The terrifying moment a race car rolled into crowd of spectators

Those in the vehicle's path rush for safety.Terror: The car flies over a safety rail towards a crowd of spectators


Amazingly, the Mini came to rest having only struck two men, neither of whom sustained life-thretening injuries

Spectators ran for their lives when a race car sailed through the air towards them after a dramatic crash in Australia.

The Mini had clipped another vehicle during the race in Brisbane, rolled along the track - then sailed through the air straight towards the crowd of spectators.

It seemed that disaster was only a split second way as the red vehicle dropped down towards the scattering crowd.

Yet only two people were hit and were said to be recovering from their injuries in hospital.

'It's amazing that more people were not seriously injured,' said Australian racing legend Dick Johnson.

United and Continental in £2billion merger to create world's largest airline

The new airline would jump past Delta Air Lines in size and have flights reaching from Shanghai to South America

United and Continental Airlines said on Monday they're forming the world's largest airline in a deal worth about £2billiion.

The new airline would jump past Delta Air Lines in size and have flights reaching from Shanghai to South America.

The United name will live on, although the planes will have the Continental colours and logo. The airline will be run by current Continental CEO Jeffery Smisek.

United CEO Glenn Tilton, a longtime advocate of consolidation in the airline industry, will be chairman for up to two years, with Smisek taking over as chairman after that.

The deal will first need approval from shareholders and antitrust regulators. It's expected to close in the fourth quarter.

The new parent company will be United Continental Holdings Inc. It will be based in United's hometown of Chicago and its biggest hub will be Houston. The companies say the combined airline will have revenue of about $29 billion, and $7.4 billion in unrestricted cash.

The companies said combining would save them $1 billion to $1.2 billion a year by 2013. That includes between $800 million and $900 million of new annual revenue, partly from increased international service.

Owners of United parent UAL Corp. will hold 55 percent of the combined company, with Continental Airlines Inc. shareholders owning the rest. Continental shareholders will get 1.05 UAL shares in exchange for each one of theirs.

Tenn. officials brace for more flooding, deaths-Tennessee and Mississippi storms claim 15 lives

 

About 1,500 guests of a downtown hotel complex spent the night in a high school to escape the flooding Cumberland River, which was expected to crest Monday following weekend thunderstorms that killed at least 19 people in Tennessee, Mississippi and Kentucky.

Officials in Tennessee were preparing for more deaths and for the Cumberland River, which winds through the Music City, to crest more than 11 feet Monday afternoon, putting portions of downtown in danger of the kind of damage experienced by thousands of residents whose homes were swamped by flash floods.

The Cumberland River had already reached record levels since an early 1960s flood control project was put in place. With so much water inundating the Cumberland's tributaries, however, it was difficult to gauge whether the river would stop at 50 feet or exceed the forecast, increasing the water's spread in the city.

Authorities weren't taking any chances. They evacuated the downtown area and north Nashville where a leaky levee threatened residents and businesses. Flooding could hit the downtown tourism industry, a commuter train depot and the nearby LP Field, where the Tennessee Titans play.

Floodwater spilled onto a couple of downtown streets near the riverfront and restaurants and bars in the tourist district were closed.

Reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il makes rare trip to China

Kim Jong Il, wearing sunglasses, gets into a car as he leaves a hotel in Dalian, north-eastern China today

These TV images (above and below) claim to show the 17-carriage armoured train carrying the North Korean leader as it crosses a bridge from his country into China

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il is said to have travelled to China from North Korea today

North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-Il appears to have made a rare overseas trip to China this morning, reports suggest.

The suspected journey was reported after his luxury 17-car train was seen crossing into China at the border city of Dandong in the early hours of Monday morning and would be the leader’s first trip out of his home country in years.

The train arrived to a phalanx of soldiers and police, and a convoy of 15 limousines was seen arriving at the city's Furama Hotel, reports said, citing unidentified sources in Dandong and Beijing.
A switchboard operator at the hotel said that security had been tightened but she would not say whether Kim was expected or whether guests had been told to vacate.

