Nation & world

Cause of Nigerian airliner

crash still unknown

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria - Investigators on Sunday picked over thescorched wreckage of an airliner that was ferrying schoolchildrenhome for the holidays when it crashed, killing all but three of the110 people on board.

The cause of the crash was still unknown a day after the SosolisoAirlines' McDonnell Douglas DC-9 slammed into the ground on approachto the southern oil-industry center of Port Harcourt.

Among those on board were 71 teenagers from a Jesuit school in thecapital, Abuja.

It was the second major air accident in seven weeks in Africa'smost-populous nation, and President Olusegun Obasanjo promised Sundayto overhaul Nigeria's civil-aviation structures.

Airport officials directed frantic family members to localmorgues.

The weather was stormy around the airport at the time of thecrash, National Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Sam Adurogboyesaid. Witnesses said they saw lightning as the plane approached therunway.

20 suspected members of

Islamic network arrested

PARIS - French counterterrorism agents dismantled an Islamicnetwork suspected of preparing terror attacks, arresting about 20people in raids early today, police said.

Anti-terrorism judges ordered the sweep in the Paris area and theOise region north of the capital. The suspects were arrested in raidson homes and Internet cafes, national police said.

The alleged network included terror suspects already known topolice and "common criminals," a police statement said.

Investigations were under way to determine the group's preciseobjectives, it added.

Fire kills three teens

during sleepover

KEEDYSVILLE, Md. - Fire raced through an old stone home in ruralMaryland, killing three teenage boys who were sleeping over withfriends, authorities said.

The flames broke out before dawn Sunday in a second-floor bedroomwhere the owner's 17-year-old son and four friends were sleeping. Theteenager and a 15-year-old boy escaped and woke the owner, but theycouldn't get the others out, authorities said.

"Basically, they ran for their lives," Deputy State Fire MarshalJoseph Zurolo said.

Two 17-year-old boys and an 18-year-old were killed. The cause ofthe fire was under investigation, authorities said.

The home sustained heat and smoke damage on the second floor andwater damage on the first floor, Deputy Chief State Fire MarshalAllen Gosnell said. A neighbor said the home had been there since theCivil War.

Ex-'Sopranos' actor,

friend face murder charges

NEW YORK - An actor who once played an aspiring mobster on "TheSopranos" faces murder charges along with another man in the death ofan off-duty police officer, authorities said.

Lillo Brancato Jr., 29, was hospitalized in critical conditionwith gunshot wounds suffered when the officer shot him after catchingtwo men breaking into a home. Brancato's friend Steven Armento, 48,was also shot and in critical condition.

Prosecutors were in the process Sunday of charging Armento withfirst- and second-degree murder and Brancato with second-degreemurder in the death Saturday of Officer Daniel Enchautegui, 28, saidSteven Reed, a spokesman for the district attorney's office.

COMPILED FROM WIRE REPORTS