World

All eight people on board a helicopter were killed when it crashed in Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province, authorities said on Friday as search teams tried to retrieve the bodies and wreckage.

The Airbus H130 helicopter lost contact on Thursday morning five minutes after taking off from a plantation ⁠area in Melawi, Mohammad Syafii, the head of Indonesia’s rescue agency, said.

“The location of the crash or loss of contact is in a densely forested area with steep hilly terrain,” Syafii said, saying rescuers had found debris suspected to be the tail of the helicopter approximately 3 km (2 ⁠miles) west of where contact was lost.

The cause of the crash remains unclear. A spokesperson from the local rescue agency said the six passengers and two ⁠crew members onboard had died in the crash.

Rescuers, including military and police personnel, were trying to reach the ⁠crash site via land routes on Friday. The plantation area was owned by an ⁠Indonesian palm oil company, Citra Mahkota, and the helicopter belonged to Matthew Air Nusantara, Syafii said.

Source: Reuters

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday announced a 32-hour ceasefire over a two-day period for Orthodox Easter and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Kyiv would abide by the measure.

The ceasefire for Orthodox Easter celebrations on Sunday coincides with a pause in U.S.-led efforts to clinch a settlement to the four-year-old conflict amid hostilities in Iran and the broader Middle East.

Putin’s announcement was similar to a 30-hour ceasefire he ordered last year. Each side accused the other of violating it.

The Kremlin said the Easter ceasefire would be in effect from Saturday at 4 p.m. (1300 ⁠GMT) to midnight (2100 GMT) on Sunday evening.

“We proceed on the basis that the Ukrainian side will follow the example of the Russian Federation,” the Kremlin announcement said.

The announcement said Defence Minister Andrei Belousov had issued an order to Russia’s top commander, Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, “to stop for this period military action in all directions”.

“Troops are to be ready to eliminate all possible provocations by the enemy as well as any aggressive actions.”

Zelenskiy said Ukraine had repeatedly proposed a halt to fighting for Orthodox Easter.

“Ukraine has repeatedly stated that we are ready for reciprocal steps. We proposed a ceasefire during the Easter holiday this year and will act accordingly,” Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram.

“People need an Easter without threats and a real ⁠move towards peace, and Russia has a chance not to return to attacks even after Easter.”

NO RESUMPTION OF THREE-WAY TALKS

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian state news agency TASS that Putin’s ceasefire proposal had not been discussed in advance with the United States. Nor was it linked to any notion of resuming three-way talks on a settlement.

Putin’s special envoy Kirill Dmitriev is, meanwhile, now in the U.S. and ⁠is meeting members of U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration for discussions on a peace deal and U.S.-Russia economic cooperation, sources with knowledge of the visit told Reuters.

According to the calendar of the Orthodox faith, dominant in both Russia and Ukraine, Easter falls this year on ⁠April 12.

Zelenskiy had for more than a week proposed an Easter ceasefire and, citing air attacks on Ukrainian cities, said Moscow had chosen to respond instead with drones. Russia had previously reacted coolly to Zelenskiy’s proposal, saying it preferred to ⁠pursue a long-term settlement.

The Ukrainian president has proposed a halt to fighting on a number of occasions, but has been turned down by Moscow.

For Easter, he called for each side to stop targeting the other’s energy infrastructure, saying he made the offer through the United States.

Source: Reuters

A major fire has broken out at one of Australia’s two oil refineries, deepening fears over the nation’s petrol supplies amid a global fuel crunch.

Emergency crews rushed to Viva’s Corio oil refinery in Geelong, southwest of Melbourne, just before midnight on Wednesday, after reports of explosions and flames. The refinery produces 50% of Victoria’s fuel and 10% of the nation’s.

No one has been injured, but the blaze continues to burn and has prompted warnings about air quality in the area.

The refinery is still partially operational - jet fuel and diesel will continue to be made at reduced levels as a safety precaution - but the government has warned of impacts to petrol production.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen said the fire was “not great timing” with Australia’s fuel supplies under pressure since war broke out in Iran creating a global oil crisis.

The price of diesel in Australia has doubled in recent weeks, with fuel stations reporting shortages amid reports of panic buying, while airlines are cutting back some services as jet fuel costs rise.

