Foreigners among 22 missing after boat sinks in China

Photo Credits: NetEase

Photo Credits: NetEase

More than 20 people, including four Singaporeans, were missing Friday after a tugboat sank on a trial voyage on the Yangtze, China's longest river, state media and authorities said.

The newly built vessel was undergoing testing with 25 people aboard in the eastern province of Jiangsu on Thursday afternoon when the accident happened, state media said.

Three people had been rescued, state broadcaster China Central Television reported, leaving 22 missing. The television report said "around" eight foreigners were on board when the boat sank.

A Singapore foreign ministry spokesman told AFP that the vessel, JMS Delta, was registered in the city-state and four of its nationals were on board.

The Japanese and Indian consulates in Shanghai each confirmed to AFP that one of their nationals was among the missing.

A microblog posting by a newspaper under China's transport ministry said two of the others on board were from Malaysia and Indonesia.

"Water entered the boat cabin very quickly, in less than 20 seconds it was completely filled with water," survivor Wang Zhenkai told state television from his hospital bed.

Wang was accompanying a Japanese technician who was testing the engine, though the ship was made and outfitted in China, reports said.

A photo carried by state media showed only the bow and part of the hull of the metal ship floating above the waterline, with a salvage barge alongside.

Reports said rescue workers were trying to raise the vessel and the search was continuing, but Xinhua cited rescuers saying the work was difficult as the current was swift and the water cold.

"As long as we have the slimmest hope, we will give a 100-percent effort," Wang Shiming, deputy head of the Jiangsu Maritime Safety Administration, told state television.

The accident occurred on a stretch of the river between the cities of Jingjiang and Zhangjiagang, which is close to the Yangtze's mouth near the commercial hub Shanghai.

The provincial government said the boat was undergoing trials without properly completing the required procedures and without first reporting the condition of the ship, as required by regulations.

The operator "should have reported to the responsible government body for endorsement, but did not," Wang, the safety administration official, said.

Source: Yahoo! News SG

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Another hostage-taking at Paris suburb post office

A suspect in a hostage taking situation raises his arms in the air as he is detained by members of special French RAID forces outside the post offices in Colombes outside Paris, January 16, 2015. (REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer)

A gunman who took two people hostage in a post office in Colombes, a suburb of northwest Paris, has been arrested after giving himself up to police.

The hostages were released unharmed, according to police, in an incident which they said had no link to terrorism.

The man is known by the authorities, and had contacted the police himself, they said.

According to local Socialist MP Alexis Bachelay, the man was carrying out an "armed robbery".

The man, known to police for previous criminal offences, phoned emergency services claiming he was "heavily armed with grenades and a kalachnikov", AFP reported.

 Newspapers Le Figaro and Le Monde reported that the man was equipped with a military weapon.

"He phoned number 17 [the French emergency number] saying rambling things," a source said, adding that no shots had been fired.

The man is reportedly "mentally unstable and acted after failed relationship," according to France Info.



 Witnesses said he entered the post office at 12.30pm local time and some customers were able to escape.

The area around the post office has been sealed and access to Colombes via the A86 has been blocked by police.

A helicopter was seen flying overhead.

The incident took place at the Aragon post office on the avenue du Général De Gaulle in Colombes, in the Hauts-de-Seine department northwest of Paris.

Source: The Telegraph

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Thousands welcome Pope Francis to the Philippines

‘OVERWHELMING WELCOME.’ Pope Francis tries to catch his cap on his arrival at the Villamor Airbase. Photo by Ted Aljibe/AFP

PASAY CITY, Philippines – Pope Francis arrived to a rapturous welcome in Manila late afternoon Thursday, January 15.

The Sri Lankan Airlines A340 plane that brought him from Colombo, Sri Lanka, the first leg of his Asian tour, landed at the Villamor Airbase at 5:32 pm local time, as bells simultaneously pealed in churches across the archipelago.

The 78-year-old Jesuit pope smiled and waved to the excited crowd as he exited the plane a few minutes later. Children danced on the runway, their red, white, and blue umbrellas forming the Philippine flag.

"Mabuhay, Papa Francis (Long live, Pope Francis)!" said hundreds of Filipino children who greeted him, part of the 3,000 people in the fiesta-like arrival honors for the Pope.

He spent about 30 minutes at the airbase, greeting dignitaries and well-wishers led by President Benigno Aquino III, before riding the popemobile with Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle.

Thousands of Filipinos cheered and took photos of the pontiff as he traversed the 22-kilometer stretch between the Villamor Airbase in Pasay City and the Papal Nunciature in Manila, the residence of the Vatican Ambassador to Manila, where Francis will be staying.

Pope Francis hugs Mark Angelo Balbero, 10, who welcomed him at the arrival ceremony at the Villamor Airbase in Pasay City, January 15, 2015. Philippine President Benigno Aquino III looks on. Rappler photo

It’s the first time in 20 years that the head of the Roman Catholic Church is visiting this Southeast Asian country of 100 million people, majority of them Catholics and poor.

Post by Rappler.

Francis boarded the popemobile that brought him to the Nunciature. Travel between Villamor Airbase and the Nunciature took 37 minutes, much faster than the expected 3 to 4 hours.

