World/Nation

Pope presses environment in Ecuador

QUITO, Ecuador - Pope Francis pressed his case for a new economic and environmental world order Tuesday during his South American tour, saying the goods of the Earth are meant for everyone and must not be exploited by the wealthy few for short-term profit at the expense of the poor.

Francis' call, delivered on his final full day in Quito, is particularly relevant for Ecuador, a Pacific nation that is home to one of the world's most species-diverse ecosystems but is also an OPEC country heavily dependent on oil extraction.

He delivered the challenge in back-to-back speeches at Catholic University and then in a meeting with business leaders and indigenous groups, the latter of which have championed his recent encyclical denouncing what he says is the profit-at-all cost mentality of wealthy nations exploiting the poor and destroying the planet in the process.

"The goods of the Earth are meant for everyone, and however much someone may parade his property, it has a social mortgage," Francis said. "The tapping of natural resources, which are so abundant in Ecuador, must not be concerned with short-term benefits."

Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa has been harshly criticized by environmentalists and indigenous groups for pushing mining and oil drilling in the Amazon, which together with the Galapagos Islands give Ecuador an unrivaled designation as one of the Earth's environmental priorities. That push, coupled with high crude prices, allowed Correa to lift 1.3 million people out of poverty in his eight years in office.

Bill Cosby accusers claim vindication

PHILADELPHIA - While many of Bill Cosby's accusers feel vindicated by his decade-old admission that he gave at least one woman quaaludes before sex, some of his Hollywood friends are reserving judgment, saying the testimony doesn't prove he committed a crime.

The testimony, unsealed Monday by a federal judge, reignited the furor that erupted last year, when dozens of women came forward to accuse the comedian of sexual assault over the past four decades. Many said Cosby drugged and raped them.

"I never thought I would be validated or vindicated in this," said Joan Tarshis, of Woodstock, N.Y., who accused Cosby of drugging and attacking her when she was breaking into comedy writing in 1969.

"I mean, it's turned my life around 180 because now all the people that haven't believed me or us have come out, most of them, and said, 'We were wrong.'"

The testimony came from a deposition in a 2005 sexual abuse lawsuit brought against Cosby by a former Temple University basketball team employee, Andrea Constand.

South Carolina seeks to remove Confederate flag

COLUMBIA, S.C. - The South Carolina Senate gave its final approval Tuesday to removing the Confederate flag from the Capitol grounds, but across the hall in the House, Republicans quietly sought a way to make a last stand to preserve some kind of symbol honoring their Southern ancestors at the Statehouse.

The House was scheduled to begin debate today on the bill to take down the flag and its pole and send the banner to the state's Confederate Relic Room. Gov. Nikki Haley and business leaders support the proposal.

To stress the chamber's unity after Tuesday's 36-3 vote, senators invited the widow of their slain colleague Clementa Pinckney to the floor. She stood just inside the door in a black dress, only a few feet from her husband's desk, which was draped in black cloth with a single white rose on top. Every member stood as she entered and later walked up to her, offering condolences.

After the flag was pulled off the Statehouse dome 15 years ago, it was called a settled issue. The banner was instead moved to a monument honoring Confederate soldiers elsewhere on the Capitol grounds.

But the flag debate swiftly gained urgency last month after Pinckney and eight other black people were fatally shot at a historic African-American church in Charleston. A white gunman who police said was motivated by racial hatred is charged in the attack.

Two aboard plane killed in collision with F-16

MONCKS CORNER, S.C. - An F-16 fighter jet smashed into a small plane Tuesday over South Carolina, killing two people and raining down plane parts and debris over a wide swath of marshes and rice fields.

The two people aboard the smaller Cessna were killed, and the plane was completely destroyed, National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Peter Knudson said. The pilot of the F-16 ejected and "is apparently uninjured," he said.

A press release from Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter said the pilot, Maj. Aaron Johnson from the 55th Fighter Squadron, was taken to Joint Base Charleston's medical clinic for observation.

The fighter jet crash-landed into woods around the privately owned Lewisfield Plantation, an estate dating to 1750.

- Associated Press