PARIS (AP) — Searchers found two bodies and a briefcase containing a ticket for Air France Flight 447 in the Atlantic Ocean close to where the jetliner is believed to have crashed, a Brazil military official said Saturday.
The two male bodies were recovered Saturday morning about 45 miles south of where Air France Flight 447 emitted its last signals — roughly 400 miles northeast of the Fernando de Noronha islands off Brazil's northern coast.
Brazilian air force spokesman Col. Jorge Amaral said an Air France ticket was found inside a leather briefcase.
"It was confirmed with Air France that the ticket number corresponds to a passenger on the flight," he said.
Admiral Edison Lawrence said the bodies were being transported to the Fernando de Noronha islands for identification. A backpack with a vaccination card also was recovered.
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The French agency investigating the disaster, meanwhile, said airspeed instruments on the plane were not replaced as the maker recommended before it disappeared in turbulent weather nearly a week ago.
The French accident investigation agency, BEA, found the plane received inconsistent airspeed readings from different instruments as it struggled in a massive thunderstorm on its flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris with 228 people aboard.
Airbus had recommended that all its airline customers replace speed-measuring instruments known as Pitot tubes on the A330, the model used for Flight 447, said Paul-Louis Arslanian, the head of the agency.
Air France issued details about the monitors Saturday, hours after the French agency investigating the disaster of Flight 447 said the instruments were not replaced before the plane crashed last week en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.
The airline acknowledged that speed monitors on its Airbus planes have proven faulty, icing up at high altitude, and that recommendations to change them were first made in September 2007.
Air France said it began replacing the monitors on the Airbus A330 model on April 27.
Pitot monitors are used to measure aerodynamic speed.
An Air France statement said icing of the monitors at high altitude has led to loss of needed flying information.
Arslanian cautioned that it is too early to draw conclusions about the role of Pitot tubes in the crash, saying that "it does not mean that without replacing the Pitots that the A330 was dangerous."
He told a news conference at the agency's headquarters near Paris that the crash of Flight 447 does not mean similar planes are unsafe, adding that he told family members not to worry about flying.
Airbus had made the recommendation for "a number of reasons," he said.
The finds could potentially establish a more precise search area for the crucial black box flight recorders that could tell investigators why the jet crashed, although Brazilian authorities refused to comment on implications for the search.
Investigators have been searching a zone of several hundred square miles for debris. A blue plane seat with a serial number on it has been recovered — but officials were still trying to confirm with Air France that it was a seat belonging to Flight 477.
The investigation is increasingly focused on whether external instruments may have iced over, confusing speed sensors and leading computers to set the plane's speed too fast or slow — a potentially deadly mistake in severe turbulence.
Pitot tubes, protruding from the wing or fuselage of a plane, feed airspeed sensors and are heated to prevent icing. A blocked or malfunctioning Pitot tube could cause an airspeed sensor to malfunction and cause the computer controlling the plane to accelerate or decelerate in a potentially dangerous way.
Air France has already replaced the Pitots on another Airbus model, the 320, after its pilots reported similar problems with the instrument, according to an Air France air safety report filed by pilots in January and obtained by The Associated Press.
The report followed an incident in which an Air France flight from Tokyo to Paris reported problems with its airspeed indicators similar to those believed to have been encountered by Flight 447. In that case, the Pitot tubes were found to have been blocked by ice.
"Following similar problems frequently encountered on the A320 fleet, preventative actions have already been decided and applied," the safety report says. The Pitots on all Air France's A320s were retrofitted with new Pitots "less susceptible to these weather conditions."
The same report says Air France decided to increase the inspection frequency for its A330 and A340 jets' Pitot tubes, but that it had been waiting for a recommendation from Airbus before installing new Pitots.
As they try to locate the wreckage, investigators are relying on 24 messages the plane sent automatically during the last minutes of the flight.
The signals show the plane's autopilot was not on, officials said, but it was not clear if the autopilot had been switched off by the pilots or had stopped working because it received conflicting airspeed readings.
The flight disappeared nearly four hours after takeoff, killing all on board. It was Air France's deadliest plane crash and the world's worst commercial air accident since 2001.
The head of France's weather forecasting agency, Alain Ratier, said weather conditions at the time of the flight were not exceptional for the time of the year and region, which is known for violent stormy weather.
