Co-pilot appears to have crashed Germanwings plane on purpose

A French gendarme helicopter flies over the moutainside crash site of an Airbus A320, near Seyne-les-Alpes, March 25, 2015. REUTERS/Emmanuel Foudrot

(Reuters) - A young German co-pilot locked himself alone in the cockpit of a Germanwings airliner and flew it into a mountain with what appears to have been the intent to destroy it, a French prosecutor said on Thursday.

Investigators and grieving relatives were left struggling to explain what motivated Andreas Lubitz, 28, to kill all 150 people on board the Airbus A320, including himself, in Tuesday's crash in the French Alps.

French and German officials said there was no indication the crash was a terrorist attack, but gave no alternative explanation for his motives.
Lubitz gained sole control of the aircraft after the captain left the cockpit. He refused to re-open the door and sent plane into its fatal descent, Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin said.

He did this "for a reason we cannot fathom right now but which looks like intent to destroy this aircraft," Robin told a news conference in Marseille broadcast live on national TV.

Describing the final 10 minutes of the passengers on board as the plane hurtled towards a mountain range, Robin said sound recordings from one of its black boxes suggested most of them would not have been aware of their fate until the very end.

"Only towards the end do you hear screams," he said. "And bear in mind that death would have been instantaneous ... the aircraft was literally smashed to bits."

The CEO of Lufthansa, parent company of Germanwings, said its air crew were picked carefully and subjected to psychological vetting.

"No matter your safety regulations, no matter how high you set the bar, and we have incredibly high standards, there is no way to rule out such an event," CEO Carsten Spohr said.

The world's attention will now focus on the motivations of Lubitz, a German national who joined the budget carrier in September 2013 and had just 630 hours of flying time - compared with the 6,000 hours of the flight captain, named in German media only as "Patrick S." in accordance with usual practice.

Robin said there were no grounds to suspect that Lubitz was carrying out a terrorist attack. "Suicide" was also the wrong word to describe actions which killed so many other people, the prosecutor added: "I don't necessarily call it suicide when you have responsibility for 100 or so lives."

Police set up guard outside Lubitz's house in Montabaur, Germany. Acquaintances in the town said they were stunned, describing him as an affable young man who gave no indication he was harboring any harmful intent.

"I'm just speechless. I don't have any explanation for this. Knowing Andreas, this is just inconceivable for me," said Peter Ruecker, a long-time member of the local flight club where Lubitz received his flying license years ago.

"He was a lot of fun, even though he was perhaps sometimes a bit quiet. He was just another boy like so many others here."

A photo on Lubitz's Facebook page, which was later taken down, shows a smiling young man posing in front of San Francisco's Golden Gate bridge.

Robin said the conversation between the two pilots before the captain left the cockpit started normally but that Lubitz's replies became "laconic" as they started readying what would have been the normal descent to the airport of Duesseldorf.

"His responses become very brief. There is no proper exchange as such," he said. It was not clear why the captain had left the cockpit but it was probably to use the toilet, he said.

Robin said the family of the co-pilot had arrived in France for a tribute alongside other those of the victims but was being kept apart from the others.

"SMASH THE DOOR DOWN"

The New York Times cited an unnamed investigator as saying the recording shed insight into the moment when it dawned on the captain that he had been shut out of the cockpit.

"The guy outside is knocking lightly on the door and there is no answer," it quoted an investigator described as a senior French military official as saying. "And then he hits the door stronger and no answer. There is never an answer."

"You can hear he is trying to smash the door down," the investigator added.

Investigators were still searching for the second of the two black boxes on Thursday in the ravine where the plane crashed, 100 km (65 miles) from Nice, which would contain data from the plane's instruments.

France's BEA air investigation bureau had said on Wednesday it expected the first basic analysis of the voice recordings in days.

Pilots may temporarily leave the cockpit at certain times and in certain circumstances, such as while the aircraft is cruising, according to German aviation law.

Cockpit doors can be opened from the outside with a code, in line with regulations introduced after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, but the code can be overridden from inside the cockpit. Lufthansa's CEO said that either the pilot had entered the code incorrectly, or the co-pilot inside had overridden it.

The BEA on Wednesday already ruled out a mid-air explosion and said the scenario did not look like a depressurization.

Germanwings said 72 Germans were killed in the first major air passenger disaster on French soil since the 2000 Concorde accident just outside Paris. Madrid revised down on Thursday the number of Spanish victims to 50 from 51 previously.

As well as Germans and Spaniards, victims included three Americans, a Moroccan and citizens of Britain, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Colombia, Denmark, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Iran and the Netherlands, officials said. However, DNA checks to identify them could take weeks, the French government said.

The families of victims were being flown to Marseille on Thursday before being taken up to the zone close to the crash site. Chapels had been prepared for them with a view of the mountain where their loved ones died.

Source: Reuters

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VIDEO: New detailed images of Germanwings A320 crash site

A plane operated by the budget carrier of Germany's Lufthansa crashed in a remote area of the French Alps on Tuesday, killing all 150 on board in France's worst aviation disaster in decades.

With the cause of the accident a complete mystery, authorities recovered a black box from the Airbus A320 at the crash site, where rescue efforts were being hampered by the mountainous terrain.

Local MP Christophe Castaner, who flew over the crash site, said on Twitter: "Horrendous images in this mountain scenery."

"Nothing is left but debris and bodies. Flying over the crash site with the interior minister - a horror - the plane is totally destroyed."

Video images from a government helicopter flying near the area showed a desolate snow-flecked moonscape, with steep ravines covered in scree.
Budget airline Germanwings said the Airbus plunged for eight minutes but French aviation officials said the plane had made no distress call before crashing near the ski resort of Barcelonnette.



Source: The Telegraph

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Germanwings Airbus crashes in French Alps, 150 dead

An Airbus operated by Lufthansa's (LHAG.DE) Germanwings budget airline crashed in a remote snowy area of the French Alps on Tuesday, killing all 150 on board including 16 school children.

Germanwings confirmed its flight 4U 9525 from Barcelona to Duesseldorf went down with 144 passengers and six crew on board.

The airline believed there were 67 Germans on the flight. Spain's deputy prime minister said 45 passengers had Spanish names. One Belgian was aboard.

Also among the victims were 16 children and two teachers from the Joseph-Koenig-Gymnasium high school in the town of Haltern am See in northwest Germany, a spokeswoman said.

Investigators described a scene of devastation where the airliner crashed.
"We saw an aircraft that had literally been ripped apart, the bodies are in a state of destruction, there is not one intact piece of wing or fuselage," Bruce Robin, prosecutor for the city of Marseille, told Reuters in Seyne-les-Alpes after flying over the crash zone in a helicopter.

French police at the crash site said no one survived and it would take days to recover the bodies due to difficult terrain, snow and incoming storms.

