SpaceShipTwo, ship designed for tourists, explodes on test flight

MOJAVE, Calif. — A winged spaceship designed to take tourists on excursions beyond Earth's atmosphere exploded during a test flight Friday over the Mojave Desert, killing a pilot in the second fiery setback for commercial space travel in less than a week.

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo blew apart after being released from a carrier aircraft at high altitude, said Ken Brown, a photographer who witnessed the explosion.

One pilot was found dead inside the spacecraft and another parachuted out and was flown by helicopter to a hospital, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said.

The crash area was about 120 miles north of downtown Los Angeles and 20 miles from the Mojave Air and Space Port, where the mid-morning flight originated.

British billionaire Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic, has been the front-runner in the fledgling race to give large numbers of paying civilians a suborbital ride that would let them experience weightlessness and see the Earth from the edge of space. Branson was expected to arrive in Mojave on Saturday, as were investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board.

Branson released a statement Friday night saying it was "among the most difficult trips I have ever had to make" but that he wants to be "with the dedicated and hardworking people who are now in shock at this devastating loss."

"Space is hard — but worth it," Branson wrote. "We will persevere and move forward together."

The accident occurred just as it seemed commercial space flights were near, after a period of development that lasted far longer than hundreds of prospective passengers had expected.

When Virgin Group licensed the technology from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who put $26 million into SpaceShipOne, Branson envisioned operating flights by 2007. In interviews last month, he talked about the first flight being next spring with his son.

"It's a real setback to the idea that lots of people are going to be taking joyrides into the fringes of outer space any time soon," said John Logsdon, retired space policy director at George Washington University. "There were a lot of people who believed that the technology to carry people is safely at hand."

Friday's flight marked the 55th for SpaceShipTwo, which was intended to be the first of a fleet of craft. This was only the fourth flight to include a brief rocket firing. During other flights, the craft either was not released from its mothership or functioned as a glider after release.

At 60 feet long, SpaceShipTwo featured two large windows for each of up to six passengers, one on the side and one overhead.

The accident's cause was not immediately known, nor was the altitude at which the explosion occurred. The first rocket-powered test flight peaked at about 10 miles above Earth. Commercial flights would go 62 miles or higher.

One difference on this flight was the type of fuel.

In May, Virgin Galactic announced that SpaceShipTwo would switch to a polymide-based fuel — a type of thermoplastic. It had been fueled with a type of rubber called HTPB.

Scaled Composites, the company building the spaceship for Virgin Galactic, had extensively tested the new fuel formulation on the ground, President Kevin Mickey said. He characterized the new fuel as "a small nuance to the design."

Officials said they had not noticed anything wrong before the flight. The problem happened about 50 minutes after takeoff and within minutes of the spaceship's release from its mothership, said Stuart Witt, CEO of the Mojave Air and Space Port.

Virgin Galactic — owned by Branson's Virgin Group and Aabar Investments PJS of Abu Dhabi — sells seats on each prospective journey for $250,000. The company says that "future astronauts," as it calls customers, include Stephen Hawking, Justin Bieber, Ashton Kutcher and Russell Brand. The company reports receiving $90 million from about 700 prospective passengers.

Former NASA top space scientist Alan Stern has seats to fly on Virgin Galactic and isn't rethinking his plans.

"Let's not be Chicken Littles here," said Stern. "I want to be part of the opening of this future frontier."

Friday's accident was the second this week involving private space flight. On Tuesday, an unmanned commercial supply rocket bound for the International Space Station exploded moments after liftoff in Virginia.

Virgin Galactic plans to launch space tourism flights from the quarter-billion-dollar Spaceport America in southern New Mexico once it finished developing its rocket ship.

Taxpayers footed the bill to build the state-of-the-art hangar and runway in a remote stretch of desert in southern New Mexico as part of a plan devised by Branson and former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. Critics have long challenged the state's investment, questioning whether flights would ever get off the ground.

SpaceShipTwo is based on aerospace design maverick Burt Rutan's award-winning SpaceShipOne prototype, which became the first privately financed manned rocket to reach space in 2004.

"It's an enormously sad day for a company," Burt Rutan told The Associated Press in a phone interview from his home in Idaho, where he lives since retiring.

Friday's death was not the first associated with the program.

During testing for the development of a rocket motor for SpaceShipTwo in July 2007, an explosion at the Mojave spaceport killed three workers and critically injured three others. A California Division of Occupational Safety and Health report said the blast occurred three seconds after the start of a cold-flow test of nitrous oxide, which is used in the propulsion system of SpaceShipTwo. The engine was not firing during that test.

Pritchard reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writers David Koenig in Dallas, Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Seth Borenstein in Washington, and John Antczak, Christopher Weber, Tami Abdollah and Robert Jablon in Los Angeles also contributed to this report.

New PACAF commander seeks China air safety dialogue

BEIJING — The U.S. Air Force's new commander in the Pacific said Saturday she's hoping to continue talks with China on avoiding dangerous encounters in the air that have added to regional tensions.

Gen. Lori Robinson said she anticipates a speaking engagement at China's biggest air show later this month will allow her to renew dialogue on the issue.

"The dialogue is beginning. I think that's very, very good for the region," Robinson said in a telephone interview from Hawaii.

Concerns over risky aerial engagements were spotlighted after a Chinese fighter jet came within 30 feet of a U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon plane over the South China Sea in August.

That revived memories of a 2001 collision between aircraft from the two countries that killed a Chinese jet fighter pilot and forced a heavily damaged U.S. surveillance plane to land at a Chinese base.

Tensions were also raised last year after China declared an air-defense identification zone over disputed islands in the East China Sea. The U.S., Japan and others have refused to recognize the move because the area encompassed by the zone includes territory controlled by Japan.

The ongoing feud over control of the islands has sparked fears of a collision or shoot-down, with Japan saying it has boosted jet scramblings by almost 30 percent in response to approaches by Chinese planes.

Robinson said the U.S. wants all parties to adhere to internationally recognized norms for safety in flight similar to rules followed by the U.S. and former Soviet Union during the Cold War.

While not ruling out the possibility of future encounters like the one in August, she said it was vital that Beijing and Washington work toward an understanding.

"I never say never. What I will say is that what's important is that we do start the dialogue," Robinson said.

Robinson is the U.S. military's first female four-star combat commander and the first woman to head the Pacific Air Forces. While most commanders have been pilots by training, Robinson's speciality is air battle management.

Her area of command encompasses 259 million square kilometers (100 million square miles), ranging from the U.S. West Coast to the east coast of Africa and from the Arctic to the Antarctic.

While Saturday's interview dwelt mainly on the challenge from China's growing military assertiveness, U.S. officials say Russia has also been stepping up air patrols around Japan and South Korea and traveling as far as the California coast and U.S. territory of Guam.

China's clandestine submarine caves extend Xi's naval reach

HONG KONG — Beneath the surface of the South China Sea off the tropical Chinese resort island of Hainan, an underwater tunnel guides submarines into a lair reminiscent of a James Bond spy movie.

From this pen the subs can venture in and out of the contested South China Sea hidden from the prying eyes of reconnaissance planes deployed by the U.S. Navy, which for the past half century has enjoyed almost unfettered access to the waters, say military watchers who cite satellite images of the area.

The fleet of diesel and nuclear-powered submarines reflects President Xi Jinping's efforts to ensure the security of sea lanes vital for feeding the economic growth on which the nation's stability rests. It's also provoked discomfort among neighbors bruised by China's approach to territorial disputes.

RELATED: More Stars and Stripes coverage of the Pacific pivot

As countries from India to Australia and Vietnam spend tens of billions upgrading their underwater fleets, cluttering the sea as well as the sky with the reconnaissance craft that follow, the risk is that a clash that previously might have been limited to coast guard and fishing boats spills into military conflict.

"Countries are saying: we need to put into place some kind of credible force that puts doubt into the mind of a Chinese admiral," said Bill Hayton, author of "The South China Sea: The Struggle for Power in Asia." "They are clearly thinking about that because otherwise why are they buying submarines and anti-ship missiles?"

Defense spending in Asia and Oceania rose 3.6 percent to $407 billion in 2013, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, making it the only region where spending increased every year since SIPRI began collecting the data in 1988. That was led by a 7.4 percent rise in China's spending, with a 5 percent increase for Southeast Asia.

The People's Liberation Army Navy has 56 attack submarines, of which 51 are conventional diesel-electric and five are nuclear powered, according to a Defense Department report to Congress published in April.

China also has three nuclear-powered submarines that can launch ballistic missiles, and may add five more, according to the Pentagon report. The report said these subs will this year carry the JL-2 ballistic missile, which has an estimated range of 7,400 kilometers (4,600 miles) and will "give the PLA Navy its first credible sea-based nuclear deterrent."

A range of that distance would allow the missiles to reach Hawaii if launched from the Western Pacific, and California if fired from the mid-Pacific, according to Dean Cheng, a research fellow on Chinese political and security affairs at The Heritage Foundation in Washington.

The subs, armed with anti-ship cruise missiles and torpedoes, will help Xi as he seeks to realize another goal: readying the military to fight and win "local wars" in the information age. Under that scenario China would let loose its submarines, air force and surface and sub-surface missile power, managed by a state-of-art command system that integrates everything from computers to intelligence.

"The level of improvement they have achieved over the past 20 years in platforms — ships, aircraft, missiles, land vehicles, tanks, submarines — isn't matched by the integration that the Americans are so good at," said Sam Roggeveen, an analyst at the Lowy Institute in Sydney who specializes in China's military technology.

Xi continues to call on the military to get into shape, saying on Sept. 22 the PLA should improve combat readiness and sharpen its ability to win a regional war.

The need to glean just how prepared they are explains the U.S. surveillance flights near China's coast, one of which led to an Aug. 19 encounter that the Pentagon described as ''unsafe and unprofessional'' after a Chinese fighter jet flew within 20 feet of a U.S. P-8 Poseidon aircraft near Hainan.

"China's advance in submarine capabilities is significant," Adm. Samuel Locklear, head of the U.S. Pacific Command, told the U.S. Senate in March. He later told Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., that it was unfortunate that defense budget cuts meant the U.S. attack submarine fleet would shrink from 55 to 42 by 2029, according to DefenseNews, a security publication.

"Submarines are probably the most powerful weapon, apart from nuclear bombs, because they are stealthy and quiet and potentially omnipresent," said Cheng. "In a naval conflict they are most likely to draw first blood."

China's modernization program is reflected in the presence of missile-bearing submarines in the South China Sea, where it claims about 90 percent of the area and has disputes with countries such as Vietnam and the Philippines. About half of the world's merchant tonnage flows through the South China Sea, carrying about $5.3 trillion of goods each year.

