tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26959016028242049012024-03-13T01:57:21.082-07:00HEADNEWSUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger250125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2695901602824204901.post-81711425070211025092017-09-08T17:02:00.002-07:002017-09-08T17:13:38.724-07:005 WOMEN WITH THE LONGEST LEGS IN THE WORLD<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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If there’s one feature that models are generally share, it’s long legs. Iconic models such as <span style="color: black;">C<span style="color: black;">hristie Brinkley</span>, <span style="color: black;">Kate Moss,Twiggy</span> and Naomi Campbell</span><span style="text-decoration-line: underline;"> </span>are all famed for their impressive sets of pins. While modelling relies on the pleasing appearances of various parts of the body, it can’t be denied that legs in particular are some of the most prized and widely-showcased body parts of the average model.</div>
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Perhaps it is not surprising, then, that several beauty contests have sprung up to officially name the girl with the longest legs of them all. The modelling industry is a notoriously competitive one, so it makes sense that such competitions should arise in order to give the super-long-legged ladies a coveted title to add to their resume. A recent competition in Russia, which named amongst its titles “Miss Longest Legs”, sparked an online retaliation in the form of a poll for the name of the model with the longest legs in the world, which included candidates from England and the US.</div>
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On top of models with extraordinarily long limbs, there is of course the lady decreed by the <em>Guinness Book of World Records</em> to have the longest legs in the world, whom nobody could hope to beat. She’s a clear winner of the title by what would seem to be at least a thirty centimetres, but the race for the remaining four positions in the top five longest legged ladies in the world is considerably closer. Men, prepare to drool and women, prepare to be green with envy – these are the five longest-legged beauties in the world.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="position">5<span class="dot">.</span> </span>Anastasia Strashevskaya: 42 “</span></h2>
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At the beginning of this year, eighteen year-old Anastasia Strashevskaya won the title of the longest legs in Russia. Strashevskaya is a trainee lawyer from Novosibirsk, Siberia, and beat fifty-two other contestants to the title and a prize of around two thousority in an online poll. Other catagories in the competition included Miss Bikini, Miss Sport, Miss Blonde, Miss Brunette, and Miss Smile.</div>
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Strashevskaya has vowed not to let her new-found fame go to her head: she is a student at the Novosibirsk Institute of Law and has gone on record as saying that she refuses to give up her long-standing dream of becoming a lawyer. Such determination and integrity is applaudable, especially since she could undoubtedly make a lot of money if she were to pursue a Victoria’s Secret contract! Strashevskaya has even been sensible as regards her prize money, stating that she planned to spend some of it on a present for her parents and donate still more of it towards charities helping children with cancer.and and seven hundred U.S. dollars. Strashevskaya’s legs measure an incredible one hundred and six centimetres, or forty-two inches, and she was voted as having Russia’s longest legs by the maj</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="position">4<span class="dot">.</span> </span>Brooke Banker: 47 “</span></h2>
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With a name straight out of the movies, American beauty Brooke Banker is at number four. Banker is twenty-six and has forty-seven inch long legs, which is all the more impressive given her comparatively diminutive height: she stands at five feet eleven inches, just under six foot. Banker comes from a long-legged family and grew up playing volleyball, so was surrounded by leggy people from an early age. She was encouraged to consider modelling as a teenager but instead focussed on sports, so much so that she gained entry to Penn State University on a sports scholarship.</div>
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After earning several degrees Banker eventually turned to modelling, and moved back to New York to pursue her career. Banker says she enjoys her work, but tries to steer clear of high heeled shoes — she prefers boots and sneakers, and only wears heels if someone is paying her for it. Banker admits that one downside to her amazing legs is that she struggles to find a boyfriend; she finds that most men are intimidated by them, or alternatively that she tends to get approached by men with fetishes. Her long-term dream is to become a weather girl or TV presenter.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="position">3<span class="dot">.</span> </span>Alexandra Robertson: 47 “</span></h2>
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British model Alexandra Robertson, aged twenty and from Blackpool, UK, is at number three. Robertson is six feet one inch tall, and boasts forty-seven inch-long legs, with the inside leg measuring an incredible thirty-seven inches. After learning of the aforementioned Anastasia Strashevskaya’s obtaining the title of the longest legs in Russia, Robertson was certain that she could beat her — and proved that she certainly could, by a clear five inches.</div>
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Robertson’s lucrative career as a model began at the age of eighteen when she entered a competition in her hometown, at which she was both crowned Miss Blackpool and spotted by a modelling agent. She has been modelling for the last two years, during which time she has modelled lingerie and bridal wear. Robertson has said that she was shocked by the length of her legs, since she hadn’t expected them to be close to fifty inches long. She also says that she has difficulty in finding clothes that fit correctly, but happily her build is at least balanced and in proportion. Robertson has also developed an innovative response to the constant queries as to whether she plays basketball — “I just turn around and reply ‘no, do you play mini-golf?’ and we end up having a laugh.”<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="position">2<span class="dot">.</span> </span>Lauren Williams: 49 “</span></h2>
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At number two is Lauren Williams, from Houston, TX. Her legs measure an astonishing forty-nine inches, and are amongst the longest measured in the world today. Williams utilised her unusually long limbs by becoming a two time All-American volleyball player. She played the sport while attending the University of Southern California, at which she achieved a BSc in environmental sciences and an MA in education.</div>
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She worked for a time as a model in California, but found getting work difficult at times, as, like Alexandra Robertson, her unusual proportions made finding clothes to fit a tricky undertaking (incidentally, Williams’ favourite jeans brand to fit long legs is Rock & Republic, which may be of interest for those readers who are longer of leg). She says that as a child she struggled with her height, as it made her stand out from her peers and she just wanted to fit in. Now, though, Williams says that she has learned to embrace her natural assets, after joining the viral challenge in the modelling community to determine the longest legs in the world.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="position">1<span class="dot">.</span> </span>Svetlana Pankratova: 51.9 “</span></h2>
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<span style="background-color: transparent;">Guinness World Record-holder Svetlana Pankratova is at number one. Pankratova, a Russian lady living in Virginia, USA, has been officially decreed as having the world’s longest legs. Her pins were measured in 2003 in Torremolinos, Spain, and deemed to be fifty-one point nine inches, or one hundred and thirty-two centimetres long. After graduating high school in Russia, Pankratova played college basketball for one year before being recruited by the Virginia Commonwealth University. Pankratova is not the world’s tallest women, at six feet five inches tall, but her legs make up astonishingly just under four feet four inches of her total height. Pankratova works as a basketball coach in Falls Church, and lives with her husband Jack Gosnell, whom she met when she first moved to America.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2695901602824204901.post-47481993088676532562015-01-14T01:13:00.001-08:002017-09-06T14:22:29.923-07:00EUROPE'S MUSLIMS FEEL HEAT OF BACKLASH AFTER PARIS TERROR ATTACK <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Firebombs and pig heads thrown into mosques. Veiled women subjected to insults in the street. The internet awash with threats against Muslims. Europe's Muslims are feeling the heat of a fierce backlash following last week's terror attack against French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.<br />
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An official who keeps track of Islamophobic attacks in France said there were 60 incidents — attacks and threats — in the six days since that attack. <br />
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A climate of fear is taking hold in Europe, stoked by rightist rhetoric equating the millions of peaceful Muslims with the few plotting murder and mayhem. <br />
