3 killed in southern Australia helicopter crash (AP)

SYDNEY – Three people were killed in a helicopter crash in southern Australia, police said Friday, with a prominent Australian journalist believed to be among the dead.

Australian Broadcasting Corp. said three members of its news crew, including veteran journalist Paul Lockyer, are believed to have died when their chopper crashed Thursday in a remote part of South Australia state.

Lockyer, cameraman John Bean and pilot Gary Ticehurst were working in the area on a story about Lake Eyre, a massive Outback lake, the ABC said.

South Australia police confirmed three people were killed in the accident and said they were investigating the cause of the crash.

A tour guide who had chatted with those on board shortly before they took off saw a large fireball in the distance soon after the helicopter departed, Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Smith said.

The crash site is surrounded by water and boggy land, making access to the area difficult, Smith said. The remoteness of the region was also making it tough to get in touch with investigators on the scene, he said.

"We are not expecting to have any positive news, any positive identification or the full extent of the detail for some time," Smith told reporters in Adelaide.

Lockyer was an award-winning journalist whose career spanned more than 40 years and included assignments in Washington and Asia.

Ticehurst was a well-known media pilot who worked for the ABC for more than 25 years. Bean, a Brisbane-based cameraman, was a 20-year veteran of the ABC who worked throughout Australia, the Pacific and in Washington.

"This has been the longest of nights and we fear it will be the saddest of days," ABC managing director Mark Scott said.

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1 Marine killed, 5 injured in helicopter crash

The crash occurs around noon at Camp Pendleton Marine Corps baseOfficials are investigating the cause

Los Angeles (CNN) -- One of the Marines injured in a helicopter crash in southern California has died, authorities said.

The Marine, whose name was not released, was among six who were rushed to hospitals after a UH-1Y (Huey) helicopter crashed in the northern section of Camp Pendleton on Wednesday, a Marine Corps statement said.

The other five were recuperating early Thursday morning.

The helicopter, belonging to the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, crashed shortly before noon Wednesday in the San Mateo Area of Camp Pendleton, southeast of San Clemente.

Officials are investigating what caused the mishap.

CNN

Pakistan returns U.S. helicopter from bin Laden raid (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Pakistan has returned to the United States wreckage of a U.S. helicopter destroyed during the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, a Pentagon official told Reuters on Tuesday, but the gesture was expected to do little to improve strained ties.

The U.S. Navy SEAL team that stormed bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on May 2 blew up the chopper after it was damaged during a hard landing. They wanted keep sensitive U.S. technology out of enemy hands.

But bits of the helicopter, including the tail section, remained behind and the United States demanded that Pakistan return them to U.S. custody.

"It (the wreckage) was returned over the weekend and is now back in the United States," Pentagon spokesman Colonel Dave Lapan said.

The raid that killed bin Laden badly damaged U.S.-Pakistan relations, and nagging questions remain in Washington about how bin Laden managed to go unnoticed for years in the garrison town of Abbottabad, only 30 miles from Pakistan's capital, Islamabad. Some U.S. officials speculate he must have had support.

In turn, Pakistan has branded the raid a violation of its sovereignty, since Islamabad was not informed about the U.S. operation until it was over. Pakistan's parliament has threatened to cut supply lines to U.S. forces in Afghanistan if there are more military incursions.

Senator John Kerry, on a trip to Islamabad on May 16, described a Pakistani pledge to return the chopper's wreckage as one step needed to rebuild trust between the two countries which was badly damaged by the raid.

TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE?

But Bruce Riedel, a former CIA official who has advised President Barack Obama on policy in Pakistan and Afghanistan, said returning the helicopter fell far short of what it would take to mend frayed ties.

"It's too little, too late to change the downward spiral in U.S.-Pakistani relations," Riedel said.

Even before bin Laden's death, bilateral ties had reached a low point over Pakistan's arrest of a CIA contractor and mounting U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan's western regions.

The government of President Asif Ali Zardari, along with Pakistan's even more powerful military leaders, has denied any prior knowledge of bin Laden's whereabouts.

But some U.S. lawmakers are calling for a radical shift in U.S. policy on Pakistan as officials brace themselves for possible revelations about Pakistani complicity in data seized from bin Laden's compound.

On Tuesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates acknowledged the "trust deficit" between the two countries. But he also said Pakistan was too important to walk away from.

"Pakistan is very important, not just because of Afghanistan but because of its nuclear weapons and because of the importance of stability in the subcontinent," Gates told an audience at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington think-tank.

"So we need to keep working at this."

(Additional reporting by Missy Ryan and David Alexander; Editing by Bill Trott)

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