New Zealand police: 7 believed dead in helicopter crash

All seven people aboard a helicopter that crashed Saturday on a scenic glacier in New Zeland are believed to have been killed, police said.

The wreckage of a helicopter was located inside a crevasse on Fox Glacier, but rescuers were unable to reach it due to the difficult terrain, police said in a statement. They said that the pilot and six passengers are believed dead.

The helicopter crashed at about 11 a.m. on the glacier, a popular tourist destination on New Zealand's South Island.

Rescue teams reached the scene Saturday afternoon, but said crevasses and rugged terrain were hampering their efforts.

A rescue helicopter used a winch to lower a paramedic and an alpine rescue team to the vicinity of the crash, said Vince Cholewa, a spokesman for Maritime New Zealand. He said the area where the helicopter crashed was filled with crevasses and treacherous terrain.

He said there was low cloud in the area, but otherwise the rescuers had not reported being hampered by the weather.

Cholewa said it was a commercial helicopter that crashed, but he didn't have details yet on whether the passengers were tourists.

Tourism companies regularly fly visitors onto the popular glacier so they can view it up close.

Obama Visits Asian Refugee Center

The Associated Press

Pushing back against efforts to bar Syrian refugees from resettling in the U.S., President Barack Obama vowed Saturday that his country will be a welcoming place for millions fleeing violence around the world "as long as I'm president."

Obama commented Saturday at a learning center in the Malaysian capital that serves the poor, including some refugees. He met with boys and girls wearing crisp white and black uniforms and neckties as they sat at tables and worked on painting and puzzle projects.

Obama said the youngsters "represent the opposite of terror, the opposite of the type of despicable violence we saw in Mali and Paris."

Most of the children the president met with are Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic group. Tens of thousands of Rohingya have fled Myanmar to escape persecution by the country's Buddhist majority, with many ending up in Malaysia, where Obama was attending a regional economic summit.

Obama noted that the world is currently focused on the humanitarian tragedy in Syria, where years of civil war have forced millions to flee to other countries to escape the bloodshed. But he said the world must not forget about some 60 million people who have been displaced around the globe.

Last week's Paris attacks have led U.S. lawmakers to seek to halt or delay the resettlement of Syrian refugees in the U.S. out of concern that terrorists could try to slip in with them and carry out similar attacks. Obama has rejected that idea and pledged to veto any bill sent to him to block Syrians from entering.

Speaking of the children he had just met with, Obama said: "Anybody who had a chance to see those kids, hopefully you understood the degree to which they're just like our kids. They deserve love and stability and protection."

He said more and more countries are recognizing that they need to do more, vowing that "as long as I'm president we are going to keep stepping up."

The refugees Obama met with have all been cleared to come to the U.S. and have been assigned to specific cities, the White House said.

Obama will confront the refugee debate even more directly when he returns to Washington on Monday. One of his first orders of business will be a White House meeting Tuesday with French President Francois Hollande, who is vowing war against the Islamic State group, which claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks, as European nations tighten border controls out of fear that terrorists could strike again.

Analysis: Mali hotel siege

For anyone who has followed news of Mali or travelled there in recent years, Friday's attack that killed more than 19 people at the Radisson Blu hotel is unsurprising, but no less tragic or horrific for its apparent predictability.

Since France's military intervention in January 2013 to halt the southwards movement of a coalition of armed groups who controlled much of the country's north, the security situation has remained precarious. And in some ways, it has gotten even worse.

The morning attack reportedly began after a small group of armed men hijacked a diplomatic car in the country's capital, Bamako, using the vehicle's protected status to bypass hotel security before shooting several guards, storming inside, and taking hostages.

A statement posted on Twitter claimed the attack on behalf of al-Mourabitoun, an armed group led by veteran rebel commander Moktar Belmoktar, with cooperation from al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb's (AQIM) Saharan Emirate under the command of Yahya Abou el-Hammam. 