On Thursday, European plane maker Airbus sent an advisory to all operators of the A330 reminding them of how to handle the plane in conditions similar to those experienced by Flight 447.
Peter Goelz, a former managing director of the National Transportation Safety Board, said that advisory and the Air France memo about replacing flight-speed instruments "certainly raises questions about whether the Pitot tubes, which are critical to the pilot's understanding of what's going on, were operating effectively."
Arslanian said it is vital to locate a small beacon called a "pinger" that should be attached to the cockpit voice and data recorders, now presumed to be deep in the Atlantic.
"We have no guarantee that the pinger is attached to the recorders," he said.
Holding up a pinger in the palm of his hand, he said: "This is what we are looking for in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean."
Currents could have scattered debris far along the ocean floor, he said.
President Obama said at a news conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy Saturday that the United States had authorized all of the U.S. government's resources to help investigate the crash.
BEA head Arslanian said U.S. forces have lent the agency acoustic systems that will be fitted to two naval vessels. France's Emeraude submarine and other high-tech equipment from French marine research institute Ifremer are also being sent to the region.
The submarine, to arrive next week, will try to detect signals from the black boxes, said military spokesman Christophe Prazuck.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Obama calls for new start between U.S., Muslim world
CAIRO — In a speech he called a first step toward changing U.S.-Muslim relations, President Obama on Thursday called on Muslims, Jews and Christians around the world to cast aside fear and mistrust in the name of a safer, more prosperous future.
In a speech delivered at Cairo University, Obama sought to challenge stereotypes after a decade of violence and misunderstanding in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
"I have come here to Cairo to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world — one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect, and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive," he told an audience of dignitaries, students and journalists.
THE OVAL: Obama speaks in Cairo
MORE ON SPEECH: President's team cast wide net
TEXT: Read Obama's speech
He offered no new policy prescription on the key areas of discord: Arab-Israeli peace, the war in Afghanistan and Iran's nuclear ambitions. And he acknowledged as much.
"No single speech can eradicate years of mistrust, nor can I answer in the time that I have all the complex questions that brought us to this point," he said. "But I am convinced that in order to move forward, we must say openly the things we hold in our hearts, and that too often are said only behind closed doors. There must be a sustained effort to listen to each other, to learn from each other, to respect one another; and to seek common ground."
The only disruption during the speech came when someone from the audience shouted, "We love you." Obama did not respond as he often does at home with, "I love you back." He smiled and said, "Thank you."
U.S.-MUSLIM RELATIONS: Obama plans to reach out
Security was tight on campus and along the streets in and out of the usually chaotic city. Armed police stood on the sidewalks along miles and miles of road, spaced only about 20 feet apart.
On his way to the speech, Obama met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and visited the Sultan Hassan Mosque, one of the largest in the Islamic world, with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Afterward, he conducted a roundtable interview with journalists from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Palestinian territories, Malaysia and Indonesia.
His speech was broadcast around the world and sent out via Twitter and several social-networking sites in what the White House described as its most ambitious effort to date to distribute its message.
At the university, Obama went over several key areas that, he said, have contributed to the misunderstanding and distrust that has marked U.S.-Muslim relations for years:
• On violent extremists, he offered a vigorous defense of his decision to send more troops to Afghanistan while promising that the U.S. does not intend to stay.
"America is not — and never will be — at war with Islam," Obama said. "We will, however, relentlessly confront violent extremists who pose a grave threat to our security … it is my first duty as president to protect the American people."
With respect to the troop buildup, he said: "Make no mistake: We do not want to keep our troops in Afghanistan. We seek no military bases there. It is agonizing for America to lose our young men and women. It is costly and politically difficult to continue this conflict. We would gladly bring every single one of our troops home if we could be confident that there were not violent extremists in Afghanistan and Pakistan determined to kill as many Americans as they possibly can. But that is not yet the case."
• On the Arab-Israeli conflict, he urged both sides to follow through on their commitments and reiterated his support for a two-state solution.
He passionately reinforced the United States' bond with Israel and cautioned against the kind of heated rhetoric that has inflamed passions in the past.
