NORTHEAST

CARGO PLANE CRASHES INTO A WAL-MART

MANCHESTER, N.H. – A small cargo plane with only the pilot on board crashed into a Wal-Mart yesterday. The pilot was hurt but able to walk away from the crash, and there were no reports of injuries on the ground.

The twin-engine Embraer had just taken off from Manchester Airport, about 1 mile from the store, when it hit the Wal-Mart garden center at 7:20 a.m., said a Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman, Arlene Murray.

The pilot, Paul Seyler-Schmidt, 32, of Bangor, Maine, was helped away from the wreckage by workers at the car dealership and was taken to a hospital. He was in fair condition at a hospital.

– Associated Press

WASHINGTON

FRIST, HASTERT LETTER CALLS FOR JOINT LEAK PROBE

Senate Majority Leader Frist and House Speaker Hastert circulated a letter yesterday calling for a congressional investigation into the disclosure of alleged secret American interrogation centers abroad.

The Washington Post reported November 2 on the existence of secret American prisons in Eastern Europe for terror suspects.

Secretary of State Rice sidestepped questions on secret prisons yesterday, saying America was in a “different kind of war” and had an obligation to defend itself.

– Associated Press

HOUSE OKAYS RESOLUTION MARKING ‘NOSTRA AETATE’ ANNIVERSARY

The House of Representatives unanimously approved a resolution marking the 40th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council’s landmark document on non-Christian religions, “Nostra Aetate”(“In Our Times”).The resolution, which now goes to the Senate, was introduced by Rep. Rush Holt, a Republican of New Jersey.

Religious groups hailed the Vatican document for paving the way toward improved relations between Christians and Jews. “More than a commemoration, this resolution compels all of us to learn from the action taken by the Catholic Church and to continue to work today against anti-Semitism and all forms of hatred, bigotry, and religious intolerance,” the director of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham Foxman, said in statement.

The document, which rejected bigotry and persecution against any person or group, called for closer relations with Muslims, Jews, and other non-Christians. In one key passage, its authors wrote: “In her rejection of every persecution against any man, the Church, mindful of the patrimony she shares with the Jews and moved not by political reasons but by the Gospel’s spiritual love, decries hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone.”

– Staff Reporter of the Sun