One "damaged" recorder found in debris field where Germanwings airliner went down on Tuesday, killing all 150 on board.
Helicopter operations have resumed over mountainsides in the French
Alps where a German airliner crashed, killing all 150 people on board.
Under overcast skies, with temperatures just above freezing,
helicopters resumed flights on Wednesday over a widely scattered debris
field.
The Airbus A320 operated by Germanwings, a budget subsidiary of
Lufthansa, was less than an hour from landing in Dusseldorf on a flight
from Barcelona on Tuesday when it unexpectedly went into a rapid
descent.
One of the plane's "black box" recorders has been found, but it was
unclear whether it was the flight data recorder or the cockpit voice
recorder.
A source close to the inquiry on the disaster told AFP news agency
the device was "damaged" and was being sent to Paris for investigation.
Investigators will continue searching for the second recorder on Wednesday.
More than 300 policemen and 380 firefighters have been mobilised.
A squad of 30 mountain rescue police resumed attempts to reach the
crash site by helicopter at dawn on Wednesday, while a further 65 police
were seeking access on foot. Remote crash site
Five investigators spent the night at the crash site.
It would take "at least a week" to search the remote site,
Lieutenant-Colonel Jean-Marc Menichini said, and "at least several days"
to repatriate the bodies.
Video images from a government helicopter on Tuesday showed a
desolate, snow-flecked landscape, with steep ravines covered in scree.
Debris was strewn across the mountainside.
The plane was "totally destroyed", a local MP who flew over the site said, describing the scene as "horrendous".
A crisis cell has been set up in the area between Barcelonnette and
Digne-les-Bains along with an emergency flight control centre to
coordinate chopper flights to the crash site.
French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel
and Mariano Rajoy, Spain's prime minister, were expected to reach the
scene around 2pm local time (13:00 GMT).
The 144 passengers were mainly German and Spanish. At least three of
victims were from the UK, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said. Honouring ceremony
The high school in the small German town of Haltern attended by the
16 students on the plane was set to hold an event Wednesday to honour
the victims.
Spain, meanwhile, has declared three days of mourning and was to hold
a minute of silence across the country at noon on Wednesday.
Germanwings
said the aircraft, travelling from Barcelona to Dusseldorf, lost height
for eight minutes before crashing near the ski resort of Barcelonnette.
The rapid descent was "unexplained", Brice Robin, Marseilles prosecutor, said.
The pilots did not send out a distress call and had lost radio
contact with their control centre, France's aviation authority said.
Weather did not appear to be a factor in the crash, with conditions calm at the time, French weather officials said.
Lufthansa, the parent company of Germanwings, said it was working on the assumption the crash was an "accident".
"Anything else would be speculation," Heike Birlenbach, Lufthansa vice president, said from Barcelona.
She said the 24-year-old Airbus aircraft had undergone its last routine check on Monday.
Thomas Winkelmann, Germanwings executive, said the pilot had "more
than 10 years of experience" and about 6,000 flying hours on an Airbus
jet under his belt.
It was the first fatal accident in the history of Germanwings, and
the deadliest on the French mainland since 1974 when a Turkish Airlines
jet crashed, killing 346 people.
Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin says co-pilot was alone at controls of Germanwings flight and crashed plane on purpose.
The co-pilot of a
Germanwings flight that slammed into an Alpine mountainside
"intentionally" sent the plane into its doomed descent, a French
prosecutor said.
Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin said on Thursday that the commander
left the cockpit, presumably to go to the lavatory, and then was unable
to regain access.
In the meantime, he said, co-pilot Andreas Lubitz manually and
"intentionally" set the plane on the descent that drove it into the
mountainside in the southern French Alps.
It was the co-pilot's "intention to destroy this plane," Robin said.
The information was pulled from the black box cockpit voice recorder,
but Robin said the co-pilot did not say a word after the commanding
pilot left the cockpit.
"It was absolute silence in the cockpit," he said.
During the final minutes of the flight's descent, pounding could be heard on the door as alarms sounded, he said.
In the German town of Montabaur, acquaintances said Lubitz was in his
late twenties and showed no signs of depression when they saw him last
fall as he renewed his glider pilot's license.
"He was happy he had the job with Germanwings and he was doing well,"
said a member of the glider club, Peter Ruecker, who watched him learn
to fly. "He gave off a good feeling."
Lubitz had obtained his glider pilot's license as a teenager, and was
accepted as a Lufthansa pilot trainee after finishing a tough German
college preparatory school, Ruecker said. He described Lubitz as a
"rather quiet" but friendly young man.
The Airbus A320, on a flight from Barcelona to Duesseldorf, began to
descend from cruising altitude after losing radio contact with ground
control and slammed into the remote mountain on Tuesday morning, killing
all 150 people on board.
Lufthansa has yet to officially identify the pilots but said the
co-pilot joined Germanwings in September 2013, directly after training,
and had flown 630 hours.
The captain had more than 6,000 hours of flying time and been a
Germanwings pilot since May 2014, having previously flown for Lufthansa
and Condor, Lufthansa said.
Saudi airstrikes on Shia rebels in Yemen have triggered a furious
reaction from regional rival Iran, with top officials warning that
military action could spill into other countries.
Saudi Arabia on Wednesday said that a coalition consisting of 10
countries, including members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), had
begun airstrikes at 2am local time on Thursday, targeting Houthi
positions in the capital, Sanaa.
The Houthi-run health ministry in Sanaa said that at least 18
civilians were killed and 24 others were wounded in the Saudi-led
attacks on the capital.
The bombing of the Houthis, who are said to be backed by Iran, a
charge Tehran denies, came after several weeks of warnings that Yemen
was descending into civil war.
