UPS identifies pilots killed in plane crash in United Arab Emirates

(CNN) -- UPS has identified two pilots killed in a plane crash in the United Arab Emirates on Friday.

Capt. Doug Lampe of Louisville, Kentucky, and First Officer Matthew Bell of Sanford, Florida, were en route to Cologne, Germany, when the plane crashed near Dubai International Airport shortly after takeoff.

"This is a terrible tragedy, and all of us at UPS extend our deepest sympathies to the families and friends of both of these crew members," UPS CEO Scott Davis said in a written statement. "Our thoughts and prayers will continue to be with them during this difficult time".

Lampe, 48, had been with UPS since 1995, the company said. Bell, 38, had been with UPS since 2006.

Both crew members flew out of UPS's Anchorage, Alaska pilot base, the company said.

CNN

U.S. and South Korea delay anti-submarine exercises

(CNN) -- South Korea and the United States postponed joint anti-submarine military exercises due to an approaching tropical storm, U.S. Forces Korea said.

The exercises were scheduled to begin Sunday and run through Thursday, the forces said in a statement. Tropical Storm Malou is forecast to arrive in the region Monday.

Military officials said the exercise could have gone ahead despite the weather, but safety concerns prompted the postponement.

"Although the alliance is capable of operating in all weather conditions, this decision was made in the interest of safety for the participants," the U.S. military said in its statement. "Both high winds and heavy seas would have directly impacted the exercise area and the training objectives".

The exercises will be rescheduled but a new date has not been set, the statement said.

U.S. officials have said the naval exercises off the western coast of the Korean peninsula are in response to North Korea's alleged sinking of a South Korean warship last March.

CNN

Attack on Iraqi military base kills up to 12 people, military says

Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- Up to 12 people were killed and 36 others were injured Sunday when suicide bombers struck an Iraqi military base in Baghdad, the Iraqi military command said. The interior ministry reported eight dead and 21 wounded.

There was no immediate explanation for the discrepancy. There also were conflicting reports as to what happened.

According to an interior ministry official, the attack was carried out by five suicide bombers.

A suicide car bomber detonated at the checkpoint outside the base and was followed by two suicide bombers on foot who exchanged fire with Iraqi soldiers, the ministry official said. One of the bombers detonated his vest and the second was killed in the clashes.

According to the official, two other suicide bombers got into the compound and were holed up in a building.

The Baghdad Operations Command, the Iraqi military command in the capital, said in a statement on its website that five suicide vest bombers in a minibus drove up to the back gate of the base and were stopped by security forces, who opened fire after a bomber approached the checkpoint.

CNN

Flight attendant, JetBlue part ways after dramatic exit from plane

(CNN) -- A JetBlue flight attendant whose fame took off after his dramatic exit down an emergency chute is is no longer employed by the airline.

JetBlue spokeswoman Jenny Dervin told CNN on Saturday that Steven Slater no longer works for the airline. She said that the separation occurred last week, but declined to elaborate how Slater and the company parted ways.

Slater became a hero to some after an August incident when, authorities said, he grabbed some beer and triggered an inflatable emergency chute from a plane at a JFK Airport terminal in New York.

As of Sunday, Slater had amassed more than 210,000 "fans" on a public Facebook page.

The drama on the plane may have started before takeoff.

CNN

MotoGP rider dies in San Marino crash

(CNN) -- MotoGP is in mourning following the tragic death of Japan's teenage rider Shoya Tomizawa after an accident in the San Marino Moto2 Grand Prix on Sunday.

Tomizawa came off his Suter bike on a bend and was struck by the following bikes of Italian Alex de Angelis and Briton Scott Redding -- an impact which saw the 19-year-old thrown down the circuit and into the gravel.

Race organizers confirmed that Tomizawa had died in hospital from serious injuries to his skull, chest and abdomen.

A statement read: "Shoya Tomizawa suffered a serious crash and subsequent cranial, thoracic and abdominal trauma.