"Around the world, the Jewish people were persecuted for centuries, and anti-Semitism in Europe culminated in an unprecedented Holocaust," he said. "Tomorrow, I will visit Buchenwald, which was part of a network of camps where Jews were enslaved, tortured, shot and gassed to death by the Third Reich. Six million Jews were killed — more than the entire Jewish population of Israel today. Denying that fact is baseless, ignorant, and hateful. Threatening Israel with destruction — or repeating vile stereotypes about Jews — is deeply wrong, and only serves to evoke in the minds of Israelis this most painful of memories while preventing the peace that the people of this region deserve."
He also highlighted the suffering of the Palestinians.
"It is also undeniable that the Palestinian people — Muslims and Christians — have suffered in pursuit of a homeland," he said. "For more than 60 years they have endured the pain of dislocation. Many wait in refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza, and neighboring lands for a life of peace and security that they have never been able to lead. They endure the daily humiliations — large and small — that come with occupation. So let there be no doubt: the situation for the Palestinian people is intolerable. America will not turn our backs on the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity, opportunity, and a state of their own."
• On Iran's nuclear ambitions, Obama said the world has reached "a decisive point."
Preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, he said, "is not simply about America's interests. It is about preventing a nuclear arms race in the Middle East that could lead this region and the world down a hugely dangerous path. "
• On the promotion of democracy, Obama acknowledged the controversy of the U.S. role in Iraq. "Let me be clear," he said. "No system of government can or should be imposed upon one nation by any other."
In a stark contrast in tone from Bush administration officials, Obama said: "America does not presume to know what is best for everyone, just as we would not presume to pick the outcome of a peaceful election. But I do have an unyielding belief that all people yearn for certain things: the ability to speak your mind and have a say in how you are governed; confidence in the rule of law and the equal administration of justice; government that is transparent and doesn't steal from the people; the freedom to live as you choose.
" Those are not just American ideas, they are human rights, and that is why we will support them everywhere."
Truckers say new regs won't jam borders
BURLINGTON, Vt. — Americans returning from Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and parts of the Caribbean will need more than a driver's license to get back into the USA beginning Monday — and efforts are underway to prevent that from turning into a truck backlog at the borders.
Commercial truckers in this border state, home of one of the nation's busiest border crossings, are among those who will be affected by the more stringent documentation requirements, the latest in a series of anti-terrorism efforts put in place after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C. Their imposition fulfills one of the key recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, a blue-ribbon panel of experts convened after the attacks.
In implementing the new requirements, the Department of Homeland Security faces a tricky balancing act: trying to secure the nation's 5,000 miles of border with Canada and 1,900 miles of border with Mexico while not disrupting trade. On an average day last year, Customs officers processed more than 70,000 truck, rail and sea containers.
The goal is "to strengthen our borders while we facilitate legitimate travel," says Joanne Ferreira, a spokewoman for the homeland security department's Customs and Border Protection Agency.
Truckers here say they're prepared for the new regulations.
"All my trucks are bar-coded, and all drivers have two forms of ID," said George Barrett, president and owner of Barrett Trucking in Burlington. During the winter his fleet of trucks crosses the border upward of 20 times a day to haul road salt south from Sainte-Catherine, Quebec, to Vermont.
The border crossing at Derby Line, Vt., was the 10th busiest for truck traffic along the nation's northern border in 2008, according to figures compiled by Customs.
The trucking industry is "well prepared" for the change, said Clayton Boyce, vice president of public affairs for the American Trucking Associations.
The Arlington, Va.-based association has been preparing for a year and a half and Boyce said many truckers already have Free and Secure Trade Program cards, known as FAST, to ease their border crossings. But he noted that other travelers, who may not be familiar with the new rules, "could cause backlogs at the border that could affect our members."
"Whenever the government does something new, there is always a good chance something will go wrong," Boyce said. "That's not a slam on the government. They find out, by doing, what the problem is."
Another Vermont company has a different strategy for expediting cross-border traffic: Land Air Express of New England in Williston, Vt., doesn't send its own trucks over the border, said Tom Spencer, the trucking company's vice president. Instead, it hires Maisliner Transport in Montreal to handle the border crossings.
J.J Maislin of Maisliner said the new requirements will have an effect on trade for small-scale companies that don't move freight between the countries frequently. But he's predicting only limited impact on larger operations like his. He expressed confidence in the federal officers at the border.
