Pakistan airport stops man with circuits in shoes

Pakistani airport authorities detained a passenger after electrical circuits and batteries were found in the soles of his tennis shoes, an airport security official said Monday.

Officials were investigating what the components could be used for and why they were concealed. Similar materials can be used in the construction of bombs.

The man, Faiz Mohammad, was arrested Sunday night at Karachi's Jinnah International Airport, said Munir Ahmed, a spokesman for the airport security force. The materials were detected by a scanner.

Ahmed said each shoe contained a small circuit connected to two AAA batteries.

Mohammad, a building constructor headed to Muscat, Oman, told investigators he bought the shoes from a market in Karachi and had no idea there were circuits hidden inside the soles.

"It is premature to say what was he up to. We are looking into the matter thoroughly," police official Sohail Faiz said.

In 2001, a British extremist was arrested after he tried to detonate explosives hidden in his shoes on a trans-Atlantic flight.

Pakistan's security efforts have come under scrutiny since an alleged Pakistani-trained extremist was accused of a failed car bombing in Times Square last week. Top U.S. officials have said the Pakistani Taliban were behind the plot.

Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, was targeted by authorities in the investigation into the Times Square bombing attempt. Four people with alleged links to Jaish-e-Mohammed, a militant group affiliated with al-Qaida, were detained there.

5 dead as tornadoes rip through Oklahomas

Tornadoes ripped through Oklahoma on Monday in an outbreak of violent weather that killed five people, tossed cars off highways, flipped mobile homes and sent baseball-size hail crashing through windshields, officials said.

Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management spokesman Jerry Lojka said two people were killed in Oklahoma City and three were killed in Cleveland County, south of the city. Oklahoma City officials said the fatalities there involved a young boy who was hit by debris in his home and a man whose recreational vehicle flipped over on top of him. Details on the Cleveland County deaths weren't immediately available.

Officials reported that at least 58 others suffered injuries throughout Oklahoma in the daylong onslaught. Two of the injuries were critical. In some neighborhoods in Oklahoma City, emergency workers were going door to door to make sure everyone was accounted for.

The storms were part of a violent weather system that also spawned twisters in Kansas and that forecasters had been predicting since last week.

"You could just hear stuff hitting the house," Linda Sugg said, who rode out the storm in her home in Norman, the largest city in Cleveland County. After the weather cleared, she walked through her litter-filled front yard, picking up debris.

Power was out to more than 37,000 homes and businesses statewide.

Many Oklahoma residents had been prepared for the bad weather. TV broadcasters dedicated their entire day to storm coverage, with some showing live video of the twisters as they rolled across the countryside.

"The kids and I got in the closet and prayed," said Jamie Keyes, of Norman, about 20 miles (30 kilometers) south of Oklahoma City. "I heard a hiss. It was like something was whistling very loud," she said. "We're all very fortunate."

Near Seminole, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) east of Oklahoma City, at least two homes were leveled after a tornado went through, Emergency Management Director Ernie Willis said. Emergency responders were going through the area to determine if anyone was hurt or trapped, he said.

Widespread destruction led authorities to close Interstate 40, a major east-west route, in both directions just east of Oklahoma City. Traffic was backed up three miles (five kilometers).

A Love's truck stop took a direct hit.

"Miracle of all miracles, we don't have any injuries from that location," Love's spokeswoman Christina Dukeman said. "We will rebuild and reopen."

Interstate 35, which runs from Mexico to Minnesota, also was closed briefly at the Kansas-Oklahoma border because overturned tractor-trailers blocked all lanes. At Moore, near Oklahoma City, trucks were overturned in the median but the road remained open.

In Kansas, the most serious damage was reported in Belmont. Several homes were damaged in the town east of Topeka and widespread power outages were reported. No injuries were reported.

Hours after hitting Oklahoma, the tornado-producing storm cell was moving into Arkansas.

Oklahoma City and its suburbs saw three storms develop just to the west and each caused damage as they moved across an area home to 1.2 million people.

The northern storm caused property damage near Edmond; two storms to the south turned into killers - the one fatality near the truck stop and the three at Tecumseh, on the metro area's eastern edge.

"We've had a very strange event: multiple tornadic portions with this event as it came through," said David Barnes, the emergency management director for Oklahoma County. "We have multiple vehicles overturned, a housing addition has had multiple homes destroyed."

Tornado warnings in the Plains states and Midwest had all expired by 11:15 p.m. CDT (0315 GMT).

In Alfalfa County, Sheriff Charlie Tucker said hail as big as baseballs broke the windshields of numerous cars and damaged some homes.

The Storm Prediction Center at Norman had predicted the outbreak, saying the atmosphere had the right mix of winds, heat and moisture. One twister touched down just east of the center's building on the University of Oklahoma campus.

Making a racket

Fans from all walks of life and from all over the world, from the host city to distant Germany and South Africa, have one at the Bung Karno Indoor Stadium in Jakarta over the past two weeks, lending support to their teams in the Thomas and Uber Cups team competitions.

Indonesian fans, long known for their fanatical support of their teams, seem to be showing a bit more sportsmanship and tolerance this time around. Thankfully, there has been no repeat of the ignominious incident in Jakarta in 1967, when Indonesia lost the Thomas Cup after the referee deemed it too dangerous for the Malaysian team to play on in the final.

Fans will come out again today, carrying banners and in their team colors, for Sunday is the day of reckoning in who will take the title.

Hopefully, the fans, like the players, will take a victory or loss in stride. For as Indonesian badminton legend Ferry Sonneville once said: ""That's the art of playing badminton. Sometimes we lose, sometimes we win.""

-- Text and photos by R. Berto Wedhatama

Thomas Cup: Indonesia, SKorea win over India, Peru

Former Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat led Indonesia to victory over India in their opening match at the Thomas Cup badminton championship Monday.

Hiayat rallied to beat Kasyap Parupalli 14-21, 21-19, 21-18 in a match that lasted slightly over an our at Kuala Lumpur's Putra Stadium.

Indonesia won one of the other singles matches and both of the doubles for a 4-1 margin in Group D.

South Korea triumphed 5-0 over Peru in Group A, but will face a much tougher challenge against tournament favorite China on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the International Badminton Federation awarded Malaysia and Japan automatic quarterfinal berths after Nigeria, the other team in Group B, failed to arrive on time for its matches against Malaysia on Sunday. The Nigerian team only arrived in Malaysia late Sunday because their initial flight from Abuja was canceled.

In women's Uber Cup matches held simultaneously Monday, Denmark beat Australia 3-2 in Group B, while Russia edged Germany 4-1 in Group C.

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