Tensions flared in May when China moved an oil rig into waters claimed by Vietnam and again after it completed an upgraded airstrip in the contested Paracel Islands. China's artificial island project in the Spratly Islands is another irritant to countries in the region that have territorial claims in the area.

When asked about reports that PLA Navy chief Admiral Wu Shengli last month toured land reclamation work in the South China Sea, defense ministry spokesman Yang Yujun replied that China has indisputable sovereignty over the islands.

"We have come past the point in the past 12 months where China can explain its own behavior as a reaction to what others are doing," said Roggeveen. "The oil rig wasn't a response, it was a preemptive Chinese move."

Forays by Chinese submarines through the Malacca Strait and into the Indian Ocean are cause for unease in India. Its navy unveiled its first home-built anti-submarine warship in August and Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed to bolster the country's defenses so that "no one dares to cast an evil glance at India."

Those concerns were fueled when a diesel-electric Type 039 Song Class submarine docked at the Chinese-funded International Container Terminal in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo in September, days before a visit by Xi to New Delhi. The Indian Ocean is home to shipping lanes carrying about 80 percent of the world's seaborne oil, mostly headed to China and Japan.

"If you are dependent upon seaborne commerce and if you're not comfortable with your dependence on another power's ability to dictate your access to the seas, then you're going to want to develop your own capabilities to protect the sea lanes yourself," China's state-run Global Times said in an Oct. 20 article.

The submarine stopped in Colombo en route to the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Somalia to join a navy escort mission, China's defense ministry said in response to faxed questions.

As China extends its range, regional navies are responding. India is beefing up its fleet of 15 submarines, saying Oct. 25 it will spend 800 billion rupees ($13 billion) to build them locally. India took delivery of its fifth Boeing's P-8I maritime patrol aircraft last month.

Vietnam has received three kilo-class submarines from Russia and is scheduled to get another three by 2016, Thanh Nien newspaper reported in March. The subs are diesel-electric and are part of a deal signed in 2009 worth $2 billion, the paper reported.

Indonesia plans to field 12 submarines and is buying two from Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, according to IHS Jane's Defence Weekly.

Australia is looking to replace and expand on its six aging Collins Class diesel-electric guided missile submarines, according to the government. It may spend about A$20 billion ($17.6 billion) on as many as 12 new submarines, the Australian Financial Review reported Oct. 28.

Singapore, which has six submarines, has ordered two more from ThyssenKrupp Marine System GmBH. Taiwan has four submarines, two of which are outdated for operations and are used for training, according to GlobalSecurity.org, a Virginia- based security website. It plans to build its own and will need help from the U.S. and others, according to the Ministry of National Defense.

The development of Hainan sits at the center of China's submarine strategy, according to Felix Chang, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia. The island has been home to a submarine base since World War II on the southeast area of Sanya, now an upscale tourist destination.

As Sanya become more built up, the PLA Navy started to develop new sites. One to the south west that will probably be for conventional submarines, and two areas on the western side of Yalong Bay to Sanya's west: a surface vessel base with two long piers capable of mooring an aircraft carrier to the north, and to the south a base probably designed for nuclear-powered submarines with only one road link, which Chang said indicates its high security level.

Jutting from the shore four piers are discernible, enough to moor 8 submarines. To the south of those piers is the underwater tunnel, about 16 meters wide, leading to a cave dug out from under a hill, said Chang.

"I don't imagine the submarine tunnel at Yalong Bay to be as spacious as the James Bond villain's lair," he said. "It's probably relatively cramped. Excavating rock and building structural supports are expensive in the real world."

Boeing sees Antares rocket blast hastening end of reliance on Russian engines

WASHINGTON — The Antares rocket destroyed in a fireball off a Virginia launchpad could speed efforts by the U.S. space industry to end its reliance on Russian-made engines, Boeing Co.'s defense chief says.

"It re-emphasizes the need to not just be dependent upon one engine provider," Chris Chadwick, who runs Boeing's defense, space and security unit, said Thursday. "It's time to energize the playing field and see what we can do to get competition in that arena and bring a next-generation engine into the forefront of the launch business."

Development of alternative technology in the U.S. is "probably overdue," Chadwick said at a Bloomberg Government breakfast in Washington. The U.S. Air Force and contractors such as Boeing-backed United Launch Alliance are working on homegrown alternatives to the imported engines.

While investigators study the Oct. 28 accident, the failure has refocused attention on Soviet-era liquid-fuel engines powering many U.S. rockets. The Orbital Sciences Corp. mission had a derivative of the NK-33 engine used for the Russian N-1 rocket on an early 1970s lunar mission.

"Coming up with new engines is a very expensive proposition," Marco Caceres, director of space studies at Fairfax, Virginia-based consultant Teal Group, said Oct. 29 in a telephone interview. "That was probably one of the reasons the Russian engine was so attractive."

Space is a growth area for Boeing, whose partnership with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration dates to the Mercury program starting in the late 1950s. It's also a point of emphasis for Chadwick, who was named chief executive officer of the $33.2 billion-revenue defense unit in December.

Boeing intends to bid on a new NASA contract to fly cargo missions to the International Space Station, Chadwick said, after winning a $4.2 billion deal to ferry astronauts to the orbiting laboratory. Orbital shares the current supply work with billionaire Elon Musk's Space Exploration Technologies Corp.

Boeing's commercial-crew flights also will use Russian-made engines, the RD-180, for the Atlas V rockets manufactured by United Launch Alliance, a Boeing-Lockheed Martin Corp. venture.

The alliance's dependence on the Russian engine, whose availability came into question as tensions simmered over Ukraine earlier this year, has also provided an opening to Musk in his challenge to traditional space titans like Boeing.

Musk's SpaceX is developing a rival rocket and spacecraft, and received $2.6 billion of work under the commercial crew contract. The launch alliance is getting help from its own billionaire entrepreneur: It's working with billionaire Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin on a new rocket engine.

Musk and Bezos are bringing "disruptive ideas" to the space market with ventures rooted in Silicon Valley, Chadwick said. "It ensures that we stay on our toes."

Chadwick said he is trying to instill the technology industry's speed and unconventional thinking in 98-year-old Boeing as his unit confronts shrinking defense budgets and an aircraft lineup nearing the end of its production life.

Boeing has more than "50-50 chance" of receiving enough U.S. Navy and foreign orders to keep the F/A-18 fighter line open beyond its potential 2017 closing date, Chadwick said.

Chadwick said Boeing also expects to have its last eight C-17 military transports sold in 2015, "at the latest."

"We've got some very good dialogue" with prospective C-17 customers around the world, Chadwick said. The production line for one of the Air Force's workhorse cargo planes is slated to close in mid-2015, Boeing said in April.

On the $51 billion KC-46 tanker program, "we're still on plan for first flight" by a prototype by year's end, Chadwick said. The company is on schedule for an August 2015 initial production decision and "still on target to deliver 18 full-up tankers" as required by August 2017, he said.

Chadwick said a revision of Boeing's integrated master schedule for the tanker project won't affect that primary milestone: delivery of combat-ready tankers equipped to carry more than 212,000 pounds (96,000 kilograms) of aviation fuel and operate at altitudes as high as 43,000 feet (13,000 meters).

"We'll know fairly soon" about how the Air Force will proceed with a replacement of the presidential aircraft fleet, Chadwick said. The service is nearing an announcement on its acquisition strategy and the types of competition that may be required, he said.

Since 1962, Boeing has built the planes designated as Air Force One. The current aircraft, which are modified Boeing 747 jumbo jets, were designed with 1960s analog technology and will reach their planned 30-year service life in 2017, the Air Force has said.

With assistance from Richard Clough in New York.

Redacted documents shed little light on how Alaska Guard handled investigations

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Emails released by the state of Alaska on Friday shed little new light into how allegations of sexual assault and misconduct in the Alaska National Guard were handled by state or guard officials.

A judge ordered the release of almost 600 pages after the Alaska Dispatch News and Alaska Public Media sued. Many emails were partially or totally redacted for deliberative process or personnel reasons and didn't detail how investigations were conducted.

Media organizations, including The Associated Press, sought the documents after the release of a scathing federal report of sexual misconduct and fraud within the guard. Gov. Sean Parnell demanded and received the resignation of his adjutant general, Thomas Katkus, the day the federal report was released. But Parnell has faced questions of whether he dithered after being told of such allegations four years ago — an issue that has dogged him as he seeks re-election Tuesday.

Parnell has said Katkus had assured him reports of sexual assault and fraud were being properly handled.

Parnell said he received concrete examples of how guard leadership was failing members, and in February asked the federal National Guard Bureau to investigate. The bureau's Office of Complex Investigations released a report in September that found victims didn't trust the system because of a lack of confidence in the Guard's senior leadership.

"Our concern has been and remains that the documents released do not re-victimize victims and do not jeopardize prosecutions," Parnell's spokeswoman, Sharon Leighow, said in an email to the AP.

The emails released were those that touched the mailbox of Mike Nizich, Parnell's chief of staff. They covered emails sent or received by him, or those that were copied to him. They range from 2011 to 2014, with the first emails showing up after Alaska National Guard chaplains privately voiced concerns over the Guard's command structure.

"It is not the crash of the C-17 that has broken the professional and upbeat mood of my Guardsmen it is the looming change of command and how the upper levels of leadership once again cut hope and spirit by manipulation and passive aggressive behavior," Lt. Col. Rick Cavens, a chaplain for the guard's 176th Wing, wrote in a Jan. 6, 2011, letter to Parnell.

Cavens complained that Clear Air Force Station "was used as a place to store officers of sexual infidelity" and he implored Parnell to "please use your office as Governor to bring health back to the Alaska National Guard."

Nizich and others began investigating, but there were complaints sent to Nizich that senior guard leaders were responding to the questioning with further retaliation.

One email to the governor's office on Feb. 14, 2011, asked which of the correspondences from whistleblowers had been made available to senior leadership.

"Nothing has been turned over to Gen Katkus by me or the Governor," Nizich responded.

Morale didn't improve in the succeeding months. By January 2012, the National Guard Bureau agreed to conduct an investigation into the Alaska unit at the request of U.S. Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska.

"Looks like they will be investigating. Call me," Nizich said in an April 18, 2012, email to Katkus. Neither this review nor another requested by U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski found wrongdoing.

"Here we go again," Nizich said in an Oct. 17, 2013, email to Katkus and others after a reporter began asking questions.

When the story appeared in the Anchorage Daily News 10 days later, Nizich wrote Katkus: "We probably need to confer on this and soon."