"Will there be hiccups? Yes. Will Customs be able to deal with it? Yes," he said.
McLean reports for The Burlington Free Press
U.S. asks Cuba to resume talks on legal immigration
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a new overture to Cuba , the Obama administration asked the island's communist government on Friday to resume talks on legal immigration of Cubans to the United States suspended by former President Bush .
The
The move follows Obama's decision in April to rescind restrictions on travel to Cuba by Americans with family there and on the amount of money they can send to their relatives on the island.
It also comes ahead of a high-level meeting early next month of the
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Clinton, however, told lawmakers this week that the U.S. would not support Cuba's membership in the organization until and unless President Raul Castro's regime makes democratic reforms and releases political prisoners.
She and Obama have also said that broader engagement with Cuba, including the possible lifting of the U.S. embargo on the island, is dependent on such steps.
There was no immediate reaction from the Cuban government on Friday, but communist officials were angered when the Bush administration decided to scuttle the talks on grounds they were not crucial for monitoring agreements aimed at preventing a mass exodus from the island.
In
The twice-yearly meetings in alternating countries had been the highest level contacts between the two countries, which have no diplomatic relations.
The suspension of the talks occurred during an especially prickly period during which then-president
The talks were created so the countries could track adherence to 1994 and 1995 accords designed to promote legal, orderly migration between the two countries. The aim was to avoid a repeat of the summer of 1994, when tens of thousands of Cubans took to the sea in flimsy boats.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Feds to set aside $1B for swine flu vaccine development
by
Federal health officials said Friday that they will set aside $1 billion to jump-start commercial development of a vaccine against the new H1N1 flu virus now spreading worldwide.
Federal health officials said Friday that they will set aside $1 billion to jump-start commercial development of a vaccine against the new H1N1 flu virus now spreading worldwide.
The funding will be used to produce bulk supplies of two key components of a vaccine and to test them in humans. The most critical of the two is the vaccine's active ingredient, a protein from the new flu virus designed to trigger an immune response. The second is a booster, called an adjuvant, that might be added to the vaccine to ramp up its potency if it doesn't appear to work in early human trials.
"The actions we are taking today will help us be prepared if a vaccine is needed," Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius said in a statement.
Vaccine manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline confirmed Friday that the government has put in orders for both the active ingredient and a booster. Officials from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say they hope to have the seed viruses they'll need to create a new H1N1 vaccine by the end of May. The letters and numbers refer to proteins on the viruses' surface.
The first candidate virus arrived at the agency Friday, says Anne Schuchat, of CDC. "We're analyzing candidate (viruses) to see whether they can generate optimal immune responses, then we'll send them out to manufacturers," she says.
In another new development, a research team led by experts from The World Health Organization, Mexico, Cambridge University and the CDC on Friday unveiled the new virus' first detailed family tree. The analysis indicates that the new H1N1 virus originated in birds and then began circulating in pigs, where it picked up a unique mix of genetic segments. Six of its eight genetic pieces are from swine flu viruses, with snippets from viruses found in humans and birds. Two genetic segments come from Eurasian bird flu viruses.
This evolution occurs because flu viruses routinely swap their genes, often in pigs infected with multiple viruses. Pigs are the "classic mixing vessels" for flu strains circulating among humans and birds, says Peter Hotez, president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute at George Washington University.
"It's an important finding. It's a wake-up call that we have to have aggressive, ongoing monitoring of flu in pigs," Hotez says.
The study's senior author, Nancy Cox, director of CDC's influenza division, says the virus is a genetic cousin of the germ that caused the 1918 pandemic, but one that lacks the so-called virulence genes that enabled the 1918 virus to kill an estimated 20 million people.
Cox and her colleagues studied full or partial genomes from seven new H1N1 viruses from patients in Mexico and 44 from 13 states in the USA. Their report was released online by the journal Science.
"From our analysis we have confirmed that the virus likely originated from pigs," Cox says. The analysis suggests that the swine components of the new H1N1 virus remained relatively unchanged in pigs and humans until 1998, when the pig version began to diverge from the human strain, probably through exposure to avian flu.
