Debris
from the A321 Russian airliner at the site of the crash in Wadi
el-Zolomat, a mountainous area in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, on November
1, 2015. (AFP/Khaled Desouki)
Israel provided intelligence
regarding the Russian plane crash in the Sinai Peninsula, which
indicated that a bomb had detonated on board, CNN reported on Sunday.
An
unnamed US official and diplomatic source said that Jerusalem handed
over information about the blast to the US and UK. One US official told
the news outlet he was “99.9% certain” the plane had been bombed, while
another said it was “likely.”
Israeli officials declined to comment on the report.
Earlier,
a member of the Egyptian investigation team said they were nearly
certain explosives had brought the plane down, killing all 224
passengers on board.
“The indications and analysis so far of the
sound on the black box indicate it was a bomb,” an investigator — who
asked to not be identified — told Reuters. “We are 90 percent sure it
was a bomb.”
As for the slim chance of another explanation to the crash, the investigator only commented, “I can’t discuss this now.”
US
and British officials have cited intelligence reports indicating that
the October 31 flight from the Sinai resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh to
St. Petersburg was brought down by a bomb on the plane.
Most of the passengers were from St. Petersburg and the surrounding region.
MOSCOW
(Sputnik) — While covering the developments related to the Russian A321
plane crash in Egypt, media should rely exclusively on official
statements, while any "uncertain" sources should be avoided, the head
of the Egypt-led investigation committee said on Sunday.
On
Saturday, the Egypt-led investigation committee issued a statement,
according to which the reason for the Russian Kogalymavia plane crash
in Sinai is yet to be determined. The following day, Reuters reported,
citing a unidentified member of the inquiry, that investigators into the
plane crash in Egypt were "90 percent sure" the noise heard on the
final seconds of a cockpit recording was an explosion caused by a bomb.
All
passengers on the Russian flight from Egypt died when the plane crashed
in the Sinai peninsula Saturday, the Russian embassy said in a
statement
Egypt PM Sherif Ismail (R) at the site of the wreckage of a crashed Russian airliner in HassanaImage Credit: AFP
Emergency workers unload bodies of victims from the crash of a Russian aircraft from a police helicopter.Image Credit: AP
Relatives react at Pulkovo international airport outside Saint Petersburg after a Russian plane with 224 peoplImage Credit: AFP
Relatives react after a Russian airliner crashed, as people gather at an information desk in Russia.Image Credit: AP
Paris:
Air France and Lufthansa said Saturday they will stop flying over
Egypt's Sinai peninsula after a Russian passenger plane went down in the
area with the loss of all 224 people on board.
The airlines said they were taking the measure as a precaution while the cause of the Russian crash was investigated.
The
Daesh affiliate in Egypt has said it downed the plane, without saying
how, but Russia's transport minister said the claim "cannot be
considered accurate" and an Egyptian security official said the plane
did not crash because of an attack.
An Air France spokesperson
told AFP they would not fly over Sinai until further notice, "as a
precaution" while "clarification" was sought over why the Russian
charter plane crashed.
Lufthansa told the German newspaper Die Welt it was taking the same measure for the same reason.
Military
experts have told AFP that Daesh terrorists in Sinai do not have
weapons capable of hitting an aircraft at 30,000 feet (9,000 metres),
the altitude of the airliner when it lost contact.
But they have
not ruled out a bomb on board or the possibility that the plane was hit
by a rocket as it descended because of technical problems.
A
senior Egyptian air traffic control official said the pilot of the
Airbus A321 told him in their last communication that he had radio
trouble.
Moscow, Cairo refute Daesh claim on downing Russian plane
Sat Oct 31, 2015 6:43PM
Egypt's
Prime Minister Sherif Ismail looks at the remains of a Russian airliner
after it crashed in central Sinai near El Arish city, north Egypt,
October 31, 2015. (Reuters Photo)
Moscow and
Cairo have denied claims by the Daesh Takfiri group's Egyptian
affiliate to have downed a Russian aircraft that crashed in North Sinai
with more than 200 passengers on board.
“Now in various
media there is assorted information that the Russian passenger
(plane)... was supposedly shot down by an anti-aircraft missile, fired
by terrorists. This information can’t be considered accurate,” Russian
Transport Minister Maksim Sokolov said on Saturday.
“We are in
close contact with our Egyptian colleagues and aviation authorities in
the country. At present, they have no information that would confirm
such insinuations,” he added.
