MONTABAUR, Germany: Andreas Lubitz never showed any sign he was anything but thrilled to have landed a job with Germanwings, according to those who taught him the trade as a teenager in this town in the woody hills of Western Germany.
On Thursday, French prosecutors said Lubitz, the co-pilot of Germanwings Flight 9525, “intentionally” crashed the jet into the side of a mountain.
Members of the hometown flight club in Montabaur, where he renewed his glider license only last fall, told The Associated Press the 28-year-old appeared to be happy with the job he had at the airline, a low-cost carrier in the Lufthansa Group.
After starting his job with Germanwings in September 2013, Lubitz was upbeat when he returned to the LSC Westerwald e.V glider club in the fall to renew his glider pilots’ license with 20 or so takeoffs.
“He was happy he had the job with Germanwings and he was doing well,” said longtime club member Peter Ruecker, who watched him learn to fly. “He was very happy. He gave off a good feeling.”
Club chairman Klaus Radke said he rejected Marseille prosecutors’ conclusion that Lubitz put the Germanwings flight intentionally into a descent and dove it into the French Alps when the pilot had left the cockpit.
“I don’t see how anyone can draw such conclusions before the investigation is completed,” he told the AP.
At the house believed to be his parents’, the curtains were drawn and four police cars were parked outside.
Police kept the media away from the door of the single-family two-story home in a prosperous new subdivision on the edge of Montabaur, a town about 60 kilometers (nearly 40 miles) northwest of Frankfurt surrounded by wooded hills.
Neighbors refused to comment, and police told journalists to stay away.
Lubitz learned to fly at the glider club in a sleek white ASK-21 two-seat glider, which sits in a small hangar today on the side of the facility’s grass runway.
Ruecker said that he remembers Lubitz as “rather quiet but friendly” when he first showed up at the club as a 14- or 15-year-old saying he wanted to learn to fly.
On Thursday, a large hawk circled lazily over the runway using the same gentle updrafts that glider pilots use.
After obtaining his glider pilot’s license as a teenager, he was accepted as a Lufthansa trainee after finishing the tough German abitur college preparatory school, at the town’s Mons-Tabor High School.
According to the airline, he trained in Bremen before starting to fly for Germanwings in September 2013. Ruecker said Lubitz also trained in Phoenix, Arizona. He had logged 630 hours’ flight time by the time of the crash, the airline said.
Ruecker said Lubitz gave no indication during his fall visit to the club that anything was wrong. “He seemed very enthusiastic” about his career. “I can’t remember anything where something wasn’t right.”
Ruecker said Lubitz had a girlfriend but did not have many more details about his life.
Lubitz’s family could not immediately be reached, but a recently deleted Facebook page bearing Lubitz’s name showed him as a smiling man in a dark brown jacket posing in front of the Golden Gate Bridge in California.
Ruecker confirmed the photo was that of Lubitz.
The page, which was wiped from Facebook sometime in the past two days, said Lubitz was from Montabaur. It also lists him as having several aviation-themed interests, including the A320 — the model of plane that crashed Tuesday, Lufthansa, the German aviation company, and Phoenix Goodyear Airport, in Arizona.
The defunct Facebook page also included a link to a result in the 2011 Lufthansa half marathon in Frankfurt, where a runner with the nickname “flying_andy” ran a 1 hour, 48 minutes, 51 seconds.
Co-pilot was ‘very happy’ with Germanwings job
Co-pilot was ‘very happy’ with Germanwings job
UN envoy to Myanmar warns that violence puts country on ‘path to self-destruction’
- The military takeover triggered intensified fighting with long-established armed militias organized by Myanmar’s ethnic minority groups in its border regions, which have struggled for decades for more autonomy
UNITED NATIONS: Myanmar is on “a path to self-destruction” if violence in the conflict-wracked Southeast Asian nation doesn’t end, the UN envoy warned on Tuesday.
Julie Bishop told the UN General Assembly that “alarmingly” the violence didn’t end after a powerful earthquake in late March devastated parts of the capital, Naypyitaw, and the country’s second-largest city, Mandalay, killing more than 3,000 people and injuring thousands more.
Ceasefires announced by some parties have largely not been observed, “embedding a crisis within a crisis,” and people in Myanmar must now deal with the raging conflict and the earthquake’s devastation, said Bishop, a former foreign minister of Australia.
“A zero-sum approach persists on all sides,” she said. “Armed clashes remain a barrier to meeting humanitarian needs. The flow of weapons into the country is fueling the expectations that a military solution is possible.”
