BRITISH PRIME MINISTER INVOLVED IN PLANE MISHAP

British prime ministerinvolved in plane mishap
MIAMI -- A commercial jet carrying British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his family slightly overshot a runway at the Miami International Airport on Tuesday, but the plane was not damaged and no injuries were reported, officials said. British Airways flight 209 from London ran over a couple airfield lights after landing around 6:15 p.m. but did not leave the pavement and returned to the gate under its own power, airport spokesman Marc Henderson said. The plane stopped just past the official end of the runway, said Laura Brown, a Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman. "It landed safely on the runway. It slowed down. It was going at taxiway speed, and they just missed a turn," Brown said. Brown said the FAA would be looking into the incident, but she did not know whether there would be a formal investigation. Blair was among the 343 passengers on the plane, but no additional information about his trip was available, U.S. Secret Service spokeswoman Kim Bruce said. Blair receives Secret Service protection whenever he lands in the U.S., Bruce said.
Security flaw foundin Microsoft's Vista
NEW YORK -- Windows Vista, the new computer operating system that Microsoft Corp. is touting as its most secure ever, contains a programming flaw that might let hackers gain full control of vulnerable computers. Microsoft and independent security researchers, however, tried to play down the risk from the flaw, which was disclosed on a Russian site recently and is apparently the first affecting the new Vista system released to larger businesses in late November. The software company said it was investigating the threat but found so far that a hacker must already have access to the vulnerable computer in order to execute an attack. That could occur if someone is actually sitting in front of the PC or otherwise gets the computer's owner to install rogue software, said Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer for Finnish security research company F-Secure Corp. "The bottom line is you couldn't use a vulnerability like this to write a worm or hack a Vista system remotely," Hypponen said Tuesday.
Building partially collapses
NEW YORK -- Part of a building under construction in Harlem collapsed Tuesday, killing one person and injuring two others. Richard Joseph, 33, of Brooklyn was killed, police said. The two who were injured were taken to a hospital, but no other information was immediately available. There was no telephone number listed for Joseph's address. Fire Department spokeswoman Emily Rahimi said the collapse was in a five-story building. Officials said some floors inside the building apparently gave way.
Senate probe debunkspre-Sept. 11 allegations
WASHINGTON -- A long Senate investigation has debunked charges by a Republican congressman that military analysts identified Mohamed Atta and other Sept. 11 hijackers before the attacks, according to a committee aide familiar with the report. In a letter to members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sens. Pat Roberts and John D. Rockefeller dismissed suggestions by Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., that defense analysts ignored analysis that could have prevented the attacks. Roberts, R-Kan., is outgoing chairman, and Rockefeller, of West Virginia, is the senior Democrat who will assume the chairmanship next month. They concluded "there was no evidence Mohamed Atta or any hijackers were identified prior to 9/11," said the committee aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the aide was not authorized to speak publicly on the subject. An internal Pentagon assessment already had dismissed Weldon's charges as unfounded. But the letter from Roberts and Rockefeller is the first rejection from Capitol Hill. The letter was obtained and first reported Tuesday by the Los Angeles Times.
Intern in Obama's officelinked to indicted man
CHICAGO -- An intern in Sen. Barack Obama's office last year was recommended by an Illinois Democratic fundraiser later indicted for seeking kickbacks on government deals. Obama has denied doing any favors for Antoin Rezko, who has pleaded innocent to the charges brought against him. The internship was one of 98 Illinois spots filled from a pool of 350 applicants. John Aramanda, a 20-year-old student, served in Obama's Capitol Hill office from July 20 to Aug. 26, 2005, and was paid an 804 stipend, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs told the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times in reports published Sunday. Gibbs said Rezko recommended the intern to Obama but contended that the internship did not contradict Obama's statements about not doing any favors for Rezko.
Associated Press