Breaking: Germanwings A320 Flight 4U9525 from Barcelona to Dusseldorf Crashes in French Alps … 144 Passengers & 6 Crew Feared Dead (Update French President Says Likely No Survivors)

A Germanwings Flight 4U9525, Airbus A320 crash in French Alps near Digne, with 150 people on board, 144 passengers and 6 crew members. Germanwings is a low-cost, economy airline subsidiary of Lufthansa Airlines. Flight 4U9525 was traveling from Barcelona to Duesseldorf. According to sources quoted by AFP news agency, the plane had issued a distress call at 10:47 (09:47 GMT), 5:47 ET.  According to the flight tracking website Flightradar24, Germanwings Flight 4U9525 climbed to 38,000 feet before it started to descend, and the signal was lost at 6,800 feet. The A320 disappeared off the radar before crashing near Digne-les-Bains.

An Airbus operated by Lufthansa’s Germanwings budget airline crashed in southern France on Tuesday and all 148 on board were feared dead.

French President Francois Hollande said he believed none of those on board had survived.

“There were 148 people on board,” Hollande said. “The conditions of the accident, which have not yet been clarified, lead us to think there are no survivors.”

VIDEO – BBC

•  A Germanwings Airbus A320 has crashed in French Alps near Digne, with 148 people on board
• Flight 4U 9525 was travelling between Barcelona and Duesseldorf
• French President Francois Hollande said he believed none of those on board had survived
• Cologne-based Germanwings says it was aware of reports
• The low-cost airline owned by giant German carrier Lufthansa

Updates and Live reporting from the BBC.

Lufthansa Twitter

UPDATE I: French President Francois Hollande Says, ‘Apparently No Survivors’ After Passenger Plane Crashes in France.

French President Francois Hollande has expressed his “solidarity and condolences” with Germany in phone call to Angela Merke.

“I want to express my solidarity to the family of the victims. We do not yet know the identities of the victims. It is a mourning we have to go through because it is a tragedy that has happened on our soil,” he said.

UPDATE II:  Lufthansa, which owns Germanwings, released a statement:

“We do not yet know what has happened to flight 4U 9525. My deepest sympathy goes to the families and friends of our passengers and crew on 4U 9525. If our fears are confirmed, this is a dark day for Lufthansa. We hope to find survivors,” said Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr in the statement.

UPDATE III: Airbus A320 crash in the Alps: Francois Hollande says 148 feared dead, no survivors expected.

The Airbus A320, operated by the budget airline Germanwings, was en route from Barcelona to Dusseldorf when it vanished from radar screens at 09.39 local time.

Flight GWI18G came down near Prads-Haute-Bléone, between Digne-les-Bains and Barcelonnette, north-west of Monaco. It was flying at just 6,800ft at the time and Bernard Cazeneuve, the French interior minister, said debris had been found at an altitute of 6,500ft.

A distress signal, thought to have been sent by aircraft’s automatically-activated crash position indicator, was picked up at 10.47 local time, showing that the aircraft was “at 5,000ft in an abnormal situation”, said Alain Vidalies, the French transport minister.

Pic – UK Telegraph

UPDATE IV: Why did 9525 plummet from 40,000ft?

The 24 year old plane, built by the French Airbus consortium, transmitted a distress signal at 9.47am local time,  with one unconfirmed report saying it was sent out at 6,800 feet.

The distress call, typically transmitted in a general aircraft emergency, did not give any additional information about the type of emergency.

The aircraft was flying at its normal cruising altitude of around 40,000 ft, but within 10 minutes made a staggeringly swift descent to around 6,200 feet.

This points to a major problem with the aircraft, and suggests the two pilots were struggling to control the plummeting aircraft.

This graph from FlightRadar24 shows how the plane lost altitude and speed prior to disappearing from the radar.

UPDATE V:  Bodies are being taken to a local village gym, it is being used as a temporary morgue as bodies are being recovered.

UPDATE VI: The crash site is a two and a half hour walk from the nearest settlement, and is inaccessible by land vehicles. Pics from rescue helicopter.

UPDATE VII: French officials said a police helicopter had located the crash site and first items of debris near the small town of Barcelonnette in the Alpes-de-Hautes-Provences.

UPDATE VIII - Total of 150 people on board Germanwings flight

Germanwings has confirmed the number of people on board as 150.

This includes 144 passengers and six cabin crew.

50 World Leaders at Paris Anti-Terror, Day of Unity Rally, But No President Barack Obama, VP Joe Biden or Sec. of State John Kerry

MILLIONS GATHER AGAINST TERRORISM: Noticeable absent from the worlds show of unity against radical Muslim terrorism was President Barack Hussein Obama …

Nearly four million turned out across France today for unity rallies and nearly one million in Paris, the largest number of people turned out in Paris  France since the liberation of Paris from Nazi, Germany during World War II.  The more than 50 world leaders showed at the Paris march for the “Day of Unity” that included those from Germany, Italy, Poland, Israel, the UK, Ireland, Mali, the UN Secretary General, the US Secretary of State and the Palestinian President. The world leaders and millions of people paid their honor and respects to the 17 individuals who were killed by radical-Muslim terrorist in the last few days at Charlie Hebdo and a Paris kosher deli. Yesterday, the France’s Prime Minister declared war with radical Islam.