The new virus that emerged in Mexico in April was dramatically different from any H1N1 virus ever seen before, apparently because it had picked up genes from Eurasian bird flu viruses. "This particular gene constellation has never been described before," Cox says. That means the current seasonal vaccine, though it carries an H1N1 component, won't protect against the new H1N1, she says.
Fortunately, she says, the virus is still susceptible to the antiviral drug Tamiflu, though researchers fear that it may eventually pick up drug-resistance genes as it circulates in humans or animals. Researchers also worry that the virus may mingle with the deadly H5N1 virus now ravaging global bird populations, which could make it more virulent.
Even if that doesn't occur, the epidemic still may become much worse. "It's virus that could come back in the worst way in the fall," Schuchat says.
By Friday, CDC had identified 6,552 probable and confirmed cases of the new H1N1 influenza in the USA. Nine patients have died, Schuchat says. Worldwide, WHO reported 11,168 flu cases and 86 deaths.
Obama's personal finances are sound, report shows
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Obama's personal finances appear to be on sound footing even as the nation's economy struggles, a financial report he released Friday shows.
Obama and his wife Michelle have $1.4 million to $5.9 million in assets, not counting their Chicago home. Their holdings include up to $265,000 in checking accounts.
THE OVAL: White House makes available Obama, Biden finances
MORE: Reports detail Obama's new book deal
OBAMA: Read full financial disclosure report
BIDEN: Vice President's report on finances
The president's new financial disclosure report mirrors one he filed a few months ago.
Much of the Obamas' wealth comes from the president's best-sellers. The books, "Dreams from My Father" and "The Audacity of Hope," brought in about $2.5 million in royalties last year, according to tax returns Obama released last month.
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The overall value of Obama's book deals isn't known; like past reports, his new financial report says the value isn't readily ascertainable.
The White House also released Vice President Joe Biden's new personal financial report. It shows Biden and his wife Jill have at least $119,000 to $615,000 in assets and $185,000 to $430,000 in debt.
Under ethics rules, the values of assets and debts can be described in broad ranges rather than in exact amounts.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Some states pass sovereignty measures
WASHINGTON — For some states, the message to the federal government is clear: Back off.
Legislatures in
The largely Republican backers say the federal government has overstepped its constitutional bounds by meddling in local matters ranging from education to drunken driving. "It's telling the federal government, 'Guys, you really need to back off,' " said Judy Burges, a
Oklahoma's Senate on Wednesday gave final approval to a sovereignty resolution, in defiance of a veto from the state's Democratic governor,
Similar measures are under consideration in at least two dozen other states. State sovereignty efforts have won the endorsement of two GOP gubernatorial candidates, one of whom — Gov.
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The last time that happened, when
Some authors of sovereignty resolutions insist it is slander to paint them as secessionists.
"That's ludicrous. That's not what we're trying to do," said
Jeff Breedlove, chief strategist for
"We love our country," Breedlove said. "The whole point of this is to honor the founding fathers by honoring the 10th Amendment of the Constitution."
Others aren't so definite. "Why would I want to rule anything out?" said state Rep. Charles Key, R-Okla. "Why would we take a position that says 'We really don't like this but we're only going to go so far?' "
The effort seems to have its biggest impetus in states that President
Supporters insist this isn't a red state rebellion and that they are trying to take a stand against federal encroachment on state authority that has been going on for decades.
"It has nothing to do with the Obama administration," said Key. He first introduced a state sovereignty resolution last year, when Republican
Like a number of other state lawmakers, Key said it was a law backed by the Bush administration establishing expensive security measures when issuing drivers' licenses — known as the Real ID Act — that prompted his action.
Rep.
Michael Boldin, a Los Angeles-based web marketer said he started the Tenth Amendment Center website "as a response to George Bush and
Even so, there's no question that some Obama administration moves are fueling some of these resolutions. Arizona's Burges doesn't like requirements that union labor be used for projects funded by federal stimulus funds.
"We're a right-to-work state," she said, using shorthand for laws designed to limit the influence of labor unions at the workplace.
The resolutions that have passed have no legal effect, but Key and Steele said they hope to organize a summit where state lawmakers could plan their next move.
One possibility: organizing civil disobedience where states agree to defy a federal rule. That could trigger a legal case going all the way to the Supreme Court, now dominated by GOP appointees.
"It's not off the wall," said
Contributing: Mimi Hall
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