Image copyrightGetty ImagesImage caption As drones become more popular, countries will need to consider regulations to restrict usage
A drone has collided with a commercial aircraft in Canada, the first such incident in the country, according to the Transport Ministry.
The drone struck one of the plane’s wings, while six passengers and two crew members were aboard.
The aircraft sustained only minor damage and was able to land safely, the Canadian transport minister said.
Earlier this year, Canada announced that it was making it illegal to fly recreational drones near airports.
The law prohibited airborne drones within 5.5km (3.5 miles) of an airport and restricted the height of a drone’s flight to 90 metres (300ft).
Those breaking the restrictions could face fines of up to 25,000 Canadian dollars ($20,000, £15,000).
The Skyjet flight was heading to Quebec City’s Jean Lesage International Airport when the drone hit it on 12 October.
In a statement, transport minister Marc Garneau said: “Although the vast majority of drone operators fly responsibly, it was our concern for incidents like this that prompted me to take action and issue interim safety measures restricting where recreational drones could be flown.
“I would like to remind drone operators that endangering the safety of an aircraft is extremely dangerous and a serious offence.”
According to a UK Airprox Board report, a drone passed directly over the wing of an aircraft approaching Gatwick Airport this summer.
The drone was “flown into conflict” with the Airbus 319, with a high risk of collision, read the report.
Note: This story is auto-generated from BBC syndicated feed and has not been edited by AFRICA PRIME NEWS
James Corden has apologised for making jokes about the Harvey Weinstein sex abuse scandal.
The Late Late Show host said he wanted to “shame” the producer and not his alleged victims.
During a charity gala, he joked: “It’s been weird this week watching Harvey Weinstein in hot water. Ask any of the women who watched him take a bath, it’s weird.”
Harvey Weinstein has denied allegations of non-consensual sex.
During the annual amfAR gala in LA, James made a series of gags about the Hollywood producer who is facing rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment claims.
He said: “It’s a beautiful night here in LA.
“So beautiful, Harvey Weinstein has already asked tonight up to his hotel to give him a massage.”
*Warning – some people may find the language used in this video offensive*
The British comedian faced a backlash on social media after the gig, where his comments were met with groans from the audience which included Tom Hanks, Fergie and Kate Hudson.
Critics included actresses Rose McGowan and Asia Argento – who have both claimed they were assaulted by Harvey Weinstein.
The former has now called on CBS, which airs The Late Late Show, to donate money to a women’s centre.
James Corden has since tweeted an apology.
Image caption Harvey Weinstein has strongly denied any claims of non-consensual sex
James Corden got his first big break in Hollywood after being cast in a Weinstein Company movie.
He played Britain’s Got Talent winner Paul Potts in One Chance.
Hollywood figures including Tom Hanks and Whoopi Goldberg sit on its board.
Announcing its decision, the Academy said the “era of wilful ignorance and shameful complicity in sexually predatory behaviour and workplace harassment in our industry is over”.
French President Emmanuel Macron has said he has taken steps to revoke Weinstein’s Legion d’Honneur – the country’s top honour – which he was awarded in 2012.
Media playback is unsupported on your device
Media captionFilm Critic Jason Solomons says Harvey Weinstein “came for me and shook me” after a bad review
British actress Lysette Anthony is the latest named star to accuse Weinstein after she told the Sunday Times he attacked her at her London home in the late 1980s.
It was a “pathetic, revolting” attack, the actress said, that had left her “disgusted and embarrassed”.
The Metropolitan Police said it was passed an allegation of sexual assault, without giving details.
BBC home affairs correspondent Daniel Sandford says detectives have two problems going forward – one will be gathering evidence from the time of these allegations, including an incident from 35 years ago.
He adds the other is that because Weinstein faces allegations in the United States, police will want to deal with that first before agreeing to extradite him to the UK to face any charges against him there.
The film-maker later clarified his comments. “When I said I felt sad for Harvey Weinstein I thought it was clear the meaning was because he is a sad, sick man,” he told Variety.
Harvey Weinstein’s brother has refused to comment on whether the board of Weinstein Company had been aware of settlements with women during recent contract negotiations.
Image copyrightGetty ImagesImage caption Weinstein was an executive producer on The Reader, the film which earned Winslet her Oscar
Kate Winslet has revealed she deliberately did not thank Harvey Weinstein when she won her Oscar for The Reader in 2009. “I remember being told, ‘Make sure you thank Harvey if you win,'” the actress told the Los Angeles Times. “And I remember turning around and saying, ‘No I won’t.'”