Al Jazeera Arabic and the Mauritanian Newspaper Al Akhbar also reportedly received communiques confirming the statement.

A body is removed from the Radisson Blu hotel after it was stormed by gunmen during an attack in Bamako on Friday

French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told French television that Belmoktar, who was the target of a US air strike in the Libyan town of Ajdabiyah in June, "is likely behind this attack, although we are not certain of it".

If the claim of responsibility proves true, it would not be the first attack from Belmoktar's group in Bamako. In March, Mourabitoun claimed responsibility for an attack that killed five people at the popular La Terrace bar and restaurant in the capital's Hippodrome neighbourhood. The group also said it was behind shots fired at a United Nations vehicle and compound.

This year alone, Mali's violence has killed at least 342 people - including UN peacekeepers, foreign personnel and contractors, as in the attack this summer on the Byblos Hotel in the central city of Sevare.

Civilians have also fallen victim to intercommunal fighting and improvised explosive devices. Some were also targeted by AQIM, the largely Tuareg group, Ansar Al-Din, and the newer Front pour la Liberation du Masina (FLM) for allegedly collaborating with Malian and French security forces.

While the rebel environment in Mali appears fragmented, the separation and scattering of fighters after the French intervention has also helped these movements remain active. Moreover, this is part of a larger pattern of dealing with conflict by separating into smaller groups built in part around ethnic, social and linguistic ties.

For instance, the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) split from AQIM in 2011 - in part over frustration among Saharan and Sahelian fighters with Algerian dominance within AQIM; yet, this did not stop these groups from collaborating in the occupation of Mali in 2012. 

Similarly, long-standing radical and political actor Iyad Ag Ghali's Ansar Al-Din, created in 2011, connected Tuareg fighters from AQIM with newer recruits from Tuareg and other groups, especially in the area around the northern city of Kidal. 

FLM leader Amadou Koufa was initially part of the rebel push south in 2013, before splitting off and reportedly recruiting largely among his ethnic Peul community, staging attacks in central and southern Mali and harkening back to the 19th-century Masina state established by the reformist Muslim leader, Shekou Amadou.

As AQIM, Ansar Al-Din, and Belmoktar's fighters scattered after the French intervention, other rebels relocated or simply returned home to bide their time. But the fighting never stopped, and in the past year in particular, these groups have returned to the fore and expanded their combat operations across Mali, even as French forces fanned out across the Sahel as part of Operation Barkhane, designed to combat armed groups across the region.

Rebels target UN and other convoys almost daily with improvised explosive devices, while AQIM fighters killed six UN peacekeepers in a complex attack near Timbuktu in June. Other attacks in the region of Mopti, as well as near the borders with Burkina Faso and the Ivory Coast, have been attributed to the FLM or groups associated with Ansar Al-Din. 

Like water thrown onto an oil fire, the flames have simply spread elsewhere, instead of being extinguished.

Although Friday's attack follows closely on the heels of last week's gun and bomb assaults that killed at least 129 people in the streets of Paris, it is more likely that the carnage at the Radisson Blu was tied to local factors.

The hotel, always popular with diplomats and other foreign personnel, was preparing for the sixth meeting of the Coordinating Committee of the Algiers Accords, signed in June between rebel groups and the Malian government.

The attack also takes place soon after a series of local truces around the town of Anefis brought a halt - for the moment - the intercommunal conflict between different Tuareg and Arab armed groups that had raged since the signing of the Algiers Accords.

The assault also came just days after Ansar Al-Din leader Ag Ghali released an audio tape railing against the accords, praising the attacks in central and southern Mali, and threatening France.

We will know more in the days to come about why and how this attack took place. But no matter what the cause, it appears dishearteningly likely that insecurity and violence will continue to spread in Mali for the foreseeable future.

