International

Washington moves on cyber attackers

America is going after cyber attackers based outside the country. President Barack Obama called a growing epidemic of online attacks from overseas a national emergency and issuing an executive order Wednesday (April 1) giving power to the Treasury Department to freeze assets and bar financial transactions of those targeting U.S. computer networks. The new sanctions program follows a rise in tensions between the U.S. and China over cyber security and the high-profile hacking at Sony […]

Torn-up sick notes show crash pilot should have been grounded

The German pilots’ association Cockpit welcomed the announcement by Lufthansa on Friday (March 27) which said it will introduce new rules requiring two crew members to be in the cockpit at all times after one of the pilots at its Germanwings unit crashed a plane in the FrenchAlps, a reversal after it initially said no need to do so. “No, it is not a rush job,” said ‘Cockpit’ spokesman Markus Wahl. “We would welcome a […]

German pilot said to have suffered from depression, anxiety

(Reuters) – The German pilot believed to have deliberately crashed a plane in the French Alps killing 150 people broke off his training six years ago due to depression and spent over a year in psychiatric treatment, a German newspaper reported on Friday. The story in German tabloid Bild came a day after French prosecutors said they believed Andreas Lubitz, a 27-year-old co-pilot at Lufthansa’s budget airline Germanwings, had locked the captain out of the […]

Police investigate properties linked to Germanwings co-pilot

Investigations were underway on Thursday (March 26) at two properties linked to the co-pilot of the crashed Germanwings Airbus, believed to have flown the plane into a mountain on purpose. In Duesseldorf, lights were on and journalists gathered at an apartment believed to be that of 28-year-old Andreas Lubitz, who was in control of the Airbus A320 and set it on its fatal descent. Prosecutors in the German city said police were searching his home […]

Co-pilot deliberately crashed Germanwings plane, wasn’t known as terrorist — prosecutor

The co-pilot of the Germanwings airliner that crashed in the French Alps killing all 150 people aboard appears to have brought the A320 Airbus down deliberately, the Marseille prosecutor said on Thursday (March 26). German Andreas Lubitz, 28, left in sole control of the Airbus A320 after the captain left the cockpit, refused to re-open the door and operated a control that sent the plane into its final, fatal descent, the prosecutor Brice Robin told […]

Investigators seek clues into why jet ploughed into French mountainside

By Jean-Francois Rosnoblet SEYNE-LES-ALPES, France Tue Mar 24, 2015 11:13pm EDT (Reuters) – French investigators will sift through wreckage on Wednesday for clues into why a German Airbus ploughed into an Alpine mountainside, killing all 150 people on board including 16 schoolchildren returning from an exchange trip to Spain. The A320 jet operated by Lufthansa’s Germanwings budget airline was obliterated when it went down in a rugged area of ravines on Tuesday while flying over […]