World at a glance

Oklahama twister devastation
Oklahoma City: Tornadoes roared across the southern plains states for a second straight day, killing a Texan woman before rolling into Arkansas and knocking out power to thousands of people. In their wake, a cold rain fell in Oklahoma as stunned residents picked through the wreckage of their homes, searching for mementos and precious scraps of lives ripped apart. Tornadoes and devastating winds have killed at least 44 people in the southern plains states since Monday. Hundreds more were injured as entire communities were reduced to rubble. In Monday8217;s outbreak, 76 twisters swept through five states. One tornado, at least a half-mile 800 meters wide, struck parts of Oklahoma City with winds topping 260 mph 415 kph.

Racist torture trial
NEW YORK: The trial of four White New York city police officers accused of torturing Haitian immigrant Abner Louima almost two years ago opened on Tuesday in Brooklyn Federal Court. The officers are accused of beating aswell as sodomising Louima with a wooden stick while he was in custody after his arrest outside a nightclub in August 1997. Abner Louima had been brought to hospital with a perforated rectum and bladder and missing teeth. He had undergone three operations and spent weeks in hospital.

British Air strip8217;
LONDON: A British Airways Air hostess set the pulses of Italian baggage handlers racing when she stripped down to her underwear and ran around a Boeing 737 at Genoa airport. The attractive 23-year-old brunette, waiting to recrew an incoming plane, had bet a colleague that she would perform a half-strip if the BA flight arrived early. She amazed passengers and baggage-handlers by walking down the aircraft steps dressed only in shoes, knickers, a loose-fitting safety-waistcoat and cap. The BA Air hostess then sprinted around the length of the jet quot;smiling and wigglingquot; according to onlookers, before re-boarding. The captain on the Sunday flight to Genoa8217;s Christopher Colombus airport reportedly knewof the bet and made every effort to fly in ahead of schedule, taking advantage of good wind conditions.

Laden connection
ISLAMABAD: US intelligence agencies have conclusive proof that Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif met Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden when he was chief minister of Punjab, a Peshawar daily quoting 8220;highly placed sources8221; reports. Frontier Post reporter Naved Miraz writes that the evidence collected by a joint team of CIA and FBI indicates that Sharif and Laden met at the chief minister8217;s secretariat in Lahore.