W O R L D

NATO copter crash kills 16 in Kabul
Twelve Turkish soldiers, 4 Afghan civilians among those dead
Kabul, March 16
A NATO helicopter crashed into a house on the outskirts of the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Friday, killing 12 Turkish soldiers on board and four Afghan civilians on the ground
Afghan policemen stand near wreckage of a crashed helicopter at the site of the crash in Kabul on Friday. — AFP

Syrian forces kill 45 in Idlib
Beirut, March 16
Syrian forces pressed their military offensive in the northern province of Idlib, as the bloody revolt against President Bashar al-Assad entered its second year with no sign of political solution.

5.9 quake hits Philippines
Manila, March 16
An earthquake of 5.9 magnitude rocked southern Philippines today, causing widespread panic and injuring at least 23 people in different incidents, including a stampede. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said the epicentre was recorded west of Dinagat Islands. — PTI

North Korea says it will launch long-range rocket
Seoul, March 16
North Korea said today it would launch a long-range rocket next month to put a satellite into orbit, a move that would breach a United Nations ban imposed after previous launches.

prez immunity
‘Papers stolen from Pak SC official’s home’
Islamabad, March 16
Documents on presidential immunity have been stolen from the home of an official of Pakistan's Supreme Court at a time when the judiciary is pressuring the government to revive graft cases against President Asif Ali Zardari, the media here reported today.

NATO copter crash kills 16 in Kabul
Twelve Turkish soldiers, 4 Afghan civilians among those dead

Kabul, March 16
A NATO helicopter crashed into a house on the outskirts of the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Friday, killing 12 Turkish soldiers on board and four Afghan civilians on the ground, Turkey's military and a senior Afghan police official said.

The crash came amid growing unease among NATO partner countries about the increasingly unpopular and costly war 11 years into the conflict as most foreign combat troops set to leave Afghanistan by 2014 end.

"Twelve of our military personnel on board the helicopter have been martyred," the Turkish general staff said in a statement in Ankara. A team had been sent to the scene to investigate, it said.

Wreckage as well as corpses and body parts littered the site. Relief workers and Turkish soldiers covered bodies with red and purple blankets on a ground in front of a smoking hole in a two-storey house.

Two women and two children were among those killed when the helicopter crashed into the house, an Afghan police officer said.

The officer said the cause of the crash appeared to be a technical fault. NATO's International Security Assistance Force said earlier that the cause of the crash was still unknown but there had been no reports of insurgent action in the area.

Turkey's foreign minister also said the cause was apparently a technical fault.

"Both the location and the way the crash happened makes the impression that it's due to technical failure," Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters in Istanbul.

"It's a cause of great pain. I am sending my condolences once again to the families and the general staff."

Turkey's mission in Afghanistan is limited to patrols and its soldiers do not take part in combat operations. It has more than 1,800 soldiers serving in the country, most of them around the capital. — Reuters

Syrian forces kill 45 in Idlib

Beirut, March 16
Syrian forces pressed their military offensive in the northern province of Idlib, as the bloody revolt against President Bashar al-Assad entered its second year with no sign of political solution.

Forty five civilians were killed in the frontier province, including 23 whose bodies were found with their hands tied behind their backs, as well as five army deserters, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group reported.

The bloodshed and continued flow of refugees prompted Turkey to suggest it might support a "buffer zone" inside Syria, a move likely to enrage Damascus.

Four members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) announced the closures of their embassies in Syria in protest against its violent crackdown, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said, quoting a statement by GCC Secretary General Abdullatif al-Zayani.

Kuwait, Oman, United Arab Emirates and Qatar were to close their embassies, after Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, the other two GCC members, announced embassy closures on Wednesday. — Reuters

Now, you can grow your own joint

London, March 16
Suffering from chronic joint problem but afraid of a replacement surgery? Fret not, as scientists claim to have developed an implant that allows patients to "grow their own" joints.

The implant, designed to help replace small joints in the hands and feet, is made from a sugar-based material which encourages the patient's own tough fibrous tissues to form a new kind of joint, providing a cushioning barrier between the bones, the researchers said. — PTI

North Korea says it will launch long-range rocket

Seoul, March 16
North Korea said today it would launch a long-range rocket next month to put a satellite into orbit, a move that would breach a United Nations ban imposed after previous launches.

The announcement came just 16 days after the North's new leaders agreed to suspend long-range missile tests as part of a deal under which it would receive 240,000 tonnes of US food aid.

Blast-off will be between April 12 and 16 to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of founding leader Kim Il-Sung, the communist state's official news agency and state television said.

Its last long-range rocket launch on April 5, 2009, purportedly to put a satellite into orbit, brought UN Security Council condemnation and a tightening of sanctions.

Pyongyang quit six-party nuclear disarmament talks in protest at the censure and conducted its second atomic weapons test the following month.

That deal, under which Pyongyang also promised to freeze its uranium enrichment plant, had raised hopes of eased tensions. But one analyst said Friday's announcement effectively killed it off. — AFP

prez immunity
‘Papers stolen from Pak SC official’s home’

Islamabad, March 16
Documents on presidential immunity have been stolen from the home of an official of Pakistan's Supreme Court at a time when the judiciary is pressuring the government to revive graft cases against President Asif Ali Zardari, the media here reported today.

Despite the theft of a thesis on presidential immunity from his home in Sector G-10 of Islamabad on Wednesday night, judicial assistant Yousuf Jan Marwat has not yet registered an FIR with police, sources said.

Marwat works in the apex court's Record Branch.

It could not immediately be ascertained whether Marwat was researching the issue of presidential immunity on his own or on the instructions of his superiors.

Supreme Court Registrar Faqir Hussain confirmed the incident. — PTI