In brief: Sanctions may hit banking, flights

BEIRUT – Syria buried 22 members of the armed forces Saturday, including six elite pilots, as the government reinforced its message that the 8-month-old revolt against President Bashar Assad is the work of terrorists and foreign agents, not patriotic Syrians seeking reform.

But with no sign of violence abating, an Arab League committee agreed Saturday on a draft of recommended sanctions against Syria, including halting cooperation with the nation’s central bank and stopping flights to the country. The 22-nation body will vote on the recommendations today in Cairo.

If the Arab League goes ahead with the move, it will be a huge blow for a regime that considers itself a powerhouse of Arab nationalism.

Syria is facing mounting international pressure to end the bloody crackdown on the uprising against Assad’s rule that the U.N. says has killed more than 3,500 people.

Bus plunge claims top soccer players

LOME, Togo – At least six top-flight Togolese soccer players were killed and another 28 people critically injured on Saturday after a bus carrying their team plunged into a ravine and caught fire.

In a statement read on national television, the Togo government said President Faure Gnassingbe had ordered that those injured from the Etoile Filante club be taken to the military wing of Lome Central Hospital to receive urgent medical attention.

The accident happened 100 miles north of Lome, as Etoile Filante was on its way to Togo’s second largest city of Sokode for today’s league game against Semassi.

A tire is believed to have burst, causing the bus to topple over and plunge down a ravine. Some of the victims reportedly burned to death. Eyewitness accounts said the bus flipped over several times as it crashed into the ravine.

Long-held captives killed during fight

BOGOTA, Colombia – Colombia’s main rebel group killed four of its longest-held captives, apparently during combat Saturday between soldiers and guerrillas, the government said. A fifth captive fled into the jungle and survived.

President Juan Manuel Santos called the killing of a soldier and three police officers “a crime against humanity” and dismissed any suggestions that Colombia’s armed forces might be responsible.

“They were held hostage for between 12 and 13 years and wound up cruelly murdered,” Santos said.

Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon initially announced the deaths, then said hours later that the fifth rebel prisoner, police Sgt. Luis Alberto Erazo, had survived. Erazo, 48, had been held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, for nearly 12 years.

Japanese farms yield unsafe rice

FUKUSHIMA, Japan – The Fukushima prefectural government in Japan has announced that radioactive cesium beyond the provisional regulatory limit was detected in unmilled rice harvested at five farms in the Onami district of Fukushima Prefecture.

Radioactive cesium exceeding the limit of 500 becquerels per kilogram was recently detected in harvested rice at another farm in the area, fueling concerns among consumers.

This time as much as 1,270 becquerels of radioactive cesium per kilogram was detected in unmilled rice, the prefecture said Friday.