Cops and barricades line the route to help manage the crowd.

Pilgrims began crowding Quirino Avenue near the Papal Nunciature early morning Thursday, expecting to be blessed and “starstruck.”

"Okay lang na maghintay kami kahit kanina pa kaming umaga rito. Minsan lang naman may dadating na Santo Papa dito sa Pilipinas," said Lucita Tandoc, 68, from the Santisima Trinidad Parish. (It's okay for us to wait, even if we've been here since this morning. It's rare that a pope visits the Philippines)

Quirino Avenue is the area which the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority designated for the pilgrims of different parishes nationwide. Like Tandoc, most of them said they are willing to stand by the roads to get a glimpse of the popular pope.

Students holding umbrellas rehearse a dance number hours prior to the arrival of Pope Francis at the Villamor Air base in Pasay City on January 15. Photo by Ted Aljibe/AFP

Anticipating his message

Francis' packed 5-day visit to the Philippines involves diplomatic meetings with government officials, masses with local Catholic leaders, engagement with the youth and families, and meetings with typhoon and earthquake victims in the Visayas.

The message of Pope Francis in these events is most anticipated. He is known to make strong statements during his foreign visits even if it means embarrassing his hosts or his fellow priests.

He used his popularity to shine the light on the issues of immigrants in Europe, the comfort women in South Korea, and the plight of the Palestinians in the West Bank. He has spoken about hunger, labor, and homosexuality. “If a person is gay, seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?,” the Pope told reporters in 2013. (READ: Pope of the fringes)

In Leyte, the Pope is expected to tackle climate change ahead of an encyclical he will issue on the environment.


Focus of visit

Francis visits the Philippines as President Aquino is on the last phase of his term – barely two years. After a landslide win in 2010, Aquino vowed to stop corruption and address poverty, two of the country's most pressing problems.

A huge corruption scandal last year, however, involved his vice president, Jejomar Binay, who's running for president in 2016. Aquino is perceived to be supporting another official for the presidency, Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II.

The biggest known corruption case in recent history was also exposed in 2013, involving both Aquino's allies and political enemies in the legislature misusing billions of pesos in development funds.

Aquino's promise to help the poor has yet to be fulfilled in the country's poorest areas. The People's Pope will see them face to face on the streets of Metro Manila and Leyte.

PHILIPPINE GREETING. Pope Francis waves next to Philippine President Benigno Aquino III during his arrival at the airport in Manila, Philippines, 15 January 2015. Photo by Dennis M. Sabangan/EPA

Church's problems

The Church, on the other hand, is also beset with its own controversies, ranging from priests who mismanage church finances and abuse women. (READ: How rich is the Catholic Church?)

A few years ago, the Catholic Church clashed with the government over the passage of a law that allows state funding for contraceptives, which the Catholic Church had declared as “evil.” A law allowing divorce is pending before Congress.

But the core of the Pope's visit is his trip to Leyte, where he will meet the victims of Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan), the strongest typhoon to hit land and killed over 6,000 people, based on government reports. There are those who believe it killed more.

The Pope will also meet the victims of Bohol earthquake. Both disasters struck in 2013.


20-year wait

The last pope to visit the Philippines was Pope John Paul II, in 1995. He visited the country twice. The terrorist plot to kill John Paul II using liquid bombs was foiled a few days before his arrival.

Francis' visit is a security challenge to the Philippines. Its islands in the south still harbor terrorists.

Security officials are also concerned about possible accidents when “near-fanatical” Filipino Catholics mass up to see Pope Francis. They recall the yearly security nightmare that is the Feast of the Black Nazarene.

It's a big police and military operation. Up to 40,000 troops are deployed for the entire duration of the Pope’s visit. Airports and some seaports are closed. There’s no work and classes in Metro Manila and in Leyte.

SMOOTH RIDE. Pope Francis waves to the crowd as his popemobile brings him to the Apostolic Nunciature. Photo by Francis Malasig/EPA

Source: Rappler

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Chinese man gets 8 billion RMB put into account by mistake

The bank giveth and the bank taketh away: a real estate employee in Chuzhou city, Anhui province momentarily enjoyed a hefty eight-billion yuan deposit that, seemingly miraculously, showed up in his bank account one day. The bank soon after took the money out and apologized to the man upon realizing that it was a system error.

Li discovered the sum of money in his bank account as he went to transfer funds into his savings account, people.cn reports.

Before Li had the chance to call the police, ahem, he found the "god-sent" money had already been transferred out of his account at 11 p.m. in the evening.

Baffled, he went to the bank for an explanation. A bank employee explained that the error might have occurred during an upgrade of the bank's computer system. The bank apologized to Li for the mistake, and didn't even give him a mug.

In December, a Sichuan woman experienced similar false excitement when she saw 496 million yuan had accidentally been transferred into her account. She returned the money to the bank immediately after.

Source: Shanghaiist; Images: anhui.cc

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BREAKING: Last words of crashed AirAsia flight's pilot revealed

Photo Credits: Reuters

Following the recovery of the two “black boxes” aboard the crashed AirAsia Flight QZ8501, a story on Yahoo! News reports that “Allahuakhbar, Allahuakhbar were the last words [the pilots] said before they died.”

