A Caribbean Airlines jet crashed on landing in Guyana before dawn Saturday, but the 163 people on board escaped serious injury.

Officials say the jet skidded past the end of the runway in the rain at Georgetown's Cheddi Jagan International Airport. The Boeing 737 aircraft broke in two came to rest in a field on the edge of a 60-meter deep.

Investigators from the United States and Guyana will retrieve the flight data and voice recorders for analysis in determining what caused the crash.

Flight 523 had left from New York and arrived in Guyana's capital after a brief stop in Trinidad.

Guyanese President Bharrat Jagdeo came to the airport and said he was very, very thankful and grateful that there were no deaths.

Officials say rescue efforts were hampered by rain and darkness. Some passengers were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment, but the most serious injury appears to have been a broken leg.

U.S. federal aviation officials say two small airplanes collided above Alaska Saturday afternoon. Authorities say one of the planes crashed to the ground and burned, killing at least two people.

Officials say the second plane maintained flight and returned to the international airport in Anchorage, where it landed safely.

Authorities say the downed airplane was a Cessna 180. They say the remains of two people and possibly a third were seen in the wreckage.

Alaska state troopers say the pilot of the Cessna 206 that returned to Anchorage was not injured and was the only person on board the aircraft.

Chinese police say two knife-wielding men attacked a crowd in China's far northwestern Xinjiang border region Saturday night, killing at least six people and wounding 28 others.

Authorities say the attack began with two explosions in the Silk Road city of Kashgar. Two men then killed a truck driver at an intersection and hijacked his truck. They then drove the truck into a crowd, got out, and attacked pedestrians with knives, killing six of them.

Police said the crowd beat one attacker to death and captured the second.

The motive for the attack is not clear.

In a deadly incident earlier this months, police shot 14 rioters who attacked a police station and killed four people in Xinjiang's Hotan city on July 18.

The Xinjiang region is home to millions of Muslim Uighurs, who are angry with what they say has been decades of repressive rule by Beijing and the unwanted immigration of China's dominant Han ethnic group.

A strong 6.4-magnitude earthquake jolted northeastern Japan early Sunday in the same region that was devastated by a massive 9.0 earthquake and ensuing tsunami earlier this year.

The U.S. Geological Survey says quake was centered in the Pacific Ocean near the east coast of Japan's Honshu island, 185 kilometers northeast of Tokyo at a depth of 43 kilometers.

There were no reports of injuries or damage from the quake, and no tsunami warning was issued.

Tokyo Electric Power Company, the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant crippled by the March 11 quake and tsunami, said the latest earthquake did not cause any new damage to the plant.

More than 20,000 people were killed or left missing after the March twin disaster. Another 80,000 have been forced to evacuate their homes because of the radiation threat from the nuclear plant.

U.S. lawmakers are continuing their political wrangling behind closed doors to reach an agreement on a debt limit proposal.

The U.S. Senate vote on the debt ceiling, originally slated to take place early Sunday morning, has been pushed back to Sunday afternoon.

Senate Majority leader Harry Reid said late Saturday the White House had asked him to give everyone as much time as possible to reach an agreement, amid signs there was progress in negotiations.

U.S. political leaders have until Tuesday to raise the country’s $14.3 trillion debt ceiling or risk triggering the first debt default in U.S. history. But they remain deadlocked on how best to raise the borrowing limit and cut government spending.

Republicans are calling for a short-term fix and new consideration of the debt ceiling in early 2012, while Democrats are pushing for a plan to cover the nation’s borrowing needs through next year and past the presidential and congressional elections in November 2012.

Earlier Saturday, Reid said Washington was no closer to a deal that would raise the country’s borrowing limit and avoid a potentially catastrophic debt default. He accused Republican leaders of refusing to negotiate in good faith.

Reid made his remarks on the Senate floor shortly after the top two Republicans in Congress, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner, voiced optimism the U.S. will reach agreement on the debt crisis.

In a news conference, Boehner urged President Barack Obama to come to an agreement with Republican leaders in Congress, saying if he does so, Democrats will follow. He said the president did not act on a plan that could have ended the impasse about a week ago.

Also Saturday, Reid and House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi met at the White House with President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. Mr. Obama spoke by phone with McConnell.

On Saturday, the Republican-led House of Representatives easily defeated a debt plan produced by Reid, just as the Senate Friday night rejected a plan put forth by Boehner and narrowly approved by the House.

Reid needs 60 votes in the 100-member Senate to end debate on his measure and move to a final vote on Monday. But 43 opposition Republicans said they would not vote for his measure, lending still more uncertainty to the political standoff.

