Ex-Prosecutor Wins G.O.P. Primary in New Jersey

Christopher J. Christie, a former prosecutor who sent a parade of corrupt New Jersey politicians to prison, handily won the Republican nomination for governor on Tuesday, earning the right to try to dislodge the state’s embattled Democratic incumbent, Jon S. Corzine.

His romp past Steven M. Lonegan, a feisty former mayor, sets the stage for what could be a fierce and expensive confrontation with the wealthy Mr. Corzine, who came to office vowing to rescue the state from financial crisis but has watched his popularity sink to record lows as the recession made matters worse.
“I think he’s a good man, and I think he’s well-intentioned,” Mr. Christie said of Mr. Corzine. “But he is simply wrong for this job.”
The fall campaign, one of only two for governor this year (the other is in Virginia), promises to be treated to varying degrees as a referendum on President Obama’s momentous first year or on Republicans’ continued viability — in New Jersey, if not nationally. The last Republican to win statewide was Christie Whitman in 1997.

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Brazil planes spot possible debris from missing jet

Brazilian military planes spotted debris in the Atlantic Ocean on Tuesday that could be wreckage of a missing Air France flight carrying 228 people that apparently crashed in a storm the previous day.Air force pilots saw metallic objects, plane seats, an orange buoy and jet fuel stains in the water about 650 km north of the archipelago of Fernando de Noronha off Brazil's northeastern coast.Brazil's navy said a Dutch commercial ship was nearby and would arrive in the area shortly. Brazilian navy ships, one carrying a helicopter, were not expected to arrive in the area until Wednesday.The chances of finding survivors appeared close to nil and authorities were treating the passenger list as a death toll."The plan now is to focus our efforts to collect the debris and try to identify if they belong or not to the Air France plane," Brazilian Air Force Colonel Jorge Amaral told reporters in Brasilia, the capital.Three Brazilian air force Hercules planes took off from the islands of Fernando de Noronha, which sit about 370 km off the coast of South America, early on Tuesday to look for traces of the Airbus A330.The area is near where the last contact was made with the flight that took off for Paris from Rio de Janeiro on Sunday night and went missing in storms about four hours later without sending any distress signal.Brazil's air force last had contact with the plane at 0133 GMT on Monday when it was 565 km from Brazil's coast. The last automated signals were received at 0214 GMT.If no survivors are found, it would be the worst disaster in Air France's 75-year history and the deadliest since one of the company's supersonic Concorde planes crashed in 2000.Air France flight 447 sent an automatic message reporting electrical faults before it went missing. But aviation experts said they did not have enough information to understand how a modern plane with an excellent safety record and operated by three experienced pilots could have crashed.

Pakistan releases 'top militant'

A Pakistani court has ordered the release of the leader of an Islamic charity suspected of being a front for a group accused of the Mumbai attacks.

The court ruled the continued house arrest of Jamaat-ud-Dawa founder Hafiz Mohammad Saeed was unconstitutional.

The charity is accused of being a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group India says was behind the attacks. Jamaat-ud-Dawa denies any links with militants.

India has expressed its disappointment, calling the release "regrettable".

More than 170 people died in the Mumbai (Bombay) attacks last November, including nine gunmen.

Mr Saeed, who denies the charges against him, was placed under house arrest in December after the UN added him to a list of people and groups linked to al-Qaeda or the Taliban.

N Korea 'names Kim's successor'

North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il has designated his youngest son to be the country's next leader, according to reports in South Korean media.
Two newspapers and an opposition lawmaker said South Korea's spy agency had briefed legislators on the move.
North Korean officials were reportedly told to support Kim Jong-un after the North's 25 May nuclear test.
There has been much speculation over who would follow Mr Kim, who is thought to have suffered a stroke last year.
Analysts have said the North's recent military actions, including last week's nuclear test, may have been aimed at helping Mr Kim solidify power so that he could name a successor.
Little known
The reports in the Hankook Ilbo and Dong-a Ilbo newspapers quoted unnamed members of South Korea's parliamentary intelligence committee briefed by the National Intelligence Service, although the spy agency refused to confirm the reports.
The Associated Press news agency reported that opposition legislator Park Jie-won, a member of the parliament's intelligence committee, told local radio he had been briefed by the government on the North's move.
Mr Park said the regime is "pledging allegiance to Kim Jong-un", it reported.
Little is known about Kim Jong-il's youngest son, who is thought to have been born in 1983 or early 1984.

GM enters bankruptcy protection

Car giant General Motors (GM) has filed for bankruptcy protection, marking the biggest failure of an industrial company in US history.
The widely expected move comes after GM had seen its losses widen following a steep fall in sales in recent years.
The move into bankruptcy protection has been backed by the US government, which is now expected to take a 60% stake in the company.
The White House is also going to put another $30bn (£18.5bn) into GM.
President Barack Obama described the move as "tough" but said it was "also fair" and added it would "give this iconic American company a chance to rise again".
He said that the US government, which will own 60% of the carmaker, would be a "reluctant shareholder" and that he had no interest in running it. As part of the plan, President Obama said that the share of GM cars sold in the US that had been made in the US would rise for the first time in 30 years.

Red-eyed relatives await news of missing Air France jet

Red-eyed with tears, relatives of passengers on an Air France jet which vanished over the Atlantic gathered in Paris's main airport to await news of their loved ones.

Many in a state of shock, they were ushered into a cordoned-off area of the main terminal, expecting the worse after officials said flight AF447 appeared to have had an electrical failure during a lightning storm.

Many who had intended to greet the passengers off the flight from Rio at Charles de Gaulle airport in mid-morning were instead informed that the plane had vanished off the radar screen several hours earlier.

The arrivals boards in the terminal building said AF447 had been "delayed" while messages on the public address system in French, Portuguese and English told anyone waiting for the flight to head to the arrivals desk in Terminal 2E.

Uniformed teams from Air France and the airport manning the desk refused to say how they had broken news to the relatives.

On his arrival at the airport, Transport Secretary Dominique Bussereau said he would not be sucked into "false speculation", urging caution until the facts about the incident became clear.

"Let's just take our time," he said before going to meet some of the families. Air France said that it appeared that it was most likely that the plane had been hit by lightning.

Pakistanis secure Swat town, clash in other areas

Pakistani forces consolidated their hold on the main town in the Swat valley on Sunday and began trucking supplies to 40,000 civilians stranded there, as fighting flared in South Waziristan on the Afghan border.The army said it had captured Mingora on Saturday and troops were out on patrol on Sunday."Mingora has been fully secured and relief activities have started," the army said in a statement. "Security forces are patrolling in all the important areas of Mingora."Pakistan has been carrying out its most concerted offensive yet against an expanding Taliban insurgency.The focus of the Pakistani fighting since late April has been in the former tourist valley of Swat, 120 km (80 miles) northwest of Islamabad, which the Taliban turned into a bastion as authorities alternated between inconclusive military action and peace pacts.Tension has also been rising in South Waziristan, a major al Qaeda and Taliban stronghold, with military officials saying an offensive was likely there after Swat was secured.The United States and the Afghan government have long been pressing Pakistan to root militants out of South Waziristan and other enclaves on the Afghan border, from where the Taliban direct their Afghan war.Militants attacked a paramilitary force camp near the town of Jandola, 80 km (50 miles) east of Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, late on Saturday and fighting went on for hours, security officials said.