A mid-air miscommunication between pilot and co-pilot in response to a recurring technical issue caused AirAsia flight QZ8501 to plunge into the Java Sea last December, Indonesian investigators have said. The Airbus A320-200 was en route to Singapore from the Indonesian city of Surabaya on the morning of 28 December when it lost contact with air traffic control 42 minutes ...

Rejecting insinuation of complicity in committing crimes or war atrocities in 1971, Pakistan yesterday summoned Bangladesh acting High Commissioner in Islamabad, apparently in retaliation to the summoning of its envoy to Dhaka about a week ago. “The Acting High Commissioner of Bangladesh was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs today (Monday) by Director General (SA & SAARC) and was ...

Saudi women running for public office next month for the first time ever begin campaigning Sunday in another step forward for women’s rights in the conservative kingdom’s slow democratic process. Around 900 women are standing in the December 12 municipal elections, which will also be the first time females have been allowed to participate in choosing officials. “This is one ...

Russia has accused Turkey of shooting down its warplane near the border with Syria in order to protect its oil trade with the Islamic State (IS) group. Speaking at international talks on climate change in Paris, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the downing of the plane a “huge mistake”. Turkey has denied any ties to IS and is part of ...

Let me be clear: The fate of the Paris agreement rests with you. The future of your people, the future of our planet. We have never faced such a test — a political moment like this may not come again, said UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. FUTURE OF LIFE AT STAKE: HOLLANDE Never have the stakes of an international meeting ...

Jeremy Corbyn says he will grant Labour MPs a free vote on UK air strikes in Syria – with a Commons debate expected on Wednesday. Mr Corbyn’s spokesman said the shadow cabinet had “accepted his recommendation” of a free vote. He has also requested a two-day debate in the House of Commons beforehand. BBC chief political correspondent Vicki Young said ...

An American Muslim was detained for 13 hours after flying into a UK airport because of her faith, she says. Ayan Mohamud, 18, who arrived at Heathrow Airport, said she felt she was being “judged” in the wake of the Paris terror attacks. “I wasn’t expecting to be interrogated or held in a room for hours,” said Ms Mohamud, who ...

Rushanara Ali MP attacked George Osborne’s Autumn Statement, calling attention to a decade of damaging future Government cuts which will hurt families across the country. The Bethnal Green and Bow MP welcomed the success of residents and campaigners across the UK in forcing George Osborne to defer his previous cuts to tax credits, but also warned that the Chancellor still ...

The militant Islamic State (IS) group is a political wrap for hefty smuggling businesses including that of oil, says the spokesman for Russia Investigative Committee Vladimir Markin. The high-level Russian official made the remarks in a column he wrote for the Izvestia newspaper, said a report published on the TASS news agency’s website. “The terrorist organisations, which are outlawed in ...

The Islamic State group has executed more than 3,500 people in Syria, including nearly 2,000 civilians, since declaring its “caliphate” in June last year, a monitor said Sunday. In the last month alone IS executed 53 people—including 35 civilians—in areas it controls in Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The new figures from the Britain-based Observatory bring to ...