LUSAKA: Five Egyptians and six Zambians appeared in court Monday after a mystery plane landed in Lusaka with 130 kilos of “suspected” gold, nearly six million dollars and weapons on board.
Drug and law enforcement authorities said 11 suspects, including a senior Zambian police officer, had been arrested and charged with “espionage,” in the capital.
The suspects arrived at a magistrate’s court late Monday afternoon, an AFP correspondent reported.
Authorities in the southern African country seized 127 kilos (280 pounds) of “suspected gold,” a handful of firearms, 126 rounds of ammunition and almost $5.7 million when the plane landed in Lusaka two weeks ago.
The Drug Enforcement Commission said the chartered aircraft was transporting “dangerous goods.”
Court papers seen by AFP list a former Egyptian military person and businessman as well as a Zambian police officer among the suspects.
The story, much of which remains unclear, has continued making waves in Egypt.
An independent Egyptian journalist who was arrested in Cairo following reports accusing officials of involvement in smuggling cash, weapons and gold, was later released.
However, Egyptian state media had claimed the aircraft in question was privately owned and that it had only transited through Cairo.
The suspects could face up to 30 years in jail under Zambian law.
Egyptians, Zambians in court over gold on mystery plane
https://arab.news/natgb
Egyptians, Zambians in court over gold on mystery plane
- Authorities seized 127 kilos of “suspected gold,” firearms, 126 rounds of ammunition and almost $5.7 million when the plane landed in Lusaka
NASA and families of fallen astronauts mark 40th anniversary of space shuttle Challenger accident
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida: Families of the astronauts lost in the space shuttle Challenger accident gathered back at the launch site Thursday to mark that tragic day 40 years ago.
All seven on board were killed when Challenger broke apart following liftoff on Jan. 28, 1986.
At the Kennedy Space Center memorial ceremony, Challenger pilot Michael Smith’s daughter, Alison Smith Balch, said through tears that her life forever changed that frigid morning, as did many other lives. “In that sense,” she told the hundreds of mourners, “we are all part of this story.”
“Every day I miss Mike,” added his widow, Jane Smith-Holcott, “every day’s the same.”
The bitter cold weakened the O-ring seals in Challenger’s right solid rocket booster, causing the shuttle to rupture 73 seconds after liftoff. A dysfunctional culture at NASA contributed to that disaster and, 17 years later, shuttle Columbia’s.
Kennedy Space Center’s deputy director Kelvin Manning said those humble and painful lessons require constant vigilance “now more than ever” with rockets soaring almost every day and the next astronaut moonshot just weeks away.
Challenger’s crew included schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe, who was selected from thousands of applicants representing every state. Two of her fellow teacher-in-space contenders — both retired now — attended the memorial.
“We were so close together,” said Bob Veilleux, a retired astronomy high school teacher from New Hampshire, McAuliffe’s home state.
Bob Foerster, a sixth grade math and science teacher from Indiana who was among the top 10 finalists, said he’s grateful that space education blossomed after the accident and that it didn’t just leave Challenger’s final crew as “martyrs.”
“It was a hard reality,” Foerster noted at the Space Mirror Memorial at Kennedy’s visitor complex.
Twenty-five names are carved into the black mirror-finished granite: the Challenger seven, the seven who perished in the Columbia disaster on Feb. 1, 2003, the three killed in the Apollo 1 fire on Jan. 27, 1967, and all those lost in plane and other on-the-job accidents.
Relatives of the fallen Columbia and Apollo crews also attended NASA’s Day of Remembrance, held each year on the fourth Thursday of January. The space agency also held ceremonies at Virginia’s Arlington National Cemetery and Houston’s Johnson Space Center.
“You always wonder what they could have accomplished” had they lived longer, Lowell Grissom, brother of Apollo 1 commander Gus Grissom, said at Kennedy. “There was a lot of talent there.”
.
