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WORLD
Turkey says it knew terrorist attack planned Pakistan ready for talks Skydiver reached 844 mph
ANKARA, Turkey -- Turkish authorities suspected the outlawed leftist group that bombed the U.S. Embassy in Ankara was planning an attack, but did not have enough information to prevent it from happening, Turkey's president said Monday.
The suicide bomber struck the U.S. Embassy on Friday, killing himself and a Turkish security guard. Turkish authorities said the bomber, Ecevit Sanli, was linked to the outlawed Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, or DHKP-C, and the leftist group said it launched the attack to oppose U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.
President Abdullah Gul said Turkish police and intelligence officials were on high alert about the DHKP-C, knowing it was planning an attack of some sort but didn't know where or when.
The U.S. Embassy resumed business on Monday, and a minute of silence was held for the 46-year-old Turkish guard who died in the attack.
ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan's interior minister said Monday that the government was ready to hold peace talks with domestic Taliban militants who have been waging a bloody insurgency that has killed thousands of people in the country.
Rehman Malik's comments were the latest sign of growing momentum for talks and followed statements by senior Pakistani Taliban leaders who also indicate they are ready to sit down at the negotiating table.
The government appeared to have dropped an earlier demand that the Taliban lay down their weapons and renounce violence prior to talks, a position rejected by the militants.
"We are ready to start talks with you," Malik told reporters, adding that bullets are "not the answer."
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Supersonic skydiver Felix Baumgartner was faster than he or anyone else thought during his record-setting jump last October from 24 miles up.
The Austrian parachutist known as "Fearless Felix" reached 843.6 mph, according to official numbers released Monday. That's equivalent to Mach 1.25, or 1.25 times the speed of sound.
His top speed initially was estimated at 10 mph slower at 834 mph, or Mach 1.24.
Either way, he became the first human to break the sound barrier with only his body. He wore a pressurized suit and hopped from a capsule hoisted by a giant helium balloon over New Mexico.
Baumgartner was supersonic for a half-minute -- "quite remarkable," according to Brian Utley, the record-keeping official who was present for the Oct. 14 feat.
The 43-year-old's heart rate remained below 185 beats a minute, and his breathing was fairly steady.
The leap was from an altitude of 127,852 feet. That's 248 feet lower than original estimates, but still stratospheric.
Based on all the data collected from sensors on Baumgartner's suit, Utley determined that Baumgartner was 34 seconds into his jump when he reached Mach 1. The speed for breaking the sound barrier depends on the temperature at a given altitude; for Baumgartner, that came together just shy of 110,000 feet.
He reached peak speed by the time he was at 91,300 feet, 50 seconds into the jump, and was back to subsonic by 75,300 feet, give or take, 64 seconds into his free fall.
His entire free fall lasted four minutes, 20 seconds. He used a parachute to cover the final 5,000 feet, landing on his feet in the desert outside Roswell.
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