Plane Going to Mount Everest Region Crashes, Killing 19

KATMANDU, Nepal — A small plane carrying 19 people to the Mount Everest region crashed soon after takeoff here on Friday after striking a bird, killing everyone on board, officials said.

Seven British, five Chinese and four Nepalese passengers were reported to have been killed, as were three crew members. The plane, which was headed to Lukla, a gateway to Mount Everest, was a propeller-driven Dornier owned by Sita Air, a domestic carrier.

It was the seventh fatal plane crash in Nepal since August 2010, according to the Aviation Safety Network, a research organization. Nepal is a popular trekking destination and a number of its small airports are tucked between mountains and often shrouded in fog.

An air traffic control official said the plane took off from Tribhuvan International Airport in Katmandu at 6:17 a.m. and appeared to be in trouble almost immediately.

“We noticed unusual maneuvering of the aircraft from the tower,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the news media. “When asked, the pilot only managed to say it was a bird hit,” he said. “Within two seconds, the aircraft crashed.”

Ratish Chandra Lal Suman, the airport’s general manager, told The Associated Press the plane had struck a vulture.

The plane was on fire when it crashed onto a bank of the Manohara River about 500 meters southeast of the runway, according to witnesses, who said the pilot appeared to swerve to avoid a settlement.

Nepal’s aviation safety standards lag far behind the global average, according to an International Civil Aviation Organization audit released last year, which ranked it as one of the most dangerous countries for air travel in the Asia-Pacific region.

Heather Timmons reported from New Delhi.

Calif. man behind anti-Muslim film ordered jailed

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The surrounding mystery of the man behind the crudely produced anti-Islamic video that sparked violence in the Middle East took a strange turn after he appeared in court and gave yet another name in a string of aliases.
Arrested on Thursday after authorities said he violated his probation from a 2010 check fraud conviction, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula told a judge his real name was Mark Basseley Youseff. He said he'd been using that name since 2002, even though he went by Nakoula in his fraud case.
The full story about Nakoula and the video "Innocence of Muslims" still isn't known more than two weeks after violence erupted in Egypt and Libya, where Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three others were killed in Benghazi. Violence related to the film has since spread, killing dozens more.
Citing a lengthy pattern of deception and the potential to flee, U.S. Central District Chief Magistrate Judge Suzanne Segal ordered Nakoula to remain in prison without bond until another judge can hold a hearing to determine if he broke the terms of his probation.
"The court has a lack of trust in this defendant at this time," Segal said.
Prosecutors noted Nakoula had eight probation violations, including lying to his probation officers and using aliases. He could face new charges that carry a maximum two-year prison term.
After his 2010 conviction, Nakoula was sentenced to 21 months in prison and was barred from using computers or the Internet for five years without approval from his probation officer, though prosecutors said none of the violations involved the Internet. He also wasn't supposed to use any name other than his true legal name without the prior written approval of his probation officer.
Three names, however, have been associated with Nakoula this month alone.

The movie was made last year by a man who called himself Sam Bacile. After the violence erupted, a man who identified himself as Bacile spoke to media outlets including The Associated Press, took credit for the film and said it was meant to portray the truth about Muhammad and Islam, which he called a cancer.
The next day, the AP determined there was no Bacile and linked the identity to Nakoula, a former gas station owner with a drug conviction and a history of using aliases. Federal authorities later confirmed there was no Bacile and that Nakoula was behind the movie.
Some of the false statements in Nakoula's alleged probation violations had to do with the film, Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Dugdale said. Nakoula told probation officials his role was just writing the script, and denied going by the name Sam Bacile in connection with the film, Dugdale said.
Before going into hiding, Nakoula acknowledged to the AP that he was involved with the film, but said he only worked on logistics and management.
Nakoula, a Christian originally from Egypt, then went into hiding after he was identified as the man behind the trailer, which depicts Muhammad as a womanizer, religious fraud and child molester. He met with federal probation officials two weeks ago, led out of his home in suburban Cerritos in the middle of the night, flanked by Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies and cloaked in heavy clothing to protect his identity.
The public got their first good look at Nakoula on Thursday, although the news media was banned from the courtroom and reporters had to watch the proceedings on a TV in a nearby courthouse.
Nakoula wore beige pants and a collared shirt when he was led into the courtroom handcuffed and shackled. He appeared relaxed, smiling at one point before the hearing and conferring with his attorney.