"He was taken to hospital in Riccione for immediate treatment but succumbed to his injuries. All the MotoGP family wants to express its deepest condolences to his family and friends."

Tomizawa's death was the first in the sport since 24-year-old compatriot Daijiro Kato died in April 2003 at the Japanese MotoGP in Suzuka.

CNN

Iran orders 99 lashes for woman facing execution, rights group says

(CNN) -- An Iranian woman who'd already been condemned to death faces another sentence of 99 lashes because of a case of mistaken identity in a photograph, according to foes of the execution.

Iranian authorities imposed the sentence after they saw the photo of a woman without a head scarf in a newspaper, the International Committee Against Stoning, a human rights group, said Friday.

In an apology, The Times of London, which ran the photo on its front page on August 28, said the woman was wrongly identified as Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, who had previously been sentenced to death by stoning for adultery.

The Times said the photo actually is of Susan Hejrat, a political activist living in Sweden.

Iranian law requies all women, regardless of their faith, to wear garments that cover their hair and bodies.

According to the Times, one of Ashtiani's former lawyers, Mohammed Mostafaei, gave the paper the photo.

Mostafaei told CNN Saturday that he still thinks the photo may be of his former client.

The Times said Mostafei told it that Ashtiani's son, Sajjad, 22, had e-mailed him two photographs three months ago and told him both were of his mother.

CNN

Heavy rains, landslides kill at least 17 in Guatemala

(CNN) -- At least a dozen people were killed when a mudslide buried a bus on a Guatemalan highway Saturday, authorities said.

Heavy rains in the past day have caused landslides across Guatemala, according to a statement posted on the government's website. At least 17 people have been killed and at least 20 have been injured during the storm.

President Alvaro Colom declared a national emergency Saturday, the statement said.

He told reporters that authorities closed parts of the Inter-American highway after rains washed out some of the road.

Thousands of homes, in addition to infrastructure and fields of crops, were also damaged by the heavy rains, Colom said.

The torrential downpours come several months after more than 150 people died when Tropical Storm Agatha hit Guatemala in May.

CNN

British Airways CEO eyes India after Iberia merger

(FT) -- A newly merged British Airways and Iberia would be "very interested" in investing in an Indian airline, BA chief Willie Walsh said on Saturday as he announced a groundbreaking code-share deal with India's Kingfisher Airlines.

"Without question this is a market for the future," said Mr Walsh, who is set to head the new International Airlines Group company to be formed under the Iberia merger due to be finalised by the end of this year.

"The ambition of IAG is to pursue further opportunities for consolidation and I can certainly let you speculate that IAG would be very interested in participating in the Indian market," he told reporters in Mumbai on his second trip to the city in a month.

"It's too early for me to say for definite, given the new company hasn't yet gone into action, that would be early next year," he added. "But the ambition of the new company would be to pursue further consolidation and this is a very important market".

India lets international investors own stakes in its airlines, but not foreign carriers. There has been talk of changing the law however, as local carriers including Kingfisher and rival Jet Airways seek funds to expand in one of the world's fastest growing aviation markets.

CNN

Iran stoning woman 'to be lashed over photograph'

An Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery now faces being whipped for indecency, her son says.

Iranian authorities sentenced Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani to 99 lashes after the Times newspaper published a picture purportedly of her without a headscarf.

The Times later published a correction, saying the photograph was of a different Iranian woman.

After an international outcry, Iranian officials temporarily halted Ms Ashtiani's stoning sentence in July.

There are fears the death sentence could still be carried out by hanging.

Contested confessions

Ms Ashtiani's son has given several interviews saying he was told of the new sentence of 99 lashes by people who have recently been released from the prison in Tabriz where his mother is being held.

On 28 August, the Times published a picture it said was of Ms Ashtiani that it had obtained from one of her lawyers.

The lawyer, Mohammad Mostafei, who has fled Iran, said he received the picture from her son, Sajad Ghaderzadeh - a claim Mr Ghaderzadeh denies.