Saudi Arabia said it had launched the bombing raids to reinstate what
it called the legitimate government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour
Hadi, who has been holed up in the main southern city of Aden since
fleeing rebel-controlled Sanaa.
The Houthis and their allies within the armed forces had been closing in on Hadi's last bastion Aden.
Houthi TV aired pictures showing the aftermath of the Saudi-led airstrikes in Sanaa.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the air strikes would lead only to greater loss of life.
"Military action from outside of Yemen against its territorial
integrity and its people will have no other result than more bloodshed
and more deaths," he told the Iranian-owned Al-Alam television channel.
"We have always warned countries from the region and the West to be
careful and not enter shortsighted games and not go in the same
direction as al-Qaeda and Daesh," he added, using the Arabic acronym for
the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.
The comments from Zarif, who is in the Swiss city Lausanne for talks
with US Secretary of State John Kerry on Iran's contested nuclear
programme, echoed condemnation of the Saudi-led strikes by officials in
Tehran.
Speaking to Al Jazeera from Sanaa, Houthi spokesman Mohammed Al
Bukhaiti called the military action a declaration of war on Yemen,
adding that reports alleging a Houthi leader, Mohamed Ali Al Houthi, had
been injured were false. Sanaa targeted
Huge explosions were heard in Sanaa as strikes hit an airbase at the
capital's airport and other locations in the city, an AFP correspondent
reported.
Strikes were also reported on targets in the Malaheez and Hafr Sufyan
regions of Saada province, a main Houthi stronghold on the border with
Saudi Arabia.
Citing Saudi military sources, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV channel
reported that 100 Saudi warplanes were involved in the operation, dubbed
'Decisive Storm'.
The United Arab Emirates is participating with 30 jets, Bahrain with
eight, Morocco and Jordan both with six. Sudan reportedly offered three
war planes to assist the operation, Al Arabiya reported.
Jordan confirmed to Al Jazeera that it was participating in the offensive.
An Egyptian official told the AFP news agency that Egypt would also
take part. Saudi Arabia said that another four Muslim countries
including Pakistan wanted to participate in the Saudi-led military
coalition.
Kuwait's defence ministry announced it was sending three squadrons of
its F-18 Super Hornet aircraft to Saudi's King Abdulaziz airbase in
Dhahran to take part in the offensive.
Four Egyptian warships also entered the Suez Canal on Thursday en
route to the Gulf of Aden after Cairo pledged military support for the
campaign, canal officials said.
The officials said the ships will take part in operations "to secure"
the strategic waters that control southern access to the Suez Canal.
Pakistan, which has longstanding ties to Saudi Arabia, was examining a
request from Riyadh to join the coalition, Islamabad said.
"I can confirm we have been contacted by Saudi Arabia in this regard.
The matter is being examined," foreign office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam
said.
On the night of May 1,
2011, US special forces launched a raid deep into Pakistani territory to
capture or kill al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. On President Barack
Obama’s orders, US soldiers flew via helicopter to the Pakistani army
garrison town of Abbottabad, where their intelligence indicated he was
hiding out. In the process of raiding the compound, Bin Laden and four
others were killed. Several people were wounded.
Pakistan’s military and political leaders were furious at the
unilateral action by the United States, and set up a Commission to
examine both "how the US was able to execute a hostile military mission
which lasted around three hours deep inside Pakistan", and how
Pakistan’s "intelligence establishment apparently had no idea that an
international fugitive of the renown or notoriety of [Osama bin Laden]
was residing in [Abbottabad]".
In an Al Jazeera exclusive, the results of the Abbottabad Commission are now being made public.
The
Commission’s 336-page report is scathing, holding both politicians and
the military responsible for "gross incompetence", leading to
"collective failures" that allowed Bin Laden to escape detection, and
the United States to perpetrate "an act of war".
Join us as we examine and debate the contents of the report, with
insight and analysis from government officials and experts from both
Pakistan and the United States.
Israel is to hold a snap election on March 17 following a crisis within Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition government.
Wednesday's announcement of the election date came a day after
Israel's prime minister dismissed two senior cabinet ministers from his
divided government.
"After consultations between different parties, it has been decided
to hold elections on March 17," Eran Sidis, parliamentary spokesperson,
said, adding that the procedure to adopt a law to dissolve parliament
would begin on Wednesday.
We are sad to see that the prime minister has chosen to act without
consideration for the national interest and to drag Israel to
unnecessary elections.
Yair Lapid, dismissed minister
Netanyahu ordered the dismissals of Yair Lapid, finance minister, and Tzipi Livni, justice minister, on Tuesday.
"I will not tolerate any opposition in my government," a statement from Netanyahu's office quoted him as saying.
It said he would call for dissolving the parliament as soon as
possible and seek a "clear mandate" from the public to lead the nation.
In Brussels, John Kerry, US secretary of state, declined to comment on the "internal politics" of Israel.
"But obviously, we hope that whatever government is formed - or
whether there are elections, that those elections will produce - the
possibility of a government that can negotiate and move towards
resolving the differences between Israelis and Palestinians," he said.
The current government took office in early 2013 and has been riven by divisions.
It has been divided over key issues in recent weeks, and Lapid and Livni have emerged as fierce critics of Netanyahu.
"The firing of ministers is an act of cowardice and loss of control,'' Lapid said after his dismissal.
"We
are sad to see that the prime minister has chosen to act without
consideration for the national interest and to drag Israel to
unnecessary elections.'' Split coalition
Addressing a news conference after Tuesday's dismissals, Netanyahu
said it was impossible to lead the country the a government that was not
functioning properly, an apparent reference to Lapid and Livni, who
have criticised his policies.
Netanyahu's coalition, dominated by the right wing, is split on a
range of issues, including the 2015 budget, high living costs, policy
towards the Palestinians and a Jewish nation-state bill.