AirAsia Flight QZ8501, a flight out of Surabaya, Indonesia and bound for Singapore, took off early Sunday December 28, 2014 in what can only be described as violent weather.  The pilots, amidst the storm, radioed in, asking air traffic control for permission to turn left and climb to a higher altitude to avert the storm. A little while later, the plane crashed into the Java Sea, taking the lives of all 162 of its crew and passengers on board.

Search teams began looking for traces of the aircraft upon discovering that it was missing, only to find debris and several bodies floating 60 to 120 miles from the aircraft’s last known location over the Java Sea. Of the 162 people on board, only 48 bodies have been recovered so far.

Soon after, the international search efforts continued, and according to Fox News, “three Indonesian ships detected two strong pings being emitted from their beacons, about 22 yards apart.” The strong currents and large waves hindered divers' efforts throughout the 17-day search, “but they took advantage of calmer early morning conditions on both days to extract the instruments.”

Nurcahyo Utomo, a two decade old investigator who knew the pilot personally, had this to say about the recordings that were recovered from the wreckage:

    “Listening to the playback of a black box involved in a crash is not like listening to music or a discussion.

    “We are listening to a recording that represents the last moments before the crash and it is disturbing. There are times where the investigators would get unnerved listening to the recording.”

In analyzing the recordings and listening to the last words of the pilots, words like “Allahuakhbar” being repeatedly stated, the investigators got goose bumps.

“It is as if we can feel them... Allahuakhbar, Allahuakhbar were the last words said before they died,” said Nucahyo.

As of this moment, it is unclear what the pilots intended when uttering a phrase often associated with radical Islamic terrorists, many of whom have uttered the phrase before committing their heinous acts of terror: “Allahuakhbar, Allahuakhbar.”

Perhaps, in repeating “Allahuakhbar,” a phrase that literally means “god is the greatest,” the pilots were merely calling out to their god in a time of great peril – a moment that they believed would be their last.

One thing is for sure, hearing these final words, this last conversation, is key to revealing what caused the AirAsia flight to crash.

"We will know what really happened from the conversations between pilot and co-pilot prior to the crash,” said Nucahyo.

And certainly, listening to and analyzing the recordings of the last moments of Flight QZ8501 will be a tough thing to do for Captain Iriyanto, a junior to the pilot who died on board the downed plane.

Source: CNS News

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FOUND: Fuselage of AirAsia flight QZ8501

SINGAPORE: The main fuselage of the downed AirAsia Indonesia flight QZ8501 has been found by a Republic of Singapore Navy vessel, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen said on Wednesday (Jan 14).

He said the hoped that locating the main wreckage of the Airbus A320-200 aeroplane could help bring "some form of closure" to families of victims.

“Chief of Navy RADM Lai Chung Han just informed me that one of SAF’s ships, the MV Swift Rescue, has located the fuselage of the AirAsia plane in the Java Sea," Dr Ng said on Facebook.

"Images taken by the Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) show part of the wing and words on the fuselage. We have informed BASARNAS, the Indonesian search authority, who can now begin recovery operations.



"The accident is a tragic event resulting in the loss of many lives. I hope that with the fuselage located, some form of closure can come to the families of the victims to ease their grief."

Dr Ng thanked the Singapore Armed Forces servicemen involved in the search operations, which also included the recovery of the flight data and cockpit voice recorders earlier this week.

"Especially to the crew of MV Swift Rescue, you never gave up - well done," he said.

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Man tries to smuggle 94 iPhones into China

This man was reportedly caught with 94 iPhones strapped to his body

A Hong Kong man was arrested with 94 iPhones taped to his body in an attempt to smuggle them into China, reports said on Monday.

According to photos shared by China's Sina News online, the man had strapped models of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus around his torso and thighs, using masking tape.

The smartphones were seized at Futian Port, an immigration port of entry between Hong Kong and mainland China. A report from TIME magazine said the man was caught after officials noticed that he was walking strangely.

Back in September of last year, the delayed launch of Apple's latest iPhone models in China caused a surge in pre-orders on the company's Hong Kong website.

A report at the time predicted that "many of those devices will be smuggled across the border into mainland China, where they could change hands for as much as four times the Hong Kong price."

Apple began selling its latest iPhone in China a month later.

Source: ABS-CBN News

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29 arrested over Malaysia 'birthday orgy'

KUALA LUMPUR - Police in mainly Muslim Malaysia arrested 29 people including two auxiliary police officers in a raid on a birthday party which they said Monday had turned into a drug-fuelled orgy.

Officers were called to a hotel in the town of Klang near the capital Kuala Lumpur early Sunday after a complaint about noise in one of the rooms.

Ten women and 19 men were arrested while drugs including heroin, ecstasy and ketamine were impounded, police said.

"We suspect it to be a sex orgy cum birthday party," said North Klang police chief Mohamad Shukor Sulong.

A police officer involved in the investigation told AFP on condition of anonymity that all 29 were ethnic Malays, who belong to the multi-cultural country's Muslim majority, and ranged in age from 20 to 35.

