(Reuters) – The two brothers wanted for the shooting of 12 people at the offices of satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo were killed in a raid on Friday by security forces on the print works where they were holed up with a hostage, a government source said.

Separately, Le Monde newspaper quoted a police official as saying that the hostage-taker at a separate stand-off at a kosher supermarket in eastern Paris had also been killed. That hostage-taker is believed to have links to the same Islamist group as the two brothers.

French television images showed some people running out of the supermarket in eastern Paris. The exact fate of all the hostages there and at the one at the print works was not immediately clear.

(Reporting by Emmanuel Jarry; editing by Mark John)

An explosion lighting the front of a kosher supermarket as French police special forces launch their assault, where several people were taken hostage near the Porte de Vincennes in eastern Paris, January 9, 2015. REUTERS/BFMTV via Reuters TV

(Reuters) - Two brothers wanted for a bloody attack on the offices of French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo were killed on Friday when anti-terrorist police stormed their hideout, while a second siege ended with the deaths of four hostages.

The violent end to the simultaneous stand-offs northeast of Paris and at a Jewish supermarket in the capital followed a police operation of unprecedented scale as France tackled one of the worst threats to its internal security in decades.

With one of the gunmen saying shortly before his death that he was funded by al Qaeda, President Francois Hollande warned that the danger to France – home to the European Union’s biggest communities of both Muslims and Jews – was not over yet.

“These madmen, fanatics, have nothing to do with the Muslim religion,” Hollande said in a televised address. “France has not seen the end of the threats it faces.”

An audio recording posted on YouTube attributed to a leader of the Yemeni branch of al Qaeda (AQAP) said the attack in France was prompted by insults to prophets but stopped short of claiming responsibility for the assault on the offices of Charlie Hebdo.

Sheikh Hareth al-Nadhari said in the recording, “Some in France have misbehaved with the prophets of God and a group of God’s faithful soldiers taught them how to behave and the limits of freedom of speech.”

“Soldiers who love God and his prophet and who are in love with martyrdom for the sake of God had come to you,” he said in the recording, the authenticity of which could not immediately be verified.

A Yemeni journalist who specializes in al Qaeda said it was clear that AQAP had provided a “spiritual inspiration” for the attack on the newspaper offices, but there was no clear sign that it was directly responsible for the assault.

Following heavy loss of life over three consecutive days, which began with the attack on Charlie Hebdo when 12 people were shot dead, French authorities are trying to prevent a rise in vengeful anti-immigrant sentiment.

Hollande denounced the killing of the four hostages at the kosher supermarket in the Vincennes district of Paris. “This was an appalling anti-Semitic act that was committed,” he said.

Officials said Cherif Kouachi and his brother Said, both in their thirties, died when security forces raided a print shop in the small town of Dammartin-en-Goele, northeast of Paris, where the chief suspects in Wednesday’s attack had been holed up. The hostage they had taken was safe, an official said.

Automatic gunfire rang out, followed by blasts and then silence as smoke could be seen billowing from the roof of the print shop. Amid thick fog, a helicopter landed on the building’s roof, signaling the end of the assault. A government source said the brothers had emerged from the building and opened fire on police before they were killed.

Before his death, one of the Kouachi brothers told a television station he had received financing from an al Qaeda preacher in Yemen.

“I was sent, me, Cherif Kouachi, by Al Qaeda of Yemen. I went over there and it was Anwar al Awlaki who financed me,” he told BFM-TV by telephone, according to a recording aired by the channel after the siege was over.

Al Awlaki, an influential international recruiter for al Qaeda, was killed in September 2011 in a drone strike. A senior Yemeni intelligence source earlier told Reuters that Kouachi’s brother Said had also met al Awlaki during a stay in Yemen in 2011.

TARGETING JEWS

Minutes after the print shop assault, police broke the second siege at the supermarket in eastern Paris. Four hostages died there along with the gunman, Amedy Coulibaly.

Coulibaly also called BFM-TV before he died to claim allegiance to Islamic State, saying he wanted to defend Palestinians and target Jews.

Coulibaly said he had jointly planned the attacks with the Kouachi brothers, and police confirmed they were all members of the same Islamist cell in northern Paris.

Police had already been hunting 32-year-old Coulibaly along with a 26 year-old woman after the killing on Thursday of a policewoman. The woman, Hayat Boumeddiene, remains on the run.

Altogether 17 victims have died along with the three hostage-takers since Wednesday. France plans a unity rally to protest on Sunday against the attacks. Among those who plan to attend are German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Prime Ministers David Cameron of Britain, Matteo Renzi of Italy and Mariano Rajoy of Spain, and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker.

President Barack Obama also expressed U.S. support. “I want the people of France to know that the United States stands with you today, stands with you tomorrow,” he said.

World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder joined the condemnations, saying “Jewish life in France under threat if terror does not stop”.

HOSTAGES RUSHED OUT

News footage of the kosher supermarket showed dozens of heavily armed police officers massed outside two entrances. The assault began with gunfire and a loud explosion at the door, after which hostages were rushed out.

Reuters photographs taken from long distance showed a man holding an infant and looking distressed being herded into an ambulance by police. Others were carried out on stretchers.

French authorities have mobilized a force of nearly 90,000 since Wednesday’s attack on Charlie Hebdo, a weekly that has long courted controversy by mocking Islam and other religions and political leaders.

A witness said one of the gunmen in Wednesday’s attack was heard to shout: “We have killed Charlie Hebdo! We have avenged the Prophet!”

The Kouachi brothers are believed to be the hooded gunmen who shot dead some of France’s top satirical cartoonists along with two police officers.

Security sources said the French-born brothers of Algerian origin had been under surveillance and had been placed on European and U.S. “no-fly” lists.

The violence raised questions about surveillance of radicals, far-right politics, religion and censorship in a land struggling to integrate part of its five million-strong Muslim community.

(Additional reporting by Paris and U.S. bureaus; Writing by Ralph Boulton and David Stamp; Editing by Peter Millership, Robin Pomeroy, Toni Reinhold)

UNTV GEOWEATHER CENTER (5am, 01/10/15) – Inaasahang bukas ay papasok na sa Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) ang isang Low Pressure Area na nasa Timog Silangan ng Mindanao.

Sa Huwebes ( Jan. 15 ) ay posibleng lumakas ito at maging isang bagyo na magdudulot naman ng mga pag-ulan sa Eastern Visayas at CARAGA.

Sa Biyernes naman ay inaasahang didikit ito sa Bicol region at Eastern Visayas kasama na ang Tacloban at Palo, Leyte..

Papangalanan itong “Amang” sa oras na maging bagyo at pumasok sa PAR.

