20 Nov 2008
Baby girl born on Finnair flight
A baby girl was born on a Finnair flight from Bangkok to Helsinki above Kazakhstan in the altitude of 11 km on November 20. The baby’s Swedish mother was returning from Thailand.
"Finnair wants to congratulate warmly the whole family on this happy event," says Christer Haglund, Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications. "This is a unique occasion for Finnair, since no birth has ever taken place on one of our flights before. The family will get return Finnair flights to Bangkok as a gift."
The birth took place with the assistance of a doctor from the MedLink medical service by satellite phone link between two doctors travelling as a passenger and two nurses.
The mother and child were taken immediately upon arrival from Helsinki-Vantaa airport to hospital. A MedLink doctor is on duty for all Finnair wide-body aircraft, making available round-the-clock expert assistance.
The flight left Bangkok at 12.35 local time and arrived at Helsinki at 18.20 Finnish time. The flight took 10 hours and 50 minutes and there were 227 passengers on board.
Pregnant passengers beyond their 28th week of pregnancy must provide a doctor’s certificate confirming that the pregnancy has proceeded normally. Pregnant passengers may travel up to the end of their 36th week, and on Finnair’s short domestic and Scandinavian flights they may travel up to the end of the 38th week provided that the pregnancy has proceeded normally. The restrictions are based on recommendations made by the International Air Transport Association, IATA.
In a message purportedly from Ayman al-Zawahiri, the al-Qaeda deputy accused US President-elect Barack Obama of betraying his Muslim roots.
He likened him to a "house slave" - who had chosen to align himself with the "enemies" of Islam.
Mr Obama has said stamping out al-Qaeda "once and for all" will be a top priority during his administration.
On Sunday, he said capturing or killing Osama Bin Laden was "critical" to US security.
He has also promised to bolster the US presence in Afghanistan - a policy that would fail, said the al-Qaeda deputy. The US said the message did not signal any increased threat against America.
This is undoubtedly a message aimed at sustaining anti-American sentiment among Muslims in the face of Barack Obama’s election, says the BBC’s defence correspondent Rob Watson.
But it is a risky approach, our correspondent says.
Barack Obama is hugely popular world-wide and his colour and background make him a much tougher target to attack than President George W Bush in the eyes of a global audience, he says.
‘Trespassing crusader’
Zawahiri, an Egyptian by birth, is often referred to as Osama Bin Laden’s right-hand man and the chief ideologue of al-Qaeda.
The audio message, which ran with photographic stills and some video footage, appeared on militant websites.
Mr Obama’s election did not mean that US policy towards the Muslim world had changed, Ayman al-Zawahiri said, according to the 11-minute message.
He warned Mr Obama of failure if he followed the policies of the Bush administration.
The change of leadership in the US did not mean that America should be perceived differently, he added.
"America, the criminal, trespassing crusader, continues to be the same as ever, so we must continue to harm it in order for it to come to its senses," he said.
Zawahiri also criticised Mr Obama - whose father is Muslim - for betraying the Islamic world.
"You were born to a Muslim father, but you chose to stand in the ranks of the enemies of the Muslims, and pray the prayer of the Jews, although you claim to be Christian, in order to climb the rungs of leadership in America," he said.
Mr Obama was not an "honourable black American" like Malcolm X, he said, but an "abeed al-beit" - a word that translates as house slave but was rendered "house negro" in the message’s English subtitles.
The audio was accompanied by footage of a speech by Malcolm X in which he distinguished between "field negroes" who hated their white masters and "house negroes" who, he said, were loyal to them.
US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack described the message as "more despicable comments from a terrorist".
Mr Obama visited Israel in July and expressed his "abiding commitment" to its security.
On Sunday, in his first television interview since his 4 November election win, he reiterated his commitment to shift more US troops to bolster the military presence in Afghanistan.
The last message purporting to be from Zawahiri emerged on 8 September. He is thought to be in hiding in the Afghan-Pakistan border area.
BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Al-Qaeda vows to hurt Obama’s US
