The Indonesian authorities have concluded that the Lion Air plane that crashed last month killing 189 people was not fit to fly and should have been grounded after recurring technical problems. The Boeing 737 MAX vanished from radar about 13 minutes after taking off from Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, on October 29, slamming into the Java Sea at 450 miles per hour moments after the pilot had asked to return to the airport. Data from the jetliner, presented in preliminary findings by accident investigators on Wednesday, showed the pilots fought to prevent the crash from the moment the plane took off as the 737’s nose was repeatedly forced down, apparently by an automatic system receiving incorrect sensor readings. The information from the flight data recorder reveals that the crews successfully battled to raise the nose over two dozen times before finally losing control. The National Transport Safety Committee (KNKT) did not pinpoint a definitive cause of the accident, with a final crash report not likely to be filed until next year. However, it admonished Lion Air, the nation’s largest budget carrier, for repeatedly putting the plane back into service despite failing to fix a problem with the airspeed indicator in the days leading up to the fatal flight. Jakarta plane crash: Flight Lion Air JT610 Its previous flight, on the eve of the crash, was from Denpasar in Bali to Jakarta. The pilots had reported the same problem but had de-activated the anti-stall system and continued to fly manually. “During [that] flight, the plane was experiencing a technical problem but the pilot decided to continue,” Nurcahyo Utomo, aviation head of the KNKT told reporters. The report outlines the maintenance procedures that were carried out in response. “In our opinion, the plane was no longer airworthy and should not have continued,” he said, according to the BBC. The report itself does not explicitly spell out that conclusion. Instead it urges the airline to improve its safety culture, including to increase pilots’ knowledge of emergency procedures, and to better document repair work on its planes. The initial findings will also heighten concerns there were problems with key systems in one of the world's newest and most advanced commercial passenger planes. Investigators have previously said the doomed aircraft had problems with its airspeed indicator and angle of attack (AOA) sensors, prompting Boeing to issue a special bulletin telling operators what to do when they face the same situation. An AOA sensor provides data about the angle at which air is passing over the wings and tells pilots how much lift a plane is getting. The information can be critical in preventing an aircraft from stalling. Boeing 737 MAX | Who has ordered the plane? The KNKT has retrieved one of the plane's black boxes - the flight data recorder - but is yet to locate the cockpit voice recorder, which will give more details of how the pilots acted to tackle the problem. Indonesia's aviation safety record has improved since its airlines, including national carrier Garuda, were subject to years-long bans from US and European airspace for safety violations, although the country has still recorded 40 fatal accidents over the past 15 years. Lion Air’s parent group, which also operates Batik Air and Wings Air, has captured half the domestic market in less than 20 years of operation to become Southeast Asia's biggest airline, but it has been dogged by a dubious safety record and an avalanche of complaints over shoddy service. Last week a searing investigation by the New York Times, based on interviews with dozens of Lion Air’s management personnel and flight and ground crew members, as well as investigators and aviation analysts, painted a picture of a carrier that allegedly prioritised growth over safety. Fifteen major safety lapses have been documented in recent years, including a crash that killed 25 people. Government safety investigators alleged that the company’s political ties have allowed it to circumvent their recommendations and play down safety fears. BREAKING: Indonesian national transport safety committee says no engineer briefed the pilot of crashed Lion Air flight JT610 of the multiple serious flight problems experienced on previous flights. The onus was on him to read the maintenance log— amanda hodge (@hodgeamanda) November 28, 2018 In one incident described by the Times, a government inspector had grounded a plane in the city of Makassar, eastern Indonesia, over problems with its hydraulic system. The airline went over his head to gain permission to fly from officials in Jakarta and the flight took off anyway. But Boeing has also come under fire for possible glitches on the 737 MAX - which entered service just last year. Several relatives of the crash victims have already filed lawsuits against Boeing, including the family of a young doctor who was to have married his high school sweetheart this month. Authorities have called off the grim task of identifying victims of the crash, with 125 passengers officially recognised after testing on human remains that filled some 200 body bags.
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The bedraggled men, women and children of a caravan of mostly Hondurans began cramming into the complex in Tijuana about three weeks ago. As the reality sinks in that those seeking asylum in the United States will likely have to remain in the Mexican border city for months, 350 people have asked authorities to help them travel home. "If they don't come, I'll return to my home," he said, saying that salaries in Mexico were too low for him to stay and send money home to help his family.
