NEWS OF THE DAY
Plane crash: A cargo plane chartered by the French military crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on its approach to the airport in the Ivory Coast city of Abidjan, killing four crew members from Moldova and injuring six others from Moldova and France, officials said Saturday. Ten people were aboard the plane arriving from the capital of neighboring Burkina Faso, said Lt. Issa Sakho, commander of the military fire brigade. The French Defense Ministry said the four French nationals were a civilian and three military personnel. It said the plane was chartered for operations in Western Africa. The French have forces in several Sahel countries, including Burkina Faso, to help combat extremists. The cause of the crash was not immediately known, but stormy weather possibly played a role. Hundreds of onlookers gathered at the shore to look at the debris. Kenya shooting: Gunmen fatally shot seven people, including six students, in a raid on a high school Saturday that appeared to be a revenge attack organized by a student who had been suspended for fighting, police said. The shooting occurred at Lokichogio Mixed Secondary School in Turkana County near the border with South Sudan. The attackers were thought to be from South Sudan. A key suspect was a senior at the school who was suspended last week after he was found fighting and vowed to take revenge, said Rift Valley regional criminal investigations chief Gideon Kibunja. The student was arrested later Saturday, and Kibunja said angry members of the public overwhelmed police and killed him.
Vatican conviction:
A Vatican court on Saturday convicted the former president of the pope’s children’s hospital of diverting about $500,000 in donations to renovate a cardinal’s apartment and gave him a one-year suspended sentence. The original charges against Giuseppe Profiti had been embezzlement. But the court convicted him of a lesser offense of abuse of office after the defense argued the money was intended as an investment to benefit the hospital. The three-judge tribunal absolved Bambino Gesu Pediatric Hospital’s former treasurer, Massimo Spina.
Ship sinks: A Hong Kong-registered freighter sank in rough seas off the eastern coast of the Philippines, leaving 10 crew members missing, Japan’s coast guard said. A distress call was received Friday from the Emerald Star from a location about 150 nautical miles off the coast. It said 26 crew members, all from India, were aboard. The coast guard said three passing freighters rescued 16 of the crew members from the sea, and a fourth freighter later also joined the search in the area. The coast guard said the cause of the sinking was not known.
Austria election:
Wrapping up a bruising political campaign season, political parties counted down to an election Sunday that could turn the country to the right amid voter concerns over immigration and Islam. The vote is coming a year ahead of schedule after squabbles led to the breakup last spring of the coalition government of the Social Democrats and the People’s Party. A total of 16 parties are vying for 183 seats in the national parliament. The People’s Party, which has shifted from centrist to rightwing positions, is leading in the polls after an image makeover by its leader, Sebastian Kurz. Austria’s traditionally rightwing, anti-immigrant Freedom Party is expected to come in second and the center-left Social Democrats are thought to be trailing in third place.