On April 28, 2014, Nizich sent an email to Parnell indicating that an aide for Katkus had attempted to have the chaplains sign "an acknowledgment that they do not speak for the department or represent the department, they refused to sign." This was in a chain of emails that had the subject line, "Internal sexual assault memo for Stand Down." The memo was redacted.

Another redacted email circulated May 21 between Nizich, Katkus and McHugh Pierre, the military department's former deputy commissioner, had the subject line: "DA's Declination for Sexual Assault Prosecution" with an attachment, also redacted.

In a June 8 memo from Parnell to Nizich, the governor gives a list of thoughts on various subjects before he went off the grid for a week.

"Pls have Gen Katkus give direction that McCugh (sic) should have absolutely nothing to do with cases where Guard members are under investigation or subject to review - especially as they relate to two people he is personally connected to. No viewing of files, no conversations, etc."

SpaceShipTwo, ship designed for tourists, explodes on test flight

MOJAVE, Calif. — A winged spaceship designed to take tourists on excursions beyond Earth's atmosphere exploded during a test flight Friday over the Mojave Desert, killing a pilot in the second fiery setback for commercial space travel in less than a week.

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo blew apart after being released from a carrier aircraft at high altitude, said Ken Brown, a photographer who witnessed the explosion.

One pilot was found dead inside the spacecraft and another parachuted out and was flown by helicopter to a hospital, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said.

The crash area was about 120 miles north of downtown Los Angeles and 20 miles from the Mojave Air and Space Port, where the mid-morning flight originated.

British billionaire Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic, has been the front-runner in the fledgling race to give large numbers of paying civilians a suborbital ride that would let them experience weightlessness and see the Earth from the edge of space. Branson was expected to arrive in Mojave on Saturday, as were investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board.

Branson released a statement Friday night saying it was "among the most difficult trips I have ever had to make" but that he wants to be "with the dedicated and hardworking people who are now in shock at this devastating loss."

"Space is hard — but worth it," Branson wrote. "We will persevere and move forward together."

The accident occurred just as it seemed commercial space flights were near, after a period of development that lasted far longer than hundreds of prospective passengers had expected.

When Virgin Group licensed the technology from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who put $26 million into SpaceShipOne, Branson envisioned operating flights by 2007. In interviews last month, he talked about the first flight being next spring with his son.

"It's a real setback to the idea that lots of people are going to be taking joyrides into the fringes of outer space any time soon," said John Logsdon, retired space policy director at George Washington University. "There were a lot of people who believed that the technology to carry people is safely at hand."

Friday's flight marked the 55th for SpaceShipTwo, which was intended to be the first of a fleet of craft. This was only the fourth flight to include a brief rocket firing. During other flights, the craft either was not released from its mothership or functioned as a glider after release.

At 60 feet long, SpaceShipTwo featured two large windows for each of up to six passengers, one on the side and one overhead.

The accident's cause was not immediately known, nor was the altitude at which the explosion occurred. The first rocket-powered test flight peaked at about 10 miles above Earth. Commercial flights would go 62 miles or higher.

One difference on this flight was the type of fuel.

In May, Virgin Galactic announced that SpaceShipTwo would switch to a polymide-based fuel — a type of thermoplastic. It had been fueled with a type of rubber called HTPB.

Scaled Composites, the company building the spaceship for Virgin Galactic, had extensively tested the new fuel formulation on the ground, President Kevin Mickey said. He characterized the new fuel as "a small nuance to the design."

Officials said they had not noticed anything wrong before the flight. The problem happened about 50 minutes after takeoff and within minutes of the spaceship's release from its mothership, said Stuart Witt, CEO of the Mojave Air and Space Port.

Virgin Galactic — owned by Branson's Virgin Group and Aabar Investments PJS of Abu Dhabi — sells seats on each prospective journey for $250,000. The company says that "future astronauts," as it calls customers, include Stephen Hawking, Justin Bieber, Ashton Kutcher and Russell Brand. The company reports receiving $90 million from about 700 prospective passengers.

Former NASA top space scientist Alan Stern has seats to fly on Virgin Galactic and isn't rethinking his plans.

"Let's not be Chicken Littles here," said Stern. "I want to be part of the opening of this future frontier."

Friday's accident was the second this week involving private space flight. On Tuesday, an unmanned commercial supply rocket bound for the International Space Station exploded moments after liftoff in Virginia.

Virgin Galactic plans to launch space tourism flights from the quarter-billion-dollar Spaceport America in southern New Mexico once it finished developing its rocket ship.

Taxpayers footed the bill to build the state-of-the-art hangar and runway in a remote stretch of desert in southern New Mexico as part of a plan devised by Branson and former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. Critics have long challenged the state's investment, questioning whether flights would ever get off the ground.

SpaceShipTwo is based on aerospace design maverick Burt Rutan's award-winning SpaceShipOne prototype, which became the first privately financed manned rocket to reach space in 2004.

"It's an enormously sad day for a company," Burt Rutan told The Associated Press in a phone interview from his home in Idaho, where he lives since retiring.

Friday's death was not the first associated with the program.

During testing for the development of a rocket motor for SpaceShipTwo in July 2007, an explosion at the Mojave spaceport killed three workers and critically injured three others. A California Division of Occupational Safety and Health report said the blast occurred three seconds after the start of a cold-flow test of nitrous oxide, which is used in the propulsion system of SpaceShipTwo. The engine was not firing during that test.

Pritchard reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writers David Koenig in Dallas, Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Seth Borenstein in Washington, and John Antczak, Christopher Weber, Tami Abdollah and Robert Jablon in Los Angeles also contributed to this report.

Mexico judge orders immediate release of jailed US Marine vet

SAN DIEGO — A Mexican judge on Friday ordered the immediate release of a jailed U.S. Marine veteran who spent eight months behind bars for crossing the border with loaded guns.

The judge called for retired Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi to be freed because of his mental state and did not make a determination on the illegal arms charges against the Afghanistan veteran diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a Mexican official who had knowledge of the ruling but was not authorized to give his name.

Tahmooressi has said he took a wrong turn on a California freeway that funneled him into a Tijuana port of entry with no way to turn back. His detention brought calls for his freedom from U.S. politicians, veterans groups and social media campaigns.

"It is with an overwhelming and humbling feeling of relief that we confirm that Andrew was released today after spending 214 days in Mexican Jail," the family said in a statement.

U.S. Republican and Democratic politicians had held talks with Mexican authorities to urge his release. A U.S. congressional committee also held a public hearing to pressure Mexico to free him.

Among them was former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who grew up in Mexico and has negotiated on a range of international issues. Richardson said he met with Tahmooressi in jail in the border city of Tecate, and he had talked to Mexican officials to urge them to release Tahmooressi on humanitarian grounds.

"I respect Mexico's judicial process, and I am pleased that Andrew was released today and will return home to his family," Richardson in a statement.

U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., also applauded his release.

"As a mother, my heart is with Jill Tahmooressi tonight and I can only imagine the many emotions she must be experiencing, namely the relief in knowing her son is coming home and that they will soon be reunited without prison bars, without handlers and without unnecessary travel," Wasserman Schultz said. "It is my hope that Andrew can transition back to life in the U.S. after this ordeal as soon as possible, including securing the treatment he needs for his post-traumatic stress disorder and being honored for his service to our nation."

Mexican authorities, however, had made clear that they would not be influenced by politics and that the matter was in the hands of its courts.

In Mexico, possession of weapons restricted for use by the Army is a federal crime, and the country has been tightening up its border checks to stop the flow of US weapons that have been used by drug cartels.

His attorney, Fernando Benitez, had pushed for the 26-year-old Florida man to be released because Mexico has no experience in treating combat-related PTSD, even in its own soldiers.

Benitez had argued that Tahmooressi carries loaded guns with him because his weapons, which were bought legally in the U.S., make him feel safer. He added that the veteran is often distracted, which could have contributed to him becoming lost.

Still, Mexican prosecutors maintained Tahmooressi broke the law.

But a psychiatrist hired by Mexican prosecutors to examine the Afghanistan veteran agreed with the defense that he should get PTSD treatment in the United States, noting in a Sept. 30 report that Tahmooressi, who now serves in the Marine reserve, feels like he is constantly in danger.

Tahmooressi did not admit wrongdoing, and he still maintains his innocence, his attorney said.

His mother, Jill Tahmooressi, has said her son's time in a Mexican jail has been worse than his two tours in Afghanistan.

Tahmooressi left Florida for San Diego in January to get help after dropping out of college, unable to concentrate or sleep, his mother said.

The case marks one of the first times Mexico made a ruling on PTSD — though the psychological wound is increasingly used in U.S. courts, especially in arguing for reduced sentences.

Military sex-assault survey asking explicit questions draws complaints

WASHINGTON — Shocked and offended by explicit questions, some U.S. servicemen and women are complaining about a new sexual-assault survey that hundreds of thousands have been asked to complete.

The survey is conducted every two years. But this year's version, developed by the Rand Corp., is unusually detailed, including graphically personal questions on sexual acts.

Some military members told The Associated Press that they were surprised and upset by the questions, and some even said they felt re-victimized by the blunt language. None of them would speak publicly by name, but Pentagon officials confirmed they had received complaints that the questions were "intrusive" and "invasive."

The Defense Department said it made the survey much more explicit and detailed this year in order to get more accurate results as the military struggles to reduce its sexual assaults while also encouraging victims to come forward to get help.

The survey questions, which were obtained by The Associated Press, ask about any unwanted sexual experiences or contact, and include very specific wording about men's and women's body parts or other objects, and kinds of contact or penetration.

Here is a sample question, one of a series of 11 graphic questions out of 34. Some are even more detailed:

"Before 9/18/2013, had anyone made you insert an object or body part into someone's mouth, vagina or anus when you did not want to and did not consent?"

"We've had a number of complaints," said Jill Loftus, director of the Navy's sexual assault prevention program. "I've heard second- and third-hand that there are a number of women, officers and enlisted, who have gotten to the point where they've read the questions and they've stopped taking the survey. They found them to be either offensive or too intrusive — `intrusive, invasive' — those are the words they used."

About 560,000 active duty, National Guard and Reserve members were invited to fill out the questionnaire — about five times the number the survey was sent to two years ago. Officials will not say how many responses they have received so far.

Early last year, a report on the 2012 anonymous survey results set off a furor when it estimated that 26,000 military members may have been sexually assaulted or subjected to unwanted sexual contact. Exasperated members of Congress complained that the Defense Department wasn't doing enough to combat sexual assault and tried, largely unsuccessfully, to force changes in the Pentagon's legal and command procedures.

