SU N DAY, M A RCH 1, 2009 | DC
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NATION IN BRIEF WORLD IN BRIEF
TIMISOARA, ROMANIA -- A Romanian
plane carrying 51 people made a safe
emergency landing in western Roma-
nia on Saturday and all the occupants
escaped injury, officials said.
The Carpatair flight's front land-
ing gear became stuck and the plane
circled Timisoara International Air-
port for almost two hours, using up
its fuel to avoid a potential fire before
it landed on a 200-yard (200-meter)
long bed of foam laid out by firefight-
ers, officials said.
One of the pilots later said they
were about six miles (10 kilometers)
from the airport when they discov-
ered they had a problem with the
landing gear, and alerted the avia-
tion authorities.
"We did our job without feel-
ing like heroes," Moldovan pilot
Iurie Oleacov told reporters. ...
"We weren't scared, we are trained
for these kinds of situations." But
Oleacov, 37, said he had never
encountered this situation outside
of training sessions.
"All the passengers are OK. They
were calm," he added.
The company said Oleacov and the
other Moldovan pilot, Leonid Babis-
chi, 47, were highly experienced.
"The plane came down on the
side wheels; it braked sharply and
at a low speed it came on its front
belly, while the front landing gear
remained stuck," Dan Andrei, the
airline's vice president, said.
At least 10 ambulances and three
fire engines were waiting for the
stricken plane when it landed, the
emergency department said.
The Saab 2000 aircraft was car-
rying 47 passengers and four crew
membersonitsflightfromtheMoldo-
van capital, Chisinau, to Timisoara,
airport spokeswoman Carmen Stoica
said. Romanian border police, who
deal with international customs, said
the plane was carrying 11, Roma-
nians, 23 Moldovans, nine Italians,
two Greeks and two Germans. The
crew is Moldovan.
Timisoara ambulance chief Iancu
Leonida said no one was hurt, but
people were very frightened.
"There are no injured people,
although some might have minor
scratches, but they are very scared
and traumatized," he said. "They are
being given medical care."
Realitatea TV broadcast footage
of passengers hugging and kissing
people who had come to meet them
at the airport. One unidentified
female passenger with gray hair
and tears in her eyes told the TV the
passengers did not know about the
landing gear and had thought there
was a problem with ice and fog.
The airport was closed for 2 1/2
hours Saturday morning after the
incident. A Romanian Transpor-
tation Ministry team arrived in
Timisoara to investigate. �AP
All safe after emergency plane landing
ROMANIA
AP
Workers stand around a Romanian plane following an emergency landing after developing trouble with its landing gear.
Two months into `09, U.S.
deaths spike in Afghanistan
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN -- U.S. deaths
in Afghanistan increased threefold
during the first two months of 2009
compared with the same period last
year, after thousands more troops
deployed and commanders ramped
up winter operations against an
increasingly violent insurgency.
Twenty-nine U.S. troops died in
Afghanistan during the first two
months of 2009 -- compared with
eight Americans in the first two
months of 2008. � AP
Afghan president seeks to
move up August election
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN -- Afghan
President Hamid Karzai on Satur-
day backed off plans for an August
election and asked the country's
electoral commission to set an ear-
lier date.
The brief statement from Kar-
zai's office offered no new date for
a presidential vote, but came after
lawmakers said they would not rec-
ognize Karzai as president after
May 22 - the expiration of his five-
year term. The statement said the
election commission should follow
the Afghan constitution, which calls
for elections to be held 30 to 60 days
before May 22. � Bloomberg
Algerian president
forgives farmers' debts
ALGIERS, ALGERIA -- Weeks before his
re-election bid, Algerian President
Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced
Saturday that the government will
cancel 41 billion dinars ($5.2 billion)
worth of debt owed by farmers and
livestock raisers, the state-run news
agency reported.
"The state has decided to totally
erase the debts of farmers and
livestock raisers, and the public
treasury will buy up these debts,"
he told the gathering in the north-
eastern town of Biskra, according
to APS.
Voters in the gas-rich north
African country go to the polls for
presidential elections on April 9.
� AP
Dublin cops arrest 7 after
historic bank heist
DUBLIN -- Police recovered millions
in stolen cash and interrogated
seven suspected robbers Saturday, a
day after a gang took a bank employ-
ee's family hostage and forced him
to rob his own branch.
On Friday, six armed, masked
men stormed into the rural home
of Bank of Ireland worker Shane
Travers. They tied up his partner,
her 5-year-old son and her mother,
and told Travers they would be
killed unless he cooperated.
Such hostage-taking tactics are
common in Ireland's criminal under-
world -- but never in Republic of
Ireland history have they netted
anything close to the 7 million ($9
million) that Travers carried out
from his branch Friday morning.
His family had been abandoned
inside a van north of Dublin, but
escaped on their own and were not
seriously harmed. � AP
3 from Miss. killed in
small plane crash in La.
