Six In The Morning Saturday May 21

EgyptAir: Smoke detected inside cabin before crash

Smoke was detected inside the cabin of the EgyptAir passenger plane before it crashed in the Mediterranean on Thursday, investigators have confirmed.

Smoke detectors went off in the toilet and the aircraft's electrics, minutes before the signal was lost,the Aviation Herald had earlier reported.

A spokesman for French investigators said it was too early to say what caused the crash.

Flight MS804 was en route from Paris to Cairo with 66 people on board.

• Who were the victims?
• The passenger who almost missed the flight
• The internet fakes and rumours
• Crash fuels security fears
• Can Egypt's tourism recover?
• EgyptAir's troubled recent history

The Aviation Herald said it had received flight data filed through the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) from three independent channels.

The mystery medical waste washing up on Durban beaches

OBSERVERS

Desmond D'sa

People using the picturesque Indian Ocean beaches of Durban, South Africa, were horrified to discover medical waste floating up on shore earlier this week. The city health unit closed four beaches on Wednesday
City officials said clean-up of the waste, which was mainly sealed packs of condoms and bottles of tablets, would likely take two weeks. The Health Unit of the eThekwini Municipality, which is the official name for Durban, also said it was investigating the source of the waste. For now, the source remains unknown. 

But our Observer says that Durban has a serious issue on its hand with this disposal issue. 

Congress, that once liberated India, now needs to liberate itself

To save Congress, they may have to purge the Congress of its dynastic slavery

Written by Ujjal Dosanjh 
Published:May 21, 2016, 12:17

In the aftermath of the recent state elections, the son and mother duo of the dynasty, Rahul and Sonia Gandhi promised to do more “introspection” and “work harder” — as if they hadn’t been claiming and doing that for the last two years — to revive the once mighty Congress that now finds itself rejected in most parts of the country. Indirectly and politely, Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor reminded them that is exactly what has been happening since the Congress was routed in the 2014 national elections by the Modi-led BJP.  Tharoor sounded exasperated. He wanted action; no more talk.

Digvijay Singh too seemed to have had enough of the over-used and quite meaningless weasel words and bromides like “introspection”. There have been two years of hand wringing and introspection by the Congress already and the result is in: it just lost power in Assam and suffered losses in other states as well. The party that once ruled India now enjoys a mere sliver of its once mighty reach and presence. No wonder the likes of Tharoor and Digvijay — the two men not known to be intellectual light weights — are speaking out

Brazil impeachment trail will run on during summer Olympics

Brazil will continue with the impeachment trial of President Dilma Rousseff, who is accused of breaking budget rules, despite the Rio 2016 summer Olympics.

By Anthony Boadle and Alonso Soto, Reuters

BRASILIA — Brazil will welcome the world to the summer Olympics with suspended President Dilma Rousseff still on trial for breaking budget rules, government sources said on Friday, despite the interim government's efforts to fast-track the process before the Games.

Heads of state attending the opening ceremony on Aug. 5 in Rio de Janeiro at Rousseff's invitation will instead find themselves shaking hands with Interim President Michel Temer, a close presidential advisor said.

Temer, who took power last week when the Senate voted to put Rousseff on trial on charges of breaking budget laws, had hoped her trial would be over before the Games so there would be no doubt over his leadership of Latin America's largest nation.

Israel takes anti-occupation NGO to court

Israeli court will decide if Breaking the Silence should reveal identity of soldiers who provide anonymous testimony.

An Israeli court will launch hearings to decide if a NGO that used anonymous testimony from soldiers to campaign against abuses in the occupied Palestinian territories should reveal its sources. 

The state attorney has demanded that Breaking the Silence reveal its sources, saying anonymous witnesses allow potential lies to spread and make it impossible to investigate alleged abuses.

Breaking the Silence co-founder Yehuda Shaul said the hearings were aimed at closing down the NGO and insisted the group is determined to protect the identities of its sources.

China's latest idea for cleaning up air pollution could be horrible for climate change

Updated by Brad Plumer

China's biggest cities are choking on smog and air pollution emitted by nearby coal plants, and residents are fed up. One way to fix this is to switch over to cleaner energy sources (solar, wind, nuclear, or even natural gas), which has the added benefit of cutting carbon-dioxide output from the world's largest emitter.

But not always! In fact, one of China's big proposals for cleaning up air pollution could, paradoxically, make climate change even worse.

Reuters reports that China has just approved three new plants in its western provinces that would turn coal into synthetic natural gas. The idea is that this gas would then be shipped to population centers in the east, where it would burn much more cleanly in power plants and detoxify the air in cities like Beijing.