Vive la liberté!!!

Crowds streaming in for Charlie Hebdo Unity March in Paris

Paris March: Millions Attend ‘Cry for Freedom’ Rally for Unity

What a show of disrespect that the Obama administration pretty much sent no one to this important show of world solidarity against radical Islam and terror. No Obama, no Biden, no Kerry. But they did send U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to Paris to attend a meeting on fighting terrorism, but did not participate in the “Unity” march. How special.

Here is a list of the world leaders attending today’s Paris rally:

EUROPE:
French President Francois Hollande
German Chancellor Angela Merkel
British Prime Minister David Cameron
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy
Romanian President Klaus Iohannis
European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker
European Parliament president Martin Schulz
European Union president Donald Tusk
Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg
Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz
Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras
Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny
Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho
Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka
Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico
Latvian Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma
Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borissov
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban
Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic
Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel
Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat
Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar
Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven
Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko
Swiss President Simonetta Sommaruga
Kosovo President Atifete Jahjaga
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu
Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibachvili
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov
Austrian foreign minister Sebastian Kurz

NORTH AMERICA:
US attorney general Eric Holder (* did not participate in the march)
Canadian public safety minister Steven Blaney

MIDDLE EAST:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman
Jordanian King Abdullah II and Queen Rania
Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas
United Arab Emirates foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahayan
Qatari Sheikh Mohamed Ben Hamad Ben Khalifa Al Thani
Bahrain foreign minister Sheikh Khaled ben Ahmed Al Khalifa and Prince Abdullah Ben Hamad al-Khalifa

AFRICA:
Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita
Gabonese President Ali Bongo
Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou
Benin President Thomas Boni Yayi
Tunisian Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa
Algerian foreign minister Ramtane Lamamra

German Newspaper The Hamburger Morgenpost (MOPO) Firebombed That Reprinted Charlie Hebdo Cartoons

MORE FREEDOM OF SPEECH IN EUROPE …

German newspaper, The Hamburger Morgen Post, was firebombed overnight as police state that a “burning object” and rocks were thrown through a window. The MOPO as it is locally known had reprinted cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed from Charlie Hebdo.  The newspaper featured three Charlie Hebdo cartoons of the prophet Mohammed on its front page on Thursday, together with the headline “This much freedom must be possible!” No one was injured in the fire at the editorial offices of the Hamburger Morgenpost.

Berlin (AFP) – A German tabloid that reprinted cartoons from the French satirical paper Charlie Hebdo lampooning the Prophet Mohammed was targeted in firebombing Sunday, police said.

With security services on high alert after a killing spree in Paris by Islamic extremists, police in the northern German port city of Hamburg said no one was injured in the blaze at the headquarters of the regional daily Hamburger Morgenpost, which caused only slight damage.

“Rocks and then a burning object were thrown through the window,” a police spokesman told AFP.

“Two rooms on lower floors were damaged but the fire was put out quickly.”

The Hamburger Morgenpost, known locally as the MOPO, had splashed the Charlie Hebdo cartoons on its front page after the massacre at the Paris publication, running the headline “This much freedom must be possible!”

Police said the attack had occurred at about 0120 GMT and that two young men seen acting suspiciously near the scene were detained. State security has opened an investigation, a spokesman added.

25th Year Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall … Nov. 9, 1989

It is hard to believe it has been 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall …

Nov. 9, 1989, 25 years later and it seems like yesterday I can remember watching the news of the German people hammering, chiseling and tearing down the Berlin Wall, symbolizing the freedom of the East German people and the defeat of Communism. Thousands of East Berliners poured into West Berlin and freedom.  It was a moment in history that you remember where you were when you saw the images of the fall of Communism and the rise of freedom. It is a forever remembered moment in history for the world, not just Germany. The people celebrated in the streets, as Germans shed their hammers and sickles for hammers and chisels and brought the wall down forever.

White balloons spanning a stretch of the former death strip floated over hundreds of thousands of revelers in the German capital on Sunday, culminating a day of celebrations to mark 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

More than 300,000 people gathered in Berlin to watch a light installation of 8,000 helium balloons tracing a nine-mile stretch be released into the night sky, police said. The illuminated balloons snaked past historic locations such as Checkpoint Charlie as part of a celebration that included music and fireworks at the city’s Brandenburg Gate—a location once circumvented by the wall.

Speaking earlier in the day, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the fall of the Berlin Wall proof that dreams could come true during a ceremony to mark the event’s 25th anniversary. She added that its collapse offered hope to regions where “freedom and human rights are threatened or even trampled on.”