In addition to the Rand questions, Loftus said the Navy sends its own survey to sailors and Marines that doesn't get as specific. She added, "We think we've done a very good job of trying to make people aware of what sexual assault is."

But Rand analysts say the more detailed questions are necessary. So does Nate Galbreath, the senior executive adviser for the Pentagon's sexual-assault prevention office.

"This is a crime of a very graphic nature," Galbreath said. "For us to improve our understanding, it sometimes requires asking tough questions."

He said the Defense Department hired Rand to develop and conduct the survey this year, based on new direction from Congress that the effort be fully independent of the Pentagon. He was aware of the complaints but said that the more succinct the questions are, the more accurate the results will be.

"Research has told us, if I ask someone, `Have you ever been raped?' they will say, `No,'" Galbreath said. "If I ask that same person, `Have you ever been forced to engage in sexual activity against your will?' they might say `Yes.' It's because of the loaded terms like rape and sexual assault, that it's not very clear to a lot of people what we may be asking about."

The survey begins with questions about sexual harassment, asking about jokes, "sexual gestures or sexual body movements," requests to take or share sexually suggestive pictures or videos or efforts to establish "an unwanted romantic or sexual relationship."

Kristie Gore, one of the project leaders at Rand, said participants were told they could skip questions they found upsetting, or simply not take the survey. In the end, she said, Rand received a "relatively small" number of complaints.

She said research suggests that "the discomfort from being asked about prior trauma in a confidential survey is temporary and that such questions cause no additional long-term harm to previously traumatized persons."

Andrew Morral, the other project leader, said the questions were based on the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

"If you don't use precise language to describe different types of sexual assault and harassment, people define those terms for themselves in different ways, which leads to ambiguous results," he said.

The report on the 2012 survey, which was released early last year, showed sexual assault incidents rose from about 19,000 in the 2010 survey to 26,000.

Those totals far outdistance the number of sexual assaults that are actually reported by members of the military.

According to the latest report, the number of sexual assaults jumped by 50 percent last year as the military worked to get more victims to come forward.

During the past two years, the military services have tried to increase awareness. Phone numbers and contact information for sexual assault prevention officers are plastered across military bases, including inside the doors of bathroom stalls. And top military officers have traveled to bases around the world speaking on the issue.

In the 2012 anonymous survey, about 6.8 percent of women who answered said they were assaulted and 1.2 percent of men. There are vastly more men in the military; so by the raw numbers, a bit more than 12,000 women said they were assaulted, compared with nearly 14,000 men.

SpaceShipTwo prototype rocket explodes during test flight, killing pilot

MOJAVE, Calif. — A winged spaceship designed to take tourists on excursions beyond Earth's atmosphere exploded during a test flight Friday over the Mojave Desert, killing a pilot in the second fiery setback for commercial space travel in less than a week.

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo blew apart after being released from a carrier aircraft at high altitude, according to Ken Brown, a photographer who witnessed the explosion.

One pilot was found dead inside the spacecraft, which fell from the sky about 120 miles north of downtown Los Angeles. Another pilot parachuted out and was flown by helicopter to a hospital, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood. Their names were not released.

The crash area is in the desert north of Mojave Air and Space Port, where the test flight originated.

British billionaire Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic, has been the front-runner in the fledgling race to send large numbers of paying civilians beyond the atmosphere to give them the feeling of weightlessness and a spectacular view of Earth below. Branson was flying to Mojave and expected to arrive Saturday, as were investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board.

"Space is hard, and today was a tough day," Virgin Galactic CEO President George Whitesides said. "The future rests in many ways, on hard, hard days like this."

The accident occurred just as it seemed space flights were near, after a period of development that lasted far longer than hundreds of prospective passengers had expected.

When Virgin Group licensed the technology from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who funded about $26 million for SpaceShipOne, Branson envisioned operating flights by 2007. In interviews last month, he talked about the first flight being next spring with his son.

"It's a real setback to the idea that lots of people are going to be taking joyrides into the fringes of outer space any time soon," said John Logsdon, retired space policy director at George Washington University. "There were a lot of people who believed that the technology to carry people is safely at hand."

Friday's flight marked the 55th for SpaceShipTwo, which was intended to be the first of a line of craft. But this was only the fourth flight to be powered by a rocket. During the other flights, the craft was either not released from its mother ship or it functioned as a glider.

SpaceShipTwo was designed to provide a suborbital thrill ride into space before returning to Earth as a glider. At 60 feet long, it featured two large windows for each of up to six passengers, one on the side and one overhead.

The cause of the accident was not immediately known. One difference on this flight was the type of fuel being used.

In May, Virgin Galactic announced that SpaceShipTwo would switch to a polymide-based fuel — a type of thermoplastic. It had been fueled with a type of rubber called HTPB.

Scaled Composites, the company that is building the spaceship for Virgin Galactic, had extensively tested the new fuel formulation on the ground, President Kevin Mickey said. He said the rocket motor configuration had not changed on this flight and characterized the new fuel as "a small nuance to the design."

Officials said they had not noticed anything wrong before the flight.

"I detected nothing that appeared abnormal," said Stuart Witt, CEO of the Mojave Air and Space Port.

Virgin Galactic — owned by Branson's Virgin Group and Aabar Investments PJS of Abu Dhabi — sells seats on each prospective journey for $250,000, with full payment due at the time of booking. The company says that "future astronauts," as it calls customers, have visited Branson's Caribbean home, Necker Island, and gone through G-force training.

Stephen Hawking, Justin Bieber, Ashton Kutcher and Russell Brand are among the celebrities to sign up for flights. Virgin Galactic reports taking deposits totaling more than $80 million from about 700 people.

A related venture, The Spaceship Co., is responsible for building Virgin Galactic's space vehicles.

During testing for the development of a rocket motor for SpaceShipTwo in July 2007, an explosion at the Mojave spaceport killed three workers and critically injured three others. A California Division of Occupational Safety and Health report said the blast occurred three seconds after the start of a cold-flow test of nitrous oxide — commonly known as laughing gas — which is used in the propulsion system of SpaceShipTwo. The engine was not firing during that test.

Friday's accident was the second this week involving private space flight. On Tuesday, an unmanned commercial supply rocket bound for the International Space Station exploded moments after liftoff from a launch site in Virginia.

Virgin Galactic had planned to launch space tourism flights from the quarter-billion-dollar Spaceport America in southern New Mexico once it finished developing its rocket ship.

Christine Anderson, executive director of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority, did not want to comment on the events unfolding Friday in the California desert or what effect they might have on Spaceport America and the future of commercial space travel.

Virgin Galactic is in line to be the main tenant at the spaceport that was built specifically to launch paying customers into space, a dream of Branson's. His company has repeatedly pushed back the timetable for when the $250,000 flights were to begin, pointing to delays in development and testing of the rocket ship.

Taxpayers footed the bill to build the state-of-the-art hangar and runway in a remote stretch of desert in southern New Mexico as part of a plan devised by Branson and former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. Critics have long challenged the state's investment, questioning whether flights would ever get off the ground.

SpaceShipTwo is based on aerospace design maverick Burt Rutan's award-winning SpaceShipOne prototype, which became the first privately financed manned rocket to reach space in 2004.

"It's an enormously sad day for a company," Burt Rutan told The Associated Press in a call from his home in Idaho, where he lives since retiring.

Pritchard reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writers David Koenig in Dallas, Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Seth Borenstein in Washington, and John Antczak, Christopher Weber, Tami Abdollah and Robert Jablon in Los Angeles also contributed to this report.

1st South Korean female troops pass US Army's EIB training

SEOUL, South Korea — Two South Korean infantry soldiers recently became the first women from their country to earn the U.S. Army’s prestigious Expert Infantryman Badge.

“This was a must for me,” said Staff Sgt. Kwon Minzy, 21, who wanted to undergo the notoriously rigorous testing to experience how the U.S. trains its soldiers and feel how it is to meet some of the highest standards in “the strongest army in the world.”

Of the 527 troops who began the course last month at Camp Casey, only 94 earned the badge, including 17 of the 21 South Koreans who took part. Candidates have to demonstrate proficiency in 41 events, including weapons, medical care and dealing with contamination from nuclear, chemical, biological and radiological sources.

Typically, only 10 percent of those who try out for the badge succeed.

The weeklong test wasn’t hard because she was a woman, Kwon said — it was just hard. Her biggest challenge was completing a 12-mile ruck march in less than three hours. Encouragement from other soldiers kept her going when she thought she might not make it.

This isn’t the first time that South Koreans have undergone the training, according to 2nd Infantry Division spokesman Lt. Col. Scott Rawlinson, who said the EIB badge helps build trust and confidence among infantrymen as experts in their profession.

“They understand the EIB is an honor, and we encourage them to take part with us,” he said. “They see it as a challenge, and that if they do earn the badge, it comes with a high degree of respect and confidence that they receive from their leaders, just like ours.”

Military service is mandatory only for South Korean men, so just 10,000 of the 630,000 active-duty servicemembers are women, according to South Korean military officials. Of those, about 1,100 are infantry.

Lt. Col. Seo Jundong, a spokesman for South Korea’s 21st Infantry Division, said earning the EIB is important because it improves a soldier’s individual performances, and the new knowledge and skills are eventually passed on to other troops.

Both Kwon and Staff Sgt. Kim Min Kyoung decided to test for the EIB on the recommendation of a South Korean sergeant major.

Kim, 23, said she had completed a similar South Korean army training program and felt earning the EIB would take her military career to a “higher level of professionalism.” She also thought she could learn more from training with the U.S. troops, who she described as the world’s most proficient soldiers.

The testing was the same for both sexes, she said, aside from physical qualification standards. The South Korean women had to meet the same standards as those for females in the U.S. Army, she said.

Kwon, whose grandfather served in the South Korean army, said earning the EIB means she is now a role model for other female soldiers.

“Wearing this uniform and protecting the country, it feels like I am really doing something,” she said.

Stars and Stripes’ Yoo Kyong Chang contributed to this story.

rowland.ashley@stripes.com

Twitter: @Rowland_Stripes

For-profit colleges face 'gainful employment' rule

For-profit colleges that don’t produce graduates capable of paying off their student loans could soon face the wrath of the federal government.

Schools with career-oriented programs that fail to comply with the new rule announced Thursday by the Obama administration stand to lose access to federal student-aid programs.

To meet these “gainful employment” standards, a program will have to show that the estimated annual loan payment of a typical graduate does not exceed 20 percent of his or her discretionary income or 8 percent of total earnings.

