Monday, 29 December 2014
F78 Weekly News: Top 6 News Stories of 2014
Justin Bieber, Soulja Boy And Tyga Join Songwriter Poo Bear In The Sultry ‘Work For It’ Video
He also wrote ten songs on Justin Bieber’s Journals album, which explains how Justin ended up appearing in his new video for “Work For It.”
Poo Bear’s world-class talent is evident—“I’m gonna make you sweat for it, that good kind of hurt,” he croons, his wide-ranging falsetto pitch-perfect. You can hear echoes of his two decades of songwriting success. You can also see that he’s amassed an impressive list of contacts based on this star-studded video.
He’s joined by Tyga, who raps a gleefully cozy verse about his sheets matching his “fur pillows,” while a cadre of women caress him with feathers.
An assortment of other stars pop up in brief cameo roles: Soulja Boy shows up and takes a selfie with Poo Bear. Vine star Nash Grier appears, chased by cops across a hill before they apprehend him at the gates of Poo Bear’s mansion. Around the 2:30 minute mark Bieber shows up and gets fitted for a suit in slow-mo. Poo Bear looks on admiringly as the pop star scowls at his appearance in the mirror.
Watch “Work For It” below:
China blocks access to Gmail
State Censorship : 1.3 billion Chinese users blocked from using Google’s Gmail
Asian giant, China has taken to blocking Gmail as per the Internet analysis firm Dyn Research. China’s administration has started blocking access to Gmail on an IP level for many of its 1.3 billion citizens.While blocking of Google’s services is not new with strict state censorship on YouTube and Google Search, Gmail in its entirety is being blocked for first time. Though there is no official notification to this effect, the block has been confirmed by many sources including Chinese citizens active on social networking platforms.Internet analysis firm Dyn Research has stated to Mashable that many IP addresses used for routing the Gmail services were being blocked. “China has a number of ways they can block content. One of the crudest ways is to just block an IP address, and when you do that, you block all the content available at the IP,” Earl Zmijewski, Dyn’s vice-president of data analytics, told Mashable.
Image courtesy MashableZmijewski said that much of China’s Gmail access is routed through Hong Kong IP addresses, which were being blocked. He said he checked six different locations, and found that each one was blocked.Chinese citizens can use proxy services/settings or VPN to access Gmail inspite of the blanket ban as the block is at IP level.Readers may remember that earlier in the year, China authorities had raided Microsoft’s offices multiple times over alleged ‘antitrust investigations’ and blocked Instagram in order to stop the spread of pro-democracy protest images.
Image courtesy Mashable
Nicki Minaj's 'The Pinkprint' Debuts at No. 1 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums
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Nicki Minaj earns her third No. 1 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums as The Pinkprint debuts atop the list with 198,000 copies sold in the week ending Dec. 21, according to Nielsen Music. Minaj bows with more first-week units sold than any other R&B/hip-hop female since Beyonce’s self-titled set arrived with 617,000 in Dec. 2013. The crowning entrance follows her 2012 set Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, which entered at the top of the list with 253,000 first week units, and her preceding debut album,Pink Friday (No. 2 debut, 375,000 copies; later peaking at No. 1).  |
The Pinkprint has already produced two chart-topping singles on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs; first with “Anaconda,” with a six-week run at No. 1, and most recently with “Only,” featuring Drake, Lil Wayne & Chris Brown, topping the list dated Dec. 27. The album release helps to spur six new album tracks onto the chart, led by “Feeling Myself,” featuring Beyonce, coming in at No. 12. Meanwhile, “Bed Of Lies,” featuring Skylar Grey, leaps 30-19, taking Digital Gainer honors, while “All Things Go” re-enters at No. 38.