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Abdallah Zekri, head of the National Observatory Against Islamophobia, said that since last Wednesday's massacre at Charlie Hebdo, 26 places of worship around France were attacked by firebombs, gunshots or pig heads, with a mosque in Le Mans hit with four grenades. There were 34 insults and threats. <br />
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The three-day terror spree in Paris claimed the lives of 17 victims, and traumatized a continent already brimming with anti-immigrant sentiment.<br />
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Brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi — the al-Qaida-linked suspects in the magazine attack — were killed in a shootout at a printing plant north of Paris; their apparent accomplice Amedy Coulibaly was shot dead in a near-simultaneous raid at a Jewish market, where he had holed himself up with hostages, killing four. </div>
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French authorities are warning the nation against linking French Muslims with terrorists. <br />
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"The terrorists' religion is not Islam, which they are betraying," Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said last week. "It's barbarity." <br />
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To make the point stick, he said he doesn't want the word "Islamist" used to describe the killers. <br />
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"I call that terrorists," he said this week on iTele, explaining he doesn't want to link terrorists with those who practice their "religion of peace." <br />
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Concerns about a backlash against Muslims were discussed Monday during a counter-terrorism meeting at the Interior Ministry. "We said above all, pretty unanimously, that in France there are 5 or 6 million Muslims. These (terrorist) issues concern 1,000 individuals," said Socialist lawmaker Patrick Mennucci. "We should be careful not to stigmatize anyone." <br />
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Coulibaly's mother and daughters, presenting condolences to the victims, issued a plea in a statement delivered to the French press "that there will be no amalgam between these odious acts and the Muslim religion." <br />
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Yet Muslims and some experts said that it was inevitable that Muslims would fall under suspicion after the attacks, despite a unity march on Sunday — described as the largest in French history — in which throngs of Muslims participated. <br />
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The rising far-right in France and other European countries has been driven by an anti-immigration, anti-Islam message. National Front leader Marine Le Pen seized upon the Charlie Hebdo attack just hours after it happened, suggesting it was a vindication of her party's xenophobic stance. </div>
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Extreme-right groups across Europe have increasingly been striking a chord with ordinary citizens voicing fears their culture is being uprooted by an alien civilization. <br />
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The fledgling German group that calls itself Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West, or PEGIDA, drew its largest crowd ever Monday night — a reported 40,000 — at its weekly rally in Dresden, after organizers declared it a tribute to the victims of the French attacks. No anti-Islamic acts have been reported in Germany since the terror. <br />
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French Muslims were already facing a backlash triggered by terror acts by French radicals twisting their religion — particularly since the rampage in southern France in 2012 in which Mohamed Merah killed three children at a Jewish school, a rabbi and three paratroopers. </div>
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Anti-Islam sentiment spread further after the killing of four people by a French Muslim at the Brussels Jewish Museum in May. </div>
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Anti-Muslim and anti-Jewish incidents rose throughout 2014 in France, which has Europe's largest communities of both religions. <br />
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"For Muslims, the shock is grave in this climate of Islamophobia, of aggressions against places of worship," read a statement by Dalil Boubakeur, head of the French Council for the Muslim Faith and the most visible Muslim in France. <br />
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France's state of high alert after the Charlie Hebdo rampage — with 10,000 soldiers deployed in the streets — may deepen a sense of siege within the Muslim population. <br />
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French authorities have long warned that France is a preferred target of Islamic extremists. France routed al-Qaida from northern Mali — two years ago to the day before Coulibaly attacked the Jewish market — and is now carrying out airstrikes in Iraq against the Islamic State group. Both al-Qaida and IS have threatened France. <br />
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But the attacks have had an effect outside France, too. In the Netherlands, Muslim groups and the government met Friday and said they plan to register anti-Muslim incidents. A burning object was thrown at a mosque in Vlaardingen, on the outskirts of Rotterdam. <br />
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"Everyone has this uncomfortable feeling, a sense of being threatened — Muslims because they are afraid to be stigmatized and that they will be attacked too," said Imade Annouri, a Green parliamentarian of Belgium's regional legislature of Flanders and an expert on integration issues. <br />
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TellMAMA, a British group that tracks anti-Muslim attacks, reported 50-60 cases of specific online threats to individuals over the weekend. <br />
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"The sheer volume is unbelievable," said the organization's director, Fiyaz Mughal, who fears virtual assaults could spur real ones in the street. </div>
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Mughal said that after the slaying of British soldier Lee Rigby in London, the group was able to gauge how threats made on Twitter and Facebook translated directly into attacks on individuals or mosques. <br />
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Mohamed Ali Adraoui, a fellow at the European University Institute, suggested that hatred of Islam could morph into an assault on a mosque, in France or elsewhere. <br />
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"If you can do that in Charlie Hebdo offices, you can do it in a mosque," he said.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2695901602824204901.post-33821526738983095512015-01-14T01:07:00.001-08:002015-01-14T01:07:19.072-08:00JAPAN APPROVES BIGGEST-EVER DEFENCE BUDGET WITH EYE ON CHINA <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Japan's Cabinet approved the country's largest ever defence budget on Wednesday, including plans to buy surveillance aircraft, drones and F-35 fighter jets to help counter China's rising assertiveness in the region.<br /><br />Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet endorsed a nearly 5 trillion yen ($42 billion) defence budget for the year beginning in April as part of a record 96.3 trillion yen ($814 billion) total budget.<br /><br />The budget must still be approved by parliament, but Abe's coalition holds majorities in both houses.<br /><br />The 2 percent rise in defence spending is the third annual increase under Abe, who took office in December 2012 and ended 11 straight years of defence budget cuts.<br /><br />The increase mainly covers new equipment, including P-1 surveillance aircraft, F-35 fighter jets and amphibious vehicles for a new unit similar to the US Marine Corps. The aim is to boost Japan's capacity to defend uninhabited islands in the East China Sea that it controls but which are also claimed by China.<br /><br />(Japan plans to buy F-35 jet fighters from the US to counter China's rising assertiveness in the region.)<br /><br />The 2015 budget also covers the cost of purchasing parts of "Global Hawk" drones, planned for deployment in 2019, two Aegis radar-equipped destroyers and missile defence system development with Washington.<br /><br />Abe favors a stronger role for Japan's military, despite a commitment to pacifism enshrined in the US-inspired constitution drawn up after the country's defeat in World War II. Japan's defence guidelines were revised in December 2013 as tensions rose over the East China Sea islands.<br /><br />Chinese patrol boats often visit waters near the islands, which are known as the Senkakus in Japan and as the Diaoyu islands in China.<br /><br />The defence budget is designed to achieve "seamless and mobile" defence capability that can respond to various contingencies, the ministry said in the Cabinet-approved budget plan. It will provide effective deterrence and contribute to stability in the Asia-Pacific region and improvement of the global security environment, the ministry said.<br /><br />Abe's government must tread a fine line between spending enough to support economic growth and defence and slowing the rise in Japan's debt, which is the highest, proportionately, among industrialized countries.<br /><br />As Japan's population quickly ages, welfare costs are soaring. Social security spending will account for about a third of the budget. The economy is in recession but the government has forecast growth at 1.5 percent this year, after an estimated 0.5 percent contraction in 2014.