Ngayong araw ay makararanas ng mahina hanggang sa katamtamang pag-ulan ang Eastern at Central Visayas maging ang Mindanao.

Ang Cagayan Valley, Cordillera at Bicol region maging ang mga probinsya ng Aurora at Quezon ay makararanas ng mahinang pag-ulan habang ang Metro Manila at iba pang Luzon ay makararanas ng papulo-pulong mahinang pag-ulan.

Ang Western Visayas naman ay makararanas ng papulo-pulong pag-ulan at thunderstorms. (Rey Pelayo / UNTV News)

SUNRISE – 6.24am
SUNSET – 5.43pm

UNTV GEOWEATHER CENTER – Naitala kaninang madaling araw ang pinakamababang temperatura ngayong Amihan season.

Bumagsak sa 14.6’C temperatura sa Baguio City habang sa Science Garden sa Quezon City naman ay naramdaman ang 18.9’C dakong alas 5.50am.

Naitala din ang 14.6’C sa Basco, Batanes habang sa Laoag ay 15.9’C.

Ayon sa PAGASA, ngayong Enero hanggang Pebrero ang kasagsagan ng pag-iral ng Amihan kaya’t patuloy na mararamdaman ang lamig ng panahon. (Rey Pelayo/ UNTV News)

The tail of AirAsia QZ8501 passenger plane is seen on the deck of the Indonesian Search and Rescue (BASARNAS) ship Crest Onyx after it was lifted from the sea bed, south of Pangkalan Bun, Central Kalimantan January 10, 2015. REUTERS/Suharso/Pool

(Reuters) - Indonesian search and rescue teams raised on Saturday the tail of an AirAsia passenger jet that crashed nearly two weeks ago with the loss of all 162 people on board, but have yet to locate the black box flight recorders.

Indonesia AirAsia Flight QZ8501 lost contact with air traffic control during bad weather on Dec. 28, less than half way into a two-hour flight from Indonesia to Singapore. There were no survivors.

Forty-eight bodies, including at least two strapped to their seats, have been found in the Java Sea off Borneo.

Search and rescue teams detected pings they believed were from the flight recorders on Friday and two teams of divers resumed the hunt soon after dawn on Saturday.

The tail of the Airbus A320-200 was found on Wednesday, upturned on the sea bed about 30 km (20 miles) from the plane’s last known location at a depth of about 30 metres (100 feet).

Teams of divers working in rubber dinghies battled the swell to attach inflatable balloons to the tail section, which was later towed onto a rescue vessel nearby. But once the tail section was visible, it quickly became apparent that the flight recorders were still underwater.

“We can confirm the black box is not in the tail,” Supriyadi, operations coordinator for the National Search and Rescue Agency, told reporters in the town of Pangkalan Bun, the base for the search effort on Borneo.

The aircraft carries the cockpit voice and flight data recorders – or black boxes – near its tail.

However, officials had said earlier it looked as if the recorders, which will be vital to the investigation into why the airliner crashed, had become separated during the disaster.

“LARGE AREA”

Strong winds, currents and high waves have been hampering efforts to reach other large pieces of suspected wreckage detected by sonar on the sea floor, and to find the remaining victims.

On Friday, pings believed to be from the plane’s black box were detected about 1 km (half a mile) away from the tail.

“The location where the pings were (detected) has been flagged,” Fransiskus Bambang Soelistyo, the head of the search and rescue agency, told reporters. “If tomorrow the currents allow us to confirm it, we will confirm it immediately.”

If and when the recorders are found and taken to the capital, Jakarta, for analysis, it could take up to two weeks to download data, investigators said, although the information could be accessed in as little as two days if the devices are not badly damaged.

While the cause of the crash is not known, the national weather bureau has said seasonal storms were likely to be a factor.

President Joko Widodo, who took office in late October, said the crash exposed widespread problems in the management of air transport in Indonesia.

“Flights without route licenses must not exist. It can’t be like that. There must be a total overhaul (of the sector),” MetroTV broadcast Widodo as saying to reporters during a visit to the Surabaya airport, where the AirAsia flight originated.

The transport ministry has suspended the carrier’s Surabaya-Singapore licence for flying on a Sunday, which it did not have permission for.

The ministry has said this had no bearing on Flight QZ8501’s accident.

On Friday, the Transport Ministry announced it had found five other airlines had violated rules by flying some routes without permits, and that they would be prevented from using those routes until they obtained the necessary documentation.

They included state carrier Garuda Indonesia and private airline Lion Air.

(Additional reporting by Wilda Asmarini in Jakarta and Fransiska Nangoy in Surabaya; Writing by Robert Birsel; Editing by Randy Fabi and Raissa Kasolowsky)

French soldiers patrol in the street near a department store in Paris as part of the highest level of “Vigipirate” security plan in Paris January 10, 2015. French police searched for a female accomplice to militant Islamists behind deadly attacks on the satirical Charlie Hebdo weekly newspaper and a kosher supermarket and maintained a top-level anti-terrorist alert ahead of a Paris gathering with European leaders and demonstration set for Sunday. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard

(Reuters) – A woman hunted by French police as a suspect in the attacks on a satirical paper and Jewish supermarket in Paris left France several day before the killings and is believed to be in Syria, Turkish and French sources said on Saturday.

After killing the gunmen behind the worst assault in France for decades, French police launched in an intensive search for Hayat Boumeddiene, the 26-year-old partner of one of the attackers, describing her as “armed and dangerous”.

But a source familiar with the situation said that Boumeddiene left France last week and traveled to Syria via Turkey. A senior Turkish official corroborated that account, saying she passed through Istanbul on January 2.

Security forces remained on high alert before a march on Sunday which will bring together European leaders in a show of solidarity for the 17 victims killed in three days of violence that began with an attack on the Charlie Hebdo weekly on Wednesday and ended with Friday’s dual sieges at a print works outside Paris and a kosher supermarket in the city.

French security forces shot dead the two brothers behind the Hebdo killings after they took refuge in the print works. They also killed an associate – Boumeddiene’s partner – who planted explosives at the Paris deli in a siege that claimed the lives of four hostages.

On Saturday, police maintained a heavy presence around the French capital, with patrols at sensitive sites including media offices, and local vigils were held across France. The Interior Ministry said about 700,000 people attended including 120,000 in Toulouse, 75,000 in Nantes, and 50,000 in Marseille.

“It’s no longer like before,” said Maria Pinto, on a street in central Paris. “You work a whole life through and because of these madmen, you leave your house to go shopping, go to work, and you don’t know if you’ll come home.”

