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Conflict in Sudan's Darfur displaces 41000 in two months: UN

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A Sudanese family takes shelter under their donkey cart at the Kalma refugee camp for internally displaced people, south of the Darfur town of Nyala, Sudan. (AP/UNAMID)

A Sudanese family takes shelter under their donkey cart at the Kalma refugee camp for internally displaced people, south of the Darfur town of Nyala, Sudan. (AP/UNAMID)

Fighting between Sudanese government forces and rebels in parts of Darfur has displaced more than 41,000 people from their homes since late December, the UN said on Thursday.

“Aid organizations have assessed and verified the needs of 41,304 people displaced” by violence in North Darfur state and the Jebel Marra areas in the war-torn region, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its weekly bulletin.

The head of OCHA’s Sudan office said that the number of displaced people could be higher than the figures, which were collected between the last week of December and February 15.

“There are several localities, basically part of the Jebel Marra Massif, to which we don’t have access. We don’t know how many people have been affected” in those areas, Ivo Freijsen said.

Sudan’s military launched an offensive in Darfur in November in a bid to defeat insurgents who have been battling the government since 2003.

Jebel Marra is a hilly area in North Darfur where much of the fighting has taken place.

An army spokesman denied government troops carried out operations in the area in recent weeks.

“If there are any displacements, maybe it is as a result of previous fighting, more than one month ago. We ourselves never target civilians,” Colonel al-Sawarmy Khaled Saad said.

The Sudanese military launched its offensive — dubbed “Decisive Summer 2” — in November after the end of the rainy season that had rendered road in the region impassable.

Khartoum’s forces have also targeted insurgents in the Blue Nile and South Kordofan areas as part of the operation.

Insurgents in the western region of Darfur rebelled against the Khartoum government in 2003, complaining that they were being neglected and marginalized.

Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in the region.

Bashir seized power in a 1989 coup, but won a 2010 election that was criticized by observers for failing to meet international standards and was marred by opposition boycotts.

Some 300,000 people have been killed in the conflict in Darfur, and the region is home to more than two million internally displaced persons, according to the UN.

Fighting between government and rebels in Central Darfur during the same period last year displaced around 14,000 people, OCHA said.

(AFP, Al-Akhbar)

80% of Anti-Muslim attacks in France against women, says report

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Kenza Drider, a French Muslim of North African descent, wears a niqab outside the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris April 11, 2011. GONZALO FUENTES/REUTERS

Kenza Drider, a French Muslim of North African descent, wears a niqab outside the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris April 11, 2011. GONZALO FUENTES/REUTERS

by Lucy Draper, Newsweek

80% of the anti-Muslim acts which occur in France are carried out against women a new report published today by Nils Muižnieks, the Council of Europe commissioner for human rights, has revealed.

The commissioner, who produced the report after visiting France in September last year, warned of increasing attacks directed at homosexuals, Jews and Muslims and said that there should be more efforts to integrate and care for immigrants and asylum seekers.

Muižnieks recommends a national plan to promote and protect human rights as well as ratifying Protocol No. 12 to the European Convention on Human Rights on the general prohibition of discrimination in order to “further strengthen the legal framework.”

Attacks on Muslims have been on the rise in France since the Charlie Hebdo attacks in January. Earlier this month the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) published data that showed that between the Charlie Hebdo attacks on 7th January and the end of that month there were 147 ‘acts’ carried out against Muslims.

In the week following the attacks the CFCM reported that 26 separate mosques had been attacked across the country. In some cases the buildings were firebombed and in other grenades were thrown.

Fiyaz Mughal, the director of UK-based interfaith thinktank Faith Matters says that the term ‘acts’ covers a huge range of hostile actions. He says they have received complaints from Muslim women which include: “Spitting, general abuse, pulling and tearing at the niqab and the hijab, plus dog faeces being thrown at women, as well as bottles from passing cars and people shouting things like ‘Muslim whore’ ‘Muslim bitch’ or ‘Muzzie’.”

On why he believes Muslim women might face more abuse than their male counterparts, Mughal says: “All our data… shows that visible women are the ones that are targeted at a street level. This means that women who wear the hijab are the ones that are sometimes targeted for abuse and those who wear the niqab suffer more anti-Muslim hate incidents and more aggressive assaults.”

