NEWS 3 has confirmed a Blue Angel aircraft has gone down somewhere near Pine Grove Road in Beaufort. NEWS 3 has crews on the scene and we'll have the latest tonight at 6 and 11.

WASHINGTON - A jet fighter flown by the U.S. Navy Blue Angels demonstration team crashed Saturday during an airshow in South Carolina and a number of houses were on fire, according to media reports.

Witness Scott Houston told CNN in a telephone interview that he saw six Blue Angels jets flying low behind a grove of trees at the end of an airshow in Beaufort, S.C., and only five emerged.

A cloud of smoke was seen rising from the area...

A Blue Angel crashed Saturday afternoon while performing at an air show at the Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort.

Reports indicate that it was Blue Angel No. 6 that went down and plane No. 1 circled the Air Station, possibly looking for the pilot. Later, officials at the crash site called for the coroner.

Authorities say the pilot, still not identified, was killed in the crash.

It was not immediately known whether anyone else was hurt in the crash.

The Blue Angel clipped power lines near Shanklin Road in Burton about 4 p.m. and went down about 30 minutes into the unit's show at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort.

There is debris and fire near the scene, but it is unclear if houses are on fire.

A Blue Angel crashed Saturday afternoon while performing at an air show at the Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort.

Authorities say the pilot, still not identified, was killed in the crash. It appears that the plane struck a tall pine tree and traveled another block before crashing near Pine Grove subdivision, a heavily populated area. Parts of the plane hit several houses.

It was not immediately known whether anyone else was hurt in the crash, though witnesses said they saw shrapnel on the ground and at least one home on fire.

Reports indicate that it was Blue Angel No. 6 that crashed. It’s unclear who was piloting that F/A-18.

Emergency crews at the scene of the crash site called for the coroner about 4:20 p.m., indicating that the pilot was killed in the crash.

The Blue Angel crashed about 30 minutes into the unit’s show at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort.

Jason Keith, of Yemassee, said he was driving west on Laurel Bay Road when he saw the plane crash behind the Food Lion grocery story, which is south of the road.

“Something caught my eye, and all of a sudden I saw a huge black explosion,” he said. “The plane went down, and we watched it for awhile and I didn’t see any parachute or anything. If he had been 400 yards to his right he would have plowed into the road. The other guys were just flying along.”

Keith said he saw a home catch fire.

Tim Stamps, 18, said he was walking down the road, coming back from Food Lion, when he saw the plane circling in the air and smoking.

He also saw the left side of a house covered in shrapnel and the windows are busted out.

LCDR Kevin J. Davis, United States Navy, Opposing Solo:

Lieutenant Commander Kevin Davis is a native of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and graduated from Reading Memorial High School in 1992 where he played football and was active with the Civil Air Patrol. He attended Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Science with honors in 1996.

Kevin reported to Naval Air Station (NAS) Pensacola, Florida, for Officer Candidate School and aviation indoctrination in September 1996. He completed primary flight training at NAS Corpus Christi, Texas, and transferred to NAS Meridian, Mississippi, for intermediate and advanced flight training. While there, he flew the T-2C Buckeye and TA-4J Skyhawk, and received his wings of gold in June 1999.

Kevin reported to Fighter Squadron 101 (VF-101) at NAS Oceana, Virginia, for training in the F-14 Tomcat and was the ‚ "Top Stick‚" in his class. In July 2000 he reported to the VF-11 ‚ "Red Rippers‚" where he completed deployments aboard the aircraft carriers USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) and USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67). While with the ‚ "Red Rippers'" Kevin served as the airframes/corrosion branch officer, air-to-ground training officer and head landing signals officer. His deployments included extended operations in the North Arabian Sea and Arabian Gulf in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

In July 2003, Kevin transitioned to the F/A-18 Hornet through Strike Fighter Squadron 125 (VFA-125) at NAS Lemoore, California, and then reported to the Fighter Composite Squadron (VFC-12) ‚ "Omars," stationed at NAS Oceana, Virginia. While at VFC-12, Kevin served as a Navy adversary pilot providing valuable air-to-air training for fleet squadrons. In December of 2004, Kevin graduated from the United States Navy Fighter Weapons School (TOPGUN) as an adversary pilot. During his tour at VFC-12, Kevin worked as the schedules officer, legal officer, FRS/SFARP officer and assistant operations officer.

