IN BRIEF (Page 12)

United States

Search continues for body at plane crash site

Authorities have been searching a bay off southeast Texas for clues about what caused a Boeing 767 cargo plane carrying Amazon packages to nosedive into the shallow water, killing all three men on board. A north wind aided searchers by exposing more of the three-quarter-mile debris field left Saturday when Houston-bound Flight 3591, which Atlas Air was operating for Amazon, disintegrated on impact in Trinity Bay, about 55 kilometers east of the city, a sheriff said on Sunday night. Crews using airboats and helicopters circled the crash scene, where white chunks of fuselage could be seen above long grass. Investigators have been gathering human remains and looking for the plane's black box, which records flight data and voices in the cockpit.

Mexico

Govt sells presidential fleet of luxury cars

Mexico's austerity-minded president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, on Monday said his government has so far raised $3.2 million from auctioning off the presidential fleet of luxurious armored vehicles. The weekend auction put about 200 vehicles on the block that were formerly used by the president's military security to ferry the head of state and other top officials around in style. Lopez Obrador, who described the auction as "very successful", said the funds would be earmarked for social programs. Among the vehicles purchased was an armored Audi that former president Enrique Pena Nieto used. It was bought for $100,000 by a businessman from northern Mexico.

Germany

Arena cancels concert after R. Kelly charges

A German concert arena canceled its contract on Tuesday with the organizer of an R. Kelly tour, days after the R&B star was charged in the United States with sexually abusing four people, including three underage girls, dating back to 1998. "Regarding the new and objective facts, we have decided to cancel the contract," Ratiopharm Arena in Neu-Ulm wrote on its Facebook page. The operators of the arena had already removed advertisements for an April 12 concert from Facebook on Monday. A judge ordered Kelly on Friday to surrender his passport, ending his hopes of doing a tour of Europe in April. Kelly had defiantly scheduled concerts in Germany and the Netherlands despite the cloud of legal issues looming over him. The artist has been trailed for decades by allegations that he violated underage girls and women and held some as virtual slaves. Kelly has consistently denied any sexual misconduct.

United Kingdom

Sala plane did not have commercial license

The plane carrying soccer player Emiliano Sala that crashed in the Channel last month did not have a commercial license, British investigators said on Monday. But the Air Accidents Investigation Branch said the journey would have been allowed as a "private" flight in which costs are shared between pilot and passenger. "The basis on which the passenger was being carried on N264DB has not yet been established but, previously, the pilot had carried passengers on the basis of cost sharing," the AAIB said in an interim report. Pilot David Ibbotson, 59, was flying 28-year-old Argentine striker Sala to his new Premier League club, Cardiff City, from his previous team in Nantes in France on Jan 21 when the accident happened. The plane was registered in the United States, according to the report.

AP - Xinhua - AFP - Reuters

(China Daily 02/27/2019 page12)