2015 Grammys Addresses DOMESTIC VIOLENCE (Pres OBAMA's PSA Video) #itsonus

‪#‎2015Grammys‬

PRES OBAMA ADDRESSES DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AT 2015 GRAMMYS:

Sunday evening Pres OBAMA addressed the issue of DOMESTIC VIOLENCE Awareness at the 2015 Grammy awards ceremony via a PSA video.

He said "It's on ALL of us to make a difference!"

‪#‎itsonus‬


Sources: CBS; USA Today; White House; Wall Street Journal; Youtube

Libyan Plane Crash Leaves 100 Dead, 1 Child Survivor

Child Survives As 100 Feared Dead In Libya Plane Crash


One person -- believed to be a child -- survived a passenger plane crash in Libya that was feared to have killed more than 100 people, an official said Wednesday.

Libya's state news agency said 96 bodies had been recovered after the plane crashed at Tripoli International airport. A Dutch tourism official said 61 of 62 Dutch travelers on the plane were killed, with one survivor believed to be a child.

About 100 people are believed to have died in the crash, the president of the European Parliament has said.

The Afriqiyah Airways plane was flying in from Johannesburg, South Africa, when it crashed while attempting to land at the airport in the Libyan capital, an airline spokeswoman said.

She said she could not confirm whether there were any fatalities.

"At the moment we have no details of survivors and Afriqiyah Airways will issue further statements when more details can be released in due course," she said.

Jerzy Buzek, the president of the European Parliament said: "Some 100 people have died no doubt from many countries around the world; this is a tragedy.

"I have also been informed that one 8-year-old child has survived, which given this tragic event, is truly a miracle."

The plane, an Airbus A330-200, was carrying 93 passengers and 11 crew members. It was at the tail end of its nearly 9-hour-long flight when it crashed.

A Dutch Foreign Affairs Ministry spokeswoman said it's "possible that several Dutch citizens were on the plane."

"The prime minister said there are several indications that there were Dutch citizens on board on the plane, but we have no official confirmation on any numbers or personal data of these people. There is no confirmation about survivors either, we are trying to verify this information through our embassy in Tripoli and we will let know more details when we have them," she said.

The British Foreign Office said it was looking into whether British nationals were on board the flight.

At the crash site, workers with surgical masks combed through the smoldering wreckage that spilled over a large area. A wheel lay atop a pile of bags. Two green airline seats sat upright and intact amid burned parts of the aircraft.

Officials recovered the plane's flight data recorder, which investigators use to piece together a flight's last minutes.

The Tripoli-based Afriqiyah (Arabic for "African") operates flights to four continents. The planes in the fleet carry the logo 9.9.99 -- the date when the African Union was formed.

The Airbus that crashed is one of three Airbus 330-200s that the airline owns.


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Sources: CNN, Google Maps

Evan Muncie Found Alive 4 Weeks Later In Haitian Rubble; Miracles!

Haitian Man May Have Survived 4 weeks In Rubble


A man pulled alive from the rubble of a building in Haiti's capital Monday may have been trapped since the January 12 quake that leveled much of the city, doctors reported.

The 28-year-old man, identified as Evan Muncie, was found in the wreckage of a market where he sold rice, his family told staff at a University of Miami field hospital. He suffered from extreme dehydration and malnutrition, but did not appear to have significant crushing injuries, the doctors said.

"He was emaciated. He hadn't had anything in quite some time. He had open wounds that were festering on both of his feet," said Dr. Mike Connelly, of the university's Project Medishare.

The people who brought him to the hospital said they found the man while digging out the marketplace, Connelly said.

iReporter Michael Andrew brought Muncie's story to light while working with the 82nd Canadian Naval unit.

The man told doctors that someone was bringing him water while he was trapped, but doctors told CNN that he sounded confused and at times appeared to believe he was still under the rubble. Connelly said the man must have had some water during the past month to have survived, but Connelly wasn't sure how he would have had access to it.

"Initially, I'm sure he had his senses with him, so maybe he was able to find some kind of resources," Connelly told CNN.

The discovery came nearly a month after the magnitude-7.0 earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince on January 12. More than 200,000 deaths have been blamed on the quake.

