Six In The Morning Thursday March 26

Germanwings plane crash: Pilot 'locked out of cockpit'

• 1 hour ago
 
• From the sectionEurope

One of the two pilots of the Germanwings plane that crashed in the French Alps was locked out of the cockpit, according to reports.

Early findings from the cockpit voice recorder suggest the pilot made desperate efforts to get back in, sources close to the investigation say.

The Airbus 320 from Barcelona to Duesseldorf hit a mountain on Tuesday after a rapid eight-minute descent.

Relatives of the 150 passengers and crew who died are to visit the area.

Lufthansa, which owns Germanwings, is operating two special flights on Thursday - one from Barcelona and one from Duesseldorf - to Marseille, and both groups will travel on by road.

Amnesty's other verdict on Gaza war: Hamas committed war crimes as well

Six civilians were killed in Israel by rocket and mortar attacks from Hamas-controlled Gaza

BEN LYNFIELD

JERUSALEM Thursday 26 March 2015

Amnesty International has published a damning report on Hamas’s conduct during last summer’s Gaza war, accusing it and other Palestinian armed groups of committing “war crimes” by firing rockets and mortars into Israel.

The report, released today, is the first by the human rights group to target Hamas after a series of publications accusing Israel of waging attacks that constituted war crimes.

Six civilians were killed in Israel by rocket and mortar attacks from Hamas-controlled Gaza during the 50-day conflict in which 66 Israeli soldiers also died. Some 2,250 Palestinians were killed, at least 1,585 of them civilians, according to the United Nations.

Ebola ignored for 40 years because it happened in ‘forgotten world’

Cost of dealing with outbreak could have built health services in three affected countries

Alison Healy

 The cost of dealing with the Ebola outbreak was nearly three times what it would have cost to build a universal health service in the three affected countries, the Institute of International and European Affairs has heard.

Kanayo Nwanze, president of the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development, told a seminar at the Dublin institute that he could give many examples of how it cost so much more to pay for an emergency response than to fix a problem at an early stage. “Ebola is not new,” he said. “It first occurred in the ’70s in Congo, then Zaire. But it was ignored for 40 years because it happened in some rural areas . . . it happened to people who are not normally seen by the politicians or by the media . . . what we call the forgotten world.”

He said it was only when Ebola crossed the African deserts into Europe and crossed the ocean into the United States that “the world began to tremble”.

Thai PM Prayuth jokes he has power to 'execute' journalists

March 26, 2015 - 2:56PM

Lindsay Murdoch

South-East Asia correspondent for Fairfax Media

Bangkok: Prayuth Chan-ocha, the junta leader who removed Thailand's elected government at gunpoint, has lashed out at journalists, sarcastically saying he would "execute" them if they didn't tell the truth.

Mr Prayuth, who himself often appears angry and frustrated despite vowing to return "happiness" to Thais, has also repeatedly warned journalists who ask him questions he has the power to shut down media outlets.

The former army commander, who was appointed prime minister by a military-stacked parliament, recently threw a banana at a cameraman and said he wanted to punch a reporter "in the face" when he was pressed on his government's results.

Is ISIS invading Tatooine? (+video)

Reschedule your trip to see the set of Luke Skywalker's home planet. The US and UK governments have warned citizens against traveling to the western border of Tunisia as the Islamic State encroaches on the region.

By Rowena Lindsay

The town of Tataouine, Tunisia, which was once the set of the “Star Wars” films, has now apparently become a waystation for jihadists.

Fans of the movie franchise are now being warned to stay away from the region’s tourist attractions, because of the presence of militants crossing the border into Libya to join the Islamic State. 

Prior to the attack on the Bardo Museum in Tunis on March 18, three men were arrested in Tataouine for allegedly making plans to cross into Libya to join a terrorist network. Additionally, two armed caches containing rocket-propelled grenade launchers and more than 20,000 rounds of ammunition have been found in the region in the past month, according to CNN.

Iran demands immediate halt to military actions in Yemen

Iranian demanded an immediate halt to Saudi-led military operations in Yemen on Thursday and said it would make all necessary efforts to control the crisis there, Iranian news agencies reported.

Warplanes from Saudi Arabia and Arab allies on Thursday struck Iran-allied Houthi forces fighting to oust the country's Western-backed president. Saudi-owned al-Arabiya TV reported a ground offensive with troops from other Muslim states was being prepared.

"The Saudi-led air strikes should stop immediately and it is against Yemen's sovereignty," the Students News Agency quoted Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as saying.

"We will make all efforts to control crisis in Yemen," Zarif said, according to the agency's report from the Swiss city of Lausanne where he is negotiating with world powers on curbing Iran's nuclear program.