But the Yonhap news agency said Kim was expected to spend the night in Dalian before traveling onto Beijing.

There was no mention of the Kim trip to China in North Korean state media, which typically reports on his journeys after he returns.

South Korean officials said they could not confirm Kim's whereabouts. A spokesman at the National Intelligence Service, the main spy agency, said he was investigating whether Kim was on board the train. He spoke on condition of anonymity, citing agency policy.

China's Foreign Ministry and Communist Party were not available to comment Monday, a national holiday in China.

The trip would be Kim's first to China since 2006 and his first since reportedly suffering a stroke in August 2008.

Although the South Korean government would not confirm the reclusive leader’s trip, there have been rumours of the suspected visit for weeks now.

New York bomb investigators hunt for balding, middle-aged white man

CCTV footage show the man taking off one shirt to reveal a red one underneath. He then puts it in a bag.The balding white man in his forties then picks up the bag and moves on

This CCTV footage shows the Nissan Pathfinder (left) which carried the bomb shortly before it was abandoned

 A bomb squad officer examines the Nissan Pathfinder car. Smoke emerging from the vehicle first alerted officers to the 'car bomb'

The alarm clock found in a dark SUV which is said to be in the vehicle with the bomb

 

* Mayor dismisses Pakistan Taliban claim of responsibility
* Similarities with Tiger Tiger bomb outside London nightclub
* Handbag seller alerts police to smoking car
* Police investigate South Park link

The hunt is on in the U.S. for a balding, middle-aged white man who seen taking off his shirt near the car where the New York bomb was found.

Surveillance video shows him slipping down an alley close to Times Square and taking off a shirt, revealing another underneath.

In the same clip, he's seen looking back in the direction of the smoking vehicle and furtively putting the first shirt in a bag.

The images were released as U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said detectives had made substantial progress in their investigation and that those involved would eventually be caught.

He added that agents were still looking for the man spotted in the surveillance video taking off his shirt.

'We have some good leads,' said Holder referring to the middle-aged man, adding. 'We are following a number of other leads as well.'
Holder was cautious about linking it to international terrorism and claims of responsibility by the Taliban in Pakistan.

'I know that group in the past has claimed responsibility for incidents that (they) ultimately were not connected to," he said, adding it was too early to say who was in fact responsible.

New York police commissioner Ray Kelly said had the bomb detonated it 'looks like it would have caused a significant fireball'.

The petrol-and-propane bomb was crude but could have sprayed shrapnel and metal parts with enough force to kill pedestrians and knock out windows on one of America's busiest streets, full of Broadway theatres and restaurants on a Saturday night.

Detectives are understood to be investigating similarities between the New York bomb and two car bombs planted by Al Qaeda terrorists outside the Tiger Tiger nightclub in London three years ago.

In both cases, the devices were composed of propane gas and cans full of petrol intended to be ignited by electronic detonators.

Denmark's KFC website targeted by Islamist hackers

Information: The video gave a brief rundown of the Islamic beliefs, while the instructions told the government to introduce a law to prevent people insulting religion.Hacked: Islamits targeted Denmark's KFC website and left an educational video about their religion, as well as instructions to the Danish government

Denmark's KFC website has been targeted by Islamist hackers.

The hackers decided to gain access to the fast food site and post an educational video about their religion on the page.

They also left instructions to the Danish government to introduce a new law to punish people who publicly insult religion.

The hackers implied in their demands that if the law is not introduced, the hacking of Danish websites will continue.
While it is not clear why the KFC site in particular was chosen, some have speculated it is because of the lack of security on the webpage.

The hackers left a slightly cryptic message on the site, which read: 'If your Gov. don't make rules for Punishing anyone Insult Religions in the name of (Freedom of Speech ! ) or ( Freedom to Insult ) :)

'So, take this rule of Hacking ! in the name of

'[ Hacking is a Knowledge and the Knowledge is Free ! ] It means [ Hacking Anyone I want !!!!]

