Facebook to Launch His Own Satelitte in 2016 Focusing Africa

Facebook Inc said it would launch a satellite in partnership with France’s Eutelsat Communications to bring Internet access to large parts of sub-Saharan Africa.

Mark Zuckerberg details plans on how company is 'exploring ways to use
aircraft & satellite to beam internet access into communities from the sky'

The satellite, part of Facebook’s Internet.org platform to expand internet access mainly via mobile phones, is under construction and will be launched in 2016, the companies said on Monday. The satellite, called AMOS-6, will cover large parts of West, East and Southern Africa, Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post.

“To connect people living in remote regions, traditional connectivity infrastructure is often difficult and inefficient, so we need to invent new technologies,” Zuckerberg said. The Internet.org platform offers free access to pared-down web services, focused on job listings, agricultural information, healthcare and education, as well as Facebook’s own social network and messaging services.

Growth in the number of people with access to the Internet is slowing, and more than half the world’s population is still offline, the United Nations Broadband Commission said last month. Facebook has nearly 20 million users in major African markets Nigeria and Kenya, statistics released by it showed last month, with a majority using mobile devices to access their profiles. The company opened its first African office in Johannesburg in June.

Russian Airbus Crashes in Egypt : 224 Dead on Board

A Russian airliner which crashed in Egypt's Sinai peninsula, killing all 224 people on board, broke up in mid-air, a Russian official says.

Victor Sorochenko, the head of Russia's Interstate Aviation Committee, said it was too early to conclude what caused the crash on Saturday.

He told reporters debris was found across a 20sq km-wide area of Sinai. So far 163 bodies have been found.

Russia observed a day of mourning on Sunday after its worst air disaster.

Mr Sorochenko spoke after visiting the site of the debris, near the village of Hasana. The head of Russia's Air Transport Agency, Aleksandr Neradko, said that "all signs attest to the fact that the aircraft disintegrated in the air at a high altitude".

Jihadists allied to so-called Islamic State in Sinai, where such groups are active, had made a claim on social media that they had brought down flight KGL9268.

But Egyptian Prime Minister Sharif Ismail said experts had confirmed that a plane could not be downed at 9,450m (31,000ft), the altitude the Airbus 321 was flying at, by weapons the militants are known to possess.

President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi also urged caution on Sunday, saying the investigation into the cause was a "complicated matter" that could take months.

Russian Transport Minister Maksim Sokolov said no evidence had been seen that indicated the plane was targeted, and IS has not produced pictures or video footage to substantiate its claim.

Analysis by BBC Monitoring found that a video purporting to show the downing of a plane did not appear to be an official IS clip, and was not shared on official IS channels.

Last radar contact site & route of the Russian airliner

A number of major airlines - Emirates, Air France-KLM, Lufthansa, and Qatar Airways - have decided not to fly over the Sinai Peninsula until more information is available. Two smaller carriers, flydubai and Air Arabia, also said they would re-route flights, while Etihad Airways said it would avoid only "certain areas of airspace" over Sinai.

Germany's transport ministry has told German airlines not to follow the same route taken by the Russian plane.

British Airways said it regularly assessed the safety of its routes. BA said it would not confirm flight routes, but that it "would never fly a route unless it was safe to do so".

The plane came down early on Saturday, shortly after leaving the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh for the Russian city of St Petersburg.

Russian and French investigators have joined the Egyptian-led probe, along with experts from Airbus, which is headquartered in France.

Egyptian officials said some bodies had been recovered within a radius of 5km on Saturday, but that of a three-year-old girl was found 8km from the scene.

One unnamed official told Reuters the plane appeared to have split in two, with one part burning up and the other crashing into a rock.

The plane's flight recorders have been found and sent for analysis, officials said.

Russia's transport regulator said on Sunday it would check all the airline's A-321 planes, but Kogalymavia said this would not affect their operations.

Egypt's civil aviation minister Hossam Kamal said there had been no sign of any problems on board the flight, contradicting earlier reports that the pilot had asked to make an emergency landing.

An Egyptian ground service official who carried out a pre-flight inspection of the plane said the aircraft appeared to be in good shape

"We are all shocked. It was a good plane. Everything checked out in 35 minutes," the official told AP.

However, the widow of the plane's co-pilot told Russian TV her husband had complained about the aircraft's technical condition.

Relatives mourning for their love-ones

The plane was carrying 217 passengers, including 25 children, Russian transport authorities said. There were seven crew members on board.

Most of the passengers were Russian, but at least three were Ukrainian and one Belarusian.

A plane returning 162 bodies to Russia left Cairo late on Sunday, an airport official said.

