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LONDON—A U.K. court has charged three men from the same family a range of serious terror offences in a Northern Ireland court.

Paul John Duffy, Damien Duffy, and Shane Duffy, all appeared at Lisburn Magistrates Court on Saturday to face charges of conspiracy to murder, collecting information likely to be of use to terrorists, planning acts of terrorism and conspiring to cause an explosion. Paul John Duffy also faced an extra charge of directing dissident republican terrorism. All three are held in custody.

The three were part of a group of seven people arrested last week in relation to a terror investigation.

CAMARILLO, Calif.—A civilian piloting a military-contracted jet was killed when his aircraft crashed into a Southern California farm field as he completed a training exercise, authorities said.

The privately owned Hawker Hunter jet trainer went down Friday near Naval Base Ventura County, fire department spokesman Steve Swindle said. The pilot was the only person aboard.

The high-performance military-style aircraft, contracted to play the enemy in training exercises, took off from the base with another jet trainer and went down as it was returning.

Federal investigators are trying to determine what caused the plane to crash about two miles from the airport runway.

“He was on final approach. He went down,” Swindle said. He said the sky in the area was “bright and crystal clear.”

The farm field where the plane crashed is between Point Mugu State Park, Camarillo Airport, and the Naval base, some 50 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.

Debris from the crash covered an area about the size of a football field, Swindle said. There were no injuries on the ground and there was no fire, he said.

Sergio Mendoza, 23, was working in a nearby celery field when he saw the two planes flying together.

He told the Ventura County Star he saw one jet on fire and it began breaking apart in the sky as he lost sight of it.

Naval and fire personnel were at the crash site and investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board would take over the investigation, Swindle said.

The British-built, single-seat Hawker Hunter was owned by Airborne Tactical Advantage Co. of Newport News, Va., known as ATAC. It provides aerial training to the military, including the Navy’s elite Fighter Weapons School.

Matt “Race” Bannon, director of business development for ATAC, confirmed that the pilot was also from the company but would not identify him or give any details until relatives were notified.

“Our concern right now is with the family,” Bannon said.

The cause of the crash was not immediately known. “I won’t even speculate as to anything,” Bannon said.

Following company procedure after accidents, ATAC was immediately halting all its flights.

The Naval base uses ATAC planes and pilots to provide adversarial support for its fleet of ships out of San Diego, base spokesman Vance Vasquez said.

“They go out and play the bad guy, Vasquez said, “mimicking the enemy, jamming their radar, testing the fleet’s defenses.”

On March 6, one of the company’s Israeli-built F-21 Kfir jets crashed into a building at Naval Air Station Fallon, Nev., killing the pilot. ATAC said at the time that although the investigation was continuing, there was no question that erratic and severe weather that had not been forecast contributed to the accident.

Friday’s crash occurred on the anniversary of the crash of a commercial aerial refueling tanker during takeoff from the Ventura base’s air station at Point Mugu. All three crewmembers escaped on May 18, 2011, before fire destroyed the Boeing 707 registered to Omega Air Inc. of San Antonio, Texas.

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Associated Press writers Andrew Dalton and Robert Jablon in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

“This is like kissing your sister. With all the drumbeats and hype, I don’t think there’ll be barroom bragging tonight.” — John Fitzgibbon, founder of IPO Scoop, a research firm, after Facebook’s flat debut Friday on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

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“They’re hard people to get along with, those brothers. Otherwise I’d still be in the band. … I’m surprised it took this long. I predicted this was going to happen a lot sooner. I lost money on that bet!” — Former Van Halen frontman Sammy Hagar to the AP after the band postponed dozens of shows this summer that had been scheduled for months, without giving a reason.

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“Thousands of thoughts are surging to my mind.” — Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng to the AP after he was hurriedly taken from a hospital Saturday and boarded a plane that took off for the United States, closing a nearly monthlong diplomatic tussle that had tested U.S.-China relations.

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ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan—The Central Asian nation of Turkmenistan has earned another spot in the record books with the world’s largest Ferris wheel in an enclosed space.

State newspaper Neutral Turkmenistan reported Saturday that Amanda Mochan of the Guinness Book of World Records was on hand for the unveiling of the Ferris wheel, which stands 47 meters (154 feet) high and cost $90 million to construct.

This natural gas-rich nation has developed a fixation for record-breaking. In 2001, it was recognized as having woven the world’s largest carpet. In 2008, it claimed the title for the world’s tallest flagpole, although it has since been overtaken by North Korea, Azerbaijan and Tajikistan.

