PTI
Jakarta/Singapore: The tail section of the AirAsia flight that went down more than a week ago was found on Wednesday in the Java Sea, raising hopes that the plane’s black boxes might soon be recovered to determine the cause of the mysterious crash.
“We have found the tail that has been our main target today,” Bambang Soelistyo, the head of Indonesia’s search and rescue told reporters in Jakarta as the search operation entered its 11th day. The tail is the section where the black boxes are located.
The black boxes are often considered the key piece of evidence when it comes to investigating a commercial plane disaster. They provide valuable information, from a plane’s air speed to the position of the landing gear, to pilot communications. Soelistyo said divers were preparing to go back underwater in the same area, which is in one of the priority zones where search efforts have been focused.
Searchers have been scouring the choppy waters of the Java Sea for remains from the commercial jet since it lost contact on December 28 with 162 people on board. AirAsia group chief executive Tony Fernandes confirmed the announcement in a post on his Twitter account.
“I am led to believe the tail section has been found. If right part of tail section then the black box should be there,” he tweeted. “We need to find all parts soon so we can find all [our] guests to ease the pain of our families. That still is our priority.”
Flight QZ8501 plunged into the water off Borneo island about 40 minutes into a two-hour flight from Indonesia’s second-biggest city Surabaya en route to Singapore. No survivors have been found.
Forty bodies have been recovered so far but authorities believe most of the passengers could still be inside the main body of the plan. The search area was widened on Wednesday with the establishment of two new sectors, said Chief of the Malaysian Navy Abdul Aziz Jaafar.
Underwater current was still strong of around 4-5 knots and the visibility was still limited for the sea divers on Tuesday to identify more findings from the seabed where the plane crashed.
At the weekend search officials said sonar had detected what they thought were five large parts of the plane, but strong currents and rough seas would not allow divers to confirm they were from the AirAsia flight. The cause of the crash is not know, but the plane was flying through stormy weather at the time and had requested permission to change course.
Indonesian aviation officials have said that AirAsia did not have permission to fly the Surabaya-Singapore route on the day of the crash.
10 college students and a forest guard were killed and 30 others injured when a state-run bus in which they were travelling fell into a gorge in Andhra Pradesh’s Anantapur district today. The incident occurred at around 8:30 AM near Penukonda town in the district where a road was under repair. The state government has ordered an inquiry.
Over 40 persons were travelling in the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) bus which was going to Penukonda from Madakasira in the district, Anantapur District Superintendent of Police Rajsekhar Babu said. “The deceased include nine boys and a girl student besides a forest guard,” Babu, told PTI
CBI may send a team to get Jagtar Singh Tara, an accused in the assassination of the then Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh in 1995, from Thailand where he has been arrested by authorities of that country.
According to CBI, Tara, 37, was directly involved in the assassination of Beant Singh as he had purchased the car which was used to kill Singh in the Chandigarh secretariat using a humam bomb.
The conspiracy of all the accused was unearthed when a car painter Balwinder Singh identified the vehicle used in the blast by the terrorists as he had painted it.
Beant Singh was assassinated in a bomb blast at the secretariat complex in Chandigarh on August 31, 1995 by Babbar Khalsa International terrorists. The blast had claimed the lives of 17 others including three commandos.
Thirteen people were named as accused in the case, out of whom nine were arrested, three were at large and the suicide bomber, Dilawar Singh, died during the explosion.
Tara, who along with two other terrorists, had fled from high-security Burail Jail in Chandigarh by digging a 110-feet tunnel from his barrack in January 2004, was apprehended in Thailand yesterday.
According to Thai authorities, Tara entered Thailand as Gurmeet Singh in October and was arrested in the eastern Province of Chon Buri on Monday.
A team of Chon Buri Provincial police and soldiers raided a house on Soi Mabyailia in Tambon Nong Phreu in Bang Lamung district and arrested Gurmeet Singh, one of six militants convicted for the 1995 blast.
Officers also arrested Pakistan national Ali Alat, 48, the owner of the house. Alat said he was not aware of Gurmeet Singh’s criminal background.
The Indian government had been in touch with Thai authorities to nab Jagtar Tara Singh who had been hiding in Thailand for months and probably under another identity.
