Authorities are searching for a Bering Air passenger plane with 10 people on board that was reported missing while en route from Unalakleet to Nome, Alaska’s Department of Public Safety said on Thursday.
The small turboprop Cessna Caravan plane had nine passengers and one pilot on board, the agency said on its website, adding that crews were working to get its last-known coordinates.
A disproportionate number of air taxi and commuter plane accidents occur in Alaska compared to other US states, the US government’s National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health says.
Alaska has mountainous terrain and challenging weather. Many villages are not connected by roads and small planes are used to transport people and goods.
Bering Air is an Alaska-based regional airline that operates around 39 planes and helicopters, according to data from flight tracking website FlightRadar24.
Its last position, flying over water, was received by FlightRadar24 trackers 38 minutes after departing Unalakleet at 1438 local time Thursday (2338 GMT) for a flight that usually takes under an hour.
Bering Air did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Alaska authorities search for missing passenger plane with 10 on board
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Alaska authorities search for missing passenger plane with 10 on board
- The small turboprop Cessna Caravan plane had nine passengers and one pilot on board
UN decries hike in satellite navigation system interference
The UN agencies voiced alarm at the impact of disruptions to such systems
GENEVA: The United Nations on Tuesday urged countries to boost protections amid a marked increase in efforts to interfere with satellite navigation systems like GPS that are critical for aviation and maritime safety.
The UN’s International Telecommunication Union, its International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the International Maritime Organization jointly voiced “grave concern” at growing disruptions of so-called Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS).
Amid growing geopolitical tensions, GPS and other such systems, which are used for weapons systems but also for a vast array of vital civilian applications, have increasingly been targeted.
There have been warnings of increased GNSS signal disruptions since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine, as well as amid the Middle East conflict.
The UN agencies voiced alarm at the impact of disruptions to such systems, which they pointed out are used for everything from the navigation of civil aircraft, maritime vessels and humanitarian assistance vehicles to synchronizing telecommunications networks.
They demanded countries do more to protect the systems against so-called jamming attacks, which prevent access to satellite signals, as well as spoofing, through the broadcasting of false signals that can cause GNSS receivers in vessels or aircraft to calculate erroneous positions.
“Global Navigation Satellite Systems are critical to our safety on land, at sea and in the air,” said ITU chief Doreen Bogdan-Martin.
“Member States should ensure the uninterrupted operation of these systems for everyone’s safety and the resilience of essential services that our lives depend on.”
The joint statement called on countries to enhance the protection of the critical RNSS radio-frequency band, where GNSS systems operate.
The band should be protected against “transmissions that can adversely cause harmful interference degrading, interrupting or misleading signals used for civilian and humanitarian purposes,” the statement added.
It also urged states to “reinforce resilience of the systems that rely on RNSS for navigation, positioning and timing” and to report all cases of “harmful interference.”
And it demanded they “retain sufficient conventional navigation infrastructure for contingency support in case of RNSS outages and misleading signals,” as well as to “develop mitigation techniques for loss of services.”
King Charles cancels state visit to Holy See over Pope’s health
- The British royals’ trip to the Holy See was scheduled to start on April 7, with a meeting with Pope Francis the following day
LONDON: King Charles and his wife Queen Camilla’s state visit to the Holy See has been postponed because of medical advise that suggested Pope Francis would benefit from an extended period of rest, Buckingham Palace said on Tuesday.
The British royals’ trip to the Holy See was scheduled to start on April 7, with a meeting with Pope Francis the following day. Their subsequent trip to Italy is set to continue.
“Their majesties send the pope their best wishes for his convalescence and look forward to visiting him in the Holy See, once he has recovered,” the palace statement said.
Europe’s largest Eid festival returns to London’s Westfield for its 6th year
- Festivities will take place at Westfield London and Westfield Stratford City in April
- Westfield London is Europe’s largest retail destination, with over 460 stores
LONDON: The London Eid Festival will return in April to one of the UK’s most upmarket shopping destinations, marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan and celebrating the Muslim holiday.
The London Eid Festival is Europe’s most significant celebration of Eid Al-Fitr, a three-day holiday marked at the end of Ramadan in Muslim countries, which concludes in late March.
This year marks the sixth consecutive celebration of Eid at Westfield London, Europe’s largest retail destination with over 460 stores. The event takes place from April 4 to 6 and features fashion, fragrance, food, and live entertainment.
The organizers said festivities would then take place at Westfield Stratford City from April 11 to 13, promoting unity among London communities as Ramadan concludes.
Katie Wyle, the head of Shopping Centre Management at Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, said the London Eid Festival remains a yearly highlight.
