Pakistan: Bomb Blasts rock Karachi

KARACHI: A bomb blast near Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) corner meeting in Lyari Saturday night left a minor girl dead and least 19 people injured within a few hours of twin blasts that ripped through Orangi Town's Qasba Colony area. 

PPP election gathering was in full swing when the explosive device, which police later said was hidden inside an motorcycle, went off in Kumhar Warda area within the jurisdiction of Kalakot Police Station.

Reportedly, the first blast was reported to be a cracker attack on a Fiqah-e-Jafria mosque, Masjid-e-Ali, located near the MQM office in the remits of Pirabad Police Station, while the second one, the sources said was an improvised explosive device evident from the pellet injuries.

19 tourists killed as hot air balloon explodes in Egypt

At least 19 people, most of them Asian and European tourists, died on Tuesday when a hot air balloon caught fire and crashed near the ancient Egyptian town of Luxor after a mid-air gas explosion, officials said.

The balloon came down in farmland a few kilometers (miles) from the Valley of the Kings and pharaonic temples popular with tourists. Rescue workers gathered the dead from the field where the charred remains of the balloon, gas canisters and other pieces of wreckage landed.

One Egyptian was also killed, Health Minister Mohamed Mostafa Hamed told Reuters, listing the other victims as tourists from Japan, China, France, Britain and Hungary. Earlier, officials had said all the dead were foreigners.

The balloon crashed on the west bank of the Nile river, where many of the area's major historical sites are located.

Konny Matthews, assistant manager of Luxor's Al Moudira hotel, said she heard an explosion at about 7 a.m. (0500 GMT). "It was a huge bang. It was a frightening bang, even though it was several kilometers away from the hotel," she said by phone. "Some of my employees said that their homes were shaking."

Ahmed Aboud, head of an association representing Luxor balloon operators, said the fire had begun in the pipe linking the gas canisters to the burner. He said it was an accident.

The deaths were caused by burns and injuries sustained in the fall, said Mohamed Mustafa, a doctor at the hospital where the injured were treated.

The pilot survived by jumping from the basket, Aboud said.

The British government said two British citizens and a British resident of Egypt had been killed. "We can also confirm that one other British national was involved and is in a stable condition," a British foreign ministry statement said.

Two French citizens were killed, according to France's foreign ministry. The Japanese embassy in Cairo said it believed four Japanese had been aboard and had sent staff to Luxor to confirm this.

Transport accidents are frequent in Egypt. Dozens of children were killed in November when the bus they were on collided with a train. Accidents affecting foreign tourists are rarer, but not unusual. Five Germans were killed in December in a bus crash near a Red Sea resort.

A LOUD EXPLOSION

U.S. photographer Christopher Michel, who was on board another balloon, told Britain's Sky News television that the balloon was one of eight flying at the time. "We heard a loud explosion behind us. I looked back and saw lots of smoke. It wasn't immediately clear that it was a balloon," he said.

Hot air ballooning at dawn is popular with tourists, who are a mainstay of the Egyptian economy, although visitor numbers have fallen sharply since a 2011 uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak. Two years of political instability have kept many foreign tourists away.

Tourism accounted for more than a 10th of Egypt's gross domestic product before the revolt. In 2010, about 14.7 million visitors came to Egypt, but this slumped to 9.8 million the next year.

Wael Ibrahim, head of the tour guides' syndicate in Luxor, said he did not expect the accident to make the situation worse for tour operators in the area than it already was. "We've already been affected badly in Egypt," he said.

Some tourists may be more wary of activities like hot air ballooning, he said, but added: "This (type of) accident could happen anywhere in the world."

Last year a balloon plunged to the ground in flames in Slovenia, killing four people and injuring 28.

Egyptian Civil Aviation Minister Wael el-Maadawi said a committee from the ministry was heading to Luxor to investigate the incident. He said hot air balloon flights would be stopped until an investigation into the cause of the accident.

"We cannot say whether this was because of maintenance or human (error) until the investigation committee is completely done with its investigation," he told Al Jazeera TV's Egyptian channel.