The attack on Charlie Hebdo, a journal that satirized Islam as well as other religions and politicians, raised sensitive questions about freedom of speech, religion and security in a country struggling to integrate five million Muslims.

NO WARNING

A source familiar with the situation said that Boumeddiene left France last week and traveled to Syria via Turkey.

“On January 2, a woman corresponding to her profile and presenting a piece of identity took a flight from Madrid to Istanbul,” a source familiar with the situation told Reuters.

The source said she was accompanied by a man and had a return ticket for January 9, but never took the flight.

A senior Turkish security official said Paris and Ankara were now cooperating in trying to trace her, but said she arrived in Istanbul without any warning from France.

“After they informed us about her … we identified her mobile phone signal on Jan 8,” the source said. “We think she is in Syria at the moment but we do not have any evidence about that … She is most probably not in Turkey,” the source said, adding the last signal from her phone was detected on Thursday.

An official police photograph of Boumeddiene shows a young woman with long dark hair hitched back over her ears. French media, however, released photos purporting to be of a fully-veiled Boumeddiene, posing with a cross-bow, in what they said was a 2010 training session in the mountainous Cantal region.

French media described her as one of seven children whose mother died when she was young and whose delivery-man father struggled to keep working while looking after the family. As an adult, she lost her job as a cashier when she converted to Islam and started wearing the niqab.

Le Monde said Boumeddiene wed Amedy Coulibaly in a religious ceremony not recognized by French civil authorities in 2009. The two were questioned by police in 2010 and Coulibaly jailed for his involvement in a botched plot to spring from jail the author of a deadly 1995 attack on the Paris transport system.

BOOBY TRAPS

Participation of European leaders including Germany’s Angela Merkel, Britain’s David Cameron and Italy’s Matteo Renzi in a silent march through Paris with President Francois Hollande will pose further demands for security forces on Sunday.

Arab League representatives and some Muslim African leaders as well as Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu will attend.

Political and security chiefs were reviewing how two French-born brothers of Algerian extraction, Cherif and Said Kouachi, could have carried out the Charlie Hebdo attacks despite having been on surveillance and “no-fly” lists for many years.

Paris chief prosecutor Francois Molins said late Friday the three men killed on Friday in the two security operations had had a large arsenal of weapons and had set up booby traps. They had a loaded M82 rocket launcher, two Kalashnikov machine guns and two automatic pistols on them.

With one of the gunmen saying shortly before his death that he was funded by al Qaeda, Hollande warned that the danger to France – home to the European Union’s biggest populations of both Muslims and Jews – was not over yet.

“These madmen, fanatics, have nothing to do with the Muslim religion,” Hollande said in a televised address.

“France has not seen the end of the threats it faces,” said Hollande, facing record unpopularity over his handling of the economy but whose government has received praise from at least one senior opposition leader for its handling of the crisis.

An audio recording posted on YouTube attributed to a leader of the Yemeni branch of al Qaeda (AQAP) said the attack was prompted by insults to prophets but stopped short of claiming responsibility for the assault on the offices of Charlie Hebdo.

Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas condemned the strike as an unjustifiable terrorist attack.

Before his death at the printing works, Cherif Kouachi told a television station he had received financing from an al Qaeda preacher, Anwar al Awlaki, in Yemen.

Al Awlaki, an influential international recruiter for al Qaeda, was killed in September 2011 in a drone strike. A senior Yemeni intelligence source told Reuters that Kouachi’s brother Said had also met al Awlaki during a stay in Yemen in 2011.

Paris prosecutor Molins said there had been sustained contact between Boumeddiene and the wife of Cherif Kouachi, with records of no fewer than 500 phone calls between the two last year. The wife of Kouachi is being questioned by French police.

Coulibaly had also called BFM-TV, to claim allegiance to Islamic State, saying he wanted to defend Palestinians and target Jews. He said he had jointly planned the attacks with the Kouachi brothers, and police confirmed they were all members of the same Islamist cell in northern Paris.

(Additional reporting by Ori Lewis, Marine Pennetier, William Maclean and Orhan Coskun, Writing by Mark John, Editing by Dominic Evans)

French President Francois Hollande is surrounded by Heads of state including (LtoR) Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, European Council President Donald Tusk, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and Switzerland’s President Simonetta Sommaruga as they attend the solidarity march (Marche Republicaine) in the streets of Paris January 11, 2015. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer

(Reuters) - World leaders including Muslim and Jewish statesmen linked arms to lead more than a million French citizens through Paris in an unprecedented march to pay tribute to victims of Islamist militant attacks.

Commentators said the last time crowds of this size filled the streets of the capital was at the Liberation of Paris from Nazi Germany in 1944.

President Francois Hollande and leaders from Germany, Italy, Turkey, Britain as well as Israel and the Palestinian territories moved off from the central Place de la Republique ahead of a sea of French and other flags.

Seventeen people, including journalists and police, were killed in three days of violence that began on Wednesday with a shooting attack on the political weekly Charlie Hebdo, known for its satirical attacks on Islam and other religions.

Giant letters attached to a statue in the square spelt out the word Pourquoi?” (Why?) and small groups sang the “La Marseillaise” national anthem.

“Paris is today the capital of the world. Our entire country will rise up and show its best side,” Hollande said.

At least 3.7 million people took part in silent marches throughout the country, the biggest public demonstration ever registered in France. A total of 1.2 million to 1.6 million marched in Paris and a further 2.5 million in other cities, the Interior Ministry said.

The marches mostly proceeded in a respectful silence, reflecting shock over the worst militant Islamist assault on a European city since 57 people were killed in an attack on London’s transport system in 2005.

The attackers, two French-born brothers of Algerian origin, singled out the weekly for its publication of cartoons depicting and ridiculing the Prophet Mohammad. The bloodshed ended on Friday with a hostage-taking at a Jewish deli in which four hostages and the gunman were killed.

Some 2,200 police and soldiers patrolled Paris streets to protect marchers from would-be attackers, with police snipers on rooftops and plain-clothes detectives mingling with the crowd.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi were among 44 foreign leaders marching with Hollande.

Merkel walked to Hollande’s left and at his right was President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita of Mali, a country where France intervened to fight Islamist rebels two years ago to the day.

In a rare public display of emotion by the leaders of two powers, Hollande embraced Merkel, her eyes shut and forehead resting on his cheek, on the steps of the Elysee before they headed off to march.

Renzi said the fight against terrorism will be won by a Europe that is political, not just economic.

“The most important is the Europe of values, of culture, of ideals and that is the reason we are here,” Renzi said.

Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu – who earlier in the day encouraged French Jews to emigrate to Israel – and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas were also present and walked just a few steps from one another.

