Thunderbolt

A pilot who disappeared with an A-10 Thunderbolt jet almost two weeks ago could have disabled an emergency beacon and secretly bailed out over the Rocky Mountains, Air Force officials said. The possibility that Capt. Craig Button is still alive is lending urgency to the search for him and the $9-million jet. On Monday, ground and air searches focused on five sites in the area of New York Mountain. that contain "irregular shapes that are not normal in nature," said Lt. Gen.

Aleta Sill of Dearborn, Mich., defeated Tish Johnson of Panorama City, Calif., in the final game of match play this afternoon to win the top-seeded position for tonight's finals in the $35,000 Ladies Pro Bowlers Tour Ebonite Thunderbolt Classic by 33 pins over Johnson. Sill defeated Johnson 216-184 in the final match to overcome Johnson's 29-pin lead and finish as top seed with a 42-game total of 9,509 pins. Johnson was second with 9,476 pins.

A second day of searching on a snowy mountain peak turned up no sign of the 500-pound bombs lost in the mysterious crash of an A-10 warplane this spring. As they did the day before, searchers found only wreckage of the A-10 Thunderbolt, bits of ammunition and remains of Capt. Craig Button, who disappeared along with the plane during a training mission over southwestern Arizona April 2. The wreckage was found 18 days later on Gold Dust Peak, more than 800 miles off course.

Two of Iraq's Soviet-built SU-25s were shot down Wednesday while attempting to flee to Iran. The subsonic attack aircraft, code-named "Frogfoot" by NATO forces, is the Soviet counterpart to the U.S. A-10 Thunderbolt II. Designed for use on unimproved airfields, it is equipped with a laser range finder and a twin-barrel 30-mm cannon, missiles and rockets. Before the war began, Iraq was thought to have had 24 SU-25s. Crew: 1 Range: 466 to 777 miles Speed: 621 m.p.h. Length: 51 feet

The iPhone 5 is expected to be released today and with it a new iPhone charger cable that might be called "Lightning," according to a report. For months, we've been hearing that Apple planned to update the iPhone's dock connector for the first time since launching the iPhone in 2007, and now we may know why. Nine to 5 Mac is saying the company will also introduce a new cable that people inside the company are referring to as Lightning....

The United States, Britain and Canada agreed Monday to suspend all low-level military jet training over West Germany for the next three weeks "out of respect for the victims" of a fiery crash last week. The suspension, requested by the West German government after the Dec. 8 accident at Remscheid, will block military flight training below altitudes of about 10,700 feet. "The suspension will remain in effect until Jan.

ON THE SECOND FLOOR OF THE LOS ANGELES County Jail sits a special, 90-inmate section commonly called "7,000." Also known as "High Power," the section is the jail's celebrity wing, the protective-custody unit where professional athletes, movie stars and television actors end up when they are accused of crimes and can't make bail.