Germany beat South Africa 4-0 during the France 2019 Women’s World Cup Group B football match at the Mosson Stadium in Montpellier, southern France.
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Tag: Germany
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Ethiopian Crash: Confusion as Germany rejects analysis of black box
… France accepts
Ethiopian Airlines said Thursday that the black box flight recorders from the Boeing 737 MAX 8 that crashed with 157 people on board, have been flown to Paris for analysis. The airline stated this Twitter message.
“An Ethiopian delegation led by Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) has flown the Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) to Paris, France for investigation.”
This comes just as Germany’s Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation (BFU) said it will not analyse the black box from the Ethiopian Airlines passenger jet which crashed soon after taking off from Addis Ababa on Sunday.
This led to some uncertainty for a couple of hours before the French Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) announced late on Wednesday that they would analyse the black-box flight recorders.
The chief executive officer of Ethiopian Airlines, Tewolde GebreMariam, said the black boxes from Sunday’s plane crash in Ethiopia would be sent to a “closer country in Europe” rather than the United States for analysis.
Later on, an airline spokesperson reportedly confirmed that the country in question was Germany. However, just hours later, Germany’s BFU issued a statement reasoning their rejection of the request.“This is a new type of aircraft with a new black box, with new software. We can’t do it,” BFU spokesperson Germout Freitag told the media.
Pilots have reported issues in US with new Boeing arrived in Paris for analysis on Thursday morning. The BEA is one of the world’s most active air crash agencies alongside the National Transportation Safety Board of the United States and has laboratories at its Le Bourget headquarters.
A spokesman for the BEA said they wouldn’t be announcing the results. “Only the Ethiopian authorities will report on the progress of the investigation. There will be no press conference,” a BEA spokesman told reporters.
The 737, which first entered service in the late 1960s, is the aviation industry’s best-selling model and Boeing’s top earner. The re-engined Max version has racked up more than 5,000 orders worth in excess of $600 billion.
When Indonesian carrier Lion Air’s Boeing 737 Max 8 crashed on October 29 in 2018 killing all 189 people on board, Boeing pointed to maintenance issues and human error as the underlying cause, even though the plane’s pilots reportedly had been battling a computerised system that took control following a sensor malfunction.
Ethiopian Airlines CEO also said that the pilots had complained about ‘flight control problems’.
Just over four months later, the Ethiopian Airlines crash on March 10 – killing 157 people – has triggered increasing global pressure on the manufacturer over safety concerns and software issues with the aircraft model. Ethiopian Airlines CEO said the pilots had complained about ‘flight control problems’.
The day after the crash, without referring to Ethiopian tragedy directly, Boeing Corporation said it would deploy a software upgrade to the 737 MAX 8, a few hours after the Federal Aviation Administration said it would mandate “design changes” in the aircraft by April.
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U.S. threatens to cut intelligence sharing with Germany
The U.S. has issued warning to Germany that they would scale back the exchange of intelligence if their European ally allows Chinese companies to help build a high-speed internet network.
A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Berlin told dpa that having “untrusted vendors’’ in Germany’s 5G network “could raise future questions about the integrity and confidentiality of sensitive communications.
“This could in the future jeopardise nimble cooperation and some sharing of information.’’
The comments came after the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that the U.S. raised the issue of Chinese firms’ involvement, particularly the telecommunications giant Huawei, in a construction of the 5G network in a letter to the German economy minister.
According to newspaper, which had access to the letter, U.S. Ambassador Richard Grenell wrote that U.S.-German cooperation could only continue at its current level if Chinese firms were excluded from the construction of the network.
While the U.S. Embassy said it could not comment on diplomatic communications, “the U.S. position on 5G network security is well known.’’
The U.S. has been pushing back against China’s technological expansion by asking that other countries refuse to adopt Huawei’s 5G infrastructure, which Washington says poses security threats.
Germany’s Ministry of Economics confirmed it had received a letter from the U.S. and that it would soon respond.
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Ban on Huawei: Germany says 5G security requirements apply to all vendors
Germany’s federal network regulator set new security criteria on Thursday for vendors supplying equipment for 5G networks, saying the same rules should apply to all providers.
The regulator equally imbibed on toughening scrutiny of gear used in critical infrastructure.
The criteria, updated following a national debate over whether to heed U.S. calls to ban Huawei Technologies on national security grounds, made no mention of the Chinese company.
Instead, the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) stressed that critical equipment should only be used after scrutiny and certification by Germany’s BSI federal cybersecurity watchdog.