Meanwhile, Mohamed Samir, Egypt’s
army spokesman, also refuted the claim by the Takfiri group, saying that
“the army sees no authenticity” to the terrorists claims or videos.
“They
can put out whatever statements they want but there is no proof at this
point that terrorists were responsible for this plane crash” he said.
“We
will know the true reasons when the civil aviation authority in
coordination with Russian authorities completes its investigation,” he
added.
An
Egyptian soldier and rescue crew transfer the body of a victim of a
plane crash, from a civil police helicopter to an ambulance at Kabrit
airport in Suez, east of Cairo, Egypt, October 31, 2015. (Photo by
Reuters)
Terrorists, non-state actors had no capacity to down Russian plane, security & aviation experts say
Published time: 1 Nov, 2015 01:34
84175
While
the investigation into the causes of the Russian passenger jet crash
over the Sinai Peninsula continues, civil aviation and security experts
agree that theories that the plane was downed by a militant group can be
ruled out, despite terrorists making such claims.
All
224 people on board the Kolavia airline’s flight from resort area Sharm
El-Sheikh to Russia’s St. Petersburg died after the aircraft crashed in
Egypt's Sinai Peninsula on Saturday. Experts are still decoding the
flight recorders, and the Russian Air Transport Agency has said that
there is no point in hypothesizing about the cause of the crash until
there is reliable data on the circumstances.
While
Islamic State jihadist group allegedly claimed responsibility for the
attack, saying it downed the Airbus A321 as retaliation for Russia’s
airstrikes against terrorist targets in Syria, aviation and security
experts believe it to be highly unlikely.
“As far as it’s
known, Islamic State and its affiliate groups don’t have the capability
to bring down aircraft flying at the height that this aircraft
reportedly was, which is something around 10,000 meters,” security analyst and former UK counter-terrorism officer Charles Shoebridge told RT.
MH370 search to be most costly ever at $100 mln: analysts
by Staff Writers Sydney (AFP) April 18, 2014
Malaysia warns of 'huge' cost in MH370 search Kuala
Lumpur (AFP) April 17, 2014 - Malaysia warned Thursday that the cost of
the search for flight MH370's wreckage in the vast depths of the Indian
Ocean will be "huge", the latest sobering assessment by authorities
involved in the challenging effort."When we look at
salvaging (wreckage) at a depth of 4.5 kilometres (2.8 miles), no
military out there has the capacity to do it," Transport and Defence
Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters in Kuala Lumpur."We have to look at contractors, and the cost of that will be huge."
The
search in a remote stretch of ocean far off western Australia was
enlivened in the past two weeks by the detection of signals believed to
be from the Malaysia Airlines plane's flight data recorders on the
seabed.
But the transmissions have gone silent before they could
be pinpointed, raising the spectre of a costly and extensive search of a
large swathe of ocean floor at extreme depths.
Prime Minister
Tony Abbott of Australia, which is leading the multi-national search,
had earlier warned in an interview published Thursday that an autonomous
US Navy sonar device that began scanning the seabed for wreckage on
Monday would be given one more week.
If nothing is found,
authorities would reassess how next to proceed in the unprecedented
mission to find the plane, Abbott said in the Wall Street Journal.
The Bluefin-21 completed its first full scanning mission early Thursday.
An
initial attempt was aborted when the sub hit its maximum depth at 4.5
kilometres. A second was cut short by unspecified "technical" troubles.
Hishammuddin said he agreed with Abbott, saying "there will come a time when we need to regroup and reconsider".
"But
in any event, the search will always continue. It's just a matter of
approach," said Hishammuddin, who did not specify what any alternative
approach would be.
Australia's search chief Angus Houston said
earlier this week that authorities already were looking at possible
alternative methods, including undersea devices that can go deeper than
the Bluefin-21, but he also gave no specifics.
The Beijing-bound
Malaysia Airlines flight with 239 people aboard inexplicably veered off
its Kuala Lumpur-Beijing course on March 8, and is believed to have
crashed in the Indian Ocean.
The
search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 is set to be the most
expensive in aviation history, analysts say, as efforts to find the
aircraft deep under the Indian Ocean show no signs of slowing.
The
Boeing 777 vanished on March 8 with 239 people on board, after veering
dramatically off course en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and is
believed to have crashed in the sea off Australia.
Australia,
which is leading the search in a remote patch of water described as
"unknown to man", has not put a figure on spending, but Malaysia has
warned that costs will be "huge".
"When we look at salvaging
(wreckage) at a depth of 4.5 kilometres (2.8 miles), no military out
there has the capacity to do it," Transport and Defence Minister
Hishammuddin Hussein said Thursday.