“In the same way that the civilized world stood today with France against terror, so it must stand with Israel against terror,” Netanyahu said at a ceremony in a Paris synagogue.

After world leaders left the march, Hollande stayed to greet survivors of the Charlie Hebdo attack and their families, while hundreds of thousands of people marched slowly and in near-total silence through Paris streets.

“We’re not going to let a little gang of hoodlums run our lives,” said Fanny Appelbaum, 75, who said she lost two sisters and a brother in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz‎. “Today, we are all one.”

Zakaria Moumni, a 34-year-old Franco-Moroccan draped in the French flag, agreed: “I am here to show the terrorists they have not won – it is bringing people together of all religions.”

The attacks have raised difficult questions of free speech, religion and security, and exposed the vulnerability of states to urban attacks.

The head of France’s 550,000-strong Jewish community, Roger Cukierman, said Hollande had promised that Jewish schools and synagogues would have extra protection, by the army if necessary, after the killings. He also called for limits on hate speech and more control on suspected jihadists.

Hours before the march, a video emerged featuring a man resembling the gunman killed in the kosher deli. He pledged allegiance to the Islamic State insurgent group and urged French Muslims to follow his example.

Two of the gunmen had declared allegiance to al Qaeda in Yemen and a third to the militant Islamic State. All three were killed during the police operations in what local commentators have called “France’s 9/11″, a reference to the September 2001 attacks on U.S. targets by al Qaeda.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said that at a meeting in Paris on Sunday European interior ministers had agreed to boost cooperation to thwart further militant attacks.

He called for the creation of a European database of airplane passenger names and said Europe should fight against abusive use of the Internet to spread hate speech.

While there has been widespread solidarity with the victims, there have been dissenting voices.

French social media have carried comments from those uneasy with the “Je suis Charlie” slogan interpreted as freedom of expression at all cost. Others suggest there was hypocrisy in world leaders whose countries have repressive media laws attending the march.

Far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen, whom analysts see receiving a boost in the polls due to the attacks, said her anti-immigrant party had been excluded from the Paris demonstration and would instead take part in regional marches.

Less than 1,000 people gathered in the National Front-ruled southern town of Beaucaire.

(Additional reporting by Andew Callus,; Elizabeth Pineau, Jean-Baptiste Vey, Ori Lewis and Bill Maclean; Writing by Mark John and Geert De Clercq; Editing by Ralph Boulton, Anna Willard and Angus MacSwan)

Amedy Coulibaly, one of the three gunmen behind the worst militant attacks in France for decades, declares his allegiance in an unknown location to the Islamic State and urges French Muslims to follow his example, in this still image taken from video January 11, 2015. In the seven-minute posthumous video, apparently intended for release after the actions, Coulibaly, who staged the attack on a kosher supermarket, said the planned assaults on satirical journal Charlie Hebdo and the Jewish target were justified by French military interventions overseas.
CREDIT: REUTERS/SOCIAL MEDIA VIA REUTERS TV

(Reuters) - One of three gunmen behind the worst militant attacks in France for decades appeared in a video released online on Sunday, declaring his allegiance to the Islamic State armed group and urging French Muslims to follow his example.

In the seven-minute video apparently intended for release after the actions, Amedy Coulibaly, who staged the attack on a Jewish deli, said the planned assaults on a satirical journal and a Jewish target were justified by French military interventions overseas.

A French anti-terrorist police source said there was no doubt it was Coulibaly in the French-language recording.

Seventeen victims were killed in three days of violence that began with an attack on the Charlie Hebdo weekly on Wednesday and ended with Friday’s dual sieges at a print works outside Paris and a kosher supermarket in the city.

French security forces killed Coulibaly, 32, on Friday after he planted explosives at the Paris deli in a siege that claimed the lives of four hostages. They also shot dead two brothers behind the Hebdo killings, Said and Cherif Kouachi, after they took refuge in the print works.

The Kouachi brothers said they were aligned to al Qaeda, which competes for influence with Islamic State among militant Islamists.

Coulibaly had also called BFM-TV on Friday to claim allegiance to Islamic State, saying he wanted to defend Palestinians and target Jews.

He said in that call that he had jointly planned the attacks with the Kouachi brothers. Police confirmed they were all members of the same Islamist cell in northern Paris.

The video showed scenes of man resembling Coulibaly doing physical training and images of an arsenal of weapons and ammunition on the wooden floor of an apartment. He was shown variously in white robes, sitting with a gun at his side, and in combat outfit.

“I pledged allegiance to the Caliph as soon as the caliphate was declared,” he says, referring to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, whose group is an anti-government paramilitary force in both Iraq and Syria that has a growing network of followers elsewhere in the Middle East and Asia.

Coulibaly said he would be working together with the Kouachi brothers: “We’ve done things a bit together, a bit apart, to try and (achieve) more impact.”

(Reporting by Mark John and Nicolas Bertin in Paris, Writing by William Maclean; editing by Ralph Boulton)

Roger Federer of Switzerland poses with a giant number 1,000 after winning his thousandth career title in the men’s singles final at the Brisbane International tennis tournament in Brisbane, January 11, 2015. REUTERS/Jason Reed

(Reuters) - Roger Federer beat Milos Raonic in an enthralling final at the Brisbane International on Sunday to register his 1,000th ATP career win and complete the perfect build up to this month’s Australian Open.

Federer survived the inevitable serving blitz from the towering Canadian to win the two hour 13 minute slugfest 6-4 6-7(2) 6-4 and join Jimmy Connors (1,253) and Ivan Lendl (1,071) as the only men to reach the magical milestone.

The Swiss master, as fiercely competitive as ever at the age of 33 even if he doesn’t move quite as quickly as he once did, also chalked up his 83rd career title and has now won at least one tournament every year since 2001, an unbroken streak spanning 15 seasons.

Federer was presented with the tournament trophy by Roy Emerson, a 12-time grand slam winner, and also received a special framed photo marking his 1,000th win from Rod Laver, the only tennis player to win all four majors in the same year on two separate occasions.

“It’s a special moment, no doubt about that,” Federer said at the post-match presentation.

“I’ve played a lot of tennis over the years… so to get to 1,000 wins means a lot to me and I will never forget this match.”

Raonic, one of the emerging stars of men’s tennis since making the semi-finals at Wimbledon last year was gracious in defeat and also paid tribute to Federer, saying he was in awe of his achievements.

“We all know today is a significant milestone for Roger,” he said. “When we came out and they listed all the things you’ve won, I thought you must have been playing for 2,000 wins.”

