Umrah visa ban for Ebola-hit states remains in force : Saudi Official

GNN ISLAMABAD: An official at Saudi Ministry of Health has said that ban on granting Umrah visas to visitors from countries, hit with Ebola virus, is still in place at the start of Umrah season.

He said that the ban comes from various bodies which advised competent agencies not to grant visa if it is found that the country in question is still infected with the virus, Arab news reported.

The official confirmed that no Ebloa case has yet been recorded in the Kingdom since the beginning of the season.

APP

Japan proposes joint work on Australia sub fleet: report

GNN TOKYO: Japan is proposing jointly building Australia’s new submarines, instead of exporting a new fleet, a report said Monday, after concerns in Canberra over the effect on the domestic ship-building industry.

Under the proposal, Japan’s defense ministry is to cooperate with Australia in developing special steel and other materials for its new submarines, while Tokyo will be in charge of assembling them, the Mainichi Shimbun said.

The Australian side has taken “a positive stance” on the proposal, the daily said, adding that the two countries may strike a deal by the end of 2015.

Australia needs to replace its fleet of diesel and electric-powered subs, which date from the 1990s, and Japan’s high-tech ship-building industry is through to be well-placed to win the contract.

But opposition politicians and industry groups in Australia protest that losing the contract could deal a potentially fatal blow to naval shipbuilding at home, with a knock-on effect for associated industries.

However, critics point out that Japan may be able to supply the fleet for as little as half of the cost of making it at home.

Japan is on a drive to promote its manufacturing industries abroad, with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe touring the world as salesman-in-chief.

Abe has argued that Japan must play a bigger role on the global stage and has pushed to loosen post-World War II restrictions on when its well-equipped armed forces can act.

He has also relaxed a self-imposed ban on weapons exports, paving the way for the possible deal with Australia.

Immediate confirmation of the report was not available.

Source: AFP

Search teams battle rough weather in hunt for AirAsia wreck

GNN - Ships and aircraft criss-crossed the seas off Borneo on Friday hunting for the wreck of an Indonesia AirAsia passenger jet, but bad weather again hindered the search for the plane and the black box flight recorders that should reveal why it crashed.

An official said 30 bodies had been recovered, along with pieces of the broken-up plane, in the Indonesian-led search for Flight QZ8501 that is concentrated on 1,575 square nautical miles of the northern Java Sea.

Strong winds and heavy seas have stopped divers from looking for the fuselage of the Airbus A320-200, which plunged into the water on Sunday while en route from Indonesia's second-biggest city Surabaya to Singapore with 162 people on board.

"Waves were between 3 and 4 meters today, making it difficult to load bodies onto ships and between ships," Fransiskus Bambang Soelistyo, head of Indonesia's search and rescue agency, told reporters in Jakarta, adding that some vessels would search through the night.

"Tonight we are sending tug boats which should make the (body) transfers easier."

He said two of the 30 bodies found were strapped to their plane seats.

The multinational search operation based in Pangkalan Bun, the town in southern Borneo closest to the search area, was bolstered on Friday by experts from France's BEA accident investigation agency, which attends all Airbus crashes.

Officials said the French team's hydrophones - sophisticated underwater acoustic detection devices - and towed sonar equipment brought by other international experts could not be used on Friday because of high waves.

But naval vessels from Indonesia, the United States and Singapore with in-built anti-submarine capabilities were using sonar to sweep the sea floor.

STALL THEORY
The cause of the crash, the first suffered by the AirAsia group since the budget operator began flying in 2002, is unexplained. Investigators are working on a theory that the plane stalled as it climbed steeply to avoid a storm about 40 minutes into a flight that should have lasted two hours.

Officials earlier said it may take up to a week to find the black boxes, which investigators hope will unravel the sequence of events in the cockpit during the doomed jet's final minutes.

"After the black box is found, we are able to issue a preliminary report in one month," said Toos Sanitioso, an investigator with the National Committee for Transportation Safety. "We cannot yet speculate what caused the crash."

Even in bad weather, the search for the AirAsia plane is less technically challenging than the two-year search for an Air France jet that crashed into deep Atlantic waters in 2009, or the fruitless hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 that disappeared last year.

Given Flight QZ8501 crashed in shallow seas, experts say finding the boxes should not be difficult if its locator beacons, with a range of 2,000 to 3,000 meters (6,560 to 9,800 ft) and a battery life of about 30 days, are working.