Police said search teams would stay overnight at altitude.

"We are still searching. It's unlikely any bodies will be airlifted until Wednesday," regional police chief David Galtier told Reuters.

In Paris, Prime Minister Manuel Valls told parliament: "A helicopter managed to land (by the crash site) and has confirmed that unfortunately there were no survivors."

It was the first crash of a large passenger jet on French soil since the Concorde disaster just outside Paris nearly 15 years ago. The A320 is a workhorse of worldwide aviation fleets. They are the world’s most used passenger jets and have a good though not unblemished safety record.

SHARP DESCENT

Germanwings said the plane started descending one minute after reaching its cruising height and continued losing altitude for eight minutes.

"The aircraft's contact with French radar, French air traffic controllers, ended at 10.53 am at an altitude of about 6,000 feet. The plane then crashed," Germanwings' Managing Director Thomas Winkelmann told a news conference.

Winkelmann also said that routine maintenance of the aircraft was performed by Lufthansa on Monday.

Experts said that while the Airbus had descended rapidly, its rate of descent did not suggest it had simply fallen out of the sky.

France's DGAC aviation authority said air traffic controllers initiated distress procedures after they lost contact with the Airbus, which did not issue a distress call.

"The aircraft did not itself make a distress call but it was the combination of the loss of radio contact and the aircraft's descent which led the controller to implement the distress phase," a DGAC spokesman said.

The aircraft came down in an alpine region known for skiing, hiking and rafting, but which is hard for rescue services to reach.

The search and rescue effort based itself in a gymnasium in the village of Seyne-les-Alpes, which has a small private aerodrome nearby.

Transport Minister Alain Vidalies told local media: "This is a zone covered in snow, inaccessible to vehicles but which helicopters will be able to fly over."

But as helicopters and emergency vehicles assembled, the weather was reported to be closing in.

STORMS, SNOW, CLOUD

“There will be a lot of cloud cover this afternoon, with local storms, snow above 1,800 meters and relatively low clouds. That will not help the helicopters in their work,” an official from the local weather center told Reuters.

Lufthansa Chief Executive Carsten Spohr, who planned to go to the crash site, spoke of a "dark day for Lufthansa".

"My deepest sympathy goes to the families and friends of our passengers and crew," Lufthansa said on Twitter, citing Spohr.

The airliner crashed about 100 km (65 miles) north of the French Riviera city of Nice. French and German accident investigators were heading for the crash site in Meolans-Revel, a remote and sparsely inhabited commune, not far from the Italian border.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she would travel there on Wednesday. Germanwings and the Catalan regional government were preparing to take Spanish relatives to the site.

Family members arrived at Barcelona’s El Prat airport, many crying and with arms around each others’ shoulders, accompanied by police and airport staff.

King Felipe and Queen Letizia of Spain called off their state visit to France in a sign of mourning for the victims. They had arrived in Paris minutes after the crash happened.

Airbus (AIR.PA) confirmed that the plane was 24 years old, having first been delivered to Germanwings parent Lufthansa in 1991. It was powered by engines made by CFM International, a joint venture between General Electric (GE.N) and France's Safran (SAF.PA).

Source: Reuters

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Singapore’s first Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew dies aged 91

SINGAPORE: Mr Lee Kuan Yew, who was Singapore’s first Prime Minister when the country gained Independence in 1965, has died on Monday (Mar 23) at the age of 91.

"The Prime Minister is deeply grieved to announce the passing of Mr Lee Kuan Yew, the founding Prime Minister of Singapore. Mr Lee passed away peacefully at the Singapore General Hospital today at 3.18am. He was 91," said the PMO.

Arrangements for the public to pay respects and for the funeral proceedings will be announced later, it added.

Mr Lee, who was born in 1923, formed the People’s Action Party in 1954, then became Prime Minister in 1959. He led the nation through a merger with the Federation of Malaysia in 1963, as well as into Independence in 1965. He leaves behind two sons – Lee Hsien Loong and Lee Hsien Yang – and a daughter, Lee Wei Ling.

HIS EARLY YEARS

From early in his life, Mr Lee Kuan Yew had braced himself to face history’s tumultuous tides head-on.

His efforts to build a nation were shaped by his early life experiences.

For the young Lee Kuan Yew, the Japanese Occupation was the single most important event that shaped his political ideology. The depravation, cruelty and humiliation that the war wreaked on people made it clear to Mr Lee that, to control one’s destiny, one had to first gain power.

Born to English-educated parents Lee Chin Koon and Chua Jim Neo, Mr Lee was named “Kuan Yew” which means “light and brightness”, but also “bringing great glory to one’s ancestors”. He was given the English moniker “Harry” by his paternal grandfather.

He continued the family tradition of being educated in English, and read law at Cambridge University after excelling as a student at Raffles College. His experience of being as a colonial subject when he was in England in the late 1940s fuelled his interest in politics, while also sharpening his anti-colonial sentiments.

He said later: “I saw the British people as they were. They treated you as colonials and I resented that. I saw no reason why they should be governing me – they’re not superior. I decided, when I got back, I was going to put an end to this.”

Mr Lee’s political life began right after he returned to Singapore in 1950, when he began acting as a legal adviser and negotiator representing postal workers who were fighting for better pay and working conditions.

He was soon appointed by many more trade unions, including some which were controlled by pro-communists.

In a marriage of convenience to overthrow the British, Mr Lee formed the People’s Action Party in 1954 with these pro-communists and other anti-colonialists.

THE BATTLE FOR MERGER

A key part of winning power at the time was securing the support of the masses, and this meant reaching out to the Chinese-educated, which made up the majority of the population in Singapore. He had taken eight months of Mandarin classes in 1950, and he renewed his Mandarin education five years later, at the age of 32. And within a short time, he had mastered the language sufficiently to address public audiences.

In the mid-1950s, riots broke out that fuelled tensions between the local Government and the communist sympathisers in the Chinese community. A few pro-communist members of the PAP were arrested.

Leading the PAP, Mr Lee fought for their release and ran a campaign against corruption in the 1959 elections for a Legislative Assembly. The PAP won by a landslide, and Mr Lee achieved what he had set out to do – Singapore was self-governing, and he was Prime Minister.

But there were others who would contest the power he acquired, and they had different political agendas. It became apparent that leading Singapore meant having to break ranks with some of his anti-colonial allies – the pro-communists.

Mr Lee said of the pro-communists: “They were not crooks or opportunists but formidable opponents, men of great resolve, prepared to pay the price for the communist cause.”

Mr Lee and his team were well aware of the hard fight they faced against the pro-communists, having seen up close how they could mobilise the masses through riots and strikes to paralyse a Government. And success in this fight depended a lot on Mr Lee’s leadership.

