CNN 2009-07-16（在线收听）

Good morning! I'm Melissa Long here at the CNN center in Atlanta on this Wednesday morning. It is the 15th of July. Here are some of the headlines making news at this hour.

All 168 people aboard a Caspian Airlines passenger jet that crashed / northwest of Tehran are believed to be dead. It happened around 11:30 in the morning local time. Iran state (report) radio is reporting the jet was heading from Teheran to the Armenian capital of Yerevan, when it went down in a field. The plane went down just about 16 minutes after take-off.

A message from al-Qaeda second-in-command was released on radical Islamic websites this morning. Ayman al-Zawahri is calling on all Muslims in Pakistan to back Islamic militants, warning they have a religious duty to support the Jihad and fight the influence of the United States. / Al-Zawahri claims America's interference in Pakistan's affairs poses a grave danger to the country's existence and must be challenged.

Judge Sonia Sotomayor is getting set for a third-day questioning in her bid to become the nation's first Hispanic Supreme Court justice. Yesterday, Sotomayor insisted she never let her ethnic background or / personal opinions influence her decisions as a judge. Today she's going be fielding questions from the newest member of Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Al Franken.

A standing ovation for President Obama, as he threw out the opening pitch at Baseball's All-star Game in St. Louis. Mr. Obama, you can see / there proudly wearing his logo of his beloved Chicago White Sox. Mr. Obama's pitch was outside the strike zone, but made it to the plate. Former president George W. Bush described his pitch at the 2001 World Series as the most nervous moment of his presidency to that point.

Those are the headlines for you at this hour. Do stay with CNN, CNN.com for more on these stories or other news that develops today.