“Following its successful debut at Westfield Stratford City in 2024, we’re thrilled to bring it back for a second year, allowing the event to flourish across both sides of London,” she said.
Organizers expect over 300,000 visitors across both weekends of the Eid celebrations and say the event will “rival the bustling crowds typically seen at Westfield on Boxing Day.” There will be a vibrant mix of entertainment, activities, and food stalls to entice the crowds.
Waleed Jahangir, the managing director at Algebra Consulting, said: “As organizers, we’re not just hosting a festival; we’re shaping and celebrating the evolving Muslim community consumer landscape, and we can’t wait to bring an even bigger, more vibrant Eid celebration to life for everyone to enjoy.”
The festival will showcase a diverse lineup of performers and brands from Turkiye, Malaysia, the UAE, and other countries, featuring modest fashion, boutique gifts, children’s books, and homeware.
Student anti-corruption rallies spread across Balkans
- Young people have used the rallies to vent their anger in a region of Europe that rights groups say suffers from endemic corruption
- After the Serbian example, young people have organized similar anti-graft rallies in North Macedonia and Montenegro
BELGRADE: Massive student-led anti-graft protests have spread from Serbia to neighboring Balkan countries, with thousands rallying under the slogan “Corruption kills” following a series of deadly tragedies that have claimed dozens of lives.
Young people have used the rallies to vent their anger in a region of Europe that rights groups say suffers from endemic corruption, prompting hundreds of thousands of mostly young people to go onto the streets in Serbia alone to demand change.
The wave of demonstrations on a scale unseen in Serbia since the 1990s kicked off after a recently renovated train station canopy collapsed on November 1 in the northern city of Novi Sad, killing 16 people.
With many blaming the deaths on corruption and inadequate oversight, the tragedy fueled outrage across Serbia and prompted the prime minister to resign in the protests’ wake.
After the Serbian example, young people have organized similar anti-graft rallies in North Macedonia and Montenegro, while protesters in European Union member state Bulgaria have offered solidarity with their Balkan neighbors.
Now the symbol of those protests — a bloodied red hand print — has turned up at rallies in neighboring North Macedonia after a fire at a nightclub operating under a questionable license killed 59 mostly young concert-goers on March 16.
“Girls from my generation died,” Ema Peseva, a 20-year-old student from Skopje, told AFP during Monday’s protest in the capital which drew thousands.
As in Serbia, demonstrators at the Skopje rally chanted “Corruption kills” while accusing officials of being “murderers.”
“Everyone is bribed so they can line their pockets for travels, yachts, private schools. Meanwhile, children are dying from fire and pyrotechnics at concerts,” Peseva said, referring to the stage effects blamed for the blaze.
Milena Janevska, one of the organizers, said that students wished to “demand accountability for the tragedy in Kocani,” where the fire took place.
“We demand transparency from all institutions, simply to be accountable to the citizens who have a duty to show this revolt,” the 26-year-old told AFP.
In a show of solidarity Bulgarian anti-graft protesters last week held a few minutes’ silence remembering the Kocani fire dead along with their own, with some drawing comparisons to the country’s 2001 Indigo Disco stampede that killed seven queueing teenagers.
“We said a long time ago that corruption kills — literally. We saw in Bulgaria how corruption killed children in front of the Indigo nightclub. We saw it when people died in bus crashes, on unsafe roads, in incidents caused by poor construction,” said lawyer Velislav Velichkov, one of the organizers.
Montenegro meanwhile was likewise shaken in early 2025 by protests after a man shot dead 13 people in the street on the evening of January 1 — the second mass killing in the small town of Cetinje in less than two and a half years.
Directly inspired by the Serbian protest movement, demonstrators demanded the dismissal of senior security officials, police reform, the confiscation of illegal weapons and better mental health care.
“Students in Serbia are truly an inspiration to all those frustrated by the high levels of corruption — which, as we have seen from concrete examples, can be deadly,” Aleksandar Popov, president of the Center for Regionalism, a Novi Sad-based think tank, told AFP.
And compared with the rest of Europe many Balkan countries struggle with graft, according to watchdog Transparency International.
Serbia ranks 105th out of 180 countries on the latest global corruption perceptions index — its worst position in more than a decade.
North Macedonia fares only slightly better at 88th place, while Bulgaria ranks 76th and Montenegro 65th.
Sofija Todorovic, director of the Serbian branch of the regional Youth Initiative for Human Rights NGO, said she found it encouraging that young people are leading the anti-graft protests and driving change in the Balkans.
She said that they have defied the stereotypes of their generation as being “passive and too absorbed by the Internet and their phones.”
“I believe young people have shown far more sharpness, capability, and wisdom than previous generations,” Todorovic told AFP, adding that the key difference lies in how they access and process information.
