A US plan to build a moderate fighting force to take on the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria has been criticised by a senior rebel trained in the programme.
At least five fighters were killed and more than 10 abducted in clashes with the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front.
Only 54 fighters had been trained so far under the programme.
US President Barack Obama announced the plan last summer, pledging to train up to 5,000 fighters a year to form a moderate Sunni opposition to help take on IS militants.
But Pentagon officials say they have struggled to find trainees who meet the vetting criteria.
Al-Nusra claimed it had captured fighters from what it called "the American project"
"The project is very slow," Capt Wawi told the BBC's Ian Pannell. "They are ready to train and form a national army of 15,000 fighters and we hear they are ready to back it with money, weapons and provide air cover.
"But in reality, in six months only 60 fighters were trained. If it takes this long to train 60, it will take decades to get everyone ready."
Division 30 and members of the Free Syrian Army came under attack from al-Nusra in northern Syria last Friday.
Al-Nusra, which is not affiliated to IS but has itself come under attack from the US in the past, said in a statement that it had captured some fighters and warned others against taking part in what it called "the American project".
The US said it provided "defensive support fire" at the time of Friday's attack, although Capt Wawi said it came after the fighting had finished.
"In reality, we have got no international guarantees to protect our fighters or to protect the 30th Division," Capt Wawi said.
The Syrian conflict began with an uprising against the government in Damascus, but that has since splintered, pitting rebel groups fighting President Bashar al-Assad's forces against one another.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak says the wreckage is from MH370
Part of the aircraft wing found on Reunion Island is from the missing MH370 plane, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has confirmed.
Mr Najib said international experts examining the debris in France had "conclusively confirmed" it was from the aircraft.
The Malaysia Airlines plane carrying 239 people veered off course from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in March 2014.
The debris was found on the remote French Indian Ocean island a week ago.
The plane is believed to have crashed into the southern Indian Ocean - though no evidence had been found despite a massive search operation.
"It is with a very heavy heart that I must tell you that an international team of experts has conclusively confirmed that the aircraft debris [...] is indeed MH370," Mr Najib told reporters.
"We now have physical evidence that [...] flight MH370 tragically ended in the southern Indian Ocean," he added.
Mr Najib said he hoped the discovery "will at least bring certainty to the families" of the victims, saying the burden they had faced was "unspeakable".
'Very strong indications'
French prosecutor Serge Mackowiak later confirmed the wing fragment, known as a flaperon, was from a Boeing 777 - the same make and model as the missing Malaysian airliner.
He said initial tests showed there were "very strong indications" that it was from flight MH370. But he said confirmation would only come after further tests on the fragment, which would begin on Thursday.
"[Investigators] will try to do it as soon as possible in order to provide total and reliable information to the family of victims, who are on our minds at the moment," Mr Mackowiak added.
Analysis: Hugh Schofield, BBC News, Paris
The debris was found last week on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion
The Paris prosecutor failed to be as categorical as the Malaysian prime minister in asserting that the wing piece does come from MH370. All he said was that there are very strong reasons to presume that it is from the missing plane.
That does not mean that the prosecutor has any reason to doubt the prime minister's conclusion - simply that he is exercising supreme legal caution.
In the coming days there will be more tests on the flaperon and it's expected that these will prove the piece's origin. After that, it will probably be many months before deeper analysis allows any tentative deductions about how the plane may have come down.
The debris is being examined at an aeronautical test centre near Toulouse.
There is little doubt now that the flaperon will be declared the first evidence of MH370 in the coming days as no other Boeing 777s are thought to have crashed in the region.
'It's not over yet'
Relatives of the victims were told about the initial results shortly before Mr Najib's news conference on Wednesday.
Jacquita Gonzales, the wife of crew member Patrick Gomes, said: "Now that they have confirmed it as MH370, I know my husband is no longer of this world but they just can't leave it with this one flaperon."
"We urge them to continue searching until they find the plane and bring it back," she told reporters. "It's not over yet."
She said she still hoped to get her husband's body back so that the family can give him a proper burial and say goodbye.
