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2nd Arab group buys military supplier

The deal by Dubai International Capital comes two months after U.S. lawmakers stopped a different Dubai company from operating six U.S. ports. The lawmakers cited national security concerns about an Arab company running the ports.

The Doncasters purchase passed two months of scrutiny by the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States, a 12-agency panel headed by the U.S. Treasury Department that reviews transactions involving national security.

The White House approved the deal last week, after American lawmakers said they were satisfied with the review.

Initial congressional reaction indicated there would not be the opposition that prevented the ports deal by government-owned Dubai Ports World.

Britain-based Doncasters produces parts at plants in Connecticut and Georgia for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and the M-1 Abrams tank.

Bodies of 10 U.S. soldiers pulled from Afghan ravine

KABUL, Afghanistan - Rescuers recovered the bodies of 10 soldiers who perished in a helicopter crash while scouring remote Afghan mountains along the Pakistan border for al-Qaida and Taliban militants, the U.S. military said Sunday.

The military said Friday's crash into an inaccessible ravine in Kunar province was not caused by hostile fire. It was the deadliest crash for U.S. forces in Afghanistan in a year.

The soldiers were based at Fort Drum in New York, but their names and units will not be released for several days, Fort Drum spokesman Benjamin Abel said Sunday.

At least 234 U.S. military personnel, including those killed Friday, have died in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the conflict, according to the Defense Department.

Elsewhere ...

Australia: Two Australian miners trapped on April 25 under tons of rock were 5 feet from freedom Sunday, but the slow process of rescuers drilling an escape tunnel turned celebrations to frustration.

To avoid a cave-in, rescuers in Beaconsfield have resorted to drilling by hand through rock crust five times harder than concrete to reach Brant Webb, 37, and Todd Russell, 34. Only one miner at a time can work in the cramped tunnel, lying on his back and wielding an 88-pound drill above his head.

Iran: Iran's Parliament threatened Sunday to withdraw the country from a protocol in the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty allowing for intrusive inspections of its nuclear facilities. In the letter to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan read on state-run radio, the Parliament also said it might order a review of procedures for pulling out of the nuclear treaty.

The United States is backing attempts by Britain and France to win Security Council approval for a U.N. resolution that would threaten possible further measures if Iran does not suspend uranium enrichment - a process that can produce fuel for nuclear reactors to generate electricity or, if sufficiently processed, to make atomic weapons.

Sudan: The U.N. humanitarian chief visited Sudan's Darfur region on Sunday to gauge living conditions for civilians displaced by violence between government-backed militias and rebel groups, the U.N. said.

Jan Egeland, the U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, had been barred by the Sudanese government from visiting Darfur and Sudan's capital, Khartoum, in April. His visit Sunday came two days after Sudanese authorities and Darfur's main rebel group reached a peace agreement that could help end a conflict that has killed at least 180,000 people in three years and displaced some 2-million.

Indonesia: Former dictator Suharto underwent successful colon surgery Sunday night to halt bleeding and will probably need two more weeks of care before being able to return home, his doctors said. Suharto, 84, was admitted to Pertamina Hospital on Thursday.

[Last modified May 8, 2006, 08:18:04]