<br /><br />To balance his conflicting priorities, Abe is increasing outlays targeting families and other households that are struggling as wages lag behind price increases. But he also intends to cut corporate income taxes by 2.5 percentage points in the fiscal year that begins April 1, to 32.11 percent. Further cuts are planned.<br /><br />The government is also tweaking tax rules to encourage elderly Japanese, who hold about 60 percent of the country's 1.6 quadrillion yen ($13.6 trillion) in private savings, to spend more on their children and grandchildren.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2695901602824204901.post-46804055435895273832015-01-14T00:47:00.001-08:002015-01-14T00:47:12.688-08:00POLL 'UNLIKELY' IN BOKO HARAM-HELD AREAS: NIGERIA'S ELECTION BODY<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Nigeria's electoral agency said on Tuesday that next month's elections will go ahead in three northeastern states worst hit by Boko Haram violence but there was little prospect of voting in militant-held areas. <br /><br />"INEC (Independent National Electoral Commission) has always said that it is preparing to conduct elections in all the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, including the three northeast states experiencing the challenge of insurgency," said the body's chairman, Attahiru Jega. <br /><br />But he added: "There are areas that are occupied by insurgents and obviously it stands to reason that elections are unlikely to take place in these areas." <br /><br />Boko Haram has seized dozens of towns and villages in Yobe, Borno and Adamawa states in the last six months as part of its quest to establish a hardline Islamic state in the region. <br /><br />It now reportedly controls the border areas of Borno state with Niger, Chad and Cameroon. <br /><br />The territorial gains have led to fears of a total loss of government control in the remote region, with hundreds of thousands of people made homeless within Nigeria by a relentless wave of attacks. <br /><br />The country's main opposition has said that those people risked being disenfranchised, which could call into question the overall election result. <br /><br />But Jega said efforts were under way to enable internally displaced persons to cast their ballots, he stated. <br /><br />"We are doing everything possible to ensure that elections are conducted in these three states," Jega said. <br /><br />INEC on Tuesday published a list of the 68,833,476 registered voters for the February general elections. <br /><br />The two main contenders in the February 14 presidential election are incumbent Goodluck Jonathan and General Muhammadu Buhari, a former military ruler. <br /><br />There are a total of 14 presidential candidates, including one woman. Parliamentary elections are being held on the same date. Two weeks later, voters choose new governors and assemblies in 29 out of Nigeria's 36 states.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2695901602824204901.post-55822062689657212842015-01-14T00:41:00.002-08:002015-01-14T00:41:56.903-08:00FLOODING IN MALAWI KILLS 48, LEAVES THOUSANDS DISPLACED<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Heavy flooding in Malawi has killed 48 people, and left another 23,000 displaced, the country's president said on Tuesday. President Peter Mutharika declared 10 out of 28 districts in the country disaster zones. <br /><br />Some of the victims died when villages were flooded in the southern Mangoche district, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of the commercial capital, Blantyre, according to Grey Mkwanda, a district planning officer. <div>
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Livestock, crops and homes were swept away by floodwaters, with some homes completely submerged. <br /><br />"People have fled into schools and churches on the higher ground, others are in the open because there is not enough space,'' Mkwanda said. <br /><br />Others died in Blantyre when their homes collapsed, according to Mkwanda. <br /><br />"In some cases you cannot believe there was a house here," said Allan Ngumya, a member of parliament who represents the area. <br /><br />Police are also looking for two children who went missing in Blantyre, police spokesman Elizabeth Divala said. Mutharika has appealed to the international community for assistance for the impoverished country. <br /><br />"Government alone cannot afford to help so I appeal to the international community for urgent assistance," he said. <br /><br />Officials were unable to visit the affected areas because of continuing poor weather. <br /><br />Flooding began last month and heavy rain is expected to continue, especially in the north and central parts of the country, according to Elina Kululanga, the director of meteorological services and climate change.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2695901602824204901.post-68618257016043510352015-01-14T00:25:00.001-08:002015-01-14T00:25:42.657-08:00AIRASIA JET'S 2nd BLACK BOX RETRIEVED, TO BE ANALYZED FOR LEADS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Divers on Tuesday retrieved the cockpit voice recorder and may have located the fuselage of the crashed AirAsia jet in the Java Sea as experts will now use data from the two crucial black box devices to determine the sequence of events that brought the flight down. <br /><br />The cockpit voice recorder, that possesses the last two hours of conversation between the pilots and with air traffic controllers, was found close to where the flight data recorder was recovered from the bottom of the choppy waters on Monday. <br /><br />It was freed from beneath the heavy ruins of a wing early in the morning from a depth of about 30 metres, said Tonny Budiono, sea navigation director at Indonesia's transportation ministry. <br /><br />This comes as a major potential breakthrough to solve the mystery of the Airbus A320-200's fatal crash on December 28 that killed all 162 people on board, after days of multi-national efforts to scour the seabed were hampered by bad weather. <br /><br />Divers took advantage of calmer mornings yesterday and today to retrieve the black box — designed to survive extreme heat and pressure — usually inside the tail section but found missing from the wreckage when it was pulled out. <br /><br />Earlier, an official said the cockpit voice recorder — part of two recorders that make up the black box — was on an Indonesian navy ship and and will be flown to Jakarta to be downloaded and analyzed with the flight data recorder. <br /><br />"This is good news for investigators to reveal the cause of the plane crash," said Tonny Budiono, sea navigation director at the transportation ministry. <br /><br />"Today we have completed searching for the main things that we have been looking for," Rear Admiral Widodo, the commander of the navy's western fleet, told reporters. <br /><br />"But the team will still try to find the body of the plane in case there are still bodies inside," he said. <br /><br />Only 48 bodies, including at least two strapped to their seats, have been found in the choppy waters so far despite over two weeks of search operations. <br /><br />The black box recorders, which are actually orange, are expected to shed new light on the mysterious crash that claimed all 162 lives on board the ill-fated AirAsia Flight QZ8501, en route from Indonesia's Surabaya city to Singapore. <br /><br />Investigators may need up to a month to get a complete reading of the data to determine what caused the AirAsia group's first fatal accident half way into a two-hour flight. <br /><br />Since the device records in a two-hour loop, all discussions between the captain and co-pilot should be available. <br /><br />In another crucial development on Tuesday, divers may have found one of the plane's engines that has a control unit to record data about performance, said Nurcahyo Utomo from the transport committee. <br /><br />"If something is wrong with the engine, or weird, it will be recorded," he said. <br /><br />The suspected location of the Airbus A320-200 engine could not be immediately confirmed, Channel NewsAsia reported, citing an investigator. <br /><br />Search teams have also possibly identified the locations of the plane's main fuselage and stabilizer, with divers reported to have marked out the spot the fuselage is believed to lie, 30 metres deep, the report said. <br /><br />Search and rescue agency coordinator S B Supriyadi said the fuselage is believed to have been found northeast of where the tail section was previously spotted by a ship scanning for wreckage, CNN reported. <br /><br />The discovery of the fuselage would be a significant development, as officials believe it contains the remaining bodies of victims. <br /><br />Officials on Monday gave new dramatic details of the accident, with Supriyadi saying an initial analysis of the wreckage recovered so far indicated the plane exploded on impact with the water due to a rapid change in pressure. <br /><br />Meanwhile, chief of Indonesia's search and rescue agency BASARNAS Fransiskus Bambang Soelistyo on Tuesday said the legal timeframe for retrieving bodies is seven days. <br /><br />Though focus of the operation shifted on the 11th day when the black box was found, the search for bodies continued, he told a parliamentary hearing in Jakarta. <br /><br />"Our main task is to find the victims. "Even if both (black boxes) are found, it doesn't mean that our operation is over," he told reporters before heading to Surabaya to meet the victims' families. <br /><br />He said BASARNAS was focused on finding the bodies while the armed forces were focused on finding the fuselage, that officials initially believed to contain the remaining bodies. However, all 48 bodies recovered so far were found spread out in the sea. <br /><br />Soelistyo promised families that he will try his best to find all the passengers that were on board the AirAsia flight. <br /><br />Meanwhile, the airline's flamboyant boss Tony Fernandes issued a message to customers, saying "the past few weeks have been the most difficult weeks of my life since starting AirAsia 13 years ago". <br /><br />"We will continue to provide updates as the investigation goes on," the AirAsia head said as he vowed to overcome the crisis: "Even in our toughest times, we will continue to be the world's best and be better for you."Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2695901602824204901.post-19908620245776239232015-01-11T22:29:00.001-08:002015-01-11T22:29:24.173-08:00SOUTH KOREAN PRESIDENT SAYS OPEN TO SUMMIT WITH NORTH'S KIM, NO PRE-CONDITION <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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South Korean President Park Geun-hye said on Monday she was willing to hold a summit meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un without any pre-condition but maintained the country still needed an anti-North security law. <br /><br />An end to North Korea's nuclear program should be an important part of discussions for peace on the Korean peninsula but it was not a pre-condition to having a summit meeting, Park told a televised news conference. <br /><br />"My position is that to ease the pain of division and to accomplish peaceful unification, I am willing to meet with anyone," Park said. "If it is helpful, I am up for a summit meeting with the North. There is no pre-condition." <br /><br />There is no sign of any concrete plan for a meeting between the two leaders. North and South Korean presidents have met only two times since the peninsula was divided at the end of World War Two. <br /><br />The two sides are still technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended only in a truce and not a peace treaty. More than 1.8 million troops are deployed on both sides of their border, one of the most heavily fortified in the world. <br /><br />Park also told the news conference that an anti-North law, the National Security Law, continued to remain necessary in the South. <br /><br />"We need the very minimum of law to ensure security in this country as we remain in a standoff with the North, and the law is enforced according to that," she said. <br /><br />Shin Eun-mi, a South Korea-born American who came to the South last year as a tourist, was deported to the United States under the law on Saturday for making positive comments about the North. <br /><br />The first summit in 2000 between then-South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and then-North Korean leader Kim Jong Il led to a period of rapidly expanding ties including the opening of a factory park in the North run by South Korean businesses and a tourism project. <br /><br />South Korea's Roh Moo-hyun met Kim seven years later and the two pledged greater cooperation but most of the ambitious projects discussed at the time remain on the drawing board and instead a period of tension followed under Roh's successor, Lee Myung-bak. <br /><br />A South Korean navy ship was torpedoed in 2010 killing 46 sailors, which Seoul blamed on the North although Pyongyang denied the accusation. The North shelled a South Korean island in the same year, killing four people. <br /><br />The attacks led to sweeping sanctions by the South that suspended most ties. <br /><br />Park's comments come after the North's leader Kim said in a New Year's address: "If the atmosphere and environment is there, there is no reason not to hold a high-level summit." <br /><br />However, Pyongyang repeatedly sends out contradictory signals. <br /><br />On Friday, North Korea rejected a call by South Korea's parliament for a resumption of negotiations on various issues including North Korea's human rights, and families still separated by the Korean War. <br /><br />It has not responded to the South's call for separate meetings by government officials, despite pledging during a surprise visit by senior aides of Kim Jong Un in October to the South Korean city of Incheon to reopen talks. <br /><br />Park repeated the offer on Monday. "North Korea should respond to dialogue without hesitation," she said.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2695901602824204901.post-84848836559733633142015-01-11T22:21:00.001-08:002017-09-06T19:38:22.946-07:00AIRASIA QZ8501: DIVERS RETRIEVE 1 OF 2 BLACK BOXES FROM CRASHED JET <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A team of Indonesian navy divers on Monday retrieved one of the two black boxes from an AirAsia airliner that crashed two weeks ago, killing all 162 people on board, a government official said.<br />
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Flight QZ8501 lost contact with air traffic control in bad weather on December 28, less than halfway into a two-hour flight from Indonesia's second-biggest city of Surabaya to Singapore.<br />
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"At 7:11, we succeeded in lifting the part of the black box known as the flight data recorder," Fransiskus Bambang Soelistyo, the head of the National Search and Rescue Agency, told reporters at a news conference.<br />
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"We are still trying to find the cockpit voice recorder."<br />
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Officials hope the black box, which was found under the wrecked wing of the plane, will reveal the cause of the crash. The national weather bureau has said seasonal storms were likely a factor.<br />
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Investigators have said the recorder would most likely be taken to the capital, Jakarta, for analysis and that it could take up to two weeks to download the data.<br />
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However, the information could be accessed in as little as two days if the devices are not badly damaged.<br />
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Soelistyo did not provide any details of the condition of the flight data recorder.<br />
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Over the weekend, three vessels detected "pings" that were believed to be from the black boxes' emergency locator transmitter. But strong winds, powerful currents and high waves hampered search efforts.<br />
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Indonesian navy divers took advantage of calmer weather in the Java Sea on Monday to retrieve the flight recorder and search for the fuselage of the Airbus A320-200.<br />
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Forty-eight bodies have been retrieved from the Java Sea and searchers believe more will be found in the plane's fuselage.<br />
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Relatives of the victims have urged authorities to make finding the remains of their loved ones the priority.<br />
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"All the ships, including the ships from our friends, will be deployed with the main task of searching for bodies that are still or suspected to still be trapped underwater," Soelistyo said, referring the multinational force helping with the search and recovery effort.<br />
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Indonesia AirAsia, 49 percent owned by the Malaysia-based AirAsia budget group, has come under pressure from authorities in Jakarta since the crash.<br />
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The transport ministry has suspended the carrier's Surabaya-Singapore licence for flying on a Sunday, for which it did not have permission. However, the ministry has said this had no bearing on the crash of Flight QZ8501.<br />
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President Joko Widodo said the crash exposed widespread problems in the management of air travel in Indonesia.<br />
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Separately on Sunday, a DHC-6 Twin Otter operated by Indonesia's Trigana Air crashed on landing at Enarotali Airport in Paniai, Papua.<br />
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Strong winds caused the aircraft to roll over, domestic news website Detik.com reported, with no injuries to the three crew members on board. The plane was not carrying any passengers.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2695901602824204901.post-61602964424915961942015-01-11T22:18:00.000-08:002015-01-11T22:18:40.851-08:002 SUSPECTED CHILD SUICIDE BOMBERS HIT NORTH NIGERIA TOWN <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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2 suspected child suicide bombers blew themselves up in a market in northeast Nigeria on Sunday, witnesses said, killing three people in the second apparent attack in two days using young girls strapped with explosives. <br /><br />The blasts struck around mid-afternoon at an open market selling mobile handsets in the town of Potiskum in Yobe state, which has frequently been attacked by the Sunni Muslim jihadist group Boko Haram. <br /><br />A trader at the market, Sani Abdu Potiskum, said the bombers were about 10 years old. "I saw their dead bodies. They are two young girls of about 10 years of age ... you only see the plaited hair and part of the upper torso," the trader said. <br /><br />A source at the Potiskum general hospital said three people had been killed, excluding the bombers, while 46 were injured. <br /><br />The town was hit by a suicide bomber in November when at least 48 people, mainly students, were killed during a school assembly. On Saturday, a bomb exploded at a police station in Potiskum. <br /><br />Sunday's explosions came a day after a bomb strapped to a girl aged around 10 years old exploded in a busy market place in the Nigerian city of Maiduguri, killing at least 16 people and injuring more than 20, security sources said. <br /><br />Boko Haram has been waging a five year insurgency to establish an Islamic state in the northeast of the country and the army's inability to quash the movement is a headache for President Goodluck Jonathan, who is seeking re-election in February. <br /><br />Last year more than 10,000 people died in the violence, according to an estimate by the Council on Foreign Relations <br /><br />The military lost ground in worst-hit Borno state last weekend after insurgents took over the town of Baga and nearby army base, killing over 100 people and forcing thousands to flee. The defence headquarters said on Saturday that the army was regrouping to retake the area. <br /><br />In the city of Jos in Plateau state, Jonathan's campaign team was hit by two days of violence. <br /><br />The driver of a campaign vehicle was killed on Sunday by youths who also set fire to a police station, police spokesman Abu Sunday Emmanuel said. On Saturday, two other campaign vehicles were burnt. <br /><br />"The youths were chanting no PDP, no to Jonathan Badluck," a witness said, referring to the ruling People's Democratic Party. <br /><br />PDP spokesman Olisa Metuh said in an emailed statement that the government "decried last Saturday's unprovoked attack on President Goodluck Jonathan's campaign vehicles in Jos.