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Morocco military plane crashes, all 80 killed
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Norway killer probably insane: Lawyer
Bilawal to contest poll from Lyari
Fai to be produced in US court today
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Morocco military plane crashes, all 80 killed
Rabat, July 26 The army said 78 persons were killed on the spot and two rushed to hospital after the Hercules C-130 crashed on the edge of the Sahara desert in Morocco’s worst military aviation disaster. A hospital source later told AFP that the injured died of their wounds. Authorities earlier reported that 81 people were aboard the doomed plane but it emerged later that one passenger did not board in Laayoune in the Western Sahara and was mistakenly included in the total. The plane crashed into a mountain northeast of Guelmim, located about 830 kilometres south of the capital Rabat, the army said in a statement. Most of those onboard the aircraft were soldiers flying from Laayoune in Western Sahara to the coastal city of Agadir. But the army said civilians, including family members, were also on the flight. King Mohammed VI "has sent a message of condolence to the families of the victims in his role as the supreme leader of the FAR (Royal Armed Forces)" an official said. The army statement blamed the accident on "bad weather conditions". "Above all, it was the fog and bad weather conditions that are believed to be behind this accident. But for the moment, we don't have enough information," an interior ministry official said. The crash is Morocco's worst known air disaster since 1973, when 105 persons were killed after a Royal Air Maroc aircraft crashed near the capital Rabat.
— Agencies
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40,000 famine-hit Somalis flee to capital Mogadishu
Geneva, July 26 “A further 30,000 have arrived at settlements around Mogadishu. In total, it is estimated that Mogadishu has received up to 100,000 internally displaced people over the past two months. The daily numbers are still around 1,000 in July,” added the spokeswoman. With relief supplies entering the country currently insufficient to cope with needs, the jostle for food “has caused serious crowd crushes and even some looting.” “As a result, some of the weakest and most vulnerable are left with nothing, despite the best efforts of agencies and charities,” said the UNHCR. The UN last week declared famine in two parts of southern Somalia. According to the UN’s office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs, some 3,500 Somalis cross the border into neighbouring Kenya and Ethiopia everyday, adding to the over 740,000 refugees who have already fled across those borders. “This creates strain on the fragile semi-arid environment, increases tensions with the local host communities and the risk of fire or the outbreak of diseases,” Tan said. An estimated 3.7 million persons in Somalia, around a third of the population, are on the brink of starvation and millions more in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda have been affected by the worst drought in the region in 60 years.
— AFP
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Norway killer probably insane: Lawyer
“This whole case indicated that he is insane,” Geir Lippestad said of Anders Behring Breivik, who has confessed to “atrocious but necessary” actions, but denies he is a criminal.
The lawyer said it was too early to say if Breivik would plead insanity at his trial, expected to be a year away. Lippestad said Breivik had stated that he belonged to an anti-Islam network that has two cells in Norway and more abroad.
The Norwegian police and researchers have cast doubt on whether such an organisation exists. “He talks about two cells in Norway, but several cells abroad,” said Lippestad. The police believes that Breivik probably acted alone in staging his bloody assaults, which have united Norwegians in revulsion.
Justice Minister Knut Storberget hailed “fantastic” police work after the attacks, deflecting criticisms that the police had reacted too slowly to the shooting massacre. “It is very important that we have an open and critical approach...but there is a time for everything,” Storberget
said. — Reuters
He should have killed himself: Father OSLO: Anders Behring Breivik, who admitted carrying out last week’s twin attacks in Norway, should have committed suicide instead of killing 76 persons, his estranged father told Norwegian TV2 in an interview. “I think that ultimately he should have taken his own life rather than kill so many people,” Jens Breivik said in the interview yesterday recorded in Cournanel in the south of France where the retired diplomat lives. — Reuters
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Bilawal to contest poll from Lyari
Addressing a meeting of his party’s coordination committee here last evening, he said Bilawal would return to Pakistan in September and contest in future from Lyari, a neighbourhood of Karachi that has for long been a stronghold of the PPP. But Bilawal, the scion of the Bhutto family who will turn 23 this September, tweeted saying he will not contest “next elections” in 2013. He will have to wait two more years before he is eligible to participate in polls to the provincial or national assemblies. Zardari last evening chaired the meeting which was held to discuss welfare and development package for the low income Lyari area that has been hit by gang wars in recent times. The meeting was also attended by Sindh Chief Minister, Qaim Ali Shah.
— PTI
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Fai to be produced in US court today
Washington, July 26 The FBI, which arrested Fai last week on charges of being an ISI agent who lobbied for Pakistan on the Kashmir issue in the US, had carried extensive search of his home in Fairfax, Virginia, and the office of the Kashmir American Council (KAC) in Washington, a few blocks away from the White House. Fai (62), headed the KAC, which espoused the cause of Pakistan on Kashmir and campaigned against India in the US.
— PTI
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Oslo, July 26
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