At least 5 wounded after small plane crashes into Florida shopping center

A small experimental plane sputtered and gone down in flames into a supermarket at a Florida shopping center Monday evening, injuring five people and sending frightened shoppers running from the complex, authorities said.

Several people in the Northgate Shopping Center in DeLand dialed 911 around 7:20 p.m. to report the the aircraft had plunged into the complex, the Volusia County Sheriff's Office said. Callers said the plane showed signs of trouble moments before it hit the roof of the supermarket of the Florida-based Publix chain.

"A twin-engine experiment aircraft has packed up into the roof of the Publix supermarket," DeLand Police Sgt. Chris Estes told The Associated Press by telephone. "Publix is the only structure to suffer any damage." But he said all the businesses in the complex were closed to make way for tragedy crews.

He said the plane had taken off from a nearby municipal airport in DeLand, a Florida city about 20 miles west of Daytona Beach.

The police spokesman additional that three people had suffered severe burns and two others had moderate burns but he didn't specify who on the ground or on the aircraft were injured.

However, the Volusia County Sheriff's Office said a pilot and a passenger from the plane were airlifted to Orlando Regional Medical Center. Spokesman Gerardo Morales later established to AP that two people had been airlifted there, but he declined to identify them or discuss their injuries.

Marleny Arevalo, a manager at a nearby Taco Bell fast food restaurant, said she didn't hear or see the crash but customers entering the outlet reacted with shocked looks moments later.

"They said, "Something's burning!" she told The Associated Press by telephone.

European Union Imposes New Sanctions on Syria

European Union foreign ministers resolute Monday to impose additional sanctions on 18 Syrians in response to the killings of protesters by Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime.

The names of those sanctioned will not be identified until they are published in the EU's official journal in a day or two. In a statement, the foreign ministers said they were "individuals responsible or connected with the repression and supporting or benefiting from the regime."

Sanctions generally take in visa and travel bans on people and the freezing of assets.

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NYC Woman in Medically-Induced Coma After Struck With Falling Shopping Cart

The wealthy Manhattan real-estate agent who was punch by a shopping cart that police say was dropped four stories by two 12-year-olds as she was buying Halloween candy for underprivileged children will "in the best of cases" be in healing for months, her husband told the New York Post.

Marion Salmon Hedges has been in a medically-induced coma after she was struck in the head by the falling cart on Sunday while walking outside a Target store with her 13-year-old son in East Harlem, the paper reported.

Her husband, Michael Hedges, told the Post on Tuesday that his family "is going through a very hard time."

"It's still too early on to tell with neurological issues," he told the newspaper. "Every year on Halloween, 1,000 kids come to our block from less-privileged neighborhoods and we spend $500 to $600 on candy for them and that's what she was doing -- buying candy for those kids to do something nice for the community."

Gaurav Patel, a doctor who witnessed the incident, performed CPR on Hedges, who was later transported to Harlem Hospital where she remains.

Turkey Reportedly Launches Incursion Into Iraq

Turkey-- Turkish soldiers, air force bombers and helicopter gunships launched an incursion into northern Iraq on Wednesday, hours after Kurdish rebels killed 24 soldiers and injured 18 in attacks along the border.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan canceled a visit to Kazakhstan and held a countrywide televised news conference to proclaim that Turkey had launched the "hot pursuit" operation, wording that officials often use to explain cross-border offensives in northern Iraq.

"We will never bow to any attack from inside or outside Turkey," he said.

Turkey's chief of the military and the center and defense ministers rushed to the border area to oversee the anti-rebel attacks, and the United States and NATO both issued statements supporting the offensive, the largest in more than three years.

NTV television said Turkish troops have moved out some 2.5 miles into Iraq and that helicopters were ferrying commandos across the border. Dogan news agency said more than 20 Kurdish rebels were killed in ensuing clashes, but did not give a breakdown. Neither report recognized its sources.

British soldier shot dead in Afghanistan

A British soldier has been killed in Afghanistan. The soldier, from the 2nd Battalion, the Royal Gurkha Rifles, was shot dead in the Nahr-e Saraj region of Helmand region on Saturday. Next of kin have been informed.

Lieutenant Colonel Gordon Mackenzie, spokesman for Task Force Helmand, said the soldier was killed while protecting a checkpoint: "It is with great sadness that I declare that a soldier from the 2nd Battalion, the Royal Gurkha Rifles was killed during operations with Afghan police partners to expand security in the Nahr-e Saraj region of Helmand.

