Air France crew 'lacked training'

29 July 2011 Last updated at 20:48 GMT F-GZCP, the Air France jet which crashed, is seen here in an undated image The pilots of an Air France plane that crashed into the Atlantic in 2009 lacked adequate training, French investigators have found.

France's BEA authority said pilots had failed to discuss repeated stall warnings and did not have the training to deal with the hazard. Air France rejected the accusation.

BEA called for mandatory training in high-altitude stalling for all pilots.

All 228 people on board the Airbus 330 from Brazil to France were killed.

'No passenger alert'

BEA head Jean-Paul Troadec said that "the situation was salvageable" during the flight's final minutes.

Investigators said an account of those minutes, captured on flight recorders, concluded that the crew had failed to "formally identify the loss of altitude" despite an alarm ringing for nearly a minute.

"The first event which triggered it all is the disconnection of the automatic pilot following the loss of the speed indicators, very probably after they were frozen by ice crystals," said Mr Troadec.

"At this time the pilot should have initiated a procedure known as 'Unreliable IAS (indicated air speed)', a procedure which consists of taking an angle of five degrees, but the angle they took was far superior.

"That is why the plane flew upwards, the plane took a rapid vertical flight of 7,000 feet/minute... The angle they took was too much," Mr Troadec said.

The BEA report said the co-pilots in charge of the plane when the emergency began "had received no high-altitude training for unreliable IAS (indicated air speed) procedure and manual air craft handling".

The report also said that the pilots failed to alert passengers to the crisis as they struggled to regain control.

The authority issued 10 new safety recommendations, including mandatory training for all pilots in France to ensure they could handle a high-altitude stall.

A statement from Air France rejected the BEA's findings, saying that "nothing at this stage can allow the crew's technical competence to be blamed" for the crash.

"The crew on duty showed professionalism and stayed committed until the end to operating the flight. Air France salutes their courage and determination in these extreme conditions," it said.

Flight recorders were found this year

"The altitude-loss alarm was activated and deactivated several times, contradicting the real status of the aircraft, which contributed strongly to the crew's difficulty in analysing the situation," Air France said.

Airbus said it welcomed the report and would give full support to the process, so that the industry could "benefit from any lessons to be learnt from this event".

Air France and Airbus are being investigated for alleged manslaughter in connection with the crash.

"The BEA establishes the facts and makes recommendations based on those facts," AFP quoted Environment and Transport Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet as saying on RTL radio.

"As to who is responsible, that is up to the courts," she added.

Flight AF 447 went down on 1 June 2009 after running into an intense high-altitude thunderstorm, four hours into a flight from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil to Paris.

The wreckage of the plane was discovered after a long search of 10,000 sq km (3,860 sq miles) of sea floor.

1. 0135 GMT: The crew informs the controller of the flight's location

2. 0159-0206 GMT: The co-pilot warns of turbulence ahead before the captain leaves the cockpit for a rest break

3. 0208 GMT: The plane turns left, diverting from the planned route. Turbulence increases

4. 0210 GMT: The auto-pilot and auto-thrust mechanisms disengage. The plane rolls to the right. The co-pilot attempts to raise the nose. The stall warning sounds twice and the plane's speed drops. The co-pilot calls the captain

5. 0210 GMT: The stall warning sounds again. The plane climbs to 38,000ft

6. 0211-0213 GMT: The captain re-enters the cockpit. The plane is flying at 35,000 ft but is descending 10,000 ft per minute. The co-pilot says "I don't have any more indications", pulls the nose down and the stall warning sounds again

After location 6. 02:14 GMT: Recordings stop

Source: BEA. Note: Last known position = last known position before the plane's "black boxes" were retrieved

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Oslo killer 'had other targets'

30 July 2011 Last updated at 21:00 GMT The bomb ripped through central Oslo The man who admitted the bomb and gun attacks which rocked Norway has said under interrogation he had other targets, police say.

Anders Behring Breivik was questioned for 10 hours on Friday to verify details from previous sessions and answer new points.

Police would not confirm reports that he had also wanted to attack the palace and Labour Party headquarters.

Funerals have begun for the 77 people killed in the attacks.

