Agency Reporter

United States (U.S.) plane manufacturer Boeing has recommended grounding all of the 777-model aircraft, which have the same type of engine that suffered failure and shed debris over Denver on Saturday.

It said 128 jets should be suspended until inspections are carried out.

United Airlines and Japan’s two main operators have already stopped using 56 planes with the same engine.

Flight 328, carrying 231 passengers, was forced to make an emergency landing at Denver airport. No-one was injured.

“While (an) investigation is ongoing, we recommended suspending operations of the 69 in-service and 59 in-storage 777 aircraft powered by Pratt & Whitney 4000-112 engines,” the company said in a statement.

Pratt & Whitney said it had dispatched a team to work with investigators.

According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), United is the only US airline flying this model of 777, with the others being in Japan and South Korea.

Korean Air, which has six planes in operation and 10 in storage, said it was awaiting instruction from South Korean regulators regarding any measures for its 777 jets.

United Flight 328, bound for Honolulu, suffered a failure in its right-hand engine. Debris from the jet was found scattered over a nearby residential area after it returned to Denver airport.

The agency has ordered extra inspections of Boeing 777 jets fitted with the Pratt & Whitney 4000 engine following the incident. “We reviewed all available safety data following [Saturday’s] incident,” said FAA administrator Steve Dickson in a statement.

“Based on the initial information, we concluded that the inspection interval should be stepped up for the hollow fan blades that are unique to this model of engine, used solely on Boeing 777 airplanes.”

The FAA met representatives from the engine firm and Boeing on Sunday evening.

The initial finding of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is that most of the damage occurred in the right engine, where two fan blades were fractured and other blades also impacted. The main body of the aeroplane suffered only minor damage.

The engine failure is the another blow for Boeing after its 737 Max aircraft was grounded for 18 months, following two aviation accidents that left 346 people dead.

Aircraft engine failures are rare. Uncontained failures, where debris can erupt from the engine in any direction are mercifully very rare indeed. But an uncontained failure is also much more dangerous.

A modern twin-engine airliner is designed to be able to fly safely for hours using a single engine.

The shrapnel from an uncontained failure, however, can cause serious damage to the rest of the plane, and if it passes through the cabin, it can be lethal. Experts say the failure in the Denver incident appears to have been uncontained, but the damage to the aircraft itself was thankfully minor.

Agency Reporter

A baby shark with a “human face” has caused a bit of online hubbub in Indonesia Tuesday, after a fisherman from Rote Ndao, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) said he found the peculiar creature after cutting up its mother recently.

The bizarre discovery only came to light after the fisherman, identified as 48-year-old Abdullah Fero, went home to cut an adult shark he had caught in his trawl while night fishing over the weekend. Abdullah later told local media outlets that he found three pups in its stomach.

While two of the pups looked like normal sharks, the other pup had two big eyes under its snout and a big mouth, making it appear much like a human.

“I was surprised because I have gone around fishing, even almost crossing Australian waters, but I have never found a shark looking like this,” Abdullah said.

The fisherman said he has since preserved the unique-looking baby shark, which is now drawing curious locals to his home. In addition, photos and videos of the pup are circulating widely online. Abdullah also said someone has offered to pay him for it.

The Natural Resources Conservation Center (BKSDA) in NTT has yet to respond to Coconuts’ request for comment about the discovery at the time of publication.

Shark fishing is still allowed in Indonesia despite sharks being listed as an endangered species. Indonesian law currently only fully protects the whale shark, also known by its latin name Rhyncodon typus. It is not immediately clear which shark species Abdullah had caught.

A new study published just last month found that overfishing has wiped out over 70 percent of some shark and ray populations in the last half-century. Experts have warned for years that uncontrollable declines in shark population will affect both ocean and human lives.

(www.newsnow.co.uk)

Ugandan opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi, better known by his stage name Bobi Wine, said yesterday that he will withdraw his petition at the Supreme Court challenging January’s re-election of President Yoweri Museveni.

Wine alleged bias in the court toward Museveni, who has ruled Uganda since 1986, and said his side was not being allowed to present evidence of fraud in the vote.

In announcing his decision yesterday, Wine said authorities had blocked his attempt to present a case, citing the police lockdown of his party’s offices, and the military denying access to his lawyers and officials of his National Unity Platform party.