D'Angelo Arrives at No. 1: Over on R&B Albums, a surprise release by D’Angelo and The Vanguard makes a splash, entering at No. 1 with Black Messiah (111,000 copies). It’s his first studio album since Voodoo was released in January of 2000 with 321,000 fist-week units. The new album's “Really Love” debuts on Adult R&B Songs, arriving as the Hot Shot Debut at No. 26. “Really Love” and another album cut, “Sugah Daddy,” also make their way onto Hot R&B Songs at Nos. 14 and No. 22, respectively.
Gates Grabs Top Three Debut: Rapper Kevin Gates takes the second highest debut on Top Rap Albums with his latest mixtape Luca Brasi 2: A Gangsta Grillz Special Edition, bowing at No. 3 (23,000 copies). It’s the best chart entrance for the 28-year-old.
Sunday, 28 December 2014
IBB Endorses Jonathan, Asks Nigerians To Support Him
Former Nigerian Military President, General Ibrahim Babangida, has said that anyone who means well for Nigeria should support President Goodluck Jonathan to make Nigeria survive as a united nation, Channels TV reports.
General Babangida was speaking in his country home in Minna, Niger State, when President Goodluck Jonathan paid him a visit in the spirit of the season.
President Goodluck Jonathan had identified General Babangida as a national leader whose counsel is very much needed at the end of the year such as this, especially bearing in mind the insecurity in the land.
According to the President, the country is passing through some challenges and the experience of the former military Head of State would be needed if some of these challenges must be adequately tackled.
Twenty-Three Different Teams In 23 Games - Is Luis Enrique Loosing The Plot?
ANALYSIS: The Barcelona boss has made continuous changes to his starting XI this term and the side's inconsistent form shows he may be overdoing it.
Is rotation really the problem? Luis Enrique has picked 23 different starting XIs in his 23 games so far as Barcelona boss and the Asturian coach still seems unsure of his strongest side. With the team not exactly firing on all cylinders, that is surely something of a concern.
"I don't read the criticism," the 44-year-old said after a virtual second string humbled Huesca in an 8-1 win on Tuesday. "My doctor told me not to." However, he does hear it at every press conference as he is forced to field tough questions over his tactics and team selections. And after Saturday's sterile draw at Getafe that saw Barca drop four points behind Real Madrid in La Liga, he hit back at his detractors. "We have been playing the same system all season," he said. Sometimes, however, it is hard to tell what the idea is. Apart from the 3-2-3-2 formation deployed against Paris Saint-Germain during their Champions League tie fortnight ago, Barca has largely stuck to 4-3-3 but bear little resemblance to Pep Guardiola's entertaining “Tiki-taka” side.
Interestingly, Pep rotated consistently in his first season as well. Guardiola gave playing time to Rafa Marquez and Gerard Pique as partners to Carles Puyol, moved the captain to right-back on occasions and often brought in Seydou Keita, Yaya Toure, Eidur Gudjohnsen and even Alexander Hleb into his starting XI. He also played Andres Iniesta in an advanced role on the left and utilised a young Pedro (still known as Pedrito), Bojan Krkic and others. With Xavi and Iniesta in their prime, Puyol undisputed, Victor Valdes a fixture in goal, Dani Alves and Eric Abidal complementing each other in the full-back positions and forwards Lionel Messi, Samuel Eto'o and Thierry Henry all in fantastic form, however, the team almost picked itself.
Having inherited a team somewhat in decline, Luis Enrique does not have that luxury, but the Asturian has chopped and changed constantly in search of his strongest side and many of the players are left wondering what their role is. Xavi, for example, was ignored for much of the early part of the season, while Pique has been left on the sidelines for several games recently and everyone else - apart from Messi - has been benched at some stage in 2014-15. Does he know what his strongest side is? Perhaps. Pep did, even if he too rotated frequently in that first term. Moreover, back then, the Catalan's changes were given less scrutiny because Barca were winning and winning well. Not only that, though. On top of the results, it was not the personnel that mattered most to Guardiola, but the style. Whoever started for Barca, Pep's philosophy as coach shone through and there was a clear identity about the way the team played.
