Slow progress in AirAsia crash search

Recovery teams made patchy progress on Tuesday (Jan 6) in the search for bodies from the wreckage of AirAsia Flight 8501, finding the remains of just two more victims on the tenth day of operations.

Indonesia has ordered the suspension of aviation officials involved in the departure of the flight. It says the flight operated by AirAsia Indonesia was flying on an unauthorised schedule when it crashed.

The airline, a unit of Malaysia-based AirAsia, has been suspended from flying the Surabaya-Singapore route -- although Singapore officials said they had given permission for the flight at their end. Indonesia's transport ministry also promised action against any domestic airlines violating their flying permits in the country, which has a patchy aviation safety record.

The Indonesian meteorological agency BMKG has said weather was the "triggering factor" of the crash, with ice likely damaging the plane's engines. The initial report by BMKG into the likely cause referred to infra-red satellite pictures that showed the plane was passing through clouds with temperatures of minus 80 to minus 85 degrees Celsius.

But it remained unclear why other planes on similar routes were unaffected by the weather, and other analysts said there was not enough information to explain the disaster until the flight recorders were recovered.

In Surabaya, which was home to a number of the victims, a crisis centre has been up for identifying bodies and wakes have been held as they are returned to relatives.

Eric Edi Santo lost his aunt and five other family members, but so far only two of their bodies have been found. He was holding out hope for the others. "They died so tragically, at least I want them to have a proper burial," he said.

Source: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/

Egypt: Jihad/martyrdom suicide bomber behind bus blast; victims were Korean Christians visiting holy sites

“An al-Qaeda-linked Islamist group, Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, took responsibility for the bombing. On its Twitter account, the organization promised to continue to attack Egypt’s economy, tourism, and military.” Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis means Supporters of the Holy House, that is, Supporters of Jerusalem — illustrating in itself the truth of Aviv Oreg’s observation that attacks like this one are designed to show that “Israel is their target in their aspirations.” And they consider that if they can destabilize the Egyptian economy and government in the bargain, so much the better.

“Egypt says suicide bomber caused deadly bus blast,” from the Times of Israel, February 17:

CAIRO,

A suicide bomber was behind the deadly blast that tore through a bus carrying South Korean tourists, Egyptian security officials said.

The officials said the bomber boarded the bus while it waited near the Egypt-Israel border crossing at Taba in the Sinai Peninsula. The Egyptian driver and the South Korean guide had disembarked but were close to the bus when Sunday’s blast took place, according to the officials….

South Korean officials said the bombing killed three South Koreans and an Egyptian driver. The tourists were Korean Christians who had saved for years to visit Biblical sites on their church’s 60th anniversary.

“The preliminary investigation shows some tourists disembarked to get their bags. A man walked to the bus. There was an explosion when he reached the third step,” interior ministry spokesman Hany Abdel Latif told AFP.

The tourists were all members of the same church group from the central South Korean county of Jincheon and were on a 12-day trip through Turkey, Egypt and Israel. They were about to cross into Israel when the attack occurred.

The South Korean ambassador to Egypt, Kim Young-So, told Seoul’s MBN TV station that the bus bombing appeared to be a “suicide bombing by a terrorist.”

An al-Qaeda-linked Islamist group, Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, took responsibility for the bombing. On its Twitter account, the organization promised to continue to attack Egypt’s economy, tourism, and military.

The group, based in the Sinai Peninsula, has deployed several suicide bombers in attacks on police, as well as in a failed attempt to assassinate interior minister Mohamed Ibrahim in September.

Fifteen survivors from the blast crossed into Israel on Monday and are staying at a hotel in the resort city of Eilat, Israel’s Channel 2 news reported. Other tourists who had been on the bus carrying 33 were still hospitalized in the Sinai.

Egypt had reportedly refused offers of Israeli help after the blast, transporting at least 12 injured people to hospitals in the Sinai peninsula instead of the closer Yoseftal Hospital in Eilat….

Maj. (res.) Aviv Oreg, formerly the head of Al Qaeda and Global Jihad desk at the Israel Defense Force’s military intelligence directorate, said the bombing was likely intended to send a message to Jerusalem and Cairo.

For jihadist organizations in the Sinai Peninsula, this sort of attack is ”very sufficient in order to pinpoint that Israel is their target in their aspirations,” he told The Times of Israel.

Police under now deposed president Hosni Mubarak had all but stamped out Islamist militancy after a spate of Sinai resort bombings between 2004 and 2006.