"We have to look at contractors, and the cost of that will be huge."
Ravikumar
Madavaram, an aviation expert at Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific,
said Malaysia, Australia and China, which had the most nationals onboard
the flight, were the biggest spenders and estimated the total cost up
to now at about US$100 million (72 million euros).
"It's difficult
to say how much is the cost of this operation ... but, yes, this is
definitely the biggest operation ever (in aviation history).
"In terms of costs this would be the highest," he told AFP.
- Hopes rest on submersible -
In
the first month of the search -- in which the South China Sea and
Malacca Strait were also scoured by the US, Malaysia, Singapore and
Vietnam -- the Pentagon said the United States military had committed
US$7.3 million to efforts to find the plane.
Meanwhile the Indian
Ocean search, in which assets have also been deployed by Australia,
Britain, China, South Korea, Japan and New Zealand, has failed to find
anything conclusive.
Hopes rest on a torpedo-shaped US Navy
submersible, which is searching the ocean floor at depths of more than
4,500 metres (15,000 feet) in the vicinity of where four signals
believed to have come from black box recorders were detected.
David
Gleave, an aviation safety researcher at Britain's Loughborough
University, said the costs "will be of the order of a hundred million
dollars by the time we're finished, if we have found it (the plane)
now".
But he said the longer it took to find any wreckage, the
more costs would mount because scanning the vast ocean floor "will take a
lot of money because you can only search about 50 square kilometres (19
square miles) a day".
by Staff Writers Perth, Australia (AFP) April 18, 2014
The
mini-sub searching for missing flight MH370 has reached record depths
well beyond its normal operating limits, officials said Friday as it
dived on its fifth seabed mission.
With no results to show since
the Boeing 777 carrying 239 people disappeared on March 8, Australia's
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has set a one-week deadline to locate the
plane which is believed to have crashed in a remote area of the Indian
Ocean west of Perth.
Searchers have extended the hunt beyond the
normal 4,500 metre (15,000 feet) depth range of the US Navy's Autonomous
Underwater Vehicle (AUV) called Bluefin-21.
"The AUV reached a
record depth of 4,695 meters during mission four," the US Navy said.
"This is the first time the Bluefin-21 has descended to this depth.
"Diving
to such depths does carry with it some residual risk to the equipment
and this is being carefully monitored," a statement said.
Australia's
Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) announced that the mini-sub had
been deployed on a new mission as operations run round the clock.
"Data analysis from the fourth mission did not provide any contacts of interest," it added.
The
unmanned Bluefin-21 which maps the seafloor by sonar, has searched 110
square kilometres (43 square miles) to date, JACC said.
The UAV,
which hit a technical snag on Tuesday had also re-surfaced Monday after
breaching a pre-programmed maximum depth of 4.5 kilometres (2.8 miles).
JACC said Thursday night that the US manufacturer of the UAV, Phoenix International, had advised the risk was "acceptable".
"This
expansion of the operating parameters allows the Bluefin-21 to search
the sea floor within the predicted limits of the current search area,"
it said.
The Malaysia Airlines jet is believed to have crashed in
the ocean after mysteriously vanishing while en route between Kuala
Lumpur and Beijing.
Hopes for finding the plane have focused on
the Bluefin-21 after signals believed to be from the plane's flight data
recorders on the seabed fell silent in recent days.
The
submersible is being deployed from an Australian vessel to scan an
uncharted seafloor at extreme depths, but Abbott said the Bluefin-21
would be given about a week as questions are asked about the massive
costs.
Dismayed families of missing MH370 passengers have vowed to ‘get noisier’
Network Writers
News Corp Australia
April 22, 20149:33AM
Malaysia to issue death certificates in missing plane
The
Malaysian government prepares to issue death certificates for
passengers of missing flight MH370 but some families cling to the hope
their loved ones are alive. Mana Rabiee reports.
Shock ... relatives of the missing MH370 passengers at the Metro Park Hotel in Beijing on April 21, 2014. Picture: Wang ZhaoSource: AFP
FAMILY members of passengers lost on missing Malaysia Airlines 370 have
criticised the Malaysian government for an investigation they say has
been mismanaged.
Appearing on US morning television, Sarah Bajc, the girlfriend of Flight 370 American passenger Philip Wood, told Today host Matt Lauer passengers’ loved ones all just “wanted to go back to square one”.