'If your People can behave and Learn how to Respect , act rationally and stop to Insult Other Religions

'under the name of ( Freedom to Insult ) or ( Freedom of Speech )

'Then the Rule of Hacking will be stopped

'Finally , I would like to remind also with the decree which the Human Rights Agency in the United Nations adopted on the 12th of April 2005. This decree insisted on the ban of distortions and vicious attack against religions and especially Islam; which had been strongly attacked in the last few years !

'Don't worry .. No files deleted .. Just my Index* has been added to your lame bOx ;)

'Greets Go To: All My Friends in MSN :)'

Pakistani army kills 22 Taliban near Afghan border

Militant attacks have killed nearly 3,300 people since July 2007 across Pakistan.Pakistani troops have been pursuing an anti-Taliban offensive since late March

Army helicopter gunships pounded insurgent hideouts in northwest Pakistan on Sunday, killing at least 22 militants, a government official said.

Samiullah Khan said the hideouts hit were in the Dabori area and its neighboring villages of the Orakzai tribal region near the Afghan border. He added the aerial strikes also destroyed six militant compounds.

Khan said the militants fired mortars at an army checkpoint in Mishti Mela area in Lower Orakzai, wounding two soldiers.

Pakistani forces launched an operation in Orakzai in mid-March to flush out militants who last year fled an army offensive in South Waziristan. The troops are believed to have retaken several areas from the Taliban in the region.

Thousands of people have fled the area. Most of them have moved in with relatives in nearby districts.

Independent confirmation of the casualties and the identities of those killed is virtually impossible because the region is remote and dangerous and media access there is restricted.

The tribal region is the primary base of Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud.

Mehsud was believed killed in a mid-January suspected U.S. missile strike, but intelligence officials now say he is thought to have survived.

Profile: Hakimullah Mehsud - Leader of Taliban Pakistan directly threathen USA.Alleged killed but survive.

Hakimullah has been reported killed several times in the past year 


Mehsud, left, has vowed to continue war of attrition against the Pakistani military


 Hakimullah was involved in al-Balawi's attack on CIA operatives in Afghanistan


Speculation over the faith of Hakimullah Mehsud, the leader of Tehrik-e-Taliban, the Pakistani Taliban, has been widespread since reports emerged that he had been killed in a US drone attack in northwestern Pakistan on January 14.

Mehsud came to prominence in the Taliban movement after a number of devastating raids on the nation's regular army in 2007.

His first-ever mention in an English-language newspaper came when he was appointed as a spokesman for Baitullah Mehsud, his predecessor.

Mehsud then gained a reputation for his fighting skills, particularly with the AK-47, and served as Baitullah Mehsud's deputy commander until the leader died in a CIA drone missile strike in August 8, 2009.

Aged about 30 years old and never shy of the media, Hakimullah Mehsud is reportedly an extremely mobile Taliban commander - cropping up in one or other of the tribal areas regularly, especially the Khyber, Kurram and Orakzai tribal agencies.

He is an articulate leader, frequently spelling out his organisation's objectives: to maintain the campaign of attrition against the Pakistani army in order to carve out a Pashtun Taliban emirate in Pakistan.

He is also the Pakistani Taliban's most successful leader to date. In one especially audacious raid, he captured 300 Pakistani soldiers - an attack that local journalists say added greatly to his prestige.

'Lively and dangerous'

Shafiq Ahmad, a reporter for Geo TV in Peshawar, met the leader at the beginning of 2009.

"Hakimullah is a lively man," he said.

"He told us he could give us two gifts. One was the Humvee military vehicle that his fighters had captured during a recent raid in the Khyber pass on an Afghanistan-bound supply convoy for Nato forces.

"The other was a jeep that his men had snatched from UN employees."

Another journalist, the BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan, met Mehsud at the same time and was impressed by a "handsome young man with a pleasant demeanour", even though "danger radiated from him".

"He [would] drive like a man possessed, manoeuvring around razor sharp bends at barely possible speeds ... braking inches short of a several hundred-foot drop."

Mehsud was born near the town of Jandola in South Waziristan around 1980 and went to a small village school in Hangu District.

Mehsud's reputation has only grown with every inaccurate claim by the Pakistani government to have killed him.

