911 calls detail Asiana crash horror

RTNN: Shortly after Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crashed in San Francisco, passengers and witnesses pleaded with 911 responders to send help -- some frantically, some insistently.

"I'm reporting an airplane crash at SFO (San Francisco International Airport)," an early witness said in calls released by the California Highway Patrol.

"An airplane crash at SFO?" a dispatcher asked.

"Yeah. We were hiking on a trail outside Pacifica and we heard a giant explosion and ... an airplane had crashed right there at SFO."

Another caller dialed 911, thinking the response was taking too long.

"We still don't see any firemen or anything," another witness said.

"We are responding, trust me," the operator responded.

Moments before, the Boeing 777's main landing gear slammed into a seawall between the airport and San Francisco Bay, spinning the aircraft 360 degrees as it broke into pieces and eventually caught fire.

Those who could poured out of the plane in the aftermath, dialing for help as they escaped.

"We are at the San Francisco airport and our airplane just crashed upon landing and we think we need someone here, someone here as soon as possible," a passenger said.

The dispatcher asks: Which runway?

"I don't know what runway. We just literally ran out of the airplane."

Did passengers ignore safety messages?

First responders were on the scene two minutes after the crash to tend to the injured, National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Deborah Hersman said Wednesday. About a minute later, there were firefighters equipped to douse the flames.

"We just got in a plane crash and there are a bunch of people who need help and there is not enough medics," a frantic caller said. "There is a woman out here on the street, on the runway, who is pretty much burned severely on the head and we don't know what to do."

The dispatcher assured the caller that help is on the way.

Did pilot have enough 777 experience?

The toll

The crash claimed the lives of two 16-year-old girls from China, who were coming to the United States for a church camp.

Of the 307 passengers and crew aboard the Seoul-to-San Francisco flight, 305 survived. Out of those, 123 were uninjured, while the rest went to Bay Area hospitals. Some of them were still there, including a handful in critical condition.

The shear number of injured overwhelmed emergency crews for a time, frustrating those who survived, but saw their fellow passengers suffering.

"There are no ambulances out here," a caller said. "We have been on the ground for 20 minutes. Critical injuries."

"Were you on the plane ma'am?" the dispatcher asks.

"Yes I was on the plane! We have been on the ground for, I don't know 20 minutes to half an hour?" she said. "There are people laying on the tarmac with critical injuries, head injuries We are almost losing a woman here. We're trying to keep her alive."

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Toronto struggles to regain power after storm

Thousands of Toronto residents were without power on Tuesday after torrential rains caused widespread outages in Canada's largest city, prompting the mayor to call for energy conservation.

The utility company Toronto Hydro said 300,000 people were left without power overnight but that as of morning all but 20,000 had it restored.

Mayor Rob Ford insisted, however, that it was "crucial" for residents to cut back on their electricity use to relieve strain on the system.

"We're hanging on by a thread right now," he told a press conference. "Please turn off all non-essential electronics and lighting."

Basements and highway underpasses were flooded, leaving some people trapped in cars with water up to their windows.

The city's subway and streetcars lost power, several trains were trapped in tunnels and tracks were inundated, officials said.

Public broadcaster CBC said about 1,400 people were caught by the flooding aboard one train, prompting an hours-long rescue operation by police and firefighters using small, inflatable boats.

The record rainfall of 110 millimeters per hour was equivalent to the amount of rain that usually falls on the city in a month.

At noon Tuesday (1600 GMT) several roads remained closed due to flooding or fallen trees.

Power was expected to be fully restored by Wednesday and the subway was back up except for a small leg still under water, officials said.

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Magnitude 5.3 quake strikes near Hawaii

The U.S. Geological Survey is revising the magnitude of an earthquake off the southeast coast of Hawaii to 5.3.

Tuesday afternoon’s earthquake was centered about 55 kilometres southeast of Pahala on the Big Island, at a depth of about 40 kilometres. Officials say it’s not expected to generate a tsunami.

The USGS reported earlier that the quake’s magnitude was 5.6.

People as far away as Maui and Oahu reported weak shaking to the USGS. The Oahu Department of Emergency Management says some areas may have experienced strong shaking.