Bodies plucked from the sea are being taken in numbered coffins to Surabaya, where relatives of the victims, most of whom were Indonesian, have gathered. Authorities have been collecting DNA from relatives to help identify the bodies.

The first funeral of one of the crash victims was held on Thursday, and on Friday officials said the remains of three more had been identified, including a flight attendant.

AirAsia boss Tony Fernandes tweeted that he would accompany the body of one victim home from Surabaya.

"I'm arriving in Surabaya to take Nisa home to Palembang," he wrote. "I cannot describe how I feel. There are no words."

"UNBELIEVABLY" STEEP CLIMB
The plane was traveling at 32,000 ft (9,753 meters) and the pilots had asked to climb to 38,000 ft to avoid bad weather just before contact was lost. When air traffic controllers granted permission to fly at 34,000 ft a few minutes later, they got no response.

A source close to the investigation said radar data appeared to show the aircraft made an "unbelievably" steep climb before it crashed, possibly pushing it beyond the A320's limits.

Hadi Mustofa Djuraid, a Transport Ministry official, told reporters that authorities were investigating the possibility that the pilot did not ask for a weather report from the meteorological agency at the time of takeoff.

He added that pilots were required to do so before flying.

Indonesia AirAsia's president director, Sunu Widyatmoko, said in a text message: "We will make a release shortly" on that aspect of the investigation.

The Indonesian captain, a former air force fighter pilot, had 6,100 flying hours on the A320 and the plane last underwent maintenance in mid-November, according to Indonesia AirAsia, 49 percent owned by Malaysia-based AirAsia.

Three airline disasters involving Malaysian-affiliated planes in under a year have spooked travelers.

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 disappeared in March en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew and has not been found. On July 17, the same airline's Flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.

On board Flight QZ8501 were 155 Indonesians, three South Koreans, and one person each from Singapore, Malaysia and Britain. The co-pilot was French.

(Additional reporting by Cindy Silviana, Kanupriya Kapoor, Michael Taylor, Adriana Nina Kusuma, Charlotte Greenfield, Nilufar Rizki, Nicholas Owen in JAKARTA, Jane Wardell in SYDNEY and Anshuman Daga in SINGAPORE; Writing by Jane Wardell and Alex Richardson; Editing by Michael Perry, Paul Tait, Robert Birsel, Mike Collett-White)

(Reuters) (GNN-AIP)

Seven killed in clashes between Yemen's army and tribesmen: local officials

GNN - Clashes between the Yemeni army and tribesmen in Marib province left seven dead and more than 15 injured late on Thursday, tribal sources said.

The sources told Reuters that tribesmen in the region had intercepted a brigade from the army that was traveling from the southern province of Shabwa towards the country's capital, Sanaa.

The tribesmen believed the troops were being led by followers of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who they believe supports the Shiitee Houthis and planned to arm the group in their region, the tribal sources said.

The violent clashes between the two sides led to the death of five soldiers and two tribesmen and injured another 15 soldiers and tens of tribesmen, the sources said.

Westerns diplomats and Yemeni officials also say the Houthis are getting support from Saleh, who came under U.N. Security Council sanctions last year for threatening Yemen's peace and stability, something he denies.

The Marib tribesmen managed to seize the equipment and weapons belonging to the troops, a tribal source said. Tensions are easing now, the source said, after talks between the government and the tribesmen, who agreed to hand over the weapons they had seized to the ministry of defense.

No one from the Yemeni government was immediately available to comment.

Yemen's main petroleum export route is in Marib, an eastern province where oil flows at a rate of around 70,000 barrels per day.

Western powers are worried about the volatile situation in Yemen, which is fighting both al Qaeda militants and separatist rebels. The country shares a long border with Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter.

(GNN, AIP, Reuters)(Reporting by Mohamed Mokhashaf; Editing by Larry King)

GNN - Two jailed Jazeera journalists seek presidential deportation from Egypt

GNN - Two of three Al Jazeera journalists jailed in Egypt have applied to be deported under a new law after the country's highest court ordered their retrial but did not free them as their families had hoped.
Australian Peter Greste, Canadian-Egyptian Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian Baher Mohamed were sentenced in June to seven to 10 years in jail for spreading lies to help a "terrorist organization" - a reference to Egypt's outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

Egypt's High Court ordered their retrial on Thursday citing procedural flaws in the original trial, which was condemned by human rights groups and Western governments.

The reporters' imprisonment is a thorny issue for Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who ousted his Islamist predecessor in July 2013 and cracked down on the Brotherhood, as he seeks to prove his commitment to reform.

