Russian plane crash in Egypt: It's too early to determine cause, officials say

Flight 9268 was on its way from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg early Saturday when it dropped off radar about 23 minutes into the flight, Egyptian officials say.

Air traffic controllers apparently didn't receive any distress calls. 

"There was nothing abnormal before the plane crash," Egyptian Civil Aviation Minister Hossam Kamel said Saturday. "It suddenly disappeared from the radar."

The website Flightradar24, which tracks aircraft around the world, said it had received data from the Russian plane suggesting sharp changes in altitude and a dramatic decrease in ground speed before the signal was lost. 

A U.S. satellite that was over Sinai at the time of the crash detected a heat flash, according to a U.S. official directly familiar with the latest information in the investigation. U.S. intelligence and military officials are analyzing the data to determine whether the flash occurred in midair or on the ground and what that can tell them about what happened to the plane, the official said.

Analysts say heat flashes could be tied to a range of possibilities: a missile firing, a bomb blast, a malfunctioning engine exploding, a structural problem causing a fire on the plane or wreckage hitting the ground.

"The number of heat signatures is crucial," said CNN aviation analyst Miles O'Brien. "If, in fact, only one was detected, that in some respects might steer one away from a missile launch and onto some idea of an explosion onboard the aircraft." 

A top Russian aviation official has said the plane broke apart in midair.

Alexander Smirnov, a Metrojet official, told reporters in Moscow on Monday the airline had ruled out technical problems and human error. Protection systems on the plane would have prevented it from crashing, he said, even if there were major errors in the pilot's control equipment.

The Egyptian military said militants in Sinai have shoulder-fired, anti-aircraft weapons that shoot only as high as 14,000 feet, far short of the more than 30,000 feet at which Flight 9268 was flying when it dropped off radar.

Kremlin spokesman Dimitry Peskov refused to discount terrorism, telling CNN's Matthew Chance on Monday that "only (the) investigation can rule out something."

Metrojet executives also said Monday that it was too early in the investigation to speculate or draw any conclusions. But Smirnov referred to purported footage of the crash posted by militants, saying: "Those images you have seen on the Internet, I think they are fake."

South Africa asks appeal court to convict Pistorius

South African paralympian Oscar Pistorius, freed on parole last month after serving a fifth of his prison term for killing his girlfriend, faces years more in jail if state lawyers can get his conviction scaled up to murder from culpable homicide.

Prosecutors will argue before the Supreme Court that a high court judge was wrong to let Pistorius off the more serious charge after he fired four shots through a door on Valentine's Day 2013, killing Reeva Steenkamp.
The 28-year-old track star will not be present at the one-day hearing in Bloemfontein, 400 km (250 miles) southwest of Johannesburg, his lawyer Barry Roux told Reuters.

A panel of five judges will hear the appeal, and could either order a retrial, convict Pistorius of murder themselves or reject the prosecution's appeal, legal experts have said.
"The (high) court not only approached the circumstantial evidence incorrectly, but also incorrectly excluded relevant evidence," prosecutors said in documents filed at the court.

Pistorius, dubbed "Blade Runner" because of the carbon fibre prosthetic blades he uses to compete, denied deliberately killing his girlfriend during his six-month trial, saying he mistook her for an intruder at his home.

Prosecutors said Pistorius intended to kill Steenkamp, who they said fled to the toilet during a row.
But high court Judge Thokozile Masipa ruled last year that the state had failed to prove intent or "dolus eventualis", a legal concept that centres on a person being held responsible for the foreseeable consequences of their actions.

The state insists Masipa misinterpreted some parts of the law and that Pistorius must have known that the person behind the door could be killed.
A murder conviction would result in a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison.
After the trial last September, Pistorius, a gun enthusiast, was also convicted of firing a pistol under the table of a Johannesburg restaurant but was let off on charges of illegal possession of ammunition and firing a gun out of a car sun-roof.

The athlete was freed two weeks ago in line with South African sentencing guidelines that say non-dangerous prisoners should spend only a sixth of a custodial sentence behind bars.
He has not been seen in public since then and is under house arrest that confines him to his uncle's home in a wealthy Pretoria suburb for the duration of his sentence.

Kim Kardashian shares behind-the-scenes look at her awesome birthday party

On Monday Kim Kardashian shared a behind-the scenes look of her 35th birthday  party on her website kimkardashianwest.com.

The pregnant star was seen playing with her 2 year old North, and glowed next to husband Kanye   West''''.......