World's Tallest Lego Tower Built by Thousands of Italian Children

Thousands of children in Italy have come together to set a new world record for the tallest structure built entirely from Lego blocks. Little ones of all ages worked with some 600,000 Lego bricks at an event hosted at the Milan World Expo to construct a tower 35.05 metres tall, breaking the previous Guinness World Record of 34.76 metres.

Lego Italy's marketing director, Camillo Mazzola, explained why they had decided to set the challenge at the expo.

"It is the first thing that a child who has Lego bricks in hand does, even at the age of two when they are not capable of constructing things, they put one over another and build a tower. So, today we go from a non-professional tower built by a child, to the super tower of records," he said.

Mazzola added that commercial interest was not at the heart of the event.

"Above all we want to inspire lots of children to think beyond their limits, to think great, to stimulate their imagination and help them see, also in terms of self-esteem, improving their self esteem, that adding one brick above another great things can be achieved. So, this tower will be a symbol for these children, who are the builders of tomorrow for us, of what they may do for the entire world," he said.

The World Expo in Milan is taking place in the city from 1 May - 31 October 2015.

Phan Thi Kim Phuc : Historic Subject of an Historic Photograph

Phan Thị Kim Phúc, (born 1963) is a Vietnamese-Canadian best known as the child depicted in the Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph taken during theVietnam War on June 8, 1972. The iconic photo taken in Trang Bang by AP photographer Nick Ut shows her at about nine years of age running naked on a road after being severely burned on her back by a South Vietnamese napalm attack.

The breath-taking Vietnam War photo that shook the world

Kim Phuc and her family were residents of the village of Trang Bang, South Vietnam. On June 8, 1972, South Vietnamese planes dropped a napalm bomb on Trang Bang, which had been attacked and occupied by North Vietnamese forces. Kim Phuc joined a group of civilians and South Vietnamese soldiers who were fleeing from the Caodai Temple to the safety of South Vietnamese–held positions. A South Vietnamese Air Force pilot mistook the group for enemy soldiers and diverted to attack. The bombing killed two of Kim Phuc’s cousins and two other villagers. Kim Phuc was badly burned and tore off her burning clothes. Associated Press photographer Nick Ut’s photograph of Kim Phuc running naked amid other fleeing villagers, South Vietnamese soldiers and press photographers became one of the most haunting images of the Vietnam War. In an interview many years later, she recalled she was yelling, Nóng quá, nóng quá(“too hot, too hot”) in the picture. A cropped version of the photo with the press photographers to the right removed was featured on the front page of the New York Times the next day. It later earned a Pulitzer Prize and was chosen as the World Press Photo of the Year for 1972.

After snapping the photograph, Ut took Kim Phuc and the other injured children to Barsky Hospital in Saigon, where it was determined that her burns were so severe that she probably would not survive.^[1] After a 14-month hospital stay and 17 surgical procedures, however, she was able to return home. Ut continued to visit her until he was evacuated during the fall of Saigon.

Audio tapes of President Richard Nixon, in conversation with his chief of staff, H. R. Haldeman, reveal that Nixon doubted the authenticity of the photograph, thinking it might have been “fixed.” After the release of this tape, Út commented, “Even though it has become one of the most memorable images of the twentieth century, President Nixon once doubted the authenticity of my photograph when he saw it in the papers on 12 June 1972. The picture for me and unquestionably for many others could not have been more real. The photo was as authentic as the Vietnam war itself. The horror of the Vietnam war recorded by me did not have to be fixed. That terrified little girl is still alive today and has become an eloquent testimony to the authenticity of that photo. That moment thirty years ago will be one Kim Phúc and I will never forget. It has ultimately changed both our lives.”

Tony Blair Finally Admits His 'Mistakes' in Iraq War and Rise of ISIS

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has said the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was partly responsible for the emergence of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in the Middle East. But he insisted that toppling dictator Saddam Hussein had been the right thing to do.

Blair told CNN that "there are elements of truth" in the assertion that the war caused the rise of IS.

"Of course you can't say those of us who removed Saddam in 2003 bear no responsibility for the situation in 2015," he said in the interview to be broadcast Sunday. He added that the Arab Spring had also played a role in creating instability that allowed the Islamic fundamentalist militant group to flourish.

Blair's decision to take Britain into the Iraq war - based on what turned out to be false claims about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction - remains hugely divisive, and contributed to his Labour Party's loss of power in 2010.

Blair insisted that removing Saddam was the right thing to do, but apologized, as he has before, for failures in post-war planning.

"I apologize for the fact that the intelligence we received was wrong," he said in clips released before the broadcast.