But the three-year period of lawlessness and unrest after Mubarak’s overthrow in 2011 has allowed the militants to regroup in the restive Sinai peninsula and to branch out to the Nile Delta.

“A continuation in attacks on tourists would mean a shift in strategy by jihadist groups that until now targeted the military and police,” said Issandr El Amrani of the International Crisis Group.

“But that cannot be judged after one attack,” he added.

The head of Egypt’s Chamber of Tourism said the attack could have been aimed at hitting the tourism industry, one of Egypt’s top revenue generators.

“The attack aimed at harming tourism in general,” said Elhami al-Zayat….

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Why Our Society Has Trouble Believing Victims Of Child Abuse

This week, the renewed allegations that Woody Allen sexually abused his stepdaughter Dylan Farrow have reignited a national conversation about sexual assault, the legal system, and the appropriate response to victims who choose to come forward. Many observers have emphasized that Allen was never convicted of a crime, and should therefore be presumed to be innocent kicking off a debate about whether children frequently lie about being abused, and whether the people who say they’re victims of sexual crimes can ever be trusted.
It’s unsurprising. When it comes to addressing sexual crimes, the issue of false reports is one of the most contentious divides. On one hand, victim advocates argue that false rape reports are incredibly low nerous estimates put the rate around 2.2 percent. On the other hand, skeptics caution that false allegations can ruin an individual’s life, and invariably bring up the infamous Duke lacrosse players. It’s not a debate that will be resolved any time soon.
But when it comes to children who speak out about sexual abuse, the proverbial deck is especially stacked against them. There’s actually been a lot of psychological research into the factors that make it difficult for young victims to tell their stories in a way that will be believable to outside audiences.
First of all, children don’t always have the words to describe what’s happened to them. Some kids don’t necessarily understand when their physical consent has been violated, and don’t know the language to talk about their genitalia. Several studies have found that children tend to delay disclosing incidences of abuse, sometimes for years. Sexual violence prevention advocates believe that teaching kids about their anatomy, and having frank discussions about healthy relationships, is an important tool to prevent this issue from being kept in the shadows.
If kids do speak up about abuse, and their parents want to press charges, that pushes them into the legal fray. Even if they’re sure about what they remember, navigating official statements, lawyers, and courtrooms can be confusing for child victims which ultimately sets up an uneven playing field between them and their abuser. “The whole drama plays out in a grown-up context, which means the grown-up always has the upper hand,” Natalie Shire points out at the Atlantic.
The cases that go to trial are often held back by several difficult factors. Putting a kid on the stand can end up being a traumatic experience for them, and child psychologists aren't convinced that it’s always helpful, especially if the legal proceedings drag on for a long period of time. And even though older children can often testify correctly, that doesn't guarantee their story will sound believable to a jury.
Adult victims of sexual assault often display erratic behavior like expressing no emotion, mixing up the chronological order of events, or laughing at inappropriate times that outsiders mistake for proof that they’re being untruthful. But that behavior actually reflects the disjointed way that the brain processes trauma, not a carefully constructed lie. This dilemma may be even more pronounced in kids. According to a 1983 study on child abuse, the act of disclosing a sexual crime often causes the child to experience “secondary trauma.” This theory posits that “the normal coping behavior of the child contradicts the entrenched beliefs and expectations typically held by adults,” which makes the children appear to be less credible. Particularly if a young child has been prepared for trial, it’s perhaps no wonder their testimony may come off as too rehearsed.
On top of that, memory certainly is fragile. There are lots of complex aspects to working with kids who allege abuse they can be sensitive to repeated interrogations, and begin to repeat what authority figures are telling them even if it’s not true. Psychologists are working within these constraints. “There have been all kinds of protections developed in the last 20 years about how to talk to children in the course of investigations so as not to create confabulation or not to impair the testimony so it could be impeached in court,” David Finkelhor, the director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center, explained to TIME.
Younger children are more likely to fall prey to those dynamics, and less likely to be able to accurately recall details about what happened to them. That’s why abusers tend to prey on very young and vulnerable children. The power dynamic is intentional, and it works.
Dylan Farrow is just one of the millions of young Americans who say they've experienced some kind of sexual abuse. Just like all the rest, she can’t control the way that other people interpret her story, or whether they choose to believe it. (Woody Allen, for his part, plans to refute her allegations in a forthcoming column that may be published in the New York Times.) But pointing to the rate of convictions for these type of sexual crimes and noting that Allen hasn't been found guilty by a jury of his peers isn't exactly the right measure of veracity. The culture of suspicion around victims is directly related to the way the justice system fails to convict their abusers.

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