Around the world
JETS CRASH: Two U.S. jet fighters collided in flight before crashing into the sea off Korea's western coast Friday, a report said. The domestic Yonhap News Agency said a U.S. Air Force F-15 and an F-16 were on a training mission when they collided and crashed about 40 miles from the coastline. One pilot was rescued and a search was on for the other.PLANT FIRE: A fire broke out Friday at a Russian nuclear plant, but the Ministry of Atomic Energy said there was no radiation leakage and that critical measurements remained normal at the plant. The accident occurred during work at the Beloyarsk nuclear power plant, which has been undergoing repairs since April 23. The plant is located near the central Russian city of Yekaterinburg, President Boris Yeltsin's home town in the Ural Mountains.
Across the nation
UPHELD: A Kentucky appeals court Friday upheld the rape conviction of a man who later married his 13-year-old victim. The court rejected Jason Lee Griffith's claim that the state's rape law is unconstitutional because it assumes those under 16 and unmarried cannot consent to sex. Griffith was 22 and Chastity Lunsford was 13 when she got pregnant in 1992. Their son was born that December. The couple married a month later, with consent of the girl's mother, while Griffith's case was pending in Kenton Circuit Court. Griffith pleaded guilty to second-degree rape in March 1993 and was sentenced to five years.
CHILDREN DIE: A fire filled the second floor of an apartment in Williamston, N.C., with smoke Friday morning, killing four children in their bedrooms. The children, ages 14, 5, 21/2 and 18 months, all died of smoke inhalation, said Fire Chief James Bob Peele. The fire didn't reach the second floor of two-story apartment before it was extinguished. Peele said it was unclear if there were any adults home at the time the fire broke out.
In Washington
BASES: The Pentagon may ask for another round of base closings in 1997. "We plan to go ahead with a vigorous base closing in 1995. And we will propose to close as many bases as we can effectively and efficiently execute," Defense Secretary William Perry said Thursday in an interview with Mutual-NBC Radio. But the secretary said the 1995 round, which is required by law, does not preclude another round two years later.