Officials in Cyprus say a chartered flight evacuating US citizens out of Egypt was expected to arrive on the island yesterday.
US embassy officials had no immediate details on the number of passengers, and how many flights would be landing in Cyprus yesterday.
US Assistant Secretary of State Janice Jacobs told reporters on Sunday she expects it would take several flights over the coming days to fly out thousands of Americans who want to leave Egypt, through Europe. She said the US might also send charters to other cities such as Luxor, if there are Americans stranded there.
Americans taking the charter will be billed for the flight and must make their own travel arrangements home from Europe.
Canada also announced on Sunday it would charter flights to fly Canadians who wish to leave to London, Paris or Frankfurt.
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said charter flights were to begin yesterday. He said those onboard the charter flights will have to sign a contract saying they will repay their portion of the costs.
Australia, however, is offering free flights for its citizens.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said yesterday that Canberra had chartered a Boeing 747 to airlift Australians out of Egypt.
“I have determined that we will make available an evacuation flight for Australians from Egypt. The flight will be a Qantas plane that the government has chartered,” Gillard told reporters.
“There is significant pressure on commercial flights and some disruption and delay,” she said. “In these circumstances I have determined that the best course of action is to make this assisted evacuation flight available ... at no cost to Australians who travel on it.”
Due to depart tomorrow, the jet will ferry passengers to London or Frankfurt, where it will be met by Australian foreign officials who would help arrange onward travel. Further flights would be chartered if necessary.
TAIWAN
Taiwan’s government is also arranging charter flights for its nationals.
At present, there are more than 500 Taiwanese in 28 tour groups in Egypt, while the number of individual tourists was estimated at about 30, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
The first charter flight, with 150 available seats, was scheduled to fly from Jordan to Cairo at 8pm last night and then depart at 10:30pm for Frankfurt, Germany, Department of African Affairs Director-General Samuel Chen (陳士良) said in Taipei last night.
Chen said local airlines would be available at Frankfurt Airport to fly Taiwanese home under the arrangement of local travel agencies and airlines.
Both China Airlines and EVA Airways fly to Frankfurt.
The ministry has sent Liu Yu-ming (劉裕民), a diplomat stationed in Jordan, to Cairo to take care of Taiwanese and other charter flights from Cairo to Frankfurt will be made available at the earliest possible date, it said.
Taiwanese in Egypt are being advised to contact the ministry’s offices in Jordan and Libya or the office of the Taiwan External Trade Development Council in Cairo, the ministry said.
Meanwhile, China said it sent two planes yesterday to pick up its citizens stranded in Cairo. The People’s Daily Web site says Air China and Hainan Airlines have each sent an Airbus A330 plane to Cairo to evacuate Chinese citizens. The report said there were more than 500 Chinese at the airport.
Japan has also organized flights for its nationals, while Jetair NV, a Belgian tour company, has begun evacuating its holidaymakers.
Five extra aircraft were being sent yesterday to bring all passengers back from Egypt, Jetair said in a statement on its Web site. The company also said it has canceled all flights to Egypt until Sunday.
Royal Dutch Shell PLC and BP PLC said they were relocating expatriate dependents from Egypt.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SHIH HSIU-CHUAN
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband is to serve a life sentence for his murder without the possibility of parole, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing a cocktail given to her husband, Eric Richins, with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. A jury also found her guilty of four other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Feb. 14, 2022, with a
‘GROSS NEGLIGENCE?’ Despite a spleen typically being significantly smaller than a liver, the surgeon said he believed Bryan’s spleen was ‘double the size of what is normal’ A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death. In a deposition from November last year that was recently obtained by NBC, 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply.” Bryan died after the botched surgery; and last month, a grand jury in Tallahassee indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter. “I’m forever traumatized by it and hurt by it,” Shaknovsky added, also saying that wrong-site surgeries can happen “during
‘PERSONAL MISTAKES’: Eileen Wang has agreed to plead guilty to the felony, which comes with a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison A southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government and has resigned from her city position, officials said on Monday. Eileen Wang (王愛琳), mayor of Arcadia, was charged last month with one count of acting in the US as an illegal agent of a foreign government. She was accused of doing the bidding of Chinese officials, such as sharing articles favorable to Beijing, without prior notification to the US government as required by law. The 58-year-old was elected in November 2022 to a five-person city council, from which the mayor is selected
DELA ROSA CASE: The whereabouts of the senator, who is wanted by the ICC, was unclear, while President Marcos faces a political test over the senate situation Philippine authorities yesterday were seeking confirmation of reports that a top politician wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) had fled, a day after gunfire rang out at the Philippine Senate where he had taken refuge fearing his arrest. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of. “Several sources confirmed that the senator, Senator Bato, is no longer in the Senate premises, but we are still getting confirmation,” Presidential
RSS