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2695901602824204901.post-3681329604021921642015-01-10T19:23:00.003-08:002015-01-10T19:23:46.573-08:00DIAPER-WEARING VOLUNTEERS GUARD FILIPINOS FOR BLACK NAZARENE FEAST<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Three hundred volunteers in diapers were on hand on Friday to form human barricades during a jam-packed open-air Catholic Mass in Manila before a statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through city streets for the annual "Black Nazarene" procession. <br /><br />More than five million Filipinos attended Mass at a park, with the Metro Manila Development Authority assigning adult diapers to volunteers who could not leave their posts, in a trial days before a visit by Pope Francis. <br /><br />Emergency and police officials said they expect a much bigger crowd when the leader of 1.2 billion Roman Catholics celebrates Mass at the same venue on Jan. 18. <br /><br />Authority chairman Francis Tolentino said only the volunteers at Friday's Mass were required to wear the adult diapers. <br /><br />"About 300 of them because they cannot leave their positions otherwise people will come in and break the line," he said. <br /><br />About 2,000 diapers were distributed to civilian auxiliaries on traffic duty for the procession, but there was no data on how many used them. In a radio interview, Tolentino said defaulters would not be penalized as the exercise was optional. <br /><br />"I feel so uncomfortable wearing it," a man on traffic duty told Reuters when asked why he did not wear the diaper. <br /><br />The experiment invited much ridicule on social media with critics questioning why the city authority did not rent more portable toilets. Many devotees were seen urinating in the park. <br /><br />"This has got to be the dumbest idea of the year," said Twitter user Joseph Brian Calimon. <br /><br />An authority official defended the experiment as a "practical" option, adding in a statement that adult diapers are "used regularly as standard operating gear" by US soldiers, Buckingham Palace guards, and astronauts. <br /><br />After the Mass, about a million people took part in the procession for a 5km (3 mile) walk to the Basilica of the Black Nazarene with a centuries-old black statue of Jesus Christ, which is widely believed to have healing powers. <br /><br />Barefoot devotees lined the streets to see and try to touch the life-size statue of Jesus kneeling with a cross, in a festival held in the former Spanish colony for more than 200 years. <br /><br />At least one devotee was crushed to death, while hundreds fainted or suffered minor injuries, as a sea of humanity was funnelled through narrow streets for the largest parade in the predominantly Roman Catholic country.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2695901602824204901.post-14285150077644393812015-01-10T19:18:00.002-08:002015-01-10T19:18:34.084-08:00 AN ACT OF REVENGE, SAYS QAIDA FACTION<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Al-Qaida in Arabian Peninsula directed the attack against the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris "as revenge for the honour" of Islam's Prophet Muhammad, a member of the group said on Friday. <br /><br />At least one of the two brothers involved in the attack travelled to Yemen in 2011 and either received training from or fought alongside the group, according to US and Yemeni officials. <div>
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A US intelligence assessment shows that Said Kouachi was trained to return home and carry out an attack. If confirmed, the attack would be the first al-Qaida's branch in Yemen has succeeded in carrying out in the West after at least two earlier attempts. <br /><br />"The leadership of AQAP directed the attack and chose their target carefully as revenge for the honour of the prophet," the al-Qaida member said. </div>
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He said France was targeted for "its obvious role in the war on Islam and oppressed nations." He warned that "touching Muslims' sanctity and protecting blasphemy have a dear price and the punishment will be severe". </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2695901602824204901.post-68230491640876096342015-01-10T19:11:00.001-08:002015-01-10T19:11:50.654-08:00CHINA GIVES TOP SCIENCE AWARD TO MAKER OF HYDROGEN BOMB <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A 89-year old nuclear physicist, Yu Min, has been awarded with the country's highest honor for scientific achievement, and given a cheque of $826,000.<br />
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Yu, regarded as the main architect behind China's hydrogen bomb, has been given the highest science award years after his main achievements. <br />
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He is the third nuclear scientist to be honored by this award after nuclear weapons experts Sun Jiadong in 2010 and Cheng Kaijia last year. Yu is one of 23 recipients of the "Two Bombs, One Satellite Achievement Medal", the country's top award to scientists contributing to China's nuclear and satellite projects. <br />
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Every year since 2000, China has been honoring two scientists, who have achieved breakthroughs in cutting-edge scientific and technological fields. Award receipents include seven foreign scientists and one overseas organization. <br />
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Meanwhile, Chinese authorities have expressed worry over academic dishonesty among a section of scientists, who have submitted papers for lesser awards. <br />
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"We found suspicious projects involving academic dishonesty during the review and dealt with the situation accordingly — some were disqualified from receiving the award this year, " Chen Zhimin, director of the Office for Science and Technology Awards, said. <br />
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Academic integrity was one of the key factors for the evaluation committee when it reviewed the projects this year, he said. <br />
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"To win recognition, some researchers focus on winning awards instead of concentrating on their studies. They repeatedly apply for the award and some apply with more than one project," Chen said. <br />
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This Office gave chose 318 scientific and technological research projects for State scientific and technological awards this year. <br />
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"The awards, as a trustful third-party evaluation system, aim to encourage researchers to continue their hard and meaningful work," Chen said. This year's award encourages researchers to concentrate on studies instead of rushing to apply for awards. <br />
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"Research is a process of accumulation. Being responsible for research outcomes is the duty of scientists," Zhou Qi, a developmental biologist from the Institute of Zoology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said. <br />
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"I always told my students that you have many opportunities to publish a new paper in your academic life, but it is impossible to withdraw any of your publications with a bad record from your resume. <br />
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"So take every experiment seriously and make sure every result is reliable. It is a must in research," Zhou said.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2695901602824204901.post-66078515556085361062015-01-10T14:00:00.001-08:002015-01-10T14:00:07.481-08:00CHINESE CENSORS WIPED OUT 3 MILLION PORNOGRAPHIC ITEMS IN 2014 <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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More than 3 million items pornographic content were wiped out of Internet sites in 2014 by Chinese censors. The move also showed that pornography is widely watched and practiced by Chinese vast netizen population exceeding 600 million. <br /><br />The campaign to cleanse the Internet of pornography has proved to be "remarkably effective" last year, Zhou Huilin, a vice director of the National Anti-Pornography and Anti-Illegal Publications Office, told the official Xinhua news agency. <br /><br />The crackdown also resulted in the closure of nearly 10,000 websites which contained what was described as illegal or harmful information were also shut down by authorities, Xinhua reported, without providing details. <br /><br />Censors also confiscated more than 16 million illegal publications that included 12 million pirated ones. Government inspectors also handled 212 cases that involved fake journalists or media organizations, Zhou said. <br /><br />The growth of pornography over the Internet despire tight controls known as the "Great Firewall of China" by the censors is also an indication of IT capabilities in the pornography industry in China. <div>