Raonic was unable to dictate terms against the vastly more experienced Federer once he adapted to his booming serve but pushed his opponent all the way in a high-quality match where the pair hit a combined total of 92 clean winners.

Raonic had blasted 34 aces past Kei Nishikori in his semi-final but managed only 12 against Federer, who replied with 20 of his own, including one where Raonic misjudged the bounce and took an embarrassing air swing.

Federer, returning the ball deep and mixing up his shots, broke Raonic’s serve once in each set as the capacity crowd at the Pat Rafter Arena roared in admiration.

The world number two broke in the third game of the match when Raonic dumped a backhand into the net then broke him again in the opening game of the second set.

But Raonic showed that he has more to his game than just his big serve when he quickly broke back and forced a tiebreaker, his sixth of the tournament.

Federer won the first two points of the tiebreaker but Raonic reeled off the next seven on the trot to square the match at one set apiece.

The standard of play rose along with the tension in the deciding set before Raonic blinked first, double faulting to give Federer match point then hitting a forehand into the net to concede defeat.

(Reporting by Julian Linden; Editing by Amlan Chakraborty)

Si Pangulong Benigno S. Aquino III sa pagbibigay ng mensahe sa ginanap na taunang  Vin d’ Honneur sa  Rizal Hall ng  Malacañan Palace nitong  Lunes (January 12, 2015).  (Photo by Ryan Lim / Malacañang Photo Bureau)

MANILA, Philippines – Pinangunahan ni Pangulong Benigno Aquino III ang pagtanggap sa nasa 500 panauhin sa palasyo ng Malakanyang nitong Lunes  ng umaga para sa tradisyunal na Vin d’ Honneur para sa panibagong taon.

Sa tradisyunal na Vin d’ Honneur, nagtitipon-tipon ang mga matataas na opisyal ng Pilipinas at iba’t-ibang organisasyon, kabilang ang mga senador, miyembro ng kamara de representate, mga miyembro ng gabinete, hudikatura, diplomatic community, mga representante mula sa business sector at international organization.

Pagkakataon ito ng Pangulo upang makapagbigay ng pahayag para sa diplomatic community.

Naging sentro ng talumpati ng pangulo ang mga naging pagsubok ng bansa sa taong 2014 na kinaharap ng kaniyang administrasyon.

“When we look back on 2014 or when we look forward to our prospects in 2015, it becomes clear: we are very much on this earth. Be it the tensions in the West brought about by the problems in Ukraine, the increasingly erratic weather patterns brought about by global climate change; issues regarding the price of oil and the world market, the threat of pandemics like MERS-Corona Virus or Ebola, or selfish and senseless acts of violence as witnessed in Pakistan, Australia, Canada, or most recently in France: there are indeed many problems confronting us.”

Kaalinsabay nito ay muli ring nanawagan si Pangulong Aquino ng pagkakaisa ng mga bansa upang masolusyunan ang mga usapin katulad ng banta ng terorismo.

“We are responsible for our world and its future. Whether in combating climate change and its effects, or in fighting inequality, or in taking a stand against terrorism and instability: the time to act is now. We can work together: each person and each country doing its part to collectively solve all these issues. Or we can think only of ourselves, thereby allowing these challenges to grow more convoluted, and more insurmountable until we are all consumed by them.”

Umaasa naman ang pangulo sa kaniyang gabinete na sa mga huling taon ng kaniyang panunungkulan ay mapaglingkuran ang mamamayan na may dedikasyon at integridad. (Nel Maribojoc / Ruth Navales, UNTV News)

Ang taxi driver na si Arnald Lacdan habang ipinapakita sa media ang kanyang ID. (UNTV News)

MANILA, Philippines – Nag-ikot ang Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) sa mga paradahan ng taxi sa Metro Manila upang ipaalala sa mga tsuper na sa Enero 15 na ang simula ng implementasyon ng ID system.

Kabilang sa mga pinuntahan ng LTFRB ang NAIA Terminal 2, SM Mall of Asia at Araneta Center.

Batay sa memorandum circular 2014-020 ng LTFRB, kailangang nakasabit ang back to back ID’s ng mga tsuper sa rear view ng kanilang mga taxi.

“Kapag nakita na walang naka-display na ID ang isang taxi cab, maaari silang hindi sumakay, makakabawas sa kanilang agam-agam na baka may hindi magandang mangyari sa kanila,” pahayag ni LTFRB Public Assistance and Complaint Desk head, Arnel Del Rio.

Sang-ayon naman sa nasabing regulasyon ang ilang taxi driver.

“Maganda sa mga pasahero kasi kapag wala kang ID hindi ka sasakyan,” saad ng taxi driver na si Reynaldo Mesias.

Ayon naman kay Arnald Lacdan, “Madali po ma-trace sa iyong mga gumagawa ng kalokohan dahil iyong iba nadadamay, mga matitino nadadamay sa hindi matitino.”

Napagkasunduan ng LTFRB at taxi operators ang size ng ID ng mga taxi driver kaya hindi pwedeng idahilan na nakakaharang o sagabal ang ID.

Sa Enero 16 ay magsisimula nang manghuli ang LTFRB sa mga hindi susunod sa regulasyon.

Ayon kay Del Rio, ang sinomang taxi drivers na walang ID ay hindi maaaring pumasada, at kapag nahuli ay magbabayad ng multa na nagkakahalaga ng limang libong piso.

“Pwede agad ireklamo sa amin sa pamamagitan ng ating 24/7 hotline at ang multa sa hindi pagdi-display sa ID ay P5,000.”

Noong 2014, tinatayang 60% ang natanggap na reklamo ng LTFRB partikular sa pang-aabuso ng mga taxi driver sa kanilang mga pasahero.

Bukas ang LTFRB hotline no. 459- 21-29 upang tumangap ng reklamo. (Aiko Miguel / Ruth Navales, UNTV News)

GRAPHICS: Latest SWS Survey result for VP Jejomar Binay

MANILA, Philippines – Bumagsak sa record-low ang satisfaction ratings ni Vice President Jejomar Binay sa huling quarter ng taong 2014 batay sa survey ng Social Weather Station (SWS).

Mula sa very good o +52 noong Setyembre ay bumaba ito sa good o +44.

Si Binay ay nahaharap sa iba’t ibang kontrobersiya ng umano’y kurapsyon noong alkalde pa siya ng Makati City.

Kabilang sa mga ipinupukol kay Binay ang umano’y overpriced na Makati City Hall II parking building at Makati Science High School, gayundin ang mahigit tatlong daang ektaryang lupain sa Rosario, Batangas na pag-aari umano ng pamilya Binay.

