US probes Afghanistan special forces helicopter crash

 

The Chinook is the workhorse of foreign forces in Afghanistan

The US military is trying to confirm whether insurgent fire brought down a helicopter in Afghanistan with the loss of 38 people, most of them Americans.

The dead included Navy Seals, Afghan commandos, US air force personnel, a dog handler, the Chinook crew and a civilian interpreter.
The 30 US deaths are the largest single American loss of life in the conflict.
Officials, witnesses and the Taliban have said the Chinook was shot down by insurgents during a combat mission.
The helicopter went down in a district of Wardak province, west of Kabul, early on Saturday.
The presence of at least 17 of the Seals has led to speculation that they were involved in a highly significant operation, such as targeting a high-ranking figure in the insurgency.

Nato's worst Afghan moments

• 6 April 2005 - Chinook crash in Ghazni province kills 15 US soldiers and three civilian contractors
• 28 June 2005 - 16 US troops killed when Taliban bring down Chinook in Kunar province
• 16 August 2005 - 17 Spanish soldiers die when Cougar helicopter crashes near Herat
• 5 May 2006 - 10 US soldiers die after Chinook crashes east of Kabul
• 2 Sept 2006 - 14 UK personnel killed when RAF Nimrod explodes following mid-air refuelling
• 18 August 2008 - 10 French soldiers killed in Taliban ambush east of Kabul
• 6 August 2011 - 31 US special forces and seven Afghan soldiers killed in Chinook crash

Source: BBC and news agencies

US sources have said they were from the same Navy Seal unit, known as Team Six, which killed Osama Bin Laden in May, but are "unlikely" to be the same personnel.

American officials have refused to confirm the cause of the crash on the record but some have told news agencies they believe the Chinook was shot down.
Afghan officials in Wardak province said a Taliban rocket hit the craft. A local resident who saw the incident told the BBC that he saw the Chinook catch fire and crash after a rocket hit it.
The Taliban claimed they shot the helicopter down as it was involved in a raid on a house in Wardak where insurgents were gathering.
The BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Kabul says it is rare for the Taliban to shoot down aircraft.
The Taliban say they have modified their rocket-propelled grenades to improve their accuracy but that may not be true, our correspondent says.
'Extraordinary sacrifices' The top US military officer, Adm Mike Mullen, said it was too soon to say what brought it down.

Who are the Navy Seals?

• 2,500 US Navy special forces
• They carry out Sea, Air and Land operations, hence their name
• Origins lie in World War II
• Involved in Vietnam, Panama, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen
• Team Six is elite group officially known as the Naval Special Warfare Development Group
• Team Six based near Virginia Beach, members usually have five years of experience, part of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC )

"Information is still coming in about this incident. I think it's important that we allow investigators to do their work before jumping to too many conclusions," the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

President Barack Obama paid his condolences to the Americans and Afghans killed in the crash.
"Their deaths are a reminder of the extraordinary sacrifices made by the men and women of our military and their families, including all who have served in Afghanistan," he said in a statement on Saturday.
The US is relying more on special forces to fight the war against insurgents in Afghanistan, carrying out night raids against key leaders and conducting surveillance operations.
After last year's increase in troop numbers - credited with some success in reducing Taliban activity in southern Afghanistan - some withdrawals have begun. The goal is for all foreign combat forces to leave the country by the end of 2014.
There are currently about 140,000 foreign troops - about 100,000 of them American - in Afghanistan, fighting the Taliban insurgency and training local troops to take over security.
The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force has begun the process of handing over control of security in some areas to local forces. Bamiyan became the first province to pass to Afghan control in mid-July.

US man charged over Facebook spam turns himself in

 

Sanford Wallace, pictured in 1997, has a long history of sending junk mail

A US man charged with sending more than 27 million spam messages to Facebook users has turned himself in.