The 24-cabin Ferris wheel is enclosed in a glass-fronted snow-white steel structure that also houses the Alem entertainment center. Facilities include a bowling alley, two cinema screens, a restaurant, and a planetarium equipped with star-gazing equipment.

Over two decades, since former Soviet Turkmenistan gained independence, the capital, Ashgabat, has been transformed from a drab provincial backwater into a city packed with grand and idiosyncratic buildings.

The body of the structure housing the Ferris wheel is built in the shape of the eight-sided star of Oguz Khan — a legendary Turkic Khan described as the progenitor of Turkmens — and is decorated in national motifs. The roundness of the building, which is topped by a 17-meter spire, lends it the appearance of a colossal sundial hovering above a massive pedestal.

State media reported that the observation wheel was built by Turkish company Polimeks, which accounts for the vast bulk of major projects in Ashgabat together with Bouygues of France.

Polimeks built Ashgabat’s Arch of Neutrality, a three-legged 75-meter-high arch topped by a gold-plated statue of the idiosyncratic late President Saparmurat Niyazov that rotated so that it would always face the sun. That monument has since been moved to the edge of the city, and Niyazov no longer rotates.

Turkmenistan has been on something of a record-busting drive for years now.

In 2001, Guinness gave its seal of approval to the largest carpet in the world, which measured 301 square meters and weighed 1,200 kilograms. Then in 2008, it was the turn of a flagpole measuring 133 meters tall.

In 2010, the Oguzkhan 27-hectare (67 acre) fountain complex, which comprised 27 cascades, was recognized as the largest of its kind.

And for another record that few people probably even knew existed, Turkmenistan last year secured the prize for the world’s largest architectural representation of a star, which forms the body of the 211-meter-tall Ashgabat television center.

BERLIN—Germany’s biggest industrial union and employers have reached a deal that includes a 4.3 percent wage raise for the sector’s 3.6 million workers, both sides said Saturday.

IG Metall manufacturing union initially sought a 6.5 percent raise, but union chief Berthold Huber lauded the agreement, which is valid until May 2013, as a good result for workers that avoids further strikes in the sector.

German unions have pointed to strong economic growth and workers’ relative wage restraint in recent years as they call for big increases this year.

In March, the public workers ver.di union — which went into negotiations with the same initial demand — secured a pay rise totaling 6.3 percent over two years for some 2 million employees it represents.

The deal struck now by IG Metall is of great importance for Germany’s economy because it often serves as a template for other industrial sectors.

The strong raises in Europe’s biggest economy will further strengthen domestic demand there and thus also have a broader significance for the continent as a whole — Europe is currently only avoiding a recession amid its prolonged debt crisis thanks to robust growth in Germany.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative government champions cutting deficits across Europe and rejects calls to spur growth through significant new stimulus measures. Germany’s economy traditionally has been powered by exports but is being helped lately by increasingly strong domestic demand, ensuring that it remains what German officials have called “Europe’s growth engine.”

The collective bargaining agreement struck overnight in Sindelfingen town between IG Metall union and employers in southern Baden-Wuerttemberg state — home to carmakers Daimler and Porsche — includes the raise, secures the position of apprentices and somewhat limits the use of temporary workers.

Tens of thousands of workers followed IG Metall’s call and walked off their jobs for short periods this and last month to pressure employers to accept the union’s demands.

German metal industry association president Martin Kannengiesser said the deal, initially reached for the state’s 800,000 metal workers, will be applied to all of Germany.

“The contract means a strong real wage increase for our employees,” he said, adding that it ensures companies the necessary flexibility while providing better job security for apprentices.

Inflation in Germany currently hovers around 2 percent.

The German economy suffered a deep recession after the 2008 financial crisis but has seen strong growth over the past two years. This year, though, growth is expected to slow.

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Juergen Baetz can be followed on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/jbaetz

CAMP DAVID, Md.—Confronting an economic crisis that threatens them all, President Barack Obama and leaders of other world powers on Saturday declared that their governments must both spark growth and cut the debt that has crippled the European continent and put investors worldwide on edge.

“So far so good,” Obama proclaimed after economic talks at Camp David, his secluded and highly secure mountaintop retreat. He played international host in the midst of a re-election bid that will turn on the economy, underscoring his stakes in getting his allies abroad to rally around some answers.

Yet there were no bold prescriptions at hand. Instead, leaders seemed intent on trying to inspire confidence by agreeing on a broad strategy no matter their differences.

Coping with shaky oil markets, the leaders set the stage for a united release of national oil reserves to balance any disruption in world markets when tough new sanctions are imposed on Iran’s exports because of its disputed nuclear program. The leaders said they were ready to take “appropriate action” to meet any shortages.