LIVINGSTON, LA. -- Authorities say
three people died after a small plane
crashed in a wooded area in south-
eastern Louisiana. Perry Rushing of
the Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office
says the Cessna 182 went down just
before midnight Friday in a heavily
wooded area west of Independence.
The cause of the crash was unknown.
Rushing says weather did not appear
to be a factor. � AP
Buffett: Economy will be
`in shambles' for 2009
Billionaire Warren Buffett said
the economy will be "in shambles"
for the rest of this year as financial
firms take losses tied to reckless
loans made during the housing
boom.
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index
will probably gain in three-quarters
of the next 44 years, just as it did in
the period since Buffett took over
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. in 1965, he
said today in his annual letter to the
company's shareholders.
While Buffett and business part-
ner Charlie Munger can't predict
how stocks will perform in 2009,
they're certain "that the economy
will be in shambles throughout 2009
-- and, for that matter, probably well
beyond," he wrote. -- Bloomberg
SoCal robbery suspect
tried to become policeman
CHULA VISTA, CALIF. -- Authorities in
California say a man wanted for a
store robbery was arrested when he
showed up to take a test to become
a police officer. Chula Vista police
spokesman Bernard Gonzales said
investigators had identified Romeo
Montillano as a suspect in a Dec. 8
robbery at a Kmart. Gonzales says
investigators learned that Montil-
lano had signed up for the February
Police Department entrance exam.
The 40-year-old man was arrested
Wednesday when he arrived to take
the test. � AP
Avalanche kills 3 on the
Wyoming-Idaho state line
JACKSON, WYO. -- Authorities in
Wyoming say a mile-long avalanche
has killed three snowmobilers near
the Wyoming-Idaho state line.
Lincoln County officials say the
three victims were among four
snowmobilers caught by the snow
slide Friday near Alpine in the
Snake River Range.
Sgt. Shane Tindall said the fourth
person walked out and used his cell
phone to call for help.
The slide was about 100 yards
wide and a mile long. � AP
Mother gets 3 months
for attacking sex felon
TACOMA, WASH. -- A judge has sen-
tenced a mother to three months
in jail for hitting a convicted sex
offender with an aluminum base-
ball bat.
Gibson, 40, who has two daugh-
ters, pleaded guilty to a reduced
charge of third-degree assault in
January. � AP
ANCHORAGE, ALASKA -- William
Osborne says he's a victim of
mistaken identity and a DNA test
would prove it. Alaska prosecu-
tors say his rape and attempted
murder convictions are as solid
as can be, and would be pointless
to revisit.
Osborne's attorneys will argue
before the U.S. Supreme Court
on Monday that DNA testing is
not something states can choose
to allow when they have doubts
about a conviction, but a consti-
tutional right.
They note that 232 prisoners
around the country have been
exonerated by such tests, and that
Alaska is the only state that hasn't
even tried to use the ever-evolving
technology to see if it might have
gotten a conviction wrong.
"Most prosecutors, judges and
states recognize that while DNA
testing in these crimes may not
always protect a conviction, it
protects our system of justice
by revealing the truth," said
Peter Neufeld, co-director of The
Innocence Project. "Alaska is the
exception."
Neufeld's group, which works to
exonerate those who are wrong-
fully convicted, argues that the
U.S. Constitution guarantees
Osborne access to the DNA
test when it says no state shall
"deprive any person of life, liberty,
or property, without due process
of law."
The state of Alaska argues that
Osborne got a fair, error-free trial,
and that he is trying to use noth-
ing more than a claim of innocence
to reopen a case in which there is
ample evidence of his guilt.
Osborne, 36, was convicted
of raping and trying to murder
a woman in 1993. She identified
him as one of her two attackers,
he was incriminated by the other
man and Osborne confessed in
a detailed written statement in
2004.
Ken Rosenstein, the state's lead
lawyer for the case, said Osborne
chose not to use options available
to him if he had wanted to argue
his innocence, including asking
the governor for clemency.
"Osborne is not a very likely
candidate for maintaining an
innocent claim because he has
confessed to his crime and he
won't declare his innocence under
oath. There is otherwise no other
reason to doubt the validity of his
convictions," he said.
Prosecutors point to Osborne's
own words.
"Instead of declaring his actual
innocence, he has confessed, in
graphic detail, to the precise
crimes with which he was charged
and convicted," the state's court
brief says.
DNA testing was conducted for
Osborne's trial, but it was crude by
today's standards: He could have
been the source of semen found
in a condom, but so could have
roughly 15 percent of all blacks.
Prosecutors repeatedly told the
jury that Osborne's semen was
found in the condom.
The state's expert considered
conducting a second type of test
that could have narrowed the
results but determined the DNA
sample was too degraded. � AP
High court looks at prisoners' right to DNA test

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