Their families say they are paying the price for a deterioration in ties between Qatar, which owns Al Jazeera, and Egypt following the Brotherhood's expulsion from power.

Doha supported the Brotherhood during its year in power but a recent Saudi push to heal the rift had raised expectations the reporters would be freed.

The November law allows for foreign convicts or suspects to be transferred to their country to serve their sentences or to be tried there. It was not clear how it might be applied in the Al Jazeera case since it has yet to be used and there are no precedents.

Greste's lawyer Mostafa Nagy told Reuters in Cairo he had presented the prosecution with a deportation request last month but received no response. He planned to make a new request in light of Thursday's ruling and hoped it would be accepted.

Greste's brother, Andrew, echoed those hopes.

"Now that Peter is essentially an innocent man, he's not convicted any more, it does allow for some room to move and for him (Sisi) to step in ... and deport him," he told reporters in Brisbane.

Fahmy's brother Adel also told Reuters in Cairo that his lawyers had formally asked Egypt's presidency and prosecution that he be pardoned or deported.

Despite widespread criticism of the case, Sisi has resisted intervening directly, citing judicial independence.

Defense lawyers say the retrial could begin within a month. The judge has the power to release all three on bail at the first hearing.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said: "There are more avenues...for Peter Greste, his family and his legal team to pursue."

(GNN, AIP, Reuters)(Additional reporting and writing by Lin Noueihed, Editing by Ralph Boulton)

2014 deadliest year in Iraq for civilians since 2006-7 bloodshed: U.N.

GNN - Violence in Iraq in 2014 killed at least 12,282 civilians, making it the deadliest year since the sectarian bloodshed of 2006-07, the United Nations said in a statement.

The majority of the deaths - nearly 8,500 - occurred during the second half of the year following the expansion of the Sunni Muslim Islamic State insurgency in June out of Anbar province leading to widespread clashes with security forces.

“Yet again, the Iraqi ordinary citizen continues to suffer from violence and terrorism ... This is a very sad state of affairs,” said Nickolay Mladenov, head of the U.N. political mission in Iraq, in a statement released on Thursday.

Islamic State fighters still control roughly a third of Iraq. The army and Shi'ite and Kurdish militia continue to battle the insurgents.

The figures show that violence has not abated since 2013 when 7,818 civilians were killed, the U.N. said. The bloodshed remains below the levels seen in 2006 and 2007 when sectarian Shi'ite-Sunni killings reached their peak.

In December, the body said that a total of 1,101 Iraqis were killed in acts of violence, including 651 civilians, 29 policemen and a further 421 members of the security forces.

Thousands of combatants have been killed in clashes involving Iraqi army forces, militia, Islamist militants, tribal forces and Kurdish Peshmerga. Fighting in urban areas has taken a particular toll on civilian populations.

The bloodshed was worst in Baghdad in December, where 320 civilians were killed, followed by Anbar province to the west with 164 dead.

(GNN, AIP, Reuters)(Reporting by Ahmed Rasheed; editing by Ralph Boulton)

Saudi Arabia captures Shi'ites suspected of instigating unrest

GNN - Saudi security forces have arrested a man believed to belong to a Shi'ite Muslim group blamed for instigating protests and unrest in the country's Eastern Province, the Interior Ministry said on Friday.

Montadhar Ali Saleh Alsbaitiin was captured on Thursday night in Awamiya, a Shi'ite village that has been the focal point of unrest since protests in early 2011 that called for an end to discrimination and for democratic reforms in the Sunni-ruled monarchy.

He was one of 23 men wanted by Saudi authorities, who accuse them of serving the agenda of a foreign power -- usually a reference to its Shi'ite rival Iran.

Saudi Arabia's state news agency SPA, quoting the Interior Ministry spokesman, said no one was hurt in the operation. The security forces will track down the other suspects, he said, urging them to surrender.

In December, security forces killed four militants in eastern Saudi Arabia in a raid on a hideout used by gunmen who shot dead a policeman in the area earlier that month. The shootout was the deadliest incident in recent years in Awamiya.

Saudi Shi'ites complain it is harder for them to get government jobs than Sunnis, or to build places of worship, and say the kingdom's state-employed clergy use abusive language to describe their sect in sermons and religious text books.

The government denies discrimination and has accused Shi'ite activists involved in attacks on security officers or protests of working on behalf of a foreign power, widely understood to mean Iran. The activists and Tehran deny this.

(GNN, AIP, Reuters)(Reporting by Amena Bakr; Editing by Angus MacSwan)