"I also apologize for some of the mistakes in planning and, certainly, our mistake in our understanding of what would happen once you removed the regime."

Some 179 British personnel died in Iraq between 2003 and 2009. A public inquiry into decisions and mistakes in Britain's planning and execution of the war began in 2009 but has yet to issue its findings. The process has been held up while people criticized in the report are given a chance to respond.

Critics of the war hope the inquiry will conclude that Blair was determined to back President George W. Bush in his invasion plans, whether or not it was supported by the public, Parliament or legal opinion.

Blair's remarks to CNN are a noticeable departure from the harder tone he took in an essay he published just last year. In that essay, he said the West's failure to intervene in Syria is to blame for the violent insurgency in neighboring Iraq - not the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

Blair called at the time for Western countries to intervene in Syria, though he did not specify how. He wrote that extremists "have to be countered hard" wherever they are fighting.

Nepal Elects Vidya Devi Bhandari as Nation's First Woman President

Communist leader Vidya Devi Bhandari was today elected as Nepal's first woman President by the parliament, weeks after it adopted a new landmark Constitution that declared the country a secular state. 

54-year-old Bhandari, the Vice-president of CPN-UML and widow of late general secretary of the party Madan Bhandari, secured 327 votes against 214 votes of her rival veteran Nepali Congress leader Kul Bahadur Gurung. 

"I announce that Vidya Devi Bhandari has been elected to the post of Nepal's president," Speaker Onsari Gharti Magar said, to loud cheers from lawmakers. 

She succeeds incumbent Ram Baran Yadav who was elected as the country's first President in 2008 after Nepal was declared a Republic following the abolition of a 240-year-old monarchy. 

With the promulgation of the Constitution on September 20, it was required to elect a new President within a month of the commencement of the Parliament session. 

In her first public statement as the President, Bhandari said the new Constitution would work for Nepal's sovereignty and independence during her tenure. 

She said the charter promulgated from the Constituent Assembly last month would protect sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity. 

She said her election was a step ahead in the process of implementing the Constitution as per its spirit.

Bhandari : First woman head of state in Nepal

Her victory was almost certain as 12 ruling parties including the third and fourth largest parties - UCPN (Maoist) and Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal (RPP-N) - had pledged their support. Gurung received votes only from NC lawmakers. 

Bhandari is a close confidante of Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli, who was elected earlier this month and leads a coalition government. The president is the ceremonial head in Nepal while the prime minister is the nation's leader.

Bhandari began her political career with a leftist student movement in 1979. She then acquired membership of CPN (ML), went underground and fought against the party-less Panchayat system from Morang district.

She married the famed Communist leader Madan Kumar Bhandari.

After the end of Panchayat system and restoration of multi-party democracy in 1990, CPN (ML) became CPN (UML) after unification with CPN (Marxist) and her husband became General Secretary of the unified party.

US Destroyer Sails Through South China Sea : Beijing Summons US Ambassador

China has reportedly summoned the US ambassador after Washington launched a direct military challenge to Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea with naval manoeuvres near two artificial islands. State television reported that the Chinese vice-foreign minister, Zhang Yesui, had branded the move “extremely irresponsible” when meeting with the US ambassador to China, Max Baucus. Chinese authorities said earlier they had monitored, followed and warned US warship USS Lassen as it “illegally” entered waters near the disputed reefs, and urged Washington to “immediately correct its mistake”.

The USS Lassen began its mission through waters near the disputed Spratly archipelago at about 6.40am local time on Tuesday. “The operation has begun. It will be complete within a few hours,” a senior US defence official told Reuters. The guided-missile destroyer reportedly received orders to travel within 12 nautical miles (22.2km, or 13.8 miles) of the Spratlys’ Mischief and Subi reefs, which are at the heart of a controversial Chinese island building campaign that has soured ties between Washington and Beijing. Chinese officials were not informed of Tuesday’s mission, US officials said.

Addressing journalists in Beijing on Tuesday afternoon, Lu Kang, a foreign ministry spokesman, said China was strongly dissatisfied with America’s actions, which he described as a threat to China’s sovereignty. But he refused to be drawn on whether China would consider a military response. “I will not answer hypothetical questions,” Lu said. “We hope that the US side will not take actions that will backfire.” Lu warned that further “provocative actions” might lead to accelerated Chinese construction in the South China Sea: “It would be a pity for us to realise that we have to strengthen and speed up relevant construction activities.”