The battle-lines were drawn sharply over the proposal for merger with Malaysia – the non-communists were for it, and the pro-communists were against it.

There were compelling economic reasons for merger, but Mr Lee was also clear about its political necessity. To him, merger was absolutely necessary to prevent Singapore and Malaya being “slowly engulfed and eroded away by the communists”.

He believed that building a common identity between individuals on either side of the Causeway would propel them across racial and religious divides towards a common land. Part of this was making sure that people felt that they are wanted, and not “step-children or step-brothers, but one in the family and a very important member of the family”.

He campaigned relentlessly and tirelessly for merger, speaking over the radio, and in nearly every corner of Singapore. After an intense public contest that pitted him against his political opponents, Mr Lee won and most Singaporeans voted in favour of the union with Malaysia.

On Sep 16, 1963, which coincided with his 40th birthday, Mr Lee declared Singapore’s entry into the Federation of Malaysia.

But this did not mean an easy working relationship between the two sides, and serious differences emerged. Mr Lee wanted a “Malaysian Malaysia”, where Malays and non-Malays were equal, and he would not condone a policy that supported Malay supremacy.

Differences between the two sides grew – from conflicts between personalities and disagreements about a common market, to the PAP’s participation in Malaysia’s general election. Malaysian politicians considered it a breach of understanding for the PAP to take part in mainland politics.

Things came to a head over constitutional rights. Mr Lee addressed the Malaysian Parliament in May 1965, in both English and Malay, laying out his case against communal politics.

But a year after racial riots were sparked off by what Mr Lee called Malay “ultras”, creating a deep divide, Singapore separated from Malaysia on Aug 9, 1965. It was a time of great disappointment for Mr Lee, a moment which he said was one of “anguish” for him.

FROM MUDFLAT TO METROPOLIS

And so it was that Singapore became an independent state that day in 1965, but not by choice. The island’s 2 million people faced an uncertain future, and that uncertainty weighed heavily on the man who was leading it.

Left with no hinterland and hardly any domestic market to speak of, Singapore’s only option was for its leaders to fight hard for its survival.

And despite the daunting task that loomed ahead, Mr Lee chose to set his sights on building a country of the future, and he never veered from that vision. In his own words in September 1965: “Here we make the model multiracial society. This is not a country that belongs to any single community -  it belongs to all of us. This was a mudflat, a swamp. Today, it is a modern city. And 10 years from now, it will be a metropolis – never fear!”

But this difficult task was soon made more challenging by another crisis. In 1968, Britain unexpectedly announced its intention to withdraw its troops from Singapore. Mr Lee and his team now had to confront the prospect of a country without its own security forces. Worse, thousands of workers retrenched from the British bases joined the already large numbers of unemployed in the country.

Mr Lee’s good ties with British leaders led them to extend the departure of their forces to the end of 1971. These military bases contributed 20 per cent to the economy and provided jobs for 70,000 people, and the extension of the pull-out date softened the blow to Singapore’s economy.

In the face of these looming challenges, Mr Lee and his team soldiered on to hold the fledgling country together, and to make it work. The vacated British naval bases were used to boost the economy, and efforts were made to attract investors to set up industries on the former British army land.

To survive what was then a hostile neighbourhood, Mr Lee adopted a two-pronged approach to grow the economy.

First, to leapfrog the region and link up with the developed world, for both capital and market initiatives; and second, to transform Singapore into a “first world oasis in a third world region”. With first-world standards of service and infrastructure, Mr Lee saw the potential for Singapore to become the hub for businesses seeking a foothold in the region.

Mr Lee most likely saw the possibilities for Singapore, including eventually enjoying the world’s highest per-capita income, and becoming a leading business centre for Asia. He would have attributed such success to the confidence of foreign investors drawn to the nation’s amicable industrial relations.

Former President S R Nathan remembers Mr Lee’s focused approach: “He emphasised that his duty was to find ways and means of getting more jobs for people, and it was also the duty of the labour movement to help their fellow workers find jobs. And so for that, we needed industrial peace and a certain balance, not exploitation.”

GETTING THINGS DONE

The National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) was formed in 1961 when the PAP split. Led by Mr Devan Nair, a founding member of the PAP, the NTUC led Singapore’s labour movement away from militant trade unionism to one marked by cooperation.

This made Singapore the first in the world to have a tripartite arrangement where workers, employers and the Government came together to discuss general wage levels. This cooperation contributed significantly to harmonious labour relations and, ultimately, to Singapore’s rapid development in the 1970s and 1980s.

Mr Lee firmly believed that growth and development of the country was in the best interests of the workers and their unions. Speaking in 2011, he said: “In other words, growth is meaningless unless it is shared by the workers, shared not directly in wage increases, but indirectly in better homes, better schools, better hospitals, better playing fields, a healthier environment for their families, and for their children to grow up.”

Singapore’s metamorphosis from mudflat to metropolis was not just a physical transformation. Equally remarkable was the transformation of the psyche of an entire population. Within the span of a few decades, Singaporeans came to be seen as a people who could get things done.

Mr Lee played a big part in that change. From the start, he set the pace for excellence. He once told senior civil servants: “I want to make sure every button works, and if it doesn’t when I happen to be around, then somebody is going to be in for a rough time, because I do not want sloppiness.”

Sprucing up a young nation however was not so straightforward. Besides the challenge of ensuring sufficient security for the country’s borders, Mr Lee and his team had a more fundamental problem to tackle – that of a housing crisis.

HOUSING A NATION

Today, the 50-storey Pinnacle on Cantonment Road stands as an icon in Singapore’s 50-year-old public housing landscape. It is built on the site of one of the earliest public housing projects in the country. But housing in the 1950s was a far cry from what it is today. Slums were common when Singapore achieved self-government in 1959, and there was a full-blown housing crisis.

To meet the nation’s acute housing shortage, the PAP set up the Housing and Development Board in 1960. The aim set for it was to build 10,000 homes a year.

Its predecessor – the Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT) – was highly sceptical that the new board would meet its ambitious target. The SIT itself had built only 20,000 flats in its entire 30-year history.

The stakes were high and the difficulties daunting. The PAP, which had just come into power, needed to deliver results fast and gain the trust and confidence of Singaporeans.

There was doubt even with the Government of whether the HDB could get the job done, and a committee was set up to find out if the board had the capability and the materials to complete 10,000 houses as planned. When the committee published its report, the HDB had already completed 10,000 units of housing.

The HDB’s performance was crucial to the PAP’s re-election in 1963.

But it was more than a question of providing affordable homes for the people. The social motive to do this was equally compelling, and public housing helped tighten the weave of Singapore’s social fabric.

Mr Lee felt that it was important to have a rooted population. He said in 2010: “If you ask people to defend all the big houses where the bosses live, and they live in harbours, I don’t think that’s tenable. So we decided from the very beginning that everybody must have a home, every family will have something to defend, and that home must be owner-owned, but they have to pay by instalments over 20, 25, even 30 years. And that home we developed over the years into their most valuable asset.”