He also believes that there is a gender imbalance in terms of anti-Muslim hate at a street level, saying that victim data shows that perpetrators are usually male and aged between 15-35, while their victims are mostly women and aged between 15-45.

Sahar Aziz, a professor who teaches about Middle East law at the Texas A&M University School of Law wrote an article for American news site CNN in which she condemned the lack of response to these increased attacks from French feminists who had celebrated the 2011 ban on full face veils. “As Muslim women face threats to their safety in the anti-Muslim backlash, one cannot help but notice the deafening silence of French feminists,” Aziz writes.

Muižnieks’s report addresses a wide-range of problems in France including racism and discrimination against a variety of people including Roma, migrants and those with disabilities.

Although the commissioner commended France for combating the issues he raised in their courts and institutions, he went on to suggest that the country “include the fight against discrimination in a national plan to promote and protect human rights”.

“It is essential to put an end to such acts, including on the internet, and to punish those responsible,” he wrote.

Explosive New Snowden Doc: NSA/GCHQ stole vital cell phone encryption keys

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New reporting by The Intercept, based on documents leaked by whistleblower, reveals how spy agencies hacked world’s largest SIM card manufacturer

'One of the biggest Snowden stories yet,' says journalist Glenn Greenwald. (Image: The Intercept)

‘One of the biggest Snowden stories yet,’ says journalist Glenn Greenwald. (Image: The Intercept)

by Jon Queally, Common Dreams

Explosive new reporting by The Intercept published Thursday, based on documents obtained by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, reveals how the U.S. spy agency and their British counterpart, the GCHQ, worked together in order to hack into the computer systems of the world’s largest manufacturer of cell phone SIM cards – giving government spies access to highly-guarded encryption codes and unparalleled abilities to monitor the global communications of those with phones using the cards.

Following its publication, journalist Glenn Greenwald called it “one of the biggest Snowden stories yet.”

According to fellow journalists Jeremy Scahill and Josh Begley, who did the reporting on the top-secret documents and detail the implications of the program, the target of the government hacking operation was a company called Gemalto, based in the Netherlands, which makes SIM cards for some of the best known makers of cell phones and other portable electronic products, including AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and hundreds of other global brands. The acronym SIM stands for “subscriber identity module” and is a small intergrated circuit within a phone that is used to authenticate users and relay key information to the network on which the phone is operating.

As Scahill and Begley report:

With these stolen encryption keys, intelligence agencies can monitor mobile communications without seeking or receiving approval from telecom companies and foreign governments. Possessing the keys also sidesteps the need to get a warrant or a wiretap, while leaving no trace on the wireless provider’s network that the communications were intercepted. Bulk key theft additionally enables the intelligence agencies to unlock any previously encrypted communications they had already intercepted, but did not yet have the ability to decrypt.

As part of the covert operations against Gemalto, spies from GCHQ — with support from the NSA — mined the private communications of unwitting engineers and other company employees in multiple countries.

In a series of tweets, both Scahill and Greenwald offered context for the latest reporting:

For its part, Gemalto told The Intercept it was totally unaware of the security breach or that the encryption keys to any of its cards had been compromised. In fact, after being reached for comment on the operation, Gemalto directed its own security team to investigate the situation, but told the journalists they could find no trace of the hack. However, according to the top-secret document detailing the program leaked by Snowden, an operative with the NSA boasted, “[We] believe we have their entire network.”

Technology experts who spoke with Scahill and Begley said the theft of the encryption keys was highly troubling. Christopher Soghoian, the principal technologist for the American Civil Liberties Union, said the idea that the NSA has stolen these encryption keys “will send a shock wave through the security community.”

Told about the program, Gerard Schouw, a member of the Dutch Parliament, said the revelation was “unbelievable.” And repeated: “Unbelievable.”

According to The Intercept:

Last November, the Dutch government amended its constitution to include explicit protection for the privacy of digital communications, including those made on mobile devices. “We have, in the Netherlands, a law on the [activities] of secret services. And hacking is not allowed,” he said. Under Dutch law, the interior minister would have to sign off on such operations by foreign governments’ intelligence agencies. “I don’t believe that he has given his permission for these kind of actions.”