“This is not a positive development, but obviously there’s a long way to go in terms of working out just what the impact is,” Bowen told Nine’s Today show on Thursday, adding he is working closely with the company.

“Obviously, this is very early days.”

The cause of the fire was due to “equipment failure”, Fire Rescue Victoria said, adding there will be an investigation.

The refinery produces about 120,000 barrels of oil per day, and employs over 1,100 people.

Viva Energy chief executive Scott Wyatt said production “is not our primary priority today... it’s getting the site safe”.

He said the fire had affected two petrol production units but others were undamaged.

“There are units that make petrol that haven’t been impacted by this incident as well, but naturally petrol will be one of the products that are potentially impacted,” he said.

“We’ll only start increasing production again once we’re confident we can do that safely.”

Ronnie Hayden, state secretary of the Victorian branch of the Australian Workers’ Union, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that between 50 to 100 workers were at the refinery when the fire broke out but were evacuated safely.

Geelong Mayor Stretch Kontelj said the fire was “unprecedented” and is likely to continue to burn for several hours.

“I’ve spoken to management there this morning and needless to say, this has been a huge shock and has rocked them,” he told the ABC.

“The fire is still burning and will have to just burn out. Because of the intensity, it was difficult for the fire units to do much other than to watch.”

Source: BBC

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday its military ships and aircraft will remain around Iran and threatened that the U.S. will start “shooting” again unless Tehran fully complies with the deal reached with Washington.

“All U.S. Ships, Aircraft, and Military Personnel, with additional Ammunition, Weaponry ... will remain in place in, and around, Iran, until such time as the REAL AGREEMENT ⁠reached is fully complied with,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.

“If for any reason it is not, which is highly unlikely, then the “Shootin’ Starts,” bigger, and better, and stronger than anyone has ever seen before.,” the president added.

Iran had said earlier on Wednesday that it would be “unreasonable” to proceed with talks to forge a permanent peace deal with the United States after Israel pounded ⁠Lebanon with its heaviest strikes yet on Wednesday, killing hundreds of people.

The two sides appeared to be far apart on Iran’s nuclear program, with Trump saying Iran had agreed to stop enriching ⁠uranium, and Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammed Bager Qalibaf saying it was allowed to continue enriching uranium under the terms of the ceasefire.

“It was ⁠agreed, a long time ago, and despite all of the fake rhetoric to the contrary - NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS and, ⁠the Strait of Hormuz WILL BE OPEN & SAFE,” Trump added in his late Wednesday’s Truth Social post.

Source: Reuters

U.S. President Donald Trump claimed on Tuesday that the war against Iran is “very close” to completion.

Trump made the remarks in response to a question from FOX News.

“If I pulled up stakes right now, it would take them 20 years to rebuild that country. And we’re not finished,” Trump said. “We’ll see what happens. I think they want to make a deal very badly.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Trump said that another round of U.S.-Iran talks “could be happening over next two days” in Pakistan, according to The New York Post.

All parties are making difficult attempts to advance negotiations before the current 2-week ceasefire expires, according to reports.

The coming rounds of peace talks between the United States and Iran to end the war can come anytime and anywhere, but nothing is official as of now, according to a source with the Iranian embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan.

Face-to-face talks in Islamabad between U.S. and Iranian delegations ended without an agreement over the weekend. Iran demanded a permanent regional ceasefire and sanctions relief, while the United States insisted on verifiable nuclear disarmament and full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

Meanwhile, the United States has imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports, and Trump warned that U.S. forces would “eliminate” any Iranian vessel approaching the blockade in the Strait of Hormuz.

The current conflict began in late February, when Israel and the United States launched joint attacks on Tehran and several other Iranian cities, killing Iran’s then Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, along with senior military commanders and civilians.

Iran responded with waves of missile and drone strikes targeting Israel and U.S. assets in the Middle East, while tightening control over the Strait of Hormuz.

(Adaderana.lk)

Oil prices rose on Thursday on investors’ concerns supply from the key Middle East producing region may not fully resume amid doubts the two-week ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran will hold and as the crucial Strait of Hormuz remains restricted.

