Headline
China’s First Locally Made Passenger Jet Makes Maiden Commercial Flight
Published
11 months agoon
By
EditorChina’s first domestically produced passenger jet made its maiden commercial flight on Sunday, a milestone event in the nation’s decades-long effort to compete with Western rivals in the air.
Beijing hopes the C919 commercial jetliner will challenge foreign models like the Boeing 737 MAX and the Airbus A320, though many of its parts are sourced from abroad.
Its first homegrown jetliner with mass commercial potential would also cut the country’s reliance on foreign technology as ties with the West deteriorate.
“In the future, most passengers will be able to choose to travel by large, domestically produced aircraft,” state broadcaster CCTV said.
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China Eastern Airlines flight MU9191 from Shanghai “arrived smoothly” in Beijing just after 12:30 pm, around 40 minutes ahead of schedule, according to CCTV.
Footage showed passengers filing out of the plane and into the terminal, before a few dozen staff and officials posed for photographs in a brief ceremony on the tarmac.
“(The flight) was extremely smooth, comfortable and memorable. I think I’ll remember this fondly for some time to come,” a male passenger told CCTV.
The broadcaster had aired footage of the plane rising into the skies above Shanghai Hongqiao Airport on Sunday morning, saying it had 130 passengers on board.
State media footage showed passengers gathering at the sun-drenched Shanghai airfield to admire the sleek white jet before embarking.
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Passengers received red boarding passes and a sumptuous “themed meal” to commemorate the flight, CCTV reported.
Other footage showed passengers waving national flags and singing a patriotic song while a cake was being cut during the flight.
China has invested heavily in the production of the homegrown jet as it seeks to become self-sufficient in key technologies.
The aircraft is manufactured by the state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, but many of its parts — including its engines — are sourced from overseas.
Zhang Xiaoguang, COMAC’s director of marketing and sales, told state news agency Xinhua the flight was a “coming-of-age ceremony (for) the new aircraft”, adding the C919 “will get better if it stands the test of the market”.
READ ALSO: China’s Military Drills Around Taiwan Upset US
– ‘Important milestone’ –
From Monday, the C919 will operate on China Eastern’s regular route between Shanghai and the southwestern city of Chengdu, CCTV reported.
The first model of the narrow-body jet was formally handed over to China Eastern last year during a ceremony at an airport in Shanghai, hailed by state media as “an important milestone” for the country’s aircraft industry.
Zhang Yujin, COMAC’s deputy general manager, told state-backed Shanghai outlet The Paper in January that the company had taken around 1,200 orders for the C919.
COMAC planned to increase annual production capacity to 150 models within five years, Zhang said at the time.
Asia and China in particular are key targets for European manufacturer Airbus and its American rival Boeing, which are looking to capitalise on the growing demand for air travel from the country’s vast middle class.
Last month, Airbus said it would double its production capacity in China, signing a deal to build a second final assembly line for the A320 in Tianjin.
The first assembly site in the northern city opened in 2008 and produces four A320s a month, with Airbus hoping to increase that to six per month before the end of the year.
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Headline
400 Bodies Found In Mass Grave In Gaza Hospital
Published
20 hours agoon
April 28, 2024By
EditorThe government in Gaza have concluded their search of mass graves at a hospital in the south of the strip and said they have uncovered a total of 392 bodies, including some still wearing surgical gowns.
Speaking at a Thursday news conference at Rafah, on April 25, an official from the Palestinian Civil Defense in Gaza said workers have identified 165 bodies at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, following the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the area earlier this month.
According to Mohammed Al Mighayyer, they are still examining the remaining 227 bodies to determine their identities.
“We found three mass graves, the first in front of the morgue, the second behind the morgue, and the third north of the dialysis building,” he added.
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The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said any suggestion that it had buried Palestinian bodies in mass graves was false, and that a grave at the Nasser complex was dug by Palestinians in Gaza some months ago.
The Gaza Civil Defense acknowledged that around 100 bodies were buried in graves at the Nasser hospital before the IDF operation there.
CNN reports that people had buried the bodies of family members who had been killed on the grounds of the hospital as a temporary measure in January but when they returned after the Israeli military withdrew on April 7, they discovered the bodies had been dug up and then placed in at least one collective grave, not all in the initial spots they were buried in.
The Palestinian Civil Defense also showed graphic images on a TV screen at the news conference showing several almost unrecognizable bodies at the complex and bodies of decomposed children.