Today, more than 80 per cent of Singaporeans now live in subsidised public flats that they can call their own.

Singaporeans now had a personal stake in their country that went beyond feelings of patriotism. They had a physical space they could call home, and a vested interest to defend it.

National Service, aimed at defending the country and ensuring its borders were safe from external aggression, took on a different dimension.

After independence, Singapore was left with just two battalions of the Singapore Infantry Regiment. There was an urgent need to build a substantial defence force. And so National Service was introduced in 1967, with universal conscription making it compulsory for every male Singapore citizen to serve in the armed forces for about two years. It also contributed to promoting racial harmony.

UNIFIED BY LANGUAGE

In multi-racial Singapore, English is the common language used by all races. Mr Lee saw early on that English would be a unifier that would give Singapore an edge in the international arena.

But he also believed that knowing one’s mother tongue would build a sense of belonging to one’s roots, and increase self-confidence and self-respect. And so he championed bilingualism.

In retrospect, Mr Lee said that bilingualism was his most difficult policy to implement. He later admitted he had been wrong to assume that one could be equally fluent in two languages. He said in 2004: “Had I known all the difficulties of bilingualism in 1965, as I know now today, would I have done differently? Yes, in its implementation, but not in its policy. I don’t regret the stress and heavy burdens I put, because the other way would have been a destruction of the chance of building up some form of culture worth preserving.”

Former senior minister of state Ch’ng Jit Koon lauded Mr Lee’s foresight in creating a bilingual society. “If he did not succeed in bringing through our education system based on bilingual education, we will not have the advantage among other countries to tap on China’s economic trade,” he said in 2008.

Indeed, Mr Lee and his team were very sensitive to issues involving race, knowing how combustible such matters could be. The formative years of the PAP, the battles against communism and extremism and the racial riots he lived through meant that Mr Lee never underestimated the potentially explosive nature of race relations.

When it was time to remove the small, dilapidated mosques built on state land, he did so with caution. His plan was to replace these “suraus” with bigger and better mosques in every housing estate through voluntary contributions from the Malay-Muslim community, creating a sense of ownership and pride.

Mr Lee also took special interest in ensuring that Singapore’s different communities would all have a share in its prosperity. He believed better education was one of the keys to uplifting the Malay community.

Cabinet minister K Shanmugam said it would have been easy for politicians in Singapore to appeal to the sentiments of the majority Chinese community to gain political power. But he felt that part of the success of Singapore is due to leaders like Mr Lee, who shunned racial politics.

In an earlier interview in 2003, Mr Shanmugam said: “I think most sensible people in the Indian community, particularly those who went through the earlier struggles, who are older than me, accepted this - that we have the space and we have far more liberty and opportunity in Singapore than we would have if we were 6 per cent in any other society, including India, where many of the so-called upper caste Indians in Singapore would not have had a chance.”

Mr Lee Hsien Loong said that the elder Mr Lee remembered the situation that had existed in Malaysia before Singapore became an independent state. “After we became independent, a point that he always reiterated was – never do to the minorities in Singapore that which happened to us when we were a minority in Malaysia. Always make sure that the Malays, the Indians have their space, can live their way of life, and have full equal opportunities and are not discriminated against. And at the same time, help them to upgrade, improve, move forward,” he said in 2013.

CLEAN AND GREEN

Singapore is widely known for being a clean city, both in terms of its environment as well as governance. It is the least corrupt country in Asia, and according to the World Bank, it is one of the most preferred places in the world to do business.

But it was not always graft-free. Corruption was widely prevalent when Singapore was still a British colony. In the 1959 election, the PAP, then the opposition, campaigned against the Government’s corrupt practices. Mr Lee said at the time: “I am convinced that we will thrive and flourish, provided there is an honest and effective Government here.”

The PAP’s anti-corruption position resonated well with the voters. When the PAP Government took office, Mr Lee and his team turned up in all-white as a promise to the people that their leaders will not stand for corruption and will be “whiter than white”.

Over the years, the leadership’s zero tolerance for corruption earned Singapore a reputation for having a clean and effective Government. Establishing rule of law, public security and safety were fundamental to the success of the PAP.

Mr Lee applied the effort to stay clean to the island’s physical transformation as well. From the outset, he was adamant that urban development in the country did not proceed haphazardly. He had seen how a lack of planning had marred other cities, and was determined that Singapore did not make the same mistake.

Observers say this focus on paving the foundation for Singapore to have a first world environment while becoming a first world economy led to the good environment actually becoming an economic asset. And some felt that the efforts to green Singapore gave a certain softness and calmness to the country, and was not just an aesthetic benefit but spoke to the soul of Singaporeans.

Mr Lee expressed his passion for greening Singapore in practical ways. He planted a tree every year, a tradition he started in 1963. This kicked off an island-wide tree-planting initiative and launched Tree Planting Day, a national campaign that helped Singapore earn its reputation as a Garden City.

Mr Lee wrote in his memoirs: “After independence, I searched for some dramatic way to distinguish Singapore from other Third World countries and settled for a clean and green Singapore. Greening is the most cost-effective project I have launched.”

Mr Lee’s original vision of a Garden City evolved over the years into the concept of a City in a Garden, with about 2 million trees planted around the island.

In June 2012, this transformation was celebrated with the opening of the Gardens by the Bay.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said this was just one example of how Singapore’s living environment is being transformed. “It may be a densely populated city, maybe one of the densest in the world, but we are determined that our people should be able to live comfortably, pleasantly, graciously. Not just good homes, efficient public transport or safe streets, but also be in touch with nature, never far from green spaces and blue waters,” he said in 2012.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew was not known to be sentimental about buildings or landmarks, and he was practical yet ambitious about transforming the nation’s landscape, even when it came to defying nature.

And one of his most important initiatives started in 1977, and involved the Singapore River – historically the lifeblood of the economy and the centre of commercial activity.

The river had been the conduit for Singapore’s entrepot trade, allowing for the movement of goods from the port to the city. Over the years, it had degenerated into a filthy, congested, polluted waterway. The industries along its banks had been dumping sewage and garbage into its waters. The water was badly polluted and caused a stench in the area.

Mr Lee’s proposal was perceived as a monumental feat: A clean-up of the entire river.

The rebirth of the Singapore River took 10 years to complete, and today, it is not only glistening again, but its banks are also bustling with trendy restaurants, clubs and offices, and fish have even returned.

The Singapore River, now part of the Marina reservoir, is a constant reminder of the man who defied time and tide. Its transformation mirrors the fascinating evolution of a small backwater into a thriving global metropolis, and its currents echo the ebb and flow of one man’s life as he turned an impossible dream into reality.

In Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s own words: “You begin your journey not knowing where it will take you. You have plans, you have dreams, but every now and again you have to take uncharted roads, face impassable mountains, cross treacherous rivers, be blocked by landslides and earthquakes. That’s the way my life has been.”

Source: Channel NewsAsia

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Condition of Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's founding father, deteriorates

Singapore's former prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew pictured in 2013 at the Standard Chartered Forum in Singapore. Mr. Lee was admitted to Singapore General Hospital's intensive care unit in February. Photo: Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

The health of Singapore's first prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, who has been in hospital with pneumonia since February 5, has deteriorated further, the government said Wednesday.

The Prime Minister's office had said Tuesday that Lee, 91, who is on a ventilator in the intensive care unit of Singapore General Hospital, had an infection and was being treated with antibiotics.

"Mr Lee Kuan Yew remains critically ill in the ICU and has deteriorated further," the office said in its latest update.

Later Wednesday, a top government spokesman dismissed as a hoax a report that Singapore's founding father had died. A message about Lee's supposed demise, purporting to be from the current Prime Minister, had circulated online. "We have reported this to the police and they are investigating this hoax. Our website was not hacked, it was a doctored image," Farah Rahim, senior director for the Singapore Ministry of Communications and Information said.

Born in 1923, Lee co-founded the city state in 1965 when it declared its independence from Malaysia and was its prime minister for more than three decades.

Lee was succeeded as prime minister by Goh Chok Tong in 1990, before Lee Kuan Yew's son Lee Hsien Loong took power in August 2004.

The elder Lee has been credited with Singapore's remarkable transformation from a colonial trading post to a prosperous financial center.

However, he has also been a divisive figure, attracting criticism for stifling media freedom and for the harsh treatment of political opponents.

Source: CNN

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BREAKING: Gunmen storm Tunisian museum, kill 2 Tunisians, 17 foreign tourists

Tunisian security forces secure the area after gunmen attacked Tunis' famed Bardo Museum on March 18, 2015.

Tunisian security forces secure the area after gunmen attacked Tunis' famed Bardo Museum on March 18, 2015.

Members of the Tunisian security services take up a position after gunmen reportedly took hostages near the country's parliament, outside the National Bardo Museum, Tunis, March 18, 2015.

Tourists and visitors from the Bardo museum are evacuated in Tunis, March 18, 2015.

Members of the Tunisian security services outside the National Bardo Museum, March 18, 2015.

A Tunisian security force helicopter flies over the site of an attack carried out by two gunmen at Bardo national Museum on March 18, 2015 in Tunis.

(Reuters) - Gunmen in military uniforms stormed Tunisia's national museum, killing 17 foreign tourists and two Tunisians on Wednesday in one of the worst militant attacks in a country that has largely escaped the region's "Arab Spring" turmoil.

Visitors from Italy, Germany, Poland and Spain were among the dead in the noon assault on the Bardo museum near parliament in central Tunis, Prime Minister Habib Essid said.

Security forces stormed the former palace around two hours later, killed two militants and freed other tourists held hostage inside, a government spokesman said. One policeman was killed in the police operation.
European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said Islamic State militants, who have become particularly active in neighboring Libya, were behind the attack. "The EU is determined to mobilize all the tools it has to fully support Tunisia in the fight against terrorism," she added.

Prime Minister Essid declared in a national address:

"All Tunisians should be united after this attack which was aimed at destroying the Tunisian economy."

Television footage showed dozens of people, including elderly foreigners and one man carrying a child, running for shelter in the compound, covered by security forces aiming rifles into the air.

The attack on such a high-profile target is a blow for the small North African country that relies heavily on European tourism and has largely avoided major militant violence since its 2011 uprising to oust autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali.

Tunisia's uprising inspired "Arab Spring" revolts in neighboring Libya and in Egypt, Syria and Yemen. But its adoption of a new constitution and staging of largely peaceful elections had won widespread praise and stood in stark contrast to the chaos that has plagued those countries.

Authorities did not immediately identify the gunmen.

But several Islamist militant groups have emerged in Tunisia since the uprising and authorities estimate about 3,000 Tunisians have also joined fighters in Iraq and Syria -- raising fears they could return and mount attacks at home.

"Two terrorists disguised in military clothes got into the parliament building, then the museum where they attacked tourists. Nineteen people were killed including 17 foreign tourists. Twenty-two tourists are wounded," the prime minister said.

ARAB SPRING REVOLTS

"Two militants opened fire on the tourists as they were getting off the buses before fleeing into the museum," one Bardo employee told Reuters at the scene.

An official at the Italian foreign ministry in Rome said two Italians had been wounded in the attack.

About another 100 Italians were in the area and had been taken to safety by Tunisian police, authorities added.

The museum is known for its collection of ancient Tunisian artifacts and mosaics and other treasures from classical Rome and Greece. There were no immediate reports the attackers had copied Islamic State militants in Iraq by targeting exhibits seen by hardliners as idolatrous.

Islamic State affiliates are gaining a foothold in neighboring Libya where two rival governments are battling for control. A senior Tunisian militant was killed while fighting for Islamic State in the Libyan city of Sirte over the past week, authorities said.

Wednesday's assault was the worst attack involving foreigners in Tunisia since an al Qaeda suicide bombing on a synagogue killed 21 people on the tourist island of Djerba in 2002.

Source: Reuters

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ISIS overtakes Iraq's largest Christian city

Many of the Iraqi Christians who fled the violence have arrived in the Kurdish city of Erbil

Iraq's largest Christian town has been overrun by the same militant Islamists who have gained a foothold in parts of eastern Syria and western and northern Iraq.

The latest advance by ISIS (or the Islamic State, formerly known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) has caused thousands of Christians in the city to flee, just as other minority groups targeted by ISIS have done, as well as Shiite Muslims.

The French government confirmed that the Iraqi city of Qaraqosh has fallen into the hands of the militant al Qaeda offshoot.

"France is highly concerned about the latest progress of ISIS in the North of Iraq and by the taking of Qaraqosh, the largest Christian city of Iraq, and the horrible acts of violence that are committed," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said in a statement.

France called for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council to discuss the threat in Iraq.

The exodus from Qaraqosh was already under way, as the city and its surroundings have been the target of ISIS attacks for weeks.

When ISIS took over Mosul, many residents from there had fled to Qaraqosh. In Mosul, ISIS issued an ultimatum to Christians living there: Convert to Islam, pay a fine or face "death by the sword."

Three other nearby villages were also attacked overnight and Thursday, local police officials told CNN. Two of the villages -- Bartella and Tall Kayf -- are predominately Christian. Hundreds of Christian families fled to the north, police said.

The third village is Hamadaniya.

Kurdish forces were involved in heavy clashes protecting the area from ISIS.

