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Ukraine pushes tanks towards key flashpoint separatist city
Robo sub aborts jet search, to dive again
Rebel videos show first US-made arms in Syria
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Bangalore-born poet Seshadri wins Pulitzer
Berlo told to do community
service for tax conviction
Islamists abduct 105 teenage girls in Nigeria
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Ukraine pushes tanks towards key flashpoint separatist city
Izyum, April 15 The seven buses, filled with 100 paratroopers, and 20 tanks and armoured personnel carriers represented the Western-backed team's most forceful response to date to raids that have seen state buildings in nearly 10 cities across Ukraine's rust belt fall under the control of pro-Russian militants. They had moved within 40 kilometres of Slavyansk and set up a checkpoint that could control all traffic leading to Slavyansk-an economically depressed industrial city of 100,000 that has been under effective control of separatist gunmen since Saturday. "They must be warned that if they do not lay down their arms, they will be destroyed," Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) General Valeriy Krutov told a group of reporters tracking the sudden tank movements. The SBU anti-terrorism centre director alleged that the gunmen had received reinforced by a deployment of several hundred soldiers from the Russian army's Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU). Increasingly insistent Western charges of the Kremlin's direct involvement in the spreading eastern unrest set a chilly tone to a "frank and direct" exchange on the crisis between US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. But yesterday's heated phone conversation appeared to break no new ground. The Kremlin chief continued to reject any links to Russian-speaking gunmen who have proclaimed the creation of their own independent republic and who have called on Putin to send in the estimated 40,000 Russian troops now stationed along the border with Ukraine. European foreign ministers, meanwhile, held back on unleashing punishing economic sanctions against Russia in hopes that EU-US mediated talks on Thursday in Geneva between Moscow and Kiev could help de-escalate the most dire East-West standoff since the Cold War.
— AFP Ukraine on the brink of civil war: Medvedev
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Robo sub aborts jet search, to dive again
PERTH, April 15 The unmanned submarine equipped with sonar gear was deployed on Monday night from the Australian ship Ocean Shield, which has spearheaded the hunt for the Boeing 777 that vanished on March 8 with 239 people aboard. But the dive by the Bluefin-21 detected nothing of interest before it automatically aborted the mission after breaching its maximum operating depth, the US Navy said in a
statement. The Australian agency coordinating the search said the Bluefin-21 "exceeded its operating depth limit of 4,500 metres (15,000 feet) and its built-in safety feature returned it to the surface". The unmanned Autonomous Underwater Vehicle was undamaged and set for a second sonar sweep during the day, weather permitting, officials said. US Navy Captain Mark Matthews said the vehicle had exceeded programmed operational limits and automatically resurfaced. "In this case the vehicle's programmed to fly 30 metres over the floor of the ocean to get a good mapping of what's beneath," he told CNN from Perth. "It went to 4,500 metres and once it hit that max depth, it said 'This is deeper than I'm programmed to be', so it aborted the mission." Officials said the crew would now refine the task to cope with the depth encountered. "To account for inconsistencies with the sea floor, the search profile is being adjusted to extend the sonar search for as long as possible," the US Navy statement said. Australia's Joint Agency Coordination Centre chief Angus Houston announced Monday officials would end three weeks of listening for signals from the plane's black boxes and launch the submarine operation. The mini-sub would conduct a sonar survey of the silty ocean floor for 16 hours at a time in hopes of finding some wreckage from the Malaysia Airlines flight which vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The US navy estimated it would take the Bluefin-21 from six weeks to two months to scan the entire search area, which has been deduced using satellite data and the detection of electronic pulses linked to black box recorders which were last heard a week ago. Houston has described the detections as the best lead in the hunt for the plane, and added Monday that an oil slick had also been sighted in the search area. It would take several days to test a sample of the oil ashore, but Houston said he did not think it was from one of the many ships involved in the hunt. The cause of the plane's disappearance, after being diverted hundreds of miles off course, remains a mystery. No debris has been found despite an enormous search involving ships and planes from several
nations. — AFP |
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Rebel videos show first US-made arms in Syria
London, April 15 None of that equipment, however, is seen as enough to turn the tide of battle in a now broadly stalemated war, with Assad dominant in Syria's central cities and along the Mediterranean coast and the rebels in the interior north and east. It was not possible to independently verify the authenticity of the videos or the supplier of the BGM-71 TOW anti-tank rockets shown in the videos. Some analysts suggested they might have been provided by another state such as Saudi Arabia, a US ally, probably with Washington's acquiescence. US officials declined to discuss the rockets, which appeared in Syria around the same time Reuters reported that Washington had decided to proceed with plans to increase aid, including delivery of lower-level weaponry. US officials say privately there remain clear limits to American backing for the insurgency, given the widely dominant role played by Islamist militants. A proposal to supply MANPAD surface-to-air missiles was considered but rejected. National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said the Obama administration was giving support she did not define. "The United States is committed to building the capacity of the moderate opposition, including through the provision of assistance to vetted members of the moderate armed opposition," she said in response to a query over the rocket videos. While the number of US rockets seen remains small, reports of their presence are steadily spreading, analysts say. "With US-made TOW anti-tank missiles now seen in the hands of three groups in the north and south of Syria, it is safe to say this is important," said Charles Lister, visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution Doha Centre and one of the first to identify the weapons.