A widespread armed struggle against military rule in Myanmar began in February 2021 after generals seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. More than 6,600 civilians are estimated to have been killed by security forces, according to figures compiled by nongovernmental organizations.
The military takeover triggered intensified fighting with long-established armed militias organized by Myanmar’s ethnic minority groups in its border regions, which have struggled for decades for more autonomy. It also led to the formation of pro-democracy militias that support a national unity government established by elected lawmakers barred from taking their seats after the army takeover.
More than 22,000 political prisoners are still in detention, Bishop said, including Suu Kyi, who turns 80 on June 19, and the ousted president, Win Myint.
The UN envoy said she detected “some openness to political dialogue with some regional support, but there is not yet broader agreement on how to move forward.”
In meetings with the country’s leaders, Bishop said she encouraged them to reconsider their strategy, which has left the country more divided. She also warned against elections, planned for December or January, saying they risk fueling greater resistance and instability unless there is an end to the violence and they can be held in an inclusive and transparent way.
Bishop said she has been coordinating further action with Othman Hashim, the special envoy for Myanmar from the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations, known as ASEAN, and they agreed to visit Myanmar together.
The UN envoy said she had a meeting online on Monday with representatives of the Rohingya minority from Myanmar and Bangladesh.
She said the situation for the Rohingya in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state remains dire, with up to 80 percent of civilians living in poverty and caught in crossfire between the government’s military forces and the Arakan Army, the well-armed military wing of the Rakhine ethnic minority, and “subject to forced recruitment and other abuses.”
More than 700,000 Muslim Rohingya fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar starting in late August 2017 when Myanmar’s military launched a “clearance operation.” Members of the ethnic group face discrimination and are denied citizenship and other rights in the Buddhist-majority nation.
Bishop said there’s hope that a high-level conference on the Rohingya and other minorities called for by the UN General Assembly on Sept. 30 will put a spotlight on the urgency of finding “durable solutions” to their plight.
US denounces UK, allies’ sanctions on Israeli far-right ministers
- Five Western countries imposed sanctions on Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir for 'repeated incitements of violence' against Palestinians
WASHINGTON: The United States on Tuesday denounced sanctions by Britain and four mutual allies against Israeli far-right ministers, saying they should focus instead on the Palestinian armed group Hamas.
“We find that extremely unhelpful. It will do nothing to get us closer to a ceasefire in Gaza,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters.
Britain, Canada, Norway, New Zealand and Australia “should focus on the real culprit, which is Hamas,” she said of the sanctions.
“We remain concerned about any step that would further isolate Israel from the international community,” she said.
The five Western countries imposed sanctions on Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir for “repeated incitements of violence” against Palestinians.
The two ministers faced repeated criticism but no formal sanctions under former US president Joe Biden. Since taking office, President Donald Trump has vowed unstinting support for Israel.
“If our allies want to help, they should focus on supporting Special Envoy (Steve) Witkoff’s negotiations and backing the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation when it comes to food and aid,” she said.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has distributed aid in coordination with the Israeli military, an effort criticized by the United Nations and longstanding aid groups, which say it violates humanitarian principles.
Philippines Senate returns Sara Duterte impeachment case to lower house
- After a series of debates among members, the senators voted in favor of returning it to the lower house to certify that the complaint was constitutional
MANILA: Philippine senators on Tuesday voted to send an impeachment case against Vice President Sara Duterte back to the lower house for clarification, just hours after convening a trial that could see her banned from politics for life.
After a series of debates among members that included a motion presented by a Duterte ally to dismiss the case, the senators voted in favor of returning it to the lower house to certify that the complaint was constitutional.
The lower house in February voted to impeach the vice president for alleged high crimes and betrayal of the public trust, allegations she has vehemently denied. A majority of the senators on Tuesday approved a motion to return the case to confirm the complaint did not violate the constitution and the next session of Congress was “willing and ready” to pursue the impeachment complaint following midterm elections in May.
The decision could be a stay of execution for Duterte, a likely contender to be the next president, in a trial that could be a pivotal moment in Philippine politics.
The outcome of the trial could not only make or break Duterte, but also carries big implications for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his agenda for the remaining three years of his presidency and beyond. The impeachment accusations against Duterte range from budget anomalies to amassing unusual wealth and threatening the lives of Marcos, his wife, and the house speaker. She rejects the allegations and on Tuesday, her office said the impeachment process had been weaponized.
