page 41

page 41 FRANCE EgyptAir crash: Black box signal detected Signals have been detected from one of the black boxes of the EgyptAir plane that crashed last month, French investigators have confirmed. They were picked up by the French vessel Laplace as it was searching the Mediterranean Sea. There were 66 people on board when the […]

page 41

FRANCE

EgyptAir crash: Black box signal detected

Signals have been detected from one of the black boxes of the EgyptAir plane that crashed last month, French investigators have confirmed.

They were picked up by the French vessel Laplace as it was searching the Mediterranean Sea.

There were 66 people on board when the Airbus A320 crashed on 19 May while flying from Paris to Cairo.

“The signal from a beacon from a flight recorder has been detected,” said Remi Jouty of France’s Bureau of Investigations and Analysis.

A priority search area has been established, he added.

Laplace is using acoustic detection systems to listen to the locator “pings” given off by the black boxes underwater.

A specialist vessel carrying robots able to dive to 3,000 metres (3,280 yards) is due to arrive next week.

GUINEA

WHO Declares Guinea Ebola-Free

The World Health Organization Wednesday declared the end of Ebola transmission in Guinea, after the West African country successfully passed 42 days without a confirmed case of this fatal disease.

Guinea was first declared free of Ebola in December. Since then, it has had two flare-ups of the disease. This West African country now has passed two 21-day incubation periods without a single case of Ebola. So the World Health Organization is declaring Guinea free of Ebola transmission for a second time.

WHO spokesman, Christian Lindmeier said what Guinea is experiencing is not unusual. He notes both Liberia and Sierra Leone also have had outbreaks of the disease since having been declared free of Ebola.

SOMALIA

Deadly attack: Gunmen storm Mogadishu hotel after blast

Gunmen have stormed a hotel in the centre of the Somali capital Mogadishu, with reports of at least 10 dead.

They entered the Ambassador Hotel on Maka al-Mukarama street after setting off a car bomb at the gates outside, witnesses said.

Politicians and government officials were believed to be staying in the hotel.

The al-Shabab militant group was quick to say it was behind the attack, which intelligence officials say is now over.

Al-Shabab, which is battling the UN-backed government, was driven from Mogadishu in 2011 but still remains a potent threat and frequently carries out attacks in the city.

IRAQ

Gov’t stalls Falluja assault ‘to protect civilians’

Iraq has delayed its assault on the city of Falluja because of fears for the safety of civilians, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Wednesday, as his forces halted at the city’s edge in the face of ferocious resistance from Islamic State fighters.

Abadi’s decision to halt, two days after elite Iraqi troops poured into the city’s rural southern outskirts, postpones what was expected to be one of the biggest battles ever fought against Islamic State.

The government, backed by world powers including the United States and Iran, has vowed to win back the first major Iraqi city that fell to the group in 2014.

“It would have been possible to end the battle quickly if protecting civilians wasn’t among our priorities,” Abadi told military commanders at the operations room near the frontline in footage broadcast on state television. “Thank God, our units are at the outskirts of Falluja and victory is within reach.”

SYRIA

First aid for Darayya since 2012

The besieged Damascus suburb of Darayya has received its first aid convoy since November 2012, according to the Red Cross.

UN aid officials had said the town was suffering dire shortages of food, clean water and medicine.

A 48-hour ceasefire for the town, which lies south of the Syrian capital, came into force early on Wednesday.

Vaccines, baby milk, medicine and nutritional goods were being delivered, the UN’s humanitarian arm said.

Separately, the rebel-held town of Muadhamiya, north-west of Darayya, received deliveries of food parcels and wheat flour on Wednesday, a month since aid convoys last visited.

KENYA

Garissa university attack plotter dead

The leader of the attack on Garissa University in Kenya has been killed, officials in Somalia say.

Kenya’s government said Mohamed Kuno was behind the attack in April 2015 that killed 148 people.

Regional forces in Somalia said Kuno was one of 16 people killed in a raid overnight in Kismayo, a port city in southern Somalia.

Four of those who died were reportedly senior members of the al-Shabab Islamist militant group.

The news was confirmed in a press conference held by Abdirashid Janan, the security minister in the Somali region of Jubaland, on Wednesday.

After the Garissa attack, Kenya’s government put up a $215,000 (£149,000) reward for Kuno’s capture.

MALI

Four killed in latest attacks on UN in Mali

An al-Qaida group has claimed responsibility for attacks on two U.N. bases in Mali that left four people dead.

One peacekeeper was killed in rocket fire late Tuesday that seriously wounded three other peacekeepers and injured at least 10 civilian U.N. staff, according to a statement from the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali, MINUSMA.

The attack targeted a MINUSMA camp in the northern city of Gao. The mission did not specify the nationality of the peacekeeper killed, but China said Wednesday one of its peacekeepers had died in a terrorist attack in Gao.

A second attack Wednesday morning on the U.N. antimining operation (UNMAS) in a different neighbourhood of Gao killed two Malian private security officers and an international expert.

Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility for the attacks Wednesday in an online statement.

THAILAND

Tiger Temple: Forty dead cubs found in freezer

Forty dead tiger cubs have been found in a freezer at a Thai Buddhist temple accused of wildlife trafficking and animal abuse.

Police and wildlife officials started an operation on Monday to remove all the living tigers at the Tiger Temple.

Pictures from journalists at the scene posted to social media showed the 40 cubs lined up on the floor.

The site in Kanchanaburi is a popular tourist attraction but has been closed to the public since the raid.

Police Colonel Bandith Meungsukhum said wildlife officials would file new criminal charges after the discovery, and added that the cubs were just one or two days old when they died.

PAKISTAN

Woman who rejected marriage offer burnt to death

A Pakistani woman who was set on fire for refusing a marriage proposal has died of her injuries.

Maria Sadaqat, a young schoolteacher, was attacked in her home by a group of men on Sunday and died in hospital in Islamabad on Wednesday.

Her family say she had turned down a marriage proposal from the son of the owner of a school she had taught at.

Campaigners say attacks on women who refuse marriage proposals are common in Pakistan.

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif launched an immediate investigation into the killing, which will report in two days.

SWITZERLAND

World’s longest rail tunnel opens

The world’s longest and deepest rail tunnel has officially opened in Switzerland, after almost two decades of construction work.

The 57km (35-mile) twin-bore Gotthard base tunnel will provide a high-speed rail link under the Swiss Alps between northern and southern Europe.

Switzerland says it will revolutionise European freight transport. Goods currently carried on the route by a million lorries a year will go by train instead.

The tunnel has overtaken Japan’s 53.9km Seikan rail tunnel as the longest in the world and pushed the 50.5km Channel Tunnel linking the UK and France into third place.