“We
just don’t believe they’re using proper evaluative techniques to check
the data,” she said. “It’s day 45 and we’re basically on the same
position we were on on the first day.”
We don’t know anything for
sure,” she said. “We want to go back and start over again, but with new
people looking at the information.”
Ms Bajc sent an email to the media, on behalf of “the united families of MH370”, detailing their complaints and concerns.
Despair ... Sarah Bajc with her boyfriend Philip Wood, who was a passenger on missing Malaysian flight MH370. Picture: FacebookSource: Supplied
Among
their grievances is the suggestion by the government it issues death
certificates or pay compensation before the plane is found.
“Until
they have proof, they have an obligation to make regular prepayments to
the families in need, and they have an obligation to exert themselves
beyond dozing and snickering in resolving this case,” the email says.
The
families say they are gaining strength and prepared to get noisier in
their criticisms. The letter signs of “WE ARE IN UTTER OUTRAGE, DESPAIR
AND SHOCK!”
The Acting Minister of Transport in Malaysia has
posted a comment to Twitter that he hopes to discuss with Angus Houston
the status of the remaining third of the search area being combed by the
Bluefin-21 unmanned submersible.
I personally hope 2 discuss with Angus Houston on status of remaining 1/3 of area covered by the Blue Fin 21 soon @aikmalismail@mykamarul
— Hishammuddin Hussein (@HishammuddinH2O) April 21, 2014
DETAILS OF TODAY’S SEARCH
Bluefin-21 is still scouring the ocean depths on its ninth mission trying to locate wreckage from MH370.
So far it has searched about two thirds of the underwater area, with no contacts of interest found to date.
Up to 10 military aircraft and 10 ships will be part of today’s visual search approximately 1500 kilometres north west of Perth.
Scattered showers are predicted to continue with south easterly winds and sea swells of up to three metres.
The
soldier behind Wednesday's deadly shooting at Fort Hood was being
evaluated for post-traumatic stress disorder, and had seen no combat
while deployed in Iraq three years ago.
Also, the shooter bought his gun from the same place the 2009 Fort Hood shooter got his weapon.
Army
officials Thursday afternoon identified the killer as Spc. Ivan Lopez,
34, a Puerto Rican father of three who authorities say had no record of
misbehavior. Wednesday's tragedy at the Texas Army base left four people
dead, including the gunman, and 16 injured.
"We have very strong
evidence that he had a medical history that indicated an unstable
psychiatric or psychological condition," Lt. Gen. Mark Milley, head of
the Army's III Corps at Fort Hood, said of Lopez. "There was no
indication that he was targeting specific people."
Milley hinted
at a motive for the shooting. "There may have been a verbal altercation
with another soldier or soldiers," he said. "There is a strong
possibility that that immediately preceded the shooting." MORE: Alleged shooter was not required to register weapon STORY: Tragedy again touches Fort Hood community STORY: Military plays catch-up on PTSD STORY: 4 dead, 16 wounded in Fort Hood attack MORE: Fort Hood shooting comes less than 5 years after earlier attack MORE: '09 shooting led to Pentagon review of base security
Lopez purchased his gun on March 1.
Last
year, Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan was convicted and sentenced to
death in the Nov. 5, 2009, attack at Fort Hood on his fellow soldiers as
they waited inside a crowded building on the base. Thirteen died and
more than 30 were wounded, and it remains the deadliest attack on a
domestic military installation in U.S. history.
The Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on Wednesday night traced the
gun used in Wednesday's attack to a local gun shop, said a federal law
enforcement official not authorized to comment publicly. The official
confirmed that the gun had been purchased at Guns Galore, the same shop
that sold a weapon to Hasan.
Lopez enlisted in the Army in June 2008 and served four months in Iraq as a truck driver.
"His
records show no wounds, no involvement — direct involvement — in
combat," said Army Secretary John McHugh, the U.S. Army's top civilian
official. "As Gen. Milley said, no record of Purple Heart or any injury
that might lead us to further investigate a battle-related TBI
(traumatic brain injury) or such."
Milley said Lopez had "self-diagnosed" a traumatic brain injury. "He was not wounded in action," Milley said.
On
Thursday, McHugh said the suspected shooter had two deployments,
including the one in Iraq. Lopez enlisted as an infantryman and later
switched his specialty to truck driver.
Lopez, who was on a
variety of prescribed drugs including Ambien, had not yet been diagnosed
for post-traumatic stress disorder. But he was also undergoing
treatment for depression, anxiety, sleep disturbance and a variety of
other issues, McHugh said.