(Reuters)

EXCLUSIVE: BRITAIN’S Catholic leader fired over a gay sex scandal

 

Holy man and the sex beast

BRITAIN’S Catholic leader — sensationally fired by the Pope over a gay sex scandal — boasted of his close friendship with Jimmy Savile,

Cardinal Keith O’Brien formed a close bond with the BBC child sex beast over many years and paid a personal tribute to him after his death.

Yesterday it emerged that O’Brien, an outspoken opponent of gay rights, was ordered to resign by the Vatican after male priests came forward to say he behaved “inappropriately” towards them in the 1980s.

One said he was left needing long-term psychological counselling.

The country’s most senior Catholic cleric had planned to hang on until his 75th birthday next month.

But the Pope told him to go immediately, plunging the Catholic church in Britain into turmoil.

The Cardinal — archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh — denies the allegations and is understood to be consulting lawyers.

But he issued a statement yesterday confirming Pope Benedict’s orders and apologising for “failures” during his ministry.

He paid tribute to his “friend” Savile after his death in October, months before the DJ was unmasked as one of the country’s worst ever child sex predators.

He told the Scottish Catholic Observer: “My friendship with Jimmy Savile developed over many years since I was assistant priest in St Patrick’s Parish, Kilsyth.

“We were always trying to fundraise, not only for the parish, but for a variety of local and national charities.”

Savile was awarded the papal knighthood in 1990, a decision the Vatican later admitted regretting.

The axing of O’Brien has left Britain’s Catholic church without a representative in next month’s meeting to select Pope Benedict’s successor.

O’Brien originally asked to retire on March 17 after suffering ill health. But he said in a statement yesterday: “The Holy Father has now decided that my resignation will take effect today.”

O’Brien, of Ballycastle, Co Antrim, became archbishop in 1985 and was proclaimed a cardinal in 2003.

He vehemently opposed gay adoption and same-sex marriages and was named “bigot of the year” by campaign group Stonewall last year.

The Vatican acted after the complaints by three priests and one former priest, all from his St Andrews and Edinburgh diocese.

It is understood they submitted statements to the office of the papal ambassador to Britain the week before Pope Benedict’s resignation was announced on February 11.

The first allegation is thought to date back to 1980 when the complainant was an 18-year-old trainee priest at a college where O’Brien was his “spiritual director”.

He claims O’Brien made an inappropriate approach after night prayers, leaving the student too frightened to report the incident. He was ordained but later resigned.

A second priest described how he was happily settled in a parish when O’Brien visited and “inappropriate contact” took place.

A third claims he had to deal with “unwanted behaviour” from the cardinal after a late-night drinking session during a week-long stay with the archbishop in the 1980s.

The fourth, according to reports, claims O’Brien used night prayers as an excuse for inappropriate contact while he was counselling him over personal problems.

A spokesman for the cardinal said: “The allegations are anonymous and not specific and he contests them.”

 By BRIAN FLYNN, Investigations Editor, and HARRY HAYDON

BBC World Service jammed in China

(Reuters) - Radio broadcasts in English from the BBC World Service are being jammed in China, the British broadcaster said on Monday, suggesting the Chinese authorities were behind the disruption.

It comes days after a BBC news crew was detained and their video footage confiscated while they investigated a hacking unit in China, allegedly backed by the government.

"The BBC strongly condemns this action which is designed to disrupt audiences' free access to news and information," the BBC said in a statement.

China, which enforces strict restrictions on its domestic media, has been accused by several prominent foreign media of seeking to stop their news reports reaching Chinese audiences.

"The BBC has received reports that World Service English shortwave frequencies are being jammed in China," said the London-based public service broadcaster.

"Though it is not possible at this stage to attribute the source of the jamming definitively, the extensive and coordinated efforts are indicative of a well-resourced country such as China."

A duty officer at China's foreign ministry had no immediate comment.

It was not the first time the BBC had complained of disruption to its services in China, where its website has been consistently blocked.