Nakoula's attorney Steven Seiden sought to have the hearing closed and his client released on $10,000 bail. He argued Nakoula has checked in with his probation officer frequently and made no attempts to leave Southern California.
Seiden was concerned that Nakoula would be in danger in federal prison because of Muslim inmates, but prosecutors said he likely would be placed in protective custody.
Lawrence Rosenthal, a constitutional and criminal law professor at Chapman University School of Law in Orange, said it was "highly unusual" for a judge to order immediate detention on a probation violation for a nonviolent crime, but if there were questions about Nakoula's identity it was more likely.
"When the prosecution doesn't really know who they're dealing with, it's much easier to talk about flight," Rosenthal said. "I've prosecuted individuals who'd never given a real address. You don't know who you're dealing with, and you're just going to have very limited confidence about their ability to show up in court."
Enraged Muslims have demanded punishment for Nakoula, and a Pakistani cabinet minister has offered a $100,000 bounty to anyone who kills him.
First Amendment advocates have defended Nakoula's right to make the film while condemning its content. And federal officials likely will face criticism from those who say Nakoula's free speech rights were trampled by his arrest on a probation violation.
In arguing that Nakoula is a possible flight risk, Dugdale said Nakoula couldn't even reveal something as fundamental as his real name.
"He's a person who simply can't be trusted," he said.

Suitors bombard Hong Kong tycoon's gay daughter after dowry

HONG KONG (Reuters) - The newly married lesbian daughter of a Hong Kong tycoon who offered a $65 million "marriage bounty" to any man able to win her love, on Thursday said she'd been flooded by marriage proposals but harbored no animosity towards her father.

Since Hong Kong property billionaire Cecil Chao, known in the tabloid media for his prolific womanizing, dangled a $65 million reward for any man able to lead his daughter, Gigi Chao, down the aisle, she says she's been bombarded by marriage proposals from strangers, date requests, and even an offer from a Hollywood film producer to buy her story.
"War veterans from the U.S., someone from Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, from Istanbul, South America, Portugal, really just from all over the world," said Chao, sifting through emails on a white Apple laptop in her father's high-rise office tower.
One suitor from the United States wrote: "I'm interested in your offer to wed your daughter, who also happens to be gay. I am a male person, who also happens to be gay."

Another put up his brother, a body double to George Clooney in the 2008 sports flick "Leatherheads" as a potential mate: "He could be the picture perfect date that your father craves."
"I've tried my best to respond to well-meaning ones ... but most of them I just try not to open," added the frizzy-haired Chao, who was wearing a silver ring after what she called a "church blessing" with her girlfriend in a Paris church.
Gigi said her billionaire father, who drives a Rolls Royce and flies a helicopter but had a poor early childhood in Shanghai, had been upset when his daughter's longtime lover revealed the couple had wed in Paris in April, leading to his impromptu HK$500 million "marriage bounty" offer to any man able to set her straight.
"I wasn't angry at all. I was really quite touched, very touched and very ... how should I say? moved, by Daddy's announcement," said the 33-year-old.
"I mean, it's really his way of saying 'baby girl, I love you. You deserve more,' basically," added Chau who works as an executive director in the family firm Cheuk Nang Holdings.
Her 76-year-old father, rarely seen without sunglasses and brand-name clothes, has never married but has boasted of bedding over 10,000 women including models and starlets.
Hong Kong, a freewheeling city that reverted from British to Chinese rule in 1997, retains a traditional Chinese social fabric but is considered relatively tolerant of alternative lifestyles compared with the rest of Asia. It decriminalized homosexuality in 1991.