On August 10, 2009, Pakistani officials proudly announced his death, saying he had been hit by an unmanned drone attack after intercepting his phone calls.

But just hours later a Reuters news agency journalist reported he had spoken to Mehsud after the attack.

Later, on September 5, Pakistan forces "captured a man who confessed to killing Hakimullah", according to the national newspaper The Daily Times, which also headlined four weeks later that Hakimullah had most probably died on October 1.

The headline was ruined three days later when the press-loving leader met a group of reporters in a bid to end any premature speculation of his demise.

Timeline: Attacks on US targets

New York investigators study evidence after a car bomb attack was foiled in Times Square

US targets have come under attack both at home and abroad in the last 30 years:

April 2010 - Police, tipped off by a street vendor, find and defuse a bomb inside a vehiclein New York's Times Square.

December 2009 - A Nigerian man is seized after trying to blow up US-bound Northwest Flight 253as it approaches Detroit.

His attempt was thwarted by passengers and crew on the plane who extinguished the flames and restrained him.

December 2004 - Fighters storm the US consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, killing five local staff and four Saudi security personnel. Three fighters are killed and two captured.

May 2003 - Suicide bombers in vehicles shoot their way into housing compounds for expatriates in Riyadh, the the Saudi capital, as residents sleep. The death toll of 35 includes nine Americans.

September 2001 - Three planes hijacked by al-Qaeda fighters crash into New York's World Trade Centre towers and the Pentagonnear Washington. A fourth hijacked plane crashes in Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 people are killed in total.

October 2000 - Suicide bombers ram an explosives-laden rubber raft into the US destroyer Cole in the port of Aden, Yemen,killing 17 US sailors.

August 1998 - Lorry bombs explode at US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killing 224 people, including 12 Americans, and wounding thousands.

All but 10 of the deaths are in Nairobi, where the damage is worst.

July 1996 - A bomb explodes at a concert during the Atlanta Olympic Games, killing two people and wounding 110.

June 1996 - A fuel truck bomb kills 19 American soldiers and wounds nearly 400 people at a US military complex in Khobar near the Saudi Arabian oil city of Dhahran.

November 1995 - In Saudi Arabia, a bomb attack on a US-run military centre in Riyadh kills seven people, five of them Americans.

April 1995 - A truck bomb destroys the US federal building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, killing 168 people.

Two Americans are convicted and one of them is executed.

February 1993 - Six people are killed and more than 1,000 wounded when a bomb in a van explodes under the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York.

December 1988 - A Pan American World Airways Boeing 747 crashes on the town of Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 259 people aboardwhen a bomb on board explodes. Eleven people on the ground are also killed.

December 1985 - A hit-squad attacks US and Israeli check-in desks at international airports in Rome and Vienna simultaneously. The attacks claim a total of 20 lives, including four of the fighters.

October 1983 - A suicide car bomb attack by a Muslim group on the headquarters of the US military's peacekeeping force in Lebanon kills 241 US servicemen.

April 1983 - The US embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, is destroyed in a suicide car bomb attack. Sixty-three people are killed, among them 17 Americans, including Robert Ames, the CIA's chief Middle East analyst.

November 1979 - Iranian group seizes the US embassy in Tehran, taking 90 hostages. Fifty-two people are held captive for 444 days.

The hostages are released on January 20, 1981, the day of Ronald Reagan's inauguration as president.

Pakistan Taliban chief threatens US - Mehsud surfaces on video to threaten strikes on U.S.

The new video shows Hakimullah Mehsud threatening attacks on the US

Four months after he was believed killed in a U.S. drone strike, Pakistan Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud has appeared in a new video, vowing revenge attacks against major American cities.

Mehsud threatened to carry out strikes against the US within a month for killings of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda leaders as he surfaced in a nine-minute video apparently made on April 4, U.S. monitoring groups reported.

“The time is very near when our fidayeen will attack states in major US cities,” Mehsud warned on the video where he was shown flanked by two armed masked men.

This is the first time that Taliban have directly threatened to carry out suicide attacks on the US soil, on the pattern of their close allies Al-Qaeda.