Sanford Wallace, who is known as the "Spam King", surrendered to FBI agents in California.
Prosecutors allege he developed a program that breached Facebook spam filters and lured users to submit their account details.
Mr Wallace denies the charges, which carry prison sentences of up to 10 years.
He has been released on $100,000 (£61,000) bail.
Prosecutors say Mr Wallace's program posted messages on Facebook users walls - purportedly from friends - urging users to visit a website where their account details were then harvested.
They were then redirected to an affiliate website that earned Wallace "substantial revenue", the charges say.
The program also retrieved lists of Facebook users' friends and posted spam messages on their walls, the indictment adds.
About 500,000 Facebook accounts were compromised between November 2008 and March 2009, leading to more than 27 million spam messages being sent, prosecutors said.
Mr Wallace, who is from Las Vegas, is charged with six counts of electronic mail fraud, three counts of intentional damage to a protected computer and two counts of criminal contempt.
Facebook sued Mr Wallace in 2009 and a federal judge ordered him not to access Facebook's computer network. However, prosecutors say he repeatedly violated that order earlier this year.
Mr Wallace also lost a civil case brought against him by MySpace in 2008 over junk messages sent to members of the social networking site.

Chile marks year since mine collapse

 

The Phoenix II capsule, used to winch the men to safety, will be housed in a museum

A series of commemorative events is being held in Chile to mark the anniversary of the mine collapse that left 33 men trapped for 69 days.

President Sebastian Pinera is expected to lead acts of remembrance in Copiapo, the city nearest the San Jose mine.
The mine collapsed on 5 August 2010, cutting off the miners at a depth of more than 700m (2,300ft).
The last miner was winched to safety on 14 October after a 22-hour televised rescue that gripped the world.
Safety improvements An ecumenical Mass will begin the anniversary events, before the Phoenix II capsule - used to haul the men to safety - is placed in a local museum commemorating the rescue.
The museum will also house the now-famous note, written by miner Jose Ojeda to rescuers while underground, which translates as: "We are all well in the refuge, the 33 of us".

69 days: The miners' long wait for rescue

However, the BBC's Gideon Long says that in stark contrast to the euphoria of the subsequent rescue, the anniversary of the accident will be a sombre affair.
He says many of the miners regard this as a day they would rather forget, when they were plunged into darkness, entombed in the earth and when they thought they were going to die.

 

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera with the famous note, which will now reside in a museum

 

Most of the miners have also struggled to cope with the experience, and a large number remain without work.
Shift leader Luis Urzua told Agence France-Presse: "Some have problems with their memories and they're suffering. We don't all have the same capacity to bounce back."
Friday is the first of several anniversaries, culminating in a huge celebration on 13 October to mark the start of the final rescue operation.
Millions watched on TV as they emerged one by one from underground after a massive rescue operation had managed to drill a hole large enough to pull them to the surface.
Current mining minister, Hernan de Solminihac, told the BBC that safety in Chile's mines had improved greatly.
Mr de Solminihac said that improved miners' training and an increased number of inspections had halved the number of fatal mining accidents in the first six months of the year, compared to 2010.
"This accident was a lesson for us and we are working very hard since then to improve the safety of our industry," he said.

Australia bomb hoax 'was extortion attempt'

 

Madeleine Pulver was at the centre of a dramatic 10-hour operation on Wednesday 

 

An Australian teenager who endured a 10-hour ordeal with a fake bomb strapped to her neck was the victim of an extortion attempt, police say.

An intruder apparently entered the home of Madeleine Pulver, 18, and fastened to her neck what appeared to be a bomb.
Police took 10 hours to remove the device, evacuating nearby streets in the wealthy Sydney suburb of Mosman.
They said the intruder left behind a note attached to the device that confirmed the motive was extortion.
No prime suspect New South Wales Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Murdoch told journalists the device turned out to be "a very, very elaborate hoax".
"But it was made and certainly gave the appearance of a legitimate improvised explosive device. We had to treat it seriously until we could prove otherwise and that's exactly what we did and that's why it took so long."
The device was attached "by a chain or something similar," he told ABC radio.
"While it was articulate and coherent, it didn't seem to have any specific demands,'' the officer was quoted as saying.
Associated Press quoted Mr Moore as saying police were trying to establish how the intruder gained entry to the house and they had not yet identified a prime suspect.
The Sydney Morning Herald said Ms Pulver was attacked in the kitchen of her home, where she was studying for exams.