The mere preparation to release oil reserves could help calm markets and ensure that oil prices, which have been dropping, don’t climb again and anger consumers as U.S. elections approach.

The Group of Eight summit includes leaders of the United States, Japan, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Canada and Russia.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel came to the summit as the European leader who had demanded austerity as the most important step toward easing the eurozone’s debt crisis. But the election of Socialist Francois Hollande as president of France, and Greek elections that created political chaos in the country, were clear rejections of the belt-tightening Merkel represented.

Merkel said growth and deficit-cutting reinforced each other and that everyone around the table agreed. “That is great progress,” she said. As for promoting growth, she said investments under consideration include research and development, Internet networks and infrastructure. But she said “this doesn’t mean stimulus in the usual sense.”

U.S. officials agreed, saying growth measures that the Europeans might pursue don’t all require outright public spending, and could be in the form of public-private partnerships or in initiatives designed to loosen credit.

A joint summit statement reflected how urgently the countries must contain a financial crisis that could spread from the eurozone to the United States and infect the rest of the global economy. They declared unanimity in ensuring that Greece, which is crippled in debt and politically gridlocked, remains as part of 17-member euro currency union.

“The global economic recovery shows signs of promise, but significant headwinds persist,” said G-8 leaders said. Yet with all of them facing their own difficult political realities, they built some sovereign wiggle room into their pledge to take all necessary steps, saying “the right measures are not the same for each of us.”

The tension between austerity and growth — whether to slash debt by cutting budgets or use public money and other means to help spur economic growth — was the backdrop as Obama welcomed an emerging push for a balance between the two.

The rustic scene was unusually intimate, with leaders sitting around a table to negotiate terms, or strolling through the leafy paths for chats that seemed a world away from the typical summit convention-hall setting. Obama chose Camp David in part to encourage a freewheeling discussion out of sight of most media and potential protests.

It all came before Obama was to lead a much larger NATO summit in Chicago on Sunday and Monday that will be heavily focused on the Afghanistan war.

The drag of a eurozone crisis comes as joblessness and doubts about a life of better opportunities are already the chief concerns for American voters.

In their united view, the leaders conceded some points about Merkel’s push for austerity, saying budget deficits must close.

But it added that budget cutting should “take into account countries’ evolving economic conditions and underpin confidence and economic recovery.” That suggested a willingness to let indebted countries take more time to reduce their deficits in line with eurozone rules in order to lessen the deadening impact of cuts on the economy.

It also called for “investments in education and in modern infrastructure,” which would involve more government spending. That approach also meshes exactly with Obama’s campaign-year strategy for accelerated economic growth, which is to keep spending money on core priorities while taking on the debt through cuts and higher taxes.

The statement of support for Greece remaining in the euro underlines the unpredictable damage to the global financial system that could come from a Greece departure. It follows a week of increasing speculation that Greece might not be able to stay the course, and in which a top European Union official said officials were working on emergency plans in case of a Greek exit. That country is facing the most acute financial crisis of the eurozone and is set to hold elections June 17 to end political deadlock.

At issue is whether Greece abandons the euro to escape austerity measures. Meanwhile, Europe’s woes have given shudders to Wall Street.

The Fitch ratings agency dropped Greece to the lowest possible grade for a country not in default Thursday. Fitch said Greece’s departure from the euro “would be probable” if elections next month do not reverse political trends there, which have brought in politicians opposed to the terms of Europe’s bailout.

“All of us are absolutely committed to making sure that growth and stability and fiscal consolidation are part of an overall package,” Obama said as he and other leaders gathered in a rustic cabin.

Obama’s argument for additional stimulus measures alongside belt-tightening is primarily aimed at Germany, the strongest member of the union that uses the common euro currency, although Obama did not say so. Merkel was seated a few places away from Obama at a small round table.

The Camp David gathering opened with a Friday evening discussion focused on global trouble spots Iran and Syria. Obama said the group supports a United Nations cease-fire plan for Syria that has yet to be honored in full.

An estimated 9,000 people have died in Syria in more than a year of violence that arose from the pro-democracy Arab uprisings.

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Associated Press writers David McHugh, Jamey Keaten, Nancy Benac and Anne Gearan contributed to this report.

TAIPEI, Taiwan—Tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered Saturday in downtown Taipei to protest government policies ahead of the inauguration of recently re-elected Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou.