"Whilst protecting a checkpoint, his team came under dissatisfied small arms fire, during which he received a fatal gunshot wound.

"The thoughts and prayers of all those serving in Helmand are with his family at this very difficult time," he said.

The death takes to 383 the number of British forces personnel or MoD civilians killed in Afghanistan given that the start of operations in October 2001.

The last British serviceman to be killed in Afghanistan was Royal Marine David Fairbrother, 24, of Blackburn, Lancashire, who was shot dead after his patrol was ambushed in southern Afghanistan.

Cairo witnesses fault security forces for bloodshed at Coptic march

Eyewitness testimonies have been emerging that contradict the authorized accounts of the violence at a march of Coptic Christians in Cairo that left 26 dead and more than 500 injured.

Egyptian state television originally blamed the bloodshed on protesters, who it said had attacked security forces. There were also attempts to portray the violence as sectarian in nature.

But more and more people who were caught up in the fighting have been coming forward to point the finger of blame squarely at the security forces, who they say employed vicious tactics to suppress the protest.

Here is the testimony of four people who were involved.

1. Sherief Gaber, 27, recent graduate

2. Mos'ab Elshamy, 21, pharmacy student and freelance photographer

3. Steve Nabeel, 22, computer engineering student

4. Hossam Bahgat, 32, NGO worker for the Egyptian Institute of Personal Rights

Dozens Arrested as Union Groups Join Protests Near Wall Street

Unions lent their muscle to the long-running protest against Wall Street and economic disparity Wednesday, with their members joining thousands of protesters in a lower Manhattan march as smaller demonstrations flourished across the country.

Protesters in suits and T-shirts with union slogans left work early to march with activists who have been camped out in Zuccotti Park for days. Some marchers brought along their children, hoisting them onto their shoulders as they walked downward Broadway.

"We're here to stop communal greed," said Mike Pellegrino, an NYC Transit bus mechanic from Rye Brook. "They must pay their fair share of taxes. We're just working and looking for decent lives for our families."

Of the camping protesters, he said, "We feel kinship with them. We're both looking for the same things."

People gathered in face of the courthouses that encircle Foley Square, then marched to Zuccotti Park, where they refueled with snacks and quickly painted new signs as the strong scent of burning sage wafted through the plaza.

Previous marches have resulted in mass arrests. Police said there were about 28 arrests on Wednesday night, frequently for disorderly conduct. But at least one arrest was for assaulting a police officer; authorities said a demonstrator knocked an officer off his scooter.

Millions Still Face Power Outages, Major Flooding in Irene's Wake

Hurricane Irene is now a memory, but people on the East Coast are still facing the injure and will be for months to come.

The storm, which killed at least 40 people across 11 states, is still being felt all over the region. Nearly 5 million homes and businesses in a dozen states were still without electricity, and utilities warned it strength be a week or more before some people get their power back.

While people without electric power waited for the lights to come back on and communities from New York to Maine took store of the storm, homeowners and towns in land-locked Vermont faced a sobering new reality: Washed-out roads and bridges left them, for now, unreachable by automobile.

Communities up and down the East Coast cleaned up and took stock of the uneven and hard-to-predict costs of a storm that secure the nation's biggest city a nightmare scenario, only to deliver a historic wallop to towns well inland.

In New York City, where people had braced for a disaster-movie scene of water swirling around skyscrapers, the subways and buses were up and running again in time for the Monday morning exchange. And to the surprise of many New Yorkers, things went pretty easily.

Fatal NJ crash spotlights young drivers law

A New Jersey law excepting drivers under 18 from having more than one passenger is in the spotlight after an SUV driven by a 17-year-old and carrying seven teenagers crashed. The driver and three passengers died in Saturday's disaster.

The Motor Vehicle Commission says Casey Brenner had a controlled license that allowed him to carry only one passenger if not accompanied by a parent or guardian. All eight in the SUV were members of the high school football team in Linwood.

Assemblyman John Wisniewski wants to see if there are "gaps or problems" with the Graduated Driver's License law, which aims to boundary distractions for new drivers.

Mainland Regional High School's football coach says a crash survivor told him the accident was triggered when the driver came upon unexpectedly stopped cars.

Salazar: Administration involved in AK drilling

The Obama administration is concerned in seeing more oil and gas development in Alaska, both onshore and off, but it wants to make sure that any drilling is done sensibly, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Monday.

Salazar's comments come just days after a central agency gave conditional approval to Shell Oil Co.'s plans to begin drilling in the Arctic Ocean as early as next year. Approval is contingent upon Shell receiving necessary drilling, air quality and other permits and authorizations, including backing of its oil spill response plan.

