http://www.telesurtv.net/ Terrorist Attack Forces Somali Airliner to Land Authorities in Somalia said only two people were injured and that 20 people have been arrested in connection with the explosion on board a Daallo Airlines plane. A suicide bomber blew himself up causing a Daallo Airlines jet that had taken off from Somalia's main airport on Tuesday to make an emergency landing, officials said Sunday, adding that about 20 people had been arrested in connection with the attempt. "Additional investigations conducted by Somali and international experts have confirmed the explosion that occurred inside the Daallo Airlines jet was not a technical problem but was a bomb that was intended to destroy the plane and kill all passengers onboard," Somali Transport and Aviation Minister Ali Ahmed Jama told reporters in the Somali capital Mogadishu. Forensic experts said the blast caused a one-meter-sized hole in the side of the airplane through which the suicide bomber was sucked out the Airbus A321 15 minutes after take off. "The security forces have detained about 20 people suspected of having involved the bomb that exploded inside that plane," the spokesperson added. The suicide bomber was identified as Abdulahi Abdisalam, investigators said, adding that only two of the more than 70 passengers were slightly wounded. The pilot, a 64-year-old Serb named Vladimir Vodopivec, told a friend that he knew for sure that the blast had been caused by a bomb, the Serbian daily Blic reported. Investigators said the blast did not cause damage to the aircraft's navigation system, which enabled the pilot to successfully land the plane. Originally, Somali authorities believed the explosion was caused by a sudden air decompression. Daallo Airlines operates out of Djibouti, flying to destinations in the Horn of Africa and the Gulf, Al Jazeera reported. The head of Daallo Airlines Mohamed Ibrahim Yasin Olad told Al Jazeera that the suicide bomber and the 74 passengers were meant to board a Turkish Airlines flight that had been cancelled. "They were not our passengers. Turkish Airlines cancelled its flight from Mogadishu that morning because their incoming flight from Djibouti could not come to Mogadishu because of what they said was strong wind," Olad said. "They requested we carry the passengers on their behalf to Djibouti where they would continue their journey on a Turkish Airlines flight." Olad also said the airlines is working on introducing new security measures to avoid similar incidents from happening again.
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United Kingdom asks airlines to spray insecticide to fight Zika virus Zeid Ra‘ad Al Hussein is calling for the repeal of laws and policies that restrict access to sexual and reproductive health services in contravention of global standards, and pressed for concrete steps to be taken so that women have the information, support and services they require to exercise their rights to determine whether and when they become pregnant. Gadelha underscored that the discovery needn‘t alter Carnival plans for anyone but pregnant women. Much about the virus, including whether it can be transmitted from person to person, remains unclear. USA health officials say men who have visited an area with the Zika virus should use condoms if they have sex with a pregnant woman – for the entire duration of the pregnancy. ―Brazil is in a particularly hard position‖ given the scope of the country‘s microcephaly outbreak, she said. Upholding women‘s human rights is essential if the response to the Zika health emergency is to be effective, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said today, following the advice to women by some governments to delay getting pregnant due to the possible link between the virus and neurological disorders affecting newborns. His spokeswoman, Cecile Pouilly, asked about countries such as El Salvador that criminalize abortion, told a news briefing: ―That‘s why we are asking those governments to go back and change those laws because how can they ask these women not to become pregnant?‖ Pouilly says comprehensive reproductive health services include contraception, maternal healthcare and safe abortion services to the full extent of the law.