Mr Ghaderzadeh said the new sentence was "an excuse to increase [the authorities'] harassment of our mother".

In an open letter, he said his mother had been sentenced to receive 99 lashes "on false charges of spreading corruption and indecency by disseminating this picture of a woman presumed to be her without hijab".

He said he did not believe the sentence had been carried out but that her family and lawyer had not been allowed to visit her for two weeks and she had not been allowed to use a telephone.

BBC News

Suicide bomber targets Russian military unit

(CNN) -- A suicide bomb attack on a military unit in the Russian republic of Dagestan killed five people and injured 39, according to a law enforcement source cited by a Russian state news agency.

A car, filled with explosives and driven by a suicide bomber, detonated near the city of Buinaksk early Sunday, the news agency RIA-Novosti reported.

Dagestan is in the turbulent Caucasus region.

In recent years, the republic has faced ethnic friction, spillover from the discord in neighboring Chechnya and attacks on government officials by militant Islamists, the International Crisis Group has said.

On Saturday, a car bomb in Dagestan killed a driver and injured a government official and his two bodyguards, state-run news agencies reported.

CNN

Death toll in N.Caucasus suicide bombing rises to five

The death toll in Sunday's attack on a military unit in the southern Russian republic of Dagestan has risen to five, a law enforcement source reported, adding that 39 people were injured.

A Zhiguli car packed with explosives and driven by a suicide bomber detonated near the town of Buinaksk after ramming the gates of the military unit early on Sunday.

Another source said 34 were injured. Many of those injured were in serious condition.

Earlier the Defense Ministry said three were killed and 26 injured.

A second explosion rocked the town as investigators were heading to the site. The second bomb exploded on the way of a police car after the car passed by the place where the bomb was planted, so no one was killed or injured.

A Defense Ministry spokesman said the ministry has dispatched a special commission led by acting Southern Military District commander Maj. Gen. Alexander Galkin to the site of the terrorist attack.

An investigation is underway.

Sporadic terrorist attacks and militant clashes are common in Russia's largely Muslim North Caucasus republics, especially Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia.

RIA Novosti

2 dead in British mid-air collision

SANDOWN, England, Sept. 4 (UPI) -- Two light aircraft collided during an aerial race in England Saturday, killing two people, authorities said.

The two victims were in a four-seat touring plane that lost a wing and crashed in dense woods near Ryde on the Isle of Wight shortly after 5 p.m., The Daily Telegraph reported.

The other plane, a two-seat sports aircraft carrying a pilot and passenger, was damaged but was able to land at Bembridge Airport. The two occupants were taken to a hospital as a precaution.

UPI

Paul Conrad dies at 86; Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist helped bring The Times to national prominence

By James Rainey, Los Angeles Times

Paul Conrad, whose fiercely confrontational editorial cartoons made him one of the leading political provocateurs of the second half of the 20th century and who helped push the Los Angeles Times to national prominence, has died. He was 86.

Conrad died early Saturday of natural causes, surrounded by his family at his home in Rancho Palos Verdes, said his son David.

With an unyielding liberal stance rendered in savage black and white, Conrad both thrilled and infuriated readers for more than 50 years. He won three Pulitzer Prizes, a feat matched by only two other cartoonists in the post- World War II era.

Mayors, governors and presidents cringed at the prospect of being on the business end of Conrad's searing pen, while many Southern Californians made him their first stop as they sifted through The Times, the newspaper that was his principal home for nearly 30 years.

"When it comes to editorial cartooning, I am unabashedly biased: Paul Conrad was simply the best ever," Times Editor Russ Stanton said Saturday. "Whether or not you agreed with his politics, readers waited every morning for his dose of political commentary, guaranteed to make them either angry, to think or to laugh. And his work inspired other cartoonists and writers to speak truth to power. The Los Angeles Times was fortunate to be part of his long and prolific career, and we have missed him since the day he retired".

