Australia

Officials: Joke message triggered terrorist alert

An Italian tourist aboard a flight from Sydney to Vienna caused an international security alert when he sent a joke text message from his cell phone to his wife claiming his plane had been hijacked by terrorists, Australian officials confirmed today.

The man, Antonio Casale, 35, sent the message to his wife from Kuala Lumpur during a refueling stop on a Lauda Air flight from Sydney last Sunday night, Sydney’s Telegraph newspaper reported.

Transport Minister John Anderson’s spokesman confirmed the newspaper report.

Casale claimed terrorists were in control of the plane and were taking the passengers to an unknown destination.

His distressed wife contacted Italian police, who immediately contacted the Italian embassy in Canberra, who in turn contacted Australian Federal Police.

Indonesia

Witnesses report loud noise, falling object

Witnesses reported seeing a falling object with a tail of fire careering toward earth close to Jakarta early today, before a loud explosion was heard.

There were no reports of injuries.

Indonesian air force radar detected an unidentified object falling toward the earth at a great speed before disappearing at around the same time as the noise was heard, a military spokesman said.

Media reports said an object that might have been a meteor was seen flashing across the sky above the capital, but did not make clear if it had hit the earth.

Turkey

Premier returns to revelry after EU deal

Thousands of cheering supporters showered Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan with ticker tape Saturday as he returned to Ankara from a European summit, vowing to press forward with reforms and the country’s bid to join the bloc.

The European Union on Friday offered to begin talks aimed at bringing Turkey into the EU. The talks will begin Oct. 3, 2005, the beginning of a process that could take years and could transform the political and social landscape of both parties.

But joyous supporters presented Erdogan with flowers at Ankara’s Esenboga airport, and some 5,000 gathered in near-freezing weather to greet Erdogan in the city’s central square.

Havana

Cuba to buy $125 M in U.S. farm goods

Cuba has agreed to buy about $125 million in farm goods from U.S. companies attending trade talks in Havana, officials said.

The deals, which were agreed on during three days of negotiations that ended Friday, surpassed expectations, Pedro Alvarez, chairman of the Cuban food import company Alimport, told The Associated Press.

Cuba had expected to sign deals worth about $100 million going into the talks, he said.

More than 300 people, primarily producers of American farm goods, attended the meetings, as did several lawmakers.

Paris

Rocket carries French spy satellite into space

A European rocket roared into space from a pad in South America on Saturday, placing into orbit a surveillance satellite billed as giving France’s military new abilities to spy worldwide.

The unmanned craft lifted off smoothly from a launch center in Kourou, French Guiana, at 1:36 p.m. — the third and last launch of an Ariane-5 rocket this year, Arianespace said.

The satellite and six smaller scientific ones were placed into orbit. It was the first time in 11 years that an Ariane rocket carried as many as seven satellites on a single launch.

“The success of the Helios 2A launch is a great step forward for our space policy,” Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said at Ecole Militaire.