He also accused the Supreme Court of rejecting as many as 200 affidavits.

Wine said this is a sign the judiciary does not intend to serve justice in the matter and they would not participate in what he called mockery to justice.

“The Supreme Court said, we could only submit, in this our petition, for 30 minutes. Now, that was clear, one, the Supreme Court did not want this matter to attract so much attention. So, for that matter, for the reasons we’ve given above, we have decided to withdraw from their court. The courts are not independent; it’s clear that these people are working for Mr. Museveni,” he said.

Through his lawyers, Wine filed the petition on February 1st seeking to nullify the election that saw President Museveni win a sixth term with 58 percent of the votes.

They also asked the court to ensure that Museveni can never run again in an election, accusing him of orchestrating violence, using soldiers to pre-tick ballots and invade polling stations.

Jameson Karemani, the court registrar, said the court is not bothered by Wine’s allegations of favoritism.

He said once the court receives the application to withdraw the petition, judges will decide on the matter, but it will be conditional.

Former United States (U.S.) President Donald Trump suffered a major setback in his long quest to conceal details of his finances as the country’s Supreme Court paved the way for a New York City prosecutor to obtain the former president’s tax returns and other financial records as part of a criminal investigation.

The justices without comment rebuffed Trump’s request to put on hold an October 7 lower court ruling directing the Republican businessman-turned-politician’s longtime accounting firm, Mazars USA, to comply with a subpoena to turn over the materials to a grand jury convened by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, a Democrat.

“The work continues,” Vance said in a statement issued after the court’s action.

Vance had previously said in a letter to Trump’s lawyers that his office would be free to immediately enforce the subpoena if the justices rejected Trump’s request.

A lawyer for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority included three Trump appointees, had already ruled once in the dispute, last July rejecting Trump’s broad argument that he was immune from criminal probes as a sitting president.

Unlike all other recent U.S. presidents, Trump refused during his four years in office to make his tax returns public. The data could provide details on his wealth and the activities of his family real-estate company, the Trump Organisation.

Members of Malcolm X’s family have made public what they described as a letter written by a deceased police officer stating that the New York Police Department and FBI were behind the 1965 killing of the famed Black activist and civil rights advocate.

Malcolm X was a powerful orator who rose to prominence as the national spokesman of the Nation of Islam, an African-American Muslim group that espoused Black separatism. He spent more than a decade with the group before becoming disillusioned and publicly breaking with it in 1964. He moderated some of his earlier views on the benefits of racial separation.

He was killed at New York’s Audubon Ballroom while preparing to deliver a speech. Three members of the Nation of Islam were convicted in the shooting.

The letter released at a news conference on Saturday was attributed to a former undercover NYPD officer named Raymond Wood. His cousin Reggie Wood joined some of Malcolm X’s daughters at the news conference at the site where the Audubon Ballroom once stood to make the letter public.

Raymond Wood’s letter stated that he had been pressured by his NYPD supervisors to lure two members of Malcolm X’s security detail into committing crimes that resulted in their arrest just days before the fatal shooting. Those arrests kept the two men from managing door security at the ballroom and was part of conspiracy between the NYPD and FBI to have Malcolm killed, according to the letter.

“Under the direction of my handlers, I was told to encourage leaders and members of the civil rights groups to commit felonious acts,” Wood’s letter stated.

Some historians and scholars have contended that the wrong men were convicted. The office of Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance last year said it would review the convictions in the case.

Following Saturday’s news conference, Vance’s office released a statement saying its “review of this matter is active and ongoing.” The NYPD said in a separate statement it has “provided all available records relevant to that case to the District Attorney” and “remains committed to assist with that review in any way.”

The FBI declined to comment on the matter.

Malcolm X’s daughter Ilyasah Shabazz said she had always lived with uncertainty around the circumstances of her father’s death.

“Any evidence that provides greater insight into the truth behind that terrible tragedy should be thoroughly investigated,” she told the news conference.

 

Gunmen opened yesterday fired on the motorcade of Libyan Interior Minister Fathi Bashagha in the capital Tripoli, but he escaped unharmed, a source close to him said.

The assailants fired heavily on Bashagha’s convoy as he drove through western Tripoli after visiting the National Oil Corporation and the headquarters of the ministry’s law enforcement force, the source said.

Bashagha’s guards exchanged fire with the attackers before pursuing them, killing one, injuring another and arresting two, according to the source.