The British director of Oscar-tipped film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri said he was pleased Weinstein had “got his comeuppance”. Speaking on the closing night of this year’s London Film Festival, Martin McDonagh said: “Hopefully it’s the start of something better.”
James Corden has apologised for making jokes about the Weinstein affair at a charity gala in Los Angeles. “I am truly sorry for anyone offended, that was never my intention,” the British talk show host wrote on Twitter.
The Producers Guild of America is to hold a special meeting on Monday to discuss expelling Harvey Weinstein from its ranks.
Image copyrightReuters/ EPAImage caption George Weah (L) and Joseph Boakai will go head-to-head in a presidential run-off
Former football star George Weah and Vice-President Joseph Boakai are headed for a run-off in Liberia’s presidential election.
Nearly all the results from Tuesday’s poll have been counted, the election commission says.
Mr Weah, the first African to win the Ballon D’Or football award, is leading with 39%, while Mr Boakai is in second place with 29%.
A second round between the pair is expected next month.
They lead the field of 20 candidates who competed to succeed Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa’s first female elected president and a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Fewer than 5% of polling stations have yet to declare results, and lawyer Charles Brumskine is in third place with 9.8%.
Both Mr Weah and Mr Boakai had predicted they would win the first round of voting.
Mr Weah’s former manager on the football field, Arsene Wenger, was earlier this week apparently duped by false reports that he had already been elected president.
He told reporters: “It’s not often you have a former player who becomes president of a country. So well done, Georgie.”
Meet the frontrunners
George Weah, 51:
Former Fifa World Footballer of the Year
Arsene Wenger, now at Arsenal, was his coach at Monaco in the 1990s
Has the political backing of jailed warlord and former president Charles Taylor
Taylor’s ex-wife, Jewel Howard Taylor, is his running mate
Joseph Boakai, 73:
Nicknamed “Sleepy Joe”
Denies it is because he is often caught napping at public events, says it is because he is a dreamer
Vice-president under Ellen Johnson Sirleaf since 2005
Has distanced himself from her record, saying “a lot more needs to be achieved”
Liberia, which was founded by freed US slaves in the 19th Century, has not had a smooth transfer of power in 73 years.
Ms Sirleaf took office in 2006, after her predecessor, Charles Taylor, was forced out of office by rebels in 2003, ending a long civil war.
Taylor is currently serving a 50-year prison sentence in the UK for war crimes related to the conflict in neighbouring Sierra Leone.
Mr Weah, 51, has chosen Taylor’s ex-wife Jewel Howard Taylor as his running mate.
Note: This story is auto-generated from ‘BBC News’ syndicated feed and has not been edited by Africa Prime News staff.
Image copyrightEPAImage caption Marilyn Manson: ‘The pain was excruciating’
Marilyn Manson has discussed for the first time the “excruciating” stage accident that resulted in a leg injury and nine postponed tour dates.
The singer was crushed when a giant prop gun collapsed on him during a concert in New York on 30 September.
“It was terrifying,” said the rock star, who needed a plate and 10 screws in his fibula after the accident.
He told Yahoo news that, contrary to media reports, he was not responsible for the prop toppling over.
“I wasn’t trying to climb it,” said the 48-year-old.
“It started to fall and I tried to push back and I didn’t get out the way in time.
“I’m not sure what I hit my head on, but it did fall on to my leg and break the fibula in two places. The pain was excruciating.”
Media playback is unsupported on your device
Media captionEyewitness Anthony Biscardi recalls the moment a prop collapsed on US rockstar Manson
It took several minutes for the stage crew to free Manson, who appeared limp and unconscious.
As well as the injury to his lower leg, the star required a screw through his ankle bone. He has spent the last two weeks recovering at home in Los Angeles.
Manson said he regretted that his tour “got cut off right” just as he “was about to put it into second gear”.
But he added, “I’ll be back there really shortly, and it’s going to be as exciting as it was starting out.”
The star has rescheduled several US tour dates for January and February 2018. He is due to play seven UK dates in December.
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Clashes have been reported between Iraqi and Kurdish forces after Baghdad sent troops towards disputed areas held by the Kurds in Kirkuk province.
State TV said government forces had taken control of some areas, including oil fields, “without fighting”. But Kurdish officials denied this.