Wearing red and green armbands emblazoned with the Chinese character for “anger,” the demonstrators snaked their way through the streets of the capital before gathering in front of the ornate presidential office building under a light drizzle.

The main opposition Democratic Progressive Party said it expected about 100,000 people to attend. Police did not provide a figure on the turnout.

Participants said they were angry about Ma’s economic policies, including his decision — announced after his January re-election — to raise utility prices.

Ma is to be inaugurated for his second four-year term Sunday.

Trading company employee Jerry Hsu said he voted for Ma in January because of his success in improving relations with China, but was now having second thoughts.

“Stabilizing relations with the mainland is not enough,” Hsu said. “Ma failed to consider everyday realities when developing his economic policies.”

Added recent college graduate Wang Wen-ling, now employed as a clerk in a small business, “Pay for college graduates is so low that we can hardly dream about further studies or marriage.”

Analysis of voting patterns in January’s election — which Ma won by six points over his DPP rival — suggest that relations with China were uppermost in many voters’ minds.

Ma’s first term was devoted largely to reducing tensions between the sides. They have ebbed and flowed since 1949, when Chinese Nationalist Chiang Kai-shek established a rival regime on Taiwan after being defeated by Mao Zedong’s Communists in the Chinese civil war.

But since Ma’s victory in January, popular anger has crystallized around his economic policies, particularly his decision to raise utility prices, which many Taiwanese saw as dishonest, largely because of its postelection timing. His public approval rating now stands at about 20 percent.

As Saturday’s protest began, Ma told reporters that he was sorry so many people were unhappy about his policies, but attributed their negative reception to poor government communication, rather than any flaw in the policies themselves.

“The policies are good,” he said. “It’s just that we didn’t explain them to the public enough.”

BOSTON—State and federal officials are marking the National Safe Boating Week by reminding Massachusetts residents to put on life jackets as soon as they step into a boat and behave responsibly in the water.

Experts say accidents on the water can happen much too fast to reach and put on a life jacket.

Fifty one boating deaths were reported in the 1st Coast Guard District in 2010, including 44 people believed to have not been wearing life jackets.

A representative of the state government and the Coast Guard Auxiliary are scheduled to launch the annual National Safe Boating Week in Boston.

Saturday’s event will feature a proclamation. It is intended to remind people to boat smart, wear life jackets and boat responsibly.

Safe Boating Week runs through May 25.

CHICAGO—Three activists who traveled to Chicago for a NATO summit were accused Saturday of manufacturing Molotov cocktails in a plot to attack President Barack Obama’s campaign headquarters, Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s home and other targets.

But defense lawyers shot back that Chicago police had trumped up the charges to frighten peaceful protesters away, telling a judge it was undercover officers known by the activists as “Mo” and “Gloves” who brought the firebombs to a South Side apartment where the men were arrested.

“This is just propaganda to create a climate of fear,” Michael Duetsch said. “My clients came to peacefully protest.”

On the eve of the summit, the dramatic allegations were reminiscent of previous police actions ahead of major political events, when authorities moved quickly to prevent suspected plots but sometimes quietly dropped the charges later.

Prosecutors said the men were self-described anarchists who boasted weeks earlier about the damage they would do in Chicago, including one who declared, “After NATO, the city will never be the same.”

At one point, one of the suspects asked the others if they had ever seen a “cop on fire.”

Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy dismissed the idea that the arrests were anything more than an effort to stop “an imminent threat.”

“When someone was in the position (of having) Molotov cocktails — that’s pretty imminent,” he said. “It was not a completed investigation.”

The men allegedly bought fuel at a gas station for the makeshift bombs, poured it into beer bottles and cut up bandanas to serve as fuses.

The suspects are Brian Church, 20, of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; Jared Chase, 24, of Keene, N.H.; and, Brent Vincent Betterly, 24, of Oakland Park, Fla.

If convicted on all counts — conspiracy to commit terrorism, material support for terrorism and possession of explosives — the men could get up to 85 years in prison.

Outside the courtroom, Duetsch said the two undercover police officers or informants were also arrested during the Wednesday raid, and defense attorneys later lost track of the two.

“We believe this is all a setup and entrapment to the highest degree,” Duetsch said.

The suspects were each being held on $1.5 million bond. Six others arrested Wednesday in the raid were released Friday without being charged.

The three who remained in custody apparently came to Chicago late last month to take part in May Day protests. Relatives and acquaintances said the men were wanderers who bounced around as part of the Occupy movement and had driven together from Florida to Chicago, staying with other activists.

Court records indicated no prior violent behavior.

Longtime observers of police tactics said the operation seemed similar to those conducted by authorities in other cities before similarly high-profile events.

