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ByAchmadIbrahim The Associated Press PANGKALAN BUN, INDONE- SIA Divers and an un- manned underwater ve- hicle on Wednesday spot- ted the tail of the AirAsia plane that crashed into the Java Sea with 162 people on board, an important finding because the jet's all-impor- tant black boxes are located in that part of the aircraft. Powerful currents and murky water continue to hinder the operation, but searchers managed to get a photograph of the debris — about 9 kilometers (nearly 6 miles) from where Flight 8501 lost contact Dec. 28 — after it was detected by an Indonesian survey ship, National Search and Rescue chief Henry Bambang Soe- listyo told reporters. One released image ap- peared to show an up- side down "A" painted on a piece of metal, while an- other grainy shot depicted some mechanical parts. "Today we successfully discovered the part of the plane that became the main aim since yesterday," Soe- listyo said. "I can ensure that this is part of the tail with the AirAsia mark on it." Tony Fernendes, AirA- sia's chief executive officer, welcomed the news. If it is the right part of the tail section, he tweeted, then the cockpit voice and flight data recorders, or black boxes, "should be there." He said the airline's pri- ority still is to recover all the bodies "to ease the pain of our families." The carrier, meanwhile, said families of those killed would be compensated in accordance with Indone- sian laws. Each will receive $100,000 (1.25 billion ru- piah), Sunu Widyatmoko, president of AirAsia In- donesia, told reporters in Surabaya. So far, 40 corpses have been found, including an additional one announced Wednesday, but time is run- ning out. At two weeks, most corpses will sink, said An- ton Castilani, head of Indo- nesia's disaster identifica- tion victim unit, and there are already signs of serious decomposition. Officials are hopeful many of the more than 122 bodies still unac- counted for will be found inside the fuselage, which is believed to be lying near the tail. The Airbus A320 went down halfway through a two-hour flight between Indonesia's second-largest city of Surabaya and Sin- gapore, killing everyone on board. It is not clear what caused the crash, but bad weather is believed to be a contributing factor. Just before losing con- tact, the pilot told air traffic control he was approaching threatening clouds, but was denied permission to climb to a higher altitude because of heavy air traffic. No dis- tress signal was issued. Finding the black boxes will be key to the investi- gation. They provide essen- tial information about the plane along with final con- versations between the cap- tain and co-pilot. The ping- emitting beacons still have about 20 days before their batteries go dead, but high waves had prevented the deployment of ships that drag "ping" locators. Sonar-equipped ships in- volved in the massive inter- national hunt have identi- fied what they believe to be the fuselage of the plane in recent days. Five other big objects have been found on the floor of the ocean, though no visual confirma- tion has been obtained yet. Smaller pieces of the plane, such as seats and an emer- gency door, have been col- lected from the surface. The search area for bod- ies and debris was ex- panded this week to al- low for the strong currents that have been pushing de- bris around, said Indone- sian search and rescue op- eration coordinator Tatang Zainudin. The water in the Java Sea is relatively shallow at about 30 meters (100 feet) deep, but this is the worst time of year for a recovery oper- ation because of monsoon rains and wind that create choppy seas and blinding silt from river runoff. But in some ways, it is easier to find a missing plane compared to the ex- treme depths of the In- dian Ocean, where search- ers continue to hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared last March with 239 people aboard. "Because the Java Sea is such an enclosed basin, and there's not really big cur- rents passing through it, ev- erything just stays there for quite a while and the waves make it so that the sedi- ment doesn't slowly sink to the bottom," said Erik van Sebille, an oceanographer at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Austra- lia. "It continuously keeps churning it up." BLACK BOXES Tail of crashed AirAsia jet discovered in Java Sea TATANSYUFLANA—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS National Search and Rescue Agency personnel carry the seats of AirAsia Flight 8501a er being airli ed by a U.S. Navy helicopter in Pangkalan Bun, Indonesia, on Monday. HANI MOHAMMED — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Yemeni policemen stand next to wreckage at the scene of a car bombing outside a police academy in Sanaa, Yemen, on Wednesday. By Ahmed Al-Haj The Associated Press SANAA, YEMEN A suicide bomber rammed his explo- sives-laden minibus into a gathering of recruits out- side a police academy in the heart of Yemen's capital on Wednesday, killing at least 37 people in the latest high- profile attack to hit Sanaa. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but Yemen's lo- cal al-Qaida branch has carried out similar assaults in the past against the army and police in this im- poverished Arabian Penin- sula country, viewing them as U.S. proxies. The U.S. provides coun- ter-terrorism training and assistance to Yemeni forces, and frequently carries out drone strikes targeting al- Qaida militants in Yemen. At the scene of the blast, the dead and wounded lay on a sidewalk against a wall. On the pavement, water sprayed by firefight- ers to extinguish the blaze from the explosion of the minibus mixed with pools of blood. A charred taxi cab smoldered near what remained of the minibus, meters (yards) from the gate of the police acad- emy, located in a residen- tial area. The bomber struck as ca- dets were lined up outside the academy, preparing to enroll, witnesses said. "It went off among all of them, and they flew through the air," eyewit- ness Jamil al-Khaleedi told The Associated Press. Police Brig. Gen. Abdu- laziz al-Qudsi said at least 37 people were killed and 66 wounded. Another se- curity official, speaking on condition of anonym- ity because he was not authorized to talk to me- dia, said at least three ci- vilians were among the dead. Both the United Na- tions and the United States condemned the at- tack and expressed condo- lences to the victims