THE NEWS: Mumbai light plane crash kills five

Mumbai light plane crash kills five
source: AFP

AFP / Gal ROMA The site of Thursday's fatal plane crash in Mumbai

A small plane crashed into a construction site in a densely populated area of India's financial capital Mumbai on Thursday, killing five people including one on the ground, officials said.

"Five people have succumbed to their injuries after the chartered plane crashed, including one pilot, three co-passengers and a pedestrian," Mumbai police spokesman Deepak Deoraj told AFP.

There were four passengers on the 12-seater aircraft when it crashed shortly into the construction site shortly after 1:30pm (0800 GMT), said Mumbai disaster management spokesman Tanaji Kamble.

India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said the plane was a turbo-prop King Air C-90.

It crashed while conducting a test flight from the nearby Juhu airstrip, DGCA said in a statement.

"There were two pilots and two aircraft maintenance engineers on board. All onboard (the) aircraft along with one person on ground are dead," the statement read.

Images broadcast on Indian news channels showed flames and black smoke billowing from the area which sits right next to several high-rise residential towers.

One video clip circulating on social media -- which could not be independently verified -- showed a body in flames on the pavement.

It was not raining at the time of the accident and weather did not appear to be a factor in the crash.

DGCA said it was sending a team to investigate the cause, adding that the aircraft was owned by a private operator who had purchased it from the Uttar Pradesh state government.

P Rahangdale, Mumbai's chief fire officer, said several fire engines had rushed to the spot.

"Our teams have extinguished the fire and are conducting rescue operations," he told AFP.

THE NEWS: French firm Lafarge charged with complicity in Syria crimes against humanity

French firm Lafarge charged with complicity in Syria crimes against humanity
source: AFP

AFP/File / FRANCK FIFE The French cement maker is charged with complicity in crimes against humanity

French cement giant Lafarge was charged Thursday with complicity in crimes against humanity and financing terrorists for paying millions to jihadists, including the Islamic State group, to keep a factory open in war-torn Syria.

The company, whose Syrian subsidiary paid the armed groups through middlemen, has also been charged with endangering the lives of former employees at the cement plant in Jalabiya, northern Syria.

Lafarge, which has since merged with Swiss firm Holcim, immediately said it would appeal the charges.

French rights group Sherpa, one of the plaintiffs in the case, said it was the first time that a parent company anywhere in the world had been charged with complicity in crimes against humanity.

The allegations are the most serious against a French company in years.

A panel of three judges in Paris ordered Lafarge to hand over 30 million euros ($35 million) to authorities as a security deposit ahead of the trial.

Eight former executives, including ex-CEO Bruno Laffont, have already been charged with financing a terrorist group and/or endangering the lives of others over Lafarge's activities in Syria between 2011 and 2015.

Lafarge is suspected of paying nearly 13 million euros ($16 million) to IS and other militant groups to keep the Jalabiya plant running long after other French companies had pulled out of Syria.

The payments by the Lafarge Cement Syria (LCS) subsidiary were considered a "tax" in exchange for which militants allowed free movement of the company's staff and goods inside the warzone, according to investigators.

Some of the cash was also used to buy petrol and other raw materials, including petrol from suppliers close to IS.

A source close to the probe said investigators also suspect that Lafarge sold cement to IS.

- 'Historic' -

Lafarge, which merged with Holcim in 2015, said it would take legal action to get the charges dropped, insisting that the company as a whole was not responsible.

"We deeply regret what happened in our Syrian subsidiary and as soon as we were informed, we immediately took firm measures," said Beat Hess, board president of LafargeHolcim.

"None of the people charged is part of the company today."

The company acknowledged in a statement that its "supervision of its Syrian subsidiary did not allow it to identify failures arising from an unprecedented breach of internal rules and regulations by people who have left the group".

The criminal charges "do not fairly reflect Lafarge's responsibilities" for what happened, it added.

The Sherpa rights group hailed the decision to charge the company, saying it was "a decisive step in the fight against the impunity of multinationals operating in armed conflict zones".