"He was seen just last month by a
psychiatrist," McHugh said Thursday. "He was fully examined. And as of
this morning, we had no indication on the record of that examination
that there was any sign of likely violence, either to himself or to
others. No suicidal ideation."
Out of respect for Lopez's family
and the integrity of the investigation, Milley said he would not release
any more details about the soldier's medical status. He did add that it
was too early to tell if Lopez received adequate mental health
treatment.
Nuclear plant worker dies in accident
A
construction worker at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has
died following the collapse of a concrete foundation of a warehouse.
The
plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, says the man in his 50s
was buried by concrete and soil in the accident on Friday afternoon.
The man was among workers reinforcing the warehouse. He was in a 2-meter-deep hole in the ground at the time of the collapse.
He was pulled out of debris and taken to a hospital, but later died.
The warehouse, about 400 meters north of the plant's No. 1 reactor building, is used to store equipment.
The
firm says the fatality is the first to occur due to an accident during
work at the plant since the 2011 nuclear disaster, and that it is
examining safety management at the site.
Govt. designates preparation zones for megaquakes
The
Japanese government has designated areas that need to bolster their
preparations for anticipated massive earthquakes and tsunami.
Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe announced the designations on Friday, based on
advice from the government council on disaster preparedness.
The
latest step is in line with 2 pieces of legislation that came into force
last year---one for a powerful temblor hitting right underneath Tokyo
and the other for a megaquake along the Nankai Trough in waters south of
Japan.
A total of 310 municipalities in Tokyo and 9 neighboring
prefectures were designated as areas that need to take urgent steps to
prepare for a possible Tokyo quake.
707 municipalities spanning 29
prefectures were named as areas that should step up preparation for a
Nankai Trough quake. These areas are projected to be hit by tremors with
an intensity of 6-minus or more on the Japanese scale of zero to 7 and
tsunami with a minimum height of 3 meters.
It is estimated that 139
municipalities in 14 prefectures would be inundated with water within 30
minutes after a Nankai quake. These communities have been given a
special status that makes them eligible for greater state support to
prepare for possible tsunami.
Basic government plans to mitigate damage from the 2 anticipated megaquakes were also endorsed.
Local
governments are expected to use these plans to strengthen their
disaster preparedness in the new fiscal year that starts in April.
Disaster
Management Minister Keiji Furuya said on Friday that local governments,
residents and the private sector must cooperate to fully prepare for
disasters.
He urged local authorities in the designated areas to take thorough measures.
The Big Picture RT
3 Mile Island...35 years later - When will we ever learn?
Kevin
Kamps, Beyond Nuclear, joins Thom Hartmann. This Friday marks the 35th
anniversary of the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster. More than three
decades later - how safe are our nuclear power plants and how much
closer are we to a nuclear-free world? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhA0I...
Hanford safety 'stand down' after workers sick from vapors
The
KING 5 Investigators have found that another Hanford worker was
sickened by exposure to unknown vapors on Thursday afternoon in the area
of the Hanford Site where underground nuclear storage tanks are housed.
This brings to 18 the total number of employees who have needed medical
care since last Wednesday due to the inhalation of toxic vapors. http://www.king5.com/news/investigato...
Japan's Answer to Fukushima: Coal Power
Many Nuclear Plants Are Too Expensive to Retrofit to Meet Tightened Safety Standards http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/S...
School Science Project Reveals High Levels Of Fukushima Nuclear Radiation in Grocery Store Seafood
It
is inexcusable that the Canadian government is not testing this
seafood. It isn't as if they don't know that it is radioactive. Back
in 2012, the Vancouver Sun reported that cesium-137 was being found in a
very high percentage of the fish that Japan was selling to Canada...
• 73 percent of the mackerel
• 91 percent of the halibut
• 92 percent of the sardines
• 93 percent of the tuna and eel
• 94 percent of the cod and anchovies
• 100 percent of the carp, seaweed, shark and monkfish
So why was radiation testing for seafood shut down in Canada in 2012?
Read more at http://investmentwatchblog.com/school...
The Boeing 777 was just leaving Malaysia-controlled air space when the final words were heard. Photograph: Greg Wood/Pool/EPA
Malaysian authorities have released a new account of the final words spoken by one of the pilots of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.
The
last words heard by air traffic control in Kuala Lumpur were "goodnight
Malaysian three seven zero" – not "all right, goodnight," as previously
reported, Malaysia's civil aviation authority said on Monday.
