UPS jumbo jet crashes in Alabama

A UPS jumbo cargo plane with at least two people aboard crashed early Wednesday just outside the fence of the Birmingham, Ala., airport, and FAA official confirmed.

A UPS that the plane was a UPS A-300 Airbus, tail number N155UP, with two crew members aboard. The flight originated in Louisville, Ky., and crashed upon its approach in Birmingham. UPS said the crew has not been located.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the crew," the spokesman said.

Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen told The Associated Press that the plane crashed before dawn Wednesday. Debris was still smoldering and the nose of the plane was detached from the body.

Toni Bast, a spokeswoman for Birmingham's airport authority, said the cargo plane crashed near Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport. Bast said the crash site is outside the airport's perimeter fence and has not affected airport operations.

Few other details were immediately available. The plane appears to have crashed in an isolated field and a plume of smoke was seen rising from the site. Teams of emergency crews responded to the crash.

Bergen says she had no information on injuries.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it was deploying a Go-Team from Washington, D.C., to investigate the crash.

The scene is about a half-mile north of Runway 18. At 7 a.m. Wednesday, conditions in the area were rainy with low clouds.

Previously, a UPS cargo plane crashed on Sept. 3, 2010, in the United Arab Emirates, just outside Dubai. Both pilots were killed. Authorities there blamed the crash on its load of between 80,000 to 90,000 lithium batteries, which are sensitive to temperature. Investigators found that a fire on board likely began in the cargo containing the batteries.

The Associated Press contributed to this report
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/08/14/ups-cargo-plane-crashes-near-alabama-airport/#ixzz2bwtBxbmb

Whistler Blower: After Benghazi - 400 Anti-aircraft missiles end up in terrorists hands

DAILY MAIL: A former U.S. Attorney who represents whistle-blowers with knowledge of what happened when armed militants attacked the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya last year says 400 surface-to-air missiles were 'taken from Libya' during the attack, and that the U.S. intelligence community is terrified they might be used to shoot down airliners.

Joe diGenova, whose wife Victoria Toensing – a former deputy assistant attorney general – also represents Benghazi witnesses and others with knowledge of the terror attack, told WMAL radio that the loss of those missiles is also one the reason the U.S. State Department shut down 19 embassies across the Middle East last week.


'A lot of people have come forward to share information with us,' he said during the radio station's 'Mornings On The Mall' program Monday morning.

'We have learned that one of the reasons the administration is so deeply concerned' is that 'there were 400 surface-to-air missiles stolen, and that they are ... in the hands of many people, and that the biggest fear in the U.S. intelligence community is that one of these missiles will be used to shoot down an airliner. 400 missiles, surface-to-air missiles, taken from Libya.'

Asked if the missiles are now 'in the hands of al-Qaeda operatives,' DiGenova replied, 'That is what these people are telling us.'

READ THE REST OF THE STORY HERE

Editors note: This isn't exactly new "news." The Washington Post reported this in September of last year: 

THE WASHINGTON POST: 

BENGHAZI, Libya — The commander of a powerful Libyan militia said Monday that looters had stolen “a large number” of shoulder-fired, heat-seeking missiles from the militia’s base when protesters who called for dismantling the country’s militias overran the compound.

Ismail Salabi, the commander of Rafallah al-Sahati, a powerful Islamist militia in Benghazi, said in an interview that the missiles, used by fighters to “hit airplanes” and known to the U.S. intelligence community as MANPADS (man-portable air-defense systems), were stolen along with 2,000 semiautomatic rifles and ammunition, as the militia withdrew from its base amid a firefight early Saturday.

Saleh Jouda, a member of Libya’s elected General National Congress and the deputy head of national security, said the government did not have any information about stolen weapons aside from “between 1,000 and 2,000 guns.” He said the government had set up new security checkpoints to track down the weapons. But there was no evidence of new checkpoints in Benghazi on Monday.

NYTIMES: Yemen says it foiled terror plot

NYTIMES:

SANA, Yemen — Yemeni security officials said Wednesday that they had foiled an audacious plot by Al Qaeda to seize an important port and kidnap or kill foreigners working there, but the claim aroused some skepticism among Yemenis and independent terrorism analysts.

The foiled plot did not appear to be related to the threat that has led to the closing of embassies here and elsewhere.

A day after the United States and Britain moved to withdraw personnel from Yemen in response to concern over the possible terrorist threat, Yemen’s capital was in a state of high alert, with jet fighters soaring overhead and many streets barricaded.

