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153 killed in Madrid airline crash as probe begins

AFP, Madrid

Investigators Thursday sought to determine what caused a Spanish tourist jet to break up in flames as it took off from Madrid's airport, killing 153 people in the country's worst air disaster in decades.

One engine of the Spanair MD-82 caught fire during the attempted takeoff from Madrid-Barajas airport on a flight to Las Palmas in the Canary Islands at 2:45pm (1245 GMT) Wednesday, Spanish media said, quoting witnesses.

The unstable aircraft then veered off the right of the runway, before breaking up, with fire spreading rapidly through the fuselage.

Transport Minister Magdalena Alvarez said 153 people were killed and 19 injured, two of whom remain unidentified.

There were 162 passengers on board along with 10 crew members, four of whom were traveling as passengers. Twenty two children were among the passengers, two of them infants.

Alvarez said the MD-82 had just taken off, but it was not clear if the back wheels had left the ground.

She said the plane had earlier begun taxiing to the runway, before turning back because of an undisclosed technical problem, which caused a one-hour delay in the takeoff. The two black boxes were found and were to be analysed.

Some experts said the fire in the engine was not enough to explain the accident, and other causes may be to blame. The plane should have veered to left if there was a loss of power in the left engine.

Spanish media said the pilot had earlier signaled a malfunction in an exterior temperature gauge, which was fixed before takeoff.

The 15-year-old plane was bought from Korean Air nine years ago, and was overhauled early this year, Spanair said.

Secretary of State for Communication Nieves Goicoechea ruled out terrorism, saying there was "no doubt that it was an accident."

The head of the emergency and rescue services in Madrid, Ervigio Corral, earlier said the bodies were scattered over a wide area, and some of the survivors were able to "walk away" from the accident.

At the airport, disraught friends and family members of those on board were escorted into a special room, where priests and psychologists were there to counsel them. Dozens more waited at Las Palmas airport. Spanair, Spain's second largest airline after Iberia, released the list of passengers late Wednesday, but not their nationalities. However, Spanish media said four Germans, two Swedes, a Chilean and a Colombian were among the survivors.

The flight was a codeshare with Lufthansa and the German carrier said four passengers from a Lufthansa flight were registered on the ill-fated Spanair jet and had arrived in Madrid.

Spanair's managing director Marcus Hedblom described it as "the worst thing that could happen" and expressed his condolencesÂ to the families of those killed.

SAS, the Scandinavian airline which owns Spanair, said a special team had been set up in Madrid.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who interrupted his holiday to go to the scene, said "the government is overwhelmed, very affected, as are all Spanish citizens, by this tragedy."

The Boeing Co., which owns McDonnell Douglas, offered assistance to Spanish authorities investigating the disaster.

It was the deadliest air accident in Spain since a Boeing 747 of the Colombian airline Avianca crashed in Madrid in 1983 killing 180 people.

The most deadly accident in the history of civil aviation occurred in Spain when two Boeing 747s collided at Tenerife airport in the Canary Islands on March 27, 1977, killing 583 people.

Spanair was founded in 1986 and says it has carried more than 104 million passengers from about 100 European destinations since then. It has a fleet of 65 jets.

The carrier, a member of the Star Alliance network, recently proposed shedding almost a quarter of its 4,000 staff because of the fuel price rise crisis and reduced demand.

SAS had put Spanair on the block earlier this year but announced in June that it was abandoning the sale plans due to the slowdown in the aviation sector.

McCain gains traction as conventions loom

AFP, Washington

Republican John McCain grabbed the lead over Democrat Barack Obama in a new opinion poll Wednesday, as his campaign built steam with the White House race entering a pivotal phase. The Arizona senator meanwhile denied questioning his rival's patriotism and said Obama was getting "testy" under his barrage of attacks, while a new flurry of vice presidential speculation surrounded both hard-charging campaigns.

McCain led Obama by 47 percent to 46 percent in the new George Washington University Battleground poll, after trailing by two points in the previous edition of the survey in May.

He made headway on the key issue of energy, as 40 percent of those polled said McCain was the best bet to peg back high oil and gasoline prices, compared to 37 per cent who preferred Obama. In May, Illinois Senator Obama had led on that question by 19 percent, but McCain's demands for an expansion of off-shore oil drilling appeared to be bearing fruit, despite Democratic claims it would do little to cut prices at the pump.

The new poll was the latest sign that McCain, who faced claims a month ago that he was running a stuttering, off-message campaign, is building momentum ahead of the party nominating conventions in the next two weeks.

Other surveys in recent days have shown Obama with a slim lead, but with McCain closing the gap, with the race essentially a statistical tie two and a half months before election day.

