Midday Roundup: Two Americans among dead in Germanwings crash

Crash investigation. Two Americans were among the 150 people killed aboard the Germanwings flight that crashed yesterday in the French Alps. The passenger manifest also included 72 Germans and 35 Spaniards, as well as Kazakh, British, Japanese, Colombian, Australian, Dutch, Danish, Turkish, and Israeli citizens. No one survived the accident, which still baffles investigators. But search teams have recovered the black box, and although it was damaged, experts believe they can retrieve its data. A full analysis of the recording, which holds the last few minutes of conversation in the plane’s cockpit, could be done as early as tomorrow. Searchers have not yet found the plane’s data recorder, which tracks mechanical and electrical information. They described a horrific scene on the side of the mountain, with most of the debris pulverized into small pieces. “When you go to a crash site you expect to recognize parts of an airplane,” said Xavier Roy, coordinator for French air rescue. “Sadly, here you don’t see anything—just debris scattered all over.”

Rebel takeover. Houthi militia fighters are gaining ground in Yemen, forcing the country’s president to flee the port city where he holed up after leaving the capital. The Shiite rebels have offered a bounty of nearly $100,000 for President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi’s capture. The president has asked the United Nations to authorize foreign military intervention to help prevent the country from sinking into civil war. Yemeni officials have accused Iran of backing the Houthi rebels, essentially orchestrating a takeover from Tehran. The Houthis deny they have Iranian support. In yesterday’s advance, the militia fighters took over a base recently occupied by U.S. and British troops who were helping train Yemeni security forces. It was a severe blow to the U.S. drone program, which used the base to launch strikes against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

No new timeline. President Barack Obama said yesterday the goal for withdrawing troops from Afghanistan has not changed: “The timeline for a withdrawal down to a embassy-centered presence remains the end of 2016.” The president made the announcement at a joint White House news conference Tuesday with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. Although military analysts had speculated the administration would use the occasion of Ghani’s visit to announce a longer timetable for an American drawdown, it was not the case. But the president did confirm the rate of withdrawal would decrease in the short term after a plea for flexibility from the Afghan president. “We’re doing everything we can to help Afghan security forces succeed so we don’t have to go back,” Obama said. The 9,800-strong U.S. force currently in Afghanistan will remain through the end of the year. The White House had planned to downsize to 5,500 troops by December.

Terror training. British citizens who train as jihadists with ISIS and return home are “highly likely” to launch chlorine gas attacks in London’s subways, according to the former chief of chemical weapons for NATO. ISIS also has recruited 400 children since January to train as fighters against the West. And ISIS, al-Qaeda, and Boko Haram have joined forces to train recruits in camps in the Sahara Desert, according to terrorism analysts. At least 80 trainees are from the West. James Carafano of The Heritage Foundation said the jihadists’ strategy is clear: “So ISIS is a bit like throw the spaghetti at the wall and hope something sticks. In their part of the world, honor is power.” He added that their goal is “to be shown to have the capacity and the capability to hurt the West. To show that the West is a paper tiger.”

Ketchup and mac ’n’ cheese. Two companies that manufacture many of the staple foods in Americans’ pantries—Heinz and Kraft—are merging to form the fifth-largest food and beverage company in the world. Heinz, owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and Brazilian investment firm 3G Capital, will own a controlling interest in the new company, Kraft-Heinz. The two financial powerhouses teamed up two years ago to buy Heinz for $23 billion. The new company will split its headquarters between Chicago and Pittsburgh.

WORLD Radio’s Jim Henry and Carl Peetz contributed to this report.