Wikinews:Briefs/May 5, 2007

It's 19:50 UTC on Saturday, May 5, 2007. Hello, I'm David Jacobson with Audio Wikinews, News briefs and en.wikinews.org.

A Kenya Airways jet with 115 on board crashes
Officials say that a Kenya Airways Boeing 737-800 with 8 crew members and 106 passengers and a flight engineer on board, has crashed in Cameroon.

Flight KQ 507 was traveling from Abidjan to Nairobi. It made a stopover in Douala, Cameroon where more passengers got on the plane, before it continued on its flight.

It is not known if there are any survivors, but Kenya Airways says that there were passengers from at least 23 different countries on the plane.

"Flight 507 was coming from Abidjan via Douala. The aircraft unfortunately has not arrived. The last message was received in Douala after takeoff and thereafter the tower was unable to contact the plane," said the CEO of Kenya Airways, Titus Naikuni.

Mohammad Khatami meets Pope Benedict XVI
Mohammad Khatami, the president of Iran from 1997 to 2005, was among a delegation of Islamic clerics to meet Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican City in Rome on Friday. This is Khatami's first meeting with Pope Benedict XVI and his second with any pope.

Khatami told a press conference after the meeting that the wounds caused by Benedict XVI's remarks that linked Islam to violence were very deep. He, moreover, stated that the wounds "cannot be healed easily and a single meeting may not be enough."

On the issue of terrorism, Khatami made it clear that dialogue is the best solution to eliminate terrorism and the great military conflicts, stressing that one cannot invoke God "as a password for war and hate." He emphasized the need for a joint effort.

Kentucky faith-based agency under fire for religious coercion
A lawsuit filed by a former employee of Kentucky Baptist Homes for Children (now Sunrise Children's Services) and four other tax-payers, has shed light on the possibility of religious coercion by the organization. The lawsuit challenges the faith-based agency's eligibility for state funds.

Specifically, interviews of children conducted by the state of Kentucky have revealed complaints from some of the children. Mainly, children who said they were Catholic, Pentecostal, Jehovah's Witnesses or atheist voiced complaints in the interviews.

"They tried to more [or] less force me to become a Christian," said one child in an exit interview. "I just felt I was being pressured into giving up my religion."

Closing statements
This has been Audio Wikinews Newsbriefs for May 5, 2007, 19:50 UTC.