Rumsfeld says al-Qaida at work in Kashmir

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- The al-Qaida terrorist group may be operating in the Kashmir region dividing India and Pakistan, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Wednesday.

Rumsfeld, in talks Thursday with Pakistan's president, was sure to discuss Islamabad's role in finding Osama bin Laden's fighters, both in the remote tribal regions of Pakistan itself and also potentially in Kashmir.

"I have seen indications that there, in fact, are al-Qaida in the areas we're talking about, near the Line of Control" that separates the Pakistani and Indian sectors of Kashmir, Rumsfeld told a news conference in New Delhi, India, before flying to Pakistan.

U.S. man sentenced to 5 years for hijacking

TORONTO -- An American man who forced an airliner to fly to Cuba in 1971 in the only successful hijacking in Canadian history was sentenced Wednesday to five years in jail.

Patrick Critton, 54, had eluded capture for three decades, at one time working as a school teacher in Tanzania, before being found last year living in New York. News of his arrest broke on Sept. 11 as hijacked jets slammed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Critton was extradited to Canada, where he pleaded guilty to kidnapping and extortion. Judge Casey Hill took two years off his sentenced for time served and recommended accelerated parole, meaning Critton could be released after less than a year in jail.

He can choose to serve the sentence in Canada or the United States. He has not said which he will choose.

U.S. police had been after Critton for an armed robbery that led to a shootout in 1971. On Dec. 26 of that year, he hijacked an Air Canada flight from Thunder Bay, Ontario, to Toronto, allowed the passengers off the plane, then forced the crew to fly him to Cuba.

He was jailed in Cuba, but disappeared after his release.

Panel looks at possible Mount Fuji eruption

TOKYO -- An eruption of Mount Fuji could spew lava, ash and smoke over hundreds of square miles, disrupting roads and trains and causing between $10 billion to 20 billion in damage, a government panel said in a preliminary report Wednesday.

The panel estimated that 12.5 million people -- roughly 10 percent of Japan's population -- living near the mountain could suffer from asthma and other health problems.

Mount Fuji, Japan's tallest mountain at 12,460 feet, hasn't erupted since 1707, and scientists don't expect it to rumble to life any time soon.

But since October 2000, scientists have detected a sharp rise in the number of low-frequency quakes near the mountain that could indicate possible underground volcanic activity. The recent eruption of two major Japanese volcanoes prompted formation of a panel to study a worst-case scenario for Mount Fuji.

--From wire reports