In Brief

COMAIR CRASH – A Comair flight carrying 50 people crashed 1,6 kilometre from Lexington’s airport, in Kentucky, yesterday morning shortly after takeoff.

At least one person survived. There was no immediate word on what caused the crash.* RELEASED – Two Western journalists kidnapped by a mysterious Palestinian armed group in Gaza were freed yesterday, security officials and their US Fox News television network said.On August 14, US journalist Steve Centanni and freelance cameraman Olaf Wiig from New Zealand were snatched by armed men off a street in Gaza City, where they had been working for several weeks.* CHARGED – A Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, Paul Salopek (44), has been charged in a Sudanese court with espionage, passing information illegally and writing “false news”.The paper said Salopek was working on a freelance assignment for National Geographic magazine during his arrest.Telephone and e-mail messages for the Sudanese Embassy in Washington were not returned on Saturday.* HURRICANE ALERT – Ernesto became the first Atlantic hurricane of the season early yesterday as it barrelled toward Jamaica, Cuba and, eventually, the US Gulf Coast exactly one year after it was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina.Ernesto was forecast to grow to Category 2 as it hits Cuba within the next 36 hours – and later enters the Gulf of Mexico just as New Orleans marks the first anniversary of the devastating Katrina, which struck on August 29 last year, killing more than 1 500 people * AFGHAN ATTACKS – Insurgent attacks in southern Afghanistan killed one British soldier and wounded seven others yesterday, while police killed 10 suspected Taliban militants who struck a government compound, officials said.Afghanistan is experiencing its worst violence since the late-2001 ouster of the Taliban regime for hosting al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.Nampa-AFP-APThere was no immediate word on what caused the crash.* RELEASED – Two Western journalists kidnapped by a mysterious Palestinian armed group in Gaza were freed yesterday, security officials and their US Fox News television network said.On August 14, US journalist Steve Centanni and freelance cameraman Olaf Wiig from New Zealand were snatched by armed men off a street in Gaza City, where they had been working for several weeks.* CHARGED – A Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, Paul Salopek (44), has been charged in a Sudanese court with espionage, passing information illegally and writing “false news”.The paper said Salopek was working on a freelance assignment for National Geographic magazine during his arrest.Telephone and e-mail messages for the Sudanese Embassy in Washington were not returned on Saturday.* HURRICANE ALERT – Ernesto became the first Atlantic hurricane of the season early yesterday as it barrelled toward Jamaica, Cuba and, eventually, the US Gulf Coast exactly one year after it was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina.Ernesto was forecast to grow to Category 2 as it hits Cuba within the next 36 hours – and later enters the Gulf of Mexico just as New Orleans marks the first anniversary of the devastating Katrina, which struck on August 29 last year, killing more than 1 500 people * AFGHAN ATTACKS – Insurgent attacks in southern Afghanistan killed one British soldier and wounded seven others yesterday, while police killed 10 suspected Taliban militants who struck a government compound, officials said.Afghanistan is experiencing its worst violence since the late-2001 ouster of the Taliban regime for hosting al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.Nampa-AFP-AP