The residents of a nearby village where a plane crashed and killed all on board, possibly including the Wagner mercenary chief, say they heard a bang before seeing the jet fall to the ground.

On Wednesday, a private jet crashed near the village of Kuzhenkino in Russia’s Tver region on its way from Moscow to St Petersburg, killing all 10 passengers on board, including three crew members.

Kuzhenkino resident Vitaly Stepenok, 72, told the Reuters news agency: “I hear an explosion or a bang. Usually, if an explosion happens on the ground then you get an echo, but it was just a bang and I looked up and saw white smoke.”

“One wing flew off in one direction and the fuselage went like that,” he said, gesturing with his arms to show how the plane headed down towards the ground.

“And then it glided down on one wing. It didn’t nose-dive, it was gliding.”

Another villager named Anatoly said, “In terms of what might have happened, I’ll just say this: it wasn’t thunder, it was a metallic bang – let’s put it that way. I’ve heard things like that before.”

Source: Aljazeera.com

An 18-year-old has been shot dead in the southern French city of Nîmes, days after a boy aged 10 was killed by gunfire in an attack linked to the drugs trade.

Both shootings took place in the Pissevin area of the city which has become plagued by drug violence.

The first victim, called Fayed, was fatally shot on Monday night while he was in a car with his uncle.

In the latest attack. the teenage victim was ambushed a few streets away.

Local prosecutor Cécile Gensac said it was the 10-year-old’s misfortune to be “in the wrong place at the wrong time” shortly before midnight on Monday.

Fayed was shot just 100m from his home in Pissevin. His family had no connection with drug gangs and had never had any brush with authority, the prosecutor said.

Police believe the uncle’s Renault Clio car had been wrongly linked by the killers to another shooting and Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin spoke of a “tit-for-tat attack between drug dealers”.

Nîmes Mayor Jean-Paul Fournier said he was saddened and revolted by the boy’s death and police sent an elite CRS8 team to beef up security.

Source: bbc.com

Passengers flying with Korean Air in the next few weeks may be asked to take one additional step before boarding – getting on the scale.

However, the policy has nothing to do with body shaming. Korean Air is one of the many airlines around the globe that is required to periodically obtain plane weight data.

According to an announcement by the airline, the program will affect some travelers departing from Gimpo International Airport (GMP) from August 28 until September 3 and from Incheon International Airport (ICA) between September 8-19.

Both passengers and luggage will be weighed anonymously, and the data will then be shared with the country’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

If a passenger would prefer not to have their weight data collected, Korean Air confirms that they can opt out by letting a staff member know.

Air New Zealand to weigh passengers before they board the airplane

While some travelers may be surprised to find themselves asked to step on a scale, this decision isn’t made by airlines – it’s often mandated by governmental airline regulators.

Earlier this year, Air New Zealand carried out a similar program with some of the customers flying its international routes, like the ultra-long-haul between Auckland and New York’s JFK.

Source: cnn.com

The Embraer executive jet model that crashed in Russia, possibly with Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin on board, has recorded only one accident in more than 20 years of service, and that was not related to mechanical failure.

Russian authorities said Prigozhin was listed as a passenger on a private jet that crashed on Wednesday evening, killing all those on board. Russia’s TASS news agency said the plane was a Brazilian Embraer jet.

Embraer said it was aware of a plane crash in Russia involving a Legacy 600 aircraft, but it did not have further information about the case and had not been providing support services for the jet since 2019.

“Embraer has complied with international sanctions imposed on Russia,” the company said. Sanctions block Western plane makers from providing parts or support for planes operated in

Flightradar24 online tracker showed that the aircraft (number RA-02795) dropped off the radar at 6:11 pm local time (15:11 GMT). An unverified video on social media showed a plane resembling a private jet falling out of the sky towards the Earth.

The aircraft, manufactured in 2007, fell under US Treasury sanctions in 2019 when it was listed under a prior registration, M-SAAN, according to a US government press release.

Source: Aljazeera.com

Japan has begun its controversial discharge of treated waste water from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean, sparking protests in the region and retaliation from Beijing.

China is the biggest buyer of seafood from Japan, and on Thursday it said it would block all such imports.

Japan says the water is safe, and many scientists agree. The UN’s nuclear watchdog has also approved the plan.

But critics say more studies need to be done and the release should be halted.

More than a million tonnes of water stored at the nuclear plant will be discharged over the next 30 years.

China, which has been the most vocal of opponents since the plan was announced two years ago, called the water discharge an “extremely selfish and irresponsible act” and said Japan was “passing an open wound onto the future generations of humanity”.

Shortly afterwards, China’s customs office announced that an existing ban on seafood imports from Fukushima and some prefectures would be immediately extended to cover the whole of Japan to “protect the health of Chinese consumers”.

The move is calculated to inflict economic damage, and Japan has admitted that businesses will take a “significant” hit. Mainland China and Hong Kong together import more than $1.1bn (£866m) of seafood from Japan every year – making up nearly half of Japan’s seafood exports.

But analysts say that the reactions from China in particular, are as much motivated by politics as they are by genuine concerns.

Source: bbc.com