Apple Music (for Android)

An official Apple app on your Android device? Yes, it's true. With Apple Music for Android, Cupertino's first real Android app, Apple crosses enemy lines and opens up its new music streaming service to Google partisans. Apple Music for Android maintains most of the iOS original's good parts. However, the same flaws have carried over as well. Furthermore, without the support of the Apple ecosystem, Apple Music is less appealing on Android than on on Apple's mobile devices.

On iPhones and iPads with iOS 9 installed, Apple Music just takes over from the previous music app, but on Android it's a separate download. There's a generous 90-day free trial. After that, subscriptions start at $9.99 per month for individual listeners. Six-person family plans cost $14.99 per month. I was unable to set up new accounts on my test phones: the Moto X$99.99 at Amazon and the Nexus 5$169.99 at Groupon. The loading screen hung whenever I tried to enter a password. I had to create my profile on a Mac instead and then log in through a phone. I hope this annoying, protracted account creation process is fixed soon. Keep in mind that the service is technically still in beta.

For an in-depth analysis of Apple Music's features, such as its curated playlists, exclusive radio stations, and social network functionality, check out my full review of Apple Music for iPhone$9.99 at Apple Store. The experience on Android is largely the same. The music video for "Hotline Bling" by Drake just looked as good, and I didn't notice a drop in sound quality when listening to the Insane Clown Posse. But this also means many of my issues with the original Apple Music remain present in this version. There are still app-crashing bugs, the features are still more gimmicky than actually useful, and there are still holes in the admittedly impressive music library.

Apple Music for Android also can't leverage the Apple ecosystem the same way it can on iOS. Obviously there's no Siri or Apple Watch$699.99 at Apple Store support. Android Owners, unlike most iPhone owners, also won't already have a preexisting library of iTunes songs on their device for Apple Music to complement. If your connection is too poor to stream music, you better have some tracks downloaded for offline listening or you'll be out of luck. 

These new and old problems prevent the service from putting up much of a fight against our Editors' Choice Spotify$0.00 at Amazon.  But Apple's perfectionist spirit shines through. Apple Music on Android has some slight but appreciated interface and graphic design tweaks to make the app look less like an iOS app and more like other, popular Android apps. 

Play It AgainApple Music for iPhone has issues, but it's a fine and convenient built-in service for discovering new iTunes songs and listening to the ones you already have. But the download is a tougher sell on Android. While it features most of the same selling points, the ones that are missing make the weaknesses that much worse. We'll revisit this beta service to see how it develops. For now, if you want to subscribe to the best music streaming services, just stick with Spotify and Slacker$0.00 at iTunes Store.

Apple Music on Android

Apple Music on Android has some new visual flourishes, compared to the iOS version, that bring it in line with other popular Android apps.

Pope Expected to Address Climate Change During Kenya Visit

FILE - President Barack Obama leans over to talk to Pope Francis during a state arrival ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Sept. 23, 2015.







Pope Francis will arrive in Kenya on Wednesday to kick off his first official Africa visit. And, as in previous tours, he is expected to speak about an issue close to his heart – climate change, a topic with special resonance in Africa.

During his September trip to the United States, Francis addressed climate change in speeches at the White House, as well as during a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress, and at the United Nations.

Visiting the White House, Pope Francis called for action.

“It seems clear to me also that climate change is a problem which can no longer be left to a future generation,” he said.

A priority

Achim Steiner, the executive director of the United Nations Environment Program, or UNEP, says he is pleased that the pope has made climate change a priority.

“In part, because he transcends and goes beyond the science and the economics and let’s say, the metrics of climate change, to say look, if we know that this is something that can happen, that is beginning to happen already, then we must act on it,” said Steiner.

A recent World Bank report said more than 100 million people could be pushed into poverty by 2030 due to the impact of climate change, with sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia the hardest hit. Steiner notes poverty is an issue many Africans know well.

“And it is 1 billion people who have contributed very little to the problem of global warming today but are on the front lines,” he said.

