Moroni, June 30
An Airbus A310-300 from Yemen with 153 persons on board, including 66 French nationals, crashed into the sea off the Indian Ocean archipelago of Comoros as it approached in bad weather early on Tuesday, officials said.

A doctor in the Comoros told Reuters a child had been plucked alive from the sea and was being taken to a medical centre. The manager of the international airport in Moroni said the child was five. He said five bodies had also been found. The Paris airports authority said 66 French nationals were aboard the plane, which was flying the final leg of a trip from Paris and Marseille to Comoros via Yemen.

A Yemeni aviation official said there were also nationals from Canada, Comoros, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Morocco, the Palestinian territories, the Philippines and Yemen on the plane.Two French military planes and a French ship left the Indian Ocean islands of Mayotte and Reunion to search for the plane.

"A doctor from the military hospital aboard one of the rescue boats called the Mitsamiouli hospital to tell them a child had been rescued alive," Halidi Ahmed Abdou, a doctor at a medical centre opened for survivors, told Reuters.

It is the second Airbus to plunge into the sea this month. An Air France Airbus A330-200 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean killing 228 persons on board on June 1. A preliminary report on that crash is due on Thursday.

The Paris-Marseille-Yemen leg of the Yemenia flight was flown by an Airbus A330. In Sanaa, those passengers who were flying on to the Comoros changed onto a second Yemenia plane, the A310 that crashed.

French Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau said faults had been detected during inspections in France in 2007 on the Yemenia A310, and that it had not flown to France since.

"The A310 in question was inspected in 2007 by the DGAC (French transport authorities) and they noticed a certain number of faults," he told the I-tele television channel.

"The company was not on the black list but was subject to stricter checks on our part, and was due to be interviewed shortly by the European Union's safety committee."But Yemen's transport minister said the plane was thoroughly checked in May under Airbus supervision. "It was a comprehensive inspection carried out in Yemen ...with experts from Airbus," Khaled Ibrahim al-Wazeer said from Sanaa. — Reuters

Baghdad, June 30
Iraq regained full control of its towns and cities on Tuesday as US troops pulled back, six years after the invasion to topple Saddam Hussein. Though some Iraqis fear the first step in a full US withdrawal may leave them open to attack, the government declared the "National Sovereignty Day" a holiday and held a military parade to flex its muscles at a still stubborn insurgency.

"This day, which we consider a national celebration, is an achievement made by all Iraqis," Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said in a televised address, as citizens drove around the streets with flags and plastic flowers draped over their cars. "Our incomplete sovereignty and the presence of foreign troops is the most serious legacy we have inherited (from Saddam). Those who think that Iraqis are unable to defend their country are committing a fatal mistake."

By midnight on Tuesday, all US combat units must have withdrawn from Iraq's urban centres and redeployed to rural bases, according to a bilateral security pact that requires all US troops except for trainers and advisers to leave Iraq by the end of 2011.

In a bloody reminder of the war unleashed by the 2003 US invasion, the US military said four US soldiers based in Baghdad had died of combat-related injuries on Monday. It gave no further details.Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the United States had closed or returned to local control 120 bases and facilities, and would turn over or close another 30 by the end of Tuesday.

The day's festivities included a parade in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone government and diplomatic district, viewed by Iraqis as the ultimate symbol of the foreign military presence until local forces took control of it in January. — Reuters

Islamabad, June 30
The Taliban has declared an end to the peace deal it signed with the Pakistani government last year due to the ongoing military operation in northwest Pakistan.

The Taliban made the announcement yesterday after a meeting of the group’s local shura (council) in North Waziristan, the website of The Dawn newspaper said.

On February 17 last year, the group signed a nine-point agreement with the government to restore peace in the area.

Taliban spokesperson Ahmadullah Ahmadi told reporters that the shura had decided to continue its offensive against the Pakistani security forces till the government stops the drone attacks and withdraws its troops from the North Waziristan region.

“We will attack forces everywhere in Waziristan unless the government fulfils these two demands,” he said, adding that Islamabad allowed the US to carry out the drone attacks. The government, however, claims that the peace deal was signed with the tribal elders and not with the Taliban. — IANS

Colombo, June 30
Sri Lanka plans to take legal action against a small group of hardcore rebel fighters, and rehabilitate the majority of former Tamil Tiger insurgents, a government minister said today.

The government is currently holding about 10,000 former rebel fighters, after declaring victory in the nation's quarter century civil war in May."People who got involved in destruction and actively participated in terrorist activities will be dealt in accordance with the law of the land," said Keheliya Rambukwella, a government minister and spokesman on defence issues.

He said the "small number of people" would be referred to the attorney general's office, while most of the others being held will be rehabilitated and eventually set free. Today, the government announced a drive to recruit 50,000 new troops to help administer the northern areas captured from the rebels. — AP