Nation in brief: Four killed when small planes collide
Two private planes flying about a mile from an airport collided Sunday, killing at least four people and raining debris down on car dealerships below, authorities said.
The small Cessnas collided at 3:35 p.m. near the small Corona Municipal airport and a freeway in Riverside County, about 45 miles southeast of Los Angeles, FAA spokesman Allen Kenitzer said.
Three of the dead were from the planes and the fourth was in a car hit by debris on the ground, Kenitzer said.
Television pictures showed that the smashed fuselage of one of the planes landed atop a parked car.
Police were going through the car dealerships to see if anyone was injured, Corona Police Sgt. Jerry Pawluczenko said.
LOS ANGELES
LA Times editor fired over budget
The Los Angeles Times fired its top editor after he rejected a management order to cut $4 million from the newsroom budget, 14 months after his predecessor was also ousted in a budget dispute, the newspaper said Sunday.
James O’Shea was fired following a confrontation with Publisher David D. Hiller, the Times reported on its Web site. The story didn’t say when the confrontation took place.
Times spokeswoman Nancy Sullivan said the newspaper would have no comment.
O’Shea’s departure comes just a month after the Times’ parent, Chicago-based Tribune Co., was taken private in an $8.2 billion buyout by real estate magnate Sam Zell.
MOBILE, Ala.
Body found in Gulf likely child’s
A body believed to be the last of four children who were allegedly tossed from a coastal Alabama bridge by their father was recovered Sunday, authorities said.
The body of an Asian child was found in the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana by boaters who contacted Coast Guard officials, who then took the body to Venice, La., Mobile County Sheriff Sam Cochran said.
Authorities in Alabama will not be able to confirm whether the body is that of Hannah Luong, 2, until they get it back, Cochran said. But they ended the search of Alabama and Mississippi coastal waters based on the body’s recovery.
The search began Jan. 8 after prosecutors said the father broke down and confessed to throwing the children from the two-lane bridge. Lam Luong later recanted, claiming two Asian women took the children. Luong, 37, is being held without bond on capital murder charges.