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In brief: Jet loses power; 2 killed, 83 hurt

In this eyewitness cell phone photo, people clamber over the plane after a Tupolev Tu-154 passenger jet belonging to Dagestan Airlines made an emergency landing on Saturday at Moscow's Domodedovo Airport. (Associated Press)
From Wire Reports

Moscow – Two engines failed on a Russian passenger jet shortly after takeoff Saturday, and the plane made an emergency landing as its third engine cut out, skidding off a snowy runway and breaking apart, officials said. Two people were killed and 83 injured.

The plane, a Tupolev Tu-154 belonging to Dagestan Airlines, was carrying at least 155 people when it landed at Domodedovo Airport.

The cause of the engine failure was unclear, he said, but recent crashes involving the aging Tu-154 aircraft have prompted the Russian carrier Aeroflot to stop using it.

Cable links China to Google attacks

Beijing – A leaked U.S. government cable shows sources told American diplomats that hacking attacks against Google were ordered by China’s top ruling body.

The cable said that according to a source, the Chinese government coordinated the attacks on Google late last year. The cable says the intrusions were directed by the Politburo Standing Committee.

The cable was released by WikiLeaks to the New York Times and the Guardian newspaper.

A separate cable released by WikiLeaks showed a Politburo member demanded action against Google after looking for his own name on the search engine and finding criticism of him.

The cable did not identify the leader. The New York Times reported it was propaganda chief Li Changchun.

Floods and snow wreaking havoc

Bijeljina, Bosnia-Herzegovina – Three European nations struggled with harsh weather Saturday, as floods forced the evacuation of thousands of people in Bosnia and Albania, and snow caused part of the roof at a nuclear power plant in France to collapse.

For the past four days, the Balkans have coped with the worst floods in a century, and western Europe has dealt with subfreezing temperatures and heavy snowfalls.

In Bosnia, the army, police, volunteers and divers helped evacuate people about 2,000 people from their homes in the northeastern town of Bijeljina that was flooded overnight.

Several rivers in the Balkans have burst their banks because of the heavy rainfall.