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23 killed in Nepal crash Headed to Jomsom town in Mustang district, the plane’s wreckage was found after four hours of intense search and rescue operation IANS, KATHMANDU
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wo infants were among the 23 people killed when their Nepal airlines plane — missing for over four hours — was discovered crashed in the Himalayas on February 24, a minister said. Civil Aviation Minister Ananda Prasad Pokharel confirmed the crash. The Tara Air Viking 9NAHH Twin Otter took off from Pokhara at 7.47 a.m., deputy director of Pokhara airport Yogendra Kumar told IANS. It was headed to Jomsom town in Mustang district. Located 200 km west of capital Kathmandu, Pokhara is the second largest city of Nepal. It is a popular tourist destination and the kick-off point for climbing expeditions to the 8,091-meter Mt Annapurna. The aircraft, which was added to the Tara Air fleet last September,
US envoy summoned over NSA spying
Undated file photo shows a Twin Otter plane landing at Jomsom, Mustang, Nepal. (Photo credit: Xinhua/Sunil Sharma/IANS)
had 23 occupants -- 20 passengers, among them one Chinese and one Kuwaiti national and two infants, and three crew members. It lost control with the Air Traffic Control minutes later. “The plane has crashed and all its occupants have been killed,”
said Civil Aviation Minister Pokharel, quoting Nepal Army officials at the crash site in a forest in Soli Ghoptebhir of Myagdi district. Army spokesperson Brigadier General Tara Bahadur Karki too confirmed that all 23 people aboard the plane were killed in the
Four-yr-old sentenced to life in Egypt IANS, CAIRO
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ROME: Italy’s foreign ministry on February 23 summoned US Ambassador John Phillips after local media reports cited new Wikileaks files that suggest the US spied on ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi and his closest aides from 2008-2011. Italy wants clarification about the reports that Berlusconi and some of his aides’ phones were tapped in 2011, the foreign ministry said in a statement, referring to articles published by left-leaning Italian newspaper La Repubblica and weekly magazine L’Espresso. The NSA allegedly monitored Berlusconi and his closest collaborators at a time when his last government was on the verge of collapse amid an unprecedented recession, the “Bunga bunga” sex scandals and US concerns about Berlusconi’s ‘special relationship’ with Russia, according to La Repubblica and L’Espresso.
crash. Karki said a Nepal Army team has reached the crash site. The plane’s wreckage was found after four hours of intense search and rescue operation. Police constable Phool Kumar Thapa Magar who was among the first to reach the crash site said it was situated on a very treacherous terrain and the debris of the plane were scattered in an area of some 200 meters. Pilot Roshan Manandhar, during his final conversation with Pokhara Air Traffic Control, mentioned that the flight was normal, said Jasoda Subedi, chief air traffic controller at Pokhara airport. “See you back, Ghorepani normal, good day” were the last words from the captain. “The weather at Pokhara and Jomsom is fine today (Wednesday). So we have no clue about what went wrong,” said Bhim Raj Rai, media officer at Tara Airlines.
ollowing a public outcry, Egyptian authorities have admitted that a military court “mistakenly” sentenced a four-yearold child to life in prison for “committing murder” when he was only one-year-old. The little boy, Ahmed Mansour Korani, was convicted in absentia of four counts of murder, eight of attempted murder, vandalizing property, disturbance of peace and threatening police officers. His father who recently appeared on an Egyptian channel to recount his ordeal, after he had been remanded in custody for four months of pending investigations.
During the interview, the father held tight his four-year-old boy as he cried injustice. He appeared frightened as he appealed to the authorities to not take his son from him. “I’m a poor helpless man, the son
of this land and I intend no harm to anyone but I have nothing to do with it,” the father cried. Lawyer Mahmoud Abu Kaf, who was part of Korani’s defense team, told Al Arabiya news that they submitted the child’s birth certificate to the prosecution as evidence of his young age, but it was not considered by the judges. “The moment they reached his home, the officers asked for Korani but his father told them the suspect you’re looking for is a baby. The officer thought the father was poking fun at him and dragged the father to jail, keeping him in custody for four months of pending investigations. He was later released when the judge realized he was innocent.”
BRIEFS: Pakistan’s parliament goes totally green ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s parliament on February 23 became the first in the world to totally switch to green energy with a solar power production project. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif attended a switchon ceremony at the parliament. On April 21, 2015, the inauguration ceremony for the project was jointly attended by Sharif and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Indonesia to shut all red-light districts BANGKOK: Indonesia plans to close down all red-light districts in the country by 2019, media reports said on February 24. The plan, under the supervision of the Indonesian Social Affairs Ministry, looks to shutting down a total of 168 such prostitution zones in the country, Efe news agency reported. While 68 red-light areas have already been closed down, the remaining will be closed down in the next three years, said Social Affairs Minister Khofifah Indar Parawasan. The ministry offers programs for the social rehabilitation of women trapped in the sex trade.
Abe to ignore US call for not to visit Russia TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will visit Russia despite the US urging him not to do so, a top government official said on February 24. According to Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, Abe’s top spokesperson, Abe will make an unofficial visit to Russia to discuss a long-standing territorial dispute between Tokyo and Moscow. “Prime Minister Abe is planning an unofficial visit to Russia at an appropriate time before Russian President Vladimir Putin visits Japan,” Suga told reporters.
Theft of corpses on the rise in Chinese villages IANS, BEIJING
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heft of corpses is on the rise in rural Shanxi as the old custom of “ghost marriage” has resurfaced in the northern Chinese province. Shanxi’s Hongtong county has reported at least three dozen thefts of female corpses in the last three years, Xinhua news agency quoted police officer Lin Xu as saying. In ghost marriage rituals, female skeletons are reinforced with steel wires and clothed before they are
buried alongside dead bachelors as “ghost brides.” Failure to find a burial partner for unmarried male relatives is thought to bring bad luck, according to rural folk belief. Ghost marriage rituals were practiced throughout China’s feudal dynasties and were especially popular in the 10th century during the Song Dynasty. The government ordered people to cease the practice after the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949. However, rural Chinese people, who tend to uphold old customs and rituals, have con-
Rural Chinese people continue to follow the old custom of 'ghost marriage'.
tinued the practice using pictures or dummies made of paper or dough. As wealth has increased, the practice of using real corpses has returned to some rural areas of
Shanxi, Henan and Shaanxi provinces. According to Chinese criminal law, those who steal or defile a corpse are subject to up to three years in prison.