Both campaigns meanwhile kept a tight clamp on the identity of their vice presidential nominees, with Obama expected to name his number two within days.

"No hints. No new hints," Obama said when asked about the heated vice presidential rumor mill at a farmers market in Greensboro, North Carolina on Wednesday.

Russia blocks Georgia’s main port city

AP, Poti

Russian forces blocked the only land entrance to Georgia's main port city on Thursday, a day before Russia promised to complete a troop pullout from its ex-Soviet neighbor.

Armored personnel carriers and troop trucks blocked the bridge to the Black Sea port city of Poti, and Russian forces excavated trenches and set up mortars facing the city. Another group of APCs and trucks were positioned in a nearby wooded area. Although Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has promised that his forces would pull back by Friday, Russian troops appear to be digging in, raising concern about whether Moscow is aiming for a lengthy occupation of its small, pro-Western neighbor. Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili told The Associated Press that Russia was thinning out its presence in some occupied towns but was seizing other strategic spots. He called the Russian moves "some kind of deception game." "(The Russians) are making fun of the world," he declared.

An EU-sponsored cease-fire says both Russian and Georgian forces must move back to positions they held before fighting broke out Aug. 7 in Georgia's separatist republic of South Ossetia, which has close ties to Russia. The agreement also says Russian forces can work in a so-called "security zone" that extends more than four miles into Georgia from South Ossetia.

Poti is at least 95 miles west of the nearest point in South Ossetia.

Rice says US, Iraq 'very close’ to security deal

AFP, Baghdad

Washington and Baghdad are "very, very close" to an agreement on the future of US forces in Iraq, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on a surprise visit to the war-torn country Thursday.

Rice cautioned however that the controversial deal had not yet been clinched as she arrived in the Iraqi capital for meetings with senior Iraqi officials, including Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, and Baghdad-based US officials. "We are very, very close to an agreement. But it's not done," Rice said referring to the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA). "Undoubtedly it's true that the negotiators have taken this very, very far towards an end-agreement but there is no reason to believe that there is an agreement," Rice told reporters travelling with her. "There are still issues concerning exactly how our forces will operate.

3 Polish soldiers, 30 militants killed in Afghanistan

AFP, Kabul

Three Polish soldiers and more than 30 militants were killed in Afghanistan, military forces said Thursday, in the latest in weeks of intense attacks that have raised concern about deteriorating security.

The rebels were killed Wednesday after air strikes were called in to respond to an attack on troops operating in Laghman province, which adjoins the Sarobi area where 10 French soldiers died on Monday, the US-led coalition said.

The force said it had only struck after civilians had left the area and there were no casualties among civilians, although an Afghan doctor said at least one child had died and around 20 other villagers were wounded. "During the operation, more than 30 militants were killed and a large cache of mortar rounds and IED (improvised explosive device) materials were destroyed by the commandos," the coalition said in a statement.

The strikes were called when the area was clear of women and children after about 200 civilians were seen fleeing, and there were no civilian casualties, the statement said.

A doctor in the Laghman capital, Mihtarlam, said a child died en route to hospital and the body was in the facility.

About 20 wounded people were treated in the hospital including an elderly man, four children and eight women, surgeon Asadullah Rauf told AFP. The other wounded were adult males, he said.

The coalition said the operation in Laghman was based on "information gathered following a recent attack by militants on International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) in that area," it said in a statement.

US, India nuclear deal faces crucial meeting

Reuters, Vienna

A civilian nuclear deal between India and the United States faces a crucial test on Thursday when the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group meets in Vienna.

A green light by the NSG is required for the 2005 deal to proceed to the U.S. Congress for final ratification. The United States has proposed waiving a ban on nuclear trade with India without conditions, such as compliance with a nuclear test ban or sanctions if India should test a nuclear device. The deal would lift a 34-year embargo on nuclear trade for civilian purposes with India, which has not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty and has tested atomic bombs. India expects to receive a "clean and unconditional" waiver, but some NSG member states are pushing for conditions. This makes it unlikely that the U.S. draft waiver to be discussed at the two-day NSG meeting will pass without amendments, diplomats say. A second meeting may take place in early September to consider such amendments.

New Zealand, which is among a group of countries especially critical of the deal, has listed its main grievances with the exemption for India.

In an interview with The Times of India published on Wednesday, Defence Minister Phil Goff said his country was considering whether the waiver should be void in case of another atomic bomb test; whether it should be conditional on wider U.N. inspections of Indian nuclear sites; and what was necessary to prevent the transfer of technologies with possible military use.