Kevin Dayton, the executive assistant to the mayor, says he felt a large jolt in the county building in Hilo.

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Four U.S. citizens killed by drones, admits White House

The Obama administration acknowledged publicly for the first time that four U.S. citizens have been killed in drone strikes since 2009 in Pakistan and Yemen. The disclosure comes on the eve of a major national security speech by President Barack Obama in which he plans to pledge more transparency to Congress in his counterterrorism policy.

The White House said Mr. Obama’s speech on Thursday coincided with the signing of new “presidential policy guidance” on when the U.S. can use drone strikes, though it was unclear what that guidance entailed and whether Mr. Obama would outline its specifics in his remarks.

A move to gradually shift responsibility for the bulk of U.S. drone strikes from the CIA to the military has already begun. The CIA would continue to conduct operations in Pakistan, while the military takes on the operations in other parts of the world, according to an administration official.

It was already known that three Americans had been killed in U.S. drones strikes in counterterrorism operations overseas, but the government’s top lawyer, Attorney General Eric Holder, disclosed details that had remained secret, including the fourth citizen killed.

In a letter to the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Mr. Holder said the government killed U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical cleric, in Yemen and that the U.S. “is aware” of the killing of three others who were not targets of counterterror operations. The other two known cases have been: Samir Khan, killed in the same drone strike as Awlaki; and Awlaki’s son, Abdulrahman (16), also in Yemen.

The newly revealed case is that of Jude Kenan Mohammad, one of eight men indicted by federal authorities in 2009 in a plot to attack the U.S. Marine Corps base at Quantico, Virginia, and who fled to Pakistan.

Before he could be arrested, Mohammad fled the country to join jehadi fighters in the tribal areas of Pakistan, where he was among those killed by a U.S. drone.

“Since entering office, the President has made clear his commitment to providing Congress and the American people with as much information as possible about our sensitive counterterrorism operations,” Mr. Holder said in his letter. “To this end, the President has directed me to disclose certain information that until now has been properly classified.”

Mr. Obama’s speech was expected to reaffirm his national security priorities from homegrown terrorists to killer drones to the enemy combatants imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay but make no new sweeping policy pronouncements.

Mr. Obama was also expected to say that the U.S. will make a renewed effort to transfer detainees out of the Navy-run detention centre for terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to other countries. Mr. Obama recently restated his desire to close Guantanamo, a pledge he made shortly after his inauguration in January 2009.

That effort, however, has been stymied because many countries don’t want the detainees or are unwilling or unable to guarantee that once transferred, detainees who may continue to be a threat will not be released.

There are currently about 166 prisoners at Guantanamo, and 86 have been approved for transfer as long as security restrictions are met.

Mr. Obama was also expected to make the case that the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan has decimated al-Qaeda’s core, even as new threats emerge elsewhere.

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Russia reveals CIA chief's identity

Russia has named the alleged US intelligence chief in Moscow - a move seen as breaching diplomatic protocol.

It follows Moscow's decision to expel US diplomat Ryan Fogle, who was accused of trying to recruit a Russian intelligence officer as a spy.

Mr Fogle, a purported CIA agent, was arrested on Tuesday while wearing a blond wig and was briefly detained.

Russia says it warned the CIA Moscow station chief in 2011 to stop the "provocative" recruitment of spies.

An unnamed official of the Russian FSB security services told the Interfax news agency on Friday that if recruitment attempts continued, the FSB "would take 'mirror' actions in relation to CIA officers".

The report gave the full name of the alleged CIA chief of station in Moscow. However, it is not clear if the same person remains in the post.

Caucasian connection

Mr Fogle is said to have been a third secretary at the US embassy in Moscow. He has been declared "persona non grata" for what the Russian foreign ministry called "provocative actions in the spirit of the Cold War".

He has been ordered to leave Russia but it is not clear whether he has already done so.

Russia said Mr Fogle was caught while trying to recruit an FSB counter-terrorism agent in the Caucasus.

The Kommersant newspaper said he was investigating the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing attacks, who came from the Caucasus.