The U.S. and British intelligence agencies pulled off the encryption key heist in great stealth, giving them the ability to intercept and decrypt communications without alerting the wireless network provider, the foreign government or the individual user that they have been targeted. “Gaining access to a database of keys is pretty much game over for cellular encryption,” says Matthew Green, a cryptography specialist at the Johns Hopkins Information Security Institute. The massive key theft is “bad news for phone security. Really bad news.”

UN hails progress on Ebola but warns against fatigue

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UN Ebola chief hails Liberia’s success in fight against the deadly virus but warns against “complacency”.

Thousands of people have died from Ebola in the outbreak of 2014. Reuters / Susana Vera

Thousands of people have died from Ebola in the outbreak of 2014. Reuters / Susana Vera

by Al Jazeera

The head of the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response has hailed Liberia’s success in the fight against the deadly virus, but warned against complacency now that the number of cases had dropped.

Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, speaking during a visit to Liberia, described the level of awareness as “high”, but said he was concerned about the risk of “fatigue”.

“We call it the bumpy road to zero,” he said, warning “the biggest enemy is complacency”.

Ebola has killed more than 3,800 people in Liberia and nearly 9,200 across Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone since the first Ebola deaths in rural Guinea in December 2013.

All three countries have weak health systems that were ill-prepared for such an epidemic.

Significant gains have been made against Ebola, and now only a small number of cases remain in Liberia.

‘Outbreak contained’

Meanwhile, students returned to schools on Monday after a six-month closure, though health officials warned that a single case could trigger a whole new cluster of infections.

Last week, the United States said it was also preparing to withdraw by the end of April nearly all of its 2,800 troops fighting the outbreak in West Africa.

In Sierra Leone, the Anti-Corruption Commission has released a list of people who must report to its offices as it investigates the spending of money meant to help fight Ebola.

A report by Sierra Leone’s Auditor General that emerged two weeks ago found that nearly one-third of the money received to fight Ebola, about $5.75m, was spent without saving the necessary receipts and invoices.

The list released on Tuesday included district medical doctors, the coordinator of the National Ebola Response Centre, a former permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, other government officials, private contractors and business people.

More than 3,300 people have died from Ebola with nearly 11,000 cases over the past year in Sierra Leone, where transmission remains the highest.

Amartya Sen's letter on how the government got him to step down as Nalanda University chancellor

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“The government can turn an academic issue into a matter of political dispensation if it feels unrestrained about interfering,” says the winner of the Nobel prize for economics in a letter to the members of the governing board of Nalanda University.

amartya-sen

by Amartya Sen

I am writing to you on a subject relating to the governance of Nalanda University in which all of us have been very deeply involved. As you know, at its last meeting on January 13-14, the board decided unanimously (in my absence – I had recused myself – leaving George Yeo to chair the meeting) that I should be asked to serve as chancellor of Nalanda University for a second term, when my present term expires in late July. The unanimity was, I was pleased to be told, firm and enthusiastic, coming from all members of the board, which – as you know – consists of representatives from different Asian countries (including China, Japan, Singapore and others), in addition of course to Indian academics and professionals.

However, the decision of the governing board becomes operational, according to the Nalanda University Act of Parliament, only after the visitor of the university (the president of India, ex-officio) gives his assent to the decision. I understand that the board’s decision was conveyed to the visitor in mid-January, immediately after the meeting of the governing board, drawing his attention to the urgency of the matter, since the planning and implementation of new teaching and research arrangements are proceeding rapidly in the newly functioning university.

Non-action

More than a month has passed since then and it now seems clear that the visitor has been unable to provide his assent to the governing board’s unanimous choice in the absence of the government’s approval. The governing board has not been favoured with a reply to its request, either from the president’s office or from the ministry of external affairs. As board members are aware, our visitor – President Pranab Mukherjee – has always taken a deep personal interest in the speedy progress of the work of Nalanda University, and given that, we have to assume that something makes it difficult – or impossible – for him to act with speed in this matter.

Non-action is a time-wasting way of reversing a board decision, when the government has, in principle, the power to act or not act. This, as you might recollect, also happened to the revised statutes that the governing board passed unanimously last year. Many of these statutes (including the one pertaining to the chancellor’s term of office) also never received formal acceptance or rejection from the ministry of external affairs, which had the role of coordinating with the visitor’s office.