Sa kabila nito, nananatiling positibo ang kampo ng bise presidente sa tiwala ng taumbayan sa kanya. Nanindigan rin ang kampo ni Binay na walang basehan at pamumulitika lamang ang lahat ng mga alegasyon laban sa bise presidente.

Gayunpaman, nananatiling angat pa rin si Binay kumpara sa ibang mga opisyal ng pamahalaan.

Bumaba sa moderate o katumbas ng +28 mula sa good o +36 ang rating ni Senate President Franklin Drilon.

Bumaba rin ang rating ni House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. na mula +13 ngayon ay +11 na lamang.

Samantala, tumaas nang kaunti ang rating ni Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, na ngayo’y nasa +11 mula sa +10.

Bahagya ring tumaas ang net satisfaction rating ni Pangulong Benigno Aquino III mula sa +34 noong ikatlong quarter sa +39 noong huling quarter ng 2014.

Samantala, para sa mga government institution, bumaba ng dalawang puntos ang satisfaction rating ng senado. Mula sa moderate o +28 noong September 2014 ay naging +26 na lamang ito.

Ang rating ng House of Representatives ay bumaba rin mula +21 sa +20.

Malaking pagbaba sa rating naman ang nakuha ng Korte Suprema na ngayo’y nasa moderate o +26 na lamang, mula sa dating good o +32.

Gayundin sa gabinete ni Pangulong Aquino, na may rating na neutral o +9 mula sa dating moderate o +18.

Isinagawa ng Social Weather Stations ang survey noong November 27 hanggang December 1, 2014 sa mahigit isang libong respondents mula sa iba’t ibang panig ng bansa. (Bianca Dava / Ruth Navales, UNTV News)

FILE PHOTO: PHIVOLCS facade (UNTV News)

MANILA, Philippines – Muling nagbabala ang Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) sa mga probinsyang parte ng itinatawag na Manila Trench na maging handa sa mga posibleng lindol ngayong taon.

Ayon sa PHIVOLCS, madalas nagkakaroon ng pagyanig ng lupa sa mga lugar na sakop ng Manila Trench sa panahon na ito.

Sinabi ni Vilma Hernandez-Grennan, Senior Science Research Specialist na madalas nagkakaroon ng pagbabangga ng tectonic plates na nagreresulta sa pagyanig ng lupa.

“We cannot predict earthquakes. As of now, hindi natin nape-predict, pero itong Manila Trench ito ay very active na earthquake zone. So maya’t maya makaka-record tayo ng lindol mula dito sa Manila Trench,” paliwanag nito.

Kahapon, Linggo ng alas-3 ng madaling araw ay hindi inasahan ang nangyaring 5.9 magnitude na lindol sa Zambles at ilang karatig na probinsya.

Ang pagyanig ay naramdaman din hanggang sa ilang bahagi ng National Capital Region (NCR).

Intensity 5 ang naramdaman sa mga bayan ng San Antonio, Botolan, Subic, San Felipe, Narciso, at Olongapo sa Subic.

Naramdaman naman ang intensity 4 sa maraming bahagi ng NCR kabilang ang Pateros City, Manila, Quezon City, Parañaque, at Malabon; habang intensity 3 naman sa Tagaytay, San Miguel sa Tarlac, Nueva Ecija at Pangasinan.

Intensity 2 naman ang naramdaman sa Baguio City at Mindoro.

Bagama’t wala namang naitalang namatay, nasaktan, o nasirang mga ari-arian, iginiit ng PHIVOLCS na importante na maging handa partikular ang mga nabanggit na lugar na sakop ng fault.

“Dapat maging alert tayo kapag may lindol dapat alam natin ang ating gagawin. So kapag may lindol we should do duck, cover and hold, and make sure ang ating tinitirahan ay maka-withstand ng ground shaking,” saad pa ni Grennan. (Joyce Balancio / Ruth Navales, UNTV News)

FILE PHOTO: Isa sa mga C-130 Hercules ng Estados Unidos.  (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Howard Blair)

MANILA, Philippines – Magiging lima na ang C-130 aircraft na pagmamay-ari ng bansa sa oras na mai-deliver ang karagdagang dalawang C-130 aircraft sa first quarter ng 2016.

Binili ng Pilipinas sa Amerika ang dalawang C-130 aircraft na nagkakahalaga ng $55-million, at inaasahang maide-deliver sa first quarter ng 2016.

Sasagutin ng US foreign military financing ang $20 million bilang bahagi ng joint investment program ng Amerika at pagpapatatag sa kapasidad ng militar ng Pilipinas.

Matatandaang malaki ang nagawa ng C-130 sa paghahatid ng relief assistance at pagta-transport ng mga biktima ng Bagyong Yolanda sa Tacloban. (UNTV News)

Ilan sa mga bunk houses na itinatayo ng pamahalaan para sa mga biktima ng Bagyong Yolana. (UNTV News)

MANILA, Philippines – Tinatayang aabot sa 120-libong mga bahay ang target na matapos ng pamahalaan ngayong 2015 para sa mga biktima ng Bagyong Yolanda.

Ito ang inanunsyo nitong Linggo ni Vice President Jejomar Binay, chairman ng Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council at head ng Yolanda Resettlement Cluster.

Ayon kay Binay, aabot sa mahigit 200-libong mga bahay ang target na maipatayo ng pamahalaan sa mahigit 100 mga bayan at munisipalidad na sinalanta ng Bagyong Yolanda noong 2013.

Nasa kabuoang P13.4 billion ang inilabas na pondo ng pamahalaan noong Disyembre 2014 na gagamitin para sa konstruksyon ng mahigit 46-libong mga bahay.

Naaprubahan na rin ang karagdagang budget na nagkakahalaga ng P1.3 billion para sa pagpapatayo ng karagdagang mga housing project.

Aminado si Binay na nahihirapan ang mga government housing agency na makahanap ng maayos na lugar upang mapagtayuan ng mga bahay, kung kaya’t hanggang sa ngayon ay marami pa rin sa mga biktima ng bagyo ang wala pa ring maayos na tahanan.

Sa datos ng Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, nasa 2,100 housing units lamang ang natapos na maipatayo noong 2014.

Katuwang ang mga regional resettlement cluster at mga alkalde sa lugar, mahigpit na tutukan ngayon ng pamahalaan ang naturang proyekto upang masiguro na matatapos ang mga nakatakdang housing projects bago sumapit ang 2016. (Joan Nano / Ruth Navales, UNTV News)

Mexican national, arestado sa pagbebenta ng imported cocaine sa Makati City

MANILA, Philippines – Nadakip ng pinagsanib na pwersa ng Philippine National Police (PNP) at Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) sa isang buy-bust operation ang isang Mexican national na nagbebenta ng cocaine sa Makati City.