ISIS seeks to create an Islamic caliphate that stretches from Syria to Iraq. The group has aggressively targeted Iraqi minority religious groups.

Nickolay Mladenov, the special representative of the U.N. secretary-general for Iraq, last month condemned the persecution of Christians, Shia Muslims and Yazidis, as well as the Shabak and Turkmen ethnic minorities.

The Pentagon is considering conducting emergency air drops to the thousands of stranded Yazidis in northern Iraq, a U.S. Defense official told CNN Thursday.

A spokesman for Pope Francis, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said on Thursday that the pontiff is deeply concerned about the reports coming from northern Iraq.

"Christian communities are particularly affected: a people fleeing from their villages because of the violence that rages in these days, wreaking havoc on the entire region," Lombardi said in a statement.

Lombardi quoted a prayer the Pope offered last month, expressing to the persecuted that "I know how much you suffer, I know that you are deprived of everything."

Most Iraqi Christians are Chaldeans, who are Roman Catholic communicants.

Source: CNN

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WARNING: GRAPHIC - ISIS terrorists release shocking video showing the beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians

WARNING: GRAPHIC VIDEO. WATCH AT YOUR OWN RISK.

The video shows ISIS fighters dressed head to toe in black, marching the captives, all wearing orange jumpsuits, to a beach.

The 21 men can be seen being forced onto their knees before they are beheaded by the militants standing behind them.

A caption on the five-minute video read: 'The people of the cross, followers of the hostile Egyptian church.
 

WATCH:





Source: Asian Town
   

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ISIS video shows beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians

In a new propaganda video released Sunday by ISIS, the militant group claims to have beheaded over a dozen members of Egypt's Coptic Christian minority on a Libyan beach.

The highly produced video shows an apparent mass execution with jihadists in black standing behind each of the victims, who are all are dressed in orange jumpsuits with their hands cuffed behind them.



The five-minute video, released by the terror group's propaganda wing al-Hayat Media, includes a masked English-speaking jihadi who says, "The sea you have hidden Sheikh Osama bin Laden's body in, we swear to Allah, we will mix it with your blood."

Then on cue, all the victims are pushed to the ground and beheaded.







ISIS has imposed its brutal rule on the large areas of Iraq and Syria that it controls, but the beheadings of the Egyptians appears to have been carried out by an affiliate of the militant group in Libya.

Egypt's President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi confirmed in a statement that Egyptian "martyrs" had fallen victim to terrorism and expressed his condolences to the Egyptian people.

El-Sisi called for an urgent meeting of the Council of National Defense and declared seven days of official mourning.

   



Twenty-one Egyptian Christians were kidnapped in the Libyan coastal city of Sirte in two separate incidents in December and January. Officials said all of them had been killed.

El-Sisi said Egypt reserves the right to retaliate for the killings, according to the state-run website Ahram Online.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry on Sunday after the grisly video emerged.

"The secretary offered his condolences on behalf of the American people and strongly condemned the despicable act of terror," the State Department said. "Secretary Kerry and Foreign Minister Shoukry agreed to keep in close touch as Egyptians deliberated on a response."

The White House also condemned the attack, saying ISIS' "barbarity knows no bounds."

"This wanton killing of innocents is just the most recent of the many vicious acts perpetrated by ISIL-affiliated terrorists against the people of the region," White House press secretary Josh Earnest said in a statement, using an alternative acronym for ISIS.

Members of the U.N. Security Council strongly condemned what they called "the heinous and cowardly apparent murder" of the 21 Egyptians.

"This crime once again demonstrates the brutality of ISIL, which is responsible for thousands of crimes and abuses against people from all faiths, ethnicities and nationalities, and without regard to any basic value of humanity," the U.N. statement said.

Coptic Christians are part of the Orthodox Christian tradition, one of three main traditions under the Christian umbrella, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism. Copts split from other Christians in the fifth century over the definition of the divinity of Jesus Christ.

Copts trace their history to the Apostle Mark, the New Testament figure who they say introduced Christianity to Egypt in A.D. 43. Egypt holds a special place for Coptic Christians because, according to the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus' family fled there shortly after his birth to escape King Herod, who was calling for the execution of all Jewish boys younger than 2.

The largest group of Copts in the world is still in Egypt, where they make up between 8% and 11% of the nation's 80 million citizens, most of whom are Sunni Muslims.

In the United States, there are approximately 90,000 Copts organized under 170 parishes, according to the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the United States.

Source: CNN News

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ISIS video purports to show beheading of Japanese hostage Kenji Goto

Islamic State (Isis) has released a video purportedly showing the beheading of the Japanese journalist Kenji Goto and containing a warning that Japan is now a target for the militants.

The video, called A Message to the Government of Japan, showed a militant who looked and sounded like a man with a British accent who has taken part in other Isis beheadings.

The man, armed with a knife and dressed head-to-toe in black with his face covered, stands behind Goto before beheading him.

Goto, kneeling in an orange prison jumpsuit, said nothing in the video, which lasts about a minute. No mention was made of Muath al-Kasasbeh, a Jordanian pilot who was seized by Isis after his jet crashed in north-east Syria in December during a bombing mission against the Islamist insurgents.

Japan immediately condemned the apparent execution of Goto after days of attempts to secure his release.

Speaking soon after the video went online early on Sunday morning, the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, said Japan would not give in to terrorism but would work with the international community to bring Goto’s killers to justice.

The chief cabinet secretary, Yoshihide Suga, described Goto’s apparent murder as “despicable”.

“I cannot help feeling strong indignation that an inhuman and despicable act of terrorism like this has been committed again,” Suga said. “We resolutely condemn this.”

Suga said officials were trying to verify the video’s authenticity, adding that cabinet ministers would meet to discuss the government’s response.

The US also condemned Goto’s apparent beheading. Barack Obama said: “Standing together with a broad coalition of allies and partners, the United States will continue taking decisive action to degrade and ultimately destroy Isil [Isis].”

The British prime minister, David Cameron, described the killing as “despicable and appalling” and added: “Britain stands united with Japan at this tragic time and we will do all we can to hunt down these murderers and bring them to justice, however long it takes.

“I welcome Prime Minister Abe’s steadfast commitment to continue Japan’s active role, working with international partners, to secure peace, stability and prosperity in the Middle East. The humanitarian aid they are providing in the region is a vital part of helping the local communities that are being persecuted by the same Isil terrorists who murdered our innocent men.”

Isis had offered to release Goto in exchange for Sajida al-Rishawi, an Iraqi terrorist who faces execution for her part in suicide bombings in Jordan in 2005.

An audio message purportedly from Goto earlier this week said Kasasbeh would be killed if Jordan did not free Rishawi, whose device failed to detonate during a string of suicide bombings that killed 60 people.