Kevin joined the Blue Angels in September 2005. He has accumulated more than 2,500 flight hours and 200 carrier arrested landings. His decorations include the Air Medal, two Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals, and various personal and unit awards.

BOSTON - Even as a young boy, Navy Blue Angels Lt. Cmdr. Kevin Davis was intrigued by speed.

"He was fascinated with airplanes from the time he was little," former neighbor Betty Sweeney said. "He knew what he wanted to do, and he did it. That's the only relief, that he went doing what he wanted to do."

The 32-year-old Navy lieutenant commander was killed Saturday when the F/A-18 Hornet jet he piloted as a member of the Blue Angeles team crashed during an air show in a residential area of Beaufort, S.C.

He joined the Blue Angels in September 2005. A Navy statement said the pilot had been on the team for two years — and this was his first year as a demonstration pilot.

Another former neighbor, Tom McGill, taught at Taconic High School, where Davis' father, John, was principal. McGill said John Davis and his wife, Ann, who now live in Aiken, S.C., were in the crowd at the air show Saturday.

Sweeney had not seen Davis for several years, but remembered him as a small boy in their western Massachusetts town of Pittsfield.

"My son, David, had a motorcycle, and he (Davis) was so interested in that when he was a kid. He used to call my son 'Motorcycle Dave,'" she said.

Peggy Gleason recalled that Davis appeared at her door each weekday morning to walk her daughter, Kristen, to the neighborhood elementary school they attended together.

"He was this cute little kid who used to show up at the door. He always had a smile on his face. And he was just as handsome as he was nice," Gleason said.

She said Kristen happened to be home with her parents when news of the Blue Angels crash was broadcast on television.

"She was devastated. She's taking it very hard," Gleason said.

Kevin Davis, who was single, was the youngest of three sons, McGill said. The oldest, Christian, is a Navy supply officer, and middle brother Phil is a teacher in China.

"Kevin was a highly motivated young man. He loved planes. He was a good student and a very conscientious young man," McGill said...

"Microsoft Corp. should pay Alcatel- Lucent $1.52 billion, a federal jury said, deciding the world's biggest software maker used digital music technology without permission and handing down the largest patent ruling in history," Jeff St.Onge and Bill Callahan report for Bloomberg.

St.Onge and Callahan report, "The San Diego jury said Microsoft infringed two Alcatel- Lucent patents related to the standard for playing music files on a computer. Alcatel-Lucent accused Microsoft of infringing the patents with its Windows Media Player, including the version in the new Vista operating system."

"The jury found that Alcatel-Lucent is entitled to more than $759 million for each of the two patents found to be infringed. It also upheld the validity of the patents. The jury of eight men and one woman began weighing the case Feb. 15, a day after lawyers made final arguments in a 12-day trial," St.Onge and Callahan report...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Scientists have spent years studying the health of search-and-rescue dogs that nosed through the debris at the World Trade Center site, and to their surprise, they have found no sign of major illness in the animals.

They are trying to learn why the dogs have not contracted illnesses similar to what thousands of rescue workers who toiled at ground zero after the September 11, 2001, attacks have reported.

"They didn't have any airway protection, they didn't have any skin protection. They were sort of in the worst of it," said Cynthia Otto, a veterinarian at the University of Pennsylvania, where researchers began a study of 97 dogs five years ago.

Although many ground zero dogs have died -- some of rare cancers -- researchers say many have lived beyond the average life span for dogs and are not getting any sicker than average.

The dogs' owners dispute the findings, saying there is a definite link between the toxic air and their pets' health.

Miss Otto has tracked dogs that spent an average of 10 days after the 2001 terrorist attacks at either the trade center site, the landfill in New York where most of the debris was taken or the heavily damaged Pentagon.

As of last month, she said, 30 percent of the dogs deployed after September 11 had died, compared with 22 percent of those in a comparison group of dogs who were not pressed into service. The difference was not considered statistically significant, Miss Otto said.

But she added: "We have to keep looking."

A separate study that a doctor at New York's Animal Medical Center will soon publish focused on about two dozen New York police dogs. It reveals similar conclusions...

THE Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin, is dead.

He was killed in a freak accident in Cairns, police sources said today.

It is understood he was killed by a stingray barb that went through his chest and reportedly into his heart .