The
correction of the official account of the last words was made as
Malaysian authorities face heavy criticism for their handling of the
disappearance, particularly from families of the Chinese passengers on
board Flight MH370, who have accused Malaysia of mismanaging the search
and holding back information.
"We would like to confirm that the
last conversation in the transcript between the air traffic controller
and the cockpit is at 01:19 (Malaysian Time) and is "goodnight Malaysian
three seven zero," the Department of Civil Aviation said in a
statement.
Malaysia's ambassador to China
told Chinese families in Beijing as early as 12 March, four days after
the flight went missing, that the last words had been "all right,
goodnight."
"Goodnight Malaysian three seven zero" would be a more
formal, standard sign-off from the cockpit of the Boeing 777, which was
just leaving Malaysia-controlled air space on its route from Kuala
Lumpur to Beijing.
Turkey Begins Espionage Investigation After Syria Leak
...
YouTube
logos displayed on a laptop screen partially covered with Turkey's
national flag in this photo illustration taken in Ankara, March 27,
2014.
Reuters
March 29, 2014
ANKARA
— Turkey has started an espionage investigation after a discussion
between top officials on potential military action in Syria was leaked
on YouTube, heralding a possible government crackdown on its political
opponents after elections on Sunday.
The recording of the
meeting between Turkey's intelligence chief, foreign minister and deputy
head of the military was by far the most serious breach in weeks of
highly sensitive leaks, a scandal which Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan
has cast as a plot to sabotage the state and topple him.
Erdogan
and his aides have blamed the Hizmet movement of U.S.-based cleric
Fethullah Gulen, a former ally whose followers have influence in the
police and judiciary, of running a "dirty campaign" of espionage to
implicate him in corruption ahead of crucial nationwide municipal
elections on Sunday.
"Tomorrow we will teach those liars and
slanderers a lesson," Erdogan told a jubilant crowd of supporters in
Istanbul's working class Kartal district on Saturday, vowing his ruling
AK Party would triumph at the polls.
Gulen has vociferously denied
orchestrating the leak scandal, but those close to his network have
said they fear a heavy crackdown once the local elections have passed.
Police
overnight briefly detained Onder Aytac, a prominent writer and
journalist known to be close to the Hizmet movement, on suspicion of
having information about the bugging of the foreign ministry meeting,
the Hurriyet newspaper said.
CNN Turk meanwhile reported
Erdogan's lawyers asked prosecutors to take precautionary measures to
stop both Aytac and Emre Uslu, a newspaper columnist, academic and
former senior anti-terrorism police official, from fleeing abroad.
Aytac
said in a statement on the Hizmet-affiliated Samanyolu news website
that he had been asked whether he was a spy and how he had known so much
about the content of the leaked recording, after he discussed it on a
television program.
"I made my assessment as an academic in that
program. They are trying to intimidate people who think like me in this
election process," he said in the statement.
U.S. and Italian authorities hold a joint press conference Tuesday after the anti-mafia operation.
By Claudio Lavanga and Alexander Smith
ROME
- Police in Italy and the United States have broken up a major
organized crime network made up of powerful mafia clans plotting to
smuggle huge amounts of illegal drugs and weapons, officials said on
Tuesday.
Officers on both sides
of the Atlantic worked together in what they called an "unprecedented"
two-year operation involving wiretaps and undercover officers
penetrating deep into the heart of the alleged network, American and
Italian officials said at a press conference in Rome.
Seventeen
people in Italy and seven in New York were arrested in coordinated
sweeps just after 7 p.m. ET on Monday. Hundreds of thousands of U.S.
dollars in cash were also recovered in the raids.
"We
realized the 'Ndrangheta wanted to create a bridge with the U.S. to
move narcotics across the ocean," U.S. magistrate Marshall Miller said,
referring to the powerful criminal organization in Calabria, Italy.
RBC
Capital Markets' co-head of foreign exchange spot trading, Graeme King,
has left the bank while a raft of global investigations into the
suspected manipulation of currency markets goes on.
According to a Reuters report, King has already left the bank but there was no confirmed reason for his departure.
RBC's representatives were not available at the time of publication.
The
daily $5tn (£3.1tn, €3.7tn) currency market is the largest in the
financial system and is pegged to the value of funds, derivatives and
financial products.
Morningstar estimates that $3.6tn in funds, including pension and savings accounts, track global indexes.
FX
rates are calculated are compiled by using data from a variety of
submitted provisions on a number of platforms, such as Thomson Reuters.
Alessandra Tarantino / AP