With Luis Enrique, such style is still conspicuous by its absence. "When I played for Barca I could tell that Pep would become a coach - I was convinced," former Spain midfielder Gaizka Mendieta told Goal. "With Luis Enrique, I would have said he perhaps wouldn't go on to coach. But he has strong beliefs and he will take them to the end. He is a winner." Another of Luis Enrique's former team-mates, ex-Barca defender Miguel Angel Nadal, believes the Asturian needs time to succeed. "It is no use comparing with Guardiola's team," he said. "The circumstances are different and the players are older. Luis Enrique is trying lots of things and figuring out what is best for the team. He has the right character for the job and is drawing on his own experiences of playing for Barca."
As a player, Luis Enrique featured in almost every outfield position for Barca, from full-back to striker, and that flexibility was initially seen as a big advantage as he began his coaching career. "Tactically he is very intelligent," Nadal added. "He played in many different positions and he can adapt to any system." That may be the case but, right now, many Barca fans will be hoping he can stick to one sole system and make it work instead of the constant experiments so far in 2014-15.
Kaduna 2015: Barnabas Bantex Picked As Running Mate To APC Guber Candidate, El-Rufai
Mr Barnabas Bala Bantex has been chosen as the running mate to the governorship Candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Mallam Nasir El-Rufai in the forthcoming 2015 election in Kaduna State,according to Channels News
The choice of Mr Bantex, an architect and current chairman of the APC in Kaduna State, came after extensive consultations with party leaders, governorship aspirants and elder-statesmen across the state.
Mr Bantex eventually emerged from a carefully-considered list of five other nominees.
The committee, saddled with the responsibility of selecting El-Rufai’s running mate, based its selection on the capacity and ability of the person to play a substantive and dynamic role in the government that may likely take over power in the state.
The party also considered political experience and exposure, within a framework that embraces diversity, an individual with the talents, intellectual acumen and professional background that will be a competent partner to an elected governor.
Mr El-Rufai, while confirming the choice of Mr Bala to the public, said he was delighted that a person of Mr Barnabas Bantex caliber had been selected by the party to share the responsibility of governance with him when they are elected in 2015.
Mr Bantex holds a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Architecture from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
He was born in 1956 in Kagoro, Kaura Local Government Area of Kaduna State and was a former local government chairman as well as a former member of the House of Representatives.
Nigeria: Confronting The Challenges, By Peter Obi
One obvious truth about our country today is that it is successfully grappling with those challenges of nation building that are inevitable for any country that wishes to attain real greatness. I make this statement against the background of the many thoughts that were going through my mind as I sat in the auditorium of the Federal Ministry of Finance and listened to the Coordinating Minister of the Economy (CME), Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, present details of next year’s budget. The first is that this government is not just resolved to place Nigeria and Nigerians on a firm footing for the 21st century, but is putting that resolution into implementable policy actions with measurable impact on the economy and the people. One clear proof of that is the well thought out, evidence-based budget that was being presented to us on that day. The CME’s submissions ties inflows to the realistically projected expenditure profile for the budget year. The benchmarks shown were scientific and the analysis of the relevant economic variables revealed profound economic pragmatism.
The second thought on my mind was the realisation that the budget perspective is holistic, tying the expected inflows from new revenue sources to genuine projections and not speculation. What I saw was a sober response to current challenges. It is a budget that can work for us if we all gird our loins to work together as a people. I make this later point because the Nigerians must begin to respond to issues and crisis like the rest of the world. This is the 21st century. Its problems are legion, manifesting as political instability, economic downturn and sundry challenges facing many nations. Russia, Mexico, Egypt, Libya, and many other countries have more than their fair share of these challenges in various forms and they are grappling with the issues as a people. Nigeria was not granted any immunity, so we should expect problems with significant impact on every nation within the last five years to affect us.