He was swimming off the Low Isles at Port Douglas filming an underwater documentary when the tragedy occured.

The Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) was called about 11am (AEST) and an emergency services helicopter was flown to the crew's boat on Batt Reef, off the coast near Cairns, with a doctor and emergency services paramedic on board.

Irwin had a puncture wound to the left side of his chest and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Irwin's body is being flown to Cairns.

One report today said his American-born wife Terri was trekking on Cradle Mountain in Tasmania and was yet to be told of her husband's death.

The Irwins have two children - a daughter, Bindi Sue Irwin, eight, and a three-year-old son, Robert (Bob) Clarence Irwin.

Steve Irwin - known worldwide as the Crocodile Hunter - is famous for his enthusiasm for wildlife and his catchcry "Crikey!"...

Marine experts say television personality and naturalist Steve Irwin had little chance of surviving after being struck in the chest by a stingray's barb.

Forty-four-year-old Irwin died yesterday morning in far north Queensland while filming for a marine documentary.

Sea World's marine science director Trevor Long says stingrays have killed a total of 17 people worldwide.

"All of those fatalities have occurred in the trunk of the body," he said.

"Many people, many fishermen have been stung by sting rays in the feet and the hands and it's not an unusual occurrence but it doesn't cause a great deal of problem.

"It's a venom - a protein-based venom - that can affect the heart."

Mr Long, who knew Irwin for years, says he was meticulous about safety in his documentaries.

"There's been a number of fatalities worldwide form stingray barbs," he said.

"The majority of those have been where the barb penetrated the trunk of the body.

"Steve had an intuitive sense about him. He knew animals and knew how to read animal behaviour. This would have been one of those freak unfortunate accidents."

Friends of the man known as the "Crocodile Hunter" say he died doing what he loved doing best.

Irwin had sailed his boat Croc One to the waters off Port Douglas to film a documentary on dangerous sea creatures.

His producer and close friend John Stainton says he was swimming above a stingray on Batt Reef when it suddenly pierced his heart with the barb on its tail.

Mr Stainton says it is the worst day of his life but at least his friend died doing what he loved.

"You think about all the documentaries that we've made and the dangerous situations that we have been in, you always think is this a day that may be his demise. I don't know. We'd been in some pretty close shaves," he said.

Police said a post-mortem examination was to be conducted on Irwin's body last night...

WASHINGTON — North Korea has test-fired a non-intercontinental ballistic missile, Japanese news NHK reported on Tuesday.

The missile is not believed to be the Taepodong missile that has been sitting on a launch pad for weeks. The missile landed in the Sea of Japan about 600 kilometers from mainland Japan, NHK said.

...P.S. US Navy Seal Team 9 will be picking up the pieces of your "rockets" off the floor of the Sea of Japan for evaulation later today. Please let us know if you would like the debris shipped back to your labratories after we have finished looking at them. We understand you have some difficulty in rasing a Navy of your own and we are willing to help you out in any way we can in this matter. America has a large and capable Navy. Coincidentally, many of our ships are right off your shores at this time...

REPORT: ISRAELI FORCES ARREST DEPUTY PALESTINIAN PRIME MINISTER, TWO CABINET MEMBERS AND FOUR OTHER LAWMAKERS

The Palestinian PM, Ismail Haniya, has accused the US of backing an Israeli military incursion into Gaza.

Mr Haniya said Washington had "given the green light to aggression" and called on the United Nations to step in to prevent an escalation in violence...

The IDF confirmed early Thursday a report the Popular Resistance Committees issued from Gaza that it had executed Eliyahu Asheri, 18, of Itamar, who was kidnapped earlier this week in the West Bank.

IDF combat engineers and Shin Bet agents, acting on intelligence, found Asheri's body Wednesday night in an abandoned car in an open field outside of Ramallah. The youth appeared to have been shot to death, and initial findings indicated that he may have been killed as early as Sunday.

Asheri's family has been notified.

After Israel's fears came true Wednesday when a spokesman for the PRC in the Gaza Strip revealed an authentic copy of missing teenager Asheri's identity card to the press, confirming claims that he had been kidnapped, the police's elite counterterrorist squad raided a home in Ramallah in the afternoon and arrested a fugitive, who may have provided the information on the location of Asheri's body.

On Tuesday, a spokesman for the Hamas-affiliated PRC told Al-Jazeera that Asheri would be "butchered in front of TV cameras" if the IDF operation in Gaza did not stop. "Our patience is running out," he said.