Last year, it accused the Chinese authorities of jamming its BBC World News TV channel when it broadcast stories regarded as sensitive, such as reports on dissident Chen Guangcheng, who escaped from house arrest and sought refuge in the U.S. embassy.

Other foreign broadcasters including U.S. state-funded radio stations Voice of America and Radio Free Asia have also complained of Beijing blocking access to their programs.

The New York Times reported on January 30 that Chinese hackers had been attacking its computer systems while it was working on an investigative report in October last year on the fortune accumulated by relatives of outgoing Premier Wen Jiabao.

The BBC said in its statement on Monday that it had experienced jamming of satellite broadcasts over the past two years, and that while shortwave jamming was generally less frequent, it did also affect Persian-language transmissions in Iran.

"The jamming of shortwave transmissions is being timed to cause maximum disruption to BBC World Service English broadcasts in China," said Peter Horrocks, director of BBC Global News.

"The deliberate and coordinated efforts by authorities in countries such as China and Iran illustrate the significance and importance of the role the BBC undertakes to provide impartial and accurate information to audiences around the world."

China is listed at number 173 out of 179 countries on the World Press Freedom Index compiled by campaign group Reporters Without Borders.

(Reporting By Estelle Shirbon; Additional reporting by Lucy Hornby; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer)

Nepalese woman scales Mount Everest twice within days

KATHMANDU: A Nepalese climber was confirmed on Monday as the first woman to scale Mount Everest twice in a single season, Guinness World Records said, after she made the second summit within days of the first.

Chhurim Sherpa, 29, reached the 8,848-metre (29,028-feet) peak on May 12 last year before returning to base camp for a well-earned rest and then repeating the stunning feat a mere week later.

"I am very happy for this recognition. I was determined that the record should be held by a Nepalese woman and I'm proud to be one," said Sherpa, from Nepal's eastern hills.

Another Sherpa, Pasang Lhamu, died on her descent after becoming the first Nepalese woman to reach the summit of the world's tallest mountain in 1993.

Her feat was followed by 21 Nepalese women but no female climber in the world had ever managed two ascents in one season before Chhurim Sherpa.

"Climbing Everest turns out to be very tough for women like me because there are no toilets. Five of us had to share a tent," she told reporters at a ceremony in the capital Kathmandu to hand her the official record certificate.

Around 3,000 people have made it to the top of Everest since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay first conquered it in 1953.

The summit season on Everest begins in late April when a small window between spring and the summer monsoon offers the best conditions for making the ascent.

Woman, 23, arrested found having sex with a Pit bull

POLICE in Las Vegas allegedly found a 23-year-old woman having sex with a PIT BULL.

Kara Vandereyk was found naked in the front yard outside her house by cops responding to a tip-off.

A report in the US claims she continued fondling the pooch after officers arrived on the scene and approached her.

Police said the woman appeared to be on drugs and could not remember her own name. She informed them she was bipolar.

Vandereyk was booked on a charge of open or gross lewdness.

The dog was handed over to animal control officers.

Iran denies it captured a foreign 'enemy drone'

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard is denying that it captured a foreign unmanned aircraft during a military exercise in southern Iran.

A spokesman for the Guard, Yasin Hasanali, told The Associated Press that the drone was actually being used during the drill as a supposed enemy aircraft.

Iranian media on Saturday quoted a spokesman for the Guard as saying that its electronic warfare unit had taken control of a foreign drone's navigation system and forced it to land during the site of the military exercise.

Iran has claimed to have captured several U.S. drones, including an advanced RQ-170 Sentinel CIA spy drone in December 2011 and at least three ScanEagle aircraft.

The Guard's military exercise, code-named Great Prophet-8, ends on Monday.

Honeymoon tragedy: Bride falls to her death from Dubai hotel window

Abbie Emmett had married professional motorbike racer Sean just days before

A young British bride has plunged to her death on honeymoon in Dubai.

It is understood Abbie Emmett, 27, fell out of a window at the hotel where she was staying with new husband Sean, 43, a professional motorbike racer.

