PEACEKEEPERS DIE IN HAITI AIR CRASH

       Eleven UN peacekeepers died on Friday when their surveillance plane crashed into a mountainside in Haiti during a routine patrol,UN officials said.
       A UN rescue team confirmed there were no survivors among the 11 crew and military personnel on the plane, a Casa 212, when it went down near the town of Fonds-Verrettes, close to the border with the Dominican Republic.
       The dead were Uruguayans and Jordanians, UN spokeswoman Vannina Maestracci said.
       The cause of the crash was unknown."The United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti announces with sadness that a Minustah plane, carrying 11 passengers, including the crew, crashed southeast of the commune of Ganthier,"the United Nations said in a statement.
       "The Casa 212 aircraft was making a reconnaissance flight at the time of the accident before hitting a mountainside."
       The UN peacekeeping force has been in Haiti since 2004. It consists of about 9,000 troops and police.
       Local officials said the plane went down in a remote area near the village of Pays-Pourri in the district of Ganthier,east of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
       "It happened shortly before noon. I saw several UN helicopters flying towards the area," Ralph Lapointe, the mayor of Ganthier, said.