AFP/File / Delil souleiman Some say Lafarge's actions in Syria are an illustration of 'how multinationals can feed conflicts'


It had launched the legal case against Lafarge alongside the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) and 11 former employees.

"The activities of Lafarge in Syria, in a context where extremely violent crimes had been committed -- even right outside the factory -- are a perfect illustration of how multinationals can feed conflicts," said ECCHR legal director Miriam Saage-Maass.

"That the courts are finally recognising the scope and seriousness of these allegations is absolutely historic."

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Several companies have previously faced allegations of complicity in crimes against humanity, though usually the cases have been dropped.

Twelve Nigerians took Anglo-Dutch energy giant Shell to court in the US over allegations of torture and other human rights abuses in the Niger delta in the 1990s, but the Supreme Court blocked the case in 2013.

In 2007, France's top administrative court said it did not have the legal authority to rule on whether state rail operator SNCF could be held responsible for the deportation of Jews during World War II.

THE NEWS: Battle lines drawn in Senate over Trump Supreme Court pick

Battle lines drawn in Senate over Trump Supreme Court pick
source: AFP

AFP/File / Paul J. RICHARDS The departure of Justice Anthony Kennedy (C), pictured in January 2017, will give President Donald Trump a chance to shift the top US court decisively to the right

The battle over President Donald Trump's choice to fill a coming Supreme Court vacancy, an appointment with far-reaching consequences for American society, kicked off in the Senate Thursday as Democrats vowed against the odds to fight any Republican nominee.

Justice Anthony Kennedy's announced departure at the end of July will give Trump the opportunity to appoint his second justice to the nine-seat bench -- and shift the high court decisively to the right.

But one day after the sudden announcement by Kennedy, who has held the tie-breaking vote between the bench's liberal and conservative judges, the politicization of the process was already clear.

Senators were hardening their positions over whether to go ahead with the confirmation process before November's midterm elections, or wait until Americans vote in a new slate of lawmakers to be seated in January.

Trump has told reporters that the process to replace Kennedy, 81, will "begin immediately," raising alarm among Democrats fearful that the president will nominate an ideological conservative, upsetting the court's delicate balance and locking in a hard-right majority for a generation.

No less than women's reproductive rights, health care and gay rights are at stake, Democrats said.

"Whomever the president picks, it is all too likely they're going to overturn health care protections and Roe v. Wade," top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer warned on the Senate floor, referring to the landmark 1970s Supreme Court ruling that upheld abortion rights.

Senator John Thune, a member of the Republican leadership, acknowledged as much, particularly on overturning Roe v. Wade.

"I think that was a wrongly decided case, and so that's something I would support," Thune told reporters.

- Dogfight -

Kennedy's departure sets the stage for a dogfight over his succession, a blueprint for which was established by Republican lawmakers in 2016 when they denied then-president Barack Obama the opportunity to fill the seat left vacant following the death of conservative justice Antonin Scalia.

That delay, orchestrated by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, was seen as lighting a fire under Trump's grassroots voters during the election, and it ultimately enabled Trump to nominate Scalia's replacement, Neil Gorsuch.

Democrats demanding a delay now are citing McConnell's own 2016 argument that the nomination of a Supreme Court justice is too consequential not to allow American voters to weigh in through the upcoming election.

"If the Senate's constitutional duty to advise and consent is just as important as the president's right to nominate, which the Constitution says it is, why should a midterm election be any less important than a presidential election?" Schumer said.

McConnell rejected that argument as "totally absurd" and said the confirmation vote will occur "this fall."

"We're right in the middle of this president's very first term," he said. "To my knowledge nobody on either side has ever suggested -- before yesterday -- that the Senate should only process Supreme Court nominations in odd numbered years."

Senate rules and procedures are in McConnell's favor, leaving Democrats with little recourse for blocking progress on Trump's nominee.

Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley asserted Wednesday that he looked forward to holding a confirmation hearing "in the weeks ahead."