Police in Dubai are investigating the circumstances of the fall on Tuesday, just days after the couple arrived in the city after their wedding in South Africa.

Devastated friends of vicar's daughter Abbie said yesterday they were shocked by the news of her sudden death.

A friend, who did not want to give her name, said: "Abbie was a lovely person. We have been friends for a number of years.

"I couldn't believe it when I heard what had happened. I heard she went through a window in their hotel while they were on honeymoon.

They only married a few weeks ago, while they were in Cape Town."

Abbie and Sean, who was a professional Grand Prix motorcyclist, shared a first-floor flat in Addlestone, Surrey. 

Neighbour Nicolene Turvey, 27, said yesterday: "I feel so sad. She is such a young girl, the same age as me.

It's devastating for everyone. She really wanted to have kids and she had that maternal instinct."

Grand Prix rider Sean took part in the three-round South African Class TT series on a 1976 Suzuki RG500 bike in Port Elizabeth, Pretoria and Johannesburg over the last two months.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We were made aware of the death of a British national in Dubai on 19 February. We are providing consular assistance to the family at this difficult time."

Horrifying Nascar crash injures 33 fans at Daytona

Spectators sprayed with debris - including a tire - after car hits fence

Daytona Beach, Florida: The risks of racing extend beyond the drivers. Fans can wind up in the danger zone, too.

A horrifying crash on the last lap of a race at Daytona International Speedway injured at least 33 fans on Saturday and provided another stark reminder of what can happen when a car going nearly 200 mph is suddenly launched toward the spectator areas.

The victims were sprayed with large chunks of debris - including a tire - after rookie Kyle Larson’s machine careened into the fencing that is designed to protect the massive grandstands lining Nascar’s most famous track.

“I love the sport,” said Shannan Devine, who witnessed the carnage from her 19th-row seat, about 250 feet away. “But no one wants to get hurt over it.”

The fencing served its primary purpose, catapulting what was left of Larson’s car back onto the track. But it didn’t keep potentially lethal shards from flying into the stands.


“There was absolute shock,” Devine said. “People were saying, ‘I can’t believe it, I can’t believe it. I’ve never seen this happen, I’ve never seen this happen. Did the car through the fence?’ It was just shock and awe. Grown men were reaching out and grabbing someone, saying, ‘Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!’ It was just disbelief, absolute disbelief.”

From Daytona to Le Mans to a rural road in Ireland, auto racing spectators have long been too close to the action when parts start flying. The crash in the second-tier Nationwide race follows a long list of accidents that have left fans dead or injured.

The most tragic incident occurred during the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans, when two cars collided near the main stands. The wreck sent debris hurtling into the crowd, while one of the cars flipped upside down and exploded in a giant fireball.

Eighty-three spectators and driver Pierre Levegh were killed, and 120 fans were injured.
The Daytona crash began as the field approached the checkered flag and leader Regan Smith attempted to block Brad Keselowski. That triggered a chain reaction, and rookie Kyle Larson hit the cars in front of him and went airborne into the fence.

The entire front end was sheared off Larson’s car, and his burning engine wedged through a gaping hole in the fence. Chunks of debris from the car were thrown into the stands, including a tire that cleared the top of the fence and landed midway up the spectator section closest to the track.

“I thought the car went through the fence,” Devine said. “I didn’t know if there was a car on top of people. I didn’t know what to think. I’m an emotional person. I immediately started to cry. It was very scary, absolutely scary. I love the speed of the sport. But it’s so dangerous.”

Workers scurried to patch up the damaged fencing and left little doubt that the biggest race of the weekend, Sunday’s Daytona 500, would go on as planned.

Lenny Brown, who witnessed the crash from his 38th-row seat in the Petty grandstand, said he would be back in the same section for the season-opening Sprint Cup event. He has no qualms about his safety, sitting so high up, but he would think twice about the seats he had for the race two years ago.

“The last time I was here, we were only about six rows up,” Brown said. “I had even told some people before the crash, ‘I would never sit that close to the track ever again.’”

