Five killed in Honduras plane crash, no survivors all died

Five of them foreigners including the pilot died on Saturday when their private plane crashed into the sea shortly after taking off from Roatán island, a tourist destination on the Atlantic coast of Honduras, local authorities said. Officials gave conflicting accounts of the victims’ nationalities. Armed forces spokesman Jose Domingo Meza said four of the victims were from the United States and the fifth victim’s nationality had yet to be determined. Local emergency services initially said the victims included four Canadians and another victim of unknown nationality.Local authorities did not immediately offer a cause for the accident.The Piper PA-32-260 plane was headed to the tourist port city of Trujillo, about 80 kilometers (49.71 miles) from Roatan, a picturesque island frequented by tourists from the United States, Canada and Europe, authorities said.

US approves missile sales to South Korea Japan

The United States said Friday it had approved more than USD 600 million in sales of air defense missiles to South Korea and Japan as tensions return with North Korea. It had approved 94 SM-2 missiles used by ships against air threats, along with 12 guidance systems for a total cost of $313.9 million. It separately gave the green light to sell 160 anti-air AMRAAM missiles and related guidance equipment to Japan for $317 million. It came in the wake of talks with the United States and South Korea stalling in February, and raised alarms in both countries, which have been seeking to entice the North into abandoning its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs. The sales "will support the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States" by assisting key allies and "will not alter the basic military balance in the region," a State Department statement said. The tests come amid a standstill in negotiations between North Korea and the United States, where President Donald Trump had boasted of ending Pyongyang's missile tests. A second summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ended in deadlock in February, with the US side refusing demands to ease sanctions until Pyongyang takes major steps to end its nuclear program.

washington says possible ankara will reject russian missiles

United States of America believes it is a chance Turkey will decide against buying a Russian air defense system whose proposed purchase has strained relations between the NATO allies, official sources said on Thursday.Washington has warned for months that Turkey's adoption of the Russian S-400 missile system would endanger Western defense and jeopardize Ankara's planned purchase of 100 of the US's F-35 stealth fighter jets.Asked if Turkey may ultimately change its mind on the S-400, deputy US defense secretary Heather Wilson replied "it's possible.""The diplomats are continuing the work on that," she said, reiterating that the S-400 is "incompatible with having the F-35."The US in April placed a freeze on a joint F-35 manufacturing program with Turkey, and US law furthermore provides for sanctions on any country concluding arms deals with Russian companies.Two of the planes were delivered to Turkey in June 2018 but remain at a US Air Force base near Phoenix, Arizona, officially so Turkish pilots can train on them."We're continuing to train the Turkish pilots at Luke Air Force Base but we don't think that we can deliver those aircraft into a country that has the S-400," Wilson said. But Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said last month that Turkey is aware of the US's concerns.Ankara says it won't reconsider purchasing the S-400 air defense system and that delivery of the first of the equipment may come as soon as June or July.

hidden world of doctors cuba sends overseas

Fidel Castro described the medics as Cuba's `army of white coats`. Absolutely it was proved in many ongoing occasions. Cuba has long been renowned for its medical diplomacy- thousands of its doctors work in health care missions around the world, earning the country billions of dollars in cash. But according to a new report, some of the doctors themselves say conditions can be nightmarish - controlled by minders, subject to a curfew and posted to extremely dangerous places said press reports. Dayli, now 31 years old, wanted to be an intensive care specialist. She says that after graduating, she was told that if she went on a medical mission to Venezuela, she would gain experience in her chosen field and that it would count as her three years of obligatory social service, which all graduates have to complete in Cuba before gaining full-status posts.`I studied medicine out of vocation. I used to sleep between three and four hours because I studied so hard. I worked hard in my first year of practice, I took on a lot of extra shifts. And now here I am. I cannot be a doctor in Cuba. It's very frustrating.` In October 2011, the young doctor was posted to a clinic in the Venezuelan town of El Sombrero. `There were many criminal gangs,` says Dayli. `When they fought, they brought their injured to us, because the local Venezuelan hospital had a police presence, and we didn't. These kids would bring in a patient with 12 or 15 bullets in his body, point their guns at you and say you had to save him. If he died, you would die. That kind of thing happened on a daily basis. It was routine.` The wages on offer were another strong incentive for Dayli, who is originally from the small Cuban city of Camagüey, to join up. Going from a doctor's salary on the island of just $15 a month in 2011, she says she was paid $125 monthly for the first six months in Venezuela, a figure that rose to $250 after six months and $325 during her third year. Her family in Cuba also received a bonus of $50 a month. According to a report by Prisoners Defenders, a Spain-based NGO that campaigns for human rights in Cuba and is linked to the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) opposition group, doctors on average receive between 10% and 25% of the salary paid by the host countries, with the rest being kept by Cuba's authorities.With more than 30,000 Cuban doctors currently active in 67 countries - many in Latin America and Africa, but also European nations including Portugal and Italy. Cuba's authorities draw up strict rules in an attempt to prevent citizens defecting once abroad.