The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Russia, West reach surprise deal on Ukraine crisis Agree on restoring security of all citizens, disbanding armed groups Geneva, April 17 Russia, Ukraine, the US and EU reached a surprise deal today on de-escalating the worsening Ukrainian crisis, in a ray of hope for the former Soviet republic that has plunged into chaos. The agreement reached in Geneva comes as a strong contrast to earlier hawkish comments made by Russian leader Vladimir Putin, who left the door open for intervention in Ukraine. A ban by Kiev on all Russian males aged 16 to 60 from entering Ukrainian territory had also ratcheted up the tensions, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov calling the measure "disgusting". But after half a day of talks, the four parties agreed on steps to "restore security for all citizens", including a call to disband armed groups that have taken over buildings in Ukraine "illegally". While not spelt out in the agreement, these groups could refer to pro-Kremlin separatists who have seized control of government buildings and taken over parts of Ukraine's southeast, destabilising the country. "All illegal armed groups must be disarmed, illegally seized buildings returned to their rightful owners," Lavrov said as he briefed reporters about the deal reached with US Secretary of State John Kerry, Ukraine's Andriy Deshchytsya and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. Washington and Kiev have accused Russia of supporting the militants who have occupied buildings such as police stations and government bases, but Moscow has always categorically denied this. Lavrov also said Russia had "no desire" to send troops into Ukraine, toning down earlier comments by Putin. Warning that Ukraine was plunging into the "abyss" just hours after three separatists were killed in a gunbattle with troops in eastern Ukraine, Putin had stressed he hoped not to have to use his "right" to send Russian troops into its western neighbour. "I very much hope that I am not obliged to use this right and that through political and diplomatic means we can solve all the acute problems in Ukraine," he said in his annual televised phone-in with the nation, in a signal the option was on the table. The upper house of parliament on March 1 authorised the Russian leader to send troops into Ukraine after pro-Kremlin president Viktor Yanukovych was ousted, and Moscow later went on to annex Ukraine's Russian-speaking Crimean peninsula. Russia has now massed tens of thousands of troops at the border and has warned Kiev's untested new leaders -- whom it does not recognise as legitimate -- not to unleash force in Ukraine. Accordingly, Kerry warned Russia that if there was no progress on de-escalating the crisis in Ukraine, "there will be additional sanctions, additional costs." The United States and European Union have already imposed punitive sanctions on key Russian and Ukrainian political and business officials. And the European Parliament today said the European Union should act "against Russian firms and their subsidiaries, especially in the energy sector, and Russia's EU assets". So far, though, any further sanctions appear to have been put on hold. Russia's annexation of the Crimea peninsula last month escalated a crisis that has shaped up to be the worst East-West standoff since the Cold War. Today, Kerry said the West is "not giving up" on peninsula, "but we did not come (to Geneva) to talk about Crimea." Each side came to the Geneva talks armed with a very specific set of demands, and the West and Kiev had aimed to persuade Moscow to demobilise the militias. — AFP 3 killed as separatists attack Ukrainian base Mariupol: Separatists attacked a Ukrainian national guard base overnight and Kiev said three of them were killed, the worst bloodshed yet in a 10-day pro-Russian uprising, accompanied by tough words from Vladimir Putin that overshadowed crisis talks.
