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Monday, September 07, 2009 KOLKATA: An aircraft belonging to the United Arab Emirates Air Force was found carrying a large cache of arms and ammunition and detained along with its nine crew members here last night.The plane, bound for Hanyang in China from Abu Dhabi, landed at the NSC Bose International airport here for refueling last night. Airport sources said that while customary checking of the plane by customs officials it was found that a large cache of arms and ammunition were stockpiled inside the flight. The airport authority of India was informed and as the plane's crew did not inform the authorities here that the aircraft was carrying arms, its return flight order was cancelled and nine crewmembers were detained. Late in the night, a meeting was held with the airport authorities, customs officials, senior Air Force officers and the UAE crew about the entire matter. Finally, permission was granted to the plane to resume its flight this morning, sources said.

Monday, September 07, 2009 WASHINGTON: The United States expanded its role as the world's leading weapons supplier, increasing its share to more than two-thirds of all foreign armaments deals, a US newspaper reported late Sunday. Citing a new congressional study, the newspaper said the United States signed weapons agreements valued at 37.8 billion dollars last year, or 68.4 percent of all business in the global arms bazaar. The figure marked a significant increase from US arms sales of 25.4 billion dollars the year before, the paper noted. Italy was a distant second, with 3.7 billion dollars in worldwide weapons sales in 2008, while Russia was third with 3.5 billion dollars in arms sales last year down considerably from the 10.8 billion in weapons deals signed by Moscow in 2007, the report pointed out.

Monday, September 07, 2009 BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday said she would "deeply regret" if any civilian lives were lost in a recent NATO air strike in Afghanistan, which was ordered by a German military commander. "If there were civilian casualties, I would deeply regret that," said Merkel before meeting in Berlin with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. She called for a "quick, complete and open" inquiry by NATO into Friday's raid on northern Kunduz province. Merkel reassured the around 4,000-strong German troops in increasingly violent northern Afghanistan, who she said were serving "in difficult conditions", that their country was "standing behind them". The NATO-led force in Afghanistan denied Sunday that its investigators had already wrapped up their inquiry and had reached a definitive death toll. Mohammad Omar, governor of Kunduz province, said by telephone Sunday that six civilians, including a child, we...

Monday, September 07, 2009 MANILA: Two people died and more than 800 were rescued as a ferry carrying more than 900 passengers and crew capsized early today before sinking off the southern Philippines, coast guard and police officials said. The Superferry 9, owned by Aboitiz Transport System Corp., listed at about 3:30 a.m. local time at the vicinity of the Zamboanga Peninsula while on its way to the central province of Iloilo from General Santos City in the south, Commander Armando Balilo, the coast guard’s public information officer, said in a telephone interview. The ferry’s captain immediately ordered passengers to abandon ship, he added. Some 830 people have so far been rescued by three onsite rescue vessels, Balilo said. The ship sank at around 8 a.m., Police Chief Superintendent Angelo Sunglao, Zamboanga Peninsula’s police director, said by phone. Authorities are still investigating what happened. The focus is now on getting all the passengers to safety, Caroline Ballesteros, as...