It has gay social venues, film festivals and gay pride parades, making it a bastion of liberalism compared with China, where homosexuality was defined as a mental disorder until 2001.
"I'm not able to generalize about the experiences of all people in the gay community, but I think we in Hong Kong at the moment, are in the middle, we're not punishable by death for being gay, but it's not celebrated and obviously never encouraged," said Chao. "I think change is overdue."
Some hope the comedy value of the whole high-profile father daughter drama could help start a constructive dialogue about gay attitudes in the region.
"Starting a conversation with humor always makes people less aggressive," said James Gannaban, the organizer of an annual Mr. Gay Hong Kong pageant, in a local gay bar. "If people are less militant about issues, then there is greater opportunity for conversation, if we start off with a smile."
(Additional reporting by Venus Wu, editing by Paul Casciato)

Cameroon sentence ex-minister to 25-year jail term

YAOUNDE (Reuters) – A court in Cameroon on Saturday sentenced former presidential hopeful and senior minister Marafa Hamidou Yaya to a 25-year jail term on embezzlement charges related to the botched purchase of a presidential plane in 2004.

The court handed down the sentence early on Saturday morning after a marathon overnight trial. The court handed the same sentence to Yves Michel Fotso, former director of defunct state air transport company CAMAIR.

Hamidou Yaha was minister of territorial administration until he was sacked in December in a cabinet reshuffle by President Paul Biya. He was widely believed to harbour ambitions to succeed the 79-year-old Biya.

Biya, who has been in power since 1982, launched “Operation Sparrow Hawk” in 2006 to combat corruption in the central African nation. The drive has seen several of his former aides brought to court but critics say the anti-corruption campaign has been used to target opponents.

The court in the capital Yaounde found the two guilty of embezzling 24 billion CFA francs (29.27 million pounds) that was meant for the purchase of the presidential plane called “Albatross”.

In letters published after he was arrested in April, Hamidou Yaha denied he participated in any attempt to embezzle public funds and said he was a victim of a political plot.

“Investigations show that the 24 billion CFA francs … for the purchase of the aircraft were diverted by Yves Michel Fotso for personal interests,” the presiding judge said in sentencing.

Fotso was at the time director general of the CBC bank in which funds for the purchase of the plane were deposited.

“The investigations also show that his friend and then secretary-general at the presidency Hamidou Marafa Yaya was well aware of the money being used for personal interest but failed to use his position as a senior administrative officer to prevent the diversion of the money,” the judge said.

“The court therefore is very certain that he too (Hamidou Yaya) was involved in the entire process,” he said.

Speaking reporters before he was whisked off by security forces, Hamidou Yaya said he was not surprised by the verdict.

“I am very disappointed with the judgment but not surprised because this all has been politicised. But I will file an appeal against my conviction because I am not guilty,” he said.

The case has already landed another former minister, Jean-Marie Atangana Mebara and former ambassador to the United States, Jerome Mendouga in jail.

($1 = 505.0100 CFA francs)

(Reporting by Tansa Musa; Writing by Bate Felix; Editing by Rosalind Russell)

euronews provides breaking news articles from Reuters as a service to its readers, but does not edit the articles it publishes.

Copyright 2012 Reuters.

Ivory Coast closes Ghana border

(CNN) -- Ivory Coast has closed its borders with Ghana after a brazen attack against its security forces left eight people dead, the country's defense minister said.

The attack occurred Thursday and carried into Friday morning when gunmen launched an assault against two police stations and a military post in the coastal town of Port-Bouet.

The border town of Noe also was attacked, said Defense Minister Paul Koffi Koffi. Those responsible then fled to Ghana, though not before five of the gunmen were killed, officials said.

Ivory Coast shares a more than 400-mile border with Ghana, where loyalists to former President Laurent Gbagbo have gone into exile.