Intercepts of secret correspondence between Ayman al-Zawahri, the leader of Al Qaeda, and Nasser al-Wuhayshi, the leader of the Qaeda affiliate inYemen, inspired deep concern inside the American government about a possible terrorist plot by the group. American government officials said that Mr. Zawahri used the communication to urge the Yemeni militant leader to carry out a large terrorist attack.

But the Yemen-based affiliate of Al Qaeda makes frequent threats, and Yemen’s government is under international pressure to show that it is working hard to counter the terrorist group.

At the same time, the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters, said a drone strike in Yemen’s southeast killed seven people on Wednesday. An earlier strike on Tuesday killed four people.

Yemeni security officials said the foiled militant plot included a plan to take control of the Mina al-Dhaba oil terminal in the Mukallah region on the Arabian Sea in the country’s southeast. The officials did not say how the plot — which followed government reports about a similar plot at the same port in June — had been disrupted.

The plan would have involved many Qaeda operatives wearing Yemeni Army uniforms to seize the port and then attack, kill or kidnap foreigners working there, the officials said. It was not clear if the disruption of the purported plan was linked to a spate of recent American drone strikes.

The security officials said the latest strike hit members of a Bedouin tribe some 40 miles west of Attaq in the southeastern area of Shabwah. It was the fifth known American strike in the last two weeks, part of an intensified campaign to disrupt the suspected plots that led to the embassy closings.

READ THE REST OF TEH STORY AT THE NYTIMES

In light of terror threat - US pulls diplomatic staff out of Yemen

The US government has flown diplomatic staff out of Yemen and is urging its citizens to leave "immediately" amid concerns over security threats.

It follows the sudden closure of 20 US embassies and consulates on Sunday.

This was prompted by intercepted conversations between two senior al-Qaeda figures, including top leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, US media said.

Meanwhile the UK Foreign office says it has withdrawn embassy staff from Yemen and advises against all travel there.

The US earlier said the closures in North Africa and the Middle East were "out of an abundance of caution".

A global travel alert issued on Tuesday said: "The US Department of State warns US citizens of the high security threat level in Yemen due to terrorist activities and civil unrest.

"The department urges US citizens to defer travel to Yemen and those US citizens currently living in Yemen to depart immediately."

It added that "the security threat level in Yemen is extremely high".

The Pentagon said the US Air Force was flying staff out of the capital Sanaa on Tuesday morning "as part of a reduction in emergency personnel".

It comes hours after a drone strike reportedly killed four suspected al-Qaeda militants in the country.

"The US Department of Defense continues to have personnel on the ground in Yemen to support the US state department and monitor the security situation.

The BBC's Abdullah Ghorab, in Sanaa, says the Yemeni capital has been experiencing unprecedented security measures, with hundreds of armoured military vehicles deployed to secure the presidential palace, vital infrastructural buildings and Western embassies in the capital.

Our correspondent says that a security source confirmed that Yemeni intelligence services had discovered that dozens of al-Qaeda members had arrived in Sanaa over the past few days from other regions in preparation for the implementation of a large plot.

The source described the plot as dangerous, and suggested it was to include explosions and suicide attacks aimed at Western ambassadors and foreign embassies in Yemen, in addition to operations aimed at the Yemeni military headquarters.

Both the White House and the US state department have said the current threat comes from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), but have refused to divulge further details.

READ REST OF THE STORY HERE

Iran's new President - meet the new boss - same as the old boss?

(CNN) -- Iran's new President Hassan Rouhani took the oath of office Sunday, replacing controversial President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Rouhani, 65, a cleric considered moderate, won the June elections with reformist backing. He campaigned on a "hope and prudence" platform in which he appealed to traditional conservatives and reform-minded voters alike.

He pledged to improve the economy and unemployment. And as a former nuclear negotiator, he vowed to reduce the high tension between Iran and the outside world by addressing sanctions related to Iran's nuclear program.

The White House congratulated Rouhani, and in a statement called his inauguration "an opportunity" for Iran to "resolve the international community's deep concerns over Iran's nuclear program." Should Iran decide to engage on the nuclear issue, the statement read "it will find a willing partner in the United States."

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking at his weekly cabinet meeting, said the president of Iran may have changed, "but the goal of the regime has not been replaced."

"Iran's intention is to develop a nuclear capacity and nuclear weapons in order to destroy the State of Israel," he added.

Iran insists its nuclear program is purely for civilian nuclear energy