But someone surely will - mindful of the risks but eager to be among more than 100,000 fans cheering on stock car racing’s biggest stars.

“Here we are, playing money to sit next to cars going 195 mph,” Devine said. “We do it because we love it. That’s what we expect.”

Newborn babies walk the walk

Before you can run, you have to walk, and before you can walk well, you have to walk like a brand-new baby. A new study uncovers the logistics of newborns’ herky-jerky, Frankensteinian stepping action and how this early reflex morphs into refined adult locomotion.

In the study, electrodes on infants’ chubby legs picked up signals from neurons that tell muscles to fire, revealing that three-day old babies tense up many of their leg muscles all at once. Toddlers, preschoolers and adults, by contrast, showed a progressively more sophisticated, selective pattern of neuron activity.

From birth to adulthood, motor neurons in the spine get an overhaul as neurons in different  locations along the spine become specialized for various aspects of walking, such as foot position, balance and direction, Yuri Ivanenko of the Santa Lucia Foundation in Rome and colleagues conclude in the Feb. 13 Journal of Neuroscience.

With a helper supporting about 70 percent of the newborn’s weight, a three-day old baby walks across a flat surface while electrodes record motor neuron activity.

Corruption Case Pakistan sends letter to UK, US for arrests

PAKISTAN: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has written letters to UK and US in connection with the arrests of three accused in NICL case involving a corruption of Rs5 billion.

Passports of the three accused including a former trade secretary have also been cancelled.

Talking to Geo News, Director FIA Sindh Muhammad Malik said Khalik Anwar, the main accused in the NICL case, is a holder of Pakistan as well as US passports and nowadays residing in the US. A letter has been sent to the US authorities to extradite the accused under the treaty signed between the two countries, Malik added.

According to Director FIA Sindh, the former director NICL Amin Qasim Dada and former trade secretary Muhammad Javed are presently in UK. Letter has also been written to the UK government for their deportation, he added.

He said help from Interpol is also being sought for their extradition.

How to post to Facebook, Twitter after you die

New tools make it possible to schedule social media posts to go up after death

Death already has a surprisingly vivid presence online. Social media sites are full of improvised memorials and outpourings of grief for loved ones, along with the unintentional mementos the departed leave behind in comments, photo streams and blog posts.

Now technology is changing death again, with tools that let you get in one last goodbye after your demise, or even more extensive communications from beyond the grave.

People have long left letters for loved ones (and the rare nemesis) with estate lawyers to be delivered after death. But a new crop of startups will handle sending prewritten e-mails and posting to Facebook or Twitter once a person passes. One company is even toying with a service that tweets just like a specific person after they are gone. The field got a boost last week when the plot of a British show "Black Mirror" featured similar tools, inspiring an article by The Guardian.

Schedule social media posts long into the future

"It really allows you to be creative and literally extend the personality you had while alive in death," said James Norris, founder of DeadSocial. "It allows you to be able to say those final goodbyes."

DeadSocial covers all the post-death social media options, scheduling public Facebook posts, tweets and even LinkedIn posts to go out after someone has died. The free service will publish the text, video or audio messages directly from that person's social media accounts, or it can send a series of scheduled messages in the future, say on an anniversary or a loved one's birthday. For now, all DeadSocial messages will be public, but the company plans to add support for private missives in the future.

DeadSocial's founders consulted with end of life specialists while developing their service. They compare the final result to the physical memory boxes sometimes created by terminally ill parents for their children. The boxes are filled with sentimental objects and memorabilia they want to share.

"I don't think that somebody would continually be negative and troll from the afterlife."

James Norris, founder of DeadSocial

"It's not physical, but there are unseen treasures that can be released over time," Norris said of the posthumous digital messages.

Very loosely related: Manti Te'o and messages from a "dead" girlfriend

Among the early beta users, Norris observed that younger participants were more likely to make jokes around their own deaths, while people who were slightly older created messages more sincere and emotional. He's considered the potential for abuse but thinks the public nature of messages will be a deterrent. The site also requires members to pick a trusted executor, and there is a limit of six messages per week.