Kinilala ang suspek na si Horacio Herrera Hernandez, 39 anyos.

Ayon kay Atty. Roque Merdegia, Jr., PNP-AIDSOTF spokesperson, umaga pa lamang noong linggo ay nakaabang na ang mga awtoridad sa paligid ng isang hotel sa Makati Avenue, kung saan naninirahan ang Hernandez.

Sa tulong ng undercover agent ng PDEA, nasabat mula sa suspek ang mahigit 2.5 kilos ng imported cocaine na nagkakahalaga ng 125,000 euros o mahigit P12.5 million.

“Hindi ito basta-basta nakikipagkita kung kani-kanino lang. Fortunately, mayroon tayo, iyong PDEA at PNP na naka-establish ng CI na nakapagpakilala ng undercover natin doon sa suspect. “

Dagdag pa ni Merdegia, isang taon nang minamanmanan ng mga awtoridad si Hernandez na napagalaman na miyembro ng isang sindikato na nagsisimula pa lang ng operasyon sa Pilipinas.

“Nalaman natin na miyembro siya ng Mexican Sinaloan Group Cartel kasama siya sa nag-establish dito sa Pilipinas, at lumalakad din siya, nagbebenta din siya ng droga, cocaine at shabu.”

Samantala, iniimbestigahan na ngayon ng PNP at PDEA kung papaano nakapasok ang imported na cocaine sa bansa.

“Ang cocaine na ito hindi po ito galing sa Samar, iyong mga naunang Cocaine. We heard ito ay galing sa labas ng Pilipinas na ipinasok ni Horacio at inaalam natin kung papaano ipinasok sa 2.5 kilograms of cocaine. At ang PDEA nakikipagugnayan na ngayon sa customs at sa ibang mga ahensya,” pahayag pa ni Merdegia.

Habambuhay na pagkakakulong na walang piyansa ang posibleng kaharapin ni Hernandez dahil sa paglabag sa Republic Act 9165 (Comprehensive Dangerous Act of 2002).

Patuloy naman ang imbestigasyon ng PNP at PDEA sa mga posible pang kasamahan ni Hernandez sa ilegal na operasyon. (Joyce Balancio / Ruth Navales, UNTV News)

The Twitter account of US Central Command apparently hacked by ISIS. (REUTERS)

(Reuters) - The Twitter and YouTube accounts for the U.S. military command that oversees operations in the Middle East were hacked on Monday by people claiming to be sympathetic toward the Islamic State militant group being targeted in American bombing raids.

“American soldiers, we are coming, watch your back, ISIS,” the hackers posted on the U.S. Central Command Twitter feed, using an acronym for the hardline Islamist group, which has taken control of parts of Syria and Iraq.

U.S. officials acknowledged that the incident in which the accounts were “compromised” for about 30 minutes was embarrassing but played down the impact. The FBI said it was investigating.

Pentagon spokesman Army Colonel Steve Warren said the Defense Department “views this as little more than a prank, or as vandalism.”

“It’s inconvenient, it’s an annoyance but in no way is any sensitive or classified information compromised,” Warren told a press briefing.

Defense officials said in a statement that “operational military networks were not compromised and there was no operational impact.”

Islamic State forces have been targeted in air strikes by the United States and international partners.

“In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, the CyberCaliphate continues its CyberJihad,” the Central Command Twitter feed said after being hacked.

The Twitter account published a list of generals and addresses associated with them, titled “Army General Officer Public Roster (by rank) 2 January 2014.”

Subsequent posts read, “Pentagon Networks Hacked! China Scenarios” and “Pentagon Networks Hacked. Korean Scenarios.”

Central Command said it was notifying Pentagon and law enforcement authorities about the potential release of “personally identifiable information” and work to make sure the people “potentially affected” are notified quickly.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said during a press briefing that the hacking was “something that we take seriously.” But Earnest added, “There’s a pretty significant difference between what is a large data breach and the hacking of a Twitter account.”

Even as the hacking was taking place, President Barack Obama on Monday announced new proposals aimed at bolstering American cybersecurity after high-profile hacking incidents including one against Sony Pictures Entertainment that U.S. officials blamed on North Korea.

Several current and former U.S. security and intelligence officials said until now they had never heard of the CyberCaliphate. Some of the officials expressed skepticism at the group’s skills and capabilities.

“Hacking a Twitter is about the equivalent of spray-painting a subway car,” a former senior U.S. intelligence official said.

But the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security, Republican Michael McCaul of Texas, called the incident “severely disturbing.”

“Assaults from cyber-jihadists will become more common unless the administration develops a strategy for appropriately responding to these cyberattacks, including those like the North Korea attack against Sony,” McCaul said.

REVIEW OF DOCUMENTS

Reuters reviewed some of the documents released by the hackers but could not immediately identify any that appeared to contain information that compromised national security. Some of the documents were easily found using Google searches.

After the hacking, the heading of the Central Command Twitter account showed a figure in a black-and-white head scarf and the words “CyberCaliphate” and “I love you ISIS.”

Central Command’s YouTube account featured videos posted by the U.S. military of air strikes on Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq. It was hacked to add two videos titled “Flames of War ISIS Video” and “O Soldiers of Truth Go Forth.”

Some of the slides posted on the Twitter account by the hackers apparently were created by Lincoln Laboratory, a federally funded research center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that studies national security problems.

Lincoln Lab did not immediately respond to questions about the background and sensitivity of the slides, some of which dealt with intelligence and reconnaissance that might be needed in a conflict scenario involving China.

Central Command is based at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida and handles American military operations covering the Middle East and Central Asia. Central Command oversaw the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and is managing the U.S. air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

In what proved to be a bit of bad timing, the U.S. National Counterintelligence and Security Center chose earlier on Monday to join Twitter. It made a joke in its first tweet: “Up to 292 followers so far and not hacked yet.”

(Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball, Ryan McNeill, Phil Stewart, Andrea Shalal, Roberta Rampton, Doina Chiacu and David Brunnstrom; Writing by Will Dunham; Editing by Grant McCool and Toni Reinhold)

Ang Mexican national na nahuli ng PDEA sa isang buy-bust operation sa Makati City. (UNTV News)

MANILA, Philippines – Nadakip ng pinagsanib na pwersa ng Philippine National Police (PNP) at Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) sa isang buy-bust operation ang isang Mexican national na nagbebenta ng cocaine sa Makati City.

Kinilala ang suspek na si Horacio Herrera Hernandez, 39 anyos.