Considerable disquiet

It is hard for me not to conclude that the government wants me to cease being the chancellor of Nalanda University after this July, and technically, it has the power to do so. This delay, as well as the uncertainty involved, is leading, in effect, to a decisional gap, which is not helpful to Nalanda University’s governance and its academic progress. I have, therefore, decided that in the best interest of Nalanda University, I should exclude myself from being considered for continuing as chancellor beyond this July, despite the unanimous recommendation and urging of the governing board for me to continue. I take this opportunity also to thank the governing board very warmly for its confidence in me.

As you would also remember, there was considerable disquiet among board members about the government’s evident unwillingness to appreciate the international character of Nalanda University and to pay appropriate attention to the multi-country governing board of the university. In particular, the governing board was kept completely in the dark about an attempted unilateral move by the government to rapidly reconstitute the entire board, and to do this in violation of some parts of the Nalanda University Act (reflected especially in the letters that have already been sent out to foreign governments, departing from the provisions of the act as it now stands).

I write this letter with a heavy heart since re-establishing Nalanda has been a lifelong commitment for me (as it is important also to you). While classes have very successfully started, on a small scale, in two schools (the school of history and that of environment and ecology), we are, as you know, in the process of planning other schools, including a school of economics, a school of public health, and a school of Buddhist studies, philosophy and comparative religion, and also of augmenting the intake of students. I have been personally much occupied with this planning but I will, of course, pass on the work-in-progress to the vice chancellor.

Deeply vulnerable

I am also sad, at a more general level, that academic governance in India remains so deeply vulnerable to the opinions of the ruling government, when it chooses to make political use of the special provisions. Even though the Nalanda University Act, passed by Parliament, did not, I believe, envisage political interference in academic matters, it is formally the case — given the legal provisions (some of them surviving from colonial days) – that the government can turn an academic issue into a matter of political dispensation if it feels unrestrained about interfering.

As a proud and concerned citizen of India, I take this particular occasion to communicate my general disquiet in public, which is why I am openly sharing this letter.

Also, since I receive a great many constructive suggestions every week about teaching and research at Nalanda University for possible implementation (a number of these suggestions coming from the public have indeed been extremely useful for the academic planning of Nalanda), I am using this occasion to publicly communicate that I shall do whatever I can over the remaining time I have, though the leadership of the long-run planning of Nalanda has, obviously, to come from someone else.

I end by thanking you for the help, advice and support I have been receiving from all of you, which I will continue to treasure even when I move away from Nalanda University this July.

Tax raids on Bengaluru-based Rajesh Exports, Shubh Jewellers

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Shubh Jewellers

Bengaluru: Commercial Tax Department (Enforcement Wing) officials on Thursday raided the corporate office of Rajesh Exports Ltd (REL) and the outlets of its retail arm, Shubh Jewellers, across the State for tax evasion, reportedly worth several crores.

The simultaneous raids were conducted at 67 locations, including 24 in Bengaluru.
A senior official of the department said that the corporate office of REL on Kumara Krupa Road in the City and its manufacturing unit at Whitefield were the two main premises that were raided.

According to a media report, “value of tax evasion according to preliminary enquiry ran into several crores of rupees. Though searches at Shubh Jewellers outlets were over, the documents pertaining to the export and domestic consumption were being verified at the corporate office late into the night. The searches started around 10:30 am.”

The company operates a gold processing unit and jewellery manufacturing facility spread over 12 acres at Bengaluru with a capacity of 250 tonnes of jewellery per annum.

(Agencies)

England crushed by New Zealand in World Cup Pool A

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England suffered a humiliating eight-wicket thrashing by New Zealand as Tim Southee became only the fourth man to take seven wickets in a World Cup match.

tim_southee

by Stephan Shemilt, BBC Sport

Southee’s 7-33 saw England blown away for 123, the last seven wickets falling for 19 runs.

Brendon McCullum then smashed an 18-ball half-century, the fastest in World Cup history, to propel New Zealand to their target in just 12.2 overs.

That equalled the shortest ODI chase against England, in a match that lasted just 45.4 overs in total.

Only when McCullum was bowled by Chris Woakes for a 25-ball 77 did England avoid the ignominy of being beaten before the scheduled tea interval.