The Education Department estimates that about 1,400 programs serving 840,000 students won’t pass. Ninety-nine percent of these programs are offered by for-profit schools, although affected career training programs can come from certificate programs elsewhere in higher education.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan says the department wants to make sure that programs that prey on students don’t continue abusive practices.

However, Steve Gunderson, president and CEO of the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities, calls the effort “nothing more than a bad-faith attempt to cut off access to education for millions of students who have been historically underserved by higher education.”

Some questions and answers arising from the new rule:

Q. Who goes to for-profit colleges?

A. Students seeking training in areas such as nursing, truck driving, culinary arts and auto repair. Such fields attract many nontraditional students, including military veterans and workers laid off during the economic downturn. About two-thirds are over the age of 24. Half have dependents and almost 40 percent work full time while enrolled, according to the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities. Students at for-profit schools are more likely to live at or below the federal poverty level and receive food stamp benefits than students in other sectors of higher education. About 1.3 million students enrolled last spring at a for-profit school, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. That was about a 5 percent decline from a year earlier.

Q. In what ways are for-profit colleges under fire?

A. The regulation, which goes into effect July 1, is the latest step in a yearslong fight by the Obama administration to improve outcomes and end aggressive recruiting at for-profit colleges. In 2012, the for-profit colleges convinced a judge that similar regulations were too arbitrary.

Last summer, the Education Department reached an agreement with Corinthian Colleges, a chain based in Santa Ana, California, to sell or close its more than 90 U.S. campuses.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau earlier this year filed suit against the large, for-profit college chain ITT Educational Services Inc. alleging that it pushed students into high-cost private loans that would likely end in default. The company denied the charges.

On Capitol Hill, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, has aggressively investigated the industry. At the state level, several attorneys general have also pursued action.

“These regulations are a necessary step to ensure that colleges accepting federal funds protect students, cut costs and improve outcomes,” Duncan said.

Q. Why is the sector a target?

A. The industry has among the highest student loan default rates and lowest graduation rates in higher education. Some veterans’ advocates have accused it of aggressively targeting veterans because of their federal GI Bill money. Critics say the schools are too expensive and a waste of money not just for students, but for taxpayers who fund the GI Bill and other loan and grant dollars used by a large chunk of students to help pay to attend for-profit colleges.

Q. What’s the other side of the story?

A. For-profit colleges argue that they provide educational programs to students who have historically been left out of higher education and that the regulations would reduce the educational opportunities for students most in need of training programs. They say it’s unfair to target just career-oriented programs because poor outcomes can be found in other areas of higher education.

In the proposed regulation released earlier this year, another measurement recommended to judge these programs was the default rate of student loans. But that was removed in the final regulations because the Education Department said that doing so would create more streamlined regulations. The for-profit sector says that was done to appease publicly funded community colleges that would have gotten snared under that metric.

“We will vigorously contest all these issues to help ensure that students, employers and communities are not harmed by such an arbitrary and biased regulation,” Gunderson said.

Q. Are advocates for tougher regulations now happy?

A. Not necessarily. Some of them say the regulations don’t go far enough.

Rory O’Sullivan, deputy director of the advocacy group Young Invincibles, said the administration caved by scrapping the student loan default rate component.

“By failing to include a default rate standard, the administration ignores the most vulnerable students: those who withdraw from failing programs with debt but no degree,” O’Sullivan said.

Prosecutors to seek death penalty for Eric Frein, wanted in trooper's slaying

LORDS VALLEY, Pa. — A survivalist accused of ambushing two state troopers, killing one and seriously wounding the other, was captured by U.S. marshals near an abandoned airplane hangar, ending a seven-week manhunt that had rattled the nerves of area residents.

Prosecutors will seek the death penalty for Eric Frein, who meekly gave himself up when surrounded Thursday, authorities said.

"He did not just give up because he was tired," state police Commissioner Frank Noonan said. "He gave up because he was caught."

State police said they didn't know whether Frein, who was unarmed when captured, had been using the hangar as a shelter during his 48 days on the run, and they wouldn't say what they found there.

Frein was held in the handcuffs of the trooper he's accused of killing, Gov. Tom Corbett said Thursday at a nighttime news conference.

The quiet takedown of Frein, who kneeled and put his hands up when marshals approached him, ended weeks of tension and turmoil in the area, as authorities at times closed schools, canceled outdoor events and blockaded roads to pursue him. Residents grew weary of hearing helicopters overhead, while small businesses suffered mounting losses and town supervisors canceled a popular Halloween parade.

Frein is charged with opening fire outside the Blooming Grove barracks on Sept. 12, killing Cpl. Bryon Dickson and seriously wounding Trooper Alex Douglass. After his arrest Thursday near the abandoned hangar, he was placed in Dickson's car for the ride back to the barracks, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) away.

Douglass and his family and Dickson's family expressed "relief and gratitude" over Frein's arrest, Noonan said.

Police said they linked Frein to the ambush after a man walking his dog discovered his partly submerged SUV three days later in a swamp a few miles from the shooting scene. Inside, investigators found shell casings matching those found at the barracks as well as Frein's driver's license, camouflage face paint, two empty rifle cases and military gear.

Officials, saying Frein was armed and extremely dangerous, had urged residents to be alert and cautious. Using dogs, thermal imaging technology and other tools, law enforcement officials combed miles of forest as they hunted for Frein, whom they called an experienced survivalist at home in the woods.

They pursued countless tips and closed in on an area around Frein's parents' home in Canadensis after he used his cellphone to try contacting them and the signal was traced to a location about 3 miles away. At times police ordered nearby residents to stay inside or prevented them from returning home.

Trackers found items they believe Frein hid or abandoned in the woods — including soiled diapers, empty packs of Serbian cigarettes, an AK-47-style assault rifle and ammunition and two pipe bombs that were functional and capable of causing significant damage. They also discovered a journal, allegedly kept by Frein and found in a bag of trash at a hastily abandoned campsite, that offered a chilling account of the ambush and his subsequent escape into the woods. The journal's author described Dickson as falling "still and quiet" after being shot twice.

Police spotted a man they believed to be Frein at several points during the manhunt, but it was always from a distance, with the rugged terrain allowing him to keep them at bay. Police said he appeared to be treating the manhunt as a game.

Frein, 31, had expressed anti-law enforcement views online and to people who knew him. His criminal record appeared limited to a decade-old misdemeanor case involving items stolen from a World War II re-enactors event in upstate New York, for which he spent 109 days in jail.

Police found a U.S. Army manual called "Sniper Training and Employment" in his bedroom at his parents' house, and his father, a retired Army major, told authorities that his son is an excellent marksman who "doesn't miss," according to a police affidavit. Authorities believe Frein had been planning a confrontation with police for years, citing information they found on a computer used by him.

A man and a woman believed to be Frein's parents, reached separately by telephone on Thursday, declined to comment.

The manhunt for Frein in northeastern Pennsylvania had scrapped some plans for trick-or-treating. The chairman of Barrett Township's board of supervisors planned to meet with other town officials to try to salvage Halloween.

"No police were hurt. Nobody else was hurt. He didn't take any more lives. He didn't shoot anybody else, from what I understand," chairman Ralph Megliola said. "That's the best scenario."

Helen Blackmore, who lives in the heart of the search zone in Cresco, was ready for some normalcy.

"It was very crazy here. The helicopters were out all the time. Nobody was sleeping. Even today they were out," she said. "We're relieved. We're very relieved. We want things to get back to normal."

Frein belonged to a military re-enactors group, playing the part of a Serbian solder. He had a small role in a 2007 movie about a concentration camp survivor and helped with props and historical references on a documentary about World War I.

His 18-year-old sister, Tiffany Frein, earlier acknowledged that he "did something messed up" but told NBC News that he is "not a psycho."

Frein is charged with first-degree murder and various other offenses, including two counts of possession of weapons of mass destruction filed after police discovered the pipe bombs.

Dickson, at his funeral, was called a devoted husband and father and "impeccable" ex-Marine who took his work seriously but also enjoyed making wooden toys for his young sons and finding humor in everyday situations.

Douglass was shot in the pelvis and critically injured in the ambush, which took place during a late-night shift change. He remained hospitalized until Oct. 16, when he was discharged to a rehabilitation facility, state police said.

"If you attack troopers, and a civilized society, the Pennsylvania State Police will bring you to justice. Eric Frein is a coward," the Pennsylvania State Troopers Association said in a statement. "Cpl. Bryon K. Dickson II and Trooper Alex T. Douglass are true heroes."

Associated Press writers Alicia A. Caldwell in Washington and Maryclaire Dale in Philadelphia contributed to this report.

Foreign militants still flowing into Syria despite Islamic State airstrikes

WASHINGTON — More than 1,000 foreign fighters are streaming into Syria each month, a rate that has so far been unchanged by airstrikes against the Islamic State and efforts by other countries to stem the flow of departures, according to U.S. intelligence and counterterrorism officials.

The magnitude of the ongoing migration suggests that the U.S.-led air campaign has neither deterred significant numbers of militants from traveling to the region nor triggered such outrage that even more are flocking to the fight because of American intervention.

"The flow of fighters making their way to Syria remains constant, so the overall number continues to rise," a U.S. intelligence official said. U.S. officials cautioned, however, that there is a lag in the intelligence being examined by the CIA and other spy agencies, meaning it could be weeks before a change becomes apparent.

The trend line established during the past year would mean that the total number of foreign fighters in Syria exceeds 16,000, and the pace eclipses that of any comparable conflict in recent decades, including the 1980s war in Afghanistan.

U.S. officials have attributed the flows to a range of factors, including the sophisticated recruiting campaigns orchestrated by groups in Syria such as the Islamic State and the relative ease with which militants from the Middle East, North Africa and Europe can make their way to that country.

American officials stressed that the stability of the flow is not seen as a measure of the effectiveness of an air campaign that expanded beyond Iraq and into Syria late last month. The latest estimates indicate that strikes in Syria alone have killed about 460 members of the Islamic State — the group that has beheaded two American journalists and two British aid workers — as well as about 60 fighters from Jabhat al-Nusra, an al-Qaida affiliate.

The United States and its allies have carried out more than 600 strikes so far in Syria and Iraq, bombings aimed primarily at slowing the Islamic State's advances and allowing the Iraqi military and moderate opposition forces in Syria to regroup. Rear Adm. John Kirby, spokesman for the Pentagon, said this week that the strikes are "disrupting" the Islamic State's operations but acknowledged that any major offensive against the group "may still be a ways off."

Experts said the foreign fighter population is likely to grow significantly larger as the three-year-old conflict drags on.