Haiti's government declared search-and-rescue efforts over on January 23, but survivors still were being unearthed as late as January 27.


Sources: CNN

16-Year-Old Haitian Girl Rescued 15 Days After Quake

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16-Year Old Girl Rescued 15 Days After Haiti Earthquake


Fifteen days after her house collapsed around her as she showered, a 16-year-old girl was rescued Wednesday -- weak, thirsty and very much alive -- on a rubble-strewn hillside in the capital.

Hundreds of Haitians shouted with joy when French rescuers finished digging and pulled Darline Etienne from a jumble of concrete and steel, wrapped her in a golden foil blanket and hurried her to an ambulance.

"It's a miracle," said a British police chaplain who offered the girl a wooden cross. When she was too weak to take it, he wrapped it around her hand.

"She's breathing pretty weakly. She's very dehydrated, but she will be fine," said Christopher Renou, a French rescuer. "We're very optimistic that she will be fine."

It was the second remarkable rescue in the Haitian capital within the past 24 hours. In a nation that has counted its dead by tens of thousands, Etienne's survival provided a rare moment of pure happiness.

The rescue followed more than five hours of digging. It began when a group of young men picked their way along the hillside and heard a voice.

"I said, 'Is someone here?' " Roosevelt Luc recalled.

"Yes," Etienne said. "I am alive."


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Sources: MSNBC, Washington Post, Google Maps

Haitians Receiving Solar Powered Bibles For Hope & Inspiration

U.S. Faith Group Sends Solar-Powered Bibles To Haiti


As international aid agencies rush food, water and medicine to Haiti's earthquake victims, a U.S. faith-based group is sending Bibles to Haitians in their hour of need.

Not any Bible. These are solar-powered audible Bibles that can broadcast the holy scriptures in Haitian Creole to 300 people at a time.

Called the "Proclaimer," the audio Bible delivers "digital quality" and is designed for "poor and illiterate people," the Faith Comes By Hearing group said. It added 600 of the devices were already on their way to Haiti.

The Albuquerque-based organisation said it was responding to the Haitian crisis by "providing faith, hope and love through God's Word in audio."

With tens of thousands of Port-au-Prince residents living outdoors because their homes have collapsed or they fear aftershocks from Tuesday's quake, the audio Bible can bring them "hope and comfort that comes from knowing God has not forgotten them through this tragedy," the group said on its website.

"The Proclaimer is self-powered and can play the Bible in the jungle, desert or ... even on the moon!" said the website http://www.faithcomesbyhearing.com/



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Sources: AP, Reuters, Yahoo News, Google Maps

Jamaica Plane Crash Probe, Everyone Survived, What Happened?

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"Panic" As Jet Overshoots Runway In Jamaica




Passengers on American Airlines Flight 331 had endured the crowded airports and delays of holiday travel, and were moments from their Caribbean destination. Suddenly, everything seemed to spin out of control.

Touching down Tuesday night in a fierce rain, the Boeing 737-800 slammed into the runway of Kingston's Norman Manley International Airport. The aircraft skidded to a halt at the edge of the sea, leaving battered and bruised passengers screaming in panic as the smell of jet fuel spread through the darkened cabin, which had cracked open in places.

"I just wanted to get the hell out of there, as far as I could, because I could smell the fumes, and I knew that if it blew, it could be a pretty big fireball," said Gary Wehrwein, 67, who was traveling with his wife, Pilar Abaurrea, from Keene, New Hampshire.

All 154 people aboard survived, with 92 taken to hospitals and 13 admitted, but none of the injuries was considered to be life-threatening, said Jamaican Information Minister Daryl Vaz. One woman had surgery for a broken nose and cuts to her face.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said 76 of the passengers were Americans.

"It would have gone into the Sea"

The plane came to a stop on the sandy edge of an airport access road, and Transport Minister Mike Henry described it as a "Christmas miracle."

"If the plane was going faster, it would have gone into the sea," Henry said.

In daylight Wednesday, as soldiers stood around the wrecked jet, the damage was clear: The fuselage was cracked open, its left main landing gear had collapsed, and its nose was crushed and pointing off toward the sea.