[This young female police officer] was not wearing any protective clothing or equipment, she wasn't trained as a negotiator, but she made the decision herself... to stay with Madeleine ”

Mark Murdoch Assistant Police Commissioner

BBC correspondent Nick Bryant says police were baffled by the device, saying it was very sophisticated and very confusing.

Bomb disposal experts used X-ray equipment to gain a better sense of precisely what they were dealing with, and even sought assistance from the British military.
Young officer praised During the operation, several streets were cordoned off in Mosman, one of Sydney's wealthiest suburbs on the city's lower north shore. Ambulances and fire crews rushed to the area.
Four people remained in the room with the schoolgirl during the operation, two bomb disposal experts and two police negotiators trying to keep her calm.
Ms Pulver was later taken to hospital for checks before being released on Thursday and is now recovering with her parents.
AFP news agency said the teenager's father, William Pulver, was a successful businessman who was chief executive of a linguistic solutions software company.
Mr Pulver told reporters that Madeleine was "in pretty good spirits".

Timeline of events (Australian EST)

• 1430: Wednesday: William Pulver phones police
• 1440: First officers arrive, put cordon in place
• 1615: Bomb disposal unit called to scene
• 1900: Firefighters enter house with oxygen masks
• 1910: Police make public statement and appeal for information
• 0000: Police announce Ms Pulver freed safely

He said: "She is a little tired and a little sore from holding this damn device in place for about 10 hours but she is now, as we are, eager to get on with her life."

He praised the emergency services for their work on the case.
"Maddy particularly wanted to thank those two officers who spent many long hours sitting with her, showing little regard to their personal safety in her immediate vicinity last night," he said.
Mr Murdoch praised a young policewoman who was first on the scene, The Australian newspaper reported. He said two general duties officers went to the house after Ms Pulver's parents called police.
"What they saw was a very distressed young lady with what we believed to be at the time an improvised explosive device attached to her body," Mr Murdoch told Fairfax radio.
A young female officer, Constable Karen Lowden, stayed with Ms Pulver for the first two hours while the other officer organised other resources and evacuated neighbours, he said.
"She was not wearing any protective clothing or equipment, she wasn't trained as a negotiator, but she made the decision herself, this young officer, to stay with Madeleine and make sure she tried to remain calm and she wasn't left alone, provided moral support for her, and she did an outstanding job in that regard."
New South Wales Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione commended Constable Lowden for her "truly brave and selfless act".
Mr Scipione said he had spoken to the officer and congratulated her. "She is a humble, quietly-spoken woman who did not see herself as a hero," he said.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard told Fairfax radio she was shocked by the case.
"When I looked at it this morning, the first thing I said was, 'It's like a Hollywood script - the kind of thing you would see at the cinema or on TV,"' she said.
"You would never expect it to happen in real life in Australia."

Italy begins crisis talks with EU

 

Talks have begun in Luxembourg between Italy and the EU

Italian finance minister Giulio Tremonti has begun crisis talks with Jean-Claude Juncker, chair of the Eurogroup of finance ministers from the 17 eurozone countries.

The talks come as yields on Italian bonds have reached euro-era record levels.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is due to address parliament on the economy later on Wednesday.
The yields on Spanish bonds have also been rising.
In early trading on Wednesday, the yield on Italian 10-year bonds rose 0.19 percentage points to 6.21%, while the yield on Spanish 10-year bonds was at 6.34%, just below Tuesday's record of 6.45%.
A cost of borrowing above 6% is considered unsustainable by many economists.
"The upward march in Spanish and Italian bond yields is evidence of the relentlessness of the sovereign debt crisis," said Jane Foley, an analyst at Rabobank International.
Political problems The problems come less than two weeks after eurozone leaders agreed a second bailout for Greece, which was partly aimed at preventing the sovereign debt problems spreading to other countries.