	Putin fields poser from Snowden Moscow, April 17 Edward Snowden, the fugitive former US spy agency contractor who leaked details of U.S. intelligence eavesdropping, asked Russian President Vladimir Putin a question on Thursday during a televised call-in show. The exchange was the first known direct contact between Putin and Snowden since Russia granted the American asylum last summer after he disclosed widespread monitoring of telephone and Internet data by the United States and fled the country. Snowden, who has been given refuge in Russia, was not in the studio where Putin was speaking. He submitted his question in a video clip, and it was not immediately clear if he was speaking live or if it had been recorded earlier. Snowden, wearing a jacket and open-collar shirt and speaking before a dark background, asked Putin: "Does Russia intercept, store or analyse, in any way, the communications of millions of individuals?" He also asked whether Putin believes improving the effectiveness of investigations justifies "placing societies… under surveillance". He was speaking in English, and Putin had to ask the anchor for help with a translation of the question. Putin, a former spy during Soviet rule, raised a laugh among the studio audience when he said: "You are an ex-agent. I used to have ties to intelligence." Turning to Snowden's question, Putin said Russia regulates communications as part of criminal investigations, but "on a massive scale, on an uncontrolled scale we certainly do not allow this and I hope we will never allow it." He said the Russian authorities need consent from a court to conduct such surveillance on a specific individual "and for this reason there is no (surveillance) of a mass character here and cannot be in accordance with the law". — Reuters
	Divers search for hundreds missing after Korean ferry accident Rescue efforts continue as winds, waves pick up \| About 290 persons still missing \| Captain faces charge of abandoning ferry Jindo, April 17 Rescuers fought rising wind, strong waves and murky water on Thursday as they searched for hundreds of people, most of them teenaged schoolchildren, missing after a South Korean ferry capsized more than 24 hours ago. The coastguard, navy and some private divers were operating in waters at the site of the accident, about 20 km off the country's southwestern coast. Earlier, rescue teams hammered on the hull of the upturned vessel, hoping for a response from anyone trapped inside, but did not hear anything, media said. The vessel, carrying 475 passengers and crew, capsized on Wednesday during a journey from the port of Incheon to the holiday island of Jeju. Nine persons were found dead and 179 were rescued, according to the South Korean government, leaving 287 unaccounted for and possibly still trapped in the vessel. One parent, Park Yung-suk, told Reuters at the port of Jindo, where rescue efforts are centred, that she had seen the body of her teenage daughter's teacher brought ashore. "If I could teach myself to dive, I would jump in the water and try to find my daughter," she said. Her daughter was one of 340 children and teachers from the Danwon High School in Ansan, a Seoul suburb, on board the vessel. The captain of the ship, Lee Joon-seok, 69, faces a criminal investigation, a coastguard official said, amid unconfirmed reports that he was one of the first to jump to safety from the stricken vessel. The official did not elaborate, but media said the captain faced possible charges of negligence leading to death and violating a law that governs the conduct of shipping crew. Many survivors told media Lee was one of the first to be rescued although no one had actually seen him leave the ship. The coastguard and the ferry operator declined comment. Although the water at the site of the accident is relatively shallow at less than 50 metres (165 feet) depth, it is still highly dangerous for the 150 or so divers who are working as fast as they can, experts said. Time was running out to find any survivors who may be trapped inside, they said.The government said it was not giving up on the possibility of finding survivors. — Reuters Heartbreaking texts from sinking ferry * Heart-wrenching messages of fear, love and despair, sent by high school students from a sinking South Korean ferry added extra emotional weight to a tragedy that has stunned the entire nation. * "Sending this in case I may not be able to say this again. Mom, I love you," one student Shin Young-Jin said in a text to his mother. "Oh, I love you too son," texted back his mother who was unaware at the time that her son was caught in a life and death struggle. * Another student, 16-year-old Kim Woong-Ki sent a desperate text for help to his elder brother as the ship listed violently over to one side. "My room is tilting about 45 degrees. My mobile is not working very well," Kim messaged. "So don't panic and just do whatever you're told to do. Then you'll be fine," he messaged back.