"I don't think 15,000 really scratches the surface yet," said Andrew Liepman, a counterterrorism expert at Rand Corp. who former was the deputy director of the National Counterterrorism Center.

Since the start of the U.S.-led air campaign, analysts have sought to track whether the bombings would discourage would-be fighters or serve as a rallying cry for Islamists. Liepman said the steady numbers could mean that neither has occurred or, more likely, that both have happened to degrees that offset one another.

The air campaign "has probably discouraged some people and encouraged others," Liepman said.

He and others cautioned, however, that there are significant gaps in U.S. intelligence on the conflict in Syria, making it difficult to have a clear understanding of the scale and composition of the swelling population of foreign fighters.

The vast majority of those militants have come from other countries in the Middle East and North Africa. Tunisia has sent more fighters to Syria than any other nation.

More than 2,000 fighters have come from countries in Europe, carrying passports that would enable them to travel relatively freely in Western countries.

Many went to fight the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad and may pose no security threat beyond that country's civil war. But security officials have expressed mounting concern over more recent arrivals who have fought with the Islamic State or al-Nusra, which has a cell near Aleppo that was established to plot attacks against Western nations.

Britain, France, Germany and other European nations have taken increasingly aggressive measures over the past year to stem the flow of fighters to Syria, seizing passports, passing new antiterrorism measures and targeting suspects with stepped-up surveillance and arrests. U.S. officials have said that about 130 Americans have traveled to Syria or tried to do so.

Most militants entering Syria have done so through Turkey, a country that has recently sought to tighten control over its borders and root out Islamist networks that serve as pipelines for fighter.

U.S. officials said it could be too soon to see clear indications that such measures are working.

"The Europeans and other allies are taking steps upstream to stem the flow of their citizens to Syria, while at the downstream end, the Turks are taking action to keep their borders from being exploited by jihadists," the U.S. intelligence official said. "It could take some time for the dampening effect of these measures to start showing up in the foreign-fighter intelligence estimates."

Although U.S. officials have not made public estimates of the rate at which foreign fighters are flowing into Syria, they have provided totals that trace a clear trajectory. The 15,000 figure cited by the White House last month was up sharply from an estimate of 12,000 in July and 7,000 in March.

Washington Post staff writer Missy Ryan contributed to this report.

Off-base events

Events are as accurate as possible at press time. Since times or event schedules can change, please verify events before attending.

Japan

SAGA INTERNATIONAL BALLOON FIESTA 2014 (Saga prefecture): Oct. 30-Nov. 3; largest balloon event in Asia with 115 balloons from around the world; JR Nagasaki Honsen Balloon Saga Station; 0952-29-9000; www.sibf.jp/e.

TOKYO RAMEN SHOW 2014: Oct. 30-Nov. 3, 10 a.m.-9 p.m., until 6 p.m. Nov. 3; Japanese noodle dish shops from around Japan serve from 40 booths at Komazawa Park, 12-minute walk from Komazawa University Station on Tokyu Deien Toshi Line; 03-3490-3810.

27TH TOKYO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL: Through Oct. 31; 14 films selected from 1,373 entries among 92 nations compete in the main section. Robert De Niro and Tom Hanks are special guests; Toho Cinemas Roppongi Hills, Cinemart Roppongi and other movie theaters; 1,000-1,300-1,500-2,000 yen; 0570-007-506; http://2014.tiff-jp.net.

TOSHOGU SHRINE, FUTAHARA SHRINE, NIKKOZAN RINO TEMPLE NIGHT ILLUMINATION (Tochigi prefecture): Oct. 31-Nov. 2, 6-9 p.m.; illumination focusing on a five-story pagoda; 0288-50-1171; http://ift.tt/1xGX5eo.

DAIDOGEI WORLD CUP 2014 (Shizuoka prefecture): Oct. 31-Nov. 3; 92 street performers at Sunpu Koen and Shizuoka’s shopping districts; Shizuoka city, JR Shizuoka Station, one-hour Shinkansen ride from Tokyo; 1,100-1,600-2,100 yen; 054-205-9840; http://ift.tt/11AcMKN.

GOOD DESIGN EXHIBITION 2014 (Tokyo): Oct. 31-Nov. 4, 11 a.m.-8 p.m., until 6 p.m. Nov. 4; 100 Good Design awarded items displayed; 1,000 yen; Tokyo Midtown; Roppongi Station on Oedo-Line or a three-minute walk from Nogizaka Station on Chiyoda-Line or a 10-minute walk from Roppongi Station on Nanboku-Line; 03-6743-3776; www.g-mark.org.

YOKOSUKA OCEAN WALK (Kanagawa prefecture): Nov. 1, 7:30 a.m.-3 p.m.; 19 km walk, starting from Zushi Ocean Beach, followed by 14 km walk starting at Chojagasaki parking lot and 7 km walk starting at Sajimanohama Koen, along on Miura Peninsula; 045-227-0095.

AUTUMN BONSAI AND WILD GRASS EXHIBITION (Kanagawa prefecture): Nov. 1 & 2, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., until 3 p.m. on Sun.; featuring autumn bonsai (dwarf potted tree) along with local wild grass on display and on sale at Oppama Community Center, 12-minute walk from Oppama Station on Keikyu Line; 046-965-5404.

DREAM YOSAKOI FESTIVAL (Tokyo): Nov. 1, noon-9 p.m. & Nov. 2, 10 a.m.-9 p.m.; more than 6,000 people are expected to attend this festival, in which processions of 80 groups of dancers in colorful costumes parade through Odaiba areas; Daiba Station on Yurikamome (monorail); 03-5796-2550; http://ift.tt/1p9eaPe.

OKUTAMA FUREAI FESTIVAL (Tokyo): Nov. 1 & 2; local products on sale and local traditional entertainments scheduled; Okutama Sogo Undojo, 940 Hikawa, Okutama-cho; 0428-83-2295.

MASHIKO AUTUMN POTTERY FAIR (Tochigi prefecture): Nov. 1-4; 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; about 500 shops sell Mashiko wares; Mashiko-machi, Haga-gun, Tochigi prefecture, take Moka Line to Mashiko Station, 63 miles north of Tokyo; 0285-701120; blog.mashiko-kankou.org.

MUSICAL “CHICAGO” (Tokyo): Nov. 1-9 & Dec. 10-19; commemorating 100th anniversary of funding Takarazuka, musical group performed by women; Tokyo International Forum, 3-5-1 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, one-minute walk from JR Yurakucho Station; 5,000-9,000-13,000 yen; Kyodo Tokyo 0570-550-799.

BUNKYO CHRYSANTHEMUM FESTIVAL (Tokyo): Nov. 1-23, 6 a.m.-sunset; 2,000 chrysanthemums in the precincts of Yushima Tenjin Shrine; free; Yushima Station on Chiyoda Line; 03-3836-0753.

FUJI KAWAGUCHIKO AUTUMN LEAVES FESTIVAL (Yamanashi prefecture): Nov. 1-24, 9 a.m.-8 p.m.; see maple leaves in autumn red along Fuji Kawaguchikohan Maple Corridor (Kawaguchiko Art Museum street), local products and crafts on sale, also and illumination on Maple Corridor until 10 p.m. at Nashigawa (north side of lake); 0555-72-3168; tinyurl.com/p3f3ygr.

MOUNT TSUKUBA MAPLE TREE FESTIVAL (Ibaraki prefecture): Nov. 1-30; hike, events including taiko (Japanese drums) performance, making and tasting rice cake, open-air tea ceremony and more at Mount Tsukuba Cable Car Summit Station; also see illuminated mountain view from cable car, every 20 minutes 5-8 p.m. weekends; 40-minute bus ride from Tsukuba Express Tsukuba Station; 1,050 yen adults, 530 yen children until 5 p.m., 1,000 yen adults, free children after 5 p.m.; 029-869-8333.

MOUNT TAKAO MAPLE TREE FESTIVAL (Tokyo): Nov. 1-30; hike and view maple trees turning into autumn red, along with events such as new sake tasting, local crafts and more at Takao Forest Center, Kiyotaki Station on cable car; JR Takao Station or Takaosanguchi Station on Keio Line; 042-643-3115.

THE WORLD OF TIM BURTON (Tokyo): Nov. 1-Jan. 4, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. daily, until 11 p.m. weekends; featuring Tim Burton’s 500 artworks: oil paintings, sketches, videos and more; Mori Art Museum; Roppongi Station on Hibiya Line or four-minute walk from Roppongi Station on Oedo Line; 1,800 adults, 1,300 yen student, 800 yen senior junior student; 03-5777-8600; www.tim-burton.jp.

TOKYO BIG SIX BASEBALL LEAGUE: Through Nov. 2; Jingu Stadium, six-minute walk from JR Suidobashi Station; 1,300 yen for infield bleachers, 800 yen for outfield bleachers; 03-3409-5610.

89TH ALL JAPAN TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS (Tokyo): Nov. 2-9; Top Japanese tennis players compete at Ariake Colosseum, 10-minute walk from Ariake Station on Yurikamome (monorail); 1,000-1,500-2,000-2,500-3,500-4,500 yen adults, 500 yen students Nov. 7, 1,500-2,000-3,500-5,000-6,000 yen adults, 500 yen students Nov. 8-9, free Nov. 2-6; 03-3481-2321.

OEDO ANTIQUE FAIR (Tokyo): Nov. 2 & 16, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.; in the courtyard of Tokyo International Forum, 3-5-1 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, one-minute walk from Yurakucho Station, JR Yamanote Line; 03-5805-1093.

KANDA SECONDHAND BOOK FESTIVAL (Tokyo): Through Nov. 3; at bookstores on Jinbocho Omote-dori streets, a well-known secondhand bookstore district; one-minute walk from Jimbocho Station on Tozai-Line or five-minute walk from JR Ochanomizu Station on Sobu-Line; 03-3293-0161.

NIKKO SHIN-SOBA FESTIVAL 2014 (Tochigi prefecture): Nov. 3, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.; enjoy tasting soba (buckwheat noodles), plus a soba-eating derby and soba making at Kawamata Onsen (Hot Spring) Undo Koren, 70-minute ride from Imaichi I.C. on Nikko-Utsunomiya Express; 0288-22-1525.

HAKONE DAIMYO PROCESSION (Kanagawa prefecture): Nov. 3, 10 a.m.-2:30 p.m.; the procession from Hakone Yumoto Elementary School to Fujiya Hotel is a re-enactment of the Edo-period procession of daimyo warlords on their way to Edo Castle to pay their respects to the shogun; Hakone Station on Odakyu Line; 0460-85-7751.