"Despite numerous attempts, the European authorities have still not done enough to satisfy a sceptical bond market and the debt crisis looks far from over," said Juliet Tennant, economist at Goodbody Stockbrokers in Dublin.
As worries about the southern European economies grow, investors have been less keen to buy their bonds, which has meant the prices have fallen.
The head of Italy's treasury, Vittorio Grilli, is on a tour of Asia to try to drum up interest in buying Italian bonds, according to sources quoted by AFP.
Half of Italian bonds are owned by Italian institutions and individuals, while most of the rest are held by investors elsewhere in Europe.

Plastic heart gives dad Matthew Green new lease of life

 

Mr Green says he is excited about playing in the garden with his son 

 

A 40-year-old father who was dying from heart failure is set to leave hospital after receiving an artificial heart.

Matthew Green is ready to go home and await a transplant after surgeons at Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire replaced his heart with an implant.
His new plastic heart is powered by a portable driver in a backpack, which he said had "revolutionised" his life.
It is thought to be the first time a UK patient has been able to go home with an entirely artificial heart.
Around 900 similar operations have been carried out around the world.
Mr Green said: "It's going to revolutionise my life. Before I couldn't walk anywhere. I could hardly climb a flight of stairs and now I've been up and I've been walking out and getting back to a normal life.
"I went out for a pub lunch over the weekend and that just felt fantastic, to be with normal people again."
Consultant cardiothoracic surgeon Mr Steven Tsui said without the device Mr Green, from London, may not have survived the wait for a heart transplant operation.
"At any point in time there may be as many as 30 people waiting for a heart transplant on our waiting list at Papworth, with one third waiting over a year," he said.
'Excellent recovery'
"Matthew's condition was deteriorating rapidly and we discussed with him the possibility of receiving this device, because without it, he may not have survived the wait until a suitable donor heart could be found for him."
He said for the first time a patient was walking the streets of Britain without a human heart.
Mr Green, who is married and has a son, had been suffering from Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy (ARVC), a heart muscle disease that results in arrhythmia, heart failure and occasionally sudden death.
The SynCardia temporary Total Artificial Heart keeps the patient alive while they wait for a transplantis health had declined over recent years, meaning the only option available to him was a heart transplant.
Earlier, he thanked the Papworth staff for making "it possible for me to return home to my family".
"Two years ago I was cycling nine miles to work and nine miles back every day, but by the time I was admitted to hospital I was struggling to walk even a few yards," he said.
"I am really excited about going home and just being able to do the everyday things that I haven't been able to do for such a long time, such as playing in the garden with my son and cooking a meal for my family."
The SynCardia temporary Total Artificial Heart Mr Green received is used as a bridge-to-transplant for patients dying from end-stage biventricular heart failure, where both sides of the heart are failing.
The device works in the same way as a heart transplant in that it replaces both failing ventricles and the heart valves they contain, thus relieving the symptoms and effects of severe heart failure. However, it is not suitable for long-term use.
Mr Tsui, director of the transplant service at Papworth, said the operation on 9 June "went extremely well".
"Matthew has made an excellent recovery," he said.
"I expect him to go home very soon, being able to do a lot more than before the operation - with a vastly improved quality of life - until we can find a suitable donor heart for him to have a heart transplant."
Mr Green will leave Papworth with a backpack containing a 13.5lb (6kg) portable driver to power his new heart.
Papworth Hospital carries out 2,000 major heart operations a year - more than any other hospital in the UK. Its first heart transplant, in 1979, was a UK first and the hospital has been using mechanical devices to support patients with end-stage heart failure since the 1980s.
The Total Artificial Heart is a modern version of the Jarvik-7 artificial heart of the 1980s. In November, 1986, a patient received a Jarvik heart and was supported for two days before receiving a transplant.
It is understood that other patients with mechanical hearts have been sent home before, but never with both ventricles replaced.
Professor Peter Weissberg, Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation, said that for some patients, with severe heart failure, transplantation is their only hope of long-term survival, but donor hearts are not always available.
He added: "Patients with mechanical hearts must remain permanently linked to a power supply via tubes that pass through the skin, which is a potential source of infection.
"With this artificial heart, the power supply is small enough to fit in a shoulder bag so patients can walk around and go home."