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The United States on Wednesday indicted two Iranians for launching a major cyber attack using ransomware known as "SamSam" and sanctioned two others for helping exchange the ransom payments from Bitcoin digital currency into rials. The 34-month long hacking scheme wreaked havoc on hospitals, schools, companies and government agencies, including the cities of Atlanta, Georgia, and Newark, New Jersey, causing over $30 million in losses to victims and allowing the alleged hackers to collect over $6 million in ransom payments. The deployment of the SamSam ransomware represented some of the highest profile cyber attacks on U.S. soil, including one in 2016 that forced Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital in Los Angeles to turn away patients and one last year that shut down Atlanta courts and much of its city government.
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China's science ministry has ordered that people involved in the controversial baby gene-editing experiment halt their activities, a government official told state media Thursday. The ministry "firmly opposes the baby gene-editing incident and has already demanded that the relevant organisation suspend the scientific activities of relevant personnel," a ministry official said, according to state broadcaster CCTV. The National Health Commission is investigating the claims.
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Poroshenko's comments came after the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul, home to the global spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians, announced it had drafted a constitutional charter for an "autocephalous", or self-governing, Ukrainian church. Ukraine's push to create an independent church has incensed Moscow at a time of escalating crisis between the two neighbors following Russia's capture of three Ukrainian vessels that Kiev fears may be a precursor to a full-scale invasion. Relations collapsed following Russia's seizure of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and the outbreak of a Kremlin-backed insurgency in eastern Ukraine that has killed more than 10,000 people.
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Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman arrives in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Wednesday, ahead of the G20 summit. A prosecutor in Argentina has accepted a request to prosecute Mohammed bin Salman for alleged crimes against humanity, hours after the Saudi Arabia crown prince arrived in the country for the G20 summit.
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California attorney general Xavier Becerra said Wednesday that his office is “monitoring” the use of force against a caravan of migrants and the possible closure of the southern border and considering filing a legal challenge. “We have been approached by folks who have expressed complaints,” Becerra told Reuters in an interview. Becerra, a Democrat and former member of Congress, suggested that president Trump’s threat to close the border in response to the influx of central American migrants arriving in caravans might provide a legal avenue to challenge the administration, provided the border closure affects a California resident.
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President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that Russia had no choice but to cut its dependency on dollars to conduct trade, after becoming the target of increasingly severe US sanctions. "It isn't our goal to desert the dollar," Putin told an investment forum in comments broadcast on national television. The dollar is the preeminent currency in international trade.
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A bipartisan group of senators emerged frustrated from a briefing with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saudi Arabia policy Wednesday, with some even saying the classified meeting convinced them to buck the administration by publicly opposing the longtime U.S. ally. The Senate is considering a vote on a resolution that would end U.S. support for Saudi Arabia’s proxy war with Iran in Yemen. The contentious issue of the Yemen war was further complicated by the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last month.
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Videgaray, who leaves office at the weekend, said the incoming Mexican government was also not planning to accept U.S. demands that it give asylum to the migrants, thousands of whom have arrived at the U.S.-Mexican border in caravans in recent weeks. Videgaray said the migrants were welcome to stay in Mexico while they waited to file asylum claims in the United States.
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The German automaker's fully electric e-tron GT concept made its global debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show, which opens to the public Friday, November 30, 2018. Volume production is scheduled to start in late 2020. The Audi e-tron GT concept is a fully electric four-door coupé that's particularly powerful. It has two separate electric motors, fitted on the front and rear axles, for system power of 434kW, equivalent to 590 horsepower.
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The Airbus A340 experienced difficulties southwest of Amsterdam on Thursday, less than an hour into the flight from Berlin. A routine inspection suggests a technical malfunction of the plane’s air-to-ground communications systems, a German Air Force spokesman in Berlin said by phone. News portal Spiegel Online reported the plane suffered a complete failure of its communication system that left the crew without contact with ground control.
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Indonesia is one of the world's fastest-growing aviation markets, but it has come under fresh scrutiny since a fatal Lion Air crash last month as the sector struggles to keep up with its breakneck expansion, putting safety at risk, analysts warn. On Wednesday, investigators issued a preliminary report that said the doomed Lion Air jet had technical problems that the airline failed to fix before its final flight. While officials did not lay blame or pinpoint a definitive cause of the October 29 accident, they said the budget carrier must take steps "to improve (its) safety culture".
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The 2017 G-20 Summit, in Germany1- How will the dynamics of the summit be? The meeting will take place between November 30 and December 1 and will have Costa Salguero as core venue, although there will also be activities in the center of Buenos Aires. The leaders will participate in four debate sessions, with the aim of reaching a final consensus statement among all the participants.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Special counsel Robert Mueller's team believes a conservative author and conspiracy theorist tipped off Donald Trump's confidant Roger Stone months before WikiLeaks released thousands of emails stolen from Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, according to a document newly made public.
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