Brent crude futures were up $2.6, or 2.74 per cent, at $97.35 a barrel at 0048 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose $3.02, or 3.2 per cent, to $97.43 a barrel.

Both benchmark prices fell below $100 per barrel in the previous trading session, with WTI recording its biggest decline since April 2020 on expectations the ceasefire ending the fighting between the U.S. and Israel against Iran would reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

The waterway connects supply from Gulf producers such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar to global markets and typically carries about 20 per cent of oil supply.

Still, questions about the viability of the ceasefire remain as Israel continued to attack Lebanon on Wednesday, causing Iran to suggest it would be “unreasonable” to proceed with talks to forge a permanent peace deal.

Shippers on Wednesday also said they needed more clarity on the terms of the ceasefire before resuming transit through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has issued maps to guide ships around mines in the waterway and designated safe paths for passage in coordination with the country’s Revolutionary Guards, Iranian media reported.

“Transit through the Strait of Hormuz is not suddenly risk-free. It remains at Iran’s discretion,” analysts at Standard Chartered said in a note.

“Logistic disconnects, security fears, elevated insurance premiums and operational constraints mean that very little additional energy is likely to be supplied via the Strait of Hormuz in the next two weeks.”

Regional oil facilities also remain under threat, with Iran striking sites in nearby countries after the ceasefire, including a pipeline in Saudi Arabia that has been used to bypass the blockaded Strait of Hormuz, according to an oil industry source.

Kuwait, Bahrain and the UAE also reported missile and drone strikes.

There are doubts the ceasefire can hold, Haitong Futures said in a note, as Israel’s strikes on Lebanon’s Hezbollah have emerged as a point of contention, while attacks on energy facilities across the Middle East have yet to stop, and conflicting statements persist over the Strait of Hormuz.

Source: Reuters

US President Donald Trump’s administration plans to launch next Monday the system it will use for issuing refunds to American importers for $166 billion the companies paid in tariffs that the U.S. Supreme Court struck down in February as unlawful.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said, in a court filing on Tuesday that it has completed the development of the initial phase of the refund system, known as CAPE. The system will consolidate refunds so importers will receive one electronic payment, with interest when applicable, rather than processing refunds on an entry-by-entry basis.

Agency official ⁠Brandon Lord made the declaration, in the filing with the New York-based Court of International Trade. The agency disclosed the CAPE launch date in a separate announcement on Friday.

The Supreme Court ruled that Trump overstepped his authority in imposing sweeping global tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a 1977 law meant for use in national emergencies.

Tuesday’s filing said that as of April 9 some 56,497 importers had completed the process to receive electronic refunds for tariffs affected by the court’s ruling, an amount totaling $127 billion.

The agency has said it plans to roll out the refund system in phases.

Lord ⁠said in his declaration that the agency is considering options for processing refunds on a subset of entries that were subject to $2.9 billion in tariffs. Lord said these normally would require manual processing, which would dramatically increase the workload and divert personnel from the agency’s trade operations and enforcement.

After the Supreme Court’s decision, ⁠importers sued for refunds in the Court of International Trade, which is monitoring the development of the refund system.
More than 330,000 importers paid the tariffs at issue on 53 million shipments of imported goods, according to court ⁠documents.

Customs and Border Protection has said the CAPE system will initially process refunds on recently imported goods and straightforward entries.

Many smaller importers feared the cost of the refund process would outweigh the ⁠benefits of trying to get reimbursed, forcing some companies to explore creative financing options related to refunds.

Trump denounced the Supreme Court after its ruling and imposed a new temporary global tariff under a different law, though that also has been challenged in court.

Source: Reuters

The four astronauts of NASA’s Artemis II mission cruised on Monday to the deepest point in space reached by any human, following the tug of lunar gravitational force en route to a rare crewed flyby over the shadowed far side of the moon.

As the climactic six-hour flyby of Earth’s only natural satellite got underway, some two dozen lunar scientists packed a room adjacent to mission control at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to record the astronauts’ first observations of the moon’s surface in real time.