USS Lassen : The destroyer sent to South China Sea

The Chinese embassy in Washington said the concept of “freedom of navigation” should not be used as an excuse for muscle-flexing and the US should “refrain from saying or doing anything provocative and act responsibly in maintaining regional peace and stability”. Earlier, as reports of the freedom of navigation operation emerged, China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, warned Washington to “act prudently to avoid provocation”.

China’s official news agency, Xinhua, said Wang had urged the US to “think twice, and not act rashly and make trouble out of nothing”. Ian Storey, a South China Sea expert at Singapore’s Institute of South East Asian Studies, said Washington’s decision to deploy a warship rather than a smaller vessel underlined its determination to issue a powerful signal of intent. “They’ve gone in heavy. There is not much else heavier than that except an aircraft carrier,” he said. “They want to send a very clear message to China that they are serious about this.”

Rory Medcalf, the head of the National Security College at the Australian National University, said the operation was “a warning for China not to overplay its hand in signalling that America is not welcome in the South China Sea”. Storey said the “$64,000 question” was how Beijing would respond to the long-anticipated US move, which follows months of escalating tensions in the region, where Beijing has overlapping territorial claims with countries including Vietnam and the Philippines.

“China will have to react – it cannot not react to this,” Storey said. “Nationalism in China is such that China will be expected to make a robust response to this. “This is why the US has had to consider these operations very carefully,” he added. “They’d have to take into account how China would respond. And if China does move to challenge these operations using coastguard operations or naval ships then that raises the risk of a collision or worse.” 

China’s military buildup in the South China Sea – including the construction of a 3km runway capable of supporting fighter jets and transport planes – has become a major source of tension between Beijing and Washington. Subi and Mischief reefs were submerged at high tide before China began a massive dredging project in 2014. It now claims a 12 nautical mile territorial limit around the artificial islands, although the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea says such limits cannot be set around man-made islands built on previously submerged reefs

Satellite image of an airstrip under construction
in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea

The US president, Barack Obama, said he had held “candid discussions” with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, over the issue during Xi’s recent state visit to the US. However, Medcalf said Tuesday’s operation, for which the navy had been preparing for months, indicated Washington was unsatisfied with the outcome of those talks. “Clearly there was a decision to wait until after the Xi Jinping visit and I suspect to base American behaviour on the outcomes of that visit,” he said. Speaking earlier this month, officials in Beijing cautioned the US against “provocative” actions in the South China Sea. “China will never allow any country to violate China’s territorial waters and airspace in the South China Sea,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said. China claims most of the South China Sea, one of the world’s busiest sea lanes, although Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan have rival claims. Beijing says the islands will have mainly civilian uses as well as undefined defense purposes. But satellite photographs have shown the construction of three military-length airstrips by China in the Spratlys, including one each on Mischief and Subi reefs.

Pentagon officials have spent months lobbying for the White House to take a harder line on China’s actions in the South China Sea, which is a key global shipping lane, through which more than $5tn of world trade passes every year. “There are billions of dollars of commerce that float through that region of the world,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told a news briefing. “Ensuring that free flow of commerce … is critical to the global economy.”

Ashton Carter, the US defense secretary, has accused Beijing of constructing “massive outposts” in the South China Sea that increase “the risk of miscalculation or conflict” in the region.

“Make no mistake, we will fly, sail and operate wherever international law permits,” Carter said this month. “We will do that in the time and place of our choosing.”

Pentagon officials said Tuesday’s mission, the first such operation since 2012, would followed by many others. Earlier reports said the ship would likely be accompanied by a US navy P-8A surveillance plane and possibly a P-3 surveillance plane, which have been conducting regular surveillance missions in the region.

“The United States’ credibility is at stake here,” said Storey. “If it just did a one-off symbolic drive-by then US credibility suffers in the region so this I think is going to be the first of many such operations in the future.”

Pentagon officials say the US regularly conducts freedom of navigation operations around the world to challenge excessive maritime claims.

In early September, China sent naval vessels within 12 miles of the Aleutian islands off Alaska. China said they were there as part of a routine drill following exercises with Russia. The Australian defence minister, Marise Payne, said her country had not been involved in Tuesday’s manoeuvres but indicated support for the US move. “It is important to recognize that all states have a right under international law to freedom of navigation and freedom of overflight, including in the South China Sea. Australia strongly supports these rights,” Payne said in a statement.

Argentina Election : Shock as Macri Forces Scioli into Second Round

Mauricio Macri : Gave sudden shock to pole pandits

If there were any remaining doubts that progressive governments in Latin America are on the defensive, they were shattered last night with the poor result of the ruling Peronist camp in the Argentinian presidential elections. Daniel Scioli, the centre-left candidate endorsed by incumbent Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, was forced into a second-round runoff by his more market-orientated challenger Mauricio Macri from the Cambiemos (“Let’s Change”) bloc. For the first time in recent memory, the Front for Victory also lost control of the governorship of Buenos Aires province, which is home to one in four voters.