Livni had been the most outspoken opponent of the Jewish state bill,
which has been widely criticised internationally and domestically as
discriminating against Israeli-Palestinian citizens.
Inside Story - Jewish State vs Democracy?
If early elections are held, Israeli media say the most likely date is March.
Two television polls on Tuesday said Netanyahu's rightist Likud party
would emerge once again as the largest group in parliament if elections
were held today, almost certainly ensuring him a fourth term as prime
minister.
"Even though his popularity has gone down over the 50- day Gaza war,
he's still the favourite to win an election," Al Jazeera's Andrew
Simmons, reporting from Jerusalem, said.
"What we are seeing now is him asserting himself and using the term
'opposition within the cabinet'. He says a day does not go by without
his policies being challenged by his fellow coalition members."
The government waged a fierce war against Hamas fighters in the
Gaza Strip over the summer. Negotiations to reach peace with the
Palestinians ended in failure last spring.
In the occupied West Bank, Riad Malki, Palestinian foreign
minister, said opinion polls indicate the next Israeli government may be
"more right-wing and extreme".
He said this could bolster international support for the Palestinian cause.
The Central Asian state
of Kazakhstan is one of the most polluted nations in the world, much of
it a toxic consequence of years of decrepit Soviet-era heavy industry.
But have the more recent actions of a British-owned mining and minerals company made things worse?
People in Shymkent, a city in the south of the country, certainly seem to think so. People & Power sent filmmakers Richard Pendry and Robin Forestier-Walker to find out why. FILMMAKER'S VIEW
By Robin Forestier-Walker
Shymkent is a drab and largely unremarkable town, except for one
thing – its highly polluted environment. The dust blowing through its
streets and the soil beneath the feet of its inhabitants contain such
high concentrations of lead and other toxic elements - cadmium, antimony
and arsenic - that they would surely generate a major scare if detected
anywhere else.
Here they just cause endemic health problems that the local people
are forced to live with. Take lead poisoning, for example, the most
obvious ill effect. It is simply rife here – particularly among young
children.
The culprit: a decrepit lead smelting plant right in the heart of the
city. Built in the 1930s at the height of Soviet industrialisation, it
went on to play a crucial role in the USSR’s fight against Nazi Germany –
making most of the tens of millions of bullets fired by the Red Army
during World War II. But while the factory was celebrated in propaganda
films during and after the war as a paradigm of socialist achievement,
little was ever said about its truly appalling environmental record, not
even when Kazakhstan achieved independence in 1991.
Financial pressures forced the smelter's closure in 2008. It was the
city’s major employer and key to the local economy. When it shut, many
locals mourned the loss of their jobs. But few regretted the passing of
the dreadful particle-filled black smog that used to belch out of its
crumbling chimneys and waste pipes.
However, as some soon discovered, the plant's toxic legacy remained.
Jeff Temple is a British chemical engineer who settled in the area
some years ago. In 2008, a few months after the smelter’s closure, he
volunteered to help build a children’s playground at a site about a
kilometre away from the plant. To be on the safe side, he first decided
to take some soil samples from the plot and get them analysed. The
results, he told us, were deeply shocking.
"We had poisons almost that you could mine for. Lead was about 60
times the legal limit; cadmium 40 times and arsenic was 50 times the
legal limit of Kazakhstan," he said.
What Jeff had discovered on his own initiative, others were finding
out more officially: a 2012 study by the International Turkish Kazakh
University revealed that 52 percent of the local children it tested had
lead levels far in excess of national (let alone international)
permissible levels. And according to further research by the
International Task-force for Children's Environmental Health, as many as
100,000 young people in Shymkent may have been adversely affected by
lead pollution. Lead poisoning
There is no acceptable level for lead in the body, according to the
World Health Organisation. The heavy metal poisons all developing organs
including the brain. Among children especially, it arrests intellectual
development, stunts physical growth and affects behaviour. At higher
levels it can kill.
Imagine the consternation then, in 2010, when local families switched
on their TV sets and learned that the dilapidated plant was to re-open.
A company called Kazakhmys, the country's largest copper producer,
which is also listed on the London FTSE 250 stock index (formerly it was
among the FTSE 100), announced at a ceremony in Shymkent to mark the
start of the project that it would be running the operation.
The decision was taken that Kazakhmys will itself take on the
operational and financial management of the lead smelter in order to
avoid losses and make the maximum possible profit, Kazakhmys executive
director of metallurgy, Yerzhan Ospanov, told a local TV crew.
Although the regional authorities were presumably happy about the
work this would bring to Shymkent, there were some concerns about the
wisdom of this decision. During the same televised opening ceremony, the
local governor asked Kazakhmys' executives what they were going to do
about the plant’s environmental problems. On camera, Eduard Ogay, the
CEO of Kazakhmys Copper, replied that they would "work on" the
environmental hazards. But then he seemed to row back from that
commitment when he said it would be expensive.
It was a real smog ... Black smoke. I didn’t understand. My throat
started to sting. I quickly went home and closed all the windows.
Local resident
Either way, nothing seems to have been done by Kazakhmys. Despite the
smelter’s appalling track record as a major cause of health-threatening
pollution, no advance environmental assessment of the consequences of
re-opening was carried out – even though under both UK and Kazakhstan
law this was a crucial legal requirement. Nor, it seems, was anything
done to alleviate the pre-existing problems. Retrofitting new filters to
the plant could have massively reduced emissions. But that never
happened. Instead, from 2010 until 2012, the plant worked on meeting the
Kazakhmys order – regardless of the fact that the local sanitation
department, responsible for environmental matters, had refused to give
it permission to operate.
