Delaware

Bodies of Air Force personnel killed in plane crash returned

The flag-draped coffins of 10 U.S. military personnel killed in a plane crash on Puerto Rico arrived Wednesday evening at Dover Air Force Base.

The MC-130H combat plane crashed Aug. 7 during a training mission. The plane used in special operations missions struck Monte Perucho, 20 miles south of San Juan, during heavy rain and fog, broke in two and burst into flames.

Six of the 10 victims were from Air Force Special Operations at Hurlburt Field, Fla.; one was from the Air Intelligence Agency and assigned to a unit in Florida; two were members of the Kentucky Air National Guard on temporary duty in Puerto Rico; and one was assigned to Puerto Rico for the Southern Command’s Special Operations Command.

New York City

WTC redevelopment plans opened to global competition

Stung by criticism of early plans to redevelop the World Trade Center, project officials on Wednesday invited architects worldwide to submit fresh designs. They also said the final design won’t be chosen until at least next spring.

“We are looking for excitement, creativity, energy,” said Roland Betts, a board member of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., the city-state agency charged with the project.

Betts acknowledged that the public considered the six proposals released last month “mundane, boring, pedestrian.” But he said some popular components such as a promenade from the trade center to Battery Park, a skyline element to echo the lost towers and a preference for keeping the “footprints” of the towers free from development would be incorporated into the new designs.

Washington, D.C.

Coalition planes strike Iraqi air defense sites

Aircraft from the U.S.-British coalition patrolling southern Iraq bombed two Iraqi air defense sites Wednesday, the U.S. Central Command said.

The attack with precision-guided weapons about 4 p.m. CDT was a response to Iraqi actions threatening coalition planes patrolling the southern no-fly zone, a Central Command statement said.

The strike was the latest in a series of incidents in the no-fly zones over northern and southern Iraq. Coalition planes struck an Iraqi military communications facility on Aug. 5.

Central Command says Iraq has fired on coalition planes 85 times this year. The command, based in Tampa, Fla., is responsible for the region.