Suicide blast kills powerful Afghan police chief

TALOQAN, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed one of the most powerful men in north Afghanistan on Saturday, underlining the spread of insurgent violence in once peaceful parts of the country and casting a shadow over plans for Afghans to take control of security.A provincial police chief, at least two Afghan policemen and two German soldiers also died in the attack on political and military leaders, Afghan and NATO officials said.They were meeting in the capital of northern Takhar province to discuss an operation against insurgents, and at least another 10 people were injured, including the provincial governor, said the governor's spokesman Faiz Mohammad Tawhidi.NATO's commander for the northern region, German Major General Markus Kneip, was among the wounded but not seriously hurt, General Rainer Glatz told reporters in Berlin.The most high-profile casualty was General Dawood Dawood, police chief of north Afghanistan, a former deputy interior minister and before that a close associate of mujahideen commander Ahmad Shah Masood.The loss of such a prominent and influential leader is a big blow to a force which is struggling to professionalise and shake off a reputation for abuse and corruption as foreign forces prepare to hand over security responsibilities in coming years.He had been energetic opponent of the growing insurgent movement in the north, fostering state-sponsored armed self-defence groups known as the Afghan Local Police and organising campaigns against the Taliban.The day of his death he held a news conference announcing the start of operation Hope, which aimed to oust the insurgents from Takhar and neighbouring Kunduz, where they have only gained a strong foothold in recent years.

Egypt's Mubarak fined for communication service cut

CAIRO (Reuters) - An Egyptian court on Saturday fined ousted President Hosni Mubarak and two former officials 540 million pounds ($90.64 million) for cutting off mobile and internet services during January protests, a court source said.It was the first court ruling to be made against Mubarak since he was ousted on Feb. 11. Mubarak faces more serious charges, including ordering the killing of protestors, a charge which could carry the death penalty.A judicial source said the administrative court fined Mubarak 200 million Egyptian pounds, former Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif 40 million pounds, and former interior minister Habib el-Adly 300 million pounds.The court ruled that Mubarak, Nazif and Adly were guilty of "causing damages to the national economy" and the fines would be paid to the country's treasury, the source said.At least 800 people died during 18 days of protests that toppled Mubarak, and more than 6,000 were injured by live ammunition, rubber bullets, water cannons and batons.Telecoms operator Vodafone said in January it and other mobile operators had no option but to comply with an order from the authorities to suspend services in selected areas of the country during the peak of the anti-government demonstrations.

Air France crash sparks pilot mystery

PARIS (Reuters) - A French airliner plunged out of control for four minutes before crashing into the Atlantic in 2009, investigators said, in a report raising questions about how crew handled a "stall alarm" blaring out in the cabin.
Information gleaned from black boxes, and recovered almost two years after the disaster killed 228 people, confirmed that speed readings in the Airbus cockpit had gone haywire, believed to be linked to the icing of speed sensors outside the jet.As Air France pilots fought for control, the doomed A330 dropped 38,000 feet, rolling left to right, its engines flat out but its wings unable to grab enough air to keep flying.The plane crashed on June 1, 2009, en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. Black boxes stopped recording at 0214 GMT.France's BEA crash investigation agency said in a detailed chronology of the crash that commands from the controls of the 32-year-old junior pilot on board had pulled the nose up as the aircraft became unstable and generated an audible stall warning.Aviation industry sources told Reuters that this action went against the normal procedures which call for the nose to be lowered in response to an alert that the plane was about to lose lift or, in technical parlance, 'stall'.This type of aerodynamic stall is nothing to do with a stall in the engines, both of which kept working as crew requested."A stall is the moment at which a plane stops flying and starts falling," said David Learmount, operations and safety editor at the British aviation publication Flight International.