Before too long, local people were once again feeling the effects of
the smelter’s pollution. "It was a real smog,” said one resident after
an especially bad day. "Black smoke. I didn’t understand. My throat
started to sting. I quickly went home and closed all the windows.”
We asked the company to explain the lack of an environmental
assessment and what, if anything, its shareholders (which include a
number of major UK pension funds) knew about its involvement with the
smelter? Why did the plant continue to operate without a licence from
the sanitation department? In light of the plant's well-known track
record as a source of health damaging emissions and pollutants, we also
wanted to know whether Kazakhmys' shareholders were ever warned of any
potential liabilities that might arise from processing its waste there.
It seemed important to ask these and other questions because when we
started looking at the circumstances surrounding Kazakhmys’ involvement
with the Shymkent smelter, we found that connections between the two
actually seemed to stem back to 2007, when the plant had previously been
open. Kazakhmys’ own public documents stated the firm was sending toxic
dust from its copper smelting operations. Managers later claimed in
local media interviews that the aim was to recover lead and precious
metals such as rhenium and gold.
Yet in 2011 Vladimir Kim, the President of Kazakhmys Corporation and
the company's top shareholder, said in public: "The only connection
between Kazakhmys and this plant [is] that we are delivering lead dust
... That plant should be closed."
This struck us as curious because of that very unequivocal statement
made on local TV back in 2010 when the plant re-opened – when Ospanov
said that "Kazakhmys will itself take on the operational and financial
management of the lead smelter in order to avoid losses and make the
maximum possible profit". Contradictory statements
So which was correct? What lay behind these contradictory announcements?
The company declined to answer most of our questions and refused to
grant us an interview. It would only give us a brief statement.
It said: "Kazakhmys has never owned or operated the plant, but we
have supplied material to it for relatively brief periods. The supply
was partly at government request in order support employment. We have
not sent any material there since mid-2012 and we believe the plant has
now closed."
The company claims that the plant had actually been run by a
completely separate and unconnected Kazakhstan company called A Mega
Trading.
Yet when our investigations took us to A Mega Trading’s offices in
Almaty, Kazakhstan commercial capital, we found that links do appear to
exist. We discovered, for example, that a Mr Vladimir Jumanbayev, the
commercial director of Kazakhmys PLC, owns a company called Vertex - and
interestingly, A Mega Trading's offices are in the same building as
those of Vertex offices, as are the offices of various Kazakhmys
internal departments.
We found out that A Mega Trading's 'financial supervisor' had
previously worked for the aforesaid Mr Jumanbayev at Vertex. We also
discovered that A Mega Trading's manager at the smelter was a senior
Kazakhmys engineer, and that its deputy director was the brother of
Ospanov.
Mere coincidences? Perhaps, but it seems unlikely. Nonetheless, the
company was unwilling to explain what lay behind these connections.
Instead it continued to maintain that it had had no role in the lead
smelter’s financing and operation.
The Shymkent plant did eventually close in late 2012, and the people
of the city may have been saved from more lead poisoning, although the
legacy of pollution remains and it could continue to harm the local
children for years to come.
Residents are understandably concerned that those problems might have
been exacerbated when the plant spluttered back into life for Kazakhmys
in 2010 – especially if little heed was paid to environmental problems.
They want to know who profited, who was responsible and what
compensation may be due. International human rights organisations such
as Global Witness have also taken up their cause and are calling for the
City of London’s financial regulators to investigate.
As our film makes clear, there can be serious consequences for
directors of UK-listed companies that fail to take account of the
environmental impact of their operations and which fail to disclose
earnings and potential liabilities to shareholders. In some cases such
failures can lead to criminal charges and even prison sentences. Whether
or not any such penalties can be applied in relation to the Shymkent
lead smelter may now be up to the UK authorities to decide.
Super foods, fried foods and transfats, what
you are and aren't meant to eat is harder to keep track of than getting a
daily workout. Here are body+soul's top tips for avoiding the five most
common diet traps.
Are you guilty of these common food mistakes? Fortunately, they're mistakes easily fixed.
1. Eating too light a breakfast
While eating breakfast is a good thing nutritionally, the wrong
balance of nutrients can leave you prone to overeating later in the day
or cause excessive hunger midmorning.
Why does it happen? Popular breakfast cereals and plain toast with
spread are quick but carbohydrate-heavy breakfast options. Ideally we
need to add protein and use low-GI breads and breakfast cereals for
sustained fullness throughout the morning. Solution: Add an egg, baked beans or cheese to your
toast in the morning or add some protein powder to your milk to increase
the protein content of your breakfast.
2. Not enough vegetables at lunchtime
Salads and vegetables are packed with water and dietary fibre, which help to bulk up your diet and keep you full.
Why does this happen? Plain sandwiches, sushi and soups tend to be
light in protein and vegetables, leaving you looking for something extra
after you have finished your lunch. Solution: Always carry a carrot, celery or capsicum
with you to snack on with lunch, or make an effort to order extra sides
when eating out to make sure you get at least one cup of salad or
vegetables with your meal.
3. Too much coffee
In controlled amounts, coffee has few side effects and may even
have some health benefits, but consumed at the wrong time, with too much
milk and sugar, coffee can become excessive kilojoules we do not need.
Why does this happen? Drinking coffee with colleagues is an enjoyable
pastime at work; a coffee break helps to break up the day and appears
to be a relatively harmless habit. The issue is that milk-based coffees
sipped over a number of hours are interpreted by the body as constant
eating, which can disrupt the body's natural hunger and fullness signals
and lead to weight gain. Solution: Aim for just one or two milk-based coffees
a day, and try and drink them with meals. Stick to plain black coffee
or green tea in between.
4. Eating dinner too late
It is common for families to eat at 9pm or even 10pm but the body
should have 10 to 12 hours without food overnight for body-weight
regulation and appetite control.
