Nepal Passenger Plane Crash Kills All 23 People On Board

A small passenger plane has crashed in mountainous western Nepal, killing all 23 people on board.

The Twin Otter aircraft, operated by Tara Air, was travelling from Pokhara to Jomsom and lost contact with the control tower shortly after taking off.

Most of those on board were Nepalis. It is not clear what caused the crash.

The plane was carrying three crew and 20 passengers, one of them Chinese and one Kuwaiti.

Analysts say Nepal’s Aviation Industry has a poor safety record.

Since 1949, the year the first aircraft landed in Nepal, there had been more than 70 different crashes involving planes and helicopters, in which more than 700 people had been killed.

Most accidents had been attributed to bad weather, inexperienced pilots and inadequate maintenance.

In 2013, the European Union banned all Nepalese airlines from flying to its territory for safety reasons.

With Channel Television

Boko Haram: Army Kills 23 Terrorists, Rescue 150 Hostages

The Nigerian Army has disclosed that 23 Boko Haram terrorists have been killed, while 150 hostages rescued as Nigeria/Cameroon troops continue to clear out terrorists’ hideouts.

The Nigerian Army says that in line with the Chief of Army Staff’s directive for troops to maintain the momentum, troops of 7 Division carried out major operations against the Boko Haram terrorist’s locations in Talala and Kumshe axis of Borno State, Channel Television reported.

According to a statement issued by the acting Director, Army Public Relations, Colonel Sani Usman, during the joint operation between elements of 7 division and the Cameroonian forces along Banki-Kumshe axis, 20 Boko Haram terrorists were killed.

He also revealed that the troops destroyed 4 AK 47 rifles and captured a gun truck mounted with an anti-aircraft gun (AA gun) and 2 AK 47 rifles, as well as a 60mm mortar and a Dane gun.

Shocked woman told she was 'constipated ' - only to give birth to her daughter 20 seconds later

Shock: Mum Esther Hope with Lily when she was two months old.

A woman who was told she was constipated gave birth to a baby 20 seconds later on a hospital trolley.

Esther Hope believed her abdominal cramps and back pain was nothing more than constipation and was prescribed laxatives by a doctor.

But after doubling over in pain she was rushed to hospital where her waters broke.

Healthcare assistants still insisted it was “just her body getting ready to go to the toilet” and she was left alone on a hospital trolley - but 20 seconds later gave birth to her beautiful daughter Lily Hope-Moore.

Doctors came back to check on the 23-year-old only to find her cradling her newborn baby .

She said: "I knew it was a baby as soon as I realised it was coming from the wrong place.

"I felt her head and screamed at my dad to get a nurse.

"Within seconds of him leaving the room I delivered her.

"I couldn't believe she was mine. I didn't know what to do, I was hysterical."

"I was in total shock," she continued. "Having a baby couldn't have been further from my mind. I'd had the contraceptive injection.

"I just thought I had a 'food baby' because I suffer from Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

"I worked 36 hours the week before and went to a wedding where I drank champagne.

"I even went to Thorpe Park and went on the all the rides. I had no idea."

No idea: Esther when she was seven months pregnant before a girls night out.

Esther, from Chilworth, Surrey, started getting stomach pains in May 2015.

She was given an ultrasound and diagnosed with IBS, an inflamed liver, and prescribed medication by doctors who suggested her diet was to blame.

But over the next few months she started getting back pains and heartburn, and was going to the toilet all the time and had even started craving Coco Pops.

She put on two stone and jumped from a size 18 to a size 20, but put it all down to her 'illness' and said doctors didn't check to see whether she was pregnant .

"They kept saying my symptoms were related to my previous liver problems," she said.

"I took them at their word and never thought I could be pregnant, not while I was taking precautions.

"My breasts didn't swell and only the upper part of my stomach was hard, the rest of my stomach was normal."

But when she was 37 weeks pregnant she started suffering bouts of constipation and was prescribed max-strength laxatives.

After a few weeks she was in agony, and was taken to Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford by ambulance for an emergency enema.

Esther says that while she was in a cubicle in A&E she was seen by a consultant who witnessed her waters breaking.

"He looked down and said I was urinating because my body was getting ready to go to the loo," she said.

"It didn't look like wee to me, and I started to panic.

"The consultant just gave me the thumbs up and told me not to worry and gave me gas and air for the pain.

"But then my body took over and I felt the urge to push, but not from where I was expecting.

"I looked down and saw a head and almost fainted."

Lily Hope-Moore was born weighing 7lbs 2oz on November 10 last year and Esther's dad, Tim Hope, 51, was the first to hold Lily.

Esther, who is no longer dating the baby's father, said: "I just couldn't bring myself to hold her. It was too surreal to think she was mine.

"I just lay there looking at her thinking how did this happen? How could I not have known?

"Within hours of her being born, my stomach went down. The pain stopped, and so did my urge to go to the loo.

"When I did eventually hold her, I realised she was the most beautiful thing in the world, and I was so lucky to have her."

Esther's mum, Debbie Hope, 53, dashed to the local Tesco to stock up on baby essentials, and friends and family have rallied around to make sure the family had all they needed.

"I come from a traditional Christian family, so it was a real shock and difficult to tell my grandparents, but everyone has been brilliant and understanding," said Esther.

"It's been the best surprise ever."