Ayon kay Atty. Roque Merdegia, Jr., PNP-AIDSOTF spokesperson, umaga pa lamang noong Linggo, Enero 11 ay nakaabang na ang mga awtoridad sa paligid ng isang hotel sa Makati Avenue, kung saan naninirahan ang Hernandez.

Sa tulong ng undercover agent ng PDEA, nasabat mula sa suspek ang mahigit 2.5 kilos ng imported cocaine na nagkakahalaga ng 125,000 euros o mahigit P12.5 million.

“Hindi ito basta-basta nakikipagkita kung kani-kanino lang. Fortunately, mayroon tayo, iyong PDEA at PNP na naka-establish ng CI na nakapagpakilala ng undercover natin doon sa suspect.”

Dagdag pa ni Merdegia, isang taon nang minamanmanan ng mga awtoridad si Hernandez na napag-alaman na miyembro ng isang sindikato na nagsisimula pa lang ng operasyon sa Pilipinas.

“Nalaman natin na miyembro siya ng Mexican Sinaloan Group Cartel kasama siya sa nag-establish dito sa Pilipinas at lumalakad din siya, nagbebenta din siya ng droga, cocaine at shabu.”

Samantala, iniimbestigahan na ngayon ng PNP at PDEA kung papaano nakapasok ang imported na cocaine sa bansa.

“Ang cocaine na ito hindi po ito galing sa Samar, iyong mga naunang Cocaine. We heard ito ay galing sa labas ng Pilipinas na ipinasok ni Horacio at inaalam natin kung papaano ipinasok sa 2.5 kilograms of cocaine. At ang PDEA nakikipag-ugnayan na ngayon sa customs at sa ibang mga ahensya,” pahayag pa ni Merdegia.

Habambuhay na pagkakakulong na walang piyansa ang posibleng kaharapin ni Hernandez dahil sa paglabag sa Republic Act 9165 (Comprehensive Dangerous Act of 2002).

Patuloy naman ang imbestigasyon ng PNP at PDEA sa mga posible pang kasamahan ni Hernandez sa ilegal na operasyon. (Joyce Balancio / Ruth Navales, UNTV News)

The flight data recorder of AirAsia QZ8501 is transferred to another container at the airbase in Pangkalan Bun, Central Kalimantan January 12, 2015.
CREDIT: REUTERS/DARREN WHITESIDE

(Reuters) - Divers retrieved the cockpit voice recorder from the wreck of an AirAsia passenger jet on Tuesday, an Indonesian investigator told Reuters, a key step towards determining the cause of the crash that killed 162 people.

Indonesia AirAsia’s Flight QZ8501 lost contact with air traffic control in bad weather on Dec. 28, less than halfway into a two-hour flight from Indonesia’s second-biggest city of Surabaya to Singapore. There were no survivors.

The cockpit voice recorder, which retains the last two hours of conversation between the pilots and with air traffic controllers, was found close to where the flight data recorder was recovered from the bottom of the Java Sea on Monday.

When asked if the so-called black box was found, Santoso Sayogo, an investigator at the National Transportation Safety Committee, told Reuters: “We can confirm”.

Together the black boxes, which are actually orange, contain a wealth of data that will be crucial for investigators piecing together the sequence of events that led to the Airbus A320-200 plunging into the sea.

The cockpit voice recorder was on board an Indonesian navy vessel and expected to be sent to the capital, Jakarta, for analysis, MetroTV said, quoting a transport official.

CALMER WEATHER

Investigators may need up to a month to get a complete reading of the data.

The AirAsia group’s first fatal accident took place more than two weeks ago, but wind, high waves and strong currents have slowed efforts to recover bodies and wreckage from the shallow waters off Borneo island.

Dozens of Indonesian navy divers took advantage of calmer weather this week to retrieve the black boxes and now hope to find the fuselage of the Airbus.

Forty-eight bodies have been plucked from the Java Sea and brought to Surabaya for identification. Searchers believe more bodies will be found in the plane’s fuselage.

“Our main task is to find the victims,” Fransiskus Bambang Soelistyo, head of the National Search and Rescue Agency, told reporters before heading to Surabaya to meet families of the victims.

“Even if both (black boxes) are found, it doesn’t mean that our operation is over.”

Relatives of the victims have urged the authorities to make finding the remains of their loved ones the priority.

“Even if the search has to last for a month, we are still hoping to find them,” said Lioni, who lost four family members in the plane crash. “If they can find even one (of my family members), we would feel a little bit relieved.”

(Additional reporting by Fergus Jensen and Eveline Danubrata in JAKARTA, Kanupriya Kapoor in PANGKALAN BUN, and Fransiska Nangoy in SURABAYA; Writing by Randy Fabi; Editing by Alex Richardson)

Ang isa sa mga POS device o point of selling device na gagamitin LTO para sa pagtanggap ng transaction fees sa pamamagitan ng debit cards. (UNTV News)

MANILA, Philippines – Maaari nang gamitin ang mga debit card sa mga transaksyon sa mga opisina ng Land Transportation Office (LTO) simula sa susunod na buwan.

Inaasahang makatutulong ang paggamit ng debit card sa pagpapabilis ng transaksyon sa LTO, gaya ng pagkuha ng lisensya at pagpaparehistro ng sasakyan.

Ayon kay Assistant Secretary Alfonso Tan, sa pamamagitan rin ng debit card ay maiiwasan ang korapsyon sa ahensya.

Mababawasan na rin ang oras na ginugugol sa cash transaction na dati ay umaabot ng 3-10 minuto.

Ang isang district office ng LTO ay may average na 700 transactions kada araw. Nagkakahalaga ang bawat transaksyon ng mula P300 hanggang P10,000.

“Wala nang suklian o kaya dahil may pera ka pwede kang magbayad sa fixer ng extra, dito hindi. Hindi mo na kasi kailangang paghandaan yung cash, kung meron ka sa ATM mo ibabawas na lang doon,” ani Tan.

Ayon naman sa Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), may kontribusyon sa paglago ng ekonomiya ang ganitong sistema at makaiiwas pa sa panganib.

“A cash less society definitely probably accelerate the evolution of economic growth faster, because it remove the friction in counting the cash, sorting it out, having it pickup by armored car, bringing it to the bank,” pahayag ni DBP Executive Vice-President Anthony Robles.

Mag-uumpisang tumanggap ng debit card ang LTO sa susunod na buwan sa mga regional office sa bansa at isusunod na sa mga distrito.

Ang LTO ang kauna-unahang ahensya ng gobyerno na magpapatupad ng ganitong sistema.

May charge naman na P10.00 ang kada transaksyon gamit ang debit card. (Rey Pelayo / Ruth Navales, UNTV News)