Why does it happen? Busy lifestyles and long commutes are just two of
the reasons we are getting home and eating our meals much later than we
did 20 years ago. Solution: Eat your larger meal at lunchtime and stick to soups and salads if you find yourself eating after 8pm.
5. Eating too quickly
Long gone are the days when a leisurely meal was enjoyed over an
hour or more each evening. Unfortunately, eating fast also appears to
lead to over-consumption as it takes time for the body to register it is
full.
Why does it happen? Too many commitments and overwhelming schedules
have meant that eating meals can become just another thing on the to-do
list. Solution: Aim to spend at least 20 minutes sitting
down to enjoy your meal. Practise putting your knife and fork down in
between each mouthful and chewing each mouthful 20 times. Studies have
shown you can eat up to 500 kilojoules less per meal simply by slowing
down.
Food tip
You've arrived home late and need a quick, easy meal.
Unfortunately, many quick options, including frozen meals, noodles and
pasta dishes, are not the best choices. Instead, try to base quick meals
around vegetables and lean protein to keep fuel intake lower at night.
Good options include a barbecue and salad, potatoes stuffed with tuna,
omelette and crumbed fish with frozen vegies.
It is almost four years since the Syrian uprising began amid the
optimism of the Arab Spring. It has degenerated into a savage civil war
that has killed over 200,000 people and shattered the lives of millions
more.
It has also seen thousands of young Muslims from Europe, Australia
and elsewhere travelling to Syria to fight - many joining competing
groups such as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and
Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda's Syrian arm, which, as well as seeking the
overthrow of the Assad regime in Damascus, are locked in their own
intense battle for the hearts and minds of the local population.
For this exclusive People & Power report, Danish
filmmaker Nagieb Khaja went to Syria to speak to Western fighters and to
one of Jabhat al-Nusra's senior figures - the Australian / Egyptian
cleric, Abu Sulayman Muhajir. In this remarkable film, made possible
through long and patient negotiation for access, Nagieb finds out why
young foreign Muslims are being drawn to the conflict in Syria, explores
the reasons behind Jabhat al-Nusra's fierce rivalry with ISIL and
examines the implications of these developments for global security.
FILMMAKER'S VIEW
By Nagieb Khaja
In May 2014, I met a group of foreign fighters in northern Syria who
introduced me to members of Jabhat al-Nusra, the local al-Qaeda
franchise. I immediately began to negotiate access to film with them.
Nusra is one of the most powerful, and certainly the most secretive
rebel group in Syria. It shares its roots with ISIL.
Key members of both groups fought in the brutal Iraqi insurgency of
the 2000's, and ISIL and Nusra were initially close allies, fighting
under the al-Qaeda banner. But then in mid-2013, a violent conflict over
territory and ideology erupted between the two groups. This local
dispute has huge implications for global security, with different
jihadist groups around the world pledging allegiance either to al-Qaeda
or ISIL. The footage I shot with Nusra provides a fascinating insight
into al-Qaeda's vision for the future of Syria, and its strategy for
beating ISIL in the battle for hearts and minds in the region and
beyond.
ISIL's spectacular military victories and its declaration of a
caliphate drew thousands of defectors from other groups. But while the
media has focused on the territory ISIL holds in the east, al-Nusra and
its allies have quietly been building their own Islamic State in
northwest Syria.
Negotiations to film took several months, but finally, the group's
leader, Abu Muhammed al-Jowlani, sanctioned an interview with one of
their senior officials, Abu Sulayman Muhajir. An Australian of Egytian
descent, he is a high-ranking member of Nusra's Sharia council, and
served as a mediator between al-Qaeda and ISIL when the two groups
split. He eventually sided with Nusra - releasing videos on jihadi
internet forums in which he publicly accuses ISIL leader, Abu Bakr
al-Baghdadi, of breaking a sacred oath to al-Qaeda's head, Ayman
al-Zawahiri.
Abu Sulayman Muhajir sided with Jabhat al-Nusra when ISIL and Nusra fell through [Al Jazeera]
Some analysts believe that Jabhat al-Nusra and ISIL are essentially
the same, but my experience on the ground, and my conversations with
Nusra members, from foot-soldiers to those in leadership positions,
convinced me that there are profound differences between them. Both ISIL
and Nusra subscribe to a fundamental version of Islamic law, but it is
in the interpretation and implementation that they vary.
Abu Sulayman told me that contrary to ISIL, which has declared itself
the only legitimate Islamic authority, Nusra sees itself as part of a
wider movement that works with other Islamic groups. He said that Nusra
regard ISIL as a criminal group that has gone astray from Islamic law,
and that they would only reconcile with them if they repented and
accepted judgement in an independent Islamic court. For example, Abu
Sulayman criticises ISIL's killing of western aid workers, calling such
acts crimes under Sharia.
Nusra is fighting the Assad regime in Syria, but at the same time Abu
Sulayman told me that they are fighting for an Islamic revival in the
Middle East, with the ultimate goal of establishing their own caliphate.
And as a branch of al-Qaeda, he confirmed that they see the US and its
allies' meddling in the Muslim world as an obstacle to their goals, and
are therefore a part of the wider conflict with the West. "Their choice
is simple," he told me. "Leave our lands, stop interfering in our
affairs or face perpetual war."
Twenty-two year-old Amer travelled secretly from
Brighton, in England, to Syria in 2013. His brother was killed by a US
bombing [Al Jazeera]
When the US began targeting ISIL with airstrikes in September 2014
they also hit Nusra units. The US denied attacking Jabhat al-Nusra,
however, claiming they had only hit the so-called Khorasan Group - an
al-Qaeda cell which the White House alleged was dedicated to planning
attacks on US soil. Abu Sulayman refused to comment on this, however,
citing security reasons.
