World

SEOUL — Bird feathers and bloodstains were found in both engines of the Jeju Air plane that crashed in December, according to a preliminary investigation released Monday.

The Boeing 737-800 was flying from Thailand to Muan in South Korea on December 29 when it crash landed and exploded into a fireball after slamming into a concrete barrier.

It was the worst aviation disaster on South Korean soil, killing 179 of the 181 passengers and crew.

South Korean and American investigators are still probing the cause of the disaster, with a bird strike, faulty landing gear and the runway barrier among the possible issues.

Both engines recovered from the crash site were inspected, and bird bloodstains and feathers were "found on each", the report said.

"The pilots identified a group of birds while approaching runway 01, and a security camera filmed HL8088 coming close to a group of birds during a go-around," the report added, referring to the Jeju jet's registration number.

It did not specify whether the engines had stopped working in the moments leading up to the crash.

DNA analysis identified the feathers and blood as coming from Baikal teals, migratory ducks which fly to Korea in winter from their breeding grounds in Siberia.

After the air traffic control tower cleared the jet to land, it advised the pilots to exercise caution against potential bird strikes at 8:58 am, the report said. Just a minute later, both the voice and data recording systems stopped functioning.

Seconds after the recording systems failed, the pilots declared mayday due to a bird strike and attempted a belly landing.

The Jeju plane exploded in flames when it collided with a concrete embankment during its landing, prompting questions about why that type barricade was in place at the end of the runway.

Last week, authorities said they would replace such concrete barriers at airports nationwide with "breakable structures".

The captain had over 6,800 flight hours, while the first officer had 1,650 hours, according to the report. Both were killed in the crash, which was survived only by two flight attendants.

BEIJING — China said Monday it was "extremely unlikely" Covid-19 came from a laboratory, after the US Central Intelligence Agency [CIA] said it believed the virus had more likely come from a lab rather than natural transmission.

"The conclusion that a laboratory leak is extremely unlikely was reached by the China-WHO joint expert team based on field visits to relevant laboratories in Wuhan," foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said.

"This has been widely recognised by the international community and the scientific community," she added.

The CIA said Saturday the virus was "more likely" leaked from a Chinese lab than transmitted by animals.

The new assessment came after John Ratcliffe was confirmed last week as the CIA director under the second White House administration of Donald Trump.

"CIA assesses with low confidence that a research-related origin of the Covid-19 pandemic is more likely than a natural origin based on the available body of reporting," a CIA spokesperson said in a statement Saturday.

The agency had not previously made any determination on whether Covid had been unleashed by a laboratory mishap or spilled over from animals.

Beijing on Monday urged the United States to "stop politicising and instrumentalising the issue of origin-tracing".

Mao said Washington should "stop smearing and shifting the blame to other countries [and] should respond to the legitimate concerns of the international community as soon as possible".

MOSCOW — Russia on Sunday said its forces had captured the east Ukrainian town of Velyka Novosilka in the embattled Donetsk region, almost three years into their offensive. 

Russia has made steady advances on the battlefield in eastern Ukraine for months. 

Moscow's defence ministry said Russian troops led "active offensive actions" and "liberated the settlement of Velyka Novosilka", which lies in the west of the Donetsk region. 

Velyka Novosilka is close to the southern front line in Ukraine, which has remained largely static but where fears of a fresh Russian offensive have risen for weeks.

Both sides have raced to gain an advantage in the almost three-year as Donald Trump, who has vowed to hold talks to end the conflict, returns to the White House. 

UNITED NATIONS, United States — The UN agency for Palestinian refugees must end operations and leave all its "premises" in Jerusalem by January 30, Israel's UN ambassador said Friday, affirming timelines set out in controversial Israeli legislation.

Defying international concern, Israeli lawmakers have passed a law that bars the agency, UNRWA, from operating in Israel and east Jerusalem, the sector of the city annexed by Israel following the 1967 Six Day War. 

The agency has faced criticism from Israel that has escalated since the start of the war in Gaza, including claims that a dozen UNRWA employees were involved in the deadly October 7, 2023 assault by Hamas. 

In a letter addressed to United Nations chief Antonio Guterres, Ambassador Danny Danon said "UNRWA is required to cease its operations in Jerusalem, and evacuate all premises in which it operates in the city, no later than 30 January 2025."

UNRWA is considered the backbone of humanitarian operations for Palestinians.

It provides aid to some six million Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.

While east Jerusalem has long been an administrative hub for the agency, it also runs schools and health clinics in the sector. 

Israel has also passed a law that prohibits contact between Israeli officials and UNRWA, but its parliament has not banned UNRWA from operating in Gaza or the occupied West Bank.

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said earlier this month that the agency plans to "stay and deliver" services in areas where it can operate. 