Critics have charged that the technology and infrastructure do not exist to sufficiently respond to a spill in the Arctic.

Salazar spoke with reporters in Anchorage after a round table conversation on issues including Arctic drilling with business and labor interests. He said lessons learned from last year's massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico — counting the fact that companies weren't as ready to respond to a spill as they'd claimed — are "engrained" in his mind and that of Deputy Secretary David Hayes.

But he noted that conditions in the Arctic are quite dissimilar than those in the gulf — waters are shallower, for example. The government was looking at ways to develop stronger offshore leasing and development oversight, place conditions on drilling that incorporate lessons learned from the gulf spill and better understand the Arctic, Salazar said.

Earlier in the day, he said greater investment is wanted to build up the nation's Arctic infrastructure, with a role for both the government and private interests to play.

Syrian Activists Say at Least 100 Killed in Protests

The Syrian army allegedly killed at least 100 people Sunday during an attack on the flashpoint city of Hama, as an uptick of gunfire left bodies scattered in the streets, according to various news reports from the region. There has been an rise of the crackdown on protests ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, activists and residents said.

Demonstrations calling for President Bashar Assad's ouster are predictable to swell during Ramadan, which starts Monday, in Syria. Security forces appeared to be racing against time as they stormed and raided cities and small villages across the country in an attempt to crush a amazingly resilient uprising that began in mid-March.

The AFP reports that the official SANA news agency said two security forces officers were killed Sunday by "armed groups.”

"Two law enforcement members were martyred by armed groups in Hama who set police stations on fire, vandalized public and private properties, set up roadblocks and barricades and burned tires at the entrance of the city and in its streets," AFP reported, citing an English-language report on the SANA website.

The Syrian protests, which began in earnest in March, seek to take apart the repressive rule by the Assad family. They appeared to be enthused by the Arab Spring uprisings seen in nearby Egypt and Tunisia.

"Hama is used to massacres by the Assad family, but we tell this tyrant the more you kill us the more we are resolute to oust you," an activist said, according to Haaretz.com, citing the German Press Agency.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the attacks against civilians were "all the more shocking" on the eve of Ramadan and appeared to be part of a "coordinated effort to deter Syrians" from protesting during Ramadan.

President Obama issued a statement Sunday saying he is "appalled" by the violence and cruelty the Syrian government has aimed at its own people. He calls the reports from Hama "horrifying" and says they demonstrate the true character of the Syrian regime.

Other raids were reported in southern Syria and in the suburbs of the capital Damascus. In the neighborhood of al-Joura in the eastern city of Deir el-Zour, soldiers in tanks fired machine guns, killing at least seven people, activists said.

An estimated 1,600 civilians have died in the crackdown on the mostly peaceful protests against President Bashar Assad's regime since the uprising began. Most were killed in shootings by security forces on anti-government rallies.

Blistering heat wave stressing nation's power grid

A lengthy, blistering heat wave that is blanketing the eastern half of the United States is putting important stress on the nation's power grid as homeowners and businesses crank up their air conditioners.

Utilities say they're ready for high power demand and widespread electricity shortages or outages are unlikely. Lines and gear are not fully taxed and there is more generating and transmission capacity available than common because of the weak economy. Also, not many major storms are in the forecast, meaning fewer downed power lines.

The heat wave began a week ago in the Plains states and is predictable to spread east through the weekend. It is lasting longer than most heat waves and is spread over an strangely wide area, according to Travis Hartman, the Energy Weather Manager at MDA Earthstat, which proves forecasts for utilities and other weather-dependent businesses.

Hartman predicts 90- to 100-degree weather from Chicago to Boston from Wednesday through the weekend. The Midwest is probable to see peak heat on Thursday while thermometers in eastern states will top out on Friday and Saturday. Philadelphia may break a 1957 record of 100 degrees on Friday, while Washington, D.C., is likely to reach 103, tying a record from 1926.

Texas and the southern Plains states will make bigger a long streak of hot weather. On Wednesday Oklahoma was probable to suffer its 30th day of triple-digit temperatures this year.

Nationwide, Thursday and Friday will be hotter than any time since 1950, says Hartman. "It's going to mean eminent power demand for an extended period of time for a lot of people," he says.

To meet demand, utilities are firing up special power plants used only a few days a year, delaying listed maintenance in order to keep all equipment on line and testing heat-sensitive switches and other equipment with high-tech devices like thermographers that can estimate temperatures to one-tenth of a degree.