For instance, the Russian Rubbles has lost over 40% of its value. About 11% of that 40% was lost on Tuesday last week alone. But the Russians are not blaming Putin, or calling its government names. They are rather holding together and struggling to come out of it stronger. Over 25,000 have been reported missing in Mexico the last 18 months or so, including 42 students killed and buried by gangsters. But the Mexicans are not blaming their government, or running their nation down in the media. Some 145 students were recently murdered in Pakistan by Talibans, but without the Pakistanis blaming their Prime Minister, or accusing their government of insensitivity. That is why Nigerians should give themselves a rap on the shoulder and say: “Hey, no one out there is coming to solve our problems for us, if we don’t solve them
Global oil prices have lost about 40% of its value since June. Russia, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and all oil producing countries are devising survival strategies, so Nigerians must stay together and support our president at a time like this; especially when he is working round the clock with his economic team to get things right. The nation is not even so badly hit today because we eventually listened the CME’s sustained call for savings at all levels. I recall having attended many meetings as then governor of Anambra, during which she reminded everyone that the price of oil could fall at any time and that we needed to boost national savings, presenting establishment of the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) as another way of achieving targeted saving and long term investment. But the voice of the majority initially drowned her repeated pleas about saving for the rainy day. The louder chorus was “Let’s spend now! The rainy day is already here! In fact is already flooding!” Meanwhile, it was only drizzling at the time! Fortunately, the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority was set up after a long and has financed the Abuja-Kaduna rail, the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and the Second Niger Bridge, among other projects.
The 2015 budget is also pegged on increasing Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and diversifying the economy. It ties the expected increase in IGR to projected inputs into the economy, which would reflate local economies and increase Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The FIRS is to increase IGR but not necessarily by increasing the taxes. It is blocking leakages and institutional weaknesses in tax administration and increasing the collection rates. Besides the official target of N1.98 trillion, the FIRS was given an additional target of N75 billion, which it overshot and declared N143 billion extra as at last month. This shows that the new collection target of additional $3 billion dollars in three years for FIRS announced by the CME is realisable, as its Integrated Tax Administration System (ITAS, which targets a re-engineering and automating of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) core tax administration processes, will yield a seamless, integrated solution that incorporates international best practices for revenue administration with clear monitoring and evaluation systems.
We must all recall that President Barrack Obama’s first concern after being sworn in was the need for alternative sources of energy, to reduce dependence on imported petroleum products. Today the shale revolution has raised domestic production and the US no longer buys our oil. International oil firms like the Royal Dutch Shell, ExxonMobil, Total and Chevron, are using portfolio rotation of assets to diverting more resources into shale oil production. That is why President Jonathan’s persistent call for diversification of the national economy and the effort of the Economic Management Team must be supported; especially as it has been discovered that Nigeria’s oil reserves might finish sooner than was projected. The 2015 budget is a realistic response to the foregoing and more.
Other wide ranging measures have been taken by the President’s Economic Management team, led by the CME, to diversify the economy and create jobs, include the creation of Mortgage Refinancing Institution; to make long term funds available and Increase liquidity by funding primary mortgage institutions. The boom in the Housing sector will create more jobs, as it is estimated that every house built will create 6 direct jobs and 4 indirect jobs. The impact of this in a country like Nigerian, with its over 17,000,000 housing deficit, will be phenomenal.
The YOUWIN programme award winners each receives between N1 million and N10 million, in addition to further training through business bootcamps, as well as mentoring through enrolment in a voluntary mentoring programme. Today, many of the 2400 businesses under YouWin 1 and 2 are doing very well, with some receiving national and international awards. About 22,000 jobs have been created by the 2,400 winners from the first two editions of YOUWIN. This translates to about 9 jobs winner. Examples of special award winners include, Binta Shuaibu of Vintage Collete by Binta in Kano, who won the MTN 2012 Designer of the year award, Dr. Saeed Juma of the Smile Shop (a dental clinic) who won the Futures Award Africa prize in Business in 2013, Achenyo Idachaba of Mitimeth in Ibadan who won the 2014 Cartier Women’s Initiative Award as the Laureate for sub-Sahara Africa, and Archibong Eniang of ENELEC GS in Akwa Ibom State, who won the Presidential Standing Committee on Invention and Innovation award by the Hon. Minister of Communication Technology in 2014. By the end of YouWin 4, about 5,400 young entrepreneurs would have benefitted directly from the program.