Malaysia Airlines described confirmation of the flaperon as "a major breakthrough".
In a statement, it said it hoped further evidence would be found in the coming days that would "help resolve this mystery".
Simulation of where debris in search area could end up
Nigeria’s wartime leader, Gen Yakubu Gowon, says “Nigeria is better off with Igbos.”
He spoke while delivering an oration at the burial service for Chief (Mrs.) Chinyere Asika,
wife of the former Sole Administrator of East Central State; just as the governor of Anambra
State, Chief Willie Obiano, described the deceased as a woman who exemplified the virtue of
patience, charity and humility. The service took place at the All Saints Anglican Cathedral,
Onitsha, Anambra State.
(FILES)- A March 2, 2012 file photo shows an Ohafia cultural troupe entertaining bystanders during the burial of Nigeria’s secessionist leader Odumegwu Ojukwu at his native Nnewi country home, in Anambra State eastern Nigeria. Odumegwu Ojukwu, who championed the campaign for an independent Republic of Biafra in eastern Nigeria in the 1960s culminating in a 30-month civil war which left more than a million dead was buried at his Nnewi family home in Anambra State. Its name is synonomous with the declaration of independence and updates on the brutal conflict that followed, but nearly 50 years after Nigeria’s civil war, Radio Biafra is again making headlines. AFP PHOTO
Gowon’s declaration was borne out of a deep appreciation of the commitment and sacrifice of the deceased and her husband, Ajie Ukpabi Asika, to the survival of Nigeria as one entity. The former Head of State recalled that when he proposed the post of Sole Administrator of East Central State, Asika told me, “I prefer to do this for the good of Igbo people.”
He went on: “I was struggling to get an administrator for the newly created East Central State when the name of the late Ukpabi Asika came up. He was then a lecturer at Ibadan. When we met, I did not know which one of us was younger. But he exuded strength of character and understanding, and wanted to start work immediately. I cautioned him to think about it. I told him, `you must consult your brothers, and your wife to know if you would accept’. I came away convinced that this was the man I needed.
“I did not know how to place his wife, Chinyere, but when she arrived from Kenya, she plunged head-on into the idea. She was a courageous woman, caring and humble. I remember her efforts in “Otu Olu Obodo”- a public service initiative which she used as a tool of empowerment for her Igbo kinsmen and women.”
Obiano told the children and the Asika family to imbibe the virtues of patience, charity and humility from Mrs Asika, while urging the congregation and Ndi Anambra to remember “her good deeds and pray for the repose of her soul.”
The service was attended by many prominent personalities including a former Minister of Defence, Gen T.Y. Danjuma, who represented President Muhammadu Buhari.
- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/07/gowon-we-are-better-off-with-igbos/#sthash.0wKqqX40.dpuf
The Nigerian media was full of it – that is, awash with the story of Buhari’s first diplomatic visit to the US. Aso Rock’s press secretary and Buhari’s senior media aide, Femi Adesina, tweeted enthusiastically from the White House. The thing however was that out here in the United States, the universe was indifferent. There was a serious news eclipse on Buhari’s presence in Washington DC. It was insignificant.
President Muhammadu Buhari and President of US Barack Obama during a meeting
No major American news outlet covered it for a US audience; the newspapers, if they talked about it at all, buried it deep beneath everything else, like an afterthought. The Congressional Black caucus did not rollout a carpet. The serious leaders of the black community in America did not pay attention; nor did it seem to them like a great African head of state was in town.
The Nigerian community felt but a rustle. In the large scheme of things, the vast range of Nigeria’s Intellectual, professional and business community here in the US, which the president and his mission ought to have tapped into, were hardly involved, nor a serious outreach planned to get the president to meet with them. In a badly organized town-hall affair, some Nigerians who wanted a chance to meet with the president were locked out from the grounds of the Nigerian Embassy in Washington DC. Two things felt immediately clear with Buhari’s visit to the US.