“Critical core components may only be procured from trustworthy vendors and manufacturers,” the BNetzA said in a statement.
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Merkel urges divided Germans to pull together in 2019
Acknowledging that her government disappointed many Germans in 2018, Chancellor Angela Merkel sought to pull the country together for 2019.
She called for solidarity and cooperation to overcome deep political divisions.
In her New Year speech, Merkel said she recognised that many Germans “bemoaned” the ruling coalition that took office in March.
This was an alliance of her conservative bloc and the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), which has been blighted by infighting.
But she added: “We will only master the challenges of our times if we stick together and collaborate with others across borders.”
Germany is still feeling the impact of Merkel’s 2015 decision to leave open the country’s borders to more than 1 million refugees, mainly fleeing war in the Middle East.
Resentment at that decision helped feed the rise of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD), which surged into the Bundestag for the first time at last year’s federal election, fracturing the country’s political landscape.
Merkel has given up the leadership of her party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), but wants to remain chancellor for the remainder of the current legislative period through to 2021 .
This is a goal she referenced again in her New Year’s speech.
A poll on Sunday showed a majority of those surveyed Germans who expressed an opinion supported her staying on as chancellor for the full term.
Merkel stressed what she called Germany’s values of “openness, tolerance, respect”.
She said that the country would work towards “global solutions” when it starts a two-year stint as a non-permanent member of the U.N. Security Council from Jan. 1.
Merkel has sought to defend the Western order on which Germany depends and which U.S. President Donald Trump has destabilised by pulling out of international agreements on climate change.
He pulled out of Iran’s nuclear programme, and with tariffs.
She said she was committed to making the European Union more robust and capable of taking decisions.
“And with Britain, we want to maintain a close partnership in spite of withdrawal from the European March,” she added.
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German court rules Uber limousine service illegal
The Federal Court of Justice in Germany on Thursday has upheld lower-court rulings, handing down a final judgment to rule that a defunct limousine service, Uber Black, offered by Uber was illegal.
TheNewsGuru (TNG) reports the federal court passed the judgment in favour of a complaint brought by a Berlin taxi business that the so-called Uber Black service had violated German laws governing car rentals.
Responding to the judgment, Uber said it had taken Uber Black out of service in 2014, adding that the services it now operates in four German cities complied with the law.
“This ruling has no impact on our current services in Germany as we changed our operating model more than four years ago.
“We will continue to engage with local stakeholders as we develop services that address Germany’s growing transportation needs and shape the future of urban mobility in a responsible way,” the company said in a statement.
Two lower courts had banned the Uber Black service based on the complaint brought by a Berlin taxi operator, Richard Leipold.
He had argued that its operations should be covered by laws covering car rentals. These require a car to return to its base after each trip and for trips to be awarded by a dispatcher. Taxis, by contrast, can accept orders directly.
Establishing an important principle, the federal court found that Uber was subject to German transportation laws, dismissing arguments that European Union rules governing the provision of services should apply.
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Nations League: Netherland end France’s 15-game unbeaten run
The Netherlands deservedly beat France in the Uefa Nations League to end the world champions’ 15-game unbeaten run and relegate Germany.
Liverpool midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum struck from close range after Hugo Lloris parried a Ryan Babel shot.
Lloris made a host of top saves to stop a thrashing – but Memphis Depay’s dinked penalty in injury time made sure of the win.
A Dutch draw in Germany on Monday would see them win the group.
That would take Ronald Koeman’s side into next June’s Nations League finals – at the expense of France, who had only needed a point in Rotterdam to seal top spot.
The winners of each group are also guaranteed a Euro 2020 play-off place if they fail to progress from qualification next year.
France can still win the group if the Germans, who will be in the Nations League second tier in 2020, beat the Dutch.
Elsewhere, Gibraltar’s Euro 2020 dream is almost certainly over after a 6-2 hammering by Armenia. The minnows led through teenager Tjay de Barr but Yura Movsisyan scored four times for the visitors.
Macedonia remain top of that group – and are 90 minutes away from the play-offs – thanks to a 2-0 win in Liechstenstein.
Wales’ promotion bid is over after a 2-1 defeat by Denmark – who win the group and a place in the 2020 top flight. That result relegates the Republic of Ireland.
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Alleged N7.65 fraud: Kalu’s Germany trip stalls trial
Hearing in the trial of a former Governor of Abia, Dr Orji Uzor Kalu, for alleged N7.65billion fraud was stalled on Monday due to the absence of the ex-governor from court.
