Huge White shark washes up on a beach in Ireland

It was discovered by photographer Bernard Fitzgerald as he was walking on Aughacasla beach in Castlegregory, Co Kerry, at the weekend



B_Fitzgerald_Photo


A huge shark from the Great White family has washed up on an Irish beach.

The 1.8m female porbeagle shark was discovered by photographer Bernard Fitzgerald as he was walking on Aughacasla beach in Castlegregory, Co Kerry, at the weekend.

The arrival of the adult shark in Tralee Bay comes as a tagged Great White called Lydia is set to be the first recorded member of her species to cross the Atlantic as she swims within 1200km of our shores.

Great White shark just days from Ireland after scientists track it swimming across Atlantic

Marine biologist Kevin Flannery admitted the porbeagle shark does bear a close resemblance to the beasts made famous by the Jaws movie.

He said: “The porbeagle does look very like a Great White. People could think the Great White we have been talking about has landed in Kerry.

“They are from the same family. I’m sure it gave people a fright, especially if they had heard the Great White was coming close to Ireland.”



Shark found on Kerry beach

Kevin, head of Dingle Oceanworld, said the cause of the porbeagle shark’s death is a mystery as the adult looked healthy and there were no signs of injury.

He added: “It is a fully grown adult female. She could have died from giving birth. It’s hard to say.

“It would be early for the shark to give birth but with the weather patterns this year it could be a possibility.

“I have never seen or heard of one getting washed ashore.”

Photographer Bernard said he was astonished to stumble across the shark on the shore last Friday.

He said: “It’s the first time I have ever come across a shark in all the years I have been walking the beach.

“It looked very healthy and there were no signs if injury. I was really surprised sharks were so close to our shores.”

Meanwhile, Great White Lydia is getting closer.

The satellite-tagged 4.27m shark is causing major excitement in scientific circles as she is set to be the first Great White recorded crossing the Atlantic.


The 900kg fish has swum more than 30,000km since a tracking device was fitted to her near Florida last year as part of the Ocearch project and is now hovering in the mid-Atlantic ridge.

Mr Flannery believes the worldwide ban on hunting sharks is swelling their numbers and sending them hunting for food in the north Atlantic and off the Irish coast.

He said: “Up to a year or two ago they were being landed in Spain, Portugal and Africa and all the way up along so they never made it up to Ireland.”

Mr Flannery suspects Lydia is following a traditional feeding route tracked by other Great Whites.

He added: “They are an eating and feeding machine. She is probably on a specific feeding track.

“Down through the years they were targeted and killed but now they are a protected species we’ll possibly will see a lot more of them.”





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Missing flight MH370: Suspect travellers on stolen passports resembled footballer Mario Balotelli

Flight MH370: passengers on stolen passports 'not Asian looking'
Malaysian civil aviation chief says men resembled footballer Mario Balotelli, while Thai travel agent says tickets arranged through 'Iranian contact'


Malaysian civil aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman told reporters that investigators were unable to determine the passengers' nationalities based on CCTV footage alone. Photograph: How Foo Yeen/Getty Images


Confusion mounted on Monday over the identities of the two passengers flying on stolen passports aboard missing flight MH370 after reviews of CCTV footage prompted a Malaysian official to describe them as resembling a black Italian footballer.

Civil aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman told reporters in Kuala Lumpur that the men, who had been travelling on stolen Italian and Austrian passports, were "not Asian looking" and may have been part of a stolen passport syndicate.

When prompted by reporters to describe the two men, Azharuddin said: "Do you know a footballer by the name of Balotelli?", referring to AC Milan striker Mario Balotelli, who was born in Italy to Ghanaian parents.

It was unclear if Azharuddin was suggesting that the men were of a darker skin tone or if they did bear any resemblance to Balotelli – who usually sports a mohican and diamond studs.

He later explained that investigators were unable to determine the passengers' nationalities based on CCTV footage alone but added: "I think they are not Asian."

The Boeing 777 carrying 239 people lost contact over the sea between Malaysia and Vietnam on Saturday. No distress signal was sent.

China expressed its mounting frustration over Malaysia's handling of the investigation with the English-language Global Times — a government mouthpiece — saying Malaysia's response "was not swift enough". Beijing has sent 10 officials to Kuala Lumpur to provide assistance.

"This incident happened more than two days ago, and we hope that the Malaysians can fully understand the urgency of China — especially of the family members — and can step up the speed of the investigation and increase efforts on search and rescue," foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters in Beijing.

Civil aviation chief Rahman admitted that Malaysian investigators were "puzzled" over how the aircraft was able to just suddenly disappear. Earlier potential leads were dashed after it emerged that the oil slick spotted off the coast of Vietnam was caused by a ship and not an airplane, and the yellow "life raft" suspected to be from the airplane was actually a moss-covered cap of cable reel.