Senate Democratic leaders are hoping to complete their action on a debt limit increase by early Monday, just before U.S. stock markets reopen for the week. The deadlocked Washington debt negotiations have roiled investors, with the key Dow Jones Industrial Average of stocks dropping more this past week than it has in any week in the last 14 months.

Mexican authorities say the alleged leader of a gang of drug hit men has been arrested in Ciudad Juarez.

The suspect, Jose Antonio Acosta Hernandez, was captured in the state capital, Chihuahua, on Friday.

Hernandez, also known as “El Diego,” had been sought by U.S. authorities for last year's killings of a U.S. consulate employee, her husband and a third American in Ciudad Juarez, which borders El Paso, Texas.

He has also been linked to a car bombing that killed four people last year in Ciudad Juarez, a city plagued by drug-related violence.

Mexican authorities say at least 40,000 people have died since President Felipe Calderon's army began cracking down on drug cartels in 2006.

The U.S. Senate has delayed the vote on a debt limit proposal until noon Sunday, giving the lawmakers time for further negotiations on an agreement. The Senate has been scheduled to vote on the plan early Sunday.

Senate Majority leader Harry Reid said late Saturday, negotiations at resolving the issue are under way at the White House.

Earlier Saturday, Reid said Washington was no closer to a deal that would raise the country's borrowing limit and avoid a potentially catastrophic debt default. He accused Republican leaders of refusing to negotiate in good faith.

Reid made his remarks on the Senate floor Saturday, shortly after the top two Republicans in Congress, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner, voiced optimism the U.S. will reach agreement on the debt crisis.

In a news conference, Boehner urged President Barack Obama to come to an agreement with Republican leaders in Congress, saying if he does so, Democrats will follow. He said the president did not act on a plan that could have ended the impasse about a week ago.

Also Saturday, Reid and House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi met at the White House with President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. Mr. Obama spoke by phone with McConnell.

U.S. political leaders have until Tuesday to raise the country's $14.3 trillion debt ceiling, or risk triggering the first debt default in U.S. history. But they remain deadlocked on how best to raise the borrowing limit and cut government spending.

On Saturday, the Republican-led House of Representatives easily defeated a debt plan produced by Reid, just as the Senate Friday night rejected a plan put forth by Boehner and narrowly approved by the House.

The measure, supported by the White House, would cut government spending by $2.5 trillion and raise the legal limit on borrowing enough to fund the government through the end of 2012.

Reid needs 60 votes in the 100-member Senate to end debate on his measure and move to a final vote on Monday. But 43 opposition Republicans said they would not vote for his measure, lending still more uncertainty to the political standoff.

Senate Democratic leaders are hoping to complete their action on a debt limit increase by early Monday, just before U.S. stock markets reopen for the week. The deadlocked Washington debt negotiations have roiled investors, with the key Dow Jones Industrial Average of stocks dropping more this past week than it has in any week in the last 14 months.

Republicans are calling for a short-term fix and new consideration of the debt ceiling in early 2012, while Democrats are pushing for a plan to cover the nation's borrowing needs through next year and past the presidential and congressional elections in November 2012.

Boehner's plan called for an immediate $900 billion increase of the U.S. debt ceiling in exchange for more than $900 billion in spending cuts over the next 10 years. It offers to raise the debt limit again early next year if Washington can work out more spending cuts and send to the country's 50 states a proposal for a constitutional amendment requiring the national government to balance its budget each year.

Mr. Obama said the Republican plan pushed by Boehner would hold the economy captive to Washington politics once again by forcing the nation to relive the debt crisis in just a few months.

A strong 6.4-magnitude earthquake jolted northeastern Japan early Sunday in the same region that was devastated by a massive 9.0 earthquake and ensuing tsunami earlier this year.

The U.S. Geological Survey says the epicenter was at a depth of about 43 kilometers in the Pacific Ocean near the east coast of Japan's Honshu island, 185 kilometers northeast of Tokyo.

There were no reports of injuries or damage from the quake, and no tsunami warning was issued.

Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant crippled by the March 11 quake and tsunami, said the latest tremor did not cause any new damage to the plant.

More than 20,000 people were killed or left missing after the March twin disaster. Another 80,000 have been forced to evacuate their homes because of the radiation threat from the nuclear plant.

U.S. and Pakistani officials say the top U.S. intelligence official in Islamabad has returned home because of medical reasons.

The Central Intelligence Agency's station chief, who oversaw the intelligence team that found Osama bin Laden, is not expected to return.

The man cannot be named because he is undercover and the CIA has not commented on the matter.

It is the second time in seven months that the top U.S. intelligence officer has left the post in Pakistan. The previous station chief had to leave after a Pakistani official admitted that his identity had been leaked, causing a security breach.

Relations between the CIA and Pakistan's intelligence agency, ISI, have been strained since bin Laden was killed in a secret raid by U.S. special forces last May.