AUTUMN ROSE FESTIVAL IN IKUTA RYOKUCHI GARDEN (Kanagawa prefecture): Through Nov. 3, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., 9 a.m. on weekends, closed Mon.; 4,000 trees and shrubs and 440 varieties of roses; free; 15-minute walk from Shukugawara Station on JR Nambu-Line; 044-978-5270.

KAGURAZAKA MACHITOBI FESTA 2014 (Tokyo): Through Nov. 3, 10 a.m.-7 p.m.; events on stage of a hill and an alley, including experiencing an entertainment session in a private room with geisha girls, drawing paintings on a street, Japanese traditional entertainment of Noh and rakugo as well as modern art at Kagurazaka areas; Iidabashi Station on Yurakucho, Nanpuku and Tozai Lines; 03-6426-1728.

COSMOS GARDEN (Yokosuka): Through Nov. 3; one million cosmos flowers in bloom and 2 p.m. Oct. 26 & Nov. 3; visitors can pick the flowers; Kurihama Flower World, 1 Shinmei-cho, 15-minute walk from Kurihama Station, Keikyu and JR Yokosuka Lines; free; 046-833-8282.

SHOWA KINEN PARK COSMOS FESTIVAL (western Tokyo): Through Nov. 3, 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m., until 6 p.m. weekends in September; live concert 11 a.m.-4 p.m. at Minna-no Harappa on Oct. 4; Showa Kinen Park, 3173 Midori-cho, Tachikawa city, one-minute walk from Nishi-Tachikawa Station, JR Ome Line; 042-528-1751; http://ift.tt/KUQxPT.

YOKOHAMA TRIENNALE (Kanagawa prefecture): Through Nov. 3; art exhibition with the theme “Art Fahrenheit 451: Sailing into the sea of oblivion” at Yokohama Museum of Art and Shinko Pier Exhibition, three-minute walk from Minato Mirai Station on Minato Mirai Line or 10-minute walk from JR Sakuragicho Station; 2,400 yen adults, 1,800 yen college students, 1,400 yen senior high school students; 045-671-2278; http://ift.tt/WFWw7Q.

64TH ODAWARA CASTLE CHRYSANTHEMUM FESTIVAL (Kanagawa prefecture): Nov. 3-6, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.; featuring more than 700 bowls of chrysanthemum flowers at Odawara Castle main enclosure open space, opening ceremony 11 a.m. Nov. 3, along with taiko drum performance; 10-minute walk from JR Odawara Station on Tokaido Line; 0465-22-5002; http://ift.tt/1xGX5ez.

NAGASAKI HUIS TEN BOSCH GARDENING WORLD CUP SHOW (Nagasaki prefecture): Through Nov. 4, 9 a.m.-8 p.m.; 15 gardens designed by world top-ranked gardeners at this Dutch-style theme park; 0570-064-110; http://ift.tt/Rg61sL.

AUTUMN ROSE FESTIVAL IN JINDAI BOTANICAL GARDEN (Tokyo): Through Nov. 4, closed Mon.; 100,000 trees and shrubs, and 5,100 varieties of roses grow here, and 2 p.m. concerts at Rose Garden Terrace Oct. 13, 20 & 27; 5-31-10 Jindaiji Motomachi, Chofu City, bus from Mitaka Station, JR Chuo Line, or Chofu Station, Keio Line, Jindaiji Shokubutsu Koen Mae bus stop; 500 yen to enter; 0424-83-2300; www.tokyo-park.or.jp.

22ND INTERNATIONAL QUILT WEEK YOKOHAMA 2014: Nov. 6-8, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., until 5 p.m. Thu.; more than 200 quilt arts from around the world; Pacifico Yokohama Exhibition Halls A B, three-minute walk from Minato-Mirai Station, Minato-Mirai Line; 1,300 yen in advance, 1,600 yen at door; 03-3816-5530; http://ift.tt/1p9e8XP.

CHIGASAKI BONSAI EXHIBITION (Kanagawa prefecture): Nov. 7, 1-5 p.m., Nov. 8, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. & Nov. 9, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.; featuring bonsai (dwarf potted tree) along with local wild grass on display at Chigasaki Shimin Bunka Center, two-minute walk from JR Chigasaki Station on Tokaido Line; 0467-82-1111.

CYCLE MODE INTERNATIONAL 2014 (Chiba prefecture): Nov. 7-9, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., until 5 p.m. on Sun.; the biggest sporting bicycle exhibition in Japan, features bicycles, bicycle components, cycling accessories and apparel and outdoor, equipment by 500 brands, as well as test rides at Makuhari Messe, five-minute walk from JR Kaihin Makuhari Station on Keiyo line or a seven-minute walk from JR Kaihin Makuhari Station on Keiyo line; 1,100 yen/advance ticket, 1,300 yen/ticket, 500 yen women on Sat., free ages 17 and younger; 03-5775-5757; http://ift.tt/1p9eaPk.

HIROSAKI CASTLE AUTUMN CHRYSANTHEMUM AND MAPLE LEAF FESTIVAL (Aomori prefecture): Through Nov. 9, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; chrysanthemum in bloom and maple leaves turning in the botanical garden in Hirosaki Park, one-minute walk from a bus stop of Shiyakusho-mae Koen-mae after taking a bus at No. 6; 300 yen adults, 100 yen children; 0172-35-3131; http://ift.tt/1p9e9e5.

YOKOHAMA HISTORIC CAR DAY (Kanagawa prefecture): Nov. 9, 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m.; featuring more than 150 mini cars produced before 1974 at Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse; free; Garage Grace 045-894-6690.

HOKUSAI FROM THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON (Tokyo): Through Nov. 9, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., until 8 p.m. Fri., closed Tuesday; features selected 140 arts created by Hokusai Katsushika (1760-1849); Ueno Royal Museum, three-minute walk from JR Ueno Station; 1,500 yen adults, 1,200 yen college and senior high school students, 500 yen children; 03-5777-8600.

GRAND SUMO TOURNAMENT — KYUSHU BASHO (Fukuoka prefecture): Nov. 9-23; year-end tournament with duel between Hakuho and his rivals, Kakuryu and Harumafuji, at Kyushu Basho; 03-5608-3012; www.sumo.or.jp/eng.

TORINO ICHI (Tokyo): Nov. 10 & 22; some Shinto shrines hold a festival of the rooster, on the days of the rooster, which lasts through the night and the largest festival is at Otori Shrine in Asakusa and rakes are sold to “rake in” good fortune.

33RD JAPANTEX 2014 – INTERIOR TREND SHOW (Tokyo): Nov. 12-14, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; featuring interior fabrics and interior products by 200 dealers at Tokyo Big Sight East Exhibition Halls 1; 1,000 yen adults; 03-3433-4521; www.japantex.jp.

SHICHI-GO-SAN: Nov. 15 is a day of prayer for the healthy growth of young children. Shichi-go-san translates to seven, five, three. Around Japan, 3-year-old boys and girls, 5-year-old boys and 7-year-old girls visit a Shinto shrine with their parents. Most girls wear kimonos and most boys don haori jackets and hakama trousers when making their Shichi-go-san visit. One of the most popular destinations in Tokyo is Hie Shrine in Akasaka.

ASAKUSA CHRYSANTHEMUM FESTIVAL (Tokyo): Through Nov. 15; Asakusa Sensoji Temple, five-minute walk from Asakusa Station on Ginza-Line; free; 03-3844-1221.

AUTUMN ROSE FESTIVAL AT KEISEI ROSE GARDEN (Chiba prefecture): Through Nov. 16, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., open at 8 a.m. on Oct. 25, 26, Nov. 1, 2, 3, 8 & 9; varieties of attractions such as rose garden tour, flower arrangement by the artists, live concerts and more; Keisei Rose Garden; 1,000 yen adults, 700 yen seniors, 400 yen junior high school students, 200 yen children; 15-minute walk from Yachiyo Midorigaoka Station on Toyo Rapid Railway; 047-459-0106.

TAKAHATA FUDOSON CHRYSANTHEMUM FESTIVAL (Tokyo): Through Nov. 17, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.; 1,500 chrysanthemum in the precincts of Takahata Fudoson, five-minute walk from Takahata Fudoson Station on Keio-Line, 30-minute ride from Shinjuku Station; free; 042-591-0032.

SANKEIEN GARDEN – CHRYSANTHEMUM REDISCOVERY (Kanagawa prefecture): Through Nov. 23, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., daily; chrysanthemum and dwarf potted chrysanthemum on display; 10-minute bus ride from JR Negishi Station; 500 yen adults, 300 yen seniors, 200 yen children; http://ift.tt/1p9eaPq; 045-621-0634/5.

KUNISADA UTAGAWA: 150TH ANNIVERSARY OF HIS DEATH (Tokyo): Through Nov. 24, 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m.; ukiyo-e of his work on display; Ukiyo-e Ota Memorial Museum of Art, five-minute walk from JR Harajuku Station; 1,000 yen adults, 700 yen senior high school and college students, kids free; 03-3403-0880; http://ift.tt/1xGX5uZ.

KASAMA INARI JINJA CHRYSANTHEMUM FESTIVAL (IBARAKI prefecture): Through Nov. 24; festival, started in 1890, is Japan’s oldest; also features Kasama Inari Museum and Kasama Inari special Chrysanthemum decorated dolls exhibition; 70-minute ride from Ueno Station on Joban Line to Tomobe, then take a 10-minute ride to Kasama Station on Mito Line; 800 yen adults, 400 yen children; 0296-73-0001; www.kasama.or.jp.

KOYASAN 1200TH ANNIVERSARY TREASURES OF THE SACRED MOUNTAINS (Tokyo): Through Dec. 7, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., until 8 p.m. Fri. & Sat.; numerous temple treasures, focused on the most preeminent Buddhist artifacts, from personal articles associated with Kukai and the temple’s founding to Buddhist sculptures and paintings based in Shingon esoteric doctrine; Suntory Museum of Art of Tokyo Midtown; 1,300 yen adults, 1,000 yen college and senior high school students, kids free; Roppongi Station on Hibiya Line or Nogizaka Station on Chiyoda Line; 03-3479-8600; www.suntory.com/sma.

GALLERIA DEGLI UFFIZI (Tokyo): Through Dec. 14, 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m., until 8 p.m. Fridays and Nov. 1 & 2, Dec. 5, 13 & 14; featuring 80 oil paintings by the artists Sandro Botticelli, Agnolo Bronzino and more from Galleria Degli Uffizi in Firenze, Italy, at Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, seven-minute walk from JR Ueno Station; 1,600 yen adults, 1,300 yen college students, 800 yen senior high school students, ages 15 & younger free; 03-3823-6920; http://ift.tt/1xGX5v3.