It was the worst night for the ruling camp since the Kirchners came to power in 2003 (Fernández succeeded her husband Néstor Kirchner in 2007; he died three years later). The gleeful headlines in the Argentinian newspapers, most of which are anti-Kirchner, said it all: “Surprises,” exclaimed Clarín. “Macri triumphant,” proclaimed Perfil. “Commotion in Kirchnerismo,” screamed the tabloid Muy. “Electoral disaster for Kirchnerismo,” noted La Prensa.

Daniel Scioli : Couldn't do as expected

When the preliminary results were announced the previous midnight, swaths of the Argentinian chattering classes were stunned into silence. In the press room at the Scioli bunker, journalists exclaimed in disbelief at the numbers flashing up on the screen. Macri was initially ahead, and although his lead slipped as the count came in, he ended less than 2.5 points behind a favourite who had been forecast to win comfortably. Polls had suggested that Scioli was within striking distance of the 10-point lead needed for an outright first-round win. Only hours earlier, TV exit surveys had predicted he would be ahead by a “wide margin”. They were laughably wrong.

Instead, he carries a far slimmer than expected majority into the second round and knows that he has a fight on his hands in key battlegrounds. Chief among them is Buenos Aires – a formerly Peronist stronghold that Scioli had run as governor. In arguably the greatest shock of the night, the race for his replacement was won by Macri’s opposition camp. The victor, María Eugenia Vidal, was ecstatic: “Today, we made the impossible possible. We are making history,” she said. This was largely due to a misjudgment by outgoing president Fernández, who had imposed her unpopular cabinet chief Aníbal Fernández, no relation, as the ruling bloc candidate. As a result, the Peronists lost the most populous state in Argentina. They were also hammered in Córdoba, where Macri won almost half of the vote

Ahead of the second round on 22 November, the momentum is now clearly with Macri, the son of Italian migrants, who went on to make a fortune in the construction industry and become the most successful president of Boca Juniors football club. “What has happened on this day changes the politics of this country,” he told cheering supporters, promising to work “morning, noon and night to earn [voters’] trust and demonstrate they made the right decision”.

Sergio Massa : Third place runner

The ruling camp, meanwhile, has to rethink its strategy. With the second-round campaign already under way, Scioli urged Peronists to demonstrate their traditional qualities of loyalty and indicated that he will try to reach out to unaffiliated voters. “United together, we will triumph,” Scioli declared in a rallying speech. “I call upon the undecided and independent voters to join this cause.” His aides, however, were clearly dismayed at the poor showing and said they would have to analyse and correct the weak points in their approach. The third-placed candidate, Sergio Massa, a dissident Peronist who won 21% of the vote, could now play the role of kingmaker. Having proclaimed himself in favour of change, it is thought that he is leaning towards the opposition, but he has said he will retreat for several days, draw up a list of priorities and then enter into negotiations regarding which side to support.

Fernández, who maintains a high level of support despite a tumultous period in office, will also be a key figure thanks to her strong backing from the unions and social movements. Her son Máximo was elected as a representative for the first time and her sister-in-law and close confidante Alicia won the governorship of Santa Cruz province in Patagonia.

She and Scioli will have to address the mistakes they made in the past few weeks and months, but they might also feel they are running up against an adverse historical tide. The regional situation has changed dramatically since the Kirchners entered the Casa Rosada presidential palace in 2003. That was around the peak of the so-called “pink wave” of populist leftwing leaders who took power in Latin America, including Hugo Chávez in Venezuela in 1998, Luíz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil in 2002, Evo Morales in Bolivia in 2005 and Rafael Correa in Ecuador in 2006. For most of the past 10 years, they benefited from strong economies thanks to rising commodity prices and strong demand from China, which funded welfare expansions, job creation and poverty reduction policies. But a downturn and growing allegations of corruption and mismanagement have eroded support.

President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner

 Most leftist administrations are still holding on, but only just. Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, who has struggled with street protests and the world’s highest inflation since the death of Chávez, faces tough parliamentary elections in December. Dilma Rousseff, who replaced Lula, is battling impeachment, scandal and recession. Ecuador has been racked with protests this summer and has slashed growth forecasts. Only Morales appears relatively unscathed. In Argentina, the right are buoyant after last night’s upset. But the left are not out yet. The second-round campaign will be one of the greatest tests yet of the stamina of the progressive movement in Latin America.