	Missing Flight MH370 Jet hunt refocuses on drone scans of seafloor SYDNEY/PERTH, April 17 A deep-sea drone completed its much-anticipated first full scan of the seabed in the remote Indian Ocean, the team looking for a missing Malaysian jetliner said on Thursday, as an air and surface search became less likely to yield results. Footage from a US Navy deep-sea drone is fast becoming the most important tool for a multinational team searching for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which disappeared from radar screens on March 8 with 239 people aboard. A sample taken from an oil slick in the same area, some 2,000 km (1,240 miles) west of the Australian city of Perth, is also being analysed. Authorities believe that is the most likely area where the missing jet hit the ocean after disappearing. A series of "pings" recorded this month have led searchers to the remote stretch of ocean in the belief that the signals may have come from the plane's black box recorders. However, with no pings received in more than a week and the black box's battery now 10 days past its approximate expiry date, authorities are relying on the drone. The "Bluefin-21" drone completed its first full 16-hour deployment at a depth of 4.5 km (14,765 feet) late on Wednesday after a series of technical problems cut short the first two attempts. "Bluefin-21 has searched approximately 90 square kilometres (35 square miles) to date and the data from its latest mission is being analysed," the Joint Agency Coordination Centre, the body running the search, said in a statement. On Monday, the search coordinator, retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, said the air and surface search for debris would likely end in three days as the operation shifted its focus to the largely unmapped area of ocean floor. However, authorities said on Thursday up to 10 military aircraft, two civil aircraft and 11 ships would still search an area totalling about 40,000 square km (15,450 square miles). That would suggest searchers, under pressure from the families of those on board the plane, still hold some hope of finding floating wreckage. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott was quoted by the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday as saying that "we believe that (underwater) search will be completed within a week or so. If we don't find wreckage, we stop, we regroup, we reconsider". Asked by Reuters on Thursday to clarify Abbott's comments to the newspaper, his office said he was only suggesting that authorities may change the area being searched by the Bluefin-21 drone, not that the search would be called off. Malaysia's defence minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, vowed that the search would continue even if there could be a pause to regroup and reconsider the best area to scour. "The search will always continue. It's just a matter of approach," he told a news conference in Kuala Lumpur. He said Abbot remained in close contact with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and the two had spoken on Thursday to discuss the search. "They've been looking for 40 days and haven't found anything floating yet," Geoffrey Dell, Associate Professor of Accident Investigation and Forensics at Central Queensland University, told Reuters. "You'd have to start saying there's either nothing to find or let's move elsewhere," he said. — Reuters Vital footage * Footage from a US Navy deep-sea drone is fast becoming the most important tool for a multinational team searching for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which disappeared from radar screens on March 8 * The "Bluefin-21" drone completed its first full 16-hour deployment at a depth of 4.5 km (14,765 feet) late on Wednesday after a series of technical problems cut short the first two attempts * Bluefin-21 has searched approximately 90 square km (35 square miles) to date and the data from its latest mission is being analysed, the Joint Agency Coordination Centre, the body running the search, said in a statement
	UN hopes Indian SC would review decision on homosexuality ban United Nations, April 17 The UN has expressed hope that the Indian Supreme Court's verdict recognising transgenders as a third gender will pave the way for the apex court to review its decision of upholding criminalisation of consensual same-sex relationships. The historic ruling by India's Supreme Court to legally uphold rights of transgender people "also raises hopes that the court will now review its earlier decision upholding a 160-year-old provision of the penal code criminalising consensual, same sex relationships," the office of the spokesperson for the UN Secretary General said in a statement. "The Secretary-General has repeatedly spoken out against laws that criminalise homosexuality and other measures that discriminate against individuals based on their sexual orientation and gender identity," it said. The Supreme Court had in December last year upheld the colonial-era law, Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which punishes those found guilty of "unnatural" offences. UN human rights chief Navi Pillay had voiced her disappointment at the re-criminalisation of consensual same-sex relationships in India, calling it "a significant step backwards" for the country. The UN on Tuesday welcomed the "historic" ruling by the Supreme Court recognising transgenders as a third gender, saying the decision would pave the way for reforms that will help the community get access to employment and public services. Responding to queries on the Supreme Court judgment, spokesperson for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Stephane Dujarric said that "we welcome the historic ruling" legally upholding the rights of transgender people across India. "The decision officially recognises a third gender in law and confirms that discrimination on grounds of gender identity is impermissible under the Indian Constitution," he said. — PTI