YATSUGADAKE SHIN-SOBA FESTIVAL 2014 (Yamanashi prefecture): Through Dec. 21; taste new soba (buckwheat noodles) at 34 restaurants near Mount Yatsugatake areas; Nagasaka and Kobuchizawa I.C. on Chuo Express; 0551-48-3457; http://ift.tt/1xGX5v5.

FERDINAND HODLER: TOWARDS RHYTHMIC IMAGES (Tokyo): Through Jan. 12, 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m., until 8 p.m. Fri., closed Mon.; commemorating 150th anniversary of diplomatic relations with Switzerland and Japan, featuring Swiss artist of Ferdinand Hodler (1853-1918) including 100 of his paintings; National Museum of Western Art, one-minute walk from JR Ueno station; 1,600 yen adults, 1,200 yen college students, 800 yen senior high school students; 03-5777-8600; www.nmwa.go.jp/en.

WILLEM DE KOONING EXHIBITION (Tokyo): Through Jan. 12, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., until 8 p.m. on Fridays; featuring 27 arts from Kooning (1904-1997), one of the leaders of abstract expressionism, which flourished in the U.S. after World War II; Bridgestone Museum of Art, five-minute walk from JR Tokyo Station, No. 6 Exit; 800 yen adults, 600 yen seniors, 500 yen senior high school and college students, kids free; 03-5777-8600; http://ift.tt/1p9eb5K.

Okinawa

SHURI CASTLE FESTIVAL (Naha): Oct. 31-Nov. 3; a reproduction of the ceremony during the Ryukyu Dynasty era to welcome envoys and Okinawan citizens in period costume parade from the castle to Kokusai-dori Street 12:30-2:30 p.m. Nov. 2, and another traditional parade in costume marches from the castle to Ryutan Street is 12:50-3:30 p.m., Nov. 3; Shuri Castle Park, 1-2 Shuri Kinjo-cho; 098-886-2020; http://ift.tt/1p9eb5L.

ISHIGAKI MATSURI 2014: Nov. 1 & 2; live performance, kids singing contest, traditional entertainment and crafts on sale at Shinei Koen, as well as a parade from Shinkawa Elementary School to Ishigaki City Hall 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and fireworks 8:40 p.m. Sun.; 098-082-1533.

TSUBOYA YACHIMUN STREET FESTIVAL: Nov. 1 & 2, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; live performance by Okinawans, traditional events and more at Yachimun Street, famous for Tsuboya pottery shops near Kokusai Street of Naha; 098-866-6661.

2015 MISS OKINAWA BEAUTY CONTEST: Nov. 2, 2:30 p.m.; Okinawa Convention Center; free; 098-859-6126; www.oki-conven.jp/en.

19TH OKINAWA WOODY FAIR: Nov. 6-9, 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; wooden furniture, accessories and toys produced on Okinawa on sale at Plaza House, shopping Center Fair Mall 1F, 2F & 3F; 098-877-8588.

TOUR DE OKINAWA BICYCLE RACE 2014: Nov. 8 & 9; events and races for more than 4,400 participants including men’s championship race (210 km), eight cycling events and 13 road races for citizens; NPO Tour de Okinawa Office 0980-54-3174; http://ift.tt/1xGX3U4.

102ND AUTUMN ALL OKINAWA ISLANDS BULLFIGHTING: Nov. 9, noon; Okinawa bullfighting (bull vs. bull) is particularly popular in central Okinawa and event also features eisa dance; Ishikawa Multi-purpose Dome, Uruma city, 70-minute drive from Naha Airport; 3,000 yen; 098-965-4441.

THE 34TH TSUBOYA POTTERY FESTIVAL: Nov. 21-24, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; Tsuboya pottery masters exhibit their finest works, including jars to other goods, sold for 20-30 percent off the market price. Visit booths, including a pottery square, where people can make shisa (lion dog) masks and use the pottery wheel; Naha Tsuboya Elementary School; 098-866-3284.

South Korea

ASIA SONG FESTIVAL (Busan): Nov. 2, 6 p.m.; at Busan Asiad Main Stadium; 5,000 won; +82-2-1330; asiasongfestival.com.

IKSAN TEN MILLION CHRYSANTHEMUM FESTIVAL (North Jeolla province): Through Nov. 2; features outdoor chrysanthemum exhibition, chrysanthemum artwork contest, and more at Iksan Jungang Sports Complex; +82-2-1330; http://ift.tt/1xGX4am.

MASON GAGOPA CHRYSANTHEMUM FESTIVAL: Through Nov. 2; exhibitions, culture programs, food tasting, live performance and more; Masonhang Port, Wharf 1; take an express bus to Mason Express Bus Terminal, then take Bus 703 and get off at Jeil Girls’ High School; +82-2-1330.

JEJU OLLE WALKING FESTIVAL: Nov. 6-8; walk along the scenic roads of Jeju Island, the most popular vacation destination in Korea; 20,000 won; +82-2-1330; http://ift.tt/1xGX5Lq.

CHEONGSONG APPLE FESTIVAL (North Gyeongsang province): Nov. 7-10; to promote the excellent quality of apples grown in Cheongsong; +82-2-1330; http://ift.tt/1xGX4ar.

SEOUL LANTERN FESTIVAL (Seoul): Nov. 7-23; hundreds of lanterns, with a unique design and story, floated on Cheonggyecheon Stream, three-minute walk from Jonggak Station (Seoul Subway Line 1), Exit 4 or 5; www.visitseoul.net; +82-2-1330.

HAMPYEONG GRAND CHRYSANTHEMUM FESTIVAL (South Jeolla province): Through Nov. 9; attractions at Hampyeong Expo Park; take a bus to Hampyeong Bus Terminal from Seoul Central City Terminal, then walk about 10 minute to the festival site; +82-2-1330.

SUNCHANG FERMENTED SOYBEAN FESTIVAL (North Jeolla province): Oct. 30-Nov. 2; hot sauce cooking competition, making soybean malt & hot sauce rice cakes, folk art festival, traditional tofu-making and more; Sunchang Traditional Red Pepper Paste Folk Village; take an intercity bus to Sunchang from Seoul Central City Bus Terminal; +82-2-1330; http://ift.tt/1p9e9uF.

JEONGEUP NATIONAL BULLFIGHTING FESTIVAL (North Jeolla province): Oct. 30-Nov. 3; Korean bullfighting is two bulls fighting each other, and more; Naejangsan National Park; take a bus to Jeongeup from Seoul Central City Bus Terminal; +82-2-1330; culture.jeongeup.go.kr.

MUSICAL, “CAVALIA” (Seoul): Nov. 5-16, Big Top Theater in Jamsil Sports Complex, 50,000-250,000 won.

FRANKENSTEIN, THE MUSICAL (Seoul): Through Nov. 9; Seoul Arts Center, Towol Theater, 30,000-60,0000 won; http://ift.tt/1p9eb5Z.

JUMP (Seoul): Through Dec. 31; comic martial arts performance, including Korea’s Taekwondo and Taekkyeon; Kyunghyang Art Hill; 40,000-60,000 won ages 4+; +82-2-1330.

THE MUSICAL “THE CROWN PRINCE RUDOLF” (Seoul): Through Jan. 4; D Club Art Center; 60,000-80,000-110,000-130,000 won; http://ift.tt/1p9eb5Z.

To see your events here: SSPEDTlibrary@stripes.com

Eric Frein, military re-enactor suspected in trooper's death, captured after manhunt

DUNMORE, Pa. — A survivalist accused of ambushing two state troopers, leaving one dead and seriously injuring the other, was captured Thursday, ending a seven-week manhunt for him, authorities said.

State police confirmed Eric Frein was taken into custody but released no details. Frein is charged with opening fire outside the Blooming Grove barracks on Sept. 12, killing Cpl. Bryon Dickson and seriously wounding another trooper.

Police said they linked him to the ambush after a man walking his dog discovered his partly submerged SUV three days later in a swamp a few miles from the shooting scene. Inside, investigators found shell casings matching those found at barracks as well as Frein's driver's license, camouflage face paint, two empty rifle cases and military gear.

Saying Frein was armed and extremely dangerous, officials had closed schools and urged residents to be alert and cautious. Using dogs, thermal imaging technology and other tools, law enforcement officials combed miles of forest as they hunted for Frein, whom they called an experienced survivalist at home in the woods.

They pursued countless tips and closed in on an area around Frein's parents' home in Canadensis after he used his cellphone to try contacting them and the signal was traced to a location about 3 miles away. At times police ordered nearby residents to stay inside or prevented them from returning home.

Trackers found items they believe Frein hid or abandoned in the woods — including soiled diapers, empty packs of Serbian cigarettes, an AK-47-style assault rifle and ammunition and two pipe bombs that were functional and capable of causing significant damage. They also discovered a journal, allegedly kept by Frein and found in a bag of trash at a hastily abandoned campsite, that offered a chilling account of the ambush and his subsequent escape into the woods. The journal's author described Dickson as falling "still and quiet" after being shot twice.

Police spotted a man they believed to be Frein at several points during the manhunt, but it was always from a distance, with the rugged terrain allowing him to keep them at bay. Police said he appeared to be treating the manhunt as a game.

Frein expressed anti-law enforcement views online and to people who knew him. His criminal record appears limited to a decade-old misdemeanor case involving items stolen from a World War II re-enactors event in upstate New York, for which he spent 109 days in jail.

Police found a U.S. Army manual called "Sniper Training and Employment" in his bedroom at his parents' house, and his father, a retired Army major, told authorities that his son is an excellent marksman who "doesn't miss," according to a police affidavit. Authorities think he had been planning a confrontation with police for years, citing information they found on a computer used by Frein.

Frein's parents, reached by telephone on Thursday, declined to comment.

Frein belonged to a military re-enactors group, playing the part of a Serbian solder. He had a small role in a 2007 movie about a concentration camp survivor and helped with props and historical references on a documentary about World War I.

The FBI named him to its 10 most wanted list.

His 18-year-old sister, Tiffany Frein, earlier acknowledged that he "did something messed up" but told NBC News that he is "not a psycho."

Frein is charged with first-degree murder and various other offenses, including two counts of possession of weapons of mass destruction filed after police discovered the pipe bombs.

Dickson, at his funeral, was called a devoted husband and father and "impeccable" ex-Marine who took his work seriously but also enjoyed making wooden toys for his young sons and finding humor in everyday situations. Trooper Alex Douglass was shot in the pelvis and critically injured in the ambush, which took place during a late-night shift change.

Douglass remained hospitalized until Oct. 16, when he was discharged to a rehabilitation facility.