Pre-crash moments of flight AF447

PARIS (Reuters) - Below is a list of the final manoeuvres of Air France flight AF447 and the last words of the cockpit crew, as detailed in an updated report published on Friday by French air accident investigator BEA.
The Airbus A330 crashed in the Atlantic on June 1, 2009 en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, killing all 228 people on board.
The following information is taken from BEA's English translation of the investigation update released on Friday.
The captain and two co-pilots were on board. The BEA refers to the pilot flying the plane -- which for the majority of the time analyzed was the more junior co-pilot -- as "PF," while a pilot not at the controls is called "PNF." All times are GMT.
To see the BEA update, click on: http://www.bea.aero/fr/enquetes/vol.af.447/note29juillet2011.en.pdf
May 31, 2009, 22:29GMT -- Take-off.
June 1, 01:55 -- The captain woke the second co-pilot, said "He's going to take my place" and left the cockpit.
The BEA findings said "the captain's departure occurred without clear operational instructions."
02:06:04 -- The PF called the cabin crew, telling them to watch out because turbulence was coming up. "It'll move about a bit more than at the moment," he said.
02:08:07 -- The PNF said "you can maybe go a little to the left" and the plane began a slight turn to the left. Turbulence increased slightly and the crew decided to reduce speed.
From 2:10:05 -- The autopilot and auto-thrust disengaged and the PF said "I have the controls." The aircraft began to roll to the right and the PF tried to raise the nose and turn left. The stall warning sounded twice in a row. There was a sharp fall in speed.
"There was an inconsistency between the measured speeds, likely as a result of the obstruction of the Pitot probes in an ice crystal environment," the BEA wrote.
2:10:16 -- The PNF said "so, we've lost the speeds." The plane started to climb. The PF tried to bring the nose down and rolled alternately left and right.
The BEA said neither pilot followed the manual aircraft handling procedure for high altitudes, for which they had received no training. The crew did not alert each other to the differences in pitch attitude and vertical speed.
The climb speed of the plane dropped sharply and the speed indicated on the left side increased suddenly. The BEA said the speed on the left primary flight display remained invalid for 29 seconds.
From 02:10:50 -- The PNF tried several times to call the captain back.
02:10:51 -- The stall warning was triggered again. The PF continued trying to pull the nose up. Altitude reached its maximum of about 38,000 feet.
"Neither of the pilots made any reference to the stall warning. Neither of the pilots formally identified the stall situation," the BEA wrote in its findings.
02:11:32 -- The PF said: "I don't have control of the plane. I've totally lost control of the plane."
02:11:42 -- The captain re-entered the cockpit, about 1.5 minutes after the autopilot disconnected. In the following seconds, all the recorded speeds became invalid and the stall warning stopped after being on continuously for 54 seconds. The altitude was about 35,000 ft and the plane was descending at about 10,000 ft per minute. Roll oscillations sometimes reached 40 degrees, and the PF brought the nose up. The aircraft's angle of attack -- the angle at which air was striking the wings -- was not directly displayed to the pilots, the BEA said.
02:12:02 -- The PF said "I don't have any more indications," and the PNF said "we have no valid indications."
Around fifteen seconds later, the PF pulled the nose down. The angle of attack decreased, the speeds became valid again and the stall warning sounded again. Confusion reigned in the cockpit.
The PNF says: "You're going up. Go down, go down, go down."
"Am I going down now," the PF said.
"No, you're going up," the captain said.
02:13:32 -- The PF said the plane's altitude was nearing 10,000 feet. About 15 seconds later, simultaneous inputs by both pilots on the sidesticks were recorded and the PF said "go ahead, you have the controls."
The BEA said the engines were working and always responded to the crew's inputs. No announcement was made to the passengers.
02:14:18 -- The captain urged the PNF to pull up. "We're pulling up, we're pulling up, we're pulling up," the PNF said seconds before the recordings stopped.
No emergency message was sent by the crew, the BEA said.