Ghana President John Dramani Mahama vowed earlier this month not to allow his country to serve as "back base" to destabilize its neighbor.

Last month, three top allies of Gbagbo were arrested in less than a week, raising political tension in the West African country where its army has been hit by weeks of attacks.

Ivory Coast's authorities say Gbagbo's supporters are behind the attacks, intended to destabilize the nation, which is still recovering from a post-election crisis in which more than 3,000 people were killed last year.

Gbagbo is accused of crimes against humanity after he rejected election results and refused to step down when current President Alassane Ouattara was declared the winner in 2010. The standoff sparked months of violence between supporters of both sides.

Tens of thousands protest anti-Islam film in Nigeria- Heraldsun

TENS of thousands of people protested in Nigeria's second city of Kano, burning images of US President Barack Obama and stomping on the American flag to denounce an anti-Islam film made in the US.

A crowd that included men, children and veiled women stretched for several kilometres through the city, the largest in Nigeria's mainly Muslim north, condemning the film that has stirred outrage across the Muslim world.

They shouted "death to America, death to Israel and death to the enemies of Islam," in a rally that ended with no reported incidents of violence but caused gridlock in the city of roughly 4.5 million people.

The demonstration was organised by the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, a pro-Iranian group that adheres to the Shiite branch of Islam. The group has operated in Africa's most populous country since the late 1970s.

"We are out today to express our rage and disapproval over this blasphemous film," said Muhammed Turi, a protest leader and member of the Islamic Movement which organised a similar rally earlier this week in the northern city of Zaria.

Some pictures of US President Barack Obama were set alight, while others were dragged through the dirt and stomped on by protesters shouting "enemy of Islam."

American and Israeli flags were also defaced and Iranian flags were waved in the air as the group marched towards a palace owned by the Emir of Kano, the top religious figure in the region.

Protester Husseini Ibrahim claimed that the "blasphemy" in the film regarding the Prophet Mohammed is "like an invitation to war."

Hundreds of residents who did not join the march lined the streets to watch the protesters move past.

A 68-year-old beggar, who gave his name as Garba, tried to join the rally but was unable to stay on his feet, despite the use of a walking stick.

"I wish I could do more than this. I wish I were young enough to join the procession. I will do anything for the prophet," he said.

Turi addressed the crowd outside Kano's central mosque, adjacent to the Emir's palace.

"We are pained by this deliberate insult against our religion under the pretext of freedom of expression," he told the protesters.

Security forces were deployed around the city and a police officer stationed outside a hospital said the authorities had allowed the demonstration.

"We have no problem with the protest as long as it is peaceful," said the officer who requested anonymity.

Turi also urged Nigeria's government to publicly denounce the film and said all ties with Israel should be severed.

The low-budget film "Innocence of Muslims" was reportedly produced by an Egyptian Coptic Christian, but rumours that circulated shortly after its release suggested an Israeli was involved.

The film incited a wave of bloody anti-American violence in cities across the Muslim world, with protests occurring in more than 20 countries. Violence in Pakistan on Friday left at least 21 people dead.

Thousands of Muslims protested in Nigeria's Zaria on Thursday.

The previous week in the religiously divided central Nigerian city of Jos, soldiers fired live rounds outside a mosque to disperse a crowd of several hundred that was seeking to demonstrate against the film.

Nigeria's 160 million people are roughly divided between a predominantly Muslim north and a largely Christian south, and Muslim-Christian tensions have often led to deadly confrontation.

An article in one of Nigeria's leading newspapers in 2002 considered blasphemous by Muslims helped spark deadly riots in the northern city of Kaduna in which 3,000 people were killed.

Kano was the site of the deadliest ever attack by the radical Islamist group Boko Haram, blamed for more that 1,400 deaths in Nigeria since 2010. The group killed at least 185 people in the city in January in a series of gun and bomb attacks.