The reception was ordinary. It is clear that Nigeria no longer has sex appeal, or any more weight to pull, in this relationship with the United States. It is also an indication of the general sense of Africa, and the general treatment of Africa in the US media, that the head of state of Africa’s so-called “power-house” visits the United States, and it is as if nothing happened. It was all silent. Compare this with what would have happened had the US President visited Nigeria. All lights would be ablaze.
On the diplomatic level, it is also quite clear that Nigeria does not register on the great scale of countries the United States regards as important. We may be friends, but in this relationship Nigeria is the dog that wags its tail before America and is to be patronized. It brings to mind the statement by Nigeria’s former Consul-General to the United States, and former Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Joe Keshi, that Nigeria’s relationship with the United States must be based on “mutual respect.”
That is as it should be, and one of the ways in which countries demonstrate their regard for other nations is in the diplomatic protocol, and in the gestures of fanfare. Buhari was received at the Andrews Airport, not even by the Vice-President of the United States, but by the US Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Entwistle. It was shabby reception, compared to what would have been done to say, the Prime Minister of Israel, or France, or the German Chancellor, or the UK premier, or the PM of India, or even Pakistan. Compare it even to America’s reception of Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa in 1961, and I have here uploaded a visual link on Youtube for the readers of the “Orbit” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT5m9Fn9RBg, and it should be quite clear that Nigeria has stepped down significantly on the American diplomatic totem pole.
To be fair, President Obama did say, “Nigeria is obviously one of the most important countries in the world, and one of the most important countries in the African continent.” But we worry that US foreign policy is taking Africa and African countries for granted, and treating Africa like the world’s footmat, and this in the long run is not an image, we Africans want to have of a US-Africa relationship. It must be based, as Ambassador Keshi said, on mutual respect; not on presumption.
Buhari’s US visit, I’m not quite certain accomplished much except as a public relations ploy. If anything it felt like a caretaker reporting to his absentee landlord. Buhari wants president Obama to help Nigeria track and repatriate its stolen money.
“The fact that I now seek Obama’s assistance in locating and returning $150 billion in funds stolen in the past decade and held in foreign bank accounts on behalf of former, corrupt officials is testament to how badly Nigeria has been run,” President Buhari wrote in a Washington Post article of July 21. The question Nigerians however must ask is: does Nigeria not have its own National Intelligence Agency?
If there is none, perhaps Buhari now has a chance to build a strong and efficient National Intelligence Services from the ground floor. When the US had its own problem, it created its Secret Service managed under the Treasury Department. Buhari wants the US to provide Nigeria with the arms and training to fight Boko Haram. Does Nigeria not have its own Engineers and Designers? Why does this president want to continue and perpetuate Nigeria’s culture of dependency? Why is Nigeria not producing its own arms for its own national defence and national security? Zimbabwe produces its own arms.
South Africa has a vast National Defence Production infrastructure. Nations that depend absolutely on other nations for the tools required for their own self-defence and national security become slave nations. Buhari’s National Security policy must now move towards a doctrine of autonomy and self-sufficiency. It must link itself to the epicenters of Nigeria’s knowledge production and awaken its technical capacity. But this president must stop quibbling if he wants to truly make a clean cut with the past, and with how “badly Nigeria has been run.”
And he did say that he prefers to be “slow and steady.” Steady is good. But it must be anchored on two important premises: that there is something to be steady about; and that there is an end to it. Right now, Buhari’s pace, raises many concerns. It is not so much that is slow as that it is threading waters. But let me place this on record: I personally like this president to succeed.
The enormity of the work does not escape one. However, Buhari’s statement in the Washington Post, that he wants to “first put new rules of conduct and good governance in place,” before appointing his minister in September is a lot of presidential hogwash. Rules of conduct and good governance are already inherent in Nigeria’s regulatory systems. What is absent is sanction and solid oversight. Besides, the president can walk and chew gum at the same time.
The executive council is sine qua non to the convening of executive authority; and for a president who talks up the storm about law, order, and the rules of conduct, the president has breached the constitution by authorizing the release of federation funds to states for bail out without the consent and authority of the National Assembly. The president does not have the power to do so.