"I am announcing for the first time that the kidnapped Zionist Israel is searching for is the same settler who is being held by us. He is aged 181⁄2... and is a soldier in a pre-military academy," said the spokesman, who identified himself as Abu Abir...

SYDNEY, Australia - A 176-year-old tortoise believed to be one of the world’s oldest living creatures has died in an Australian zoo.

The giant tortoise, known as Harriet, died at the Queensland-based Australia Zoo owned by “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin and his wife Terri. Irwin said he considered Harriet a member of the family.

“Harriet has been a huge chunk of the Irwin family’s life,” Irwin said Saturday. “She is possibly one of the oldest living creatures on the planet and her passing today is not only a great loss for the world but a very sad day for my family. She was a grand old lady.” Story continues below ↓ advertisement

Senior veterinarian Jon Hanger told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. on Friday that Harriet died of heart failure.

Harriet was long reputed to have been one of three tortoises taken from the Galapagos Islands by Charles Darwin on his historic 1835 voyage aboard the HMS Beagle.

However, historical records, while suggestive, don’t prove the claim. And some scientists have cast doubt on the story, with DNA tests confirming Harriet’s age but showing she came from an island that Darwin never visited.

According to local legend, Harriet was just five years old and probably no bigger than a dinner plate when she was taken from the Galapagos to Britain...

June 22, 2006 — ABC News has learned that federal agents, including the FBI, are launching a series of raids tonight targeting a suspected terror cell based in Miami.

According to sources familiar with the investigation, the group allegedly planned to bomb the FBI building in Miami and the Sears Tower in Chicago.

The group has been under surveillance for some time and was infilitrated by a government informant who allegedly led them to believe he was an Islamic radical. The suspects are described as African Americans and at least one man of Caribbean descent.

Sources say the arrests reflect the government's concern about so-called "homegrown terrorists." It's a threat FBI Director Robert Mueller discussed during a recent speech in New York.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and the FBI are expected to hold a press conference about the arrests Friday morning.

About 40 percent of the medical malpractice cases filed in the United States are groundless, according to a Harvard analysis of the hotly debated issue, which pits trial lawyers against doctors with lawmakers in the middle.

Many of the lawsuits analyzed contained no evidence that a medical error was committed or that the patient suffered any injury, the researchers reported.

The vast majority of those dubious cases were dismissed with no payout to the patient. However, groundless lawsuits still accounted for 15 percent of the money paid out in settlements or verdicts.

The study's lead researcher, David Studdert of the Harvard School of Public Health, said the findings challenge the view among tort reform supporters that the legal system is riddled with frivolous claims that lead to exorbitant payouts.

"We found the system did reasonably well in sorting the good claims from the bad ones, but there were problems," he said.

However, the American Medical Association, which favors caps on malpractice awards, called the study proof that a substantial number of meritless claims continue to slip through the cracks, "clogging the courts" and forcing doctors to waste time defending them, association board member Dr. Cecil Wilson said in a statement...

PHOENIX, Arizona (Reuters) - A female corrections officer was being held hostage by a male inmate late Monday inside a medium-security unit at a state prison in southern Arizona, a prison official said.

Negotiations aimed at freeing the officer have been on-going since the unidentified inmate took her hostage at about 4:30 p.m. local time at the Santa Rita Unit, one of 10 units at the Arizona State Prison Complex-Tucson, said Bart Graves, a prison spokesman. The complex is about 10 miles south of Tucson, Arizona.

"We've been negotiating for quite a while," Graves said. "We're doing everything we can to get her out safely."

He declined to say whether the hostage-taker was armed or to release any other information.

ORANJESTAD, Aruba - Authorities have made an arrest in the case of a young Alabama woman who disappeared while vacationing in Aruba, an Aruban official said Saturday.

Mariaine Croes, a spokeswoman for the public prosecutor's office, said Aruban authorities were not prepared to disclose why the person was arrested. Croes also would not say how the arrest was linked to the disappearance of Natalee Holloway nearly a year ago, on the final night of her high school graduation trip to the Dutch Caribbean island.

Croes would only say that the person who was arrested is 19 and has the initials "G.V.C." In Aruba, when an arrest is announced, officials usually release only a suspect's initials, and not a full name...