The attack comes as the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA), in which Bashagha serves, prepares to make way for a new interim government selected in a U.N.-led process aimed at unifying Libya’s warring factions.

Bashagha, a prominent figure from the eastern city of Misrata, was a losing candidate to become prime minister of the unity government, but has made public statements of support for the new administration.

Initial investigations seemed to show those who carried out yesterday’s attack were from Zawiya, another powerful city 45 kilometres (28 miles) west of Tripoli, the source said.

As interior minister, Bashagha had pledged to rein in armed groups that have held power on the ground in western Libya since a 2011 uprising and often enjoy official status under the ministries of defence and interior.

The groups were largely united in defending Tripoli from forces led by eastern-based commander Khalifa Haftar between April 2019 and June 2020.

Recent weeks have been relatively calm, but heavy gunfire could be heard from central Tripoli overnight between Saturday and yesterday.

 

 

United States (U.S.) National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said yesterday that Washington has begun to communicate with Tehran regarding American prisoners held in Iran.

Sullivan, who was interviewed by CBS News, did not elaborate on the details beyond the fact that contact has been made between the two countries.

“We intend to very directly communicate with the Iranians about the complete and utter outrage, the humanitarian catastrophe that is the unjust, unlawful detention of American citizens in Iran,” Sullivan said, before being asked by “Face of the Nation” host Margaret Brennan as to whether the White House has done so yet.

“We have begun to communicate with the Iranians on this issue, yes,” he replied. “Our strong message to the Iranians will be that we will not accept a long-term proposition where they continue to hold Americans in an unjust and unlawful manner. It will be a significant priority of this administration to get these Americans safely back home.”

In an NBC News interview with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier this month, Blinken called on Tehran to free Americans imprisoned in its territory regardless of the United States’ return to the nuclear deal.

Also yesterday, Iran said it had held “fruitful discussions” with UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi in Tehran, ahead of a deadline when it is set to restrict the agency’s inspections unless the United States lifts painful sanctions.

Grossi’s visit comes amid stepped-up efforts between U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration, European powers and Iran to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal that has been on the brink of collapse since Donald Trump withdrew from it.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, before meeting Grossi, signalled that the Islamic republic wants to avoid an “impasse”, but also warned it could step further away from its commitments if Washington does not lift the sanctions.

Grossi, head of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), arrived in Tehran late Saturday and met with the head of the Iran Atomic Energy Organisation, Ali Akbar Salehi.

“Iran and the IAEA held fruitful discussions based on mutual respect, the result of which will be released this evening,” Tehran’s ambassador to the UN agency Kazem Gharibabadi wrote on Twitter.

Grossi, who also met with Zarif later on Sunday, was due to hold a press conference when he returns to Vienna in the evening.

Iran’s conservative-dominated parliament months ago demanded that, if the US does not lift sanctions by this Sunday, Iran suspend some IAEA inspections from Tuesday.

But Iran has stressed it will not cease working with the IAEA or expel its inspectors.

Zarif told Iran’s Press TV yesterday he would talk to Grossi about implementing Iran’s law while making sure “not to create an impasse, so that he carries out the obligations to show that Iran’s nuclear programme remains peaceful”.

Iran’s deputy foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said late Saturday the “IAEA’s inspection capability will be reduced by about 20-30 percent after the implementation of the parliament’s law”.

Iran has notified the UN body it will suspend “voluntary transparency measures”—notably inspection visits to non-nuclear sites, including military sites suspected of nuclear-related activity—if the US fails to lift the sanctions Trump reimposed in 2018.

Zarif said the law mandates the government to “not provide the tapes” of cameras at sites to the IAEA, adding that technical details would be discussed in Tehran.

“We are not violating the JCPOA, we are implementing remedial measures foreseen in the JCPOA itself,” Zarif insisted, referring to the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

“Once everybody implements their part and their obligations, then there will be talks, and those talks will not be about changing or adding to the agreement.”

Biden has committed to rejoin talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme, in a shift away from Trump’s policy of “maximum pressure” towards the Islamic republic.

Tehran has repeatedly said it is ready to return to its nuclear commitments, on the condition Washington makes the first move by lifting the sanctions that have heaped economic pain on Iran.

Zarif said that, from Iran’s point of view, “nothing has changed”, as the Biden administration had so far followed the same Iran policy as his predecessor.