The UK-based startup will only guarantee messages scheduled for the next 100 years, but in theory you can schedule them for 400 years, should your descendants be able receive Facebook messages on their Google corneas. The company has only tested DeadSocial with a group of beta members, but it will finally launch the service for the public at the South by Southwest festival in March. Fittingly, the event will take place at the Museum of the Weird.

The last, private word

For those interested in sending more personal messages -- confessions of love, apologies, "I told you so," a map to buried treasure -- there's If I Die. This company will also post a public Facebook message when you die (the message goes up when at least three of your appointed trustees tell the service you've died), but it can also send out private messages to specific people over Facebook or via e-mail.

Though If I Die has attracted a number of terminally ill members, the company's founders think it could be appeal to a much wider audience.

"Somebody that knows he's about to die gets time to prepare himself; the big challenge is when it happens unexpectedly," said Erez Rubinstein, a partner at If I Die.

The Israeli site launched in 2011 and already has 200,000 users. Most have opted to leave sentimental goodbyes, and written messages are more common than videos, according the company. So far, the service is entirely free, but it plans to launch premium paid options in the future.

"It's an era where most of your life and most of your presence is digital, and you want to have some control over it. You want to be in charge of how you are perceived afterward," Rubinstein said.

A tweet-bot to remember you by

A more extreme version of this type of control lies at the heart of _LivesOn, a new project with the catchy tag line "When your heart stops beating, you'll keep tweeting."

Still in the early stages, _LivesOn is a Twitter tool in development at Lean Mean Fighting Machine, an advertising agency in the United Kingdom. The agency is partnering with the Queen Mary University to create Twitter accounts that post in the voice of a specific person, even after he or she has died.

When people sign up, the service will monitor their Twitter habits and patterns to learn what types of content they like and, in the future, possibly even learn to mimic their syntax. The tool will collect data and start populating a shadow Twitter account with a daily tweet that the algorithm determines match the person's habits and interests. They can help train it with feedback and by favoriting tweets.

"It's meant to be like a twin," said Dave Bedwood, a partner at Lean Mean Fighting Machine.

In the short term, Bedwood and his team said it will serve as a nice content-recommendation engine. But eventually, in the more distant future, the goal is to have Twitter accounts that can carry on tweeting in the style and voice of the original account.

The people behind the project warn against expecting Twitter feeds fully powered by artificial intelligence, or worrying about Skynet, any time soon.

"People seem to think there's a button you can press, and we're going to raise all these people from the dead," joked Bedwood, who has seen a huge spike in interest in the project over the past week. "People have a real faith in what technology can do."

Artificial Intelligence is still a long way from being able to simulate a specific individual, but recreating the limited slice of personality reflected in a Twitter feed is an interesting place to start.

The _LivesOn service is hoping to roll out to a limited number of test users at the end of March.

As with the other services, _LivesOn will require that members choose an executor. At this point, it's as much a thought experiment as an attempt to create a usable tool.

A little bit of immortality

All these companies see the potential for technology to change how people think about death. Goodbye messages can help people left behind through the grieving process, but composing them can also be comforting to people who are uncomfortable with or afraid of death.

"We shy away from death. It reaches us before we approach it," DeadSocial's Norris said. "We're using tech to soften the impact that death has and dehumanize it. It allows us to think about death in a more logical way and detach ourselves from it."

The prospect of artificial intelligence, even in 140-character bursts, can also be comforting to people who see it as a way to live on.

"The afterlife is not a new idea, it's been around for quite a long time with all the different versions of heaven and hell," Lean Mean Fighting Machine's Bedwood said. "To me this isn't any stranger than any one of those. In fact, it might be less strange."

By Heather Kelly, CNN

North Korea warns U.S. forces...

North Korea on Sunday warned the top U.S. military commander stationed in South Korea that his forces would "meet a miserable destruction" if they go ahead with scheduled military drills with South Korean troops, North Korean state media said.

Pak Rim-su, chief delegate of the North Korean military mission to the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjom, gave the message by phone to Gen. James Thurman, the commander of the U.S. Forces Korea, KCNA news agency said.