The Artemis II crew, riding in their Orion capsule since launching from Florida last week, began their sixth day of spaceflight as they awoke at around 10:50 a.m. ET (1450 GMT) to a pre-recorded message from the late NASA astronaut Jim Lovell, who flew aboard the Cold War-era Apollo 8 and Apollo 13 moon missions.

‘‘Welcome to my old neighborhood,’‘ said Lovell, who died last year at age 97. 

‘‘It’s a historic day, and I know how busy you’ll be, but don’t forget to enjoy the view... good luck and Godspeed."

The four ⁠Artemis astronauts set a new spaceflight record on Monday as they exceeded the maximum 248,000-mile (400,000 km) distance from Earth reached in 1970 by Apollo 13 after a nearly catastrophic spacecraft malfunction cut short that mission, forcing Lovell and his two crewmates to use the moon’s gravity to help return them safely to Earth.

Later on Monday, the Artemis crew of U.S. astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen were due to reach their own farthest distance from Earth - 252,755 miles, some 4,117 miles beyond the record held by the Apollo 13 crew for nearly 56 years.

NAMING CRATERS

Along the way, the Artemis crew members spent some time assigning provisional new names to lunar features that previously lacked official designations.

In a radio message to mission control in Houston, Hansen suggested one crater be dubbed Integrity, after the name given to the crew’s Orion capsule, and that another crater sometimes visible from Earth on the cusp between the far and near sides of the moon be named in honor of Wiseman’s late wife, Carroll, who died of cancer in 2020.

‘‘A number of years ago we started this journey, our close-knit astronaut family, and we lost a loved one,’‘ Hansen said of the mission commander’s late spouse, his voice choking with emotion as he described the position of her lunar namesake.
 
‘‘It’s a bright spot on the ⁠Moon, and we would like to call that Carroll."

As the Orion sailed around the moon’s far side, the crew was expected witness its surface from as close as roughly 4,000 miles above its darkened surface as it eclipsed what would appear to be a basketball-sized Earth in the distant background.

Because the moon rotates at the same speed as it revolves around the Earth, its far side always faces away from our planet, so that few human beings - only members of the Apollo crews who orbited the moon during their missions - have ever gazed directly on its surface.

The milestone marked a major high point of the nearly 10-day Artemis II mission, the first crewed test flight of NASA’s Artemis program, successor to NASA’s 1960s-1970s Apollo ⁠project, and the world’s first voyage to send humans in the vicinity of the moon in more than half a century.

RARE DETAILED PHOTOS

The planned multibillion-dollar series of Artemis missions aims to return astronauts to the moon’s surface by 2028, ahead of China, and establish a long-term U.S. presence there over the next decade, building a moon base that would serve as a proving ground for potential future missions to Mars.

The last time astronauts walked on the moon - a feat so far achieved only ⁠by the United States - was the final Apollo mission in 1972.

Monday’s lunar flyby plunged the crew into darkness and a brief communications blackout as the moon blocked them from NASA’s Deep Space Network, a global array of massive radio communications antennas the agency has been using to talk to the crew.

For the flyby, the astronauts were equipped with professional cameras to take 
detailed photos of the moon through Orion’s window, showing a rare and scientifically ⁠valuable vantage point of sunlight filtering around its edges.

The crew will also have the chance to photograph a rare moment in which their home planet, dwarfed by their record-breaking distance in space, will set and rise with the lunar horizon as they swing around, presenting a celestial remix of the moonrise typically seen from Earth.

Source: Reuters

US President Donald Trump’s administration plans to launch next Monday the system it will use for issuing refunds to American importers for $166 billion the companies paid in tariffs that the U.S. Supreme Court struck down in February as unlawful.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said, in a court filing on Tuesday that it has completed the development of the initial phase of the refund system, known as CAPE. The system will consolidate refunds so importers will receive one electronic payment, with interest when applicable, rather than processing refunds on an entry-by-entry basis.

Agency official ⁠Brandon Lord made the declaration, in the filing with the New York-based Court of International Trade. The agency disclosed the CAPE launch date in a separate announcement on Friday.

The Supreme Court ruled that Trump overstepped his authority in imposing sweeping global tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a 1977 law meant for use in national emergencies.

Tuesday’s filing said that as of April 9 some 56,497 importers had completed the process to receive electronic refunds for tariffs affected by the court’s ruling, an amount totaling $127 billion.