However, another debris sighting, some 50 miles off Vietnam's coast, saw ships dispatched to the area to investigate, as Malaysia said it was doubling its search operations to 100 nautical miles, including parts of peninsular Malaysia, waters north of Sumatra, more of the South China Sea, as well as a section of the Malacca Straits. Some 40 ships and 30 planes, including teams from Thailand, Australia, the US, Philippines, Vietnam, China, Singapore, Indonesia and New Zealand, are currently aiding the Malaysians on search and rescue.

"To confirm what really happened we need hard evidence — concrete evidence," Rahman said. "We have not found anything that appears to be objects from the aircraft, let alone the aircraft."

Although Rahman said no protocols had been breached on the Beijing-bound flight, the Malaysian prime minister, Najib Razak, announced that all air travel security protocols would be reviewed and stepped up if necessary. The FBI is assisting Malaysian authorities in investigating what may have caused the flight to go missing at 1.30am on 8 March with 239 people on board.

In another potentially bizarre twist to the story, the Thai travel agent who booked the tickets for the two men with stolen passports said the purchase had been arranged through an "Iranian contact". The clients were looking for cheap flights to Europe, Benjaporn Krutnait of the Grand Horizon travel agency in the resort town of Pattaya told the Financial Times, adding that a "long-term business contact" who went by the name of Mr Ali had asked her to reserve the flights, which were later paid for in cash by a friend of Mr Ali's.

While there is as yet no reason to believe that Mr Ali, who Benjaporn described as a middleman, knew that the two men were travelling on stolen passports, the revelations are sure to further fuel speculation of foul play as a senior police official told Reuters that passengers armed with explosives and travelling on stolen passports had previously attempted to fly out of Kuala Lumpur's international airport.

Thailand's Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra told CNN that Thai police were investigating the identities of the two men as the passports had been stolen from Thailand and were registered with Interpol's stolen document database. "We don't know about their nationality yet. But we gave orders for the police to investigate the passport users," she said.



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Unknown Chinese group claims responsibility for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight

Email said: “You kill one of our clan, we will kill 100 of you as payback.”

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Risman Siregar and Erlina Panjaitan - the parents of passenger Firman Chandra Siregar - are comforted in Medan, Indonesia

A previously unknown group - the Chinese Martyrs’ Brigade – has claimed that it was behind the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.
An email was sent to various journalists in China, saying: “You kill one of our clan, we will kill 100 of you as payback.”
But officials in Malaysia have said they believe the group's claim could be a hoax.
The email did not explain what had happened to the plane.
Malaysia’s acting transport minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, said today: “There is no sound or credible grounds to justify their claims."
It is reported that the email could be designed to increase ethnic tensions between Uighurs and Han Chinese in the wake of a knife attack in Kunming on March 1 in which 29 people were killed and more than 100 were injured.
Officials said the message was sent through an anonymous Hushmail service that is virtually impossible to trace.
Investigators have also revealed that debris that was believed to be from the plane turned out to be unconnected to the aircraft.
Police are probing a mystery Iranian called “Mr Ali” who bought the tickets for passengers who used stolen passports on the missing Malaysia Airlines plane.
Despite a huge search, there is still no sign of the flight that was carrying 239 people. The Boeing 777-200 went missing over the South China Sea on its way to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur.
Desperate relatives are waiting to hear news about their loved ones. One of the passengers has been named as Firman Chandra Siregar, a 24-year-old from Indonesia.
His family - including his parents Risman Siregar and wife Erlina Panjaitan - are being comforted by friends during their ordeal.

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Michael Jackson son: Brandon Howard’s ‘real’ dad says his son warned him DNA story was fake

Brandon’s father says he knew about the Jacko father story before it broke and it’s all a lie forged by greedy people

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Who's the daddy? Brandon, Michael and Augie

The plot thickens in the latest typically bizarre scandal surrounding Michael Jackson.
A US man who claims HE is the real father of Brandon Howard, NOT the King of Pop, Jacko , has spoken out and he reckons Brandon forewarned him the story was about to break and reassured him it was all nonsense.
Augie Johnson, 65, talked to gossip website TMZ.com and told them he fathered Brandon during a relationship with the 31 year old’s mum Miki Howard and was in the delivery room when he was born
He says he has been a permanent fixture in his life ever since and TMZ says it has seen pictures of the two together.
According to Augie, Brandon called him just before the story broke about the DNA test to warn him it was fake, telling him: “Don’t worry about this stuff. You are my dad.”
Augie believes it is “greedy” people around Brandon who are behind the story and not his son.
He insisted: “I know Brandon's my son. I was there in the delivery room, I have the pictures of him being born. I got the records, I got everything.
"Before me, Miki wasn't with anyone else. She didn't even know Michael at that time. But you know what, I love my son and he can do whatever he likes. I'm not tripping on this."

