Russian aviation official: Jetliner that crashed after leaving Egypt broke up at high altitude
Russian aviation official: Jetliner that crashed after leaving Egypt broke up at high altitude
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt — The Russian jetliner that crashed shortly after takeoff from an Egyptian resort city broke up at high altitude, scattering fragments of wreckage over a wide area in the Sinai Peninsula, Russia’s top aviation official said Sunday as search teams raced to recover the bodies of the 224 people who died.
Meanwhile in Russia, an outpouring of grief gripped the historic city of St. Petersburg, home of many of the victims. President Vladimir Putin declared a nationwide day of mourning, and flags flew at half-staff.
Aviation experts joined the searchers in a remote part of the Sinai, seeking any clues to what caused the Metrojet Airbus A321-200 to plummet abruptly from 31,000 feet just 23 minutes after it departed from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh bound for St. Petersburg.
Aviation experts and the search teams were combing an area of more than 6 square miles to find bodies and pieces of the jet.
By midday, 163 bodies had been recovered, according to the Egyptian government.
AP Investigation: Hundreds of law enforcement officers lose licenses over sex misconduct
OKLAHOMA CITY — Flashing lights pierced the black of night, and the big white letters made clear it was the police. The woman pulled over was a daycare worker in her 50s headed home after playing dominoes with friends. She felt she had nothing to hide, so when the Oklahoma City officer accused her of erratic driving, she did as directed.
She would later tell a judge she was splayed outside the patrol car for a pat-down, made to lift her shirt to prove she wasn’t hiding anything, then to pull down her pants when the officer still wasn’t convinced. He shined his flashlight between her legs, she said, then ordered her to sit in the squad car and face him as he towered above. His gun in sight, she said she pleaded “No, sir” as he unzipped his fly and exposed himself with a hurried directive.
“Come on,” the woman, identified in police reports as J.L., said she was told before she began giving him oral sex. “I don’t have all night.”
The accusations are undoubtedly jolting, and yet they reflect a betrayal of the badge that has been repeated time and again across the country.
In a yearlong investigation of sexual misconduct by U.S. law enforcement, The Associated Press uncovered about 1,000 officers who lost their badges in a six-year period for rape, sodomy and other sexual assault; sex crimes that included possession of child pornography; or sexual misconduct such as propositioning citizens or having consensual but prohibited on-duty intercourse.
Higher prices, political divisions challenge Obama health law’s 3rd sign-up season
WASHINGTON — The government’s insurance website is faster and easier to use, but as a third sign-up season gets underway, President Barack Obama’s health care law is approaching limits.
Enrollment on the federal and state exchanges began Sunday. While the law’s expanded coverage has reduced the uninsured rate to a historic low of about 9 percent, the gains will be harder in 2016.
Supporters may feel they’re running to stay in place, rather than taking a victory lap during the president’s last full year in office.
The reasons have to do with the structure of the complicated law, the effects of a major change introduced by the Supreme Court and political divisions likely to be magnified in an election year.
The fate of the Affordable Care Act — known as “Obamacare” to its detractors — is very much in the hands of the next president. A weak sign-up season could embolden opponents who are so far unwilling to relent.
French president hopes to give a push to climate talks
PARIS — French President Francois Hollande hopes to use a state visit to China to boost difficult climate negotiations, a month before a U.N. conference in Paris aimed at slowing global warming.
China, the most populous country and the biggest emitter of climate-warming greenhouse gases in the world, has promised it will try to cap its rising emissions before 2030 as part of its national pledge ahead of the Paris conference.
Hollande says he intends to launch a bilateral appeal with Chinese President Xi Jinping “to make the climate conference a success.”
France is notably trying to get China’s approval of a mechanism that would require countries to step up their emissions cuts over time.
This would be “a key” to success of the U.N. climate talks, a French diplomatic official said, because the current national pledges won’t be enough to achieve the goal of keeping the rise in global temperatures below 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit between pre-industrial times and the end of the century.
By wire sources