In brief: Plane clips bridge, falls in river, killing 12

TAIPEI, Taiwan – A Taiwanese flight with 58 people aboard clipped a bridge shortly after takeoff and careened into a shallow river today in the island’s capital of Taipei, killing at least 12 people, state media said.

Parts of the wrecked fuselage of the turboprop ATR 72 jutted out of the Keelung River just a couple dozen yards from the shore near the city’s downtown Sungshan airport. The main section of fuselage was on its side, missing a wing.

Rescuers clustered around the plane in rubber boats more than two hours after the crash, and could be seen pulling carry-on luggage from an open plane door.

The country’s Central News Agency said 12 people pulled from the plane were dead. The rescue was continuing.

CNA said the flight from Taipei to the outlying island of Kinmen lost contact with flight controllers at 10:55 a.m. and the fuselage landed in the Keelung River near the city’s downtown Sungshan airport.

As many as 31 passengers were from mainland China, Taiwan’s TVBS news broadcaster said.

The plane also hit a taxi, the driver of which was injured, as it flew into the river, TVBS reported.

Jury: Toyota must pay $11 million to victims

MINNEAPOLIS – A federal jury ordered Toyota Motor Corp. to pay nearly $11 million to victims of a fatal Minnesota crash on Tuesday after ruling that a design flaw in the 1996 Camry was partially to blame for the 2006 wreck.

The jury said the company was 60 percent to blame for the accident, which left three people dead and two seriously injured. But jurors also decided that Koua Fong Lee, who has long insisted he tried to slow his car before it slammed into another vehicle, was 40 percent to blame.

Lee was driving when his car crashed into another vehicle at a high speed after he exited Interstate 94 in St. Paul. His attorneys insisted the crash was caused by an acceleration defect in his vehicle, but Toyota argued there was no design defect and that Lee was negligent.

After the 2006 wreck, Lee was charged and convicted of vehicular homicide, and sentenced to prison. But he won a new trial after reports surfaced about sudden acceleration in some Toyotas. Prosecutors opted against a retrial and he went free after spending 2 1/2 years behind bars.

Toyota also noted Lee’s car was never subject to the recalls of later-model Toyotas.

U.N. dismisses mutual claims of genocide

THE HAGUE, Netherlands – Mutual claims of genocide brought by Croatia and Serbia that date back to the disintegration of Yugoslavia in the 1990s were dismissed Tuesday by the UN’s highest court.

The ruling by the International Court of Justice in The Hague ends a 16-year legal battle launched by Croatia in 1999. Serbia countered with its own claim of genocide in 2010.

The court found that neither side proved that any crimes carried out during the conflict were done with intent to commit genocide.