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Al Mighayyer said the Civil Defense “witnessed the presence of children’s bodies in the mass graves at the Nasser Medical Complex, which proves crimes of genocide.” While the group says it is still examining the bodies, they suspect at least 20 civilians were buried alive in the complex, but it did not explain how it knows this, or offer proof.
Al Mighayyer also claimed there had been cases of executions of patients who had been receiving treatment at the hospital. He said several bodies were found with gunshot wounds to their heads and injuries to their bodies.
Al Mighayyer said at the news conference that the Palestinian Gaza Civil Defense in Gaza “discovered torture marks on [some] bodies.” CNN cannot independently verify these claims.
“Israeli forces buried several bodies in plastic bags at a depth of three meters, which made them decompose quickly.”
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“The occupation deliberately concealed evidence of its crimes in the Nasser Complex by changing the plastic shrouds more than once,” he claimed. Video recorded by CNN shows bodies wrapped in three different coloured shrouds: white, black and blue.
Amnesty International has also called for an investigation into the mass graves at the two Gaza hospitals.
I’m response, the Israeli Defense Forces, IDF said:“During the IDF’s operation in the area of Nasser Hospital, in accordance with the effort to locate hostages and missing persons, corpses buried by Palestinians in the area of Nasser Hospital were examined. The examination was conducted in a careful manner and exclusively in places where intelligence indicated the possible presence of hostages.”
The IDF continued: “At the end of February, IDF forces conducted a precise and targeted operation against the terrorist organization Hamas in the Nasser Hospital area. During the operation, about 200 terrorists who were in the hospital were apprehended, medicines intended for Israeli hostages were found undelivered and unused, and a great deal of ammunition was confiscated. The activity was done in a targeted manner and without harming the hospital, the patients and the medical staff.”
Headline
Watch Of Richest Titanic Passenger Sells For £1.17m
Published
22 hours agoon
April 27, 2024By
EditorA gold watch found on the body of the richest passenger on the Titanic was auctioned in England for £1.17 million ($1.46 million) on Saturday.
It was a record sum for an object linked to the notorious 1912 shipping disaster, said auctioneers Henry Aldridge & Son.
A US buyer won the bidding war, smashing the auctioneer’s pre-sale estimate of between £100,000 and £150,000.
The watch, engraved with the initials JJA, belonged to the US business magnate John Jacob Astor.
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Astor was 47 when he died as the Titanic sank in the early hours of April 15, 1912. He was reputed to be one of the richest men in the world at the time.
He died after having helped his wife, Madeleine, on board one of the lifeboats. She survived the disaster.
Astor’s body was found a week after the disaster, with the watch among his personal belongings.
“The watch itself was completely restored after being returned to Colonel Astor’s family and worn by his son,” said a statement from the auction house.
Headline
Popular Iraqi TikToker Umm Fahad Gunned Down Outside Baghdad Home
Published
22 hours agoon
April 27, 2024By
EditorPopular Iraqi social media star Ghufran Sawadi, better known as Umm Fahad, was shot dead outside her home in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, on Friday night.
According to CNN, a Baghdad police source disclosed that the attack occurred in the Zayouna area east of Baghdad.
The source added that the tragic incident was captured on video by a surveillance camera and shared on social media.
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The video showed a gunman riding a motorcycle shooting and killing Sawadi on the spot. A Baghdad police source confirmed the authenticity of the video to CNN.
The country’s Interior Minister announced on Friday that it was “forming a specialized work team to find out the circumstances of the killing of a woman known on social media by unknown assailants.”
Sawadi was popular on TikTok, where she shared videos of herself dancing to pop music in form-fitting clothes. In the past, these videos were deemed inappropriate by Iraq’s judiciary.
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Sawadi was sentenced to six months in prison for “the crime of producing and publishing several films and videos containing obscene and indecent language, violating public decency and morals,” an Iraqi judiciary statement said.
Other Iraqi social media personalities have previously been targeted in deadly attacks.
Most recently, another popular Iraqi TikTok personality, Noor Alsaffar, known as Noor BM, was shot dead in Baghdad in September 2023, an Iraqi security source told CNN at the time.
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Alsaffar, who had over 370,000 followers across Instagram and TikTok, posted short videos about fashion, hair, and makeup, also often dancing to music.
Following news of the shooting, many posted comments lamenting Alsaffar’s death, though others applauded it, celebrating the man who fired the shot.
Alsaffar’s killing came as Iraq cracked down on LGBTQ expression and moved to criminalize it in law.
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