The video comes in the wake of an attempted car bombing in New York’s Times Square on Sunday and follows another video released by Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) in which the group claimed responsibility for the failed strike. The U.S. investigative agencies have however ruled out the attack being handiwork of any Islamist terror organisation.

Afghanistan suicide bomber targets Nato base in Khost

At least one person has been killed in a suicide bomb attack outside a Nato base in Khost province in south-eastern Afghanistan, police say.

The bomb targeted the same base where seven CIA agents were killed last year in one of the worst attacks against US intelligence officials.

Police said a car packed with explosives was detonated in front of the base, killing one civilian.

Meanwhile on Sunday, eight people died in a roadside blast in Paktia province.

Fourteen others were injured when a bomb hit a passenger van, Afghanistan's interior ministry said.

In Decmber 2009, a deadly attack by a suicide bomber who infiltrated the base in Khost killed seven CIA agents and a Jordanian officer.

Forward Operating Base Chapman, a former Soviet military base, is used not only by the CIA but also by provincial reconstruction teams, which include both soldiers and civilians.

Florida threatened as size of Gulf Coast oil slick triples while Obama heads out to inspect growing chaos

Workers load oil booms onto a boat as the effort continues to try and contain the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico




Efforts to stem the flow: A Subsea Dispersant Injection System will be deployed by BP to contain oil below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico






An economic and environmental catastrophe loomed closer last night as emergency workers were powerless to halt a giant oil spill bearing down on Florida's coat.

The spill was said to have tripled in size over the past two days and is now threatening the state's beaches.

President Obama flew to the Gulf Coast yesterday for a first-hand update on the growing slick from the sunken BP drilling rig a mile deep in the ocean off Louisiana.

Crews have so far tried stemming the flow from the ruptured well or removing oil from the surface by skimming it, burning it or dispersing it with chemicals, but with little success.

Experts fear a nightmare scenario if the Gulf Stream carries the oil to Florida and into the Atlantic beyond.

Black clumps were already clinging to marsh grass in the biologically rich Louisiana Delta, a breeding ground for crab, oysters, shrimp and other seafood, but environmentalists say the more damaging oil has yet to hit the shore.

The only hope was for a change of wind direction to push the danger away from land. But it is feared the slick could reach south Florida's Atlantic beaches by Wednesday if the oil gets swept into the Gulf's powerful current.

This could also steer it into the Florida Keys and then north up the east coast.

The oil slick could cause huge damage to the tourist industry in Florida, which is the the holiday destination of more than 1.4million Britons each year.

Terror in Times Square: CCTV footage shows white suspect changing his clothes

Suspect: Police want to speak to a man pictured changing out of a dark jumper beside the vehicle

The alarm clock found in a dark SUV which is said to be in the vehicle with the bomb

 
Police evacuated a number of streets surrounding Times Square after the car bomb was noticed at about midnight GMT, 6.30pm local time

A bomb squad officer examines the Nissan Pathfinder car. Smoke emerging from the vehicle first alerted officers to the 'car bomb'

New York Poice Department surveillance image of a dark SUV entering Times Square, said to be the vehicle with a bomb

* Pakistan Taliban claims responsibility for attempt
* Police investigate South Park link

New York car bomb investigators are looking into claims a man pictured on CCTV footage soon before the vehicle began smoking was behind the attempted terrorist attack.

The white man aged in his 40s was caught on camera active in a 'furtive manner' at the scene and changing out of a dark jumper to reveal a red shirt underneath.
ouring from the vehicle and saw a flash inside.

It has also emerged that the bomb could have been aimed at the creators of the controversial cartoon South Park.
Viacom, which makes the comedy show, has offices near where the bomb was found and defused in Times Square.

The show's writers were threatened with reprisals last month over an episode mocking the prophet Mohammed.

