Mexico City  - The death toll rose to two on Sunday in a small plane crash in northern Mexico a day earlier.

Two passengers died of their injuries and three others were also severely injured when the Cessna crashed and caught on fire less than half a kilometre from the airstrip at the Ramos Arizpe airport in Coahuila state, officials said.

The occupants, reporters and provincial government officials, suffered severe burns and were brought to a clinic in San Diego, California. One of the journalists was practically unhurt.

Washington  - A passenger plane carrying more than 100 people skidded off the runway and caught fire in Denver, Colorado, on Saturday evening.

Dozens of people were injured in the accident that occurred before take-off at 6:18 pm (0118 GMT), with 38 people taken to hospital, an airport spokeswoman said in a broadcast news conference.

Most of the hospitalized had broken bones.

However, there were no fatalities and none of the injuries were critical, the spokeswoman said. The airport remained open.

The Boeing 737 operated by Continental Airlines was carrying 107 passengers and five crew members headed to Houston.

During take-off, the plane skidded off the runway and landed in a ditch.

Hong Kong  - Hong Kong's main airline Cathay Pacific said Sunday it had been swamped with more than 1,600 requests for unpaid leave next year from cabin crew and pilots.

The airline said it had received requests for more than 55,000 days off after making the controversial offer at the end of November of unsalaried time off to combat the economic downturn.

Cabin crew have applied for a total of more than 50,000 days of unpaid leave in 2009 - almost a full week for every flight attendant - while pilots had applied for more than

Budapest  - Talks between management of Budapest Ferihegy International Airport and the representatives of striking workers ended in acrimony Friday, with both sides accusing the other of unlawful conduct.

Despite the ongoing strike, the airport had returned to near normal level of service by Thursday, albeit only through one of three passenger terminals, as many union members have gone back to work, and foreign temporary staff have been brought in.

The union government would consider the civil aviation ministry's proposal to defer new ground handling policy by six months. The policy is aimed to allow handling of passengers, ramp and aircraft by air port operators instead of private carriers. The air port operators are proposed to offer these services through a specialized agency. State-owned National Aviation Company Ltd (Nacil) and Singapore Airport Terminal Services (SATS) can be selected for such services at various Indian airports. The policy is scheduled to be effective from January.

Riga  - The management of the Latvian national airline, airBaltic, will buy out the 47.2-per-cent stake of the company currently owned by Scandinavian airline SAS, the companies said Thursday evening.

An official airBaltic source confirmed the news to Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa after an SAS company statement said a deal had been reached.