For days, celebrations throughout Germany have been commemorating the opening of the East German border on Nov. 9, 1989. The breaching of the border heralded the collapse of the Communist system and led to German reunification less than a year later.

The Iconic Photo of the Fall of the Berlin Wall

National Geographic on the Berlin Wall, pretty good documentary.

The Guardian: A city undivided: the fall of the Berlin Wall commemorated 25 years on.

This year’s commemoration of the fall of the Iron Curtain may also feel more poignant because there is a palpable sense that peace in Europe in 2014 is more fragile than it was at the 20th anniversary in 2009.

In her speech at the wall memorial on Bernauer Strasse on Saturday afternoon, Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, had explicitly emphasized the geopolitical resonances of the event, instead of indulging in personal reminiscences.

“We have the strength to shape things, to turn things from bad to good, that is the message of the fall of the wall,” she said. “These days, that message is directed at Ukraine, Syria, Iraq and many, many other regions in the world.”

Let us never forget what real leadership looks like. Where US President Ronald Wilson Reagan not only went to Berlin, Germany on June 12, 1987 and gave his famous speech when he uttered those famous words  that would eventually come true … “Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down This Wall,” but also helped bring about the fall of Communism. Wow, imagine that, a president with a spine and resolve to effectuate real change that brought liberty to millions, not one apologizing for America’s actions. A president that looked to unify people, not divide them. A president that looked to end Communism, not partake in it. God bless Ronald Reagan. These days we can only say, what a novel concept.

President Ronald Reagan – Speech at the Brandenburg Gate – West Berlin, Germany – June 12, 1987:

Chancellor Kohl, Governing Mayor Diepgen, ladies and gentlemen: Twenty-four years ago, President John F. Kennedy visited Berlin, speaking to the people of this city and the world at the City Hall. Well, since then two other presidents have come, each in his turn, to Berlin. And today I, myself, make my second visit to your city.

We come to Berlin, we American presidents, because it’s our duty to speak, in this place, of freedom. But I must confess, we’re drawn here by other things as well: by the feeling of history in this city, more than 500 years older than our own nation; by the beauty of the Grunewald and the Tiergarten; most of all, by your courage and determination. Perhaps the composer Paul Lincke understood something about American presidents. You see, like so many presidents before me, I come here today because wherever I go, whatever I do: Ich hab noch einen Koffer in Berlin. [I still have a suitcase in Berlin.]

In the 1950s, Khrushchev predicted: “We will bury you.” But in the West today, we see a free world that has achieved a level of prosperity and well-being unprecedented in all human history. In the Communist world, we see failure, technological backwardness, declining standards of health, even want of the most basic kind–too little food. Even today, the Soviet Union still cannot feed itself. After these four decades, then, there stands before the entire world one great and inescapable conclusion: Freedom leads to prosperity. Freedom replaces the ancient hatreds among the nations with comity and peace. Freedom is the victor.

And now the Soviets themselves may, in a limited way, be coming to understand the importance of freedom. We hear much from Moscow about a new policy of reform and openness. Some political prisoners have been released. Certain foreign news broadcasts are no longer being jammed. Some economic enterprises have been permitted to operate with greater freedom from state control.

Are these the beginnings of profound changes in the Soviet state? Or are they token gestures, intended to raise false hopes in the West, or to strengthen the Soviet system without changing it? We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace.

General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia Warned the West Will be the Next Target of ISIS Jihadists Unless there is “Rapid” Action

Saudi Arabia’s  King Abdullah says the West will be next unless ISIS is dealt with quickly …

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia warns the West of ISIS stating, “If we ignore them, I am sure they will reach Europe in a month and America in another month.” King Abdullah warned that ISIS jihadists must be dealt with quickly, saying a lack of action would be “unacceptable” in the face of the terrorist phenomenon. Of course I would ask two question. One, what has King Abdullah and Saudi Arabia done to quell ISIS or terrorists and two, take rapid action, doesn’t King Abdullah realize that in Obama, he is talking to a ditherer?

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has warned that the West will be the next target of the jihadists sweeping through Syria and Iraq, unless there is “rapid” action.

“If we ignore them, I am sure they will reach Europe in a month and America in another month,” he said in remarks quoted on Saturday by Asharq al-Awsat daily and Saudi-backed Al-Arabiya television station.

“Terrorism knows no border and its danger could affect several countries outside the Middle East,” said the king who was speaking at a welcoming ceremony on Friday for new ambassadors, including a new envoy from Saudi ally the United States.

The Islamic State (IS) jihadist group has prompted widespread concern as it advances in both Syria and Iraq, killing hundreds of people, including in gruesome beheadings and mass executions.

Lack of action would be “unacceptable” in the face of the phenomenon, King Abdullah said.

“You see how they (jihadists) carry out beheadings and make children show the severed heads in the street,” he said, condemning the “cruelty” of such acts.

“It is no secret to you, what they have done and what they have yet to do. I ask you to transmit this message to your leaders: ‘Fight terrorism with force, reason and (necessary) speed’.”