Negotiations conducted with the help of local tribal leaders became deadlocked, however, after Jordan insisted on seeing proof that Kasasbeh was still alive before releasing Rishawi, and that the pilot also be part of any prisoner swap.

In the latest Isis video, a Jihadi with a British accent issues a chilling warning to Abe, who has publicly backed coalition strikes against Isis and recently pledged $200m (£130m) in non-military aid to the campaign.

Addressing Abe, the militant says: “Because of your reckless decision to take part in an unwinnable war, this knife will not only slaughter Kenji but will also carry on and cause carnage wherever your people are found. So let the nightmare for Japan begin.”

The video, released on militant websites on Saturday night, bore the symbol of the Islamic State group’s al-Furqan media arm.

Though it could not be immediately verified, it conformed to other beheading videos released by Isis, which controls a third of both Syria and neighbouring Iraq in its self-declared caliphate.

Goto, 47, a veteran war correspondent, was captured in October after he travelled to Syria to try to win the release of Haruna Yukawa, a self-styled security consultant whom Goto had met in Syria last April. Yukawa, 42, was reportedly beheaded last weekend.

Japan’s hostage crisis began almost two weeks ago after militants threatened to kill Goto and Yukawa in 72 hours unless Japan paid $200m – the same sum Abe had pledged to countries affected by the war against Isis.

Japan does not have any military involvement in the campaign against Isis and has stressed in recent days that the assistance was purely humanitarian.

Source: The Guardian

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Gas blast wrecks Mexico children's hospital, killing 3

Rescue workers comb through the rubble of a children's hospital after a gas truck exploded, in Cuajimalpa on the outskirts of Mexico City, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2015. The powerful explosion shattered the hospital on the western edge of Mexico's capital, killing at least three adults and one baby and injuring dozens. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Injured and bleeding, mothers grasping infants in their arms fled from a maternity hospital shattered by a powerful gas explosion Thursday, and rescuers began smashing sledgehammers through fallen concrete hunting for others who might be trapped.

A nurse and a baby died in the blast and a second infant died Thursday night, Mexico City authorities said. More than 70 people were injured in the blast that collapsed about three-fourths of the hospital, but by late in the day rescuers determined no one was left trapped in the rubble.

Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said some of the injured were about to be released from area hospitals, including some mothers who suffered injuries while using their bodies to shield their children.

A 25-year-old nurse and a newborn between 2 and 3 weeks old died at the scene and another infant died several hours later at another pediatric hospital, said Armando Ahued, the city's health secretary. He had said earlier that 21 babies in all had been injured, and nine of those and seven adults were in serious condition after being rushed to other hospitals.

Thirty-five-year-old Felicitas Hernandez wept as she frantically questioned people outside the wrecked building, hoping for word of her month-old baby, who had been hospitalized since birth with respiratory problems.

"They wouldn't let me sleep with him," said Hernandez, who had come to the city-run Maternity and Children's Hospital of Cuajimalpa because she had no money. Later, authorities told her to check at another hospital where she reported finding her baby uninjured.

Part of the building collapsed after an explosion in a Mexico City maternity hospital. At least two deaths reported pic.twitter.com/3X6yCGfgzV
— Enrique Acevedo (@Enrique_Acevedo) January 29, 2015

The explosion occurred at 7:05 a.m. when a tanker truck was making a routine delivery of gas to the hospital kitchen and gas started to leak. Witnesses said the tanker workers struggled frantically for 15 or 20 minutes to repair the leak while a large cloud of gas formed.

"The hose broke. The two gas workers tried to stop it, but they were very nervous. They yelled for people to get out," said Laura Diaz Pacheco, a laboratory technician.

"Everyone's initial reaction was to go inside, away from the gas," she added. "Maybe as many as 10 of us were able to get out ... The rest stayed inside."

Workers on the truck yelled: "Call the firefighters, call the firefighters!" said anesthesiologist Agustin Herrera.

People started to evacuate the hospital, and then came a devastating explosion that sent up an enormous fireball and plumes of dust and smoke. Herrera saw injured mothers walking out carrying babies. Officials said 110 people were inside the 35-bed hospital when the truck blew up.

"We avoided a much bigger tragedy because the oxygen tanks right beside (the area) didn't explode," Herrera said.

The worst hit parts of the hospital were the neonatology, reception and emergency reception units, he said.




Margarita Palma of Amexgas, a trade association of Mexico's propane distributors, said 80 percent of Mexicans use propane rather than natural gas delivered by mains. Liquified propane, which is highly explosive, is distributed to homes and businesses either by trucks like the one that exploded or in cylinders, she said.

Homes next to the hospital had broken and cracked windows and fallen shingles from the blast, and many neighbors ran to help evacuate victims from the debris, local resident Carlos Soria Rezendiz said.

Miguel Angel Garcia smoked a cigarette outside Hospital ABC-Santa Fe, trying to calm his nerves while he waited to see his wife and new baby daughter, who had been moved there.

Garcia, 22, had been driving a transit bus when he heard about the explosion at the hospital where his wife had given birth to their second child just the day before. He dropped off his passengers, then his bus and took off for the hospital.

"When I arrived and saw it in pieces, I thought the worst," Garcia said. He waited for an hour before authorities told him his wife and daughter had been taken to the other hospital in the nearby neighborhood of Santa Fe. A nurse there told him both were fine, but he hadn't been allowed to see them yet.

As the day wore on, people arrived at Hospital ABC offering diapers and baby formula. There was an hour-long wait to donate blood.

It was the closest hospital to the explosion and received 31 patients, including 17 children.

There were seven babies with serious injuries in intensive care, said Dr. Moises Zielanowski, the hospital's director of operations, as well as four adults in serious condition. Injuries included burns, fractures and bruises.

He said the hospital was working to identify six of the babies who arrived unaccompanied and without identification.

The gas truck driver and two other employees of the Express Nieto company were hospitalized but were in custody, Mancera said. He said the company has provided gas to all the city's public hospitals since 2007.

The incident prompted tweets from President Enrique Pena Nieto to Pope Francis, who wrote, "We are praying for the victims of the explosion in Cuajimalpa, Mexico."

Source: Yahoo! News

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WARNING: GRAPHIC VIDEO - SAF casualties in Maguindanao now 50, names of 41 released

PNP-SAF members were killed in an encounter in Maguindanao, 25 January 2015. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/InterAksyon.com

COTABATO CITY – The number of casualties from the Philippine National Police-Special Action Force (PNP-SAF) in the encounter between the police and members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Tukalinapao, Mamasapano, Maguindanao has now reached 50.

This was confirmed by Senior Superintendent Noel Armilla, PNP director for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), Monday morning.

The ARMM police has also released 41 names of the PNP-SAF killed in action in Maguindanao.

The number of casualties is expected to rise as monitoring continues in the area, said Armilla.