Still along the lines of economic revival and diversification, the Federal Government is determined to do with the Insurance Sector what it did with the Banking and Pension sectors, thus increasing its assets base from its current N300 billion to N1trillion within the next three years. It will go up to N5 trillion within the next decade. As the sector grows, it will open up vast employment opportunity for our people, both directly and indirectly.
The SURE-P programme continues to support Social Safety Net programmes, like Save One Million Lives, which has saved over 631,250 lives by giving renewed priority to health interventions, nutrition, prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV, malaria control and routine immunization. The Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS) has hired and deployed 13,339 graduates so far and the Community Services, Women and Youth Employment (CSWYE) has created nearly 120,000 jobs; with a minimum of 3,000 in each state and the FCT.
Today we have the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN), which will increase access to finance for the micro, small and medium sized enterprises (MSMEs) and the agriculture sector.Financial inclusion through improving access to finance will drive economic growth. The African Development Bank (AfDB) will also be investing equity. At the initial stage the Federal Government will raise funds and make same available to DBN for on-lending to the Nigerian MSMEs and agriculture businesses. The DBN should be able to gain a credit rating similar to that of the government within 3 years of its operation; in addition to being able to independently raise funds from local and international sources.
The point being made here is that our challenges are as real as the government’s tackling of them. We must hold together as people and also thank God for the determination of Mr President and his Economic Management Team, to set the economy on a strong macro-economic footing.
• Obi is the immediate past Governor of Anambra State
Nigeria Has One Of The Largest Economy In The World, Says President Jonathan
President Goodluck Jonathan said on Tuesday that his administration had managed the country’s economy to become the greatest in Africa and one of the largest in the world.
He said this in Port Harcourt at the inauguration of Enugu-Port Harcourt- Enugu intercity train service.
“We have managed the economy such that it has risen to be the greatest economy in Africa and one of the largest in the world,” he said.
Represented by his vice, Namadi Sambo, the president said his government had changed the course of history in the country.
“We have changed the railway system in the last 30 years from the neglected sector to a rehabilitated and revitalised one by rehabilitating the existing narrow gauge railway lines, their operations and maintenance,” Jonathan said.
He said the administration would construct coastal railway line from Lagos to oil producing states of the Niger Delta and link up commercial cities in the South East.
According to him, the Abuja-Kaduna rail project was at 90 percent completion stage while the Warri-Itakpe project was at an advanced stage.
“We have introduced programmes that have impacted positively on the lives of the people and addressed key issues in our national agenda,” he said. According to the president, he had fulfilled all his electioneering campaign promises he made to Nigerians during the 2011 presidential election.
In his contribution, Idris Umar, the minister of transport, said the construction of Lagos-Ibadan railway line would commerce soon.
The minister said that the Warri-Itakpe rail project was progressing steadily.
He said more than 90 percent of the existing narrow gauge rail lines in the country was being rehabilitated and noted that the railways were very significant to the country’s economy.
Adeseyi Sijuwade, managing director of Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), noted that the rehabilitation of Enugu-Port Harcourt railway line had many challenges.
He said 30 metres of therail line was washed out by Aba gully erosion and explained that five metres wide reinforced concrete culvert of more than 366 metres long resolved the problem.
According to him, “The Aba mountain of refuse” of about five metres high was part of the challenges while a section of the track was buried.
He explained that the challenges had made train services impossible in the South East since 2009. (NAN)
N. Korea uses racial slur against Obama over hack
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea blamed its recent Internet outage on the United States on Saturday and hurled racially charged insults at President Barack Obama over the hacking row involving the movie "The Interview."