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The censors have ordered social media companies to censor user-generated content to curb pornography. <br /><br />Even harsh judicial sentences and a death sentence given to a man running a pornographic site in 2006, has not deterred people from running such sites, and people watching it. <div>
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The 2006 involved a 28-year old man, who can a pornography website with 600,000 followers before he was sentenced to death.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2695901602824204901.post-89290424602596568202015-01-10T13:49:00.002-08:002015-01-10T13:49:50.632-08:0019 DEAD, 18 INJURED IN NIGERIA MARKET BLAST<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A suicide bomb attack by a young girl thought to be as young as 10 in the northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri killed 19 people, police said on Saturday.<br /><br />Borno State police spokesman Gideon Jubrin told reporters, "Casualty figure is 20 dead and 18 injured, including the female suicide bomber that detonated the improvised explosive device."<br /><br />The blast happened at about 12.40pm (1140 GMT) near the live chicken section of the Monday Market in the Borno State capital, which was targeted twice in a week by female bombers late last year.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2695901602824204901.post-89629513609049481872015-01-10T13:46:00.003-08:002015-01-10T13:46:45.720-08:00UN to host new Libya peace talks in Geneva next week<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The United Nations announced Saturday a new round of peace talks between Libya's warring factions in Geneva next week, as the European Union warned the country was at a "crucial juncture". <br /><br />"This dialogue is an important opportunity for the Libyans to restore stability and prevent the country's slide towards deeper conflict and economic collapse that should not be missed," the UN mission in Libya said in a statement. <br /><br />The announcement came after UN envoy Bernardino Leon met with rival camps and urged them to resume peace talks "before it is too late".<br /><br />Leon has proposed a freeze in military operations for a few days "in order to create a conducive environment for the dialogue," according to the UN statement. <br /><br />It said the talks were aimed at reaching an agreement on the formation of a unity government and to create "a stable environment" for the adoption of a new permanent constitution. <br /><br />"Discussions will also seek to put in place the necessary security arrangements in order to bring an end to the armed hostilities raging in different parts of the country," it added. <br /><br />It did not give a specific date for the talks. The announcement came after Leon on Thursday held talks for the first time with general Khalifa Haftar, who is spearheading a government-backed offensive to recapture the second city of Benghazi from mainly Islamist militia. <br /><br />More than three years after dictator Moamer Kadhafi was toppled and killed in a Western-backed revolt, the North African nation is engulfed in chaos with rival governments and parliaments as well as powerful militias fighting for territory. <br /><br />The European Union said the Geneva meeting "represents a last chance which must be seized". <br /><br />"Libya is at a crucial juncture; the different actors should be in no doubt of the gravity of the situation that the country finds itself in. The opportunity to establish a ceasefire and find a political solution should not be wasted," said Federica Mogherini, the EU's top diplomat. <br /><br />A new round of talks had been scheduled for December 9 but was repeatedly delayed as fighting intensified between the beleaguered internationally recognised government and Islamist-backed militias. Difficulties finding a safe venue for the talks contributed to the delay, the UN said.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2695901602824204901.post-6128232873172019272015-01-10T13:41:00.002-08:002015-01-10T13:41:36.043-08:00NORTH KOREA HINTS AT NUCLEAR TEST MORATORIUM<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />North Korea has told the United States that it's willing to impose a temporary moratorium on nuclear tests if Washington scraps planned military drills with South Korea this year, the North's official news agency said Saturday. <br /><br />The reported proposal comes at a time of tensions between North Korea and the US over a Sony movie depicting an assassination attempt on North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. <div>
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The US blames the North for crippling hacking attacks on Sony Entertainment and subsequently imposed new sanctions on the country, inviting an angry response from Pyongyang, which has denied responsibility for the cyberattacks. <br /><br />The North's official Korean Central News Agency said the government proposed to the US what it calls a "crucial step" to ease animosities and remove the danger of war, prompted by desires to pave the way for a reunification with South Korea this year, which marks the 70th anniversary of the rivals' division. <br /><br />The message "proposed the US to contribute to easing tension on the Korean Peninsula by temporarily suspending joint military exercises in South Korea and its vicinity this year, and said that in this case (North Korea) is ready to take such responsive step as temporarily suspending the nuclear test over which the US is concerned," KCNA's report said. </div>
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"Now is the time for the US to make a bold decision for peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia." It said the message was conveyed to the US on Friday through an unspecified relevant channel. <br /><br />Pyongyang has called the annual US-South Korean military drills a rehearsal for an invasion, though the allies have repeatedly said they have no intentions of attacking the North. <br /><br />North Korea conducted nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013. A fourth test would mark another defiant response to US-led international pressure on Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear program. <br /><br />Western experts believe North Korea has a handful of rudimentary bombs, though it is not believed to be capable yet of producing warheads small enough to mount on a long-range missile that could threaten the US Another nuclear test could put the North a step closer to that goal. <br /><br />The Korean Peninsula remains divided along the world's most heavily armed border because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. </div>
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About 28,500 American troops are deployed in South Korea as a buttress against potential North Korean aggression. <br /><br />In the spring of 2013, tensions dramatically spiked after Pyongyang made a torrent of threats to launch nuclear strikes against Seoul and Washington in protest of U.N. sanctions that were toughened following its third bomb test. </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2695901602824204901.post-77397147832376795852015-01-10T13:36:00.002-08:002015-01-10T13:36:25.552-08:00NORTH KOREA OFFERS TO SUSPEND NUCLEAR TESTS IN RETURN FOR END TO US DRILLS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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North Korea said on Saturday it was willing to suspend nuclear tests if the United States agreed to call off annual military drills held jointly with South Korea, saying the exercises were the main reason for tension on the Korean peninsula. <br /><br />The proposal, which the North's official KCNA news agency said was conveyed to Washington on Friday through "a relevant channel", follows an often-repeated demand by Pyongyang for an end to the large-scale defensive drills by the allies. <br /><br />"The message proposed (that) the US contribute to easing tension on the Korean peninsula by temporarily suspending joint military exercises in South Korea and its vicinity this year," KCNA said in a report. <br /><br />"(The message) said that in this case the DPRK is ready to take such a responsive step as temporarily suspending the nuclear test over which the U.S. is concerned," KCNA said, using the short form for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. <br /><br />North Korea has conducted three nuclear tests, the last in February 2013, and is under layers of UN sanctions for defying international warnings not to set off atomic devices in pursuit of a nuclear arsenal, which Pyongyang calls its "sacred sword". <br /><br />It often promises to call off nuclear and missile tests in return for comparable steps by Washington to ease tensions. It reached such a deal in February 2012 with the United States for an arms tests moratorium only to scrap it two months later. <br /><br />The United States and South Korea have stressed that the annual drills, which in some years involved US aircraft carriers, are purely defensive in nature, aimed at testing the allies' readiness to confront any North Korean aggression. <br /><br />Tension peaked on the Korean peninsula in March 2013 when the North ratcheted up rhetoric during the annual drills, with Pyongyang threatening war and putting its forces in a state of combat-readiness. