News Africa Extended

News Africa Extended

Data downloaded from EgyptAir plane’s recorder

Posted: 29 Jun 2016 07:20 PM PDT

Investigators are one step closer to discovering why EgyptAir Flight MS804 crashed en route from Paris to Cairo.

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Cairo - Investigators have downloaded data from one of the black box flight recorders on EgyptAir Flight MS804 and are preparing to analyse it, bringing them closer discovering what caused the jet to crash, Egypt's investigation committee said on Wednesday.

The Airbus A320 plunged into the eastern Mediterranean Sea en route from Paris to Cairo on May 19, killing all 66 people on board. The cause of the crash remains unknown.

“Preliminary information shows that the entire flight is recorded on the FDR since its takeoff from Charles de Gaulle airport until the recording stopped at an altitude of 37 000 feet where the accident occurred,” Egypt's Aircraft Accident Investigation Committee said in a statement.

Search teams have salvaged both of the so-called black box flight recorders. Investigators are now preparing to analyse data from the flight data recorder.

“Recorded data is showing consistency with SCARS messages of lavatory and avionics smoke,” the committee said, referring to the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System, which routinely downloads maintenance and fault data to the airline operator.

The plane had sent a series of warnings indicating that smoke had been detected on board through SCARS.

Recovered wreckage from the jet's front section showed signs of high temperature damage and soot, the committee said. Those were the first physical signs that fire may have broken out on the A320 airliner, in addition to maintenance messages indicating smoke alarms in the avionics area and lavatory.

The committee said these findings would need further analysis to discover the source and reason for the marks, however.

Second black box

The second black box, the cockpit voice recorder, is still being repaired in laboratories belonging to France's BEA aircraft accident investigation agency, where the data chips from both recorders were sent after the devices were retrieved from the Mediterranean earlier this month.

The BEA is involved in the investigation because France is both the flight's point of origin and home to Airbus, the plane's manufacturer. Fifteen of those killed were French.

A United States National Transport Safety Board investigator is also involved, since the plane's engines were built by a consortium led by the US company Pratt & Whitney.

If intact, the cockpit recorder should reveal pilot conversations and any cockpit alarms, as well as other clues such as engine noise.

A search vessel contracted by the Egyptian government from Mauritius-based Deep Ocean Search is still searching the Mediterranean for human remains.

No explanation for the disaster has been ruled out, but current and former aviation officials increasingly believe the reason lies in the aircraft's technical systems, rather than sabotage.

The Paris prosecutor's office opened a manslaughter investigation on Monday but said it was not looking into terrorism as a possible cause of the crash at this stage.

The crash is the third blow since October to Egypt's travel industry, which is still suffering from the 2011 uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule.

A Russian plane crashed in the Sinai Peninsula in October, killing all 224 people on board in an attack claimed by Islamic State. In March, an EgyptAir plane was hijacked by a man wearing a fake suicide belt. No one was hurt.

REUTERS

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Attacked for showing support for #Orlando victims

Posted: 29 Jun 2016 11:22 AM PDT

Six gay men in Ivory Coast were abused and forced to flee their homes for showing support for the Orlando shooting victims.

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Dakar - Six gay men in Ivory Coast were abused and forced to flee their homes after they were pictured signing a condolence book for victims of the recent attack on a gay nightclub in Florida, a rights group said on Wednesday.

The US embassy in the Ivorian capital of Abidjan hosted an event a fortnight ago to honour the Florida victims and published a photo of the six men on its website with the caption: 'LGBTI community signing the condolence book'.

A gunman pledging allegiance to the Islamic State militant group killed 49 people at Orlando's Pulse nightclub on June 12 in the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history.

Days after the tribute in Abidjan, Louna, one of the men in the photo, was walking in his neighbourhood when a mob pushed him to the ground, stole his phone and wallet, and beat him.

“I don't have a life anymore,” said the 36-year-old, who only gave his nickname for fear of further attacks.

Louna said he did not know the photo had been posted online until a friend called him and told him that he had seen it.

“I can't go out. I don't know who might recognise me,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from Abidjan, adding that he fears he will never be able to return home.

Another man in the picture was also attacked after the photo was circulated on Facebook and other websites, said the head of an Abidjan-based gay rights group, who asked to remain anonymous.

The other four men in the photo were verbally abused, and all six fled their homes, he added.

While the director of the rights group gave the US embassy permission to post the photo on their website, he said he would not have done so if he had known what the caption would say.

“We are afraid now. There is no security,” he said.

Ivory Coast is one of the few African countries where same-sex acts are legal and have never been criminalised.

While it is considered one of the most tolerant countries for sexual minorities in the region, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people face widespread abuse, stigma, and violence, rights groups say.

The photo remained on the US embassy's website as of Wednesday. Embassy officials were not immediately available to comment.

Reuters

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Teacher sacked for taking bribes

Posted: 29 Jun 2016 10:30 AM PDT

A high school teacher in Equatorial Guinea has been sacked for taking bribes from students to give them pass marks.

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A high school teacher in Equatorial Guinea has been sacked for taking bribes from students to give them pass marks, the education ministry said Wednesday.

The scandal puts the low salaries of teachers in the spotlight in the tiny central African country where the vast oil riches have only benefited a handful.

“The teacher who took money from students in return for good marks has been directly thanked,” Education Minister Jesus Engonga Ndong said on television, adding that there were two such other cases in the country recently.

A student said the teacher stopped year-end exams, and “asked us each to pay up 2,000 Central African CFA francs ($3.40) to have the required pass marks” in philosophy.

The teacher had set questions from chapters that had not been taught, the student said.

President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who has ruled the country with an iron fist since 1979, is Africa's longest-serving leader, and his family has amassed amazing wealth.

But the benefits have yet to percolate to the vast majority of people who live in abysmal poverty despite the exploitation of oil and gas deposits driving up per capita GDP to over $29 000 in 2014.

There are only two telephones per 100 people, the country has skeletal infrastructure and power cuts are rampant. Infant mortality rates are among the world's worst.

“It is difficult to make ends meet when teachers aren't paid properly: 150 000 Central African francs ($250) is nothing for the work we do,” Mba Ela, a history teacher, told AFP.

Teodorin Obiang, one of the president's sons, is facing legal proceedings in France where he is accused by prosecutors of looting state coffers to fund his lavish tastes, including the purchase of pop star Michael Jackson's famous white glove, private jets and sprawling properties in some of the world's most expensive areas.

In 2012 prosecutors had already ordered the seizure of the Obiang family's six-storey mansion on Avenue Foch - one of the poshest addresses in Paris - as well as several luxury cars, famous works of art and vintage wines.

AFP

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