Kenyan MPs die in plane crash

A Kenyan military plane crashed into a hillside yesterday and burst into flames, killing 14 people including two deputy ministers and four members of Parliament.

"It is with deep sorrow and regret that I have received the news of the deaths of 14 members of a peace delegation," President Mwai Kibaki said in a televised address in which he announced three days of national mourning.

It was the east African nation's worst air disaster since a light aircraft slammed into Mount Kenya in July 2003, killing 14 people, including 12 members of an American family. Witnesses said the Y-12 plane carrying 17 people on a mission to mediate between feuding communities crashed into the hill as it approached the airstrip in Marsabit, a remote northeastern outpost. It then exploded into a ball of fire.