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A6 Thursday, May 13, 2010 Portsmouth Daily Times
Dutch boy sole
known survivor in
Libyan jet crash
TRIPOLI, Libya — A
Libyan plane carrying 104
people crashed Wednesday
on approach to Tripoli’s airport,
leaving a field scattered
with smoldering
debris that included a large
chunk of the tail painted
with the airline’s brightly
colored logo. A 10-year-old
Dutch boy was the only
known survivor.
The Dutch prime minister
said everyone on the
Afriqiyah Airways Airbus
A330-200 arriving from
Johannesburg, South
Africa, was killed except
the child, whose survival
was hailed as a miracle.
The boy was taken to a
hospital in Tripoli and was
undergoing surgery for
injuries including broken
bones. Libyan TV showed
video of the dark-haired
child lying in a hospital bed
with a bandaged head and
wearing an oxygen mask.
He had intravenous lines in
one arm and appeared to be
conscious.
The Royal Dutch
Tourism Board said 61 of
the dead came from the
Netherlands, including
many holidaymakers who
had been on package tours
to South Africa.
Dutch flags were lowered
and campaigning for the
June 9 parliamentary elections
was suspended in
respect for the dead. Hundreds
of people phoned
emergency numbers to ask
about family and friends
while authorities at other
destination airports set up
crisis centers.
“We are sad and sore at
the thought of the more than
one hundred passengers and
crew who lost their lives,”
the Anglican Archbishop of
Cape Town, Thabo Makgoba,
said in a statement. “We
thank God for the sole survivor.
In his survival, we see
that even in this dark cloud
of death, there is this ray of
hope.”
The crash left a large field
scattered with small and
large pieces of plane debris
and dozens of police and
rescue workers with surgical
masks and gloves, some
of them carrying at least
one body away. They gathered
small personal items
such as wallets and cell
phones from the wreckage.
Others sifted through
debris — some of it still
smoldering — including a
flight recorder and green
seats with television screens
on them. A large piece of
the plane’s tail was visible,
bearing Afriqiyah’s brightly
colored logo with the numbers
“9.9.99,” a reference to
the date of the founding of
the African Union.
The plane was carrying
93 passengers and 11 crew,
Afriqiyah Airways said in a
statement.
Conservative
Cameron takes the
reins in Britain
LONDON — Former
rivals David Cameron and
Nick Clegg hailed their new
coalition government as the
coming of a new era in
British politics on Wednesday,
glossing over policy
differences but pledging to
tackle the country's most
pressing problem — the
ballooning deficit.
The Conservative and
Liberal Democrat leaders
stood in Downing Street's
sun-dappled garden and
promised that their partnership
was united by common
purpose and will survive for
a full five-year term. They
pledged sweeping reform to
Parliament, civil liberties
laws and on ties to Europe,
and a renewed focus on the
conflict in Afghanistan.
The Foreign Office said
new Foreign Secretary
William Hague would visit
Washington Friday for talks
sure to focus on the Afghan
war.
NATION & WORLD
Trade deficit increases to $40.4 billion in March
By MARTIN
CRUTSINGER
AP Economics Writer
WASHINGTON — The
U.S. trade deficit rose to a
15-month high as rising
oil prices pushed crude oil
imports to the highest
level since the fall of
2008, offsetting another
strong gain in exports.
The larger deficit is evidence
of a rebounding
U.S. economy.
Analysts expect this
year’s deficit to be up significantly
from 2009,
when it hit an eight-year
low. But U.S. exports
should keep growing, providing
a major source of
strength from American
manufacturers, and will
only be marginally affected
by the European debt
crisis.
The Commerce Department
reported Wednesday
that the trade deficit rose
2.5 percent to $40.4 billion
in March compared to
the February imbalance. It
was the largest monthly
trade deficit since December
2008.
Exports of goods and
services were up 3.2 per-
World Briefs
cent to $147.87 billion,
the highest level since
October 2008. Imports
were up 3.1 percent to
$188.3 billion.
U.S. manufacturers, the
standout performers so far
in this recovery, will continue
to get a boost from
rising demand for their
products, economists predicted.
Their sales are
being helped by a rebound
in the global economy and
declines in the value of
the dollar against other
major currencies.
The dollar has strengthened
this year against the
euro, the common currency
of 16 European countries.
That is largely the
result of the debt crisis in
Greece that could spread
to other European countries,
such as Spain and
Portugal. The dollar is
now about 15 percent
stronger against the euro
than it was in December.
