An Air France jetliner carrying 228 people has disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean, Brazil's Air Force said today.

An Air Force spokesman said the search mission was mounted this morning after the jet failed to make regular radio contact. Media reports said officials at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport said contact was lost with the flight from Rio de Janeiro.

A spokeswoman said the Airbus 330-200 had been expected to arrive in Paris at 11:10 a.m. local time today (last night, Hawai'i time), AFP news agency reported.

Another official said it was possible that the plane, with 216 passengers and 12 crew aboard, had a transponder problem, which is a rare occurrence.

Airport authorities have set up a crisis center at Charles de Gaulle.

JAPAN ENVOY APOLOGIZES FOR DEATH MARCH

SAN ANTONIO — Japan's ambassador to the United States apologized Saturday on behalf of his country for the 65-mile forced walk of U.S. troops and allies during World War II that left some 11,000 prisoners of war dead.

Ichiro Fujisaki said at the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor that his country was extending a heartfelt apology for "having caused tremendous damage and suffering to many people," the San Antonio Express-News reported. In 1942, Japanese captors marched about 78,000 prisoners of war — 12,000 Americans and 66,000 Filipinos — for six days on the Philippine island of Luzon to a prisoner-of-war camp in what became known as the Bataan Death March.

VETO OF PARTNER RIGHTS REJECTED IN NEVADA

CARSON CITY, Nev. — Nevada's Assembly voted yesterday to override Gov. Jim Gibbons' veto and to change state law so that domestic partners, whether gay or straight, have many of the rights and benefits that Nevada offers to married couples.

The Assembly's 28-14 vote followed the state Senate's vote a day earlier to enact the measure over the conservative Republican governor's objections. Critics contended the bill conflicted with the intent of Nevadans who voted in 2002 for a constitutional amendment supporting marriage between a man and a woman.

TROOP TOTAL IN IRAQ AFTER PULLOUT UNCLEAR

BAGHDAD — Thirty days before the deadline to withdraw U.S. combat forces from Iraq's urban areas, it is still unknown how many troops will remain in cities as commanders determine their new roles, a U.S. general said yesterday.

The U.S. military has released little publicly about how it will meet the June 30 deadline.

Army Brig. Gen. Keith Walker, commander of the Iraqi Assistance Group, said commanders were working to determine the number of additional forces, including some combat troops, that would be added to training teams working in Iraq's urban areas.

Also yesterday, two American soldiers died from non-combat-related injuries in separate incidents in Iraq, the U.S. military said. At least 4,306 members of the U.S. military have died in Iraq since the war began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

AHMADINEJAD WARNS HE'LL RELEASE FILES

TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad threatened yesterday to release internal documents on government affairs going back to the early 1980s in a direct counterattack against challengers who claim his policies have sent Iran into an economic tailspin and undermined the nation's standing in the world.

Ahmadinejad gave only a blanket warning that he would open the books on "political, cultural, social and diplomatic" issues, but it appeared part of his effort to thwart the accusations of economic mismanagement hurled at his hard-line administration by his three rivals in the June 12 election.

SOUTH OSSETIA CASTS VOTES FOR PARLIAMENT

MOSCOW — Residents of South Ossetia trooped to the polls yesterday in the first election since Russia and Georgia fought a brief and bitter war over the breakaway republic's fate.

Residents in the rebel territory, which was purged of Georgian troops by Russian intervention and recognized as an independent state by Moscow, cast votes for a 34-seat parliament. Georgia's central government dismissed the balloting as illegal.