According to Steiner, richer nations can recover faster from natural disasters because of better infrastructure investments. Africa is more vulnerable because it has fewer institutional and financial resources to protect itself.

'Extreme weather event'

“For this continent, it is very difficult, whether it’s pastoral communities that will no longer be able to have their animals and livestock have access to pasture,” said Steiner. “Whether it is agriculture, that is rainfall dependent, whether it is the infrastructure that gets flooded away through just a 24-hour extreme weather event, these are the consequences that put a billion people and their development at risk.”

Twenty-two year old recent university graduate Samuel Gitau says he agrees that climate change is an important issue for Pope Francis to address during his Kenya visit.

“It’s good for nations and also for individuals to be cautious of what we are doing, our activities, in a manner to control those climatic changes,” said Gitau.

Pope Francis is scheduled to meet with officials at UNEP headquarters in Nairobi during his visit, just four days prior to the start of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris.

State of emergency in Mali after deadly hotel attack

Malian security officials show a flag they said belonged to attackers in front of the Radisson hotel in Bamako [Joe Penney/Reuters]

Mali was under a state of emergency on Saturday after a brazen siege by gunmen at a five-star hotel killed 21 people in the heart of the capital, Bamako.

A breakaway al-Qaeda faction from the country's restive north claimed responsibility for the attack.

Three days of mourning were announced by President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, who also clarified the death toll after Malian state television reported late Friday that 27 were dead, along with three attackers. 

"This evening, the death toll is heavy and terrible: 21 dead, two [assailants] amongst them, and seven wounded," Keita said.

The president cut short a trip to a regional summit in Chad in the wake of the attack.

Friday's assault on the Radisson Blu hotel was the latest in a series of deadly raids this year on high-profile targets in Mali, which has battled Islamist rebels based in its desert north for years.

The attack is a sharp setback for former colonial power France, which has stationed 3,500 troops in northern Mali to try to restore stability.

"There's a real sense of grief here - how could this have happened?" Al Jazeera's Nicolas Haque reported from outside the hotel on Saturday. "People here didn't expect such a brazen attack. It's one of the most secure areas in Bamako. It comes as a shock as the attackers literally walked into the hotel."

Malian, French and US security forces ended the siege after the gunmen stormed the hotel and took about 170 people hostage.

US special forces helped rescue at least six Americans, a military spokesman told reporters in Washington. Footage also showed French security forces at the scene, and witnesses saw UN troops.

President Barack Obama said on Saturday the United States was trying to account for all its citizens at the hotel as he denounced the assault.

"This barbarity only stiffens our resolve to meet these challenges," he said from a summit in Malaysia. "The United States will be relentless against those who target our citizens."

Gunmen shouting "Allahu Akbar", or "God is great", opened fire outside the hotel in the centre of the capital before rushing inside.

Al-Mourabitoun, an armed group that has had ties to al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it carried it out "in coordination with Imarat al-Sahra group and al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb [AQIM]".

The group, in a recording obtained by Al Jazeera, said it would only release the hostages it had taken when its members were freed from Bamako's prisons, and when what it called "aggression against the people of northern Mali" is stopped.

"About 10 gunmen arrived early in the morning and shot all the guards in front of the Radisson," business owner Garba Konate told Al Jazeera. 

Another witness said he helped a wounded guard to safety.

"I started hearing gunshots coming from the hotel," said Ibrahim, 28, who works at a cultural centre 40 metres away.

"Soon, after I saw one of the guards running out injured... The security guard told me the shooters were so quick that he doesn't even know how many came in.

Questions That Were Asked at Apple Job Interviews

Apple is known for being one of the most challenging and exciting places to work, so it’s not surprising to learn that getting a job there is no easy task.

Like Google and other big tech companies, Apple asks both technical questions based on your past work experience and some mind-boggling puzzles.

We combed through recent posts on Glassdoor to find some of the toughest interview questions candidates have been asked.

Some require solving tricky math problems, while others are simple but vague enough to keep you on your toes.