Face to face, Netanyahu rejects Obama on borders

WASHINGTON – In a blunt display of differences, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the idea of using his country's 1967 boundaries as the basis for a neighboring Palestinian state on Friday, declaring his objections face-to-face to President Barack Obama who had raised the idea just 24 hours earlier in an effort to revive stalled Mideast peace talks.Though the two leaders, meeting in the Oval Office, found cordial and predictable agreement on the other central element that Obama outlined in his Mideast address Thursday — ironclad Israeli security alongside a Palestinian nation — progress on the bedrock issue of borders seemed as elusive as ever.In his speech, Obama gave unprecedented prominence to a long-held U.S. stand that Israel opposes: A Palestinian state should be shaped around the border lines that existed before the 1967 war in which Israel took control of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. An essential part of what Obama proposed was that Israelis and Palestinians would also have to agree to swaps of land to account for Israeli settlements and other current conditions, a point Netanyahu failed to mention."While Israel is prepared to make generous compromises for peace, it cannot go back to the 1967 lines," Netanyahu declared. "These lines are indefensible."As they sat together for public comments after their private meeting, Obama sought to put the disagreement in the best light, and in the context of a relationship of two allies — one, however, showing strains of impatience.

Al-Qaida considered oil tankers as terror targets

WASHINGTON – The terror group al-Qaida last summer considered hijacking and detonating oil tankers in non-Muslim seas to provoke an "extreme economic crisis" in the West, according to documents seized from Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan, the U.S. government said.It said there was no specific or imminent threat and that officials don't know whether al-Qaida had continued the plotting since last year.In a confidential warning obtained by The Associated Press, the FBI and the Homeland Security Department said that al-Qaida sought information on the size and construction of oil tankers, and determined that blowing them up from the inside would be easiest due to the strength of their hulls. Al-Qaida recommended test runs of the plot."We are not aware of indications of any specific or imminent terrorist attack plotting against the oil and natural gas sector overseas or in the United States," DHS spokesman Matthew Chandler said in a statement Friday. "However, in 2010 there was continuing interest by members of al-Qaida in targeting oil tankers and commercial oil infrastructure at sea."Another U.S. official, who was briefed on the bin Laden documents, described the plot as aspirational and not fully formed. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.The government warning went to federal, state and local law enforcement and companies in the oil and gas industries. The Homeland Security Department said it was not raising the nation's terror alert level.

Mississippi crests in Vicksburg, claims 1st life

VICKSBURG, Miss. – The Mississippi River crested at more than 14 feet above flood stage in Vicksburg on Thursday, a slightly lower than expected level that eased worries about water potentially spilling over a nearby levee and inundating thousands more acres of farmland.But officials warned that the flood was by no means over. The river was expected to stay at its crest for several days before beginning a long, slow retreat. It could remain above flood stage until mid-June."The crest is by no means the end of it," said Col. Jeffrey R. Eckstein, commander of the Army Corps of Engineers' Vicksburg District.In one of the city's hardest-hit areas, mechanic Chris Lynn has paddled a small aluminum boat across his flooded property every day to mark the water line on his shop. Water has crept close to his mobile home, though it has yet to go in."My son died in a car accident a few months ago, so this ain't nothing. But to a lot of people, it is," he said.Authorities had been worried for days that water might spill over the Yazoo Backwater Levee north of Vicksburg. But because the water was not expected to rise any higher, they did not expect to evacuate any more people. Some 2,000 city residents have already been forced from their homes.Also Thursday, authorities reported the first person to die in Mississippi floodwaters since the mighty river began climbing out its banks last month in the Midwest — a 69-year-old man who apparently collapsed in the high water.

M'sian aid ship not allowed to berth at Egyptian port and ordered to leave

EL-ARISH (Egpyt): An Egyptian navy gunboat has ordered aid ship MV Finch (Spirit of Rachel Corrie), which has been at anchor for three days, to leave the waiting area at El-Arish Port."They are preventing the ship from berthing," said Bernama journalist Mohd Faizal Hassan, who is one of the 12 passengers and crew on board the MV Finch, in a SMS note to Bernama's headquarters here Thursday night.According to Mohd Faizal, the MV Finch has been ordered not to come within a three nautical mile radius of the port.He also reported that fresh rations and water supply were fast running out.He said the ship was still waiting for permission from the port authority to berth."We do not know when the permission will be given," he said.The ship, which is carrying 7.5km of PVC pipes to help repair Gaza's devastated sewerage system, had tried to break Israel's blockade of the strip earlier this week but was forced to divert to El-Arish Port after it came under fire from Israeli naval forces.- Bernama