An exchange of artillery fire is said to have occurred south of Kirkuk city.
The US government has said it is very concerned and urged dialogue “as the best option to defuse tensions”.
Why was the operation launched?
Tensions between Iraq’s Arab-led central government and the autonomous Kurdistan Region intensified after people living in areas under its control voted overwhelmingly for independence in a referendum last month.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said the referendum was unconstitutional and demanded it be annulled. The Kurdistan Regional Government insisted it was legitimate and called for dialogue.
Crisis talks on Sunday failed to resolve the stand-off between the two sides.
The Iraqi government said overnight that it had launched the operation in Kirkuk to “secure bases” and “federal installations”.
Kurdish officials said Iraqi troops had been advancing alongside government-backed Shia militias south of Kirkuk city and intended to take control of oil fields and an airbase.
A KRG official told Reuters news agency that the infrastructure targeted still remained under Kurdish control.
Hemin Hawrami, an aide to Kurdistan Regional President Massoud Barzani, earlier said Kurdish leaders rejected the “military option” but were “ready to defend” the city against outside forces.
A spokesperson for Mr Barzani later accused Iraqi forces of launching a war against the Kurds.
What is disputed?
Kirkuk is an oil-rich province claimed by both the Kurds and the central government. It is thought to have a Kurdish majority, but its provincial capital has large Arab and Turkmen populations.
Kurdish Peshmerga forces took control of much of the province in 2014, when Islamic State (IS) militants swept across northern Iraq and the army collapsed.
The Iraqi parliament asked Mr Abadi to deploy troops to Kirkuk and other disputed areas after the referendum result was announced, but he said last week that he would accept them being governed by a “joint administration” and that he did not want an armed confrontation.
“We won’t use our army against our people or to launch a war against our Kurdish citizens,” the prime minister said.
Parliament also accused the KRG of deploying foreign fighters in Kirkuk, including members of the Turkish Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which it said was akin to a declaration of war. But KRG officials denied this.
International concern
The independence vote was not only vehemently opposed by Baghdad, but also by much of the international community.
There is concern about the vote’s potentially destabilising effects, particularly with the ongoing battle against IS.
On Sunday, Pentagon spokeswoman Laura Seal said that the US was urging against “destabilising actions that distract from the fight against [IS] and further undermine Iraq’s stability”.
“We oppose violence from any party,” she added.
Iran and Turkey, which have Kurdish minorities and are fiercely opposed to Iraqi Kurds gaining independence, has backed Baghdad’s response to the referendum.
Who are the Kurds?
Kurds are the fourth-largest ethnic group in the Middle East but they have never obtained a permanent nation state.
They are one of the indigenous people of the Mesopotamian plains and the highlands in what are now south-eastern Turkey, north-eastern Syria, northern Iraq, north-western Iran and south-western Armenia.
In Iraq, where they make up an estimated 15-20% of the population of 37 million, Kurds faced decades of repression before they acquired autonomy in 1991.
Colin Kaepernick has filed a lawsuit against NFL team owners he believes are conspiring not to hire him because of his protests against racial injustice.
Kaepernick, 29, has been without a team since he opted out of his contract with the San Francisco 49ers in March.
He first protested by sitting during the national anthem in August 2016, before opting to kneel instead.
In a statement released on Sunday, Kaepernick’s lawyers wrote: “We can confirm that this morning we filed a grievance under the CBA on behalf of Colin Kaepernick.
“This was done only after pursuing every possible avenue with all NFL teams and their executives.
“If the NFL (as well as all professional sports leagues) is to remain a meritocracy, then principled and peaceful political protest – which the owners themselves made great theatre imitating weeks ago – should not be punished and athletes should not be denied employment.
“Such a precedent threatens all patriotic Americans and harkens back to our darkest days as a nation. Protecting all athletes from such collusive conduct is what compelled Mr Kaepernick to file his grievance.
“Colin Kaepernick’s goal has always been, and remains, to simply be treated fairly by the league he performed at the highest level for and to return to the football playing field.”
Mr Trump attacked dissenting players at a rally in Alabama
Speaking to BBC Sport last week, Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots said he had “never heard anyone talking about excluding” Kaepernick.
Some players from the 49ers again knelt during the anthem before their match on Sunday.
They were playing for the first time since US vice-president Mike Pence walked out of their game in Indianapolis, after several members of the team did not stand.
Chiefs fans divided over players kneeling
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