President Jonathan's Economic Advisers Owing Nigeria N1.3 Trillion; CBN Bars Banks From Doing Business With 419 Deadbeat Companies And Individuals- SaharaReporters

An explosive Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) circular published today by a local Nigerian newspaper lists some of President Goodluck Jonathan's economic advisers among the country’s worst deadbeat debtors.

Some of the worst offenders are household names: Mr. Femi Otedola, Alhaji Sayyu Dantata, Sir Johnson Arumemi-Ikhide, Prof. Bart Nnaji, Mrs Elizabeth Ebi and Dr. Wale Babalakin.

And businesses too: Zenon, Arik, MRS, Aero Contractors, Capital Oil and Gas, to list just five.

But now local banks are barred from extending even one more kobo of credit to them until they clear all debts.

The big debtors are also among the nation’s richest companies and individuals, and their extensive uncollateralized loans from Nigerian banks to the tune of billions of dollars led to the collapse of the banking sector.

Several of the debtors were also involved in the petroleum subsidy scam that bled the Nigerian economy of some $6.5 billion.

Instead of prosecuting the predatory lenders and borrowers the Jonathan government pushed the problem aside by setting up a bogus body known as the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) to absorb the debts and enable the debtor roam free and engage in more economic crimes.

They apparently roamed far and wide, all 113 companies and 419 directors/shareholders. 419 is the actual number given by the CBN.

The document circular obtained by Thisday, dated last Monday, September 17, showed that the disdain by these rich individuals and companies for their debts has grown so much that the CBN decided to bar banks in the country from extending further credit to them.

“It has become necessary to stop debtors who failed to repay their loans to banks and had these loans subsequently transferred to AMCON, from further enjoying credit facilities from Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) until they fully repay agreed outstandings to AMCON,” said the circular, which was signed by CBN’s Director of Banking Supervision, Mrs. A. O. Martins.

According to ThisDay:

• The circular, which was accompanied by a detailed list of the blacklisted debtors, showed that worst hit by the directive are Zenon Petroleum, owned by Otedola, which was indebted to banks to the tune of N192.4 billion; MRS Holdings Limited, which belongs to Dantata – N119.98 billion; Seawolf Limited – N98.32 billion; Arik Air Limited, belonging to Arumemi-Ikhide – N85.481 billion; NITEL Plc/M-Tel – N71.547 billion; and Capital Oil and Gas Limited, which belongs to Ifeanyi Ubah – N48.014 billion.

• Others include Falcon Securities, whose Managing Director, Mr. Peter Ololo, was arraigned alongside several bank executives in 2009 by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) – N162.9 billion; Rockson Engineering Limited, owned by Arumemi-Ikhide – N60.475 billion; BGL Securities – N6.44 billion; Rahamaniyya Oil & Gas Limited – N46.38 billion; Bi-Courtney Limited – N20.214 billion; and Geometrics Engineering, owned by Nnaji – N19.76 billion.

• The restriction also applies to: Aero Contractors Company, owned by the family of Olorogun Michael Ibru - N32.579 billion; Tinapa Business Resort – N18.509 billion; Nestoil Limited, belonging to oil and gas entrepreneur, Ernest Azudialu – N13.506 billion; Dorman Long Engineering – N9.667 billion; Ascott Offshore Nig. Ltd, belonging to former banker, Henry Imasekha and the Berkley Group – N64.728 billion; Gitto Constuzioni – N11.838 billion; and Dansa Foods – N14.880 billion, whose directors, Sani and Abdul Dangote, are the brothers of business mogul, Alhaji Aliko Dangote.

Furthermore, the banks have also been directed not to grant further credit to two States: Cross River and Zamfara, because of the failure of the Tinapa Business Resort and the Zamfara Accountant General to pay back loans collected.

The Central Bank warned that any bank that flouts the guidelines would be made to make an immediate provision of 100 per cent of total principal and interest outstanding in the account of the customer and related parties, in addition to whatever regulatory penalties the CBN may decide to impose, ThisDay said.