It came amid escalating tension on the divided Korean peninsula after the North's third nuclear test earlier this month, in defiance of U.N. resolutions, drew harsh international condemnation.

A direct message from the North's Panmunjom mission to the U.S. commander is rare.

North and South Korea are technically still at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

The U.S.-South Korean Combined Forces Command is holding an annual computer-based simulation war drill, Key Resolve, from March 11 to 25, involving 10,000 South Korean and 3,500 U.S. troops.

The command also plans to hold Foal Eagle joint military exercises involving land, sea and air manoeuvres. About 200,000 Korean troops and 10,000 U.S. forces are expected to be mobilized for the two month-long exercise which starts on March 1.

"If your side ignites a war of aggression by staging the reckless joint military exercises...at this dangerous time, from that moment your fate will be hung by a thread with every hour," Pak was quoted as saying.

"You had better bear in mind that those igniting a war are destined to meet a miserable destruction."

Washington and Seoul regularly hold military exercises which they say are purely defensive. North Korea, which has stepped up its bellicose threats towards the United States and South Korea in recent months, sees them as rehearsals for invasion.

North Korea threatened South Korea with "final destruction" during a debate at the U.N. Conference on Disarmament on Tuesday.

Ski chair fall 13 Years old British girl dies in Italy

An investigation has been launched into the safety of a ski-lift after a teenage girl died when she fell during a school trip to Italy.

A GIRL of 13 plunged to her death from a ski lift on 22nd Feb 2013 during a school trip to the Alps.

Poonam Bhattal crashed more than 20ft to the ground in front of horrified pals shortly after getting on.

Italian cops think the schoolgirl and other passengers on the four-seater chair lift may have failed to pull down the safety bar holding them in place.

Poonam regained consciousness but died from a suspected cardiac arrest in an ambulance on the way to hospital.

Last night her teachers said everyone at her school was “devastated” by the death. Pupils at Guru Nanak Sikh Academy in Hayes, North-West London, were learning to ski on a week-long trip to the resort of Claviere on the Italian-French border.

Police commissioner Francesco Destro said an investigation had been launched into the girl’s death at 9.30am local time. He added that other skiers on the lift were due to be questioned.

He said: “The ski lift was moving very fast and it’s possible the group did not properly pull the protective bars down.

“She answered questions after falling and we tried to save her but she did not make it.

“She fell about 30ft from the point where she mounted the ski lift, from a height of up to 24ft. I cannot recall another accident like this here. It is possible she was not sitting properly.”

She added: “Everyone is devastated by the death of an absolutely lovely student.

“Our thoughts are with the family and all others in the community affected by this tragedy.”

Technical Problems, US Grounds F-35 Fighter Jet Fleet

The U.S. Defense Department has suspended all test flights of the new F-35 fighter jets after discovering a cracked blade in the engine of one of the planes.

The problem was discovered during an inspection at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

The engine is being shipped to manufacturer Pratt Whitney in Connecticut for evaluation. 

The Pentagon has grounded all versions of the radar-evading warplane. 

The Marines and the Navy have been testing the aircraft in the Pentagon's $396 billion F-35 fighter jet program.

The Pentagon said the grounding of the 51 planes is a precautionary measure and it is too early to know the full impact of the newly discovered problem.

Friday marked the second grounding of the warplane in two months.  The F-35 program has been marked by cost overruns and technical problems.

Another atrocity in India: Minor girl raped by teacher

INDIA- Close on the heels of rape and murder of three minor girls of a family in Bhandara,a 14-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a teacher on school premises in the district.

Yadav Borkar (46), a government school teacher, allegedly raped the girl in the school premises at Golati village in Lakhandur taluka of Bhandara district two days ago, police said.

After the complaint was filed today, Borkar surrendered before the police and was arrested.

On February 14, three girls -- sisters -- aged 6, 9 and 11 years -- went missing from Murwadi village of the district. Their bodies were found in a well two days later.

The police, so far, has not made any headway in the probe.