 

Agency Reporter

A Sudanese refugee has stabbed a French immigration official to death after being told his asylum request had been rejected, authorities have said.

The killing happened at a refugee centre on Friday morning in the southern city of Pau, about 50km (31 miles) from the Spanish border.

French media and the city’s mayor said the victim was the head of the asylum service, reportedly a 46-year-old man.

The regional Sud Ouest newspaper said he was given first aid after being stabbed several times in the chest but died of his injuries.

Read Also; Nigerian seeking asylum in Denmark jailed

The attacker is understood to be a long-time resident of the centre.

Pau mayor Francois Bayrou said the man had been in jail before for violence involving a knife.

“This is a terrible drama, all the more because the victim spent his entire professional life helping migrants and asylum seekers,” Mr Bayrou told France Bleu radio.

“The man’s asylum request had been rejected, and for good reasons. He then turned against the head of the service, this is extreme and absurd violence,” he added.

The killing is not currently believed to be terror-related but French interior minister Gerald Darmanin said he was heading to the scene.

“I extend my sincere condolences to the victim’s family and loved ones,” tweeted Mr Darmanin

(newsnow.co.uk)

Agency Reporter

Restaurant staff at Donald Trump’s Washington hotel have revealed the bizarre, secret rules of serving the ex-president and his “crazy VIP list”, including a seven-step Diet Coke pour process, making sure he heard the “pop” on the ketchup bottle being opened and ensuring he always has the biggest steak at the table.

From front-of-house managers being forced to dress like “Fox News anchors”, to bartenders making $100,000 in salary and tips, to suppliers deliberately selling the chef rotten vegetables and Hispanic kitchen staff being rejected by family and friends, life at The Trump International Hotel in DC wasn’t easy.

Current and ex staff at the BLT Prime restaurant in the Pennsylvania Avenue hotel have lifted the lid on four-years of “catering to the right wing elite”, in a new expose from The Washingtonian.

In a copy of the ‘Standard Operating Procedure’ given to new staff, the former commander-in-chief must be seated at the centrally located Table 72 before “discreetly” offering the ‘germ-phobic’ guest hand-sanitizer, even before the arrival of the pandemic.

Read Also: Trump ally Erik Prince violated Libya arms embargo – UN report

The waiter must then carry out a seven-step Diet Coke pouring process complete with four photo exhibits, including where to place your hands on the bottle and bottle-opener and never opening it unless in front of him.

Trump must then be served the same meal each time: shrimp cocktail, made with especially large crustaceans imported just for him, a well-done steak, which must be bigger than any other customer’s, and fries.

He must hear the “pop” of the mini bottle of ketchup being opened, or would send it back.

Former executive chef Bill Williamson told The Washingtonian how staff once got into trouble when a customer appeared to have a larger steak, forcing the chef to custom order 40-ounce tomahawks that were reserved just for the VIP.

“It was the same steak. Both well done. Maybe it was a half ounce bigger or something, I don’t know,” he said.

Working at the BLT was like watching a ‘who’s who’s’ of Trump allies, from White House official Kellyanne Conway, who preferred a booth in the back, to Florida congressman Matt Gaetz who liked to take selfies with fans, to Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who ate there so often that staff made him a plaque that read: “RUDOLPH W. GIULIANI PRIVATE OFFICE.”

Trump’s children made infrequent appearances, including Ivanka, who once arrived in her yoga outfit, ordered a margarita and looked like she “didn’t really want to be seen there”, and Tiffany who was branded a “pain” for making multiple reservations for herself and her Georgetown Law friends that she never showed up for.

Staff were forced to take extensive notes on the likes and dislikes of Trump’s “crazy VIP list” as well as being forced to memorize dozens of names and faces to avoid embarrassments.

Including an incident where Michael Cohen, when he was still Trump’s personal lawyer, was turned away for having no reservation. Or taking too long to serve aide Hope Hicks.

Behind the scenes, senior managers gave the appearance of being ‘die-hard Trump fans’, staff told The Washingtonian, but the Democrat-leaning staff learned to hide their distaste in order to cash their sometimes very large pay cheques.

Michel Rivera, a former bartender at the lobby bar, says he pulled in more than $100,000 a year with tips, around $30,000 more than expected, and felt obliged to lie and say: ‘‘Yes, I support the President. He’s an amazing guy.’”