Members of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board were assisting an investigation led by Jamaica's government, but there was no immediate explanation for what caused the plane to overshoot the runway. The "black box" flight data recorder from the plane was retrieved and will be taken to the NTSB laboratory in Washington.

Some aviation experts speculated the pilot was descending too fast for the conditions.

Investigators were expected to analyze, among other things, whether the plane should have been landing in such bad weather, said American spokesman Tim Smith in Fort Worth, Texas, although he added that other planes had landed safely in the heavy rain.

"At this point, it's now going to be in the hands of the NTSB and the FAA, plus any Jamaican government authorities that may be involved, and to start and sort of backtrack and see what happened and how it can be prevented from happening again," Smith said.

Sam Mayer, a spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association, which represents pilots at American Airlines, said the pilot and first officer were "pretty beat up" but were released after being treated for injuries. The pair had already flown from Miami to Baltimore-Washington International Airport and back before the Jamaica flight, he said.

Many Passengers traveling home

For the passengers, the most startling thing of all seemed to be how a bumpy but otherwise ordinary trip descended so quickly into chaos.

Flight 331 took off from Miami International Airport at 8:52 p.m. — about an hour late — and arrived at Norman Manley International Airport at 10:22 p.m. It originated at Reagan National Airport in Washington.

The jet had a crew of six and 148 passengers, many of them Jamaicans coming home for Christmas, officials said.

Passengers said the in-flight turbulence forced the crew to halt the beverage service three times before finally giving up.

Before descending, the pilot warned of more turbulence but said it likely wouldn't be much worse, Abaurrea told The Associated Press.

"All of a sudden, when it hit the ground, the plane was kind of bouncing. Someone said the plane was skidding and there was panic," she said.

No time for Fear

Wehrwein said there was no time to feel afraid. Immediately after impact, he was hit in the back by a panel that fell from the interior ceiling and then the jet came to an abrupt halt, he recalled.

"I wasn't thinking I was going to die. I said, 'Oh my God, we crashed,' then I got hit," Wehrwein said.

He and his wife recalled a hissing sound in the darkness, perhaps from the release of oxygen, people crying out and the smell of fumes, and a mad scramble to get out of the rear emergency exit with the help of the shouting flight crew.

"To me, it's a miracle to be alive," Wehrwein said. "So, I'm just grateful for that."

Passenger Paul Williamson, visiting his native Jamaica from his home in Toronto, said he was frightened when he noticed the plane's wheels didn't seem to touch down right away. He said he crouched into a crash position in his seat near the front of the plane.

"Next thing I know, I hear a crashing sound, then the sound of twisting metal. It all happened so fast, but when the plane came to rest, that's when the screaming and the carrying on started," Williamson, a 37-year-old opera singer, told the AP.



"Everything was Black"

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Passenger Natalie Morales Hendricks told NBC's "Today" the plane began to skid and "before I knew it, everything was black and we were crashing."

"Everybody's overhead baggage started to fall. Literally, it was like being in a car accident. People were screaming, I was screaming," she said.

"There was smoke and debris everywhere," after the plane halted, she said.

Williamson praised the flight crew for ably assisting the passengers. "It really could have been much, much worse," he said.

Wehrwein remembers coming out to sheets of torrential, "hurricane-type" rain as they walked along the sand to a bus to take them to the terminal, where they encountered airport staff unprepared to handle the situation.

Dazed passengers waited an hour before straggling out of the airport, many with bruises and cuts.

"It was chaos. Nobody knew what to do with us," Wehrwein said by phone from his stepson's home in Kingston.

The couple said they were relieved to escape with just some soreness and that no one was killed. "I'm a little bit shook up but OK," Abaurrea said.

Henry defended the response of the airport staff, saying the emergency services acted professionally and in accordance with international guidelines by getting to the scene and tending to the injured in 5 1/2 minutes. He said nine ambulances responded and were able to get the injured to hospital in due time.

While flights have resumed from the airport, bigger carriers such as Virgin and British Airways will be diverted to the Donald Sangster airport in Montego Bay. He said everything should be back to normal by Thursday.



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Sources: AP, MSNBC, Google Maps