More than 40 bodies retrieved in AirAsia aircraft search

December 30, 2014

Jakarta/Singapore, Dec 30: After three days of intense search, at least 40 bloated bodies and debris of the missing AirAsia aircraft carrying 162 people were found today in the Java Sea off Indonesia but mystery remained over the cause of the crash.

The Indonesian navy reported that 40 bodies had been retrieved by one warship and rescuers were continuing to recover more bodies and were "very busy now".

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The debris of the missing AirAsia plane along with floating bodies of some of the 162 people on board were spotted today in the Java Sea off Indonesia, close to the area where contact was lost with the aircraft on Sunday morning.

Indonesian Transportation Ministry's acting director general of air transportation, Djoko Murjatmodjo, confirmed that that wreckage discovered in Pangkalan Bun, Central Kalimantan, was from AirAsia flight QZ8501.

"It has been confirmed that it is debris from an aircraft bearing red and white colours," Djoko said, citing that the debris was found by the ministry's rescue team.

"The recovery process will now be centered in the debris location in coordination with Basarnas (the National Search and Rescue Agency)," he said.

Later, an air force plane spotted a "shadow" on the seabed believed to be that of the Airbus A320-200, Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency chief Bambang Soelistyo told reporters.

"God blessed us today. At 12:50 the air force Hercules found an object described as a shadow at the bottom of the sea in the form of a plane," he said.

Indonesian officials said they recovered several bodies floating in waters near the area where the missing plane was last seen.

The bodies were bloated but intact and were brought to an Indonesian navy ship, National Search and Rescue Director S B Supriyadi told reporters in Pangkalan Bun.

Navy spokesman Manahan Simorangkir confirmed the discovery to a TV station but did not comment on whether they were dead or alive.

National Search and Rescue Agency spokesman M Yusuf Latif said that a maritime patrol aircraft from the Indonesian Air Force first discovered the debris during a search.

Ten pieces of debris were found during the search for the ill-fated AirAsia Indonesia aircraft southwest of Pangkalan Bun in Central Kalimantan.

"We just searched (the location) until 11 am. So, according to estimations, the debris was seen at 10:15 am (local time)," Yusuf told reporters. The location of the debris matched information from two fishermen in Pangkalan Bun who said that they heard a thud and saw explosions on Sunday morning, he was quoted as saying by the Jakarta Post.

After the discovery was made, the Indonesian agency immediately dispatched a chopper to the location. "We are ordering two members of the Basarnas team to retrieve the debris using hoists," Yusuf said.

The Airbus A320-200 was carrying 155 passengers -- one British, one Malaysian, one Singaporean, three South Koreans, 149 Indonesians -- and seven crew members -- six Indonesians and a French co-pilot.

Seventeen of the passengers were children. There were no Indian nationals on board.

During a news conference by the head of the operation, shown live on Indonesian TV, pictures of the debris were shown including a body floating on the water. Relatives of passengers on the plane watching the pictures were visibly shocked.

AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes, who is an ethnic Indian, tweeted to the families: "My heart is filled with sadness for all the families involved in QZ 8501. On behalf of AirAsia my condolences."

All resources were now being sent to the area where the debris was found, and all objects or bodies found would be taken to Pangkalan Bun, Soelistyo said, referring to a nearby town in Central Kalimantan province.

Soelistyo said that ships with more sophisticated technology were being deployed to check whether larger parts of the plane were submerged beneath the debris.

At least 30 ships, 15 aircraft and seven helicopters had joined the search for the AirAsia flight that went missing on Sunday morning after taking off from Surabaya in eastern Java on its way to Singapore.

The multinational operation, led by Indonesia, was joined by Malaysia, Singapore and Australia, with other offers for help from countries like India, South Korea, China and France. The US destroyer USS Sampson was also on its way to the zone as the discovery was found.

Earlier, several sightings, including something that resembled oil spill east of Belitung island, turned out to be false alarms.

The search by Indonesian Air Force planes spotted two pools of possible oil slick yesterday but these were later determined to be shadows from underwater coral.

The search area, originally divided into seven sectors, was today expanded to 13, covering air, sea and land.

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News Network
March 25,2020

London, Mar 25: Prince Charles on Wednesday has tested positive for the novel coronavirus and is working from home with mild symptoms, according to UK media.
A Clarence House spokesperson said the Prince of Wales was "displaying mild symptoms but otherwise remains in good health and has been working from home throughout the last few days as usual", the Telegraph UK reported.
"He has been displaying mild symptoms but otherwise remains in good health and has been working from home throughout the last few days as usual," the spokesperson added.
In accordance with the government and medical advice, the 71-year old heir to the British throne and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, are now self-isolating at their home in Scotland.
The Duchess of Cornwall has also been tested but does not have the virus.
The tests were carried out by the NHS in Aberdeenshire where they met the criteria required for testing.
"It is not possible to ascertain from whom the Prince caught the virus owing to the high number of engagements he carried out in his public role during recent weeks," the statement further said.

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News Network
May 9,2020

Islamabad, May 9: A female doctor posted at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) Mother and Child Hospital (MCH), who was tested Covid-19 positive, has exposed Pakistan's mismanagement in handling the patients affected with the deadly virus.

Identified herself as Dr. Sharbat, she made a video of herself locked in an isolated room when the authorities failed to provide any medical assistance to her.