North Korea's powerful National Defense Commission, which is headed by country leader Kim Jong Un and is the nation's top governing body, said Obama was behind the release of the comedy that depicts Kim's assassination. The commission described the movie as illegal, dishonest and reactionary.
"Obama always goes reckless in words and deeds like a monkey in a tropical forest," an unidentified spokesman at the commission's Policy Department said in a statement carried by the country's official Korean Central News Agency.
The White House's National Security Council declined to comment Saturday.
North Korea has denied involvement in a crippling cyberattack on Sony Pictures but has expressed fury over the comedy. Sony Pictures initially called off the release of the film, citing threats of terror attacks against U.S. movie theaters. Obama criticized Sony's decision, and the movie opened this past week.
It wasn't the first time North Korea has used crude insults against Obama and other top U.S. and South Korean officials. Earlier this year, North Korea called U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry a wolf with a "hideous" lantern jaw and South Korean President Park Geun-hye a prostitute. In May, the North's official news agency published a dispatch saying Obama has the "shape of a monkey."
A State Department spokeswoman at the time called the North Korean dispatch "offensive and ridiculous and absurd."
In the latest incident, the North Korean defense commission also blamed Washington for intermittent outages of North Korean websites this past week. The outages happened after Obama blamed the Sony hack on North Korea and promised to respond "in a place and time and manner that we choose."
The U.S. government has declined to say whether it was behind the Internet shutdown in North Korea.
AirAsia plane carrying 162 lost; 3rd Malaysia airline shock
The Malaysia-based carrier's loss comes on top of the still-unexplained disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in March and the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in July over Ukraine.
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| Relatives of the passengers of AirAsia flight QZ8501 comfort each other at Juanda International Airport in Surabaya, East Java, |
At the Surabaya airport, shocked family members pored over the plane's manifest, crying and embracing. Nias Adityas, a housewife from Surabaya, was overcome with grief when she found the name of her husband, Nanang Priowidodo, on the list.
The 43-year-old tour agent had been taking a family of four on a trip to Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia's Lombok island, and had been happy to get the work.
"He just told me, 'Praise God, this new year brings a lot of good fortune,'" Adityas recalled, holding her grandson tight while weeping uncontrollably. "He apologized because he could not join us for the new year celebration."
Nearly all the passengers and crew are Indonesians, who are frequent visitors to Singapore, particularly on holidays.
A relative of the passengers of AirAsia flight QZ8501 weeps as she waits for the latest news on the missing jetliner at Juanda International Airport in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2014. (AP Photo/Trisnadi)
The Airbus A320 took off Sunday morning from Indonesia's second-largest city and was about halfway to Singapore when it vanished from radar. The jet had been airborne for about 42 minutes.
Djoko Murjatmodjo, Indonesia's acting director general of transportation, said there was no distress signal from the twin-engine, single-aisle plane.
The last communication between the cockpit and air traffic control was at 6:13 a.m. (23:13 GMT Saturday), when one of the pilots "asked to avoid clouds by turning left and going higher to 34,000 feet (10,360 meters)," Murjatmodjo said. It was last seen on radar at 6:16 a.m. and was gone a minute later, he told reporters.
Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia launched a search-and-rescue operation near Belitung island in the Java Sea, the area where the jetliner lost contact with the ground.
The air search was suspended Sunday evening and was to resume Monday morning, said Achmad Toha of Indonesia's search-and-rescue agency. Some ships continued searching overnight, he said.
AirAsia group CEO Tony Fernandes flew to Surabaya and told a news conference that the focus should be on the search and the families rather than the cause of the incident.
"We have no idea at the moment what went wrong," said Fernandes, a Malaysian businessman who founded the low-cost carrier in 2001. lets not speculate.
Malaysia-based AirAsia has a good safety record and had never lost a plane before.