Oil Prices Crisis: Saudi Arabia rules out production cuts

Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi talks to journalists before a meeting of OPEC oil ministers at OPEC's headquarters in Vienna in this file picture taken December 4, 2013.

REUTERS/HEINZ-PETER BADER/FILES

Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi said on Tuesday he was confident more nations would join a pact to freeze output at existing levels in talks expected next month, but effectively ruled out production cuts by major crude producers anytime soon.

Addressing the annual IHS CERA Week conference in Houston, Naimi told global energy executives that growing support for the freeze and stronger demand should over time ease a global glut that has pushed oil prices to their lowest levels in more than a decade. 

"A freeze is the beginning of a process. If we can get all the major producers to agree not to add additional barrels then this high inventory we have now will probably decline in due time," said Naimi, possibly the world's most powerful oil policymaker.

But he was emphatic markets should not view the nascent agreement as a prelude to production cuts.

"That is not going to happen because not many countries are going to deliver," Naimi said during a Q&A session after his speech broadly restated the rationale behind Saudi Arabia's decision to maintain output in the face of tumbling prices.

"Even if they say that they will cut production they will not do it. There is no sense in wasting our time seeking production cuts. They will not happen."

Oil prices fell some 4 percent after Naimi's comments. Traders have been skeptical whether freezing production near record levels could support the market.

After a surprise meeting a week ago, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Venezuela and Qatar agreed to freeze production at January levels and Naimi predicted more support from other countries.

"Hopefully some time in March there will be another meeting and probably gather more agreements on freezing," he said.

Later on Tuesday, Venezuelan Oil Minister Eulogio Del Pino told Reuters he was seeking to convene a meeting of major OPEC and non-OPEC producers in mid-March, with more than 10 expected to sign on to the agreement.

Naimi did not address the issue of Iran, the biggest obstacle to a global deal to limit crude production, as it focuses on ramping up output after years of sanctions.

Mohammed bin Hamad Al-Rumhy, Oman's Minister of Oil and Gas, suggested Iran could be exempted from any Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' agreement because it suffered sanctions.

"One solution is that Iran is given time to ramp up production. This is up to OPEC and OPEC countries to decide." Al-Rumhy said.

Oman, the largest non-OPEC producer in the Middle East, would be willing to cut 10 percent of its production if a deal was reached, he said.

"One non-OPEC country is willing to join hands with OPEC, and that is us," Al-Rumhy added.

While Naimi's speech and subsequent discussion marked his most expansive public comments in months, he offered little new insight on the state of oil markets or the evolution of policy making in Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest exporter.

Instead, he sought to make peace with an oil industry that has struggled with the Kingdom's and OPEC's decision in late 2014 to refrain from cutting output to shore up prices, as it had done for decades.

Oil prices have fallen 70 percent since mid-2014 as surplus crude piled up.

"We have not declared war on shale or any given country or company, contrary to all the rumors," Naimi said in the speech. 

It was Naimi's first public appearance in the United States since the OPEC November 2014 meeting.

"We are doing what every other industry representative in this room is doing. We are responding to challenging market conditions and seeking the best possible outcome in a highly competitive environment."

He said the kingdom welcomed "all sources of supply," including shale.

"We are hopeful that the nimbleness and responsiveness demonstrated by shale oil producers will continue. These supplies may be needed quickly once markets balance and tighten."

Naimi also reiterated his longstanding position that Saudi Arabia was ready to meet customer demand, maintaining a cushion of spare production capacity and remaining open to "cooperative action" with other producers to create a stable oil market.

South Korea issues North stern warning after threat to hit presidential residence

South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye addresses the nation at the presidential Blue House in the capital, Seoul, on January 13, 2016. The North Korean military had threatened to blow up the presidential residence. (Photo by AFP)

South Korea has once again warned the North that its “provocations” risk speeding up the “collapse of its dictatorial system” following North Korea's threat to attack the South. 

The South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff issued the warning in a statement on Wednesday, responding to an earlier threat by the North Korean military to blow up the presidential Blue House in Seoul, AFP reported.

“North Korea must keep in mind that it will be responsible for all situations arising from its reckless provocations and we warn it will only speed up the collapse of its dictatorial system,” it said.

North Korea will face “stern punishment” if it ignored Seoul’s warning, the statement added.

The North Korean military had leveled the threat in response to the prospect of the South’s annual joint war games with the United States. Code-named Key Resolve/Foal Eagle, the drills are to be held in their largest-ever proportions in the next month.

Washington will dispatch 15,000 troops to the computer-simulated Key Resolve drill, up from 3,700 last year. The drill, which lasted 10 days in 2015, usually begins simultaneously with the Foal Eagle field exercise.

Pyongyang charges that the exercises are a rehearsal for invasion, while Seoul and Washington describe them as defensive.

North Korea, which is under United Nations sanctions over its nuclear tests and missile launches, accuses the US of plotting with regional allies to topple its government.

A South Korean K-1 tank disembarks from a ship on a beach during a joint landing operation by US and South Korean Marines in South Korea’s southeastern port of Pohang, March 30, 2015. (Photo by AFP

Pyongyang declared itself a nuclear power in 2005 and carried out four nuclear weapons tests in 2006, 2009, 2013 and 2016. It also launched a long-range rocket earlier this month reportedly aimed at placing an earth observation satellite into orbit.

Seoul and Washington have also announced a plan to install a controversial missile system known as the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) on South Korean soil as a means of countering North Korea’s nuclear arms and missile capabilities.

With Press TV