“They genuinely feel they have a role to play in society, that their voices matter, and I believe this is crucial for the future of the region.”
Venezuelan migrants deported by the US ended up in a Salvadoran prison. This is their legal status
- El Salvador hasn’t had diplomatic relations with Venezuela since 2019
- So the Venezuelans imprisoned there do not have any consular support from their government either
SAN SALVADOR: The US government used an 18th-century wartime law to deport more than 200 Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador, where they were immediately transferred to the country’s maximum-security gang prison.
And while a federal judge in Washington tries to determine whether the US government defied his order to return the migrants while they were in the air and insists that they must get an opportunity to challenge their designations as alleged members of a notorious gang, there has been no word from El Salvador’s president or judiciary about what the prisoners’ legal status is in that country.
That may change soon. On Monday, lawyers hired by the Venezuelan government took legal action on behalf of the Venezuelan prisoners seeking their release from the prison, which US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is scheduled to visit Wednesday.
The US says the Venezuelans were members of the Tren de Aragua gang, a criminal organization that US President Donald Trump declared an invading force, but has provided no evidence of their alleged membership. The Alien Enemies Act allows noncitizens to be deported without the opportunity to go before an immigration or federal court judge.
El Salvador hasn’t had diplomatic relations with Venezuela since 2019, so the Venezuelans imprisoned there do not have any consular support from their government either.
Even Salvadoran citizens have been living under a state of emergency that has suspended fundamental rights since 2022 and the country’s judiciary is not considered independent. All of which raises questions about the prisoners’ legal future in El Salvador.
What has El Salvador’s government said about the prisoners’ status in the country?
Nothing.
President Nayib Bukele announced Sunday that the United States had sent what he called “238 members of the Venezuelan criminal organization Tren de Aragua” to El Salvador and they were immediately sent to its maximum security gang prison. The US government would pay an annual fee for their incarceration, Bukele wrote in a post on X.
El Salvador’s Attorney General’s Office and Presidential Commissioner for Human Rights and Freedom of Expression did not respond to requests for comment about the status of the Venezuelan prisoners.
What do El Salvador’s laws say about the status of these prisoners?
Lawyer David Morales, legal director for the nongovernmental organization Cristosal, said there was no legal basis for the Venezuelans’ imprisonment in El Salvador. He said he knew of no Salvadoran law or international treaty that would support their imprisonment.
“They are illegal detentions because they haven’t been submitted to the jurisdiction of a Salvadoran judge, nor have they been prosecuted or convicted in El Salvador,” he said. As such, their imprisonment here is “arbitrary.”
He said El Salvador’s prosecutor’s office for human rights would have the authority to intervene, because it has a broad mandate when it comes to prisoners, “but we already know that it’s not playing its role because it is dominated, subjected to political power.”
What are lawyers doing?
Lawyers hired by the Venezuelan government filed a legal action Monday in El Salvador aimed at freeing 238 Venezuelans deported by the United States who are being held in a Salvadoran maximum-security prison.
Jaime Ortega, who says he represents 30 of the imprisoned Venezuelans, said his firm filed the habeas corpus petition with the Supreme Court’s Constitutional Chamber. He said that by extension they requested that it be applied to all Venezuelans detained in El Salvador.
Before it was filed, constitutional lawyer Enrique Anaya had suggested human rights organizations and the prisoners’ families should file habeas corpus petitions, essentially compelling the government to prove someone’s detention was justified “as a mechanism to denounce (the situation) as well as to pressure” the government.
Still, Anaya said the lack of judicial independence in El Salvador made success unlikely. Bukele’s party removed the justices of the Supreme Court’s Constitutional chamber in 2021 and replaced them with judges seen as more amenable to the administration.
“Who is going to decide these people’s freedom, US judges, Salvadoran judges?” Anaya asked. The habeas corpus petitions could at least “show the illegitimacy of this vacuum.”
How hard is it for Salvadorans to get out of prisons there?
El Salvador has lived under a state of emergency since March 2022, when Congress granted Bukele extraordinary powers to fight the country’s powerful street gangs.
Since then, some 84,000 people have been arrested, accused of gang ties. The state of emergency has allowed authorities to act without basic protections like access to a lawyer or even being told why they’re being arrested. They can be held for 15 days without seeing a judge.
Homicides have plummeted in El Salvador and the improved security has fueled Bukele’s popularity.
But while Bukele has said some 8,000 of those arrested have been freed for lack of evidence, many more have found no way out.
Last year, the Due Process Foundation published a report showing that the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court had “systematically” rejected more than 6,000 habeas corpus petitions made by families of people arrested under the state of emergency.