A third win in as many games has all but secured New Zealand’s place in the quarter-finals, while two defeats from two means England can perhaps afford only one more from their remaining four matches if they are to qualify.

They face Scotland in Christchurch next from 22:00 GMT on Sunday before matches against Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

Eoin Morgan’s team attracted criticism from the likes of Geoffrey Boycott and Graham Gooch following their opening loss to Australia, but this most one-sided of hammerings was far more abject.

Defeats against both co-hosts were probably expected before start of the tournament, but it is the manner in which England surrendered in Wellington that suggests their World Cup is already in disarray.

On a blameless surface, they were taken apart by Southee, who was as brilliant as England were woeful, pitching the ball up at good pace and finding late swing.

Some resistance came from Joe Root, the last man out for 46, his stand of 47 with captain Morgan the only period of calm in the match.

Morgan, who had managed only two runs in his previous four ODI innings, at least made a rather nervy 17, but his needless loft down the ground to be brilliantly caught at long-on by Adam Milne off Daniel Vettori began the carnage.

Southee, who had earlier bowled the flat-footed opening pair of Ian Bell and Moeen Ali, ran through the England middle and lower order.

James Taylor and Chris Woakes were bowled either side of Jos Buttler edging behind, while Stuart Broad looped a catch to mid-off before Steven Finn was held at first slip.

Southee was denied the chance of the first World Cup eight-wicket haul when Root top edged Milne to long leg, ending England’s innings in 33.2 overs.

They had to field right away, with McCullum then piling on the misery in a violent assault on a bowling attack that had no answers.

He cut the second ball he faced, from Broad, for six, the first of seven maximums carved over the off side.

Using his feet to both advance and make room, the New Zealand captain hit Finn for four sixes in an over, the pace bowler conceding 49 runs from his spell of two overs.

The fastest one-day hundred of all time was still possible when McCullum missed a Woakes full toss to depart with a strike-rate of 308.00, beating his own record for the highest in any World Cup innings of 50 or more.

It ensured the bizarre sight of the players leaving the field for 45 minutes when New Zealand required only 12 runs to win.

In the 20 legitimate balls after they returned, Woakes bowled Martin Guptill, but, in what was supposed to be a day-night match, the floodlights went unused.

In winning in 12.2 overs, New Zealand equalled the record against England set by Australia when they chased 118 at Sydney in 2003.

Oil espionage case: Former journalist Santanu Saikia, Prayas Jain arrested

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petrol-price-oil

New Delhi: After arresting five people in connection to the oil espionage scam, the Delhi crime branch today arrested former journalist Santanu Saikia and Prayas Jain in relation to the case.

Santanu Saikia runs an energy portal called Indian Petro and Prayas Jain is an energy consultant at a Melbourne based company.

A senior police official said,”We have arrested Prayas Jain and Shantanu Saikia in this connection. Both of them are energy consultants who received stolen documents.”

Both Santanu and Prayas will be produced before the court by noon today.

So far, seven people have been held for allegedly leaking oil ministry documents to business houses.

According to police sources, more arrests are likely to take place soon.

Sources have revealed that an Essar official has been questioned by the crime branch. However, the Essar company officials were not available for any comments.

The crime branch also questioned one company official of Reliance ADAG. But, the Reliance ADAG official has not been detained as no indiscriminate papers were found.

Yesterday, police had detained five people including two Oil Ministry officials, a Reliance Industries(RIL) staffer and two other middlemen for allegedly leaking important oil ministry documents to companies.

Raids were yesterday conducted at several establishments including a prominent building in Connaught Place which houses offices of a leading private petroleum firm believed to be RIL.

In a case reminiscent of the Spy scandal in mid 80s, some journalists who claimed to be independent energy consultants, and employees of certain petro companies were also said to have been detained for questioning in the development that has set off sensation in political and corporate circles.

Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi had said that action was taken on a tip off that two persons along with their associates were involved in “procuring, obtaining and stealing the official documents by trespassing into the offices of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas at Shastri Bhawan on February 17.”

“A trap was laid and three persons came in an Indigo car near Shastri Bhawan. Two persons alighted and went inside while the third remained sitting in the car. After around two hours, when the two persons entered the car, all three persons were apprehended,” he said.

They were identified as Lalta Prasad (36), Rakesh Kumar (30) and Raj Kumar Chaubey (39). Official documents were recovered from them.