It is said that six of the 50 are officials.

Maguindanao remains on alert.

The PNP-SAF was aiming to arrest Zulkifli Bin Hir alias Marwan and Basit Usman, each with a bounty of 5 million US dollars on their head.

The entire Central Mindanao has been enveloped in sadness due to what people are now calling a new Maguindanao massacre.

A resident in the area who requested anonymity took this video and gave it to InterAksyon.com.

WATCH:
 

Source: InterAksyon
 
 
 
 

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PNP recovers 49 bodies of slain cops

BLOODY SUNDAY. Philippine police commandos unload body bags containing the remains of their comrades killed in a clash with Muslim rebels in Maguindanao on Sunday, January 25. Photo by Mark Navales/AFP

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine National Police recovered 49 bodies of slain members of the Special Action Force (SAF) in Maguindanao, according to the regional police headquarters of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

In a text message sent to reporters Monday, January 26, the operations center of the PNP-ARMM said that as of 11:54 am on Monday, the “actual body count of PNP SAF [killed] is 49.”

The report added: “The cadavers were brought to 6th ID, PA headquarters, for proper disposition,” referring to the headquarters of the Army's 6th infantry division in Cotabato City.

Military sources said that 10 more SAF members were reported missing and that at least one civilian was killed.

In a press conference in Maguindanao at 3:30 pm Monday, Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas said at least 43 SAF members were killed based on official reports.

American soldiers based in Cotabato under a Philippine-US defense agreement assisted Philippine troops in carrying the dead and the wounded.

The Sunday, January 25, clashes in Mamasapano town, Maguindanao, tested a nearly one-year-old peace accord between the Aquino government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). An MILF spokesman earlier said they suffered 5 casualties.
AMERICAN ASSISTANCE. US soldiers help their Philippine counterparts during retrieval operations on Monday, January 26, in Maguindanao. Photo by Mark Navales/AFP

AMERICAN ASSISTANCE. US soldiers help their Philippine counterparts during retrieval operations on Monday, January 26, in Maguindanao. Photo by Mark Navales/AFP

The SAF's target was alleged Malaysian bomb maker Zulkifli Abdhir, better known as "Marwan," who survived a 2012 military airstrike that was meant to kill him in Sulu. (READ: Dead or alive? Top terrorist was cops' target)

But Mamasapano is an MILF bailiwick, and the MILF said the SAF attacked the area without coordinating with them.

It is the first major encounter between the MILF and government troops since the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro last year. Advocates are hoping that the incident will not affect the talks.

The cops sought reinforcement but the military did not get involved, based on reports, until it had coordinated with the Coordinating Committee on Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH) and the Adhoc Joint Action Group (AHJAG). These are the bodies that help maintain the ceasefire between the government and the MILF.

The MILF area is also difficult to penetrate. It is a marshy area that is about 15 kilometers away from the highway.

Source: Rappler

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Missing AirAsia flight QZ8501 believed to have crashed in Belitung waters

Family members of passengers of missing AirAsia Indonesia flight QZ8501 gather at Juanda international airport in Surabaya in East Java on Dec 28, 2014, hours after news broke that the flight went missing.
PHOTO: AFP

AirAsia flight QZ8501 from Surabaya to Singapore is believed to have crashed at the location 03.22.46 South and 108.50.07 East, in waters around 80-100 nautical miles from Belitung, a National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) official has said.

According to The Jakarta Post via AsiaOne, Basarnas Pangkalpinang spokesperson Supriandi said, as reported by Antara news agency on Sunday, that it had dispatched a rescue team to Belitung.

It is believed that the Airbus A320 had circled over the sea near Belitung to avoid a storm before it experienced severe turbulence and crashed into the ocean.

QZ8502 is reported to have had 155 passengers and seven cabin crew on board. The passengers included 16 children.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong had written on his Facebook page: "Sorry to learn that an AirAsia aircraft from Surabaya to Singapore has gone missing.

"We don't have many details yet, but have offered our help to the Indonesian authorities. Our thoughts are with the passengers and their families."

He added: "Called President Joko Widodo to express concern and offer help. Two RSAF C-130 search and locate aircrafts are on standby, ready to go. Our ministers are following up."

Sources: Stomp, AsiaOne

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AirAsia flight QZ8501: Plane en route from Surabaya to Singapore lost contact with air traffic

An Air Asia flight travelling from Surabaya to Singapore has lost contact with air traffic control, Metro TV reported on Sunday. -- PHOTO: ST FILE

An AirAsia Indonesia plane travelling from Surabaya to Singapore lost contact with air traffic control on Sunday morning.

Flight QZ8501 has 155 passengers and seven crew members on board. The passengers include 149 Indonesians, one Singaporean, one British, one Malaysian and three Koreans.

"AirAsia Indonesia regrets to confirm that flight QZ8501 from Surabaya to Singapore has lost contact with air traffic control at 07:24 hrs this morning,'' said an airline statement.

"At the present time, we unfortunately have no further information regarding the status of the passengers and crew members on board.

"Search and rescue operations are in progress and AirAsia is cooperating fully and assisting the rescue service,'' said the airline.

The Airbus A320-200 left Juanda international airport in Surabaya in east Java at 5.20am and was expected to arrive in Singapore at 8.30am (0030 GMT).

Joko Muryo Atmodjo, air transportation director at the Transport Ministry, told a news conference that the aircraft was between the Indonesian port of Tanjung Pandan and the town of Pontianak, in West Kalimantan on Borneo island, when it went missing.

"We are coordinating with rescue team and looking for its position. We believe it is somewhere between Tanjung Pandan, a town on Belitung island, and Kalimantan," AFP quoted Indonesia's air transportation director-general Djoko Murjatmodjo as saying.

Airforce spokesman Marsma Hadi Tjahjanto confirmed that the air force was using the last point of contact to conduct an air search. He said the air force radar recorded the weather at the time as cloudy, Sydney Morning Herald reported.

AirAsia has established an Emergency Call Centre for family or friends of those who may have been on board the flight. The number is +622 1298-50801. 

Source:  The Straits Times 

An Air Asia flight travelling from Surabaya to Singapore has lost contact with air traffic control, Metro TV reported on Sunday. -- PHOTO: ST FILE - See more at: http://www.straitstimes.com/news/asia/south-east-asia/story/air-asia-flight-bound-singapore-lost-contact-air-traffic-report-2014#sthash.nkux4oyY.dpuf

An Air Asia flight travelling from Surabaya to Singapore has lost contact with air traffic control, Metro TV reported on Sunday. -- PHOTO: ST FILE - See more at: http://www.straitstimes.com/news/asia/south-east-asia/story/air-asia-flight-bound-singapore-lost-contact-air-traffic-report-2014#sthash.nkux4oyY.dpuf

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