"They brought girls, drugs and beer to celebrate the birthday party," the officer said.

Premarital sex and lewd behaviour are deeply frowned upon in Malaysia, which has traditionally practised a relatively moderate brand of Islam yet remains conservative on sexual issues.

Muslims who are merely caught alone in a secluded place with a member of the opposite sex who is not a relation can face up to two years' jail and a fine.

Muslims make up more than half the country's nearly 30 million people.

Source: AsiaOne

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AirAsia crash: Cockpit voice-recorder found

Indonesian soldiers display the cockpit voice recorder of AirAsia QZ8501 on Tuesday.

Divers recovered the second of two black boxes from AirAsia AIRASIA, +4.20%  Flight 8501 on Tuesday, clearing the path for an investigation into the crash to begin in earnest.

Officials picked up the recorder by helicopter from a ship where divers had put it after retrieving it, and brought it to Pangkalan Bun, where they showed it to the media before loading it onto a plane for Jakarta.

Santoso Sayogo, an investigator from Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee, talks to the WSJ's Deborah Kan about what the flight-data recorder and cockpit-voice recorder can tell us about what went wrong on AirAsia Flight 8501.

The recorder was sighted in 30 meters of water Monday, not far from where searchers recovered the first black box. Santoso Sayogo, an air-crash investigator with Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee, said “hopefully” it would arrive at investigators’ offices in Jakarta Tuesday night. The two black boxes were found about 10 meters apart, he added.

The first black box was recovered Monday after an intensive search of the Java Sea and flown to Jakarta the same day. Investigators say the two data recorders offer the best chance of learning why the aircraft crashed.

The plane crashed Dec. 28 en route from Surabaya to Singapore with 162 passengers and crew aboard.

Source: MarketWatch

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British Airways flight reaches supersonic speeds due to strong jet stream

A surging jet stream in the lower atmosphere helped a British Airways passenger jet approach supersonic speeds as it blasted across the Atlantic Ocean in record time.

Though the Concorde jet has put up its wings quite some time back, a humble Boeing 777-200 jet reached ground speeds of 745 mph as it rode winds of more than 200 mph across the Atlantic. The plane was quite close to breaking the sound barrier. At ground level, the speed of sound is 761 mph.

Even Commercial Jetliners Can Reach Supersonic Speeds Piggybacking On The Jet Streams – In One Direction Only

While passengers in the commercial jetliner might not have been aware of the speeding bullet they were traveling in, they were sure to have been elated, having made it across the Atlantic in record time. The passenger jet BA114 managed to complete its journey in just five hours and 16 minutes – an hour and a half ahead of its scheduled landing.

Apart from BA114, many other flights also benefited from the jet stream’s winter surge. However, as a downside, the same winter surge also triggered severe storms across Britain.

Experienced pilots have long piggybacked on the natural phenomenon of jet streams – which flow across the globe from west to east – to cut journey times and save fuel. Taking into consideration all the possible delays, airlines often advertise the route at seven hours. But taking advantage of the jet streams, pilots often manage to shave off about an hour if they successfully stay on the jet stream for the longest possible time.

The most common route to benefit from the jet streams is between London and New York, shared Alastair Rosenschein, a former British Airways pilot who flew 747s between the two cities and often piggybacked on the jet streams while cruising.

    “It’s just like surfing. It’s extraordinary how fast you can go,”

He cautioned that while these jet streams might seem an ideal way to speed up the journey, it’s not possible for every pilot of every commercial jetliner to take advantage of the same. At only 10 miles across and about 2000 feet deep, it takes skill, planning, and a bit of luck to ride one for an entire route. It’s not often one gets to ride these waves in the sky, but the experience is great, exclaimed Alastair.

    “You try to sit in the core of the jet where it’s not too turbulent and where you can pick up some free mileage. It’s not unusual to get 100mph tailwinds but they have got more than that. This must be a record.”

The high winds may have benefited the airline companies, but currently they are wreaking havoc in Britain. Record-breaking winds of up to 113 mph have lashed the country, leaving thousands of homes without power. It is only a matter of time before these ghastly jet streams bring more severe weather towards America.

Source: Inquisitr

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Golden Globes 2015: See All the Winners

“Boyhood,” “Transparent,” Eddie Redmayne and Julianne Moore went home big winners at the 72nd annual Golden Globes. Here is the full list of winners.

