"There are 120 bodies and 97 survivors," Major-General Mohamed Osman Mahjoub said when he spoke with Reuters. Other officials disagree, thinking the number smaller. The plane was carrying 203 passengers and 14 crew members.

"The operation to recover bodies from the plane is going on now," said police deputy director general Al Adel Ajeb. "It is a difficult operation because some bodies are completely burnt and there are body parts..."

According to one passenger, the plane had tried to land at Khartoum airport "but then the captain told us we couldn't land because of bad weather". The plane continued to Port Sudan, next to the Red Sea, but returned to Khartoum an hour later. That's where the crash happened.

A dust storm limited visibility, but that was apparently not the problem. Mabrouk Mubarak Salim, Minister of State for Transport, said there was an explosion in the right side of the engine. "So far we don't have precise information but we think the weather is a main reason for what happened."

[Reuters]

In the Akihabara District of Tokyo, normally a place of bustling video game activity, an upset factory worker drove a truck into pedestrians. He jumped out with a knife in hand and proceeded to stab 17 people within minutes.

Tomohiro Kato, 25, killed at least 7 people just hours after posting this message on the web: "I will kill people in Akihabara.. I want to crash the vehicle and, if it becomes useless, I will then use a knife. Goodbye, everyone."

Kato was said to be a fan of anime, which is known to be violent and intense, Tokyo authorities aren't linking it to the crime. They say he chose that area because it was closed to traffic.

[NPR]