The trial of the popular daughter of firebrand former President Rodrigo Duterte follows an acrimonious falling-out with former ally Marcos, who ran on a joint ticket that won the 2022 election in a landslide.
Marcos is limited to a single term in office and is expected to try to retain future influence by grooming a successor capable of fending off Duterte in the next election if she is acquitted. The president has distanced himself from the impeachment process, even though it was launched by his legislative allies.
Sara Duterte is the fifth top official in the Philippines to be impeached, only one of whom, Renato Corona, a former chief justice of the Supreme Court, was convicted.
US imposes sanctions on a Palestinian NGO and other charities, accusing them of ties to militant groups
- Those sanctioned include Addameer, a nongovernmental organization that was founded in 1991 and is based in the city of Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank
WASHINGTON: The US Treasury Department on Tuesday imposed sanctions on a major Palestinian legal group for prisoners and detainees along with five other charitable entities across the Middle East, Africa and Europe, accusing them of supporting Palestinian armed factions and militant groups, including Hamas’ military wing, under the pretense of humanitarian aid in Gaza.
Those sanctioned include Addameer, a nongovernmental organization that was founded in 1991 and is based in the city of Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The Palestinian group provides free legal services to Palestinian political prisoners and detainees in Israeli custody and monitors the conditions of their confinement.
The federal government claims that Addameer “has long supported and is affiliated” with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a secular, left-wing movement with a political party and an armed wing that has carried out deadly attacks against Israelis. Israel and the United States have labeled the PFLP a terrorist organization.
Addameer did not immediately have a comment on the sanctions.
Israel has alleged that Addameer funds terrorism, a claim that the United Nations previously said it could not support with compelling evidence. In a 2022 report on human rights practices, the US State Department noted Israel’s arrest of Salah Hammouri, a French-Palestinian human rights lawyer and an Addameer employee, in a section on “retribution against human rights defenders.”
The organization also works with Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and is a member of the World Organization Against Torture.
Israel’s 2022 storming of Addameer’s offices, prompted a rebuke from the UN, who said in a statement that Israel had not provided convincing evidence to support the claim. The UN said Addameer was conducting “critical human rights, humanitarian and development work in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
In February, Zachor Legal Institute, an Israeli-American advocacy group that says it focuses on combatting antisemitism and terrorism, requested Addameer be added to Treasury’s sanctions list. The letter, which was written by Zachor, signed by 44 other groups and is addressed to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, relies in part on undisclosed evidence from the Israeli Security Agency in its call for sanctions on Addameer.
Marc Greendorfer, president of Zachor Legal Institute said in an email to the Associated Press that his group is “very pleased to see Treasury following up on our request.” He said the federal government should act “to prevent hostile foreign actors from spreading hate and violence in the United States. We applaud Treasury’s action and encourage Treasury to expand its focus to the other groups that we identified.”
Goodbye Lenin? Russians flock to see Bolshevik leader’s tomb before it closes for repairs
- Famous mausoleum set to close for two years
- Large lines of Russians form to see Lenin’s body
MOSCOW: Russians are flocking to catch what some fear could be a final glimpse of the embalmed body of Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin before his tomb on Moscow’s Red Square, long a place of pilgrimage for communists, closes for repairs until 2027.
The mausoleum, which houses a waxy-looking Lenin replete in a three-piece suit inside what is purportedly a bullet-proof, blast-proof glass case, is due to be structurally overhauled after an inspection uncovered problems.
Once a popular attraction for Western tourists and still a favorite for Russians visiting the capital from the regions, the red and black granite structure is expected to close in the coming weeks, with repair work set to last until June 2027.
Officials say that the body of Lenin, who died in 1924 after helping to establish the world’s first socialist state, is not going anywhere and that the central hall where he lies in state will not be touched.
But news of the temporary closure has seen long lines form to get into the mausoleum, with some visitors fearing it could be their last chance to see Lenin.
“From a historical point of view, I want to witness his being in a mausoleum because I think Lenin will be buried at some point, maybe in the future or near future,” said Tatyana Tolstik, a historian from Ulyanovsk, the city on the Volga where Lenin was born.
A young woman called Snezhana, who did not give her surname, said she wanted to “dive into the past” because she was also unsure how long it would be possible to visit the mausoleum.
The Communist Party, which ruled the country from the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, is fiercely opposed to the removal of Lenin’s body, and Gennady Zyuganov, the party’s veteran leader, has said President Vladimir Putin has assured him it will not happen on his watch.
The Kremlin has repeatedly denied plans to permanently close the mausoleum.