Best Motion Picture – Drama
Winner: Boyhood
Foxcatcher
The Imitation Game
Selma
The Theory of Everything

Lead Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama
Winner: Eddie Redmayne – The Theory of Everything
Steve Carell – Foxcatcher
Benedict Cumberbatch – The Imitation Game
Jake Gyllenhaal – Nightcrawler
David Oyelowo – Selma

Lead Actress in a Motion Picture- Drama
Winner: Julianne Moore – Still Alice
Jennifer Aniston – Cake
Felicity Jones – The Theory of Everything
Rosamund Pike – Gone Girl
Reese Witherspoon – Wild

Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical
Winner: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Birdman
Into the Woods
Pride
St. Vincent

Lead Actor in a Motion Picture- Comedy or Musical
Winner: Michael Keaton – Birdman
Ralph Fiennes – Grand Budapest Hotel
Bill Murray – St. Vincent
Joaquin Phoenix – Inherent Vice
Christoph Waltz – Big Eyes

Lead Actress – TV Drama
Winner: Ruth Wilson – The Affair
Claire Danes – Homeland
Viola Davis – How to Get Away With Murder
Julianna Margulies – The Good Wife
Robin Wright – House of Cards

Director
Winner: Richard Linklater – Boyhood
Wes Anderson – Grand Budapest Hotel
David Fincher – Gone Girl
Ava DuVernay – Selma
Alejandro G. Inarritu – Birdman

Lead Actor – TV Drama
Winner: Kevin Spacey – House of Cards
Clive Owen – The Knick
Liev Schreiber – Ray Donovan
James Spader – The Blacklist
Dominic West – The Affair

Best TV Drama
Winner: The Affair
Downton Abbey
Game of Thrones
The Good Wife
House of Cards

Actress – TV Miniseries or Movie
Winner: Maggie Gyllenhaal – The Honorable Woman
Jessica Lange – American Horror Story: Freak Show
Frances McDormand – Olive Kitteridge
Frances O’Connor – The Missing
Alison Tolman – Fargo

Foreign Film
Winner: Leviathan, Russia
Force Majeure (Turist), Sweden
Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem Gett, Israel
Ida, Poland/Denmark
Tangerines (Mandariinid), Estonia

Lead Actor – TV Comedy
Winner: Jeffrey Tambor – Transparent
Don Cheadle – House of Lies
Ricky Gervais – Derek
Louis C.K. – Louie
William H. Macy – Shameless

Screenplay
Winner: Alejandro G. Inarritu, Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Armando Bo – Birdman
Wes Anderson – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Gillian Flynn – Gone Girl
Richard Linklater – Boyhood
Graham Moore – The Imitation Game

Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture
Winner: Patricia Arquette – Boyhood
Jessica Chastain – A Most Violent Year
Keira Knightley – The Imitation Game
Emma Stone – Birdman
Meryl Streep – Into the Woods

Animated Feature
Winner: How to Train Your Dragon 2
Big Hero 6
The Book of Life
Boxtrolls
The Lego Movie

Lead Actress in a Motion Picture- Comedy or Musical
Winner: Amy Adams – Big Eyes
Emily Blunt – Into the Woods
Helen Mirren – The Hundred-Foot Journey
Julianne Moore – Maps to the Stars
Quvenzhané Wallis – Annie

Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries, or TV movie
Winner: Matt Bomer – The Normal Heart
Alan Cumming – The Good Wife
Colin Hanks – Fargo
Bill Murray – Olive Kitteridge
Jon Voight – Ray Donovan

Original Song – Motion Picture
Winner: Glory – Selma (John Legend, Common)
Big Eyes – Big Eyes (Lana Del Rey)
Mercy Is – Noah (Patti Smith, Lenny Kaye)
Opportunity – Annie (Greg Kurstin, Sia Furler, Will Gluck)
Yellow Flicker Beat – The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1 (Lorde)

Original Score – Motion Picture
Winner: Johann Johannsson – The Theory of Everything
Alexandre Desplat – The Imitation Game
Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross – Gone Girl
Antonio Sanchez – Birdman
Hans Zimmer – Interstellar

Best TV Comedy or Musical
Winner: Transparent
Girls
Jane the Virgin
Orange Is the New Black
Silicon Valley

Lead Actress – TV Comedy or Musical
Winner: Gina Rodriguez – Jane the Virgin
Lena Dunham – Girls
Edie Falco – Nurse Jackie
Julia Louis-Dreyfus – Veep
Taylor Schilling – Orange Is the New Black

Actor – TV Miniseries or Movie
Winner: Billy Bob Thornton – Fargo
Martin Freeman – Fargo
Woody Harrelson – True Detective
Matthew McConaughey – True Detective
Mark Ruffalo – The Normal Heart

TV Miniseries or Movie
Winner: Fargo
The Missing
True Detective
The Normal Heart
Olive Kitteridge

Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries, or TV movie
Winner: Joanne Froggatt – Downton Abbey
Uzo Aduba – Orange Is the New Black
Kathy Bates – American Horror Story: Freak Show
Allison Janney – Mom
Michelle Monaghan – True Detective

Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture
Winner: J.K. Simmons – Whiplash
Robert Duvall – The Judge
Ethan Hawke – Boyhood
Edward Norton – Birdman
Mark Ruffalo – Foxcatcher

Source: Variety

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Divers retrieve AirAsia 'black box', explosion theory questioned

The flight data recorder of AirAsia QZ8501 is transferred to another container at the airbase in Pangkalan Bun, Central Kalimantan. REUTERS/Darren Whiteside

The flight data recorder from AirAsia QZ8501 is placed into a container upon its arrival at the airbase in Pangkalan Bun, Central Kalimantan.
REUTERS/Darren Whiteside

Indonesian military policemen carry the flight data recorder from AirAsia QZ8501 into a media briefing at the airbase in Pangkalan Bun, Central Kalimantan. REUTERS/Antara Foto/Prasetyo Utomo

WATCH VIDEO:
PANGKALAN BUN, Indonesia/JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian navy divers retrieved the black box flight data recorder from the wreck of an AirAsia passenger jet on Monday, a major step towards unraveling the cause of the crash that killed all 162 people on board.

