Australian firefighters ready for new onslaught

SYDNEY, Australia -- A smoky haze choked the summer sky above Sydney and white ash rained down Saturday as massive wildfires swept bushland to the north and edged closer to a beach village to the south.

Firefighters battling dozens of blazes around Australia's biggest city for 13 days took advantage of a break from the bone-dry summer heat to prepare for an onslaught they fear will come next week.

"They have been working through the night and working through the day to strengthen containment lines around the fires," said Cameron Wade of the New South Wales Rural Fire Service. "It is hard, arduous work."

Some of the 100 or so fires raging across New South Wales state were too big to tackle head-on and burned out of control north, west and south of Sydney.

Argentina prepares for currency devaluation

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- With Congress poised to decide on a crucial currency devaluation, Argentines got fresh proof Saturday of the calamitous state of their country's finances when the government announced a $11 billion budget deficit for 2001.

As late as November, the previous government was predicting a deficit of $7.8 billion -- already well above the $6.5 billion target agreed upon with the International Monetary Fund last August in return for $8 billion in emergency aid.

Speaking on local radio, Cabinet Chief Jorge Capitanich said plummeting tax revenues from an economy in a tailspin were to blame.

The announcement came as lawmakers were gathering to debate a bill that would devalue the peso and give President Eduardo Duhalde and his government emergency powers to rebuild the economy's shattered foundations.

British officials probe crash of small jet

BIRMINGHAM, England -- British investigators were examining flight recorders for clues in the crash of a small jet taking off from an airport here that killed five Americans, including the president of a Georgia-based company.

An airport spokesman said investigators had recovered two black-box flight information recorders from the Canadair Challenger executive jet, which crashed just after noon on Friday.

Airport officials said all of the 175 flights scheduled to arrive or depart from Birmingham, 110 miles north of London, on Saturday had been diverted to other airports. The airport said it would not reopen until today at the earliest.

The plane was carrying two top executives of the Duluth, Ga.-based agricultural equipment giant AGCO Corp as well as three American crew members.

Bus hijacking ends with no injuries to hostages

SAO PAULO, Brazil -- A gunman who hijacked a bus in southern Brazil surrendered to police Saturday after holding nine hostages over the course of a day.

Hijacker Joao Sergio dos Santos Pereira, 27, left the bus shortly after midday Saturday after lengthy negotiations involving psychologists and his family. He was followed by the last five hostages, who were all unharmed.

"The rescue action was a success, as no one was hurt. Time, patience and negotiations paid off," police officer Luis Antonio Brenner told reporters.

Santos Pereira had boarded the bus in the state capital, Porto Alegre, Friday morning.

-- From wire reports