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Rex Tillerson Out
President Trump announced Tuesday that Mike Pompeo, now the C.I.A. director, will become secretary of state, replacing Rex W. Tillerson, ending his short but tumultuous tenure as the nation’s chief diplomat. Mr. Tillerson found himself repeatedly at odds with Mr. Trump on a variety of key foreign policy issues.
A leaked recording reveals the pilot of the plane carrying a Brazilian soccer team admitted being out of fuel before it crashed. He told air traffic controllers about a “total electric failure” and lack of fuel.
The recordings, obtained by several Colombian media outlets, appeared to show the plane was short on jet fuel before it crashed into the Andes early on Tuesday morning.
The pilot of the British-built jet could be heard repeatedly requesting permission to land due to a “total electric failure” and lack of fuel. But he did not declare an emergency.
A female controller could be heard giving instructions as the BAE 146 – made by BAE Systems Plc – lost speed and altitude about eight miles from the Medellin airport.
The recordings appeared to confirm the accounts of a surviving flight attendant and a pilot flying nearby, who overheard the frantic pleas from the doomed airliner.
Seventy-one people were killed, including players of the Chapecoense AF football club, who were en route to the biggest game in their history: the Copa Sudamericana final. The team was virtually wiped out in the crash.
Only six on board the charter flight survived, including three of the Chapecoense players.
Colombian civil aviation director Alberto Bocanegra told RCN Radio that an empty fuel tank was one hypothesis being examined.
Bocanegra said investigators were reviewing the plane’s flight recorders and the air traffic control voice recording. He said if the plane had run out of fuel, it would indicate an “act of negligence” by the pilot, who was responsible for ensuring fuel supplies were adequate for the trip.
Planes are required to have enough extra fuel on board to fly at least 30 to 45 minutes to another airport in the case of an emergency. Local media cited aviation experts as saying that the jet was flying at its maximum range.
Colombian media were the first to point out that the plane appeared not to have exploded or burned upon impact, suggesting a possible absence of fuel.
The airline director Gustavo Vargas told Bolivian television that the plane may have skipped a planned refueling stop in northern Bolivia because the airport was closed.
Soccer-mad Brazil declared three days of mourning following the crash, and fans, along with global soccer legends including Lionel Messi and Pele sent condolences.
mm/gsw (AP, dpa, Reuters)
source: DW.com
Supporters of Iraqi Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr shout slogans during an anti-Turkey protest in front of the Turkish Embassy in Baghdad on October 18.
Thousands of Iraqis have gathered outside the Turkish Embassy in Baghdad to protest against Turkey’s military presence in northern Iraq.
Protesters demanded that Ankara withdraw from a base near the city of Mosul, in line with repeated requests by the Iraqi government.
The demonstrators, who included followers of hard-line Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, chanted slogans such as “Get out, occupier.”
The Turkish military presence inside Iraq has caused tensions between Baghdad and Ankara.
The Iraqi government denies it has granted permission and has ordered the Turkish troops to withdraw.
Turkey has ignored the call, saying its soldiers were training Iraqi fighters to help retake Mosul from the Islamic State extremist group.
US Vice President Joe Biden
US Vice President Joe Biden, Iraqi city of Mosul in the press in the town near the Turkish troops ‘said a moment ago,’ you must withdraw from the region.
BBC Turkish organized by the ISID’s Başika According to the news, and four Turkish soldiers , including a total of 10 people were injured in the attack after Iraqi Prime Minister Haydar Biden spoke by phone with Al Abadi, he said that Turkish troops on Iraqi soil to enter without Baghdad’s consent.
In a statement from Biden’s office “Turkey and reducing tensions increase Iraq’s dialogue is now more important than ever. USA, respects Iraq’s territorial integrity. We expect the same from Turkey,” the statement said.
The statement on the response of Turkish troops in Baghdad after the dispatch of the Başika also reminded Turkey’s troops begin to withdraw, and made a call that should continue this retreat.
The Associated Press news agency, to tensions between Turkey and Iraq “was an unwelcome development for the US. Washington is trying to persuade Ankara to be more effective against Isidor” review progress.
Especially in Turkey’s sending troops to Iraq’s Shiite regions Başika heavily protested by Iraqi Prime Minister Abadi, he said that it would move the issue to the agenda of the United Nations.
Turkey, Başika leading association providing education to the soldiers of the Peshmerga forces meant that the tasks change.
Turkey pursues its own interests in the Syrian conflict and it is not cooperating with NATO or other forces in the region, a retired US Army Major General Paul Vallely said in an interview with RT.
The downing of a Russian Su-24 bomber by the Turkish air force will hardly be the last act of provocation by Ankara, so NATO should kick Turkey out of the alliance, Vallely said.
He believes that the attack on the Russian aircraft had nothing to do with protecting national borders. It was aimed at demonstrating to Russia that Turkey is the dominant power in the region and that it’s not going to give ground. The president of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been involved in the conflict in the area for quite some time, and this incident isn’t the first of its kind: a few years ago Turkey shot down a Syrian jet.
According to Vallely, the Su-24 incident was a clear provocation. And since Turkey seeks to control the situation in the region and lays claim to being a regional leader, it is going to continue to commit provocative actions in the future.
NATO should consider this incident a red flag, the retired Major General stressed. Turkey unilaterally made a decision to down a Russian plane and showed that it is not going to agree its actions with the alliance. This has been Ankara’s policy for a long time.
“They want to recreate their own Ottoman Empire to a great degree, and of course Erdogan is moving more towards a controlled Islamic State [ISIL]. So they have the wrong agenda there in Turkey and that’s what they are following”, — Vallely noted.
NATO member states should build up steam and push Turkey out of the alliance, because Ankara is not “cooperating against ISIS, not cooperating at all with some of the forces inside of Syria, they want to see Assad removed or replaced by another government,” Vallely said.
Turkey only uses NATO when it needs something and tries to benefit from the membership as much as it can. The country gets operational guides, techniques, new weapons and equipment, new tactics and strategies. Yet Erdogan continues to pursue only his own interests, he argued.
The incident is not a good omen for Europe, or for the Middle East, or for NATO, Vallely concluded.
Zangi is a mobile app, developed in Armenia, that provides free audio and video calls and text messaging
YEREVAN—Video calls, audio calls, chat and other services are provided by a new application out of Armenia, called Zangi, which is challenging Skype and Viber as a substitute and is used by a great number of Armenians.
The founder of Zangi, Vahram Martirosian, told Armenpress that they are among world leaders in technology and telecommunications and that their app, by some standards, surpasses the before mentioned apps.
“We tried to develop step by step. Certainly that process took us long and if we had had more resources, we would have succeeded sooner,” Martirosian said. “Today’s world leaders — What’s App, Viber, Tango and Line — began their activities at the same time as we did, but having more resources, they developed faster than we did. Though we have not stayed behind and have quite important technological solutions.”