But having "no bureaucratic or operational relation," with Israel "makes your operational environment even more challenging," he said. 

KYIV — A Russian drone and missile attack on the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia on Thursday killed one person and wounded 25 others, rescue workers said.

The state emergency service posted images of a destroyed building and a damaged firetruck that were hit in the apparent double-tap attack.

"The attack left one person dead and wounded 25 people, including a two-month-old baby and four rescuers," the emergency services said in a statement.

They said Russian forces had launched a combined drone and missile attack at intervals, explaining that firefighters had been wounded in "the second" attack.

"We need more sanctions against Russia, more air defence systems to protect our cities and communities, and more weapons for our warriors on the front lines," Zelensky said on social media.

The industrial city had an estimated population of more than 700,000 people before the Russian invasion in February 2022, and lies around 35 kilometres from the frontline.

The wider region is home to Europe's largest nuclear power plant and was claimed by the Kremlin as Russian territory in late 2022.

At least 13 people were killed in the city earlier this month in one of the single deadliest attacks in weeks of the nearly three-year war.

The emergency services said an administrative building, residential buildings had been damaged.

The Ukrainian air force said that Russia had fired four Iskandr missiles at Zaporizhzhia in the attack.

It also said Ukrainian air defence systems had shot down 57 drones, including the Iranian-designed Shahed attack variety.

The attack was the latest in an intensifying series of strikes on southern Ukraine as both Moscow and Kyiv vie for advantage in the early days of US President Donald Trump's administration. 

On Wednesday, Trump stepped up the pressure on Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to make a peace deal with Ukraine, threatening tougher economic measures if Moscow does not agree to end the nearly three-year-old war. 

Prior to his inauguration on Monday, Trump had vowed to end the Ukraine war immediately upon taking office, raising expectations he would leverage aid to force Kyiv to make concessions to Russia, which invaded in February 2022.

Castaic, United States — An explosive new wildfire erupted north of Los Angeles on Wednesday, forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes and setting nerves jangling in an area still reeling from two deadly blazes.

Ferocious flames devoured hillsides near Castaic Lake, spreading rapidly to cover more than 9,400 acres in just a few hours.

The fire was fanned by strong, dry Santa Ana winds racing through the area, pushing a vast pall of smoke and embers ahead of the fire front.

Evacuations were ordered for 31,000 people around the lake, which sits 35 miles north of Los Angeles, and close to the city of Santa Clarita.

"I'm just praying that our house doesn't burn down," one man told broadcaster KTLA as he packed his car.

The Hughes Fire came as the greater Los Angeles area was on edge after two enormous fires tore through America's second largest metropolis, killing more than two dozen people and wreaking billions of dollars of devastation.

Around 4,000 fire fighting personnel, backed up by aircraft and bulldozers, surged to the new blaze, a massive response that Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said was paying dividends.

"The situation remains dynamic, and the fire remains a difficult fire to contain, although we are getting the upper hand," he told an evening press conference.

"We are going to be on scene all night long, gaining more perimeter control, making sure that we can put out the hot spots, and then have enough resources and staging so that if we do have a flare up, we can move those resources to the fire line."

The hopeful tone came after a nervous day for the region, where many people remained glued to television coverage of the aerial fire fight, scenes that became common during lengthy battles to contain the Eaton and Palisades Fires.

Helicopters dropped water and planes dumped tens of thousands of fire retardant, laying down lines of red intended to corral the flames and pinch the fire front.

The fleet included two Super Scoopers, enormous amphibious planes that can carry hundreds of gallons of water, as well as DC-10 jets and dual rotor helicopters.

Crews from the Los Angeles County Fire Department and Angeles National Forest also attacked the blaze from the ground.

 Jails 

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said the Pitches Detention Centre in Castaic was under an evacuation order, and about 500 inmates had been moved to a neighbouring facility.

Around 4,600 inmates held at other jails in the area were sheltering in place, but buses were on hand in case conditions changed and they needed to be moved, he said.

California Highway Patrol shuttered the I5 freeway for several hours, severing a major artery that runs the length of the US west coast.

The freeway re-opened during rush hour, but had bumper-to-bumper traffic, as thousands of drivers inched home.

Cal Fire's Brent Pascua said conditions had come together to make the fire especially volatile.

"We're getting the winds, we're getting the low humidity, and this brush hasn't seen any moisture in so long," he said.

"That all combined together is just making this fire spread extremely fast."

Winds were expected to continue overnight and into Thursday.

Human activity, including the unchecked burning of fossil fuels, is changing Earth's climate, increasing average global temperatures and altering weather patterns.

Even though January is the middle of the region's rainy season, Southern California has not seen any significant precipitation in around eight months, leaving the countryside tinder dry.