Pakistan is searching for a Boeing cargo aircraft missing over the Arabian Sea with five crew members on board.

The Karachi-bound 737-400 plane operated by a Pakistani carrier took off from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates and lost contact with air traffic control about 9:18pm (16:18 GMT) on Tuesday after reporting a navigational ⁠system fault, the Pakistan Airports Authority said.

Minutes later, data from Flightradar24, a global flight-tracking service, showed the plane losing nearly 1,525 metres (5,000ft) of altitude in less than a minute before climbing about 1,830 metres (6,000ft) in the next 30 seconds. It then entered a final, near-vertical descent from a height of 11,140 metres (36,550ft).

Its last transmitted position placed it at 335 metres (1,100ft), descending at 22,400 feet per minute, or about 400 kilometres per hour. All contact was lost about 155 nautical miles (287km or 178 miles) west of Karachi.

Security sources told Al Jazeera a Pakistani navy ship, a merchant vessel operated by the Pakistan National Shipping Corporation and two navy aircraft are taking part in the search.

No wreckage or survivors have been found so far.

“We continue to pray, earnestly, for the safety of our colleagues,” K2 Airways, the Karachi-based private cargo airline that operated the flight, said in a statement on Wednesday, adding that it was fully cooperating with authorities on the search.

It was the only plane in the K2 Airways fleet.

If a crash is confirmed, the incident would mark Pakistan’s first major civilian air disaster since May 2020 when a Pakistan International Airlines plane crashed short of the runway in Karachi, killing 97 of the 99 people on board.

The woman suspected of carrying out a parcel bombing in Monaco which injured a sanctioned Ukrainian multi-millionaire and his family has been found dead, Ukraine’s security service (SBU) has said.

The intelligence officer subsequently confessed to Berezovska’s murder and said he had done so with “another suspect”, the agency said.

It continued: “During the search of the former law enforcement officer’s home, a basement room resembling a torture chamber was found.

“Both suspects were detained on suspicion of committing murder with premeditation by a group of individuals.”

An investigation is ongoing with the “personal assistance” of the head of the intelligence directorate Oleg Ivashchenko.

Monaco’s deputy prosecutor Morgan Raymond said Berezovska had spent days casing out the residence and was “disguised as a man” during the attack last Monday.

Three people were injured, two of them seriously, when a package exploded just as they entered the building shortly after 21:00 local time (19:00 GMT).

Berezovska was believed to have fled in a hire car to Italy and onwards to Germany – where special forces searched an apartment rented by a 39-year-old Ukrainian woman “currently on the run” in the central state of Hesse on Thursday, police said.

Interpol issued a red notice alerting police worldwide that she was a fugitive wanted for attempted murder, placing an explosive device on a public road with criminal intent and criminal conspiracy on Friday.

The SBU said Ukrainian authorities had shared all available information with officials in Monaco, with who its prosecutor general was in “close co-operation”.

Law enforcement authorities were working to identify “other suspects” in the attack, it added.

Authorities in Monaco have not confirmed the victims’ identities, but local media reported Vadym Yermolaiev, his partner and his 13-year-old son had been targeted.

Yermolaiev, a real estate developer, was named the 39th richest Ukrainian by Forbes magazine in 2020 with a reported fortune of $230m (£173.8m).

He has major interests are in wine and alcohol in Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014, and has been the subject of sanctions imposed by the government in Kyiv since 2023.

He is a Cypriot citizen, having renounced his Ukrainian citizenship in 2019, and has been living in Monaco.

(BBC)

Emergency evacuations are taking place in Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands as a super typhoon bears down on the US Pacific territories.

Bavi is forecast to make landfall early on Monday morning, with winds of up to 257km/h (160mph), according to the US National Weather Service (NWS).

It warned the “very dangerous” storm could cause “catastrophic” damage, with “significant flooding from torrential rains” possible and waves potentially nearly 11m (35ft) high on Monday.

The western Pacific region is particularly prone to tropical cyclones. While storms of this strength are unusual for the US islands, scientists say climate change is making powerful typhoons more common.

Bavi is expected to pass directly over Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands by Monday afternoon, but the NWS warned that destructive conditions could be expected for eight to 10 hours prior to or after the arrival of the storm’s centre.

“The window is rapidly closing to evacuate if directed to do so by local officials, or if your home is vulnerable to high winds or flooding,” the agency said, adding that winds “will pose a deadly threat to those venturing outside”.

Guam, usually a sun-soaked tourist destination with a population of about 170,000, has opened five evacuation centres in its schools. These sites have a maximum capacity of around 1,700 and are primarily intended for vulnerable people.

The island’s civil defence office said at 13:00 local time (03:00 GMT) on Sunday that one of the evacuation sites had already reached maximum capacity and that people were being redirected to another site.

Bavi has been classified as a super typhoon by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC), a part of the US Navy responsible for monitoring tropical storms in the western Pacific.

A super typhoon has winds in excess of 130 knots (150mph). JTWC predicts that Bavi will have winds of 150 knots (173mph) when it arrives over the islands, with gusts reaching as high as 180 knots (207mph).

The NWS considers super typhoons to have the equivalent destructive potential as a category four or five hurricane.

Pinky Cubacub, 55, told news agency AFP that she had been boarding up the windows of her eatery in Guam with $500 (£373) worth of plywood.

“I cannot afford to lose so many days. It hurts,” she said. “Because I just started, whatever we’re making right now is just for rent, utilities, and my people, and supplies. I don’t even pay myself yet.”

Japanese tourist Miku Sakurai, 25, told AFP that her return flight to Tokyo on Sunday had been cancelled. “We will stay in the hotel when the storm comes. I am scared,” she said.

Bavi will be the 11th category four or five tropical cyclone to hit US territory in the past decade – one more than the total recorded in the prior 57 years.

A strong El Niño event – a periodic warming of an area of surface water in the Pacific that contributes to weather patterns – is expected to push more tropical storms into these higher intensities.

Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands have already experienced one super typhoon this year – Sinlaku in April, which killed 17 people and caused about $1.5bn (£1.1bn) in damage.

Warmer sea surface temperatures drive more moisture into the atmosphere, supercharging storms.

[BBC]