Whatever the truth about the Khorasan Group, immediately after the
strikes, Nusra moved against the US' last remaining allies in region -
two relatively secular rebel groups which the US has armed and trained,
the Syrian Revolutionary Front and Harakat Hazm. The Syrian
Revolutionary Front was quickly defeated and expelled from Syria, and
just a few days ago Nusra declared victory over Harakat Hazm, taking
over their territory and seizing their US supplied weapons.
It is yet another setback for US strategy in the region. Nusra have
further consolidated their hold over northwest Syria, and plan to be
there for the longterm.
As the new year gets underway, make sure you don't slip back into the same bad food habits
As life gets back into full swing after the holiday period it can be easy to slip back into old patterns. The start of a new year
is a perfect time to identify key dietary behaviours that may be
preventing you from reaching your goal weight. Get these habits right,
and you will be well on your way to maintaining a healthy body weight.
Always eat breakfast
Studies show that individuals who eat a substantial breakfast lose more weight than those who have a small breakfast. Choose eggs or baked beans on wholegrain bread, or muesli with fruit and yoghurt.
Eat your fruit and veg
Aim for three cups of vegetables
and two fruits each day. Fill half your plate with vegies at lunch and
dinner, and add fruit to your breakfast and for a snack on the way home
from work.
Take time to shop each week
If the food is not in the house, how can you eat well? Schedule in time to shop each week or shop online.
Walk for 10,000 steps or exercise for an hour each day
A pedometer is extremely useful in providing feedback on how many steps you are racking up each and every day.
Sit down at the table to eat
Not only do you eat more slowly and often less food, but you'll enjoy the social experience of dining.
Always carry a protein-rich snack with you
This way you'll avoid eating high-fat food on the
run. Great options to keep handy include nut- or protein-based snack
bars, hard fruit such as an apple or a few wholegrain rice.
Have a green tea after meals
Green tea is high in antioxidants and can help increase metabolic rate.
Always carry a water bottle
Drink at least two bottles of water a day instead of juice, cordial or soft drinks.
Choose wholegrain, low-GI bread and breakfast cereal
Aim for the best-quality breads, crackers and breakfast cereals, as these are foods we eat every day.
Always eat carbohydrates and proteins together
Try eggs on grain toast, yogurt and fruit, crackers and cheese and wholegrain bread with tuna or chicken.
The
war in Syria has plunged 80 percent of its people into poverty, reduced
life expectancy by 20 years and led to massive economic losses
estimated at over $200 billion since the conflict began in 2010,
according to a UN-backed report circulated Wednesday.
The Syrian Center for Policy Research
painted a devastating picture of the "systematic collapse and
destruction" of Syria's economic foundations in the report, saying the
nation's wealth, infrastructure, institutions and much of its workforce
have been "obliterated”.
Almost three million Syrians lost their jobs
during the conflict, which meant that more than 12 million people lost
their primary source of income, it said, and unemployment surged from
14.9 percent in 2011 to 57.7 percent at the end of 2014.
"As huge swatches of the community have lost
the opportunity to work and earn an income, just over 4 in 5 Syrians
now live in poverty," the report said. "As it has become a country of
poor people, 30 percent of the population have descended into abject
poverty where households struggle to meet the basic food needs to
sustain bare life."
The report said the four-year-old conflict
coupled with the country's economic disintegration and social
fragmentation have resulted in a 15 percent drop in Syria's population -
from 20.87 million in 2010 to just 17.65 million at the end of last
year.
Syria now has the second-largest refugee
population in the world after the Palestinians, with 3.33 million people
fleeing to other countries, it said. In addition, 1.55 million Syrians
left the country to find work and a safer life elsewhere while 6.8
million fled their homes but remain in Syria, it said.
The report, supported by the UN Development
Program and the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said that as Syria's
economy continues to deteriorate, total GDP loss is estimated at
$119.7b - accounting for 59 percent of the overall economic loss of
$202.6b by the end of 2014.
As violence intensified, it said, the number
of deaths in the conflicts rose dramatically to 210,000. Together with
the 840,000 wounded, this represented 6 percent of Syria's population
killed or injured during the conflict, it said.
"Equally horrendous is the silent disaster
that has reduced life expectancy at birth from 75.9 years in 2010 to an
estimated 55.7 years at the end of 2014, reducing longevity and life
expectancy by 27 percent," the report said.
It said education is also "in a state of collapse" with 50.8
percent of school-age children no longer attending school during
2014-2015 and almost half losing three years of schooling.
Immigration policy – and in particular what to do about the 11 million people in the U.S. illegally – is the new litmus test for the GOP. The arguments over “amnesty” and border security are stale, but the passions are not.
Scott Walker is only the latest candidate to stumble over the immigration tripwire. Though previously supportive of providing a path to citizenship for undocumented residents, now the Wisconsin governor is talking up border security. Advice to candidates: maybe it’s time for some new policy ideas, like demanding an end to our so-called “birthright citizenship.”
Among developed nations, only the U.S. and Canada still offer automatic citizenship to children born on their soil. Not a single European country follows the practice. We take this right for granted, but the evidence is that this entitlement encourages a booming birth tourism business (which undermines our immigration objectives) and virtually guarantees that the number of people in the country illegally will continue to grow.
Federal agents recently raided 37 sites in southern California, which appear to have provided thousands of Chinese women the chance to give birth to babies on U.S. soil in exchange for fees of up to $60,000. Enticements included not only the opportunity to acquire automatic citizenship for their children – a package of free schooling, food, health and retirement benefits potentially worth millions of dollars – but also more mundane attractions like nannies, trips to Disneyland and fancy restaurants.
