Moscow: Jet crash Sunday kills 14; toll rises in air show disaster

A Russian Il-86 passenger jet dove and crashed into a forest just after taking off Sunday afternoon from Moscow, killing 14 people and spreading charred debris beyond the runway. Two flight attendants sitting in the back of the plane were the only survivors.

The crash happened so fast that the pilots of the Pulkovo airlines jet didn’t have time to give flight controllers any indication there was a problem after lifting off from Sheremetyevo-1 airport, aviation officials said.

It was the second crash of a Soviet-era plane in as many days. On Saturday, a Su-27 fighter jet performing at an air show in western Ukraine clipped the ground and sliced through a crowd of spectators killing at least 83 in one of the world’s deadliest air show accidents.

West Bank: Palestinians, settlers clash during funeral; teen killed

Jewish settlers and Palestinians clashed Sunday during a funeral procession for a slain Israeli soldier in the volatile city of Hebron, leaving a 14-year-old Palestinian girl dead and at least six Palestinians wounded.

Sunday’s trouble in Hebron erupted as Jewish settlers carried the body of a soldier slain in an ambush Friday from the biblical Tomb of the Patriarchs, through the narrow streets of Hebron to the cemetery.

The Palestinians, though confined to their homes by an army-imposed curfew, began throwing stones at the funeral procession, according to photographers at the scene.

The armed settlers responded by firing shots at Palestinian homes. Nizin Jamjoum, 14, was standing on the balcony of her home when she was fatally shot in the head.

Washington, D.C.: Democrats trim drug plan

Senate Democrats have drastically scaled back their minimum demands for a prescription drug benefit for elderly Americans in hopes of securing enough Republican support to pass some version of the proposal this week.

If they fail, legislation to help Medicare recipients pay for increasingly expensive prescription medicine is likely to be sidetracked for a sixth year.

After failure of their plan to expand Medicare to include a prescription drug benefit at a cost of nearly $600 billion by 2012, groups of Democrats began working with Republicans hoping to find a compromise that could muster 60 votes. No proposal can come to a final vote unless it meets a 60-vote procedural test.

Majority Leader Thomas Daschle, D-S.D., has told Democrats he will bring to the Senate floor whatever plan is the first to muster the required votes. He has also said the Senate will have to move on to the defense spending bill for next year as of Wednesday.