Sunday, 3 April 2016

Fire engulfs Russian defense ministry's building in Moscow

Posted by Unknown, on 08:54

MOSCOW (AP) — A massive fire raged at a former headquarters of the Russian Defense Ministry in Moscow on Sunday before it was brought under control several hours later.
Hundreds of firefighters and several cranes were seen battling the blaze Sunday afternoon after the fire broke out hours earlier.
Igor Denisov of the Emergency Situations Ministry in Moscow told Russian news agencies that firefighters "localized" the blaze, which had spread over 3,500 square meters (37,670 square feet) by the late afternoon. At least one firefighter was hospitalized.
The Defense Ministry moved to a new headquarters on the Moskva River in 2014 but still kept the old building near the Kremlin.
The ministry said the fire will not affect its core operations since the military departments have long moved to the new headquarters. It said the old building on Znamenka Street houses the departments in charge of procurement and services.
There were no immediate reports about the cause of the fire.AP

Protesters endure blazing heat to attend Anti-GST rally

Posted by Unknown, on 08:49
KUALA LUMPUR: An estimated 2,000 people gathered for the Anti-GST Rally here today, enduring temperatures of up to 36 degrees celcius as they congregated in Dataran Merdeka.
Protesters thronged the square, walking in from Jalan Sultan, Central Market, Sogo and Kampung Baru at 3pm.
Some protesters came with young children in tow and breached the barricade at the intersection of Jalan Raja and Jalan Tun Perak.
Police gave way to the crowd, overwhelmed by the numbers.
The crowd from Jalan Sultan was led by the Democratic Action Party's Socialist Youth branch. Meanwhile, the group at Central Market were led by Pakatan vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar.
A crowd of about 100 people from Sogo arrived at Dataran Merdeka at around 3pm, and merged with the other groups.
Parti Amanah Negara president Mohamad Sabu, better known as Mat Sabu led the group.
The party's youth chief Sany Hamzan also led another 300 rally goers to Dataran Merdeka at the same time.
The march caused traffic to slow to a crawl along Jalan Sultan, Jalan Tun HS Lee, Jalan Tun Perak, Jalan Raja Abdullah, Jalan Sultan Ismail and Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman heading to the square.
The crowd chanted anti-GST as well as ‘Bebas Anwar’ slogans.
Numerous makeshift stalls selling anti-GST themed paraphernalia sprouted along the route to Dataran Merdeka.
Items for sale included sunglasses, anti-GST T-shirts, drinks and ice cream.
A police officer on the ground said there were 200 officers on standby.
This includes traffic and auxiliary police officers.
There were also a number of City Hall enforcers.Opposition leaders addressed the crowd at Dataran Merdeka from 3.15pm.
Reporting by Veena Babulal, Farezza Hanum Rashid, Zahratulhayat Mat Arif and Faisal Asyraf.  NEW STREET  TIMES

Air France cabin crew told to wear headscarf in Tehran

Posted by Unknown, on 08:43

A number of female Air France cabin crew are resisting an airline ruling that they should wear a headscarf while in Tehran, when flights to the Iranian capital resume on April 17, a union representative told AFP on Saturday.
"Every day we have calls from worried female cabin crew who tell us that they do not want to wear the headscarf," said Christophe Pillet of the SNPNC union, which is asking Air France management to make it a voluntary measure.
Company chiefs had sent staff a memo informing that female staff would be required "to wear trousers during the flight with a loose fitting jacket and a scarf covering their hair on leaving he plane", Pillet said.
According to Pillet, management has raised the possibility of "penalties" against anyone not observing the dress code.
Air France told AFP that all air crew were "obliged like other foreign visitors to respect the laws of the countries to which they travelled".
"Iranian law requires that a veil covering the hair be worn in public places by all women on its territory.
"This obligation, which does not apply during the flight, is respected by all international airlines which fly to Iran," the airline said.
Air France added that the headscarf rule when flying to certain destinations was "not new" since it had applied before flights to Tehran were stopped and also to crew flying to Saudi Arabia.
Air France announced in December the resumption of Paris-Tehran flights after they were suspended in 2008 when Iran was hit with international sanctions over its nuclear ambitions.  AFP