But there was confusion about what happened in the final moments of Flight QZ8501, which crashed off the Indonesian coast on Dec. 28, with one official saying the plane probably exploded before hitting the water and another disputing that theory.

The Airbus A320-200 airliner lost contact with air traffic control in bad weather less than halfway into a two-hour flight from Indonesia's second-biggest city of Surabaya to Singapore.

"At 7:11, we succeeded in lifting the part of the black box known as the flight data recorder," Fransiskus Bambang Soelistyo, head of the National Search and Rescue Agency, told reporters at a news conference.

The second so-called black box, containing the cockpit voice recorder, is located about 20 meters away from where the flight data recorder was found, but divers have not yet been able to get to it.

"(The cockpit voice recorder) seems to be under a wing, which is quite heavy," said Supriyadi, operations coordinator for the search and rescue agency. "So we will use air bags to lift it. This will be done tomorrow."

The black boxes contain a wealth of data that will be crucial for investigators piecing together the sequence of events that led to the airliner plunging into the sea.

Supriyadi said the wreckage indicated that the plane likely "experienced an explosion" before hitting the water due to a significant change in air pressure.

He said the left side of the plane seemed to have disintegrated, pointing to a change in pressure that could have caused an explosion.

Supporting this possibility, Supriyadi added, was the fact that fishermen in the area had reported hearing an explosion and saw smoke above the water.


THEORY DISPUTED

But another official disputed the likelihood of a blast.

"There is no data to support that kind of theory," said Santoso Sayogo, an investigator at the National Transportation Safety Committee.

The flight data recorder was brought by helicopter to Pangkalan Bun, the southern Borneo town that has been the base for the search effort, and then flown to Jakarta for analysis.

The black box looked to be in good condition, said Tatang Kurniadi, the head of the transport safety committee.

Investigators may need up to a month to get a complete reading of the data.

"The download is easy, probably one day. But the reading is more difficult ... could take two weeks to one month," the NTSC's head investigator, Mardjono Siswosuwarno, said.

Over the weekend, three vessels detected "pings" that were believed to be from the black boxes, but strong winds, powerful currents and high waves hampered search efforts.

Dozens of Indonesian navy divers took advantage of calmer weather on Monday to retrieve the flight recorder and search for the fuselage of the Airbus.

Forty-eight bodies have been retrieved from the Java Sea and brought to Surabaya for identification. Searchers believe more bodies will be found in the plane's fuselage.

Relatives of the victims have urged authorities to make finding the remains of their loved ones the priority.


ALTITUDE DATA INTERRUPTED

Sources close to the investigation say the aircraft's transponder transmitted data as it first rose sharply then fell from a peak of 38,000 feet, but that it stopped transmitting its altitude once it had completed a third of its descent.

The jet kept sending other data such as the speed of descent, which was the last parameter to be broadcast before it hit the water close to where wreckage was subsequently found.

It is not yet clear whether the gap in altitude data below 22-24,000 feet originated in the A320's systems or problems in transmission, underlining the importance of recovering complete evidence from the data recorder.

Separately, Airbus has begun talks with a European regulator on proposals to make ejectable flight recorders available on its two largest models, potentially making them the first commercial planes to use the technology.

Indonesia AirAsia, 49 percent owned by the Malaysia-based AirAsia budget group, has come under pressure from authorities in Jakarta since the crash.

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.

President Joko Widodo said the disaster exposed widespread problems in the management of air travel in Indonesia.

Source: Yahoo! News

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BREAKING NEWS: AirAsia QZ8501 black box found - Indonesia authorities

AirAsia QZ8501: Divers find black box, Indonesia ministry says

The flight recorder from the crashed AirAsia QZ8501 flight has been discovered in the Java Sea, Indonesian authorities confirmed in a statement.

According to the country’s Directorate General of Marine Transport, the black box will be retrieved from the seabed on Monday.

Earlier on Sunday, strong signals from the recorders were detected not far from where the tail part was found.

“The ping was detected about 1km east of the tail,” said S.B Supriyadi, director with the National Search and Rescue Agency. A sonar scan found an object measuring 10m by 4m by 2.5m on the sea floor, he added.

"They suspect it is the body of the plane. There is a big possibility that the black box is near the body of the plane," said Supriyadi.

The plane crashed on December 28 en route to Singapore from Surabaya, Indonesia. A total of 162 people were on board and there were no survivors.

48 bodies have been recovered so far.

Source: RT News

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Getting closer: Pacquiao, Mayweather agree on fight venue

The Associated Press - Floyd Mayweather Jr., Bob Arum and Manny Pacquiao remain hugely influential figures. (AP/Special to Yahoo Sports)

The camps of WBC champion Floyd Mayweather (47-0-0) and WBO champion Manny Pacquiao (57-5-2) got through one hurdle for the highly-anticipated mega-fight as they both agreed that it would be held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, in Las Vegas.