The FSB said another alleged spy, also a third secretary, was caught and expelled in January.

US officials have refused to comment on the naming of the alleged CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] chief.

"We still feel that we have a very positive relationship, and one that we can continue to work together on areas where we agree," said US state department spokeswoman Jen Psaki, quoted by the AFP news agency.

"There are still areas, of course, where we disagree. But I'm not going to weigh in further on the impact here."

"This does nothing to contribute to the further building of mutual confidence between Russia and the US," a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin told the Itar-Tass news agency.

Relations between the two countries have been strained, most recently over the conflict in Syria. Russia backs the government, while the US supports the rebels.

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Singapore opens US death inquiry

Singapore has opened a coroner's inquiry into the death of a US engineer whose parents believe he was killed over a China-linked project related to sensitive technology.

Shane Todd's death, in June 2012, was registered as a suicide by hanging.

But his family allege foul play was involved, pointing to work they say was linked to China's Huawei Technologies.

Both Huawei and Mr Todd's employer, a Singapore government institute, reject the claims.

Authorities in Singapore have been working with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation on the case after US officials called for Mr Todd's parents' concerns to be investigated.

The inquiry - which will focus on determining the cause of death - is expected to last until the end of May, after which a verdict will be issued.

Mr Todd's parents, Rick and Mary, are in Singapore and will be testifying.

'Never materialised'

Shane Todd, 31, an electronic engineer, was found hanged at his home in Singapore on 24 June 2012.

It was in a Financial Times report in February that Mr Todd's parents raised concerns about the circumstances surrounding his death.

They told the newspaper that what they found at their son's home did not match details in a police report related to his apparent suicide. They also said they did not believe he was the author of a suicide note shown to them by police.

Mr Todd had been employed at the Institute of Microelectronics (IME) in Singapore, a unit under the state-owned Agency for Science, Technology and Research.

He had feared a project he was working on harmed US national security, his parents told the FT.

They picked up an external hard drive at his home, which the FT said contained copies of their son's computer files from IME, including a planned project apparently involving Huawei - a Chinese telecommunications giant - and IME.

Huawei has been labelled a potential national security threat by a US Congressional committee over fears about its ties to China's government and military.

According to the FT, the files detail a project using gallium nitride (GaN), a semiconductor technology that has both commercial and potential military uses.

IME and Huawei said preliminary talks to collaborate on a project did not progress.

'Depressed'

K Shanmugam, Singapore's foreign minister, told Reuters news agency in March that Mr Todd had been " involved in a small project with Huawei that lasted nine months".

"IME discussed a project involving GaN with Huawei. This GaN project has been the subject of much, and sometimes breathless, media speculation," he said.

"The reality is IME and Huawei could not agree terms on the project and thus the project never materialised."

Colleagues of Mr Todd - who had a history of depression - described him as depressed in the months leading up to his death, Reuters reported.

In an opening statement the senior state counsel said that Mr Todd had consulted a psychiatrist in Singapore in March 2012 complaining about "struggles with stress, anxiety and depression due to work and life-related issues".

Mr Shane was at that time prescribed anti-depressant tablets, which were found in his apartment after his death.

Mr Todd's parents told the FT their son had described himself as "anxious" about work before he died, but that he had rejected a suggestion from his mother that he was depressed.

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Gandhi collections is for sale

One of the largest collections of Mahatma Gandhi memorabilia is to go on sale later this month.

Shropshire auctioneers Mullocks said the items will be sold alongside other important and historical documents.

A version of the Declaration of Irish Independence issued during the 1916 Easter Rising, considered to be the only copy in the world, is for sale.

A pair of sandals worn by Gandhi are expected to fetch between £10,000 and £15,000.

A "rare British Parliament paper declaring Gandhi a terrorist" from 1932 is also for sale with a guide price of between £200 and £300, the Church Stretton-based auctioneers said.

More than 300 items will be on sale on 21 May.

Other lots include a photograph showing Gandhi and Nehru under arrest by the British, dating from 1942, and a "very unusual" press photograph showing him in a suit.

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Washington State system hacked, data of thousands at risk

The website for the Washington State court system has been hacked and up to 160,000 Social Security numbers and a million driver's license numbers may have been accessed, officials said on Thursday.