Power outage cripples Manila airport, thousands stranded

Posted by Unknown, on 08:38

A rare power outage plunged a major section of the Philippine capital's main airport into darkness overnight, forcing flight cancellations that stranded thousands on Sunday.
As many as 78 flights by the country's largest carrier Cebu Pacific were cancelled, affecting nearly 14,000 passengers, the company said in a statement.
Flag carrier Philippine Airlines also said some of its flights were cancelled or delayed but could not immediately say how many.
The blackout hit Terminal 3, which services mostly domestic flights, late on Saturday and power was not restored until before dawn on Sunday.
Exhausted passengers sprawled on the floor as check-in counters and luggage carousels shut down. Long queues formed outside the terminal as entrances were closed until power was restored.
Terminal 3 of Ninoy Aquino International Airport, named after the assassinated father of incumbent President Benigno Aquino, handles an average of 350 domestic and international flights daily, according to data from the transportation ministry.
It is one of four terminals in a complex that was once dubbed by the travel website Guide to Sleeping in Airports as the world's worst due to leaking toilets and creaking facilities.
"We are looking into the root cause of this problem," Terminal 3 general manager Octavio Lina told DZMM radio.
Manila power retailer Meralco said a transmission line tripped briefly but was restored in minutes, suggesting that the problem could be with the airport's systems.
The four Manila airport terminals were designed for 17 million passengers annually, but overuse has made the airport notorious for flight delays.Plans to build a new airport outside Manila have not materialised under Aquino. An excruciatingly slow infrastructure overhaul has led to chronic commuter train breakdowns and traffic jams.AFP

Trump works to right campaign before Wisconsin votes

Posted by Unknown, on 08:33
MILWAUKEE (AP) -- Donald Trump worked to right his campaign on Sunday after a shaky week, brushing off verbal missteps about abortion, nuclear weapons and GOP rival Ted Cruz as he cast forward to Tuesday's Republican presidential primary in Wisconsin.
Trump, acknowledging the possibility of a loss to Cruz in Wisconsin, said it would be better to win the state but was confident he would capture the nomination regardless. He acknowledged that the past few days had marked a difficult patch for his campaign.
"I think I get there anyway" — meaning the nomination — Trump told "Fox News Sunday.
The Republican race is overshadowed by a persistent effort by Trump's rivals in the campaign and the party to force the nomination fight into the July convention.
Amid talk of the Republican establishment trying to block the front-runnerGOP Chairman Reince Priebus said the nomination process will be clear, open and transparent. Cameras will be there "at every step of the way" at the convention, he said on ABC's "This Week."
If the race isn't settled after all the primary contests, then "we're going to have a multi-ballot convention," with more and more delegates free to pick a candidate of their choice in each round.
But Priebus was clear: "Nothing can get stolen from anyone."
On the Democratic side, the race between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders has grown increasingly bitter, too, though it has not matched the GOP contest for raw hostility. Their attention will quickly turn to an even more consequential contest, in New York on April 19, where Clinton hopes to avoid an upset in the state she served as senator.
Clinton told NBC's "Meet the Press" that she was confident the two campaigns could settle on a debate date before that primary.
In recent days, Clinton has taken issue with Sanders' suggestions that her campaign is being aided by fossil-fuel interests, and in the broadcast interview, she accused Sanders' aides of doing insufficient research about her record of standing up to oil and gas companies.
"We were not lying," Sanders told CNN's "State of the Union." ''We were telling the truth."
Wisconsin has emerged as a proving ground for anti-Trump forces as the front-runner's campaign hit a rough patch.
Cruz has little chance to overtake Trump in the delegate hunt before the convention. Ohio Gov. Kasich has none. Both hope to deny Trump a delegate majority in what's left of the primary season, forcing the nomination to be settled at a contested convention at which one of them might emerge.
Kasich expressed confidence that Republicans would have an "open convention," but suggested it wouldn't involve the type of unseemly chaos that party leaders fear will play out on national television, dampening their prospects for winning the presidency and possibly House and Senate races, too.
Kasich told ABC that a contested convention will be "so much fun."
"Kids will spend less time focusing on Bieber and Kardashian and more time focusing on how we elect presidents," Kasich said. "It will be so cool."AP