Mr Breivik, an anti-Muslim extremist who blamed Labour for increased immigration, is believed to have single-handedly shot dead 69 people at a party summer camp on the island of Utoeya, hours after killing eight with a car bomb near government buildings in central Oslo.

The attacks on Friday 22 July traumatised Norway, one of the most politically stable and tolerant states in Europe.

'Several projects of different scale'

Police lawyer Paal-Fredrik Hjort Kraby said the suspect had talked about other targets.

"In general, I would say that he had in his plans other targets but on this day it was only these two which were successful," he told reporters on Saturday.

Police lawyer Paal-Fredrik Hjort Kraby

He described Mr Breivik as "more than willing to co-operate... more than willing to explain himself".

Without citing its sources, Norwegian tabloid Verdens Gang reported that the suspect had considered attacking the royal palace because of its symbolic value, and Labour HQ because of his loathing for the party.

On Friday, Mr Breivik's lawyer, Geir Lippestad, told Aftenposten newspaper that his client had harboured "several projects of different scale for that Friday".

"Things happened that day, which I don't want to go into, which meant events unfolded differently from what he had planned," he added.

He said his client continued to show no remorse, saying the killings were "a necessary act... a war against the rule by Muslims".

Police are believed to have been checking targets identified by Mr Breivik in his manifesto, which outlines both his extremist ideas and details his preparations for attacks.

Huge demand for flowers Flowers cover the ground around Oslo cathedral

Such has been the demand for roses to mourn the victims nationwide, that the government has suspended duty on foreign imports of the flower until Tuesday.

A memorial concert at Oslo's cathedral on Saturday featured the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation Symphony Orchestra and some of Norway's best-known recording artists.

Families of the victims, rescue personnel and health personnel were invited to the concert, which Crown Prince Haakon and his aunt Princess Astrid also attended.

Friday saw the first two funerals: of 18-year-old Bano Rashid, who was buried near Oslo, and of Ismail Haji Ahmed, 19, in the south-western town of Hamar.

Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere travelled to the Nesodden peninsula to attend the funeral of Ms Rashid, a Kurdish immigrant from Iraq.

Both victims were killed on Utoeya, where young members of the Labour Party had been attending an annual summer camp.

Memorial ceremonies were also held in churches and mosques and at non-religious gatherings around the country.

Norway plans to set up an independent "July 22 Commission" to examine the attacks, including investigating whether police reacted too slowly to the shootings at Utoeya.

A court has appointed two psychiatrists to try to examine Mr Breivik's actions, with a mandate to report back by 1 November. His lawyer has said he is probably insane.

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Why Mladic didn't shoot

30 July 2011 Last updated at 23:16 GMT By Nick Thorpe BBC News, Lazarevo, Serbia Nenad Stocovic tends peppers in the Mladic garden - but says he did not know he was there "I could have killed 10 of you if I wanted..." Ratko Mladic told the Serbian policemen who came to arrest him. "But I didn't want to. You're just young men, doing your job."

Speaking in a BBC interview, Nenad Stocovic, a next-door neighbour who was with Gen Mladic for four hours during his arrest in the village of Lazarevo on 26 May, has given more details of the events of that morning.

It was a momentous day, when one of the world's biggest manhunts came to an end, and the man accused of committing genocide in Bosnia began his journey to face justice in The Hague.

It was 0500 on a Friday morning. Nenad Stocovic had come down to the garden adjacent to where, as it would turn out, Ratko Mladic was staying with his third cousin, Branko.

Nenad came to water his peppers - "the elephant's ear variety" he tells me proudly, showing the size and shape with his hand. "When suddenly there were policemen everywhere, four in uniform, about 10 in plainclothes."

"'Did someone get killed?' I asked them, 'or have you come to buy a pig or a sheep from Branko?'"

His request to leave quietly was rejected by the tall policeman in charge.

Two pistols

"They had no body armour, no helmets, no long-barrelled guns... but they seemed afraid. And they were surprised when they found him."

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If we had known, we would have made sure he was moved to a safer house... where the police would never have found him”

End Quote Nenad Stocovic Ratko Mladic was sitting in the front room, wearing a tracksuit. His first words to the police were: "I am the man you are looking for." He seemed relieved to be have been discovered, Mr Stocovic tells me.

