Around the world
CRASH VICTIMS: Hampered by heavy fog and bad roads, rescuers scoured the jungle-covered mountainside near 7,000-foot Chichontepec volcano for victims of El Salvador's deadliest air disaster - a plane crash that killed 65 people and left human remains scattered in trees. Two ambassadors and at least five Americans died in the crash of Aviateca Flight 901 from Miami in heavy rain Wednesday.
RUSSIAN SHOOTOUT: A Russian policeman and two sailors were shot to death in a firefight at a naval ammunition depot, a news agency reported Friday. Two assailants attacked the depot late Thursday in the port city of So-viet-skaya Gavan, about 500 miles northeast of Vladivostok, killing two sailors on guard duty, the Interfax news agency said. The attackers stole the sailors' submachine guns and killed a police sergeant who pursued them, Interfax said. No reason was given for the attack.
HAITIAN CONVICTED: The U.S. ambassador's former bodyguard was convicted of the premeditated murders of three Haiti embassy employees and sentenced to hard labor for life. College Francois, 25, pleaded not guilty to shooting the victims on Nov. 10. Prosecutors said he wanted to get the embassy payroll - about $50,000. "I didn't send them to live in the country where people don't wear hats," Francois drawled, using the colorful Creole expression for the land of the dead. But police produced the evidence of one victim, driver Lamartine Guerrier, who was shot in the head and blinded but survived to incriminate Francois. Guerrier later died.
Across the nation
DENVER FUMES: Fumes from a sewage line backup at Denver International Airport sent 16 employees to hospitals with headaches, nausea and cramps. The line under the airport's toll plaza backed up when a power surge burned out a pump Thursday night. Up to 1 inch of raw sewage seeped through floor drains in part of an underground pedestrian tunnel, said airport spokesman Steve Klodt. The tunnel links the airport's parking administration building with toll booths. The employees were near the toll booths and rental car areas when they were overcome by the fumes. The new airport's much-publicized problems have included construction delays and a malfunctioning hi-tech baggage system.
CLOSE CALL: An on-board alarm system may have been all that prevented a collision between two passenger jets during an hourlong radar outage over Northern California, aviation officials said. A San Francisco-bound United Airlines 757 and a Seattle-bound Alaskan Airlines MD-80 came within 11/2 miles of each other while traveling at 500 mph over Stockton on Wednesday, the Federal Aviation Administration said. Emergency systems warned both planes of the other's proximity when they were eight miles apart and the United pilot descended rapidly, the FAA said. The jets sped to within 11/2 miles horizontally and 1,800 vertical feet before the United jet's dive, FAA spokesman Hank Verbais said Thursday.