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50 die in US plane crash
Holbrooke in Afghanistan to assess security
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Karzai backs ‘hot pursuit’ inside Pak
Pak arrests a positive step: US
‘CIA drones flown from Pak airbase’
Pilgrimage route targeted
‘Slumdog Millionaire’ bags another award
Chocolate is women’s first choice
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50 die in US plane crash
A Continental Airlines plane crashed into a house in upstate New York late on Thursday night killing all 49 people on board and one person on the ground, according to reports from the crash scene in suburban Buffalo.
The flight, which took off from Continental's hub at Newark airport just outside New York city, was bound for Buffalo. The plane struck the house killing one person inside. Two other people in the house, a 57-year-old woman and her 22-year-old daughter, suffered minor injuries and were taken to a hospital. The plane was about 8 km from Buffalo Niagara International Airport and five minutes from its expected landing time when it went down. Trooper John Manthey with the New York state police said the plane went down about 10:10 pm, in the hamlet of Clarence Center, striking a house, which was engulfed in flames, according to a New York Times report. He said it was unclear if anyone was home at the time. "Right now I'm thinking the worst," Chris Kausner, who said his sister Elise was on the flight, told reporters. "And I'm thinking about the fact that my mother has to fly home from Florida and what I'm going to tell my two sons." Among those on board was Beverly Eckert, the widow of Sean Rooney, a Buffalo native who died in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, according to The Buffalo News. She was heading to Buffalo for a weekend celebration of what would have been her husband’s 58th birthday, and had planned to take part in the presentation of a scholarship award at Canisius High School that she had established in his honor, the newspaper reported. Continental Express Flight 3407, operated by Colgan Air, had reportedly been delayed, and was approaching the airport in Buffalo two hours later than scheduled. There was a light mix of snow and sleet at the time of the crash, officials said. Local resident Keith Burtis told CNN he was driving to the store about a mile from the crash site when he heard the plane go down. "It was a high-pitched sound," Burtis said. "It felt like a mini-earthquake." Twelve houses near the crash site were evacuated because of concerns about the fuel left on the crashed plane. The Federal Aviation Administration said its team would be on the scene of the crash on Friday morning. In November 2001, an American Airlines flight crashed into a residential neighbourhood in the New York city borough of Queens, killing all 260 on board and five people on the ground. There was an aviation miracle last month, however, when a US Airways pilot deftly landed his aircraft on the icy Hudson River in New York city after both its engines were incapacitated by a flock of birds. There were no fatalities in that incident.
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Holbrooke in Afghanistan to assess security
Kabul, February 13 Wednesday's attacks on government buildings showed how hard it was for the Afghan government and its Western backers to ensure security, even with dozens of police checkpoints in Kabul and armed guards at the entrance of every state office. Holbrooke met the Afghan ministers of defence and the interior, the head of the national intelligence agency and President Hamid Karzai's security adviser at the heavily guarded US embassy, an Afghan government official said. He was due to meet Karzai later in the day, said the official, who declined to be named. Holbrooke, who arrived in Kabul after four days in Pakistan, has so far been tight-lipped during his first trip to the region in his new role as Obama's point man on a conflict that has become a US foreign policy priority. Famed for negotiating the 1995 Dayton accord that ended the war in Bosnia, Holbrooke is a newcomer to South Asian politics. Ahead of a 10-day trip that will end in India, Holbrooke admitted Afghanistan would
be a "tougher challenge than Iraq". — Reuters
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Karzai backs ‘hot pursuit’ inside Pak
Washington: Backing the hot pursuit of the Al-Qaida targets inside Pakistan, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said he would fully support an American attack at terrorist hideouts in the neighbouring country that is based on actionable intelligence.
Karzai, however, said any decision to let US troops cross Afghanistan’s border should be taken collectively by Pakistan, Afghanistan and the US. “I would fully back President Obama in attacking
Al-Qaida wherever they’re found. If they’re found in Afghanistan, I would fully back him in doing that. If they’re found in Pakistan, I would fully back him in that,” Karzai said in an interview to CNN. “On the question of crossing troops from Afghanistan into Pakistan in pursuit of the
Al-Qaida personnel, or for destruction of its hideouts, or training grounds, or sanctuaries, this is something that the governments of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the US must work together, agree upon together, and then implement,” Karzai said in the interview that would be aired on Sunday.
— PTI
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Pak arrests a positive step: US
Washington, February 13 "I think it shows that Pakistan is serious about doing what it can to deal with the people who may have perpetrated these attacks," State Department Acting Spokesman Robert A Wood said in reply to a question yesterday. Wood said both India and the United States had asked Pakistan "to cooperate fully in trying to bring to justice those who are responsible for the Mumbai attacks. So this would certainly be a very positive step." He, however, said he did not have much more in the way of details with regard to the arrests in Pakistan. "But Pakistan has committed that it would do everything in its power to bring people to justice who may have committed these atrocities who have been within their border. So let me just leave it at that. It’s a good step," Wood said.
— UNI
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‘CIA drones flown from Pak airbase’ Washington, February 13 Such a revelation by Senator Dianne Feinstein is the first instance that a US official has publicly come out with a comment on where the Predator aircraft patrolling Pakistan take off and land, Chicago Times reported. Feinstein, who is the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, expressed surprise at Pakistani opposition to Predator-launched CIA missile strikes against Al-Qaida targets along Pak-Afghan border. "As I understand it, these are flown out of a Pakistani base," she was quoted as saying by the paper. The CIA declined to comment on the revelation. However, former US intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, claimed that the Senators' observation was correct. Feinstein's statement came during testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee by Dennis Blair, the director of national intelligence, on the nation's security threats. — PTI
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Pilgrimage route targeted
Baghdad, February 13 The attack in Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of the capital, came a day after a bomb killed eight people in the southerly Shi'ite holy city of Kerbala. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims are heading to Kerbala to mark Arbain, one of the most important dates in the Shi'ite religious calendar. The attacks occurred despite heavy security on the pilgrimage route. A sharp drop in the violence that swept Iraq after the 2003 US-led invasion helped allies of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki score extensive victories in Iraq's Shi'ite south in a provincial election last month.
— Reuters
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‘Slumdog Millionaire’ bags another award Washington, February 13 The awards are given by the oldest civil rights group -- the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) and honours individuals as well as projects that promote diversity in arts, literature, cinema, recording and television. The much-acclaimed British film by Danny Boyle was shot in the slums of Mumbai and tells the story of how a slum child, despite intrigues by villainous characters around him, wins 20 million dollars in a Q&A show. — UNI
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Chocolate is women’s first choice
Toronto, February 13 In the survey carried out in 13 countries by AXE, global leader in men’s grooming, 69.1 percent of the over 3,500 women respondents said they found chocolate more irresistible than the other options of flowers, shopping, wine and sex. — IANS
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