Getty

Augie says he knows he's Brandon's dad

The organisation that released the results of the apparent DNA test which allegedly proved Michael Jackson fathered Brandon has hit back to say the results were not fake.
Online television channel FilmOn.com's Alki David claimed on his show that Michael had secretly fathered the 31-year-old singer.
However, it was claimed the DNA test results sheet were faked with the logo at the top even being seen in film Terminator Salvation.
But billionaire media mogul Alki has now hit back at the fake claims, telling TMZ: "The logo was made by the DNA agency to make it look pretty. Lab documents are not pretty by nature."
Seemingly contradicting himself, he added that DNA results should be private and are not meant to made public knowledge.
It was alleged DNA was taken from a mould of Jackson's teeth and from Howard before it was sent to labs in Ireland and Utah.

Brandon in his video for Dance Floor

The results were then unveiled on the show and it was claimed there was a "99.99999%" probability of singer Brandon being late singer Michael's son.
A Google image search for "DNA results" brings up a number of examples and many of the results are printed on branded paper from the labs.
According to TMZ, there is no generic DNA testing lab, as the Jackson and Howard test would suggest, in Ireland where it was claimed the DNA was sent.
But while the test results may be fake, Brandon's parents do have links to Michael as Brandon's singer mother Mika Howard was once managed by Michael's father Joe Jackson.
Brandon has even cast doubt on the matter himself, saying in a statement: "To my fans, family, and friends, despite recent allegations, I did not authorise the testing of my DNA to be compared to that of the late Michael Jackson.
"This spring, I agreed to be part of a documentary film with FilmOn.TV and was asked to give a sample of my DNA.
"Even though I agreed to this I never expected it to be used in this manner.
"To this day, I have never claimed to be Michael Jackson's son nor do I have any intention of pursuing the family's estate."

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Terrorism fears grow after discovery that TWO passengers on missing Malaysia Airlines flight were using STOLEN passports

239 passengers and crew are presumed dead after the Boeing 777 crashed into the South China Sea

A relative of a passenger onboard Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 cries as she talks on her mobile phone at the Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing.

This handout picture taken and released by Hamid Ramlan shows his daughter Norliakmar Hamid and her husband Razahan Zamani who were passengers on a missing Malaysia Airlines flight, posing with relatives before take-off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport en route to Beijing.

Family members of those onboard the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 walk into the waiting area at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang

Missing: American Philip Wood, 51, was one of the passengers traveling on the missing flight

A crying woman is escorted to a bus for relatives at the Beijing Airport after news of the missing Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200 plane

A woman, whose husband is a passenger of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, complains about Malaysia Airlines to journalists as she attempts to leave a hotel in Beijing

Wang Yue, marketing manager of Malaysia Airlines in greater China, answers question from the press at a hotel in Beijing

A woman breaks down while leaving the reception centre for families and friends after an airliner went missing at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport

A woman talks on phone at a reception centre for families and friends after an airliner went missing at the Kuala Lumpur International

 
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Fears terrorists were behind the Malaysian Airline crash were growing tonight as it emerged two passengers were using stolen passports, the Sunday People reported.

An Italian and an Austrian were feared to be among the 239 victims presumed dead after the Boeing 777 crashed into the South China Sea.
But Luigi Maraldi contacted his family to say he was safe and well and Christian Kozel was found at home by Austrian police.

The revelations raise the fear that terrorism may have played a part in the sudden disappearance of the air liner that was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

The Malaysian Airlines flight mysteriously lost contact with air traffic controllers two hours after leaving Kuala Lumpur last night

This is the tragic moment Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 carrying 239 people 'disappeared' over the South China Sea.
The passenger jet left Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur at 12.41am local time on Saturday and was due to land in Beijing, China, at 6.05am the same day.

But communication was lost as the flight was crossing the South China Sea towards Vietnam.
The jet was being monitored by flight tracking website flightradar24.com which shows the plane's progress before it vanished.
The website claims this was 40 minutes after the flight took off, not two hours as has been widely reported.
Vietnamese navy officials had been quoted as saying the plane had 'crashed into the sea' - but this has since been denied.
Desperate searches are now underway to try and find the missing jet.

The Boeing 777-200 jet's passengers on the 2,746-mile journey included two infants and 12 crew members.
There were 14 different nationalities on board.
Malaysian Airways confirmed the plane had lost contact with Subang Air Traffic Control at 2.40am (SAT) local time - or 6.40pm (FRI) around 120 miles off the mainland.
The airline said in a statement: "Malaysia Airlines is currently working with the authorities who have activated their Search and Rescue team to locate the aircraft.
"The airline will provide regular updates on the situation."
A weather map of the area where the plane was last reported did not show any storm activity.
The plane did not enter Chinese air space before disappearing.
Officials say there were 160 Chinese nationals on board and state TV reported that China had dispatched two maritime rescue ships to the South China Sea to help the search effort.