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- Narrowest of majorities -

Trump said Kennedy's successor -- who like all Supreme Court justices will be appointed for life -- would be selected from among a list of 25 possible candidates.

Tipped as a leading contender is Brett Kavanaugh, 53, who once clerked for Justice Kennedy. He was nominated as a federal appeals court judge by president George W. Bush, overriding Democrat concerns he was too partisan, having worked on an investigation of Bill Clinton.

Also on the list is Senator Mike Lee, among the chamber's most conservative members, and appellate Judge Amul Thapar, who would be the Supreme Court's first Asian-American justice.

Whoever is nominated will need to thread the needle in the 100-member Senate.

Confirmation requires a majority, after Republican leadership last year invoked the "nuclear option" and dropped the threshold to overcome blocking tactics from 60 to a simple majority.

Republicans hold 51 seats, but Senator John McCain is absent, battling brain cancer. If all Democrats oppose Trump's nominee, that leaves Republicans with no margin of error.

Two female Republican senators, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, are being closely watched as they have expressed support in the past for women's reproductive rights.

And three Democrats facing tough re-election fights this year are also in the spotlight.

Each of them voted to confirm Gorsuch in 2017, and each released statements after Kennedy's retirement saying they would carefully consider Trump's nominee to replace him.

THE NEWS: Malta says migrants on board Lifeline rescue ship mainly Sudanese

Malta says migrants on board Lifeline rescue ship mainly Sudanese
source: AFP

AFP / Matthew Mirabelli The MV Lifeline, a vessel for the German charity Mission Lifeline, arrived in Malta with 234 migrants onboard, most of them from Sudan

Maltese authorities said Thursday the migrants on board the rescue ship Lifeline, which docked in Malta after nearly a week stranded at sea, were mainly from Sudan.

"The nationalities so far are mostly Sudanese, there are Eritreans, also Somalis so it’s a mixed group and also some from West African countries," Roberta Buhagiar, a representative from Malta's interior ministry told journalists.

Lifeline, a vessel for the German charity Mission Lifeline, had been waiting for permission to enter a port for six days after rescuing 234 migrants off the coast of Libya last Thursday.

Malta finally agreed on Wednesday to let the ship dock after a deal among a group of EU states was reached to take in the migrants.

After the migrants had disembarked, "a few were taken to hospital for immediate medical attention," Buhagiar said, while the rest were brought to a reception centre near the country's capital Valletta.

She said they would stay there pending medical clearance to begin interviews on the asylum procedure.

On Wednesday, Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said the migrants on board would be processed and "genuine asylum seekers will be afforded protection", while "procedures will be started immediately to return those that do not qualify... in accordance with law."

Buhagiar added that "in the coming days, we will expect member state delegations to be visiting Malta in order to agree how we are going to manage the situation and actually take some of them."

The co-founder of Mission Lifeline Axel Steier told AFP Thursday that he believed "a very, very high percentage" of those on board qualified for asylum in the European Union.

On Wednesday Muscat said the Lifeline ship would be impounded in order to carry out a full investigation into its legal status and actions on the night of the rescue.

Mission Lifeline has come under fire from EU leaders, who accuse it of contravening international law by rescuing the migrants when the Libyan coastguard was already intervening.

"The captain was questioned (late Wednesday) as part of the investigation and then returned to the ship," Steier told AFP, adding that he had returned to police headquarters again Thursday.

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"We followed all the instructions of the authorities except the one saying to bring the people back to Libya," he said.

Lifeline argued that the migrants would not be safe in Libya, where they have faced abuse in holding centres, and that returning them there would breach international refugee law.

THE NEWS: Bloodiest day yet in south Syria offensive

Bloodiest day yet in south Syria offensive
source: AFP
AFP / Mohamad ABAZEED Smoke rises above a rebel-held area of southern Syria during a government air strike on Daraa province on June 27, 2018

A barrage of Russian strikes on rebel-held towns in southern Syria killed 22 civilians on Thursday, the bloodiest day yet of the government's latest offensive in the strategic region.