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2695901602824204901.post-43262096812907571412015-01-10T13:30:00.003-08:002015-01-10T13:30:39.186-08:00TAIL OF CRASHED AIRASIA PLANE LIFTED TO SURFACE <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The tail of an AirAsia plane that crashed into the Java Sea was lifted to the surface on Saturday, according to an AFP photographer aboard a nearby Indonesian Navy ship. <br /><br />Floating balloons were used to lift the tail — the biggest part of the plane's wreckage found since the crash on December 28 — from the sea floor, the photographer and Indonesian authorities said. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2695901602824204901.post-77771303803009271372015-01-10T08:53:00.002-08:002015-01-10T08:53:49.475-08:00AUSTRALIAN NEWSPAPER PUBLISHES MUHAMMAD CARTOON <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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An Australian newspaper on Saturday published a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad arguing with Jesus, as it urged support for free speech in the wake of the deadly attack on a French satirical weekly. <br /><br />Twelve people were killed in Wednesday's attack by extremists on magazine Charlie Hebdo's office in Paris, prompting cartoonists around the world to put pen to paper in solidarity with their French colleagues. <br /><br />The Weekend Australian newspaper published the cartoon by Bill Leak entitled "Let us pray" in which Jesus is holding up the Quran and telling Muhammad: "I've told you this needs a sequel", a reference to the Bible which has an Old and New Testament. <br /><br />To which Muhammad, brandishing a newspaper with the headline "World at War", replies he can't return to human form right now because he would be "crucified". <br /><br />Depictions of the Prophet Muhammad such as the cartoons published by Charlie Hebdo are banned in Islam and mocking him angers many Muslims. <br /><br />In an editorial, The Weekend Australian called on the Western world to show no weakness in defending its core values or retreat from free speech. <br /><br />"Whether deliberate or not, one of the most damaging aspects of this atrocity," it said of the Paris attack, "is that it hit our civilisation in a place already shaping as our Achilles Heel -- a spineless and growing penchant for political correctness." <br /><br />"Over recent years, in the face of the perpetually outraged, our pluralistic, democratic and free societies have gradually been yielding on our hard-won freedom of expression," it said. <br /><br />In an opinion piece on Friday, Leak said that by targeting a humorous magazine, the extremists had deliberately chosen "a symbol of the freedom of speech that lies at the very foundation of Western civilisation". <br /><br />"A fine sense of humour is one of the defining characteristics of highly evolved, civilised human beings. Its absence is one of the defining characteristics of barbarism," he said.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2695901602824204901.post-43558641049857864152015-01-10T08:39:00.002-08:002015-01-10T08:39:21.727-08:0023 KURDISH SOLDIERS KILLED IN IS ATTACK <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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At least 23 Kurdish soldiers were killed and 12 injured during clashes with Islamic State (IS) militants in an Iraqi city, media reported.<br /><br />The military forces of Iraqi Kurdistan were targeted in two different vehicle explosions in areas around the Sinjar Mountains southeast of the city of Nineveh in northern Iraq, Al Jazeera reported on Saturday.<br /><br />In a separate development, the IS carried out the biggest attack yet on Kurdish positions near the strategic town of Gwer, about 60km from Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan autonomous province, said a Kurdish spokesperson.<br /><br />Some of the IS fighters came to the town in the early hours of Saturday by boat over the Tigris river before taking control of large parts of the town. However, no casualty has been reported, the Kurdish spokesman added.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2695901602824204901.post-35951916571029477872015-01-09T13:44:00.001-08:002015-01-09T13:44:18.914-08:00WRONG DEPICTIONS OF PROPHET MOHAMMED ANGERS MANY MUSLIMS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Depictions of Prophet Mohammed such as the cartoons published by the French satirical magazine reeling from a deadly attack are banned in Islam and mocking him angers many Muslims. <br /><br />Although images poking fun at the prophet have repeatedly infuriated the Islamic world, Arab and Muslim leaders and clerics were quick to condemn the attack. Sunni Islam's most prestigious centre of learning Al-Azhar said "Islam denounces any violence". <br /><br />The two masked gunmen who killed 12 people at the Charlie Hebdo weekly on Wednesday claimed to be on a mission to "avenge" its cartoons of Mohammed. <br /><br />It follows years of controversy over such caricatures. "This is a prophet that is revered by some two billion people... Is it moral to mock him?," prominent Iraqi preacher Ahmed al-Kubaisi told AFP, explaining the violent reaction of Muslims to cartoons of Mohammed. <br /><br />"France is the mother of all freedoms, yet no one said this (depiction) is shameful," he said. <br /><br />Outspoken former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad said Charlie Hebdo had shown disrespect towards Islam on numerous occasions. <br /><br />"Is there a need for them to ridicule Prophet Mohammed knowing that they are offending Muslims?" state news agency Bernama quoted him as saying. <br /><br />"We respect their religion and they must respect our religion," he added. <br /><br />Violent protests broke out in the Muslim world after Denmark's Jyllands-Posten newspaper published 12 caricatures of Mohammed in 2005. <br /><br />Charlie Hebdo and other European publications reproduced the cartoons the following year, including one which showed Mohammed wearing a turban shaped like a bomb, making them a target of Islamist fury. <br /><br />The French magazine's offices were fire-bombed in November 2011 following the publication of an edition renamed "Charia Hebdo", (Sharia Hebdo), with a caricature of Mohammed on the front page. <br /><br />At the core of the problem is the "lack of respect for others' right to freedom of expression" in Arab and Muslim countries, according to Hassan Barari, professor of international relations at Qatar University. <br /><br />Some people "do not understand the Western context of free speech, where you can easily make a movie that is critical of Jesus." <br /><br />Mathieu Guidere, who teaches Islamic studies at France's University of Toulouse, said that the "culture of tolerance, and acceptance of different opinion is almost non-existent in the Arab and Islamic world." <br /><br />He attributed violence to a feeling harboured by "almost every Muslim who believes that he is the defender of the prophet and of Islam." <br /><br />Barari pointed to a history of "animosity between the West and Muslims". <br /><br />"We cannot deny that anti-Western feeling in the region is related to the West's policies. This is related to past colonialism, policy on Israel, and support to dictatorships," he said. <br /><br />The majority of Islamic scholars ban drawings of all prophets revered by Islam, and reject the depiction of the companions of Mohammed, even when it shows them in a positive light. <br /><br />"We should not open the door to people to draw the prophet in different forms that could affect his status in the hearts of his people," said Kubaisi, the Iraqi preacher who is based in Dubai. <br /><br />There is no text from the Quran or the tradition of the prophet that clearly forbids such depictions, and the ban is "out of homage and respect" to the prophets, he added. <br /><br />The ban also applies to depictions of prophets and companions of Mohammed in movies and television programmes. <br /><br />When a trailer for anti-Muslim movie "Innocence of Muslims" appeared on YouTube in 2012, protesters took to the streets in several countries. <br /><br />Four people, including US Ambassador Chris Stevens, were killed in Libya when extremists used protests against the film to attack US interests on September 11, 2012. <br /><br />In recent weeks, a number of Muslim countries banned Ridley Scott's "Exodus: Gods and Kings" for its depiction of Moses. <br /><br />Even the 1970s epic "The Message", which chronicled the life of Mohammed and starred Anthony Quinn, did not impersonate the prophet. <br /><br />"Depicting the prophets of Allah would cast doubts about their status and might include lies, because actors could never match the characters of the prophets," said a fatwa, or edict, by the Mecca-based Islamic Fiqh Council. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2695901602824204901.post-5612140278599732842015-01-09T13:31:00.002-08:002015-01-09T13:31:46.256-08:00 MELBOURNE AIRPORT EVACUATED DUE TO SECURITY ALERT<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />A terminal at an airport in this Australian city was today evacuated following a security alert, leading to disruption of several fights. A 'security alert' at Tullamarine Airport forced the evacuation of Tigerair's terminal 4 and disrupted some flights. <br /><br />"We are responding and working with the relevant authorities over a security alert that was directed at Tigerair," a spokesperson for the airport said. Victoria Police said officers were carrying out a search at the terminal. <div>
<br />The terminal for Singapore-based budget carrier Tigerair was closed about 9:00pm (local time). The terminal has been evacuated and will remain closed until the check is completed. <br /><br />Some Tigerair flights had been disrupted but all other operations were continuing as normal, the spokesperson said. According to Melbourne Airport's website, seven Tigerair flights were due to land at the airport after 9:00 pm. </div>