Reliance Industries said it has been brought to the company’s notice that one personnel has been detained by law-enforcement authorities.

(Agencies)

Asaduddin Owaisi banned from entering Bengaluru till February 25

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asaduddin-owaisi

Bengaluru: Police on Thursday banned All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi from entering Bengaluru till February 25 but permitted the Hyderabad-based party to conduct a meeting at Chhota Maidan in Shivajinagar on Saturday.

The party had approached the police for permission to conduct the event. “Permission was granted only after examining the programmes for the event. But Owaisi is banned from entering Bengaluru for seven days. He is known for his provocative and inflammatory speeches and we do not want to take any chances. He also has several criminal cases against him in various states of the country,” a senior police officer said.

Police have given strict instruction to the AIMIM not to conduct the meeting beyond the stipulated timing: 3-5 pm. They cannot broadcast Owaisi’s speech either. If the organisers are found breaking the guidelines, they will be dealt with as per law, the officer added.

Meanwhile, Owaisi on Thursday resorted to “Gandhigiri” to protest denial of permission to address a public meeting in Bangaluru.

Owaisi insisted additional police commissioner Noorullah Shareef to accept flowers much to the amusement of onlookers as he came to his office to serve the notice barring his entry into Bangaluru from February 19-25.

The Bangaluru police had first granted and then revoked permission for Owaisi’s public meeting on February 8.

The MIM moved the Karnataka high court against the permission withdrawal. The police informed the party that permission would be accorded if an application was filed with the DCP (east), which resulted in the notice on Thursday.

“The notice has pained me as an Indian, who can speak in the Parliament but not in Bengaluru. I have cases against me and I am innocent until proven guilty,” said Owaisi.

“I am sure that the courts will do justice to me. As a citizen of India, I accept your notice but reject its contentions.”

(Agencies)

Flying Bulls collide mid-air at Aero India: Pilots steer damaged aircrafts to safety

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Aero India planes collide

Bengaluru: Disaster struck the Flying Bulls at the ongoing Aero India 2015, as two of the aerobatic aircraft collided mid-air at Yelahanka Air Base here on Thursday afternoon.

But despite suffering massive wing and propellor damage, the two uninjured pilots deftly steered the aircraft to safety, avoiding a potential catastrophe. Hundreds of onlookers, many of them schoolchildren, were barely 200 meters from the accident spot.

The drama unfolded at around 3.10 pm, a few minutes into the Czech Republic team’s afternoon aerobatic session. The spectacular stunts in the air went horribly wrong as the tail fin of one plane scrapped against the left wing of another during the ‘wing-over manoeuvre.’ Due to the sudden impact, one aircraft hit the other’s propeller.

Momentarily, the pilots lost control. But the lead pilot, 63-year-old Radka Machova, despite suffering extensive damage to the aircraft, recovered and landed safely. So did the second plane, which too had dents beyond immediate repair. An Indian Air Force (IAF) spokesman later confirmed that both pilots were safe. A precautionary Foreign Object Removal (FOR) parade was carried out on the runway following the accident. The airshow was halted for 40 minutes before the aerobatic displays by other teams took to the skies.

Both aircraft were towed away from the tarmac. Since the damage appeared extensive, a Defence Ministry official indicated that Flying Bulls were unlikely to perform for the reminder of the airshow. For Radka, though, the damage to her German-made XA42 aircraft could accelerate the planned shift to a safer Zlin 50LX aircraft. Eyewitnesses recalled that one of the aircraft almost crash-landed. “We saw one of the planes wobbling heavily before landing. Emergency vehicles and ambulances rushed to the spot. Both the pilots stepped down from the planes on their own,” said Syed Faiz, a business manager, watching the show with his family.However, 56 children from the Great Eastern International Public School, who were squatting right on the tarmac, realised the full impact of the accident much later. Little did they know that they were too close to the spot.

Owned by Red Bull, Flying Bulls arrived for the airshow with a team of three pilots, including Jiri Saller and Krejci. The lead pilot, Radka is a former member of the Czech national aerobatics team. The Bulls’ “Mirror Flight” manoeuvre is a particularly tricky one where two planes fly extremely close. One flies in the normal position while the other flies upside down.

(Agencies)

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