The agency has said it plans to roll out the refund system in phases.

Lord ⁠said in his declaration that the agency is considering options for processing refunds on a subset of entries that were subject to $2.9 billion in tariffs. Lord said these normally would require manual processing, which would dramatically increase the workload and divert personnel from the agency’s trade operations and enforcement.

After the Supreme Court’s decision, ⁠importers sued for refunds in the Court of International Trade, which is monitoring the development of the refund system.
More than 330,000 importers paid the tariffs at issue on 53 million shipments of imported goods, according to court ⁠documents.

Customs and Border Protection has said the CAPE system will initially process refunds on recently imported goods and straightforward entries.

Many smaller importers feared the cost of the refund process would outweigh the ⁠benefits of trying to get reimbursed, forcing some companies to explore creative financing options related to refunds.

Trump denounced the Supreme Court after its ruling and imposed a new temporary global tariff under a different law, though that also has been challenged in court.

Source: Reuters

Dubai-based airline Emirates’ website said on Wednesday that Iranian nationals were not allowed to enter or ⁠transit the United Arab Emirates.

The website of another carrier, Flydubai, said Iranian nationals holding a UAE “Golden ⁠Visa” were exempt and permitted to enter and ⁠transit the country.

The restrictions come amid ⁠heightened tensions between Iran ⁠and Gulf states.

Source: Reuters

Europe will suffer jet fuel shortages in just three weeks if the the Strait of Hormuz does not reopen, the trade body for the continent’s airports has warned.

The Persian Gulf is a major source of aviation fuel, accounting for about 50% of Europe’s imports.

Airports Council International (ACI) Europe said its members had “increasing concerns” about the availability of jet fuel, particularly with the approach of the summer tourism season.

It warned smaller airports are particularly vulnerable.

“A supply crunch would severely disrupt airport operations and air connectivity – with the risk of harsh economic impacts for the communities affected, and for Europe,” ACI Europe’s director-general Olivier Jankovec wrote in a letter to the European commissioners for energy and tourism.

“At this stage, we understand that if the passage through the Strait of Hormuz does not resume in any significant and stable way within the next three weeks, systemic jet fuel shortage is set to become a reality for the EU.”

Several airlines worldwide have already cut flights and hiked passenger charges due to concerns about fuel shortages.

Last week, the benchmark European jet fuel price hit an all-time high of $1,838 (£1,387) per tonne, compared with $831 before the war began.

Jankovec urged the EU to intervene, writing that “relying on market forces and adaptation alone is not an option”.

He criticised the lack of EU-wide assessment and monitoring of jet fuel production and availability.

ACI Europe wants the EU to engage in collective purchasing of jet fuel. The body has also called for restrictions and regulations on importing jet fuel to be temporarily lifted.

The letter, which was written on 9 April and first reported by the Financial Times, said: “This crisis should also be the opportunity to reinforce support for SAF [sustainable aviation fuel] production and affordability,

“The price of conventional jet fuel is likely to remain at higher levels in the medium to long-term.”

Jankovec added that airports with fewer than a million passengers per year were already struggling with viability “without even accounting for the impact of jet fuel shortages”.

He warned the current crisis could make airports even more fragile and threaten local communities, potentially impacting European cohesion.

Air travel contributes €851bn (£741bn) to European economies’ GDP every year and supports 14 million jobs.

Source: BBC

The Oscars will leave Hollywood after celebrating their centenary, organizers said Thursday, as they announced a long-term deal to hold the gala in downtown Los Angeles.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said the ceremony, the most important night of the year for the global film industry, would leave the Dolby Theatre on the Hollywood Walk of Fame after 2028.

The 2029 edition will instead be held at The Peacock Theater, part of the vast LA LIVE complex, next to the Crypto.com Arena, home to the Los Angeles Lakers.

“For the 101st Oscars and beyond, the Academy looks forward to closely collaborating with (owners) AEG to make LA LIVE the perfect backdrop for our global celebration of cinema, both for our live in-theater audience and for film fans around the world,” Academy CEO Bill Kramer and President Lynette Howell Taylor said.

Source: AP