“We’re making progress,” a boxing authority involved in the talks told the Los Angeles Times’ Lance Pugmire on Friday.

In Pacquiao’s last fight at the MGM, Top Rank Promotions boss Bob Arum lashed out at the venue for their lack of support. Arum blasted the arena’s management as they had promotional materials for the fight between Mayweather and Carlos Maidana even though it was already the weekend of the rematch between Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley.

However, this is apparently water under the bridge now as the two camps moved on to other parts of the fight contract.

A highly contested issue is the purse and Pugmire’s source added that Mayweather wants a 60-40 split in his favor and that Pacquiao’s side has expressed willingness to be the B-side.

The drug testing, fight date, and the deal between Showtime and HBO also need to be addressed before the fight could be finally signed but the source added that this could be done in the next seven to ten days.

Source: Yahoo! Sports

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AirAsia plane fuselage that could contain bodies and black boxes suspected to be found

Indonesian search teams found the tail section of the ill-fated AirAsia flight

Indonesian search teams believe they have discovered the fuselage, or main body, of the AirAsia plane that crashed in the Java Sea two weeks ago with hopes that the black box recorders would also be found.

Divers are hoping that calmer sea conditions tomorrow will allow them to retrieve the black box recorders that contain flight data after they were initially believed to have been located on the tail that was pulled out of the sea yesterday.

Indonesia AirAsia Flight QZ8501 lost contact with air traffic control in bad weather on 28 December, less than halfway into a two-hour flight from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore. None of the 162 people on board the aircraft survived and only 48 dead bodies have been retrieved so far.

Searchers have also been hearing pings and the battery that emits them is expected to last 17 more days.

Supriyadi, operations coordinator for the National Search and Rescue Agency, said today that a sonar scan had revealed an object measuring 10 metres by four metres by 2.5 metres on the sea floor. The body of the plane could contain the victims of the crash.

“They suspect it is the body of the plane. There is a big possibility that the black box is near the body of the plane,” Supriyadi told Reuters in the town of Pangkalan Bun, the base for the search effort off the coast of Borneo.

The tail of the crashed AirAsia plane being dragged out of the sea

“If it is the body of the plane then we will first evacuate the victims. Secondly we will search for the black box.”

Strong winds, currents and high waves have been hampering efforts to reach other large pieces of suspected wreckage detected by sonar on the sea floor.

If and when the recorders are found and taken to the capital, Jakarta, for analysis, it could take up to two weeks to download data, investigators said, although the information could be accessed in as little as two days if the devices are not badly damaged.

The aircraft carries cockpit voice and flight data recorders - or black boxes - near its tail but once the wreckage was visible, it quickly became apparent that the flight recorders were still underwater.

While the cause of the crash is not known, the national weather bureau has said seasonal storms were likely to be a factor.

Source: The Independent

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Nikon 1200-1700mm helps French photographers capture hostage situation from a safe distance

Le Monde journalist Maxime Goldbaum tweeted the above photograph this morning as a hostage situation involving Charlie Hebdo suspects unfolded in Dammartin-en-Goële, France. It seems that the Nikon 1200-1700mm is a tool in Reuters’ arsenal that’s used to keep photojournalists at a safe distance.

Here’s a zoomed and cropped look at the lens mounted to what appears to be a Canon DSLR:

The Nikkor 1200-1700mm f/5.6-8 is a pretty rare beast. It measures 3 feet long, weighs 36 pounds, and cost $60,000 when it was released back in 1993.

Nicknamed “the tuna,” the lens was originally designed to capture closeup photos of baseball players in Japan from the photographers area. Here’s a comparison of what a 50mm lens sees versus what the “tuna” sees at 1700mm:
 

And that’s why this is one of Reuters’ go-to lenses for covering dangerous situations from blocks away.

Source: PetaPixel

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China travelers open emergency exits to protest flight delay

The plane's emergency exits were forced open.

BEIJING (AP) — Upset by a delayed flight, two Chinese passengers decided to open emergency exit doors in protest as the plane was taxiing, forcing it to abort takeoff and landing them in jail instead, police said Sunday.

The latest in a growing number of air rage cases involving Chinese travelers happened in the early hours of Saturday morning in the southwestern city of Chengdu, after the China Eastern flight was delayed by a snow storm.

Angry passengers complained about the delay and a lack of ventilation, and a man surnamed Zhou opened two emergency exits to prevent the plane from taking off, forcing it to return to the gate. A total of 25 passengers were held for questioning while the rest continued on to Beijing aboard a separate flight.

Kunming police said in an online statement that Zhou and a tour guide named Li have been placed under 15-day "administrative detention" for opening the doors and inciting passengers with false information.

China's fast growing air travel market is the world's second biggest, but heavy traffic and tight military control of airspace have given it the world's worst record for flight delays.

Flight cancellations and delays have sparked frequent incidents of air rage aboard Chinese flights and at airports. Brawls between passengers and attacks on crew have also grown more frequent, many of them filmed and posted online.