Israel's PM welcomes progress toward peace talks-Netanyahu meets Mubarak ahead of new Mid East talks

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chairs the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, Sunday May 2, 2010. Israel's Prime Minister on Sunday welcomed the Arab nations' endorsement of indirect, U.S.-brokered peace talks with the Palestinians


Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, second right on the background, chairs the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, Sunday May 2, 2010. Israel's Prime Minister on Sunday welcomed the Arab nations' endorsement of indirect, U.S.-brokered peace talks with the Palestinians


Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men and boys sign and dance near a bonfire during celebrations of the holiday Lag Ba'Omer in the Mea Shearim neighborhood of Jerusalem, Saturday May 1, 2010. Israelis light bonfires during Lag Ba'Omer celebrations to commemorate the end of a plague said to have decimated Jews in Roman times.


A Palestinian youth sits on the roof of a house as he is backdropped by the Dome of the Rock Mosque, left, in the Al Aqsa Mosque compound, also known to Jews as Temple Mount, in Jerusalem's Old City, Saturday, May 1, 2010.

Israel's prime minister on Sunday welcomed Arab nations' endorsement of indirect, U.S.-brokered peace talks with the Palestinians, saying he is ready to restart negotiations "at any time and at any place."

Israeli and Palestinian officials said they expect the talks to begin by early next week, and one Israeli official said the dialogue would go beyond formalities and include preliminary discussions on "core issues" in the decades-long conflict.

Details on the exact timing and scope of the talks were still being finalized Sunday, a day after the 22-member Arab League gave the Palestinians the green light for negotiations.

Despite the signs of progress, violence broke out in the West Bank during a Palestinian protest against the separation barrier Israel is building in the area. Palestinian medics said four protesters were hit by rubber bullets fired by Israeli forces in Beit Jalla, a village just outside Jerusalem.

The Israeli army said it had used "non-lethal" methods such as tear gas to disperse what it called a riot by protesters who threw rocks at forces protecting a construction zone. It said no rubber bullets were fired.

The violence is not expected to derail the latest U.S. peace initiative. U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell is scheduled to return to the region this week, and the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, or PLO, is expected to give a final endorsement on Saturday.

Early Monday, the Israeli website Ynet said the Israelis planned to begin the talks on Wednesday in a meeting with Mitchell. The unsourced report said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu planned to personally conduct the opening negotiations.

Netanyahu had announced earlier he is willing to restart negotiations "at any time and at any place" while insisting they begin "without preconditions." He heads to Egypt on Monday to brief President Hosni Mubarak on the latest progress.

NKorean leader travels to China.Made rare trip to China.

FILE - In this Jan. 17, 2006 file photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, Chinese President Hu Jintao, right, shakes hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, left, at Beijing's Great Hall of the People. A news report said Kim's personal train has crossed the border into China early Monday, May 3, 2010, indicating that he may have begun a much-speculated trip there.


North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's armored train has started moving again after sitting idle for months, in the latest indication the North Korean totalitarian leader has recovered from a reported stroke.


President Kim alleged to hate flying.


North Korean leader Kim Jong Il was believed to be making a rare trip to China on Monday amid tensions over the recent sinking of a South Korean warship and stalled nuclear disarmament negotiations, South Korean news reports said.

Kim's personal train arrived early Monday amid tight security in the Chinese border town of Dandong, then headed to the port city of Dalian, the Yonhap news agency said. A convoy of 15 limousines was seen arriving at the city's Furama Hotel, the report said.

North Korea's reclusive leader rarely travels abroad but had been rumored to be planning a trip to neighboring China. He was believed to be on board the train that arrived in Dandong to a phalanx of Chinese soldiers and police blocking traffic, Yonhap said, citing unidentified sources in Dandong and Beijing.

Officials at South Korea's presidential Blue House, Unification Ministry and Foreign Ministry said they could not immediately confirm the report. A spokesman at the National Intelligence Service, the main spy agency, said he had confirmed a North Korean train arrived in Dandong and was checking whether Kim was on board. He spoke on condition of anonymity, citing agency policy.

A person at the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Beijing said she had no knowledge of Kim's trip. Calls to China's Communist Party were unanswered Monday, a national holiday in China.

A potential Kim visit to China has been a focus of intense attention in recent months, with six-nation nuclear disarmament talks stalled for a year and tensions rising over the sinking of a South Korean naval ship in late March.