It is a fact which would have been made clear to him had he in place, a Finance Minister and the Attorney-General. If the bail-out money as authorized by the president is released, and it is not going to be released, the issue is bound to crop up with devastating consequences for the presidency in the 8th National Assembly when it finally convenes.
President Buhari needs to step off his high-horse and understand both the range and the limits of presidential power. He no longer is a military head of state. There are new rules of conduct pertaining to his office. Better still, this president must stop campaigning and begin to govern.
A British team is developing a car that will be capable of reaching 1,000mph (1,610km/h). Powered by a rocket bolted to a Eurofighter-Typhoon jet engine, the vehicle will mount an assault on the world land speed record.Bloodhound will be run on Hakskeen Pan in Northern Cape, South Africa, in 2016.
Wing Commander Andy Green, the current world land-speed record holder, is writing a diary for BBC News about his experiences working on the Bloodhound project and the team's efforts to inspire national interest in science and engineering.
Watching the final assembly of the world's first 1,000mph car, some things are more obvious than others.
The obvious bit is the mechanical assembly of Bloodhound SSC, as the chassis, bodywork, suspension, etc., is delivered to the Bloodhound Technical Centre and fitted for the first time.
Rather less obvious is the stuff that makes the car "work" - in other words, all the systems, including electrical power, hydraulic power, electronics, computers, sensors and so on.
A quick look around the technical centre shows that the systems team is now bigger than the mechanical build team. This is increasingly where the action is.
Titanium is strange stuff
Being a systems engineer can be a bit of a thankless task, as you have to wait until the mechanical team has built quite a lot of the car, before you can go to work fitting wiring, sensors, etc.
Worse still, starting last means you're probably going to finish last, which in turn means that everyone will be waiting for you, and asking if you're finished yet…
That's probably a glimpse of the near future for our systems team. Apologies in advance, guys: we'll try to be (a bit) patient!
Before we can complete the systems installation, we've got to finish the mechanical build of the car.
The RAF technicians from 71 Squadron seem to be all over the car at the moment, as they come near to the end of their work packages for Bloodhound.
At the front end of the car, the cockpit is up in the air while the bottom sections are completed. The cockpit sits directly behind the front wheels, which will throw up a fearsome supersonic dust storm at high speed.
To survive this extreme environment, the bottom of the car is being panelled in titanium.
Titanium has some strange properties. It's very strong (which is why we're using it) but it's also difficult to work.
The metal sheet has a "memory", which caused us a problem in making the curved bottom edges of the car. After being put through the panel roller to curve it, the sheet simply straightened itself out again. Not quite what we were after.
One option is to heat-treat the metal, to "set" the curve, but the very high temperatures required would soften the panel too much.
After some more thinking, one of the team worked out that a shallow "crease" should hold its shape in the metal, and enough creases should bend the sheet through 90 degrees.
A day's work and 22 precisely made creases later, we've got a quarter-round titanium panel and the assembly continues.
Rear deltas and the RAF
At the back end of the car, the RAF team is now finishing off the preparation of the rear deltas.
These fairings cover the rear lower-suspension arms, looking like a cut-off triangle (or "delta" shape) when seen from above.
Once these are complete, we can start to assemble the rear suspension for the first time.
In preparation for rear suspension assembly, we've just taken delivery of the last major parts: the rear "wishbone" elements, which connect the wheel "uprights" to the chassis.
In simple terms, the upright contains the wheel bearing and hub, and is connected to the car by two horizontal V-shaped pairs of struts call wishbones (like the bone you find in a chicken).
I can't wait to see the car on its wheels for the first time.
Like you find in a chicken - sort of
The fin is still being assembled, but hopefully not for much longer.
I was sitting through a meeting recently in the technical centre, when I heard the distinctive "ker-bang… ker-bang... ker-bang..." noise as 71 Squadron started to put pop rivets into it.
The pop rivet is a fascinatingly simple device, which can be used when there is only access to one side of the panel being secured (we can't get access to the inside of the fin once the panels are in place), hence they are also known as "blind" rivets.