Plane crash kills 1 on freeway where it once landed safely

Posted by Unknown, on 08:28
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A small plane that made headlines when it landed safely on a Southern California freeway years ago crashed on the same stretch of road, slamming into a car and killing a woman in the vehicle.
Five others, including the pilot and his passenger, were injured in the crash on a stretch of Interstate 15 that has been the scene of several emergency landings.
Witnesses said the single-engine plane appeared to be having problems before it banked and came down Saturday, California Highway Patrol Officer Chris Parent said. One man said he didn't hear the plane's engine as it passed overhead.
The Lancair IV landed on its belly and skidded about 250 feet before striking the rear of a black Nissan Altima that was stopped on the shoulder of the road in San Diego County near Fallbrook. The driver of the car had pulled over to synchronize the Bluetooth device on his phone, Parent said.The impact crumpled the back of the car, fatally crushing Antoinette Isbelle, 38, of San Diego in the back seat and injuring three others in the vehicle, authorities said.
"The plane went completely into the trunk and pushed the rear bumper almost into the rear passenger seat," said John Buchanan, spokesman for the North County Fire Protection District.
Pilot Dennis Hogge, 62, and his female passenger suffered major injuries, Parent said. The driver suffered moderate injuries, and his other two passengers were expected to survive their injuries.
The plane was once owned by major league catcher Matt Nokes, who made a noteworthy landing on busy I-15 when the engine quit on its second flight on Feb. 18, 2000.
Nokes guided the high-performance $500,000 plane to a smooth landing and safely taxied off the road without injuriesNokes went on to fly the plane every day for five years without incident before selling it. He said it had been rebuilt several times since he sold it.
"It was crazy," Nokes told The Associated Press on Saturday. "Everything worked out so beautifully. It was almost a humorous thing. Unfortunately, it doesn't always turn out that way."
When Nokes heard about the crash, he unsuccessfully tried to reach Hogge. He didn't realize Hogge had been injured.
He described Hogge as a good man, an outstanding pilot and a master plane builder.
"It's just horrible to hear about," said Nokes who spent 11 years in the majors, mostly with the Detroit Tigers and New York Yankees.
The stretch of freeway is no stranger to unusual landings. CHP spokesman Parent said he's aware of three other planes that have come down on that stretch of freeway about 50 miles north of San Diego in the past decade.Nokes said the freeway is a popular route for flying because there are fewer flight restrictions than along the Interstate 5 corridor.
The crash caused major backups throughout the day on the freeway that runs from the Mexican border through Las Vegas and Salt Lake City to Canada.
The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash, FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said. AP

Two reported dead as derailment halts US northeast train travel

Posted by Unknown, on 08:21

Two people were reportedly killed in a train derailment near Philadelphia that forced a halt to rail services along a stretch of the northeast of the United States on Sunday.
US railway service Amtrak said in a statement that the train, the Palmetto, was en route from New York to Savannah, Georgia, when it struck a backhoe on the tracks south of Philadelphia.
"Northeast Corridor service between New York and Philadelphia is suspended," read an Amtrak statement, which said some passengers were injured.
Philadelphia ABC News affiliate WPVI said it had confirmed two deaths in the crash. There was no immediate report from Amtrak about fatalities.
The accident caused the lead engine to derail on the train which was carrying 341 passengers and seven crew members.
"Initial reports are that some passengers are being treated for injuries," Amtrak said.
"Local emergency responders are on the scene and an investigation is ongoing," it added. AFP

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