The New York Times notes that affidavits filed by law enforcement authorities “quote Chinese government sources as reporting that Chinese nationals had 10,000 babies in the United States in 2012, up from 4,200 in 2008.”
For prosperous Chinese or residents of unstable countries like Russia, an American passport represents an invaluable safety net. Some estimate that as many as 40,000 children from all over the world are born under such circumstances in the U.S. each year. Over time, with family members climbing aboard, the total allowed into the country multiples.
Once those babies turn 21, and if they are in the country, they can sponsor other family members to enter the U.S. Under our law, which promotes family unification, parents, siblings and minor children of a U.S. citizen are welcome. According to a report from John Feere of the Center for Immigration Studies, admitting family members account for most of the nation’s growth in immigration levels. Of the 1,130,818 immigrants who were granted legal permanent residency in 2009, a total of 747,413 (or, 66 percent) were family-sponsored immigrants.
The commercial exploitation of our laws is repugnant and should be targeted. But the entire notion that any baby born on U.S. soil should become a citizen should be challenged as well. The lure of U.S. citizenship is incalculable, and has long encouraged illegal immigration. In a phone interview, Feere estimates that some 300,000 to 400,000 babies are born each year to people living in the country illegally. Pew puts the figure at 340,000. This obviously causes substantial growth in the undocumented population, which most would like to limit.
Critics of the “amnesty” being offered to millions of undocumented persons by President Obama say that the offer will only encourage more illegal entrants – and entice even more families to have babies in the U.S. Obama’s plan provides protection against deportation for three years, and singles out the undocumented parents of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents who have lived in the country for at least five years.
Some 4 to 5 million immigrants fall under that umbrella, people who had children once inside the country -- children who automatically became U.S. citizens. Advocates of immigration reform need to convince opponents that they will reduce the number of undocumented persons entering the country. While many preach border security, it would be more powerful to make illegal residency less attractive. Revoking the birthright citizenship would be a good start.
Immigration advocates argue that automatic citizenship is protected by the 14th amendment of the Constitution, which states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.” Others say the history of that amendment suggests otherwise; the debate hasn’t stopped legislators from attempting to limit the practice.
The first such attempt was in 1993, at the hands of none other than immigrant advocate Harry Reid, whose bill would have restricted automatic citizenship to the children of U.S. citizens and legal resident aliens. Today, Louisiana Senator David Vitter is set to propose an amendment restricting the automatic citizenship provision to babies born to a U.S. citizen or a person who is a permanent resident or serving in the military. This would seem a reasonable change in the current law.
Like so many policy debates, the issue of birthright citizenship may eventually land in the lap of the Supreme Court. Feere says that while there have been rulings that grant citizenship to the children of permanent resident aliens, there has been no decision on the children of temporary aliens – such as people visiting legally on a student visa – or on babies born to illegal immigrants.
Astonishingly, the government, which Feere describes as being on “automatic pilot” on this issue, even gives passports to children born to foreign diplomats here – clearly people not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the U.S. When he followed up with the Social Security Administration on this question, he was told they knew the practice was inappropriate, but were not sure how to monitor it. Sigh.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- A flight attendant who says she was living her dream by working for Korean Air is now suing the airline and its infamous nut rage executive, claiming the bizarre onboard tantrum ruined her career.
Kim Do Hee, the flight attendant, is seeking compensation through a trial in New York city after she was verbally and physically attacked by Korean Air heiress Cho Hyun-ah, according to a statement on Wednesday by two American law firms, the Weinstein Law Firm and Kobre & Kim.
Cho, a vice president overseeing cabin service at the time of the Dec. 5 incident, was enraged that Kim, 27, served her macadamia nuts in a bag, not on a dish.
After a heated confrontation with crew in the first class cabin, Cho ordered head flight attendant Park Chang-jin off the plane, forcing it to return to a gate at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
It is the first civil lawsuit connected with the nut rage case, which infuriated South Koreans and hogged global headlines. Last month a South Korean court sentenced Cho, 40, to one year in prison for violating aviation security laws, using violence against a flight attendant and other charges. Cho, who is the daughter of Korean Air's chairman, has appealed the ruling from prison.
The summons filed Monday with the Supreme Court of the State of New York County of Queens said Cho screamed obscenities at Kim and hit and threatened her.
She was also pressured to lie to government investigators to cover up the incident and to appear in public with Cho "as part of an orchestrated effort to try and rehabilitate Cho's public image," the summons said.
Kim is seeking compensatory damages and punitive damages in an amount to be determined at the trial.
Kim was unable to resolve the dispute privately and both Korean Air and Cho did not engage in "any substantive" settlement discussions with Kim's lawyers, the statement said. Cho will be held responsible for the damage that she has caused to Kim's career, reputation, and emotional well-being, it said.
During Cho's trial in Seoul last month, Kim testified that Cho's power at the airline was "unimaginably big" and she could not refuse her orders.
She also said Korean Air was her dream job since she was a high school student but after false rumors spread on the Internet about her accepting a professorship in exchange for lying to investigators, she could not return to work as a flight attendant.
Both Cho's lawyer and Korean Air Lines Co. did not respond to a request for comment.
French police hunting for armed robbers who stole jewels worth $9.5m from two high-security trucks south of Paris.
More than a dozen armed men stole millions of dollars worth of jewels from two high-security trucks on a motorway south of Paris overnight, a French police official said on Wednesday.
The robbers held up the trucks at a toll payment station in the Yonne area and drove off in four cars.
Local media said the jewels were worth $9.5m and that the gang used gas to force security transport personnel out of their vehicles.
Nobody was injured in the attack and the trucks had been found burnt out, the police official said.