The disclosure, which follows a number of major hacking incidents in recent years that have targeted a range of companies from Twitter to Apple, raises concerns that the information accessed could be used to commit financial fraud.

The breach was discovered in February, and officials at first believed no confidential information was leaked even though a large amount of data was downloaded from the website, the Washington State Administrative Office of the Courts said.

But officials later determined that 94 Social Security numbers were definitely obtained by the person or group that committed the security breach, while 160,000 Social Security numbers and a million driver's license numbers may have been accessed.

"We regret that this breach has occurred and we have taken immediate action to enhance the security of these sites," the state's court administrator, Callie T. Dietz, said in a statement.

Officials were notifying by mail the 94 people whose Social Security numbers were accessed from the site, court officials said in the statement.

The people whose names and Social Security numbers might be at risk are those who were booked into a city or county jail in the state from September 2011 to December 2012, officials said.

The breach could also have exposed the driver's license numbers of people charged in the state's superior court criminal system between 2011 and 2012, the statement said.

Anyone who received a driving under the influence citation from 1989 to 2011 or had a traffic case filed or resolved in a district or municipal court between 2011 and 2012 might also be at risk, officials said.

No financial data such as credit card numbers was maintained on the court website, so officials said there was no risk of that information being accessed directly through the breach.

The breach was the latest in a series of hacks. In one prominent case, Cody Kretsinger of LulzSec, an offshoot of hacking group Anonymous, last year pleaded guilty in federal court in Los Angeles to taking part in a computer breach of Sony Pictures Entertainment that prosecutors say caused over $600,000 in damages. Last month, he was sentenced in California to a year in prison.

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US warns on China cyber spies

China's government and military have targeted US government computers as part of a cyber espionage campaign, a US report on China says.

Intrusions were focused on collecting intelligence on US diplomatic, economic and defence sectors which could benefit China's own defence programme, it says.

This is the first time the Pentagon's annual report has directly linked such attacks to the Beijing government.

China called the report "groundless", saying it represented "US distrust".

A report from state news agency Xinhua cited Sr Col Wang Xinjun, a People's Liberation Army (PLA) researcher, describing the report as "irresponsible and harmful to the mutual trust between the two countries".

Both China and the US were victims of cybercrimes and should work together to tackle the problems, the agency quoted him as saying.

The Pentagon report also criticises a "lack of transparency" in China's military modernisation programme and defence spending.

What is Unit 61398?

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  A unit of China's People's Liberation Army, to whose Shanghai address US cyber security firm Mandiant says it traced a prolific hacking team

  
  


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  The team was said to have hacked into 141 computers across 20 industries, stealing hundreds of terabytes of data

  
  


• 
  

  Mandiant says the team would have been staffed by hundreds, possibly thousands of proficient English speakers

  
  


• 
  

  China said Mandiant's report was flawed and lacked proof

  
  

'Exfiltrating information'

"In 2012, numerous computer systems around the world, including those owned by the US government, continued to be targeted for intrusions, some of which appear to be attributable directly to the Chinese government and military," the report from the US Department of Defense said.

The attacks were focused on "exfiltrating information" that "could potentially be used to benefit China's defence industry, high technology industries... and military planners," it said.

It added that this was particularly concerning because the "skills required for these intrusions are similar to those necessary to conduct computer network attacks".

While China has long been suspected of a role in cyber attacks, the US has generally avoided publicly attributing attacks to the Chinese government, or confirming that US government computers have been targeted.

But the issue has come under increased scrutiny in recent months.

In February, US cyber security firm Mandiant said that it had linked hundreds of data breaches since 2004 to a Chinese hacking team traced to the site of a military unit in Shanghai.

China called the Mandiant report flawed, and said it was opposed to cyber-crime.

'Increased assertiveness'

The report also analyses China's progress in modernising its military and says that a "lack of transparency" about its military capabilities has heightened regional tensions.

China announced in March that its annual defence budget was $114bn (£73bn), an increase of 10.4%.

However, the Pentagon estimated that China's total military expenditure in 2012 was higher, between $135bn (£83bn) and $215bn (£138bn).