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<br />Bomb squad officers were not yet present at the site, the spokesperson said, adding police was not commenting on reason for the safety check or why it was started. <br /><br />It could not be estimated when the terminal would reopen. Scott Marquardt, who said he was on board a Tigerair flight from Brisbane that landed about midnight, tweeted saying the crew had announced they would be on the tarmac for at least an hour. <br /><br />He also tweeted that passengers were told some planes were disembarking but "we'll be on ours for a lengthy amount of time". </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2695901602824204901.post-78192677346584758582015-01-09T13:19:00.002-08:002015-01-09T13:19:34.923-08:00ZIMBABWE'S OWN-LABEL DOLLAR COINS FACE CONSUMER RESISTANCE<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Nobody wanted the Zimbabwe dollar, so the southern African country dumped it for the US dollar in 2009 to stave off economic collapse and sky-rocketing hyperinflation.<br /><br />Now nobody wants the "bond coins" it put in circulation last month to replace the lollipops, chewing gum and pens that have been used in lieu of change for transactions in shops.<br /><br />Adopting the US dollar as your own currency, as Ecuador has also done, not only raises questions about money supply, monetary policy and national sovereignty.<br /><br />Zimbabwe's "coin conundrum" also highlights the day-to-day difficulties that people encounter when their economy takes such a path.<br /><br />The paper greenback is readily acceptable, but getting US coins en masse to put into circulation is a different matter.<br /><br />So Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor John Mangudya introduced the new "bond coins" last month. They are named after a $50 million bond that was floated to mint and import them from neighboring South Africa.<br /><br />The new coins have the same denominations and value as US cents but can only be used in Zimbabwe.<br /><br />Trouble is, not many people want to use them because they think they will not be able to persuade others to accept them. Some also fear the coins could be a first step towards the return of the dreaded Zimbabwe dollar.<br /><br />The beggars' universal cry is "spare any change", but in Zimbabwe they can be choosers on the issue.<br /><br />At a traffic light in the capital Harare, a Reuters correspondent gave an insistent beggar a handful of bond coins, which provoked a burst of laughter and a "no thanks" before he scrambled to the next car.<br /><br />Shouting matches erupt on the streets when the touts who ride with taxi drivers and dispense change to passengers try to pass off the bond coins to them.<br /><br />"We have people who just refuse the coins because they say they will not be able to use them. They prefer the rand coins (of South Africa)," said Lyn Kahari, a shop assistant at a grocer in a Harare suburb.<br /><br />Reserve Bank governor Mangudya told the state-owned Herald newspaper last week that only $2.5 million worth of coins were in circulation out of the $10 million that had been imported.<br />
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He said the low uptake of the coins was a result of commercial banks not making larger orders from the central bank.<br /><br />The scepticism is rooted in the memories Zimbabweans have of hyperinflation, which reached 500 billion percent with prices changing more than twice a day before the government of President Robert Mugabe abandoned a currency that had been rendered worthless.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2695901602824204901.post-72467541550223329022015-01-08T10:19:00.001-08:002015-01-08T10:19:09.789-08:00CHINESE BUSINESSMEN PAID $300,000 TO STUDENTS TO FIND VIRGINS FOR OFFICIALS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A group of Chinese businessmen allegedly gave $300,000 to school students in Shaanxi province to procure virgin girls, whom the men then offered to officials as 'gifts'. Several schoolgirls were molested and tortured, local officials said. <br /><br />In a curious pyramid scheme, girl students of 11th grade were asked to lure and torture virgin girls of 10th grade to force them to have sex with officials. Six of the senior girls have been arrested, while another has been let off because she is less than 16 years old. <br /><br />Seven older girls thrashed five juniors, and took their nude photos for the purpose of blackmailing. The eardrums of two junior girls burst during the beating. <br /><br />Local television showed pictures of the wounds, including those inflicted by a knife, suffered by the juniors. The victims' parents said five students in the 10th grade were beaten because they refused to have sex with officials, the 'Legal Weekly' said. <br /><br />One senior girl student received $193,000, while another got $128,000 from the businessmen. The businessmen insisted they needed more virgin students to be presented to officials in exchange for favours. The identity of the officials and businessmen in Shaanxi's Wuqi county was not revealed.<div>
<br />A village official has been detained for his involvement in the crime. The local government has given administrative punishment and warnings to officials in the school and the education department, according to reports reaching here.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2695901602824204901.post-80211198258513916572015-01-08T10:02:00.001-08:002015-01-08T10:02:10.467-08:00INDONESIAN DIVERS STRUGGLE TO REACH AIRASIA WRECKAGE <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Elite Indonesian military divers battled strong currents on Thursday in an effort to reach the submerged tail of crashed AirAsia Flight 8501 in the hopes of finding crucial black box data recorders. <br /><br />The plane crashed on December 28 during stormy weather as it flew from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore, claiming the lives of all 162 people on board. <div>
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Stormy weather has plagued multinational efforts to find the wreckage of the plane in the Java Sea, as well as all of the bodies and the black boxes that should contain the pilots' last words. </div>
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The biggest breakthrough came on Wednesday with the discovery of the tail, which is where the black boxes are kept, buried into the seabed 30 metres (100 feet) underwater. </div>
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However strong currents stymied efforts on Thursday morning by divers from the Indonesian Marines' elite diving unit to penetrate into the tail, search and rescue agency chief Bambang Soelistyo told reporters in Jakarta. <br /><br />"Divers have reached the tail part but... the visibility was below one metre so they only managed to retrieve various debris," Soelistyo said. </div>
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"Now we are waiting for the speed of the current to ease. If it gets calmer later, they will go back to do another dive to determine whether the black boxes remained in the tail or were detached." <br /><br />Soelistyo said retrieval experts were also ready with a crane to lift the tail out of the water. However he said a decision on extracting the tail would not be made until a more through inspection of it was carried out, with the continuing storm weather another factor. </div>
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Soelistyo said the other top priority was the search for bodies, with just 40 found so far floating at sea. Many of the others are believed to be inside the wreckage of the plane's main cabin, which has not been found. All but seven of those on board were Indonesian. <br /><br />The search — involving US, Russian, Chinese and other foreign military assets — is being conducted from Pangkalan Bun, a town on the island of Borneo which has the closest airstrip to the crash site. </div>
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The Indonesian meteorological agency said weather was the "triggering factor" of the crash, with ice likely damaging the engines of the Airbus A320-200. But a much clearer explanation is not possible without the black boxes. <br /><br />Indonesian authorities also said the plane was flying on an unauthorised schedule when it crashed, and AirAsia has since been suspended from flying the Surabaya-Singapore route. </div>
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Indonesia's transport ministry said on Wednesday that it had fired one transport official and disciplined several others in a crackdown following the crash. It was expected to announce this week the results of a deeper investigation into how the flight was able to depart without permission. <br /><br />Indonesia's air travel industry is booming, with domestic passengers growing nearly five-fold over the past decade and airlines scoring billion-dollar deals with foreign plane makers. </div>
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But it has a dismal air safety record. In 2007, an Adam Air plane plunged into the sea off Sulawesi island on New Year's Day, killing all 102 people on board. That airline was later banned from flying. <br /><br />A few months later, a jet with flag carrier Garuda Indonesia burst into flames on landing in the province of Central Java, killing 21 people. </div>
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Authorities have sought to tighten regulations on the aviation sector since the darkest days of 2007, but have conceded the fact AirAsia was flying on an unscheduled day showed more needed to be done. AirAsia Indonesia has declined to comment on allegations it violated its permits. </div>
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Singapore authorities say the Sunday flight schedule had been cleared at their end. The airline is a joint venture involving Malaysia-based budget carrier AirAsia, which previously had a solid safety record.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0