Plane veers off runway, crashes

Moscow

An airplane with about 200 passengers crashed early today in the Siberian city of Irkutsk, and most on board were feared dead, officials said.

The Sibir Airbus A-390 crashed on landing, veering off the runway at 2:50 a.m. and bursting into flames, Emergency Situations Ministry spokeswoman Irina Andrianova said.

Andrianova said 43 people were hospitalized and 10 more escaped. Most other passengers were feared dead, she said.

Japan insists U.N. be stern on N. Korea

Japan won't compromise on the stern wording of a U.N. resolution that would impose sanctions on North Korea and order the communist regime to stop developing ballistic missiles, Foreign Minister Taro Aso said today.

Japan is pushing for a vote on the resolution Monday despite opposition from China, Aso said.

Japan proposed the resolution over Chinese and Russian objections but with backing by the United States, Britain and France, the other permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.

Guggenheim to add a Gehry museum

The Guggenheim announced plans Saturday for a Frank Gehry-designed art museum in Abu Dhabi, a coup for the small Persian Gulf nation and the latest international franchise for the foundation.

With its flagship museum in New York and branches in Las Vegas; Berlin; Venice, Italy; and Bilbao, Spain, the Guggenheim said its new outpost in Abu Dhabi would be its biggest venture yet.

The museum would sit on a manmade spit jutting into the Gulf from the uninhabited Saadiyat Island, which lies adjacent to Abu Dhabi. Costing $200 million, it would be completed in about five years.

Anglicans vote to let women be bishops

The governing body of the Church of England voted on Saturday to allow women to be bishops, a huge change in centuries of policy for a church that ordained its first female priest 12 years ago.

Officials of the governing body, the General Synod, said it would be years before the first woman bishop is ordained. Anglicans in Canada, New Zealand and the United States already accept women as bishops.

Pope gives support to traditional values

Pope Benedict XVI hammered away about traditional family values in a visit to Spain on Saturday, challenging a government that has angered the Vatican with such changes as as gay marriage and fast-track divorce.

As Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero stood nearby, staring straight ahead, Benedict called the family "a unique institution in God's plan."

"I wish to set forth the central role, for the church and for society, proper to the family based on marriage," the pope said.

Compiled from The New York Times, The Associated Press and Reuters