Kiev, April 22
US Vice-President Joe Biden warned Russia today that "it's time to stop talking and start acting" to reduce tension in Ukraine, offering a show of support for the besieged nation as an international agreement aimed at stemming its ongoing crisis appeared in doubt.

Standing alongside acting Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Biden called on Moscow to encourage pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine to vacate government buildings and checkpoints, accept amnesty and "address their grievances politically."

Biden said Russia needs to act "without delay," adding, "We will not allow this to become an open-ended process." Yatsenyuk was harsher in his characterisation of Russia. "No country should be able to behave like an armed bandit," he said.

"Russia should stick to its international commitments and obligations. They should not behave as gangsters in the modern century." The warnings for Russia from both leaders demonstrated the fragility of last week's multinational agreement.

Biden also announced the United States will provide an additional $50 million to help Ukraine's beleaguered government with political and economic reforms.

The money includes $11 million to help conduct the May 25 presidential election, including voter education, administration and oversight. It also will help fund expert teams from US government agencies to help Ukraine to reduce its reliance on energy supplies from Russia. Other technical advisers will help fight corruption.

The White House also announced $8 million in non-lethal military assistance for the Ukrainian armed forces, including bomb-disposal equipment, communications gear and vehicles.

In the most high-level visit of a US official since the crisis erupted, Biden met privately with Yatsenyuk and acting Ukrainian President Oleksandr Turchynov.

He also met with democracy activists and spoke to TV cameras to tell the people of eastern Ukraine he had urged the nation's leaders to keep reaching out to them.

"I know the men and women who hide behind masks and unmarked uniforms, they do not speak for you," he said. "All are welcome as equals in shaping a new Ukraine. We count on you to be the voice for rights and freedoms."

Earlier, he told leaders from various political parties that he brings a message of support from President Barack Obama as they face a historic opportunity to usher in reforms.

"The opportunity to generate a united Ukraine, getting it right, is within your grasp," Biden said. "And we want to be your partner, your friend in the project. And we're ready to assist."

Biden's visit comes at a critical time, days after a tenuous international agreement was reached to de-escalate violence in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russia insurgents oppose the government in Kiev.

Ukraine's acting President on Tuesday ordered the military to resume an operation against pro-Kremlin separatists, after the "brutally tortured" bodies of two people, one a kidnapped local councillor, were discovered in the restive east. "I demand the resumption of effective counter-terrorism measures to protect Ukrainian citizens in the east from terrorism," Oleksandr Turchynov said. — Agencies

Jindo, April 22
The confirmed death toll from South Korea's ferry disaster rose sharply to more than 120 today as divers speeded up the grim task of recovering bodies from the submerged ship and police took two more of its crew into custody.

Improved weather conditions and calm seas spurred their efforts, but underwater visibility was still very poor, requiring divers to grope their way blindly through the cabins and corridors of the ferry that sank last Wednesday.

Nearly one week into the rescue and recovery effort of one of South Korea's worst peacetime disasters, close to 200 of the 476 people who were aboard the 6,825-tonne Sewol, most of them schoolchildren, are still unaccounted for. The official toll stood at 108, with 194 still missing.

The distraught victims' families gathered in the morning at the harbour of Jindo island, not far from the disaster site, awaiting the increasingly frequent arrival of boats with the most recently recovered bodies.

With all hope of finding any survivors essentially extinguished, this has turned to growing impatience with the effort to locate and retrieve the bodies of those trapped.

"I just want my son back," said the father of one missing student. "I need to be able to hold him and say goodbye. I can't bear the idea of him in that cold, dark place." The disaster has profoundly shocked South Korea.

The sense of national grief has been underwritten by an equally deep but largely unfocused anger that has been vented towards pretty much anyone in authority.

Coastguard officials have been slapped and punched, senior politicians, including the prime minister, pushed and heckled, and rescue teams criticised for their slow response.

If there is a chief hate figure, it is the ferry captain, Lee Joon-Seok, who was arrested at the weekend and charged with criminal negligence and abandoning his passengers. — AFP

Beijing, April 22
India and over 140 other countries are taking part in a biennial conference of the Western Pacific Naval Symposium (WPNS) which opened in the eastern Chinese port of Qingdao today.

This is the first time that China, one of the 12 founding members of the WPNS, is hosting the symposium. India is an observer in the WPNS.

Participants will discuss and vote on whether to accept Pakistan as a WPNS observer at the symposium. Rules on accidental maritime encounters were passed at the symposium after reaching consensus among all the member states, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. - PTI

Peshawar, April 22
At least eight policemen have been killed and several others injured here in twin attacks, including a blast, in the restive Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of northwest Pakistan.

Militants today targeted a police mobile vehicle on Charsadda-Nowshehra road with a remote-controlled bomb, killing three policemen and injuring 33 others, including 12 police personnel.

This was the second attack on police in the restive province in less than seven hours and came less than a week after the Pakistani Taliban ended a ceasefire to help peace talks in the country.

The explosives were planted in a motorcycle parked outside a shop at Farooq Azam chowk, police sources said.

Police personnel immediately reached the site of the incident and shifted the victims to District Hospital Charsadda. The area has been cordoned off and a search operation has been launched to nab the culprits.

The attack came hours after five policemen were killed when militants ambushed their vehicle in Badabair village late last night. The condition of seven injured, who were shifted to Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar, was said to be critical.

The Nawaz Sharif government had begun negotiations with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) through intermediaries in February to try to end the cycle of violence that has claimed over 40,000 lives. — PTI

Kuala Lumpur, April 22
The probe into the mysterious disappearance of the Malaysian jet is now looking at the possibility that the plane may have landed somewhere as no debris has been found so far, a media report has said.

A report in the New Strait Times quoting sources within the international team probing the disappearance said that among the areas it was revisiting was the possibility that the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 had landed elsewhere, instead of ending up in the southern Indian Ocean.

"We may have to regroup soon to look into this possibility if no positive results come back in the next few days ... but at the same time, the search mission in the Indian Ocean must go on," the source was quoted as saying.

"The thought of it landing somewhere else is not impossible, as we have not found a single debris that could be linked to MH370. However, the possibility of a specific country hiding the plane when more than 20 nations are searching for it, seems absurd," the sources said.

Another possibility was that the flight had crashed landed in a remote location, the source said.

Members of the International Investigation Team (IIT) who have been making efforts since day one to find the plane are now looking at the likelihood of starting from scratch, the report said.

The sources admitted to the daily that it was difficult to determine if the Boeing 777-200 had really ended in the Indian Ocean, though calculations carried out pointed to the direction.

They pointed out that the Malaysian-led investigation team, together with experts from Inmarsat and the United Kingdom's Air Accidents Investigation Branch, had to rely on a communications satellite, which did not provide any definite details, including the plane's direction, altitude and speed.

"A communications satellite is meant for communication... the name is self-explanatory. The reason investigators were forced to adopt a new algorithm to calculate the last known location of MH370 was because there was no global positioning system following the aircraft as the transponder went off 45 minutes into the flight," one of the sources was quoted as saying. — PTI