World/Nation Briefs January 18, 2013

Investigators, Boeing staff

to inspect 787

TOKYO - An official with Japan's transport safety board says four U.S. officials, including two Boeing Co. representatives, have arrived at an airport in western Japan to inspect a 787 jet that made an emergency landing earlier this week.

The All Nippon Airways jet landed Wednesday morning at Takamatsu airport after the pilot smelled something burning and received a cockpit warning of battery problems.

The four Americans, including an investigator each from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board, met with officials Friday from the Japan Transport Safety Board, which is leading the investigation, said Mamoru Takahashi, a JTSB official.

ANA and Japan Airlines, which together have 24 of the Boeing jets, have grounded the planes. The U.S., Europe, Qatar and India also have done so.

Algeria declares operation to free hostages over

ALGIERS, Algeria - Algerian helicopters and special forces stormed a gas plant in the stony plains of the Sahara on Thursday to wipe out Islamist militants and free hostages from at least 10 countries. Bloody chaos ensued, leaving the fate of the fighters and many of the captives uncertain.

Dueling claims from the military and the militants muddied the world's understanding of an event that angered Western leaders, raised world oil prices and complicated the international military operation in neighboring Mali.

At least six people, and perhaps many more, were killed - Britons, Filipinos and Algerians. Terrorized hostages from Ireland and Norway trickled out of the Ain Amenas plant, families urging them never to return.

Dozens more remained unaccounted for: Americans, Britons, French, Norwegians, Romanians, Malaysians, Japanese, Algerians and the fighters themselves.

A U.S. official said late Thursday that while some Americans escaped, other Americans remain either held or unaccounted for. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Some Aurora shooting victims avoid ceremony

AURORA, Colo. - The Colorado theater where 12 people were killed and dozens injured in a shooting rampage last year reopened Thursday with a somber remembrance ceremony and a screening of the latest "Hobbit" film for survivors - but the pain was too much, the idea too horrific, for many Aurora victims to attend.

"We as a community have not been defeated," Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan told victims, officials, and dozens of police officers and other first responders who filled half the theater's seats at the ceremony.

"We are a community of survivors," Hogan declared. "We will not let this tragedy define us."

Pierce O'Farrill, who was wounded three times in the shooting, said: "It's important for me to come here and sit in the same seat that I was sitting in. It's all part of the healing process, I guess."

O'Farrill walked to an exit door inside the theater where he remembers the shooter emerging. "The last time I saw (the gunman) was right here," he said.

House GOP may seek extension

to debt limit

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. - House Republicans may seek a quick, short-term extension of the government's debt limit, a move that would avoid an immediate default by the Treasury as the party seeks to maximize leverage in negotiations over spending cuts with President Barack Obama this spring, officials said Thursday.

"All options are on the table as far as we're concerned," Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin said at a news conference during a three-day retreat of the rank and file. He said private discussions focused on how best to "achieve progress on controlling our deficits and controlling our debt."

Ryan declined to say how long an extension of the government's borrowing authority is under consideration, or what conditions might be attached. Obama has said repeatedly that he favors additional deficit savings yet he will not negotiate spending cuts as part of an agreement to raise the current $16.4 trillion debt limit. Some Republicans have suggested they may seek unspecified reforms rather than reductions, perhaps trying to force the Democratic-controlled Senate to approve a budget.

Wagner declines interview in Wood investigation

LOS ANGELES - Robert Wagner has declined to be interviewed by detectives in a renewed inquiry into the drowning death of his wife Natalie Wood three decades ago, an investigator said Thursday.

Wagner was interviewed by authorities soon after Wood's drowning in 1981, but the actor is the only person who was on the yacht the night Wood died who has not spoken to detectives as part of the latest inquiry, despite repeated requests and attempts, sheriff's Lt. John Corina said.

Blair Berk, an attorney for Wagner and his family, said the actor had cooperated with authorities since his wife died.

Detectives began re-investigating in November 2011. Investigators have interviewed more than 100 people, but Wagner has refused and Corina said his representatives have not given any reason for his silence.

- Associated Press