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Indonesia — A search effort has located the cockpit voice recorder of a Lion Air jet that crashed into the Java Sea in October, an Indonesian official said Monday, in a possible boost to the accident investigation. Ridwan Djamaluddin, a deputy maritime minister, told reporters that the agency investigating the crash that killed 189 people had informed the ministry about the discovery. "We got confirmation this morning from the National Transportation Safety Committee's chairman," he said. Human remains were also discovered at the seabed location, Djamaluddin said. The 2-month-old Boeing 737 MAX 8 jet plunged into the Java Sea just minutes after taking off from Jakarta on Oct. 29, killing everyone on board. The cockpit data recorder was recovered within days and showed that the jet's airspeed indicator had malfunctioned on its last four flights. If the voice recorder is undamaged, it could provide valuable additional information to investigators.  The Lion...

© Provided by AFP Valentine's Day is increasingly popular in Pakistan, although many disapprove of the holiday as a Western import A Pakistani university is rebranding Valentine's Day as "Sister's Day", and debating marking the holiday widely seen as a Western import by handing out headscarves and shawls to its female students. The University of Agriculture in Faisalabad (UAF), in central Punjab province, said the change was taken to promote "eastern culture and Islamic traditions among the youth". "In our culture, women are more empowered and earn their due respect as sisters, mothers, daughters and wives," UAF vice chancellor Zafar Iqbal is quoted as saying on the institution's website. "We were forgetting our culture, and Western culture was taking root in our society," he continued. "UAF was mulling a plan to distribute scarves, shawls and gowns printed with the UAF insignia among female students" on Februar...

© Ian Gavan/BFC/Getty Images for BFC David Beckham and Victoria Beckham attend the Kent & Curwen presentation during London Fashion Week Men's January 2019 at Two Temple Place on January 6, 2019 in London, England. The company which owns David Beckham's fashion brand has made losses of more than £10million, just weeks after his wife's label sank further into its own financial struggles.  Trinity Brands UK, which owns Beckham's Kent & Curwen brand, had a deficit of some £10.7million in 2017.  The firm's owners had hoped the former England captain's 'golden touch' would turn its fortunes around but the company has 'slipped further into the red', experts said.  The company launched a flagship outlet in Covent Garden but has faced major losses, The Sun reported.   A finance expert told the newspaper: 'When he was signed up to front Kent & Curwen four years ago, the owners hoped Goldenballs would bring his golden touch to t...

© Reuters Singer Katy Perry and actor Orlando Bloom pose upon their arrival for the Monte-Carlo Gala for the Global Ocean in Monaco, September 26, 2018. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard Katy Perry has sparked rumours she's engaged to Orlando Bloom. The couple, who first began dating in 2016 and briefly split a year later before reconciling, are celebrating the birthday of the Pirates of the Caribbean star, as he turns 42 on Sunday (13Jan19).  Orlando shared a selfie from the set of his latest movie on  Instagram,  and told his followers that age is nothing but a number. " Last  selfie on a set in my 41st year... I'm grateful and as I contemplate the passage of time I really feel age is just a number and we are not...we ARE the choices we make, the words we speak, the thoughts we create and the actions we take...they shape our realities...," he thoughtfully wrote alongside the snap. "And as I say to myself and my son...make smart choices...happy me and my loyal compan...

The theologian, musician, philosopher and Nobel Prize-winning physician Albert Schweitzer is born on this day in 1875 in Upper-Alsace, Germany (now Haut-Rhin, France).  The son and grandson of ministers, Schweitzer studied theology and philosophy at the universities of Strasbourg, Paris and Berlin. After working as a pastor, he entered medical school in 1905 with the dream of becoming a missionary in Africa. Schweitzer was also an acclaimed concert organist who played professional engagements to earn money for his education. By the time he received his M.D. in 1913, the overachieving Schweitzer had published several books, including the influential  The Quest for the Historical Jesus and a book on the composer Johann Sebastian Bach.  Medical degree in hand, Schweitzer and his wife, Helene Bresslau, moved to French Equatorial Africa where he founded a hospital at Lambarene (modern-day Gabon). When  World War I  broke out, the German-born Schweitzers were sent to ...