During the hours which followed, they asked him to sit first outside in the yard of the house, then back inside the room. Three other houses in the village were searched simultaneously.

The tip-off - if that was what brought the police here - appears to have been that Gen Mladic was in the village, not which house he was in. The other houses searched all belong to other, distant relatives of the general.

"The police were polite at all times," Mr Stocovic continues, "treating him almost like a father."

Gen Mladic's two pistols, one American made, with three clips of ammunition, 54 bullets, the other a Yugoslav Zastava 765, were found in a drawer of the closet.

Ratko Mladic seemed relieved to have been discovered, Nenad Stocovic said

"When the police inspector asked about it, he said the pistol was a gift of a volunteer in our army."

This was far from Gen Mladic's first visit to the village, but definitely the first time it had been searched by the Serbian authorities, in his 16 years on the run.

Around 10 years ago, Gen Mladic came here often, to stay with Branko, and kept his bees near the railway station.

"He walked openly in the streets, everyone knew who he was," Mr Stocovic explains.

"Once I told one of his bodyguards that his gun - a Heckler and Koch - was showing, protruding from under his jacket.

"'It is meant to be,' he said, coolly."

That was the period when either the political will to arrest him did not exist, or when the price - the potential loss of the lives in the police operation; or a nationalist backlash - was deemed too high.

Another bodyguard stood at the edge of the field at that time, and a third, in a white shirt, in the road. It was clear they wanted people to know they were there - 10 years ago.

Paralysis

Under arrest this time, Gen Mladic was not handcuffed, and the police complied with his request not to lay hands on him or shackle him in any way.

Police had never searched the house before, despite its connection with Mladic

Mr Stocovic and Branko helped him put on a feather jacket, before they took him away. The paralysis in one of his arms made it hard to dress.

"Which one of you is the American?" the general asked the police - little surprise that after 16 years on the run, he could only imagine being taken into custody as part of a Western conspiracy.

Another interesting detail is that Gen Mladic's son Darko had visited Lazarevo very recently, on 6 and 7 May, to celebrate the family's patron saint - St George.

For a village so closely connected to the Mladic family, and where he was known to have visited, it seems astonishing that the Serbian authorities had never searched it before.

"Did you really not know that Mladic was in the village?" I asked Mr Stocovic, in conclusion.

"If we had, we would have made sure he was moved to a safer house, not connected to his relatives, where the police would never have found him," he replies.

Before I go, he says he has a message for the journalists of the world.

"You can help us a lot, but you can also do us a lot of damage. All I ask is that you tell the truth. Only the truth will extinguish the fires. This is the message of a self-educated man."

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Ukraine mine blast leaves 16 dead

29 July 2011 Last updated at 04:52 GMT An explosion at a mine in the Ukraine's eastern Lugansk region has left at least 16 people dead, the emergencies ministry says.

A further 10 people were unaccounted for, and two miners were being treated in hospital, reports said.

The explosion took place at 01:57 local time (22:57 GMT).

A lack of equipment and safety standards make Ukrainian coal mines among the most dangerous in the world, and accidents are common.

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Long winters 'gave Scandinavians bigger eyes'

27 July 2011 Last updated at 07:26 GMT By Judith Burns Science reporter, BBC News Researchers measured skulls from the 1800s Humans living at high latitude have bigger eyes and bigger brains to cope with poor light during long winters and cloudy days, UK scientists have said.

The Oxford University team said bigger brains did not make people smarter.

Larger vision processing areas fill the extra capacity, they write in the Royal Society's Biology Letters journal.

The scientists measured the eye sockets and brain volumes of 55 skulls from 12 populations across the world, and plotted the results against latitude.

Lead author Eiluned Pearce told BBC News: "We found a positive relationship between absolute latitude and both eye socket size and cranial capacity."

The team, from the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology, used skulls dating from the 1800s kept at museums in Oxford and Cambridge.

The skulls were from indigenous populations ranging from Scandinavia to Australia, Micronesia and North America.

Largest brain cavities

The largest brain cavities came from Scandinavia, while the smallest were from Micronesia.

Eiluned Pearce said: "Both the amount of light hitting the Earth's surface and winter day-lengths get shorter as you go further north or south from the equator.

