Germanwings Airbus Carrying 150 Crashes in French Alps

Search and rescue teams have their mission to reach a remote sight in the French Alps where authorities have confirmed a German plane carrying 144 passengers and six crew members crashed while en route to Dusseldorf, Germany from Barcelona, Spain. It is thought that there will be no survivors. The wreckage of the plane, which is located very deep in the mountains was located by a French military helicopter. Officials are not sure when the plane made its last contact with air traffic controllers but they do know that they lost radio contact 40 minutes after the plane took off at around 10:40 am. After radio contact was lost, air traffic controllers sent out an emergency call as the plane crashed from an altitude of 38,000 feet. Even thought rescue teams have not made it to the crash sight, from helicopter views, it is believed that there will be no survivors of the crash.

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3 Israelis Charged With Smuggling Materials to Hamas

During Israel's 50-day war against Hamas in Gaza last summer, residents of Israel's border communities lived in fear of attacks by Hamas militants. Being so, Israelis were outraged when they heard that three Israeli citizens had been charged on suspicion of supplying materials to Gaza that were supposedly for Hamas to be used for its military infrastructure. One of the accused, Michael Peretz, 46, is from a small community near the Gaza border. Haim Yellin, the regional council head of the border area called his actions, "a betrayal of his community and his family." Peretz's main contact in Gaza was a merchant named Osama Zuaroub who has supposedly sold $30 million worth of metal goods to Hamas.

Egypt's Crisis Across the Border with Libya

On Monday, Egyptian armed forces carried out a predawn airstrike in Libya in response to the beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians by the terrorist group known as ISIS. The Egyptians attacked camps, training facilities and weapons depots belonging to the group near the Libyan town of Derna. It is understandable that Egypt is concerned about the extremist threat considering hundreds of thousands of Egyptians live and work across the border in Libya, extremely vulnerable to the country’s and the widening violence. But the airstrikes marked a significant expansion of Egypt’s direct military involvement in Libya, however the call this week for the United Nations Security Council to mandate an international coalition to intervene in Libya and impose a naval blockade has gotten hardly any support so far.


The Editorial Board. "Egypt's Crisis Across the Border with Libya." New York Times. February 9 2015. 1. Print