According to Pakistani media, the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) Mother and Child Hospital (MCH) and the operating theatre in the Children's Hospital were sealed on Tuesday after 15 people from both facilities were diagnosed with Covid-19.

Dr. Sharbat said that despite having Covid-19 symptoms after her colleague doctor was tested positive, she was forced to perform duty by the hospital authorities.

After she tested positive, Dr. Sharbat has isolated herself in a room and has requested the hospital authorities to provide her a bed in the hospital.

She said, "I am isolated in a small room. There is no toilet and other facilities at this place. I have requested the authorities several times to provide me proper bed because I cannot go home as my son and father is there. I have no other place to go. Its been several hours now and the administration is busy doing meetings. They have no idea about my location. I have called the concerned officials several times and requested for a room in the hospital, but they said that they are looking for it. This is the kind of arrangements we have that a doctor, who was serving the patients, is not able to get proper care".

Dr Sharbat said that she is feeling depressed after seeing the response of authorities tackling with Covid-19 crisis in the country.

She added, "It is unfortunate that the government salutes [health professionals] but is not willing to provide isolation rooms."

Pakistan's position in the global ranking in respect of Covid-19 dropped from 24th to 22nd after the number of positive cases increased to 26,806 (till May 08) with the addition of 1,791 new cases.

However, the National Coordination Committee (NCC), chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan, had decided to substantially ease the lockdown from Saturday after detailed deliberations and consultations with the provinces.

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News Network
April 30,2020

London, Apr 30: The coronavirus is roiling global job markets, but the picture is not all gloomy. Finance, technology and consumer goods firms are hiring tens of thousands in the United States and other countries, according to data from Microsoft Corp's professional networking site LinkedIn.

Across seven countries in North America, Europe and Asia, healthcare providers are among the busiest recruiters given the ongoing battle against the novel coronavirus, which has killed over 200,000 people and infected over 3 million people worldwide, LinkedIn said. But lifestyle changes during lockdown are also driving demand for financial consultants, factory workers, animators and game designers, and delivery workers.

Overall, the hiring rate has plunged in the first quarter from the year-ago period, and in late April remains lower than a year ago across most countries surveyed by the platform. But the data offer a glimmer of hope with a gradual uptick in China, where the coronavirus emerged last year and which leads the world in surfacing from a months-long lockdown.

LinkedIn, with over 690 million users worldwide, counts new hires when people add a new employer to their profile. The rate is the number of new hires divided by the total number of LinkedIn members in a country.

The figures, tracked since mid-February, are not corroborated by official jobs data and do not represent the actual number of jobs in an economy. Government figures are usually released with a time-lag of several weeks.

"We are confident that our data is directionally correct in that there has been a huge decline in hiring in the U.S. and abroad," Guy Berger, principal economist at LinkedIn in California, told Reuters.

Hiring in China plummeted 50% during the height of its coronavirus crisis in mid-February from 12 months earlier. Since restrictions were eased in early April, the hiring rate has inched up, and for the week ending April 24 was 3% lower than the same period in 2019.

Hiring in the United States, United Kingdom, France and Italy - which lead the world in coronavirus-related deaths - remains hugely depressed, but is falling less rapidly than a few weeks ago as the countries pass the peak of their epidemics.

Retailers including Walmart Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Instacart have said they would hire a total of over 700,000 workers to meet a surge in demand for groceries and household essentials during the coronavirus outbreak.

Coronavirus state-wise India update: Total number of confirmed cases, deaths on April 30

Consumer goods manufacturers such as Unilever, whose products include soap and shampoo, confirmed on Wednesday it was hiring to fill 300 jobs globally, but declined to elaborate.

Nestle told Reuters it was looking to fill 5,000 full-time U.S. positions in "a variety of levels across corporate and frontline."

Fidelity Investments, a Boston-based financial services firm, said it had accelerated recruitment because of the pandemic and was looking to fill at least 2,000 full-time roles for financial consultants, software engineers and customer service staff in the United States in 2020.

Companies hiring in the United States and other countries also include Apple Inc; ByteDance, the Chinese parent of video-sharing social network TikTok; Takeda Pharmaceutical Co Ltd; and aerospace and defence company Lockheed Martin Corp. These companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

DIRE WARNINGS

The International Labour Organization warned on Wednesday that 1.6 billion workers, or nearly half of the global workforce, especially in the informal economy, could lose their livelihoods.

Record numbers of people have applied for U.S. jobless benefits since mid-March, and the unemployment rate is expected to soar to 16%, White House economic adviser Kevin Hasset said this week, from a 50-year low of 3.5% before the pandemic hit.

Both Italy and France, in lockdown for nearly two months, have seen hiring rates drop by around 70% from a year ago, according to LinkedIn.

Since China is ahead of other countries on the pandemic timeline, improvements there could suggest the same is in store elsewhere, Berger said. Several American states and European countries have begun allowing some non-essential businesses and schools to reopen in the hopes of restarting the economy and allowing a gradual return to normal life.

"It's still slightly early to call it a firm recovery," Berger said, referring to improving prospects in China. "We're not expecting a full recovery but rather it's an indication that parts of the economy will switch on as lockdowns are eased, at least relative to the worst point of the pandemic."

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