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8 maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 4 NOVEMBER 2015 News WIN a copy of the newly launched book To win a copy of this unique book tick the right answers: Tick all the Maltese products: ❒ Lacto ❒ Ilma żahar ❒ Red Leaf ❒ Għażżiel ❒ Hopleaf Send your answers by 10 November to: MediaToday, WIN A BOOK FROM BDL, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann The winners of the last competition, and who won the book, 'Wild flowers of the Maltese Islands' are Ms R Brincat from Rabat and Mr Emanuel Muscat from Mosta. The correct answers were: Maltese Fleabane, Sulla and the Giant Fennel By Charles B. Spiteri, published by BDL Drawwiet u Tifkiriet 'Heat flash' recorded over Sinai at time of plane crash A mid-air heat flash from Metrojet Flight 9268 was detected by a US military satellite before the plane crash on Saturday in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, US officials said. The unnamed official told NBC News on Tuesday that the US in- telligence community believes that it could have been some kind of explosion on the plane itself, ei- ther a fuel tank or a bomb. The same satellite imagery ruled out a surface-to-air missile attack, the news channel reported. The jet crash killed all 224 pas- sengers and crew on board. Investigators are examining all possible causes as part of an Egyptian-led probe into the disas- ter that also involves experts from Russia, Airbus, and Ireland, where the aircraft was registered. According to Russian media re- ports, cockpit recordings reveal unusual sounds at the moment the plane went off the radar, but no distress call from the pilots. The Interfax news service said it had seen a transcript of the cockpit recordings from the black boxes being examined by Egyptian offi- cials, as they try to piece together what caused the crash. Pilots spoke to air traffic control- lers four minutes before the air- craft disappeared from the radar in a routine exchange and no unu- sual conversation followed. But an unnamed source quoted by Inter- fax said "sounds uncharacteristic of routine flight were recorded preceding the moment that the aircraft disappeared from radar screens". The recording indicated a situa- tion had developed "suddenly and unexpectedly", the source added. It was not possible to verify the re- port, and Interfax gave no further information. Investigators are yet to officially release data or find- ings. On Tuesday, Egypt's president dismissed as propaganda claims that terrorism was involved in the crash, as the US banned its diplo- matic staff from travelling to the area. Analysts have dismissed claims that the jet was shot down by a group affiliated with the Islamic State if it was flying at a cruising height of 9,000 metres, but did not rule out that a bomb might have been planted on board. A second US defence official also confirmed that the US surveillance satellite detected a "flash or explo- sion" in the air over the peninsula at the time of the crash, NBC News reported. According to the official, "the plane disintegrated at a very high altitude", when, as the infrared satellite indicates, "there was an explosion of some kind". A Russian government commis- sion overseeing the investigation was due to meet yesterday. Tech- nical or mechanical failure, the firing of a missile or an onboard explosion would all be investigated as possible causes. Russian officials have said the plane, carrying holidaymakers from Sharm el-Sheikh to St Peters- burg, probably broke up in midair but it was too early to say what caused it. Igor Albin, the deputy governor of St Petersburg, said the first nine victims have been identi- fied. Aviation experts downplayed claims by Islamic militants that they brought down the Airbus A321-200 Crackdown on Erdogan's rivals intensifies TURKISH police detained doz- ens of people including senior police officers and bureaucrats allegedly linked to President Tay yip Erdogan's foe Fethullah Gulen on Tuesday, widening a campaign against the exiled Muslim cleric after Sunday's election. Gulen is a rival of President Re- cep Tay yip Erdogan, whose AK party regained its majority in Sunday's election. European ob- servers said violence and media restrictions marred the polls. On Tuesday, left-wing maga- zine Nokta said two of its editors had been charged with plotting a coup in the government's latest move against opposition media outlets. Cevheri Guven and Murat Ca- pan were arrested over a maga- zine cover criticising the elec- tion results that read: "The start of civil war in Turkey." An Istanbul court later ordered that the magazine's latest edition be withdrawn from the shelves, accusing it of inciting the public to commit a crime. The prosecutor's office in the western city of Izmir said it or- dered the arrest of 57 people believed to be members of the "Gulenist terror group", on al- legations they sought a purge of the army by engineering a 2012 espionage trial. Gulen was the "number one" suspect in the latest investiga- tion, according to the Dogan news agency. The operation came two days after the AK Party, which Er- dogan founded, secured a re- turn to single-party rule, in an election result he portrayed as a vote for stability but which op- ponents fear heralds growing authoritarianism. Police detained 44 of the sus- pects in dawn raids, including a former Izmir police chief and three state governors, in an op- eration covering 18 provinces, state-run Anadolu Agency said. Arrest warrants were issued for the other 13. The 2012 espionage case in- volved the trial of 357 people, including soldiers, accused of possessing secret military infor- mation and documents. Those defendants have been released but the case continues. The Izmir prosecutor's office said in a statement there was "serious evidence" that the 57 suspects sought to use the 2012 case to orchestrate a purge in the state bureaucracy and the military. During his early years as prime minister, Erdogan sought to tame the power of an army which had dominated Turkish politics for decades. Gulen, then his ally, was widely held to have helped in the process through his inf luence in the judiciary. The drive was epitomised by high-profile trials of those who allegedly plotted to overthrow his government. Officials sug- gest those cases were brought by police and prosecutors close to Gulen. Gulen denies such al- legations. Erdogan turned against Gu- len and launched a crackdown against his followers after police and prosecutors seen as sym- pathetic to the cleric opened a corruption investigation into Erdogan's inner circle in 2013. he cleric has lived in exile in the United States since 1999 and is himself the subject of arrest warrants in Turkey. A prosecu- tor is seeking a prison sentence of up to 34 years on allegations that he sought to topple Erdog- an. Gulen also denies that alle- gation. Pistorius prosecutors ask court to convict him of murder OSCAR Pistorius's defence lawyer has been inadvertently recorded telling his opposite number "I am going to lose" after prosecutors at an appeal hearing called for the athlete to be convicted of murder for shooting his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. The South African athlete, re- leased on house arrest last month after serving a fifth of his prison term for killing his girlfriend, faces years more in jail if state lawyers can get his conviction scaled up to murder from culpa- ble homicide. Prosecutors will argue before the supreme court that a high court judge was wrong to let Pis- torius off the more serious charge after he fired four shots through a door on Valentine's day 2013, kill- ing Reeva Steenkamp. The Paralympian was released from prison last month after serv- ing one year of his five-year term for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. Pistorius, 28, shot her through a locked bathroom door in 2013 but insists he thought she was an intruder. He is currently under house ar- rest, and did not attend the hear- ing at South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein. A panel of five judges will hear the appeal, and could either order a retrial, convict Pistorius of mur- der, or reject the prosecution's ap- peal, legal experts have said. "The [high] court not only ap- proached the circumstantial evidence incorrectly, but also in- correctly excluded relevant evi- dence," prosecutors said in docu- ments filed at the court. Pistorius denied deliberately killing Steenkamp during his six- month trial, saying he mistook her for an intruder at his home. Prosecutors said Pistorius in- tended to kill Steenkamp, who they said f led to the toilet during a row. But high court Judge Thokozile Masipa ruled last year that the state had failed to prove intent, or dolus eventualis, a legal concept that centres on a person being held responsible for the foresee- able consequences of their ac- tions.