Concerns over lengthy tarmac waits prompted U.S. aviation authorities to pass regulations in 2010 requiring planes to return to the gate after three hours.

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Woman finds 'dental material' in Japan McDonald's burger

Woman finds 'dental material' in Japan McDonald's burger

Tokyo (AFP) - A Japanese woman got more than a mouthful when she claimed to have discovered fragments later identified as "dental material" in a McDonald's hamburger, marking the fast-food chain's latest food quality embarrassment.

The discovery of the objects, confirmed by McDonald's to be dental on Friday, comes two days after the company admitted several foreign objects had been found in food at Japanese outlets, including a human tooth in a container of french fries at an outlet in Osaka.

An unidentified woman told the Asahi television network she had found three tiny fragments of what looked like teeth in a burger she bought at a McDonald's outlet in northern Kushiro city in September.

"I took a bite and there was a crunch," the woman said in footage aired Friday, adding that she initially thought it was a piece of sand or stone.

"I can't help thinking that it was (already) in the meat."

A third-party examination determined the opaque white fragments were "dental material", according to company spokeswoman Miwa Yamamoto, saying the substance is commonly used to fill cavities or in other dental work.

McDonald's, however, would not confirm the woman's claim that the fragments were inside her burger.

Yamamoto said the customer was told that there was an "extremely low chance" it could have fallen into raw material, given the highly-mechanised process.

None of the employees at the outlet had issues with their teeth at the time and the customer denied it could have come from her, Yamamoto said.

On Wednesday, McDonald's acknowledged a human tooth had been found in fries sold by another outlet last year, while it has also been hit by incidents in which pieces of vinyl were found in chicken nuggets and a tiny piece of hard plastic in a sundae.

Japanese media reported several other cases of contamination, including a piece of metal in a pancake.

The incidents mark another public relations setback for the firm, which is struggling to recover from a battering to its reputation this summer when a Chinese supplier was found to be mixing out-of-date meat with fresh produce.

Then, late last year, the company had to airlift an emergency supply of french fries from the US after a chip shortage had resulted in rationing at its 3,000 restaurants across Japan.

Labour disputes on the US West Coast had bunged up the export chain, leaving Japanese firms scrambling to secure fresh supplies.

The difficulties looked set to hit McDonald's bottom line, with the Japanese unit earlier saying it was on track to report a 17 billion yen ($142 million) annual loss for 2014.

The subsidiary's Tokyo-listed shares, which are down nearly 10 percent since late July, fell 1.07 percent to 2,503.0 yen on Friday.

The company said the December sales at its existing stores dropped by 21.3 percent from the same month a year ago.

Japan generally has a good record on food safety, and its consumers are used to high standards.

Occasional blunders can prove costly to reputations, and firms that have fallen foul of shoppers have discovered the impact can be long-lasting.

Source: Yahoo! News

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Getting closer: Pacquiao, Mayweather agree on fight venue

The Associated Press - Floyd Mayweather Jr., Bob Arum and Manny Pacquiao remain hugely influential figures. (AP/Special to Yahoo Sports)

The camps of WBC champion Floyd Mayweather (47-0-0) and WBO champion Manny Pacquiao (57-5-2) got through one hurdle for the highly-anticipated mega-fight as they both agreed that it would be held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, in Las Vegas.

“We’re making progress,” a boxing authority involved in the talks told the Los Angeles Times’ Lance Pugmire on Friday.

In Pacquiao’s last fight at the MGM, Top Rank Promotions boss Bob Arum lashed out at the venue for their lack of support. Arum blasted the arena’s management as they had promotional materials for the fight between Mayweather and Carlos Maidana even though it was already the weekend of the rematch between Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley.

However, this is apparently water under the bridge now as the two camps moved on to other parts of the fight contract.

A highly contested issue is the purse and Pugmire’s source added that Mayweather wants a 60-40 split in his favor and that Pacquiao’s side has expressed willingness to be the B-side.

The drug testing, fight date, and the deal between Showtime and HBO also need to be addressed before the fight could be finally signed but the source added that this could be done in the next seven to ten days.

Source: Yahoo! Sports

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Magnitude 6.0 quake jolts parts of Luzon, Metro Manila

Magnitude 6.0 earthquake jolts Luzon. (Photo from PHIVOLCS)

MANILA, Philippines—A 6.0-magnitude earthquake shakes parts of Luzon, including Metro Manila around 3:31 a.m. Sunday, not 5.7-magnitude as reported earlier.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs), through its website, corrected its earlier assessment.

The epicenter was 43 kilometers south east of San Antonio town in Zambales, with a depth of 85 kilometers, not 13 kilometers south east of San Antonio and 10 km in depth, as Phivolcs reported earlier.

Phivolcs also said Intensity 4 was felt in the cities of Pasig, Pasay, Manila, Quezon and Makati; San Mateo town in Rizal; and Obando and Hagonoy towns in Bulacan.

Intensity 3 was felt in San Miguel town in Tarlac and Tagaytay City in Cavite.

Phivolcs also said it was tectonic in origin.

No casualty and damage to properties have been reported as of posting.

Source: Inquirer

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