The Pakistani authorities may release Gary Brooks Faulkner, a US national arrested in a remote area of Pakistan this week, officials said on Friday, reports our Pakistan correspondent.
Faulkner was arrested on Monday in the remote mountains of Chitral, once a rumoured hiding place of Osama Bin Laden, armed with a pistol, dagger, long sword and night-vision equipment. Faulkner told the police that he was on a solo mission to hunt down Bin Laden, the world’s most wanted man with a $ 25 million bounty on his head. The US national is still in Pakistan’s custody and is being interrogated but he may be released soon, a government official said.
“The US national will be released if nothing substantive is found against him after the interrogation. He is sick,” he added.
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56 killed in Burma landslide
Rangoon: Days of flooding and landslides caused by monsoon downpours have killed 57 people in northwestern Burma, state media reported on Friday.
The torrential rain that started on Sunday and ended midweek in Burma’s northwestern Rakhine state triggered floods and mudslides that washed away homes, damaged schools and bridges, and forced more than 2,000 people to flee, the state-run Myanma Ahlin newspaper reported.
Floodwater levels have receded and relief operations were under way, the report said. In neighbouring Bangladesh, heavy rains killed more than 50 people this week. —AP
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Seoul: Fighter jet crashes, 2 pilots missing
Seoul: A South Korean jet fighter crashed into the sea during a training flight on Friday and its two crew are missing, an air force spokesman said.
The F-5 jet went down off the eastern coastal city of Gangneung as it was returning to base there following a training mission, the spokesman said.
“The two pilots are missing. A rescue helicopter was sent to the site,” he said. In March three South Korean pilots died when two F-5 jets crashed after leaving the same base at Gangneung. The F-5 first went into service in the United States in the 1960s. —AFP