China launched its first aircraft carrier in 2012, and is also investing in ballistic missiles, counter-space weapons and military cyberspace systems, the report said.

Defense Department official David Helvey said that while none of the individual weapons systems were an issue, the "integration and overlapping nature" of the systems left the department "concerned".

They could boost China's ability to restrict access to, and military operations in, the Western Pacific, he said.

Mr Helvey said the report also found that China had "increased assertiveness with respect to its maritime territorial claims" over the past year.

China has territorial disputes with many of its neighbours, including in both the South China Sea and East China Sea.

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Portugal moves towards bailout exit with new 10-year bond

Portugal sold 3 billion eurosin its first 10-year bond in more than two years on Tuesday, with keen, mostly foreign investors putting the country on course to exit its bailout on time and qualify for an ECB debt support programme.

The yield of 5.65 percent, although still high compared to fellow bailed-out state Ireland's 4.15 percent bond pricing in March, was half that seen in the secondary market a year ago and below the so-called danger zone that starts at 6 percent.

Demand surpassed 10 billion euros, the finance ministry said, adding that foreign investors accounted for 86 percent of the placement, led by British investors who took up 27 percent.

"The operation was a great success ... We've completed the yield curve," Finance Minister Vitor Gaspar said in Brussels.

In January, Lisbon reopened a five-year bond and raised 2.5 billion euros in its first long-term debt issue since it had to resort to the 78 billion euro EU/IMF aid programme in May 2011.

Joao Moreira Rato, head of the government's IGCP debt agency told Reuters Lisbon, "will be in the market more regularly from now on, possibly reopening existing bonds like in January or holding auctions.

"We will act more like we used to act before the bailout."

Helped by the bond issue, shares in Portuguese banks rose on Tuesday, lifting Lisbon's PSI20.PSI20 index almost 1 percent.

"What's nice to see is that this (yield) level, as well as Portugal's secondary market yields, are all below the 6 percent danger zone," said David Schnautz, debt strategist at Commerzbank in New York. The yield is just tad more than 5.51 percent where a shorter current benchmark bond trades.

Concerns over Portugal's deep recession and domestic opposition to the austerity programme mandated under the bailout had pushed the yield above 6 percent last month - still just a fraction of the 17 percent it hit in early 2012.

Schnautz said the issue and strong demand "support Portugal's comeback story in the market".

Analysts say one reopening for each of the two bonds sold since the start of the year should make Portugal eligible for the European Central Bank's bond-buying scheme, intended to support the debt programmes of weaker euro zone nations with full access to bond markets.

That should also put it on track to exit its bailout on schedule by mid-2014.

Portugal's debt yields are near their lowest levels since 2010 thanks to a recent easing of investor concerns about the euro zone debt crisis. When it last sold 10-year bonds in January 2011, Portugal paid 6.716 percent.

Investors chasing higher returns last week enabled Slovenia, which is seeking to avoid becoming the fifth euro zone state to take a sovereign bailout, to sell a 10-year bond at 6 percent.

GO-AHEAD FROM LENDERS?

The decision by Portugal to go ahead with a 10-year bond also signals the government expects its international lenders to agree new spending cuts announced after the constitutional court last month threw out 1.3 billion euros of this year's cuts.

The new savings are designed to compensate for the rejected measures along with wider deficit reduction steps until 2015 worth 4.8 billion euros.

Representatives of the lenders arrived in Lisbon on Tuesday to review the plans.

By getting its deficit-reduction plan back on track, Portugal also seeks to get a full EU approval for an extension of its rescue loan maturities later this month.

"There have been strong signals regarding the extension of maturities, which allows a 10-year bond to fit neatly into Portugal's redemption profile. I guess the new issue would not have happened but for the discussion on the extensions with the lenders," said Michael Michaelides, debt strategist at RBS.

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SUV popularity in China casts cloud over green-energy cars

Chinese carmaker BYD gives pride of place to its new S7 SUV at the Shanghai auto show while another of its models, a fully electric vehicle, languishes in a corner with only a handful of visitors. Duration: 01:14

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