"We found that as light levels decrease, humans are getting bigger eye sockets, which suggests that their eyeballs are getting bigger.

Barn owls are nocturnal hunters

"They are also getting bigger brains, because we found this increase in cranial capacity as well.

"In the paper, we argue that having bigger brains doesn't mean that high-latitude humans are necessarily smarter. It's just they need bigger eyes and brains to be able to see well where they live."

The work indicates that humans are subject to the same evolutionary trends that give relatively large eyes to birds that sing first during the dawn chorus, or species such as owls that forage at night.

Co author Prof Robin Dunbar said: "Humans have only lived at high latitudes in Europe and Asia for a few tens of thousands of years, yet they seem to have adapted their visual systems surprisingly rapidly to the cloudy skies, dull weather and long winters we experience at these latitudes."

The team took into account the overall body size of each individual by measuring the foramen magnum - the hole in the base of the skull that attaches to the spinal column.

They also controlled for the possibility that the larger eye sockets were needed for extra fat around the eyeball to insulate them from freezing temperatures.

The team intends to do more work on establishing a firm link between eyeball size and enhanced visual processing areas in the brain, and to replicate the link found in the 55 original skulls with further study on specimens from other museums.

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Spanish PM calls early election

29 July 2011 Last updated at 14:58 GMT PM Zapatero has presided over a series of unpopular austerity measures Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has called a general election for November, four months earlier than expected.

He said this would enable a new government to confront Spain's economic problems from January.

Hours earlier, a credit rating agency warned it might downgrade Spain's rating due to weak growth prospects.

The opposition has demanded an early vote since May, when Mr Zapatero's Socialist Party lost in local polls.

"Early elections are what the majority of the electorate wanted, so this is good news," said Mariano Rajoy, the candidate of the main opposition Popular Party.

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I want a new government to take control of the economy from 1 January next year... fresh from the balloting”

End Quote Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero It argues that a change of government is the only way to recover market confidence in the country.

Mr Zapatero will not be seeking a third term as prime minister, and opinion polls suggest his Socialist Party - led by former Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba - will lose.

Economic recovery?

The government's borrowing costs have risen in recent weeks, despite agreement on a second EU bailout package for Greece, reflecting the fact that investors still worry about the weak state of Spain's economy, says the BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Madrid.

Mr Zapatero said he was calling an early election - now set for 20 November - in order to "project political and economic certainty" over the months to come.

"I want a new government to take control of the economy from 1 January next year... fresh from the balloting."

He made his announcement after a speech in which he stressed that the economy was on the road to recovery, citing seven consecutive quarters of growth, and a recent decline in unemployment.

But 46% of young Spaniards remain out of work - and the overall unemployment rate is twice the European average.

There is concern too over the level of debt in Spain's regions, and the health of the banking sector, our correspondent says.

The international ratings agency, Moody's, has just warned that it is putting Spanish government debt on review, for a possible downgrade from Aa2 to Aa3.

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Five drown in Moscow boat sinking

31 July 2011 Last updated at 06:58 GMT Seven of the 17 people on board were saved, officials say A pleasure boat has sunk on the Moscow river in Russia's capital, drowning five people and leaving five more missing, the emergency ministry has said.

Seven of the 17 people on board have been rescued, it said.

Reports say the boat, the Swallow, collided with a barge at 0058 on Sunday (2058 GMT Saturday).

The accident comes three weeks after a tourist boat sank on the Volga river in Tatarstan, killing more than 100.

Rules breached

A spokesman for Moscow's emergency ministry told Agence France-Presse the "bodies of five passengers have been pulled out" and that the rescue operation was continuing.

The accident took place close to the city's Luzhniki sports stadium.

Yury Besedin, an emergency ministry official, told local television the accident was "provisionally believed to have taken place because of breaches of shipping rules".

Three weeks ago the 80m (260ft) Bulgaria - a double-decker river cruiser built in 1955 - listed during a thunderstorm on the Volga river and sank in minutes, trapping many passengers inside.

About 80 people were rescued.

Officials said the boat was designed for 140 passengers and crew but it had been carrying 208 people. It also lacked the correct licences and one of its engines was not working, prosecutors said.

Russian police arrested the director of the company that rented the boat and a ship registrar who certified it.

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