Maharashtra government increases 2015 ‘ready reckoner’ rates
UAE-based non-resident Indians (NRIs), who plan to buy a property in Mumbai, will now have to shell out more money in taxes this year because the Maharashtra government has increased 2015 ‘ready reckoner’ rates.
The hike, effective January 1, 2015, ranges between 15 and 40 per cent and makes buying property far more costly for the common man.
Ready reckoner rates, which are mandatory for the state government to be released at the beginning of the year, are used to calculate the market value of properties for paying stamp duty, registration charges, value added tax, sales tax. These rates are different from market rates.
Upscale residential localities such as Worli and Bandra-Kurla Complex are among places where rates have been increased by 30 to 40 per cent, The Times of India reported.
Rates in suburbs such as Goregaon, Borivali, Malad, Chembur, Ghatkopar and Vikhroli have also increased.
While the average hike across the city is between 15 per cent and 20 per cent for 2015, the highest increase is about 40 per cent. On an average, the hike in the past two years has been 13 per cent only, the newspaper said.
A survey carried out by Sumansa Exhibitions, the organizers of the Indian Property Show, in December 2014 found majority of NRIs favouring Mumbai as the most popular property investment destination.
“Its sad to know that the ready rates have gone up. I am going to pay more for my property purchase this year… well for us (NRIs) the rupee weakening is already a bonus and so it will offset some of the cost. The rate increase isn’t likely to change my decision,” Sai Pandare, an account with a Dubai-based firm, told Emirates 24|7.
S Maheshwari, who already owns a one-bed house in Borivali, says: “The rates have shot up and I believe that they will be revised soon. The government cannot tax people to fill their coffers. I will wait and see for some months and then take a decision on whether to buy in Mumbai or some other Indian city.”
A weakening rupee helps NRIs to buy a property in India at approximately 10 to 20 per cent (depending on the currency rate) cheaper. On Sunday, one dirham was fetching Rs17.22.
Washington: Amidst simmering tension between India and Pakistan after shelling across the border, the United States has said it encourages dialogue between the two South Asian neighbours.
“We certainly support dialogue between the countries. There have been some steps over the past year, that you know, where there have been more positive exchanges. Obviously, there’s more work that needs to be done,” US State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki said yesterday.
Psaki was responding to questions on flare up in tension between the two countries after cross border shelling.
“Our thoughts would go out to the families of any lives who have been lost. We certainly remain concerned and watch over tensions along the border, and we encourage dialogue between the countries,” she said.
PTI
Days of fighting between Burundi troops and rebels who entered the Central African country killed 97 people, mostly rebels, Burundi’s government said Monday.
Army spokesman Col. Gaspard Baratuza said that 95 of those killed were members of a rebel group that entered Burundi from bordering Congo. Nine rebels were also arrested from the group that is yet to be identified, he said.
Two government soldiers had also been killed in the fighting that started a week ago some 60 kilometers northwest of the capital, Bujumbura, Baratuza said.
“We decided to bury the dead rebels in the gardens of residents of the area to avoid a human catastrophe such as diseases and the stench that comes from the dead bodies but we are looking at how their remains can be moved,” the military official said.
Burundi’s government released information about the fighting after a civil society organization in Burundi accused government forces of quickly burying the bodies to avoid scrutiny from rights groups saying the government executed the rebels after they surrendered.
Vital Nshimirimana, the head of the local civil society platform Forum Pour le Renforcement de la Societe Civile (FORSC), called for investigations into reports that the army violated the rights of those caught.
Col Baratuza denied the accusations.
“No one was killed after surrendering or after being arrested,” he said.
Between 180 to 200 rebels were thought to have crossed from Eastern Congo into Burundi where they launched the attack, he said.
Eastern Congo is home to a myriad of armed groups and militias.
In 2009, the government signed a peace agreement with Burundi’s last rebel group, raising hopes of a return to a more durable peace.
The attack in Burundi comes ahead of a crucial presidential and parliamentary vote scheduled for May and June. The tiny nation is still on a recovery path after more than a decade of civil war that underscored long-standing ethnic tensions between the country’s Hutu and Tutsi people.
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