"This is my worst nightmare," Fernandes tweeted.
But Malaysia itself has already endured a catastrophic year, with 239 people still missing from Flight 370 and all 298 people aboard Flight 17 killed when it was shot down over rebel-held territory in Ukraine.
AirAsia said Flight 8501 was on its submitted flight plan but had requested a change due to weather.
Sunardi, a forecaster at Indonesia's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency, said dense storm clouds were detected up to 13,400 meters (44,000 feet) in the area at the time.
"There could have been turbulence, lightning and vertical as well as horizontal strong winds within such clouds," said Sunardi, who like many Indonesians uses only one name.
The plane had an Indonesian captain and a French co-pilot, five cabin crew members and 155 passengers, including 16 children and one infant, the airline said in a statement. Among the passengers were three South Koreans, a Malaysian, a British national and his 2-year-old Singaporean daughter. The rest were Indonesians.
AirAsia said the captain has a total of 6,100 flying hours, but Fernandes later said the number is more than 20,000. The first officer has 2,275 flying hours.
At Surabaya airport, dozens of relatives sat in a room waiting for news, many of them talking on mobile phones and crying. Some looked dazed.
Dimas, who goes by one name, said his wife, 30-year-old Ratri Sri Andriani, had been on the flight to lead a group of 25 Indonesian tourists on a trip to Singapore and Malaysia. He was holding out hope that the plane had made an emergency landing.
"We can just pray and hope that all those aboard are safe," said Dimas, who was surrounded by Ratri's parents and friends at the airport crisis center. "We are worried, of course, but we have to surrender to her fate."
Indonesia's search-and-rescue head, Bambang Soelistyo, said his agency would search Monday with 12 ships and three helicopters, along with five military aircraft and a number of warships.
Malaysia and Singapore each planned to deploy one C-130 plane and three ships. Australia will also help, he added.
The missing aircraft was delivered to AirAsia in October 2008, and the plane had accumulated about 23,000 flight hours during some 13,600 flights, Airbus said in a statement.
The aircraft had last undergone scheduled maintenance on Nov. 16, according to AirAsia.
The airline, which has dominated cheap travel in Southeast Asia for years, flies short routes of just a few hours, connecting the region's large cities. Recently, it has tried to expand into long-distance flying through its sister airline AirAsia X.
Fernandes, who is the face of AirAsia and an active Twitter user, stirred controversy earlier this year after incorrectly tweeting that Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 had landed safely.
William Waldock, an expert on air crash search and rescue with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona, cautioned against drawing comparisons to the disappearance of Flight 370.
The circumstances bode well for finding Flight 8501 since the intended flight time was less than two hours, and there is a known position where the plane disappeared, he said.
The Airbus A320 is a workhorse of modern aviation. Similar to the Boeing 737, it is used to connect cities anywhere from one to five hours apart. There are currently 3,606 A320s in operation worldwide, according to Airbus.
The A320 family of jets, which includes the A319 and A321, has a good safety record, with just 0.14 fatal accidents per million takeoffs, according to a safety study published by Boeing in August.
Flight 8501 disappeared while at its cruising altitude, which is usually the safest part of a trip. Just 10 percent of fatal crashes from 2004 to 2013 occurred while a plane was in that stage of flight, according to the August Boeing safety report.
In 2007, an Indonesia-owned Adam Air plane carrying 102 people vanished during a domestic flight. Its flight-data and cockpit-voice recorders were retrieved months later, but much of the fuselage remains on the ocean floor.
In 1995, an Indonesian plane operated by Merpati Nusantara Airlines disappeared over open water while flying between islands in the archipelago nation. The 14 crew and passengers were never found.
When passing through bad weather, Airbus jets are able to automatically adjust to wind shears or other weather disruptions. However, weather has played a role in past air disasters that occurred at cruise altitude, including the 2009 Air France Flight 447 crash over the Atlantic Ocean.
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