Flight 447 mystery likely to cast shadow over Paris Air Show

The world’s premier air show takes place in Paris next week, with the recent loss of Air France flight 447 over the Atlantic Ocean likely to cast a shadow over the event. The annual Paris Air Show at Le Bourget, which this year celebrates its 100th anniversary, gives the air transport industry the chance to promote the latest innovations in aerospace technology and attract buyers for both commercial and military aircraft. Manufacturing giants Boeing and Airbus are two of the most high-profile organizations at the show as a result of their stranglehold over the commercial airliner market

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Air France CEO: Don’t assume sensors caused crash

There should be no assumed link between on-board speed sensors and the crash of Air France Flight 447 into the Atlantic Ocean last week, the airline’s chief executive said Thursday. “I am not convinced that the sensors are the cause of the accident,” said Air France Chief Executive Pierre-Henri Gourgeon. Still, he said, the airline will continue with a program, begun just days before the crash, to replace the sensors on its Airbus A330s, the same type of plane that crashed June 1.

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Pilots’ union: Air France to replace sensors soon

Air France has agreed to replace within days sensors on all of its Airbus A330 and A340 airplanes, parts that are suspected of being involved in last week’s crash, a pilots’ union said Tuesday. Air France said Saturday that it had begun replacing the sensors throughout its fleet in April.

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Center-right make gains amid EU vote apathy

Voters endorsed parties of the center-right in elections for the 736 seats of the European Parliament in the midst of a record low turnout, officials figures showed on Monday. Only 43 percent of the 375 million people eligible to vote in 27 countries visited the polls, according to European Parliament figures, continuing a fall in interest since elections for MEPs were first held 30 years ago

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D-Day Tributes and Reflection Conclude Obama’s Tour

Barack Obama began his latest overseas trip on a mission to increase international cooperation, with a visit to Islam’s holiest land, Saudi Arabia, and its most dynamic intellectual hub, Cairo. He ended it four days later at a monument to what such common purpose can achieve. Sixty-five years ago today, 135,000 allied troops launched the largest seaborne invasion in history on the beaches of northern France, a move that would eventually decide the outcome of World War II.

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Two men convicted of torturing, killing French students

Two British men were convicted Thursday of torturing and killing two French students in London last June, London’s Metropolitan Police said. Nigel Farmer, 34, and Daniel “Dano” Sonnex, 23, were also found guilty of arson, false imprisonment and burglary. The bodies of Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez, both 23, were found in Bonomo’s burned apartment in southeast London last summer.

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