With Russia's help, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's army has battered the south for more than a week with air strikes, rocket fire and crude barrel bombs.

The bombardment has forced more than 45,000 people to flee in search of safety, according to the United Nations, while others huddle in their basements to wait out the raids.

On Thursday, dozens of air strikes identified as Russian killed 22 civilians, a monitor said, mostly in the town of Al-Mseifra.


AFP / Omar KAMAL Syrian strikes


"One of them hit a basement where people were taking shelter, killing 17 civilians, including five children," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Russian air raids struck near the hospital in Al-Mseifra on Tuesday night, causing damage that forced medics to close it down, the Observatory said.

The monitor determines who carried out strikes based on the type of aircraft and munitions used, locations and flight patterns.

Another five civilians were killed in other rebel-controlled areas of Daraa, the main province in southern Syria.

"This is the highest toll since the escalation began on June 19," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman, adding that it brought the overall civilian toll since then to 93.

- Pressure on Russia -

A doctor in Daraa's western countryside said his staff were preparing for an influx of critically wounded from Al-Mseifra.

"Because there are no medical services in the eastern countryside and because of the security situation, most of the wounded will be brought to us in the west," said Baha Mahameed, who manages the Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations (UOSSM)'s operations in the south.

UOSSM said one of its medical staff was killed late Wednesday in an air strike in Daraa province, the third killed there in less than a week.

The government offensive has already forced five hospitals to close in the past week, including three in the past 48 hours, the Observatory said.

Syria has become infamous for attacks on health workers, with more facilities hit so far this year than in all of 2017.


SANA/AFP / - Smoke rises over rebel-held neighbourhoods of Daraa on June 27, 2018, day two of an air campaign for the southern city by the Syrian government and its Russian ally

Rebels hold a horseshoe-shaped band of territory in the south spanning most of Daraa and Quneitra province to west.

They also control southern districts of the city of Daraa, known as the cradle of Syria's seven-year uprising.

The rest is held by government forces, who also control most of Sweida province to the east.

Despite an internationally brokered ceasefire in place since 2017, the regime began ramping up bombardment of rebel-held towns in Daraa on June 19.

Russian warplanes began raids on Saturday and on Tuesday the two air forces launched bombing operations against rebel-held neighbourhoods of the provincial capital.

At the UN Security Council on Wednesday, Britain, France and the United States condemned Russia's role in the offensive.

French ambassador Francois Delattre called on "everyone, starting with Russia, to uphold their commitments so that this offensive ceases immediately".

- Displacement 'en masse' -

Adopting a divide-and-conquer strategy that served them well across Syria, troops have already lopped off the northeastern arm of the rebel horseshoe.

Thursday's strikes were focused on Daraa's east, with White Helmets rescuers saying dozens of raids hit the towns of Busra al-Sham and Herak and pushed waves of people to flee.

The Observatory said raids were increasingly targeting urban areas.

"The shelling is aimed at cutting off all means of life and to push people out en masse," said analyst Ahmad Abazeid who hails from Daraa.

"The regime and Russians are focusing on areas packed with residents and refugees, to produce the highest number of victims and push these areas to surrender or reconcile," he said.


 AFP / Ahmad al-Msalam Syrians fleeing the government's offensive in Daraa province seek refuge in the village of Al-Rafid near the armistice line with Israeli forces in the occupied Golan Heights on June 27, 2018

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Rebel-held neighbourhoods of the provincial capital were practically drained of residents.

"All the residents and civilians left. There are no civilians here," said Ahmad Abu Hazem, 26, a rebel fighter inside the city.

Most of the 45,000-plus people who already fled have headed to the sealed Jordanian border.

Officials in Nawa, a rebel-held town heavily hit in strikes on Thursday, issued a statement asking Jordan to take in refugees.

But Amman has said the border will remain closed. The kingdom already hosts more than 650,000 registered Syrian refugees and estimates the actual number is closer to 1.3 million.

To avoid greater bloodshed, Russia is leading talks involving Syria, Jordan, Israel and the United States, but so far there has been no public progress.