Economists said this
will dampen U.S. export
sales to Europe and also
increase demand for European
products, such as
cars.
But the changes had not
been significant enough to
derail their expectations
for steady gains in exports
this year. That should continue
as long as the debt
crisis doesn’t worsen and
threaten to derail Europe’s
recovery.
“Greece is a small economy.
The big countries,
Germany and France, are
still doing okay,” said
David Wyss, chief economist
at Standard & Poor’s
in New York.
Wyss said export
growth would add to the
overall economy this year,
providing a key boost to
American manufacturers.
But Wyss and other economists
said that outlook
could prove too optimistic
if the debt crisis in Europe
intensifies.
Greece, which uses the
euro, accounts for only
0.2 percent of U.S.
exports. But the 16 European
nations that use the
euro account for 15 percent
of U.S. exports.
So far this year, the U.S.
deficit is running at an
annual rate of $467.2 billion,
23.4 percent higher
than last year’s imbalance
of $378.6 billion.
The rise in exports
Meguid al-Fergany ■ AP photo
Rescue teams search the site of the Libyan Afriqiyah Airways plane crash in Tripoli, Libya Wednesday.
The plane, with 104 people on board, crashed on landing at the airport in the Libyan capital Tripoli.
Classifieds work! (740) 353-3101
7 children killed in
latest attack at
China school
BEIJING — An attacker
hacked seven children and
one teacher to death
Wednesday and wounded
20 other people in a rampage
at a kindergarten in
northwest China, the latest
in a string of savage assaults
at the country’s schools.
The slayings occurred
despite a countrywide boost
in security at schools, with
gates and security cameras
ordered installed and additional
police and guards
posted at entrances.
The attack happened at 8
a.m. (0000 GMT) at a
kindergarten in Nanzheng
county of Hanzhong city,
the official Xinhua News
Agency said. It did not give
the ages of the victims or
say who attacked them.
Liu Xiaoming, deputy
director of the propaganda
department of Hanzhong
city, confirmed that seven
children and one teacher
were killed and that about
20 others had been wounded.
“The murderer killed
himself afterward,” Liu told
The Associated Press.
appeared to please Wall
Street. The Dow Jones
industrial average was up
about 130 points in afternoon
trading.
For March, the rise in
exports reflected
increased sales of American
farm products, led by
gains in sales of corn,
dairy products and rice.
Sales of heavy machinery
from electrical generators
to earth-moving equipment
also posted big
increases as did sales of
semiconductors.
The increase in imports
was led by a 25.5 percent
jump in crude oil shipments,
which rose to
$22.3 billion March, the
highest level since October
2008. That increase
reflected higher volume
and higher prices. The
average price for a barrel
of crude oil rose to
$74.32, up from $72.92 in
February.
Prices have been falling
since oil hit $87.15 a barrel
in early May. The debt
crisis in Europe has raised
concerns about the durability
of the global economic
recovery. In trading
Wednesday, oil dipped to
near $76 a barrel.
The deficit with China
rose 2.4 percent to $16.9
billion in March, the highest
level since January and
the largest trade gap with
any country. The Obama
administration is facing
growing political pressure
to impose trade sanctions
on China if Beijing doesn’t
allow its currency to
rise in value against the
dollar.
Treasury Secretary Timothy
Geithner raised
hopes for a change in
monetary policy when he
stopped in Beijing last
month to talk with Chinese
economic officials on
his way back from India.
But Chinese President Hu
Jintao, who discussed the
issue with President
Barack Obama during a
trip to Washington last
month, said China’s decision
on the currency
“won’t be advanced by
any foreign pressure.”
American manufacturing
companies that compete
against the Chinese
are pressing for a tougher
trade policy. They say
America’s trade deficit
with China has cost 2.4
million manufacturing
jobs at a time when the
jobless rate in this country
is 9.9 percent. They
contend that Beijing’s
currency manipulation
and other unfair trade
practices have made Chinese
products cheaper in
America at the expense of
U.S.-made goods, while
making American-made
products more expensive
in China.
Geithner is expected to
raise the currency issue
when he and Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton go to
China for two days of
high-level talks later this
month.
The deficit with the
27-nation European
Union rose to $7.1 billion
in March, a jump of
32.7 percent. Imports
from Europe rose faster
than U.S. exports to the
EU.
The deficit with Canada,
America’s largest trading
partner, fell by 15.8
percent to $2.3 billion.
The imbalance with Mexico
rose 26.7 percent to $6
billion as imports from
Mexico hit an all-time
high.