Visitors to Air Force Museum drop for third consecutive year
The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force says the number of visitors to the southwest Ohio facility dropped for the third straight year.
The Dayton Daily News reports about 829,000 visitors came to the museum in 2017 compared to 850,000 the previous year. The museum reported nearly 860,000 visitors in 2015.
The museum has seen more than 1 million visitors in earlier years, largely drawn by events. There were about 150 fewer events in 2017 compared to the previous year.
Museum officials say they changed how they counted visitors in 2015 by only tracking people who passed through the security check-in point. It also stopped counting staff and volunteers.
Officials expect thousands of visitors in May for the opening of a new World War II bomber exhibit. AP
Jordan gets German military vehicles for border control
Germany’s defense minister says her country is delivering millions of dollars’ worth of equipment to Jordan’s military to improve the kingdom’s border surveillance.
Jordan borders Syria and Iraq, where Islamic State extremists held large areas until being pushed back in recent months by a U.S.-led military campaign. Jordan is a key ally in the battle against IS.
German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen attended a handover ceremony near Jordan’s capital, Amman, Jan. 14.
Germany is providing two training planes and dozens of military support vehicles to Jordan, worth a total of $22 million.
Von der Leyen says the equipment is meant to “improve mobility at the border,” as part of a plan to support Jordan.
She praised Jordan as an anchor of stability in a violence-wracked region. AP
Navy veteran sues S.C. hospital for cocaine misdiagnosis
A U.S. Navy veteran is suing a hospital that he says misdiagnosed him as being a cocaine addict instead of suffering from gallbladder and pancreas disease.
The State newspaper in Columbia reports Eric Walker has sued Dorn Veterans Hospital in Columbia, S.C., for its treatment of him when he went to the emergency room in May 2015 with severe abdominal pain.
The lawsuit filed in December says Walker’s urine sample was switched with that of another patient. It says Dorn discharged Walker and offered him pamphlets about treatment of substance abuse.
Attorney Todd Lyle says the 47-year-old Walker was treated several days later at Lexington Medical Center Hospital.
Walker is seeking unspecified damages.
The U.S. Attorney’s office in Columbia likely will represent Dorn and the Veterans Administration. It declined comment. AP
Airbus in talks with German prosecutors to end jet probe
Airbus says it is in talks with German prosecutors to end their investigation into alleged irregularities in the sale of combat aircraft to Austria.
The aviation and defense company says that “once concluded, Airbus will disclose the result.”
The company described as “pure speculation” a report Jan. 13 by German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung that Airbus might avoid going to trial by paying a fine of 70-80 million euros ($85-97 million).
Munich prosecutors are investigating whether bribes were paid to secure the sale of 15 used Eurofighter Typhoon planes to Austria in 2003.
Separately, Airbus said it has been notified of an arbitration ruling in a case involving subsidiary Matra Defense, ordering it to pay 104 million euros for breach of contract in the 1992 sale of missiles to Taiwan. AP