Another restaurant manager revealed that guests would try to bribe her, “like the old Mafia days,” to move them closer to Trump.

She added: “I declined, obviously. I would get fired if we moved someone to Trump’s table.”

As Trump’s more outrageous actions and statements began to build up, some staff, especially the Hispanic ones who worked in the kitchen, found that they were being rejected socially because of who they worked for.

Former executive chef Shawn Matijevich said: “I’d say probably 80 to 90 percent of my kitchen staff was Hispanic. A lot of people that worked there, their friends wouldn’t talk to them anymore. Some of the Hispanic workers, their family wouldn’t talk to them while they were working there, even their back-home family in other countries.”

One manager said he accidentally wore his uniform home one day on the Metro and passengers yelled at him: “Shame on you! How can you work for a person like that? You’re a racist!”

Trump opened the hotel in 2016 in the Old Post Office Building, just before his election to the presidency, suing his first chef Geoffrey Zakarian for his pulling out of the venture because of his allegedly anti-immigrant remarks on the campaign trail.

In 2019 Trump attempted to sell the hotel for $500million; a price considered inflated even before the arrival of the novel coronavirus.

The building has been a frequent target of protests including June last year when a peaceful Black Lives Matter march was held there in the wake of the death of George Floyd, a black man who died while in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25.

By the end of 2020, financial documents revealed that the property had taken a 63% hit to its revenue.

(newsnow.co.uk)

Agency Reporter

Private security contractor Erik Prince, a close ally of former US President Donald Trump, violated a United Nations arms embargo on Libya, UN investigators have found in a report detailed by US media.

The confidential report to the Security Council, obtained by The New York Times and The Washington Post, and partly seen by Al Jazeera, said on Friday that Prince deployed a force of foreign mercenaries and weapons to renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar, who has fought to overthrow the UN-recognised Libyan government, in 2019.

The $80m operation included plans to form a hit squad to track and kill Libyan commanders opposed to Haftar – including some who were also European Union citizens, The New York Times said.

Prince, a former Navy SEAL and brother of Trump’s education secretary Betsy Devos, drew infamy as the head of the Blackwater private security firm, whose contractors were accused of killing unarmed Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in 2007.

Four who were convicted were pardoned by Trump last year.

The accusation exposes Prince to possible UN sanctions, including a travel ban, the Times said.

Read Also; Trump found not guilty at impeachment trial

Prince did not cooperate with the UN inquiry and his lawyer declined to comment to The New York Times, it added.

Al Jazeera’s Kristen Saloomey, reporting from Washington, DC, said the report’s findings go deeper than just Prince’s actions.

“The UN report raises the question not only of whether or not a close associate of the [former] president violated an international arms embargo, but also of whether or not the president himself was complicit in defying stated US policy,” she said.

Anas el-Gomati, director of Libyan think tank Sadeq Institute, told Al Jazeera that using private military contractors can allow leaders to deny involvement in conflicts where they cannot be seen to be complicit for diplomatic or legal reasons.

“[In these situations] people like Erik Prince’s currency goes right up. And the real aspect here, as we’ve seen with Russia and the [private military firm] Wagner Group – and how they’ve been deployed in several theatres including Libya – is that they offer a beautiful, eerie, and in fact disastrous kind of deniability to any government,” he said.

“You can outright refuse that you have any knowledge of what is going on,” he said.

El-Gomati said the report raised two important questions.

“To what degree did Trump help facilitate this war alongside Erik Prince? And more importantly, whether or not Erik Prince was coordinating with Russian Wagner Group mercenaries in Libya and has helped them establish a foothold in the way he helped the United Arab Emirates establish a foothold in Libya,” he said.

Oil-rich Libya has been torn by civil war since a NATO-backed uprising led to the toppling and killing of dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

The country has in recent years been split between a Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli, backed by Turkey, and an eastern-based administration, whose forces are led by Haftar and backed by Russia, the UAE, and Egypt, among others.

Then-President Trump in 2019 praised Haftar – who has faced accusations of war crimes – for his role in “fighting terrorism” in Libya.

A new interim executive for the country was chosen on February 5 by the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum in Switzerland, comprising 75 participants selected by the UN to represent a broad cross-section of society.

Haftar has pledged his support for the initiative.

(newsnow.co.uk)