— Reuters Internationalisation of the conflict
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Bangalore-born poet Seshadri wins Pulitzer
New York, April 15 Seshadri won the Pulitzer, considered the most prestigious awards in journalism, for his work “3 Sections” which is a “compelling collection of poems that examine human consciousness, from birth to dementia, in a voice that is by turns witty and grave, compassionate and remorseless.” The 98th annual Pulitzer prizes in journalism, letters, drama and music, awarded on the recommendation of the Pulitzer Prize Board, were announced yesterday by Columbia University. A Columbia University alum, Seshadri, 60, would receive a $ 10,000 prize. Born in Bangalore in 1954, Seshadri came to America at the age of five and grew up in Columbus, Ohio. He became the fifth person of Indian-origin to bag the prestigious prize. The Post and US edition of the Guardian newspaper won the prestigious public service medal, which is for a “distinguished example of meritorious public service by a newspaper or news site through the use of its journalistic resources, including the use of stories, editorials, cartoons, photographs, graphics, videos, databases, multimedia or interactive presentations or other visual material, a gold medal.” The Post won for its “revelation of widespread secret surveillance by the National Security Agency, marked by authoritative and insightful reports that helped the public understand how the disclosures fit into the larger framework of national security.” The Guardian was awarded for its “revelation of widespread secret surveillance by the National Security Agency, helping through aggressive reporting to spark a debate about the relationship between the government and the public over issues of security and privacy.”
— PTI 5th PIO to bag award
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Berlo told to do community
service for tax conviction
Milan, April 15 The Milan court ruled Berlusconi must spend at least four hours a week in a centre for the elderly for one year. He will not be allowed to travel outside Lombardy, the region around Milan where he has his principal residence, except for restricted trips to Rome. Following the definitive tax fraud conviction last year, Berlusconi was stripped of his seat in the Italian Senate and barred from holding public office for two years. But the 77-year-old remains the most influential politician on Italy's centre-right as leader of the Forza Italia party. A statement from the court did not say whether Berlusconi would be allowed to campaign for the election while in Lombardy and Rome and what role he could play in public life, if any, over the coming year. It said the trips to Rome could take place weekly, from Tuesday to Thursday, with Berlusconi ordered to be back in Lombardy by 11 pm (2100 GMT) each Thursday. His lawyers said in a statement that the ruling "appears balanced and satisfactory even with regards to the needs of political activity". They, like Milan prosecutors, had argued in favour of his doing community service rather than being sent to prison or put under house arrest. A legal source said the media tycoon would do his community service at the Sacred Family Foundation in Cesano Boscone, a small town near Milan. Its website says the centre cares for the elderly and people with disabilities.
— Reuters |
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Islamists abduct 105 teenage girls in Nigeria
Abuja, April 15 Law enforcement agents were investigating the abduction and strategies were being mapped out to rescue the teenagers, he said without giving further detail. About 105 teenage girls were selected by gunmen, who stormed dormitories of the educational institute in a raid that lasted more than four hours. The all-female college had around 250 students, residents said. The gunmen killed a military officer and injured some residents who tried to resist the attack, said a local resident. "None of the students was killed, but they were seriously manhandled as the gunmen handpicked them. We could not rescue the girls," he said.
— IANS |
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Ukraine sent a large armoured column and special forces towards the flashpoint city of Slavyansk today as Kiev's fledgeling leaders tried to reassert control over the separatist east.
Milan, April 15
Seshadri (pic) won the Pulitzer, considered the most prestigious awards in journalism, for his work "3 Sections" - a witty and philosophical collection of poems
