Briefly

Russians poring over plane crash sites

Buchalki, Russia Russian investigators labored Wednesday to determine whether terrorism caused the near-simultaneous crashes of two jetliners, killing all 89 people aboard and spreading anxieties about a possible bloody escalation of the Chechen conflict.

Officials stressed that no evidence of a terrorist attack had yet been found among charred wreckage and said they were looking at other possibilities like bad fuel, equipment malfunction and human error. The planes’ data recorders were recovered, but experts were only just starting to retrieve information from them.

The planes plunged just days before a Kremlin-called presidential election in Chechnya, whose rebels have staged suicide bombings and other attacks across Russia in recent years, including the 2002 seizure of hundreds of hostages at a Moscow theater.

Seaborne attack likely, commander says

Peterson Air Force Base, Colo. NORAD commander Gen. Ed Eberhart said Wednesday that terrorists may turn to a seaborne attack because U.S. fighter jets are now prepared to shoot down a hijacked airliner.

“I believe that it is just a matter of time until the terrorists try to use a seaborne attack, a maritime attack against us,” Eberhart told reporters touring the new headquarters of Northern Command, the military unit created after Sept. 11, 2001, to deal with terrorist attacks.

Eberhart is commander of both Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD. The Air Force general is retiring this fall.

He said a seaborne attack on the country could involve bringing high explosives into port and detonating them, unloading weapons of mass destruction or launching a missile from offshore.

“Our maritime domain awareness is not as secure … as our monitoring of our air space,” he said. Eberhart said he thinks expanded cooperation with Canada to include monitoring ships off its coast could improve security. So far Canada is a NORAD partner only on air defense.

Sudan embassy closes, citing lack of U.S. bank

Khartoum, Sudan Sudan said Wednesday it had closed its embassy in Washington after being unable to find a bank that would handle its financial matters.

The Foreign Ministry said the bank that had handled the embassy’s transfers from Khartoum for more than 30 years had closed Sudan’s account, along with other embassy accounts, in July “because of difficulties it encountered.”

The ministry statement did not name the bank. The embassy has been the scene of daily demonstrations for several weeks in protest of Sudan’s treatment of people in the western Darfur region.

The ministry said it asked the U.S. State Department for assistance but “it failed to convince that bank or find another bank.” A senior State Department official said on condition of anonymity that efforts were being made to find another bank.

The ministry ordered the embassy to close this week because it cannot pay its employees or its bills.

The statement blamed the United States, saying it was the responsibility of the host country to facilitate the mission of embassies.

Gay unions opposed in GOP platform

New York Republicans endorsed an uncompromising position against gay unions Wednesday in a manifesto that contrasts with Vice President Dick Cheney’s supportive comments about gay rights and the moderate face the party will show at next week’s national convention.

A panel made up largely of conservative delegates approved platform language that calls for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and opposes legal recognition of any sort for gay civil unions.

The GOP’s full platform committee, seeking to appease party members who support gay or abortion rights without embracing their positions, adopted language later that states Republicans “respect and accept” dissenting views.

Christopher Barron of the Log Cabin Republicans, a GOP gay-rights group, was livid after the panel endorsed the first-ever call for a constitutional gay-marriage ban in a GOP platform and went beyond that to oppose legal recognition of any same-sex unions.

Oldest panda raised in captivity dies at 33

Beijing The oldest panda raised in captivity has died at an eastern China zoo at the age of 33, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Wednesday.

Peipei died Aug. 13 of organ failure at a zoo in Hangzhou, a city southwest of Shanghai, the report said.

It said the panda’s age was the equivalent of 100 in human terms.

Giant pandas are generally found in temperate forests in central China. Among the best recognized – but rarest – animals in the world, as few as 1,600 giant pandas survive in the mountain forests of central China. Another 120 are in Chinese breeding facilities and zoos, and about 20 live in zoos outside China, according to the Web site of the National Zoo in Washington.

Police, fire linked to racy fashion show

Memphis, Tenn

The city’s police and fire departments are investigating charges that employees were part of a fashion show that included stripping and simulated sex.

Sunday’s event, “Battle of the Shields: Memphis Firefighter and Police Fashion Gala,” came under fire after a columnist from the Commercial Appeal wrote that she saw nearly nude men on stage, their private parts covered in soapsuds.

At least two women, Wendi C. Thomas wrote, were “hoisted in the air, their legs around men’s waists.”

At least one person swung a badge, and others wore department pants and held nightsticks, she wrote.

A show organizer told Thomas all the models were from the police and fire departments.

“We’ve got allegations that were made and we will see if it’s true,” police spokesman Inspector Jim Tusant said.

Chief Alvin Benson, deputy director of the Memphis Fire Department, said he was surprised and disappointed by the allegations.

Memphis police must have permission to wear their uniforms outside work, while firefighters can’t wear their uniforms away from work at all.