1. “Explain to an 8 year old what a modem/router is and its functions.” — At-Home Advisor candidate
2. “Who is your best friend?” — Family Room Specialist candidate
3. “If you have 2 eggs, and you want to figure out what’s the highest floor from which you can drop the egg without breaking it, how would you do it? What’s the optimal solution?” — Software Engineer candidate
4. “Describe an interesting problem and how you solved it.” — Software Engineer candidate
5. “How many children are born every day?” — Global Supply Manager candidate
6. “You have a 100 coins laying flat on a table, each with a head side and a tail side. 10 of them are heads up, 90 are tails up. You can’t feel, see or in any other way find out which side is up. Split the coins into two piles such that there are the same number of heads in each pile.” — Software Engineer candidate
7. “Describe yourself, what excites you?” — Software Engineer candidate
8. “If we hired you, what do you want to work on?” — Senior Software Engineer candidate
9. “There are three boxes, one contains only apples, one contains only oranges, and one contains both apples and oranges. The boxes have been incorrectly labeled such that no label identifies the actual contents of the box it labels. Opening just one box, and without looking in the box, you take out one piece of fruit. By looking at the fruit, how can you immediately label all of the boxes correctly?” — Software QA Engineer candidate
10. “Scenario: You’re dealing with an angry customer who was waiting for help for the past 20 minutes and is causing a commotion. She claims that she’ll just walk over to Best Buy or the Microsoft Store to get the computer she wants. Resolve this issue.” — Specialist candidate
11. “How would you breakdown the cost of this pen?” — Global Supply Manager candidate
12. “A man calls in and has an older computer that is essentially a brick. What do you do?” — Apple Care At-Home Consultant candidate
13. “Are you smart?” — Build Engineer candidate
14. “What are your failures, and how have you learned from them?” — Software Manager candidate
15. “Have you ever disagreed with a manager’s decision, and how did you approach the disagreement? Give a specific example and explain how you rectified this disagreement, what the final outcome was, and how that individual would describe you today.” — Software Engineer candidate
16. “You put a glass of water on a record turntable and begin slowly increasing the speed. What happens first — does the glass slide off, tip over, or does the water splash out?” — Mechanical Engineer candidate
17. “Tell me something that you have done in your life which you are particularly proud of.” — Software Engineering Manager candidate
18. “Why should we hire you?” — Senior Software Engineer candidate
19. “Are you creative? What’s something creative that you can think of?” — Software Engineer candidate
20. “Describe a humbling experience.” — Apple Retail Specialist candidate
21. “What’s more important, fixing the customer’s problem or creating a good customer experience?” — Apple At Home Advisor candidate
22. “Why did Apple change its name from Apple Computers Incorporated to Apple Inc.?” — Specialist candidate
23. “You seem pretty positive, what types of things bring you down?” — Family Room Specialist candidate
24. “Show me (role play) how you would show a customer you’re willing to help them by only using your voice.” — College At-Home Advisor candidate
25. “What brings you here today?” — Software Engineer candidate
26. “Given an iTunes type of app that pulls down lots of images that get stale over time, what strategy would you use to flush disused images over time?” — Software Engineer candidate
27. “If you’re given a jar with a mix of fair and unfair coins, and you pull one out and flip it 3 times, and get the specific sequence heads heads tails, what are the chances that you pulled out a fair or an unfair coin?” — Lead Analyst candidate
28. “What was your best day in the last 4 years? What was your worst?” — Engineering Project Manager candidate
29. “When you walk in the Apple Store as a customer, what do you notice about the store/how do you feel when you first walk in?” — Specialist candidate
30. “Why do you want to join Apple and what will you miss at your current work if Apple hired you?” — Software Engineer candidate
31. “How would you test your favorite app?” — Software QA Engineer candidate
32. “What would you want to do 5 years from now?” — Software Engineer candidate
33. “How would you test a toaster?” — Software QA Engineer candidate