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Spokesman Farhan Haq says Ban Ki-moon believes that ―women must have a meaningful way of controlling their own decisions on whether and when and how to be pregnant‖. But U.S. health officials detected a case of sexual transmission of the disease in Texas this week and in Brazil, officials said they had confirmed the virus was contracted via blood transfusions. The guidance issued Friday also says men might consider abstaining or using condoms even if they have sex with a woman who isn‘t pregnant. For most people who catch the virus, it causes mild or no symptoms. The agency also has a fact sheet on Zika, explaining that one in five people infected with the virus show symptoms. Still, most worldwide experts are cautious about whether Zika can trigger Guillain-Barre, a rare syndrome that causes paralysis, because other infections and conditions can lead to the illness. The WHO and Brazilian health officials said legal issues were complicating the sharing of data, but Brazil‘s health ministry has now said it has wrapped up Zika field work with a U.S. team and will be shipping two-thirds of the material gathered to the US. It‘s more unusual for flights in the U.S.to do so. In many Latin American and Caribbean countries, basic contraception, such as birth control pills and IUDs, is in short supply. The ongoing outbreak of Zika infections, which has been linked to more than 4,000 suspected cases of a birth defect in Brazil, started in Brazil‘s Northeast and has since spread and been locally transmitted in more than 30 countries, according to the World Health Organization.
http://sputniknews.com/ Russian Air Navigation Equipment Companies to Supply Egypt Russia's Azimut and Lianozovo Electromechanical Plant air navigation equipment companies have closed a deal with the Egyptian National Air Navigation Services Company on a project to upgrade Egypt's air traffic control systems, the Egyptian Civil Aviation Ministry said. CAIRO (Sputnik) — The Research & Production Corporation Lianozovo Electromechanical Plant's General Director Gennadiy Benderskiy and Azimut's CEO Asker Saidov signed the contract from Russia's side on Sunday, the Civil Aviation Ministry's statement said. A Russian-Egyptian inter-governmental commission session held earlier in February has noted the Lianozovo plant's possible role in upgrading Egypt's air control. The plant's role was stipulated to cover supplying radar complexes and installing air traffic control systems of various designations in National Air Navigation Services Company and Civil Aviation Ministry facilities. The Lianozovo Electromechanical Plant specializes in radar and control system production. The company has been involved in a variety of system upgrade projects across Russia. Azimut produces radio communication, navigation, surveillance and air traffic control equipment to civil aviation enterprises. The Russian-Egyptian intergovernmental commission has been strengthening economic cooperation between two countries. Late January, the commission discussed an agreement on securing Russian investments into a joint Suez Canal industrial zone, as well as an array of other agreements.
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Emirates mocks Lufthansa CEO over ‗blame games‘ Emirates has lashed out at what it says is a concerted campaign by Lufthansa to ―externalise failure‖ by blaming the Dubai airline for its current woes. In an editorial piece for its public affairs journal, Open Skies, Emirates said it treated these efforts as ―a compliment‖, particularly given the size and reach of the Star Alliance, of which Lufthansa is a founding member. ―For a decade, Lufthansa‘s attempts at putting forward excuses for the structural problems have remained the same: Lufthansa wants people to believe it is the competitive challenge of Emirates that is the root cause of all its problems,‖ read an article in the magazine entitled ‗Lufthansa misleads…again‘. ―In fact, they go to such great lengths to explain the alleged negative effects Emirates has, that the difference between myth and fact tends to get blurred. This supports the attempts to externalise failure – we can only assume this is deliberate.‖ In particular, the UAE carrier hit out at Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr over an article published in a German newspaper in December, in which the German executive claimed that Emirates did not pay taxes or participate in emissions trading schemes. Spohr also claimed that the European carrier had had to abandon routes as a result of strong competition from the Gulf. Emirates pointed out that it pays German aviation tax, that it complies with the requirements of the Emissions Trading Scheme and that Lufthansa has increased frequencies and seats on competing routes to Asia over the last decade.
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―This approach of blame games is nothing more than a bid to divert attention from inefficiency and the desire to restrict consumer choice, connectivity and growth in Germany,‖ the article concluded. ―We wish Lufthansa good luck in their endeavours, but would strongly encourage that they stick to the facts while doing so.‖ Lufthansa, Europe‘s largest airline, has come under increasing pressure not only from long-haul carriers based in the Gulf, but also the rise of low-cost carriers in its home continent. The airline is attempting to cut costs as it copes with a series of strikes at some of its operating units. At the end of January, Lufthansa and the UFO union, which represents its cabin crew, agreed to arbitration as a way to resolve a protracted labour dispute that has cost the carrier millions.
ادارة العالقات العامة -الشركة القابضة لمصر للطيران