he was in serious condition.

The department said it is investigating what caused the crash.

U.S. military deaths in Iraq at 4,037

As of Friday, at least 4,037 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes eight military civilians. At least 3,295 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.

The AP count is two lower than the Defense Department's tally, last updated Friday at 8 a.m. MDT.

The latest deaths reported by the military:

A soldier was killed Friday by a roadside bomb north of Baghdad.