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Ethiopian Airlines plane crashes on takeoff An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 crashed on Sunday, shortly after taking off from Addis Ababa. The airline said 149 passengers and eight crew members were believed to be on board the Nairobi-bound flight. It confirmed there were no survivors. Flight ET 302 came down near the town of Bishoftu, or Debre Zeit, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of Addis Ababa, just minutes after taking off at 8:38 a.m. local time,according to an airline statement. People from 35 countries were on board the flight, the airline said in a statement posted on Twitter. The airline has said that among the dead are 32 Kenyans, 18 Canadians, and nine Ethiopians, as well as eight passengers each from the United States, China and Italy. There were also seven passengers each from France and the United Kingdom, six from Egypt, five each from Germany and the Netherlands and four each from India and Slovakia.
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika returns to Algeria amid protests A government plane believed to be carrying Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika landed at a military airport outside of the capital on Sunday, amid massive protestscalling for an end to Bouteflikaʼs 20year-rule. The 82-year-old president, who has been rarely seen in public since suffering a stroke in 2013, had spent the past two weeks receiving treatment at a hospital in Geneva, Switzerland. Tens of thousands of Algerians have been peacefully protesting over the past three weeks against Bouteflikaʼs decision to run for a fifth term during the upcoming April 18 election. The National Liberation Front (FLN), the top Algerian party backing Bouteflika, said on Sunday that it was willing to work with all parties to end the crisis. Army Chief of Staff Ahmed Gaid Salah also said on Sunday that the military and the people "have the same vision of the future."
59/2019 • 11 MARCH, 2019
Iranʼs president visits Iraq to strengthen ties amid US pressure Iranʼs president is making a high-profile visit to Iraq focused on trade
The visit sends a signal that Iran has regional options against the United Statesʼ "maximum pressure" campaign against Tehran. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani embarks on a three-day visit to neighboring Iraq on Monday as the Islamic Republic is under mounting US pressure over its regional influence. Rouhaniʼs first official visit to Iraq — dubbed as a "historic" new start in relations byhis foreign minister — is primarily focused on trade and investment at a time when Tehran is battling against economic isolation following the Trump administrationʼswithdrawal from the 2015 nuclear dealand reimposition of unilateral sanctions. The visit intends to send a strong signal to the United States that its policy of "maximum pressure" is not working, as Iran seeks to expand regional economic ties and display its political and military influence in Iraq. Unlike US President Donald Trump, who paid abrief four-hour visit to US troopsat an air base in Iraq over Christmas and did not meet the countryʼs main political actors, Rouhani is leading a large political and trade delegation. Rouhani will meet with Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi, President Barham Salih and likely with Shiite allies such as former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Hadi al-Amiri,
commander of the Iran-backed paramilitary Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), and National Wisdom Movement leader Ammar al-Hakim. Rouhaniʼs visit comes following a string of high-level visits between Iranian and Iraqi officials in recent months. Iranian media has speculated that Rouhani may also be granted a meeting with Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the reclusive 88year-old spiritual leader of Iraqi Shiites and one of the most senior clerics in Shiite Islam. Such an audience would boost Rouhaniʼs status among hard-line critics at home and show the United States there are limits to its pressure campaign in Iraq. Key trading partners After China, Iraq is Iranʼs second-biggest trading partner, with $12 billion (€10.7 million) in bilateral trade a year, a number the countries are seeking to increase to $20 billion.Iraq relies heavily on the import of Iranian natural gas and electricity. The United States has granted Baghdad temporary sanctions waivers on the import of Iranian natural gas and electricity, out of concern shortages could spark more of the kind of unrest that hit Basra and other cities last summer.
Denied accreditation, two German journalists leave Turkey Thomas Seibert, a reporter for the Berlin-based Tagesspiegel daily, and Jörg Brase, a correspondent for public broadcaster ZDF, flew to Germany on Sunday after their accreditation to work in Turkey was not renewed. They were told by the relevant authorities in Ankara about a week ago that their applications for new press cards had not been approved. "[I] have not been given any reason why my application to extend my press credentials was denied," Brase told DW. "Turkey also has a press law that I have not broken — at least as far as I am aware." Seibert said the decision to force them out of the country may not have even been because of anything they reported. "I donʼt think itʼs about anything I have written," Seibert told DW. "I think itʼs a message to the Western press. They need a scapegoat or two or three, and I was one of the unlucky ones."
Venezuela: Juan Guaido wants state of emergency amid power outage Self-declared interim presidentJuan Guaidosaid on Sunday that he will ask the National Assembly to declare a "state of alarm" in Venezuela. The opposition leader said the declaration of a national emergency was needed to request international aidover the ongoing power outagesin the South American country. The National Assembly, which is controlled by the opposition, will hold an emergency session on Monday over the issue. "We must attend to this catastrophe immediately," Guaido told reporters.
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