Russian govt clears guidelines on hijacked planes
MOSCOW, Jun 13 (Agencies): Russian government has finalised guidelines to shoot down and destroy hijacked airplanes to avert 9/11 type terror strikes.
The government on Saturday endorsed a bill on procedures to use weapons to destroy a terrorism threat in air, water and underwater as well as in a counter-terrorism operation.
Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said security forces will soon be provided with new guidelines on how to act in case of hijacked aircrafts or vessel terrorism threats, Kommersant daily reported.
It said airlines fear that the stipulated possibility to shoot down a supposedly hijacked jet may force pilots to hide information about the attack although lawmakers argue that any decision to destroy a ship or a plane with terrorists will be closely examined by several agencies.
The bill raised apprehensions among the airlines that pilots of hijacked planes could hide information to avoid downing of their plane.
According to Kommersant the new bill resembles legislation in other countries which allows firing warning shots for a plane in case it deviates from its flight path and does not respond or will not obey air traffic control instructions.
However "suspicious" jets in Russia may be destroyed without an early warning in case there is "reliable information" on the terrorism threat, it said.
It is up to the Defence Ministry and Federal Security Agency to consider it reliable or not.
Experts fear that this stipulation may trigger unpredictable actions of the cabin crew.
Revered Iraqi Shiite shrine bombed again SAMARRA, June 13 (Agencies): Suspected Sunni insurgents blew up the two minarets of a revered Shiite shrine in the Iraqi town of Samarra today, 15 months after its bombing by Al-Qaeda ignited brutal sectarian clashes.
The morning destruction of the gold-covered minarets of the Al-Askari mosque in the largely Sunni town north of Baghdad raised fears of a resurgence in intercommunal violence, with curfews imposed in Samarra and Baghdad.
"The explosions that led to the collapse of the two minarets were due to bombs planted at their bases," said Lieutenant Omar Ghalib from Samarra police.
An AFP correspondent at the site said that Iraqi and US forces were heavily deployed in the town as US helicopters hovered above.
"A team of explosives experts has been dispatched to the shrine," said local government spokesman Ali al-Juboori.
The US military said the "minarets at the golden mosque compound were destroyed around 9:00 am (1030 GMT) today." "The cause of the explosions is being investigated by the Iraqi police at the scene.
No casualties have been reported." Sheikh Saleh al-Haidiri, head of the Shiite endowment administrative body responsible for Shiite shrines in Iraq, said the minarets, which had towered more than 30 meters (100 feet) over Samarra, were blown up by "terrorists." "It is a terrorist attack ...
The second one against the shrine," Haidiri said in Baghdad.
"It is a terrorist attack aimed at sparking sectarian violence." Iraq's radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called for calm and a three-day mourning.
Imran teams up with Sharif to overthrow Musharraf LONDON, Jun 13 (Agencies): Teaming up with former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to dislodge Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, cricketer-turned politician Imran Khan has predicted the General's fall from power within a year.
"Musharraf is mortally wounded (following the nation-wide agitation sparked by the suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry).
He may struggle for a while, but he will fall.
In my opinion he is not going to last this year when we have free and fair elections," Khan said at a function in the London School of Economics last evening.
Khan had a meeting with Sharif earlier in the day and at a joint press conference they announced that they would hold a conference in London on July 7-8 to chart their course of action to which Bhutto would also be invited.
"We will work together and not just against this dictatorship but even when we think that Musharraf's tenure is over...
Because our objectives are the same," Khan said.
Asked about his talks with Sharif, Khan said he was closest to the exiled former Prime Minister as he has "clearest agenda- no compromise with Musharraf".
He also criticised former prime minister Benazir Bhutto for her efforts at striking a deal with Musharraf.
"Former prime minister and chief of Pakistan People's Party Benazir Bhutto talks about a deal with Musharraf and the deal you can have (with the military ruler) is detrimental to Pakistan." Musharraf overthrew Sharif in a 1999 Coup and then retained power in 2002 elections after gathering disaffected members of Sharif's PML and Bhutto's PPP.
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