OCTOBER PAYROLL FOR ALL CIVIL SERVANT

The Federal government say civil servants under its payroll will get their October salaries today November 3rd.

A statement from the Senior Special Assistant to President Buhari on media and publicity, Shehu Garba, states that the delay in the salaries was due to the crashing of some computers that were being used when the salaries were to be disbursed last week. The salaries were meant to have been paid a week before the end of October.

Obama and Afghanistan troops

President Barack Obama announced Thursday that the U.S. will keep its nearly 10,000 troops in Afghanistan through most of 2016. And in 2017, troop levels will be more than five times higher than the 1,000 U.S. troops previously planned.....,Still, Obama and his top national security advisers are keen to remind the American public that the troops' two-pronged mission -- training and advising Afghan security forces and carrying out counterterrorism operations -- remains the same.

"The nature of the mission has not changed and the cessation of our combat role has not changed," Obama said. 

Hello,to all my viewers out there....um am so sorry for my absence in updating you all with the necessary informations of what's happening around the world....it was due to unavoidable technical problems but am here to give you all the best you can ever imagine.....love y'all💖

Prison worker Joyce Mitchell is in custody, accused of aiding in a daring prison escape. The two convicted killers she allegedly helped are free, but on the run.

Mitchell allegedly provided Richard Matt and David Sweat with the tools to cut through cell walls for their escape from an upstate New York prison a week ago.

"The defendant did intentionally ... and unlawfully introduce hacksaw blades, chisels, a punch and a screwdriver bit, dangerous contraband, into Clinton Correctional Facility," court records said.

Mitchell allegedly brought the items to the prison on May 1.

She was arraigned Friday night on a felony charge of promoting prison contraband and a misdemeanor charge of criminal facilitation. She pleaded not guilty.

If convicted, she faces up to eight years behind bars.

Convict made her feel 'special'

Matt and Sweat's escape was discovered during an early morning bed check at Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora.

While making their escape, they slipped through holes and cut into a steel plate and a steam pipe, then got out through a manhole and onto the street.

And Mitchell had a lot to do with their ability to plan out the daring escape, authorities said.

She supplied tools used in the escape and was their possible getaway driver before she got cold feet, authorities said. Her cell phone was also used to make calls to people connected to Matt, according to a source. It's not known who made these calls.

Mitchell has told investigators that Matt made her feel "special" though she didn't say she was in love with him, a source familiar with the investigation said.

Her husband and prison co-worker, Lyle Mitchell, is also under investigation, but has not been arrested or charged, authorities said. He worked in the maintenance department at the tailoring block where his spouse was employed, Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wylie said.

Lyle Mitchell has worked at the prison since 2005, most recently as an industrial training supervisor, the same title his wife held, according to state records.

Lyle Mitchell cried when allegations surfaced against his wife, according to a friend who did not want to be named. The friend said Lyle Mitchell asked how his wife could do such a thing.

How did she allegedly help convicts?

Joyce Mitchell provided hacksaw blades, drill bits and lighted eyeglasses to the convicts before their escape, sources said.

The hacksaw blades and other items given to Matt were purchased over the past few months, according to law enforcement sources.

Matt and Sweat used power tools to cut through cell walls. Despite the time, effort and noise likely involved, authorities didn't learn anything was amiss until a bed check at 5:30 a.m. Saturday.

Authorities believe the fugitives are continuing their escape as a pair, two law enforcement sources said.

Relationship investigated

State Department of Corrections officials had received a complaint about the relationship between Joyce Mitchell and one of the two escapees, according to a state official. The department didn't find enough evidence to support the complaint, though that does not mean the inmate and prison worker weren't close.

"I don't believe that the information was that there was absolutely no relationship," said Wylie, the district attorney.

Intensified search

More than 800 state, local and federal law enforcement officers are searching for the escapees, New York State Police said. They have been following more than 700 leads developed in the weeklong manhunt.

Tracking dogs picked up the scent of both prisoners at a gas station and followed it east toward the town of Cadyville, Wylie said. The gas station has a Subway sandwich shop, and the two might have been rummaging for food in the trash bin, authorities said.

"It could have been something that occurred earlier in the week," the district attorney said Friday of when the scent was left. "But we're hoping that it was two nights ago, and they're closing in on the two men right now."

As the woman who allegedly helped them escape sits in jail on bail, the search for the convicts has been going on since June 6.

According to state police, Sweat was serving a life sentence with no chance of parole in the murder of a Broome County sheriff's deputy in 2002, and Matt was sentenced to 25 years to life in the kidnapping and murder of a man in 1997.