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Three U.S. soldiers die in Pakistan blast

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- Three of seven people killed in a blast Wednesday near a girls' school in northwestern Pakistan were U.S. soldiers, military officials confirmed.

U.S. Central Command officials said in a release on its Web site two other U.S. service members were wounded by the explosion in the Lower Dir District of Pakistan's Northwest Frontier province and were evacuated for treatment.

Their deaths are the first known U.S. military fatalities in Pakistan. Three girls and a Pakistani soldier also died in the remote-detonation attack, The Daily Telegraph reported.

"This attack demonstrates the terrorists' lack of respect for life, and their willingness to use violence against women and children as a means for advancing their malign vision," said Rear Adm. Hal Pittman, director of communication at Central Command. "The U.S. personnel were in Pakistan at the request of the government of Pakistan to assist the Pakistanis with training in support of our long-standing partnership with Pakistan, and this horrific attack will not dissuade that partnership."

The Telegraph quoted unidentified officials as saying a small number of U.S. servicemen have been training Pakistani troops since at least 2008, though the mission was never formally announced given the politically sensitive nature of a U.S. military presence. The officials said the training involved classroom and field sessions but not combat operations.

CNN, quoting police, said the explosion from a roadside bomb struck an army convoy heading to the reopening of another girls' school in Maidan.

The BBC, quoting police, reported at least 45 people, including schoolgirls, were injured.

Pakistan's Dawn reported the blast occurred near the Koto Girls School in Timergarah. It said the dead included three foreign journalists.

Three local journalists and five security personnel also were injured, Dawn said.

Dawn, quoting Lower Dir District Police Officer Mumtaz Zarin, said the blast badly damaged the school building and some students were trapped in the rubble.

The area was the scene of a major military campaign last year against Taliban militants.

Powell backs 'don't ask' repeal

WASHINGTON, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- Former U.S. Joint Chiefs Chairman Colin Powell said Wednesday he backs repealing the military's don't-ask-don't-tell policy on gays and lesbians.

"In the almost 17 years since the don't-ask-don't-tell legislation was passed, attitudes and circumstances have changed," Powell, also a former U.S. secretary of state, said in a statement.

Powell added the decision on whether to repeal the policy ultimately rests with President Barack Obama, military leaders and Congress, CNN reported.

His statement referred to testimony delivered to Congress Tuesday by current Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Michael Mullen, in which he said, "Speaking for myself and myself only, it is my personal belief that allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly would be the right thing to do."

"I fully support the new approach presented to the Senate Armed Services Committee this week by (Mullen). I will be closely following future hearings, the views of the service chiefs and the implementation work being done by the Department of Defense," CNN quoted Powell as saying.

Obama called for the law's repeal during his State of the Union last week.

Scott Brown to be sworn in Thursday

WASHINGTON, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen.-elect Scott Brown, R-Mass., will be sworn into office Thursday, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told The Hill.

Reid spokesman Jim Manley told the Washington publication that the successor to the late Sen. Edward Kennedy will take the oath in a late afternoon ceremony.

"Once we get his certificate, we expect to swear him in tomorrow afternoon as early as 5 o'clock, which is earlier than he suggested," Manley said.

The Hill said Brown had asked Massachusetts state officials Wednesday to move quickly enough to allow him to be seated Thursday rather the following Thursday, Feb. 11. The publication said Brown's attorney wrote Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and Secretary of State William Galvin asking them to certify Senate election results immediately.

"While Sen.-elect Brown had tentatively planned to be sworn in to office Feb. 11, he has been advised that there are a number of votes scheduled prior to that date," his attorneys wrote. "For that reason, he wants certification to occur immediately."

Brown has said he at first expected to be sworn in last week.

Obama congratulates Ill. Gov. Quinn

SPRINGFIELD, Ill., Feb. 3 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama Wednesday called to congratulate Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn for winning the state Democratic primary, a White House spokesman said.

White House spokesman Bill Burton said Obama made the congratulatory call to Quinn even though the governor's opponent, Illinois State Comptroller Dan Hynes, had yet to concede, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The newspaper said Obama's call put additional pressure on Hynes to concede. The comptroller was reportedly trailing Quinn by 7,000 votes early Wednesday.

The governor earlier in the day called on Democrats to get behind his campaign, but didn't ask Hynes to concede while the votes were still being tallied.

"I just think the results are in, the primary is over, the people heard both candidates and got a chance to vote," Quinn told the Tribune. "After that's over, it's time to count the votes and move on."

With 99 percent of the state's precincts reporting, Quinn and Hynes both captured 50 percent of the vote, separated by about 7,200 votes in the heated contest to be the Democratic standard-bearer in the governor's race, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

"This is a close race. A very, very close race," Hynes told his supporters Tuesday night. "There are thousands of ballots that haven't been counted. And whatever the outcome, it's important for Illinois to get this right."

On the Republican side, both state Sens. Bill Brady and Kirk Dillard had 20 percent, with only about 500 votes separating the two with 99 percent of the precincts reporting, the Sun-Times said.

"I am confident that when the votes are counted, we will win now and we will win in November," Dillard said.

Brady said his campaign is watching the tally "very closely."

The last governor's race to go to a recount was the 1982 general election tilt between GOP incumbent Jim Thompson and Democratic challenger Adlai E. Stevenson III. Thompson was declared the winner by 5,074 votes.

Illinois has no provisions for an automatic recount. Candidates must go to court to request the action.

Alleged air marshal comments spark concern

ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 3 (UPI) -- Florida lawmakers say they are concerned over derogatory comments about gays and minorities allegedly found in a U.S. air marshals' office.

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration is investigating allegations that air marshal managers in Orlando, Fla., wrote slurs for gays, lesbians and blacks on a crew assignment board that resembled the Jeopardy! TV game show board, the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel reported. A photo of the board appeared on CNN's Web site, the newspaper said.

The newspaper said Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., has forwarded a complaint about the air marshals to the Office of the Inspector General at the Department of Homeland Security, and reported that Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., has sent a letter to the House Committee on Homeland Security blasting the reported "incompetence and discrimination" allegedly revealed at the TSA's Orlando air marshals office.

"I am deeply concerned with the allegations of misconduct," the Sentinel quoted Castor's letter as saying. "My neighbors, and indeed all Americans, put their trust in the (air marshals) to keep them safe. They need to have confidence in the Air Marshals' ability to conduct their jobs professionally and effectively."

Officials in the TSA's Office of Inspection said they are "conducting an ongoing investigation" into the allegations.

Hatch: Gitmo 'nice' compared to Ill. jail

WASHINGTON, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- The Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detainee facility is "nice" compared to an Illinois prison where the White House wants to transfer terror suspects, a senator says.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, speaking Tuesday during a hearing of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said plans by the Obama administration to house some Guantanamo detainees at a converted state prison in Thomson, Ill., will result in even harsher conditions for prisoners and won't stop criticisms they are being treated inhumanely, The Chicago Tribune reported.

"I've been to Guantanamo," Hatch said. "It's pretty nice compared to Illinois -- the place in Illinois where they want to put them. It'd be nice and cold in the winter time and ... all I can say is that I imagine there'll be a hue and a cry that we're not fair by bringing them here."

Hatch said he doubted moving the detainees out of Guantanamo would put an end to a terrorism "recruiting tool."

But Dennis Blair, the U.S. Director of National Intelligence, told senators the Thomson plan is part of a broader goal to "diminish the emotional and symbolic support that (Guantanamo) gives them in the pool of people they try to recruit in order to come against us."