Almost Fin(ished)
A central metal stick, called a mandrel, is mechanically pulled out of the rivet, with a lump on the end of the mandrel forcing the rivet to expand into the hole, before the mandrel breaks off and leaves the rivet in place.
This operation is done quite rapidly with a pneumatic gun, hence the two-part "ker-bang" noise as the mandrel is pulled through the rivet, then breaks off with a bang to complete the job.
The riveting means that after months of work, the world's hardest-working tailfin is being put together permanently. Another bit of the car assembly being finished.
Now we can start thinking about painting it and then "wrapping" it with its Union Flag design, including some 30,000+ names. Want to put your name on the world's fastest Fin? Sign up here and you too can travel supersonic next year.
Once the mechanical build of the car is complete, we've still got to complete and test all of the systems.
The systems team is getting as much of this done as it can, building wiring looms and bench-testing components, so that they are ready to drop into the chassis once the build team is finished.
Last week I watched the jet engine's gearbox being spun up to 60% of maximum speed (that's lots of thousands of revs/min) to check the generator output.
Generating some technical challenges
Good news - it worked. Bad news - as soon as we tried to run an electrical load (a fuel pump), it stopped working.
We're now busy trying to convince the system's software that it really is in a Typhoon, and that everything is working properly, so that it will give us power under load.
If we want to use the world's best military jet engine, the Typhoon's EJ200, then we've got to work for it. It'll be worth the effort.
While the cockpit is up in the air, having the car's floor fitted, the cockpit panels sit in the corner of the tech centre, gradually being wired up.
At Version 20 of the cockpit design, I'm hoping we're just about at the final layout, as we've now got to build it.
I started designing Version 1 in June 2008 (I've just checked), so we've been working on this for a while now! It's not that I keep changing my mind (well, not only that). As the power and control systems develop, we sometimes need to change how I monitor and control them.
Version 20 - nearly there
For example, we've recently finalised the design of the car's fire system and taken delivery of the car's Lifeline fire extinguishers.
We've got seven extinguishers on board: three using water and four using a fire-inerting gas called FE36 (which is 1,1,1,3,3,3 hexafluoropropane, in case you were wondering).
The FE36 is for the nose section, the cockpit, the rocket pump bay and the jet engine bay, and the water (in the unlikely event of an HTP rocket oxidiser leak) is for the HTP tank, pump and rocket bays.
One of 300 successful rocket cars
We've chosen to operate each of the extinguishers manually, so the cockpit needs seven buttons in the correct layout, matching the bay positions in the car - this change is Version 20 of the cockpit controls.
Finally, despite my temptation to ignore it, I suppose I should mention my small "moment" (OK, crash) in the Jaguar Rapid Response Vehicle at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
I've already apologised to Jaguar (who were very nice about it) and the Bloodhound team - so, for completeness, my apologies to anyone looking forward to seeing the car running up the hill, I'm sorry we didn't make it as far as planned.
It's disappointing that we ran over 300 rocket cars during the Goodwood weekend, and every one of them managed to get to the other end of the track, while I failed in my one attempt to get to the top of the famous hill.
To make matters worse, and just in case the tens of thousands of spectators hadn't all noticed, I had Ray Massey from the Daily Mail in the car with me, so we're now (in)famous with the whole of Goodwood and the whole of the Daily Mail readership. They say all publicity is good publicity, but in this particular case, I'm not feeling it, even after the team came out with some helpful pedal labels for next time.
Driver aids
I'm glad we don't have to worry about corners in Land Speed Record racing.
To finish on a high note, Bloodhound supported this year's Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) day at RAF Scampton, which was laid on by the Red Arrows.
Despite all the cool STEM technology on display (a Land Speed Record car, a Formula 1 car, various "slower" vehicles, robots, explosions, rockets, etc.), the biggest draw of the day was, of course, the Red Arrows.
Despite the mediocre English summer weather (rain), they put on their amazing flying display during the lunch break.
Great British expertise (both flying and engineering) at its very best.
It's this level of expertise that's going to help us to build and run a car capable of 1,000mph. It's going to be quite something to watch.
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