and their families. Violence has soared in Yemen since Shiite rebels known as Houthis swept down from their northern strongholds last year, cap- turing Sanaa and other cities. The rebels are chal- lenging the govern- ment of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, de- manding a greater share of power. But on occa- sion, the rebels have also gone after al-Qaida, with clashes and targeted at- tacks leaving scores dead. Critics of the rebels view them as a proxy for Shi- ite powerhouse Iran — charges the rebels deny. Bomber kills at least 37 at Yemen HEART OF CAPITAL By Hussein Malla and Diaa Hadid The Associated Press ANJAR,LEBANON Snow fell in parts of the Middle East on Wednesday as a pow- erful winter storm swept through the region, kill- ing two Syrian refugees in Lebanon and forcing thou- sands who have fled their country's civil war to hud- dle for warmth in tents in refugee camps. In Syria, the guns fell si- lent as snow fell in the cit- ies of Damascus and Aleppo and government warplanes remained on the ground be- cause of bad visibility. The storm dumped rain and hail on Lebanon's coast and heavy snows in the mountains and cen- tral Bekaa Valley. Gas sta- tions, schools, banks and shops shuttered and power was cut throughout Leba- non, but it was particularly trying for the hundreds of thousands of Syrian refu- gees who live in tents and makeshift shelters. In eastern Lebanon, se- curity officials said a Syr- ian shepherd, Ammar Ka- mel, 30, and a 7-year-old boy, Majed Badawi, died in the storm Wednesday as they made the dangerous trek through the rugged, snow-covered mountains from Syria to the Leba- nese border town of Che- baa. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity be- cause they were not autho- rized to speak to the media. Near the town of Anjar, on the border with Syria, refugees used brooms and sticks to try to clear heavy snow from the tops of their tents, fearing the shelters would collapse. Inside, adults huddled around wood-burning stoves to try to keep warm. In Beirut's slum of Sha- tila, residents waded through dirty water and floating garbage that clogged the narrow alleys while children played, try- ing to catch hail. Ibtisam Mohammed, a 37-year-old mother of seven, managed to get her rusting diesel stove working again on Wednesday, in an effort to warm her home. The wind had ripped away the plastic sheet used for win- dows and water dripped on the floor from the tin roof. "We dragged the mat- tress to that corner, it's the only dry place in the house," she said, adding she hoped the cold wouldn't make her sicker — she has throat can- cer and relies on charity for medical care. Nearby, Abu Hussein, 32, huddled under blankets in his tiny one-room home with his two children. "This is how we keep warm," he laughed. Elsewhere, Palestin- ian authorities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip de- clared a state of emergency over the storm. An eight- month-old Palestinian in- fant in the Tulkarem ref- ugee camp died in a fire caused by a heating stove, said Palestinian civil de- fense ministry spokesman Louay Bani Odeh. Snow also accumulated in the Golan Heights and northern Israel. Jerusa- lem schools closed ahead of a forecast warning of 10 inches (25 centimeters) of snowfall. The weather dominated Israeli media newscasts as snow fell in repeated bursts in Jerusa- lem, with media promising more snowfall later. Israeli police closed roads in the country's north as Jerusalem city of- ficials directed snow prep- arations from a "war room" in a bunker underneath city hall, and deployed about 150 snowplows. The military readied armored personnel carriers to help the police. A downtown supermar- ket said it stored up on five times the amount of provi- sions, and employees were to spend the night at the store because of road clo- sures. In Egypt, a sandstorm engulfed Cairo for a sec- ond day, followed by a brief rainfall Wednes- day while in the Mediter- ranean port city of Alex- andria, gusty winds top- pled a minaret. The state MENA news agency re- ported no casualties, add- ing that the mosque was subsequently shut down for repair work. In Syria, snow blanketed Qassioun Mountain, which overlooks the capital, Da- mascus. The snowfall also brought traffic to a near standstill in the city and the Education Ministry shuttered schools and uni- versities for two days. Heavy fog also blan- keted parts of Pakistan on Wednesday morning. Pak- istan's Civil Aviation Au- thority said officials tem- porarily closed Islamabad's Benazir Bhutto Interna- tional Airport due to bad weather, diverting incom- ing flights to Lahore. In Amman, Royal Jor- danian cancelled some of its Thursday and Friday flights due to bad weather, including those to Iraq, Tel Aviv, Dubai, Riyadh and Cairo. REFUGEE CAMPS Strong winter storm hits Middle East HUSSEIN MALLA — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Syrians stand between their tents as they prepare to remove the snow from the top of theirtents at a refugee camp in Deir Zannoun village, in the Bekaa valley, east Lebanon, on Wednesday. By Ali Akbar Dareini The Associated Press TEHRAN, IRAN Iran's su- preme leader said Wednes- day the United States can- not be trusted to lift sanc- tions in a future nuclear deal and that Tehran should instead develop an "economy of resistance." Ayatollah Ali Khame- nei, who makes the final decisions on all matters of national security, in- cluding the nuclear pro- gram, said the U.S. will only make more demands if Iran agrees to curb its uranium enrichment. "The Americans are im- pudently saying that even if Iran backs down on the nuclear issue, all the sanc- tions will not be lifted at once. They are saying that clearly. It shows that this enemy cannot be trusted," Khamenei told visitors at his Tehran residence, in re- marks carried by state TV. His comments came ahead of a new round of talks between Iran and world powers scheduled to begin later this month in Geneva. Tehran and the six-nation group — the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany — hope to agree on a frame- work by March and a final agreement by June 30. Khamenei has approved of President Hassan Rou- hani's pursuit of a diplo- matic solution to the de- cade-long standoff over Tehran's nuclear program, which Western nations suspect is aimed at devel- oping a weapons capabil- ity, charges adamantly de- nied by Iran. 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