Kalu’s lawyer, Prof. Awa Kalu (SAN), told Justice Mohammed Idris at the Federal High Court in Lagos that his client was away in Germany for surgery.
He added that the ex-governor had been advised by his doctors to remain in Germany for some time to recuperate.
The defence counsel said the prosecuting counsel for Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Mr Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), was aware of the development and urged Justice Idris to further adjourn the case.
But the EFCC prosecutor, Jacobs, said he was surprised at Kalu’s absence from court, adding that he did not know when the ex-governor obtained the court’s permission to travel out.
Jacobs noted that having submitted his passport to the court as part of his bail conditions, Kalu must always apply to the court for the passport whenever he wished to travel.
Describing the ex-governor’s absence from court as an attempt to frustrate the case, Jacobs urged Justice Idris to interpret Kalu’s absence to mean that he had jumped bail.
“I am not aware when the 1st defendant wanted to travel. We only got to know that the 1st defendant travelled abroad for medical treatment through his media aide, one Kunle Oyewunmi.
“Things must be done in accordance with the law. In my own view, what happened is that the 1st defendant has jumped bail. This is an attempt to further frustrate this trial because no application was made to the court to travel.
“I urge Your Lordship to treat the absence of the 1st defendant as that he has jumped bail,” Jacobs said.
Responding, however, the defence counsel urged Justice Idris to discountenance Jacob’s argument, saying as at when Kalu travelled out, the court had adjourned the case sine die (indefinitely).
Ruling on the lawyers’ submissions, Justice Idris noted that it was true that the matter was adjourned sine die on Sept.27, but Kalu was on Nov. 2 served with a hearing notice that the case had been scheduled for Monday.
The judge also noted that the court received a mail confirming Kalu’s treatment arrangement, but he said the defence counsel failed to attach any medical report to guide the court as to Kalu’s post-surgery treatment.
Justice Idris said in the circumstance, he would, in the interest of justice, adjourn the case for the last time, stressing that Kalu must return from Germany within seven days and appear before the court.
The judge ruled, “I have always stated that every citizen of this country is entitled to and has the right to seek medical treatment abroad.
“This right is guaranteed by the constitution, the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is an inalienable right.
“However, this right has exceptions; therefore, in exercising this right, due regard must be had for the law and due process.
“Apart from the mail confirming the treatment arrangement of the 1st defendant, the defence counsel should have obtained a medical report on the condition of the 1st defendant post-surgery.
“This would have properly guided the court in the proceedings of today.
“However, in the light of the entirety of this case and in the interest of justice, I am prepared to grant to the 1st defendant a final adjournment in respect of this matter.
“In the light of the provisions of the ACJA, I shall not adjourn for more than seven days from today. It is, therefore, hereby directed that the 1st defendant shall return to the country within seven days from today’s date for the hearing of this matter.” he said
The court adjourned the case untill Nov. 12 for continuation of trial.
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Breaking: Angela Merkel to step down chancellorship
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said this is her last chancellorship and that she will step down in 2021 when the term ends.
TheNewsGuru (TNG) reports Merkel made this known while addressing a press conference at the headquarters of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) on Monday.
Merkel, chairwoman of Germany’s CDU since 2000, also said she will not run for party leadership at its next conference in December.
Having served as chancellor for 13 years, Merkel, however, said she will remain as chancellor for the remainder of the term.
Merkel also added that she will not take any other political positions after the chancellorship.
“I want my party gets the freedom to prepare well for the future,” said Merkel.
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Germany deports associate of Sept. 11 hijackers after serving 15-year jail term
Germany has deported a Moroccan associate of the Sept. 11 hijackers after he served most of a 15-year jail term for helping to organise the 2001 attacks on U.S. targets, authorities said on Monday.
El-Motassadeq, 44, was a member of a group of radical Islamists based in the northern German city of Hamburg, who helped bring about the suicide attacks with hijacked airliners that killed nearly 3,000 people.
Handed the maximum sentence of 15 years in 2007 for being an accessory to mass murder, Motassadeq is one of only two men convicted to date of involvement in the plot.
“It’s good to know that Mr Motassadeq is now out of the country so we can close this chapter for Hamburg,’’ State Interior Minister, Andy Grote, said in a statement.
Photographs showed a man with covered eyes being led by two armed policemen to a helicopter.
German media had reported that Motassadeq was taken to Frankfurt to be deported to Morocco, where his family lives.
At his 2007 trial, his lawyers argued that Motassadeq knew nothing about the Sept. 11 plot.
But prosecutors said he played a central role in suicide hijacker Mohammed Atta’s group by running the financial affairs of some cell members.