France has seen repeated jewellery thefts. In November, two gunmen robbed a Cartier jewellery boutique in a tourist-filled Paris neighbourhood, fled a police chase across the Seine River, took a hostage and then surrendered.
Last month, eight people were convicted in connection with a spectacular 2008 jewel theft at a Harry Winston boutique in Paris, when three cross-dressing gunmen stole about $92m in goods.
In 2013, southeast France was hit with a spate of jewellery thefts, including two in Cannes during the city's famed film festival. In one, a gunman walked into a jewel show at the Carlton International Hotel, stole $136m in loot, and disappeared down a side street in one of the most lucrative jewellery heists ever.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government is taking the nation's biggest satellite TV provider to court, accusing DirecTV of misleading millions of consumers about the cost of its programming.
The Federal Trade Commission said Wednesday that its complaint charges DirecTV Inc. with deceptively advertising a discounted 12-month programming package. Consumers weren't clearly told that the package requires a two-year contract, the commission said.
The FTC said the advertising also did not make clear that the cost of the package would increase by up to $45 more per month in the second year and that hefty early cancellation fees — up to $480 — would apply.
Phone calls to DirecTV seeking comment were not immediately returned.
In a statement, FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez said DirecTV "sought to lock customers into longer and more expensive contracts and premium packages that were not adequately disclosed. It's a bedrock principle that the key terms of an offer to a consumer must be clear and conspicuous, not hidden in fine print."
California-based DirecTV, which has more than 20 million subscribers, has been in trouble with the FTC before. The company paid a $5.3 million settlement in 2005, and then a $2.3 million settlement in 2009 — both over telemarketing calls to consumers.
The commission's complaint over how DirecTV marketed its programming package to attract new customers was filed in federal court in San Francisco. The FTC is seeking a court order to permanently bar DirecTV from advertising in a misleading way. It also is seeking monetary damages that could be used to provide refunds to consumers who were affected.
The tech giant opened its first ever brick and mortar store in London. The shop will feature Android phones, tablets, and Chromecasts. Google (GOOGL) also plans to hold classes on online security and coding.
Many brick and mortar retailers are struggling, notes Yahoo Finance Columnist Rick Newman.
“Maybe they'll buy all those RadioShack outlets that are going to be empty,” he quips. “The old retailers are going out of business or downsizing their real estate footprint… whereas the digital upstarts are getting into a physical retail. Apple (AAPL) obviously did that with great success, surprised everybody. Amazon (AMZN) has started to open up… storefronts or distribution points. Now Google is doing it.”
Google plans to open two more stores later this year. Newman thinks Google’s physical presence makes sense.
“E-commerce is still only about 7% of all retail sales," he says. "There is some need to be out there were where people actually live and shop. People are going to continue to shop, and you need to get your products in front of them.”
Google is also gearing up to hire a new CFO. The current CFO, Patrick Pichette, announced plans to retire from the company on Tuesday. Pichette is the fourth Google executive to step down in recent months.
Yahoo Finance Senior Columnist Michael Santoli notes that Pichette says he is retiring to spend more time with his family.
“Wall Street is kind of comforted by the fact that maybe he's doing this for personal reasons and not so much because something is wrong with the books at Google.”
Newman is not surprised by Pichette’s move.
“When you work at such a successful company as Google, you can afford to retire early. That seems to be the case here,” he says. “Google's obviously got a deep bench, they can attract some of the best talent in the world if they have to and the company is going to be just fine.”
(YouTube/Rubio's Restaurant) Some of the selections at Rubio's. A regional Mexican-food chain that consumers say tastes better than Chipotle is using the biggest criticism of the established brand to its advantage.
Amid stories about Chipotle's high calorie counts, Rubio's CEO and cofounder, Ralph Rubio, says he's focused on keeping menu items healthy.
"One of the most important changes to our strategy has been adding more healthy options and being conscious of calories and carbs, because that’s what our customers want," Rubio told Nation's Restaurant News.
View gallery
.
(Facebookc/Rubios)
The brand has added seared seafood and lobster to the menu.
The average Chipotle order contained 1,070 calories, more than half the number the typical adult should eat in a day, according to New York Times blog Upshot.
The salt and fat contents are also high.
View gallery
.
(Facebook/Chipotle) Chipotle has faced criticism for selling high calorie and sodium foods.
"Most orders at Chipotle give you a close to a full day's worth of salt (2,400 milligrams) and 75 percent of a full day’s worth of saturated fat," the Upshot writers say.
The writers note that an order of fresh tomato salsa has just 20 calories but more sodium than a small bag of Lay's potato chips.
An example of the average meal was a 1,085-calorie barbacoa burrito with rice, pinto beans, fajita vegetables, roasted chili corn salsa, cheese, and sour cream.
Rubio's, which is inspired by Baja California cuisine, has 190 locations and is predominantly found on the West Coast. Chipotle, in comparison, has nearly 1,700 locations across the US.
Rubio's is best known for its fish tacos, which are hand-battered and covered in fresh salsa and a cabbage slaw. Other popular menu items include tacos, burritos, and enchiladas.
Rubio's also offers churros for dessert.
Like Chipotle, Rubio's emphasizes fresh ingredients that are sustainably sourced.
হট à¦à§Ÿেস
![French prosecutor Brice Robin said German co-pilot Andreas Lubitz manually and "intentionally" crashed the Germanwings plane [Reuters]](http://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdxxlarge/mritems/Images/2015/3/26/b0b5ce149ec74f05b5268c0736b06cc2_18.jpg "Prosecutor says French Alps plane crash 'intentional'")
![The robbers held up the trucks at a toll payment station in the Yonne area before driving off in four cars [AFP]](http://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdxxlarge/mritems/Images/2015/3/11/6d117b110fec4b34afccd0ffe7441e38_18.jpg)
