Bomb scare briefly puts Austrian airspace off-limits
     VIENNA -- Feb 26, 1998 08:48 a.m. EST -- Austrian airspace was
 sealed off for about 35 minutes on Thursday after a bomb threat to
 the country's air traffic control center, a Vienna airport spokes-
 man told Reuters.
    Air traffic controllers diverted incoming aircraft to neighboring
 countries' airspace, sealing off Austrian airspace at about 9 a.m.
 local time. No aircraft were allowed to take off in Austria.
     Staff were alerted to the threat by a telephone call but only
 evacuated the control center once all airborne flights had been
 redirected.
     No bomb was found.
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 Report: Federal regulators widen investigation of airline competition
     NEW YORK - Feb 26, 1998 12:12 p.m. EDT  - Federal regulators are
 investigating whether the nation's four biggest airlines used pred-
 atory tactics to drive smaller competitors out of major airports,
 The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
     The Justice Department widened an antitrust investigation against
 the major carriers, sending subpoenas to at least four small airlines
 to seek information on the larger companies' practices, the Journal
 said.
     The investigation of Northwest, American, Delta and United air-
 lines focuses on six hub airports -- Chicago, Dallas, Denver, De-
 troit, Minneapolis and Atlanta -- where the airlines have 70 percent
 or more of the business. The agency also is looking into attempts to
 monopolize air routes from New York, the paper said.
     The subpoenas ask the smaller airlines to document how the lar-
 ger carriers have reacted to their entry into new markets. Antitrust
 regulators are apparently looking for evidence of sudden price cuts
 or service improvements that would help them prove big carriers are
 trying to push smaller competitors out of business.
     Spokespeople for Delta and American said the airlines were
 cooperating. Northwest and United have denied any wrongdoing.
 --------------------------------------------------------------------
                   Iraq working on unmanned planes
     WASHINGTON -- Feb 26, 1998 11:00 a.m. EST  -- Iraq is attempting
 to develop an unmanned aircraft capable of delivering chemical or
 biological agents, according to a U.S. intelligence report.
     Elements of the pilotless aircraft program previously have been
 reported by the defense publication Jane's, and the project is under
 investigation by U.S. intelligence agents, The Associated Press
 reported Thursday.
     An intelligence official told The Associated Press, on condition
 of anonymity, that Iraq was trying to convert an L-29 trainer jet
 into an unmanned delivery system for nerve gas or the biological
 agent anthrax.
     The jet would have a range of about 500 miles, great enough to
 reach targets in Israel as well as most of the U.S. force concentra-
 tions in the Persian Gulf, he said. But one version of the aircraft
 recently crashed during a test flight, and Iraq has not yet developed
 a tank that could be filled with a biological agent and attached to
 the aircraft.
     "There's no evidence of success in making it work," the official
 said.
     Even if Iraq were successful, the plane would have to fly through
 a gauntlet of U.S. aircraft patrolling southern and northern Iraq and
 then evade highly capable U.S. or Israeli air defense systems.
     Iraq is required by U.N. resolutions to destroy its long-range
 missiles, but there is no ban against an unmanned aircraft.
     According to a report Wednesday on "The CBS Evening News," Iraq
 previously admitted that before the Gulf War it mounted a crash pro-
 gram to convert a MiG 21 that could carry chemical or biological
 agents in fuel tanks under its wings.
     The program was interrupted by the Gulf War and all the fuel
 tanks have since been accounted for by the United Nations, CBS
 said.
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