■ United States
Volcano spews smog
Volcanic smog from Anatahan Volcano on the tiny US territory of the Northern Mariana Islands the Pacific has reached as far as the Philippines and Palau, the US Geological Survey said. The latest activity from the Anatahan, which sits on a tiny island north of Saipan, began May 18 and peaked two days later, scientists said. Satellite imagery from a military weather agency showed a moderately thick plume of ash and steam from the volcano, 121km north of Saipan, rising to 4,267m and blowing west at about 32kph. The plume extends about 644km to the west, with thin ash and volcanic smog, or vog, extending for another 1,046km north and west of the volcano on Anatahan Island, the USGS report said.
■ Mexico
Drug plane crashes
A small plane crammed with cocaine crashed in the jungle along Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, killing both people onboard, authorities said Thursday. The Defense Department said the crash occurred Wednesday night near an isolated community on the border of Quintana Roo and Campeche states. Police and soldiers eventually recovered 1,066 packets of cocaine and said the total amount of narcotics aboard the Turbo Commander may have exceeded a tonne. The pilot and co-pilot were killed and a Colombian passport was found onboard.
■ United States
Hostage-taker shot, killed
Police stormed a convenience store and freed a customer held hostage for 20 hours by a man who had tied a vacuum cleaner cord around her waist, authorities said. The suspect was killed in an exchange of gunfire. Negotiators on Thursday had arranged for 29-year-old hostage Tammi Smith to come to the door to get a new telephone, with officers hoping to pull her out after a 20-hour standoff, state police First Sergeant Dave Bursten said. Officers tugged on Smith, but the gunman yanked back on the cord and began shooting from inside the store. "He pulled that cord back on me and they started firing shots into the store," Smith said afterward. "I knew he wasn't going to make it."
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