For instance, prior to the Republican National Convention in 2008 in St. Paul, Minn., prosecutors charged eight activists who were organizing mass protests with terrorism-related crimes after investigators said they recovered equipment for Molotov cocktails, slingshots with marbles and other items.

The protesters, who became known as the RNC Eight, denied the allegations and accused authorities of stifling dissent. The terrorism charges were later dismissed. Five of the suspects eventually pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges, and three had their cases dismissed altogether.

Molotov cocktails are dangerous weapons, but it “kind of stretches the bounds to define that as terrorism,” said Michael Scott, director of the Center for Problem-Oriented Policing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

He said police have a history of abusing such tactics, sometimes infiltrating purely peaceful protest groups to search for troublemakers.

But if the allegations are true, police were justified in moving quickly to take the men off the streets, even if the terrorism charges don’t stick.

Just one week before their arrest, at least two of the suspects were involved in a minor confrontation with police captured on a video that was then posted on YouTube and aired widely by Chicago media, said another defense attorney, Sarah Gelsomino.

The men had been stopped by police after turning their car into a private driveway.

In the video, one officer asks another what Chicago police would have said in 1968 when they clashed with demonstrators at the Democratic National convention.

“Billy club to the … skull,” the officer responds. Another officer says to the men in the car, who the police take as protesters, “We’ll come look for you.”

Documents filed by prosecutors in support of the charges in Chicago painted an ominous portrait of the men, saying the trio also discussed using swords, hunting bows and knives with brass-knuckle handles in their attacks.

Relatives and acquaintances painted a starkly different picture.

Activist Bill Vassilakis, who said he let the men stay in his apartment, described Betterly as an industrial electrician who had volunteered to help with wiring at The Plant, a former meatpacking facility that has been turned into a food incubator with the city’s backing.

“All I can say about that is, if you knew Brent, you would find that to be the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever heard. He was the most stand-up guy that was staying with me. He and the other guys had done nothing but volunteer their time and energy,” he said.

Betterly appears to have a history of minor run-ins with law enforcement.

Earlier this year, he was cited for disorderly intoxication in February in Miami-Dade County, Fla., but the case has been dismissed, according to online court records.

Authorities in Oakland Park, Fla., said Betterly and two other young men walked into a public high school last fall after a night of tequila drinking and took a swim in the pool, according to a report in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

They stole fire extinguishers from three school buses, discharged one and smashed a cafeteria window with another. The vandalism caused about $2,000 in damage. Betterly was charged with burglary, theft and criminal mischief, the newspaper said.

Chase grew up in Keene, N.H., and moved to Boston a few years ago before becoming active in the Occupy movement, said his aunt, Barbara Chase of Westmoreland, N.H.

Jared Chase’s father, Steve Chase, died about five weeks ago after a long struggle with a disease that left him disabled, Barbara Chase said. The family had been waiting for him to come home before having a funeral.

She said she was stunned to learn of the charges against her nephew.

“That surprised me because he’s not that dumb,” said Barbara Chase. “He always seemed harmless, but who knows? Outside influences sometimes can sway people to do things that they normally wouldn’t do.”

Elsewhere around Chicago, demonstrations remained relatively small. Scattered groups of protesters gathered in some neighborhoods, including several hundred who marched to the mayor’s house.

Late in the day, another group gathered in the Loop business district and marched down the city’s famous Michigan Avenue. Police on horseback and bicycle kept them away from diners at outdoor cafes who ventured downtown despite wide-ranging security precautions.

The largest protests were expected Sunday, when thousands of people were expected to march from a band shell on Lake Michigan to the McCormick Place convention center, where NATO delegates will meet.

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Associated Press writers Jason Keyser, Jim Suhr, Tammy Webber and Nomaan Merchant also contributed to this report.

CHICAGO—Police say three protesters at the NATO summit in Chicago have been charged with terrorism conspiracy stemming from allegations that they planned to make Molotov cocktails.

Chicago police Lt. Kenneth Stoppa told The Associated Press early Saturday that the three were being held on charges of conspiracy to commit terrorism, possession of an explosive or incendiary device and providing material support. He says they face a bond hearing later Saturday morning.

Stoppa identified the men charged as 20-year-old Brian Church of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; 24-year-old Jared Chase of Keene, N.H.; and 24-year-old Brent Vincent Betterly of Oakland Park, Mass.

Their attorney, Sarah Gelsomino, tells AP the men are “absolutely in shock and have no idea where these charges are coming from.”

Six others initially arrested have been released.