While many other cartoonists angled for whimsy or the easy one-off, Conrad "specialized in hair shirts and jeremiads and harpoons to the heart," former Times Editor Shelby Coffey III once wrote. The cartoonist, loud and often profane in person, viewed himself as a champion of the common man and relished combat with those he saw as protectors of the rich and privileged.

Los Angeles Times

Bahrain accuses Shia activists of 'terror campaign'

Prosecutors in Bahrain have accused 23 Shia activists of planning to overthrow the state's Sunni-dominated government.

The men, arrested since mid-August, belonged to a "sophisticated terrorist network" that was planning and executing a "campaign of violence and subversion", an official said.

There has been a series of Shia-led protests in the Gulf state ahead of October's parliamentary election.

Bahrain's majority Shia community has long complained of discrimination.

"This sophisticated terrorist network with operations inside and outside Bahrain has undertaken and planned a systematic and layered campaign of violence and subversion aimed squarely at undermining the national security of Bahrain," public prosecution official Abdulrahman al-Sayed said in a statement.

"The leaders of the network have been accused of several crimes including the planning and instigation of violence, conducting a wide-ranging propaganda campaign against the Kingdom and seeking to overthrow the regime by force," his statement continued.

Bahrain is unique in all the states of the Arabian Peninsula in that it has a Shia majority, roughly 65% of the population.

However, the ruling elite is Sunni. Shia Bahrainis say they have been discriminated against for years.

Among those being charged is Abd al-Jalil Singace, head of the Shia-dominated Haq Movement for Liberty and Democracy.

BBC News

Failed blowout preventer hauled aboard ship

(CNN) -- A blowout preventer that may hold important forensic evidence as to why it failed, triggering the world's largest accidental oil spill, has been brought to the surface of the Gulf and placed on a vessel, officials said Saturday night.

The device "was taken into custody by the U.S. Department of Justice as evidence in its ongoing investigation into the incident," BP said. The blowout preventer was lifted to the surface at 8:53 p.m. (9:53 p.m. ET).

Adm. Thad Allen, the government's national incident commander, said the huge blowout preventer "is considered evidentiary material".

The April 20 explosion killed 11 workers aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig.

A new blowout preventer was installed atop BP's plugged well late Friday.

Crews had to flush out potential hydrates -- crystals that form in cold temperatures -- before the old blowout preventer was hauled about the Q4000 surface vessel.

CNN

Roadside bomb attack kills 1, wounds 7 in Iraq

Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- At least one civilian was killed and seven others wounded in a double roadside bomb attack in northern Baghdad Saturday night, an official at Iraq's Interior Ministry said.

The official said the bombs detonated in quick succession in Baghdad's Hurriya neighborhood and seem to have been targeting civilians.

In a separate incident, at least two rounds of indirect fire -- mortars or rockets -- hit the highly-fortified International Zone late on Saturday. There were no reports of casualties or damages.

Violence in Iraq has dropped drastically over the past two years, compared with the height of the sectarian war in 2006 and 2007, though attacks continue as leaders struggle to form a coalition government.

CNN

Palestinian leader blasts Ahmadinejad over Mideast peace comments

(CNN) -- The administration of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas lashed out at Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday, a day after Ahmadinejad criticized Abbas for renewing direct peace talks with Israel.

"He who does not represent the Iranian people, who forged elections and who suppresses the Iranian people and stole the authority, is not entitled to talk about Palestine, or the President of Palestine," said Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for the Palestinian Authority, according to Wafa, the Palestinian Authority's news agency.

Ahmadinejad, speaking to thousands of people at Tehran University on Friday, said the Mideast peace talks would fail. He spoke on Quds Day, an annual holiday in Iran that marks the country's solidarity with Palestinians and calls for the end of Israeli occupation.

Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met for direct talks in Washington this week, pledging to move the peace process forward. After two days of meetings, they deadlocked over the contentious issue of Israeli settlements.

"The fate of Palestine will be determined on the ground in Palestine," Ahmadinejad said Friday. "Not in Washington, not in Paris, and not in London".

CNN