Peshawar, March 13
Taliban militants today recovered 24 bodies and were searching for more, hours after suspected US drones destroyed a camp in Pakistan’s northwestern region, militants and officials said.

Four missiles believed to have been fired by at least two pilotless US drone aircraft last evening hit a militant hideout and training camp in the Kurram tribal region on the Afghan border.

Soon after the attack, a villager in the Barjo area said 14 people had been killed but an intelligence official and a Taliban official said today the toll had gone up as militants sifted through the rubble of the seven-room training compound.

“We’ve so far found 24 bodies in the debris and we’re still looking,” a Taliban official in the ethnic Pashtun region said by telephone. He declined to be identified.

Pakistani security agents and the militant official said there were no senior militants, or “high value targets” among the dead.

US drones have carried out more than 30 drone strikes since early 2008 when the US, frustrated by an intensifying insurgency in Afghanistan getting support from the Pakistani side of the border, began attacking with greater frequency.

There has been no let-up in the strikes since the administration led by US President Barack Obama took over in January, with six strikes since then, despite complaints from the Pakistani government.— Reuters

Los Angeles, March 13
Former ‘Playboy’ playmate Anna Nicole Smith’s boyfriend and two of her doctors, including an Indian-origin medic, have been charged with supplying her addictive prescription pills for nearly three years before she died of an accidental overdose.

Smith’s boyfriend and attorney Howard Kevin Stern, 40, doctors Sandeep Kapoor (40) and Khristine Eroshevich (61) have been each slapped with three felony counts of conspiracy and several other charges relating to illegal prescriptions.

They were charged with conspiring to “commit the crimes of prescribing, administering and dispensing controlled substances to an addict” and “unlawfully prescribing a controlled substance”, the offices of the California attorney general and Los Angeles County district attorney announced.

“These individuals furnished thousands of prescription pills to Anna Nicole Smith, often for no legitimate medical purpose,” California Attorney General Jerry Brown was quoted by the Los Angeles Times as saying in a statement.

“There is ample evidence that Eroshevich and Kapoor violated their ethical obligations as physicians, while Stern funnelled highly addictive drugs to Smith,” he said.

According to the statement, the three provided the reality TV star with “opiates, benzodiazepines, and other controlled and non-controlled substances”. Smith died on February 8, 2007, at the age of 39 at a luxury hotel in Hollywood. A medical examiner said accidental overdose of prescription drugs was the cause of death.
— PTI

Moscow, March 13
The Russian Air Force has grounded almost 30 per cent of its mainstay MiG-29 fighter fleet due to structural defects and the move could have ramifications for the Indian Air Force which also has a sizable number of these fighters.

"About 90 aircraft out of 200 tested after the crash of a MiG-29 fighter last December have been grounded," Interfax reported, quoting Russian Air Force spokesman Col Vladimir Dirk.

"More aircraft could be grounded on completion of the aircrash probe which followed two crashes last year," the spokesman said.

The Russian Air Force has a fleet of about 300 MiG-29 fighters, which are its prime air superiority platform. The probe was ordered after a MIG-29 crashed in December in Khabarovsk region due to disintegration of its fin during a training sortie killing its pilot.

Initial reports have identified corrosion as the cause for the disintegration of the fin of the fighter. It could take another two months to pinpoint the reason for corrosion, Interfax said.

The Indian Air Force has 54 MiG-29 comprising three squadrons and all of these aircraft are being upgraded with the help of the original manufacturers and some other countries to extend their life by another 15-20 years.

"At this juncture out of the whole fleet 200 aircraft have been checked and about hundred plus fighters have been cleared for flights. The rest of the aircraft are being checked," Dirk said.

He said initially the entire fleet had been grounded, but 100 aircraft have been cleared for flying after checks.

Experts, he said, have evolved methods to repair the defects and the grounded fighters would return to service once funds were available for undertaking the repairs.

Under the Gorshkov contract, India is also acquiring 16 MiG-29K, the carrier-borne version of the air force fighters for the Navy.

Russia has also fielded the MiG-35 in the Indian tender for the acquisition of 126 MMRCA, which is a futuristic derivative of the MiG-29 fighter.

The twin-engined MiG-29, codenamed Fulkrum by NATO, has been in service with the Soviet and then Russian Air Force since the 1980s. The Russians also have SU-27 and MiG-31 which also date from the '80s. — PTI 

Washington, March 13
A ‘secret’ message engraved in President Abraham Lincoln’s watch by a watchmaker who was repairing it in 1861 when news of the attack on Fort Sumter reached Washington D.C. has been found.

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History has announced that it has found the ‘secret’ message. In an interview with The New York Times in 1906, 84-year-old Jonathan Dillon recalled that he was working for M W Galt and Co. on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, where he was repairing Lincoln’s watch, a statement issued by the museum said.

The owner of the shop announced that the first shot of the Civil War had been fired. Dillon reported that he unscrewed the dial of the watch, and with a sharp instrument wrote on the metal beneath: “The first gun is fired. Slavery is dead. Thank God we have a President who at least will try.” He then signed and dated the inscription and closed the dial.

Dillon told The New York Times that to his knowledge, no one ever saw the inscription. After being contacted by Dillon’s great-great-grandson, Doug Stiles of Waukegan, the museum agreed to remove the dial to see if the watchmaker’s message was inside.

The museum did find a message inscribed on the brass underside of the movement. “Lincoln never knew of the message he carried in his pocket,” said museum director Brent D Glass. “It’s a personal side of history about an ordinary watchman being inspired to record something for posterity.” — PTI 

BRIEFLY

Career in theatre!
London: “Pretty Woman” star Julia Roberts said she planned to move to London for a stint in the coveted theatres of Westend, once her children are old enough. The superstar said she started contemplating the move after making her Broadway debut in 2006, reported the Contactmusic.com. — PTI

UN food aid to B’desh
DHAKA: The UN World Food Programme (WFP) would provide $179 million over the next nine months to help Bangladesh’s poorest people, who have been hard hit by high food prices and natural disasters. Around 259,592 tonnes of food commodities are expected to be procured and distributed among 5 million people in both urban and rural areas who are least able to feed their families, the WFP said in a statement. — Reuters