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Missing Flight MH370
Rebels storm govt buildings in Ukraine
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Obama warns China against using force
Pak PM office, Prez House power to be cut
’84 riots: US court dismisses lawsuit against Congress
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MH370 ‘debris sighted’ in Bay of Bengal
Canberra, April 29 These are aluminium, titanium, copper, steel alloys and other materials,” Pavel Kursa, spokesman for Adelaide-based exploration company GeoResonance, told 7News. The company surveyed over 2,000,000 sq km of the probable crash zone, using images obtained from satellites and aircraft. The possible wreckage was found in the Bay of Bengal, 5,000 km from the current search location in the southern Indian Ocean off Perth. GeoResonance started its own search March 10 by using top technologies. “The technology that we use was originally designed to find nuclear warheads and submarines. Our team in Ukraine decided we should try and help,” another company spokesman, David Pope, was quoted as saying. Pope said they had on March 5 taken images of the site they are searching now and what they are claiming to have found now wasn’t there earlier. “We’re not trying to say that it definitely is MH370. However, it is a lead we feel should be followed up,” Pope added. New York pilot Michael Hoebel (60) believes that he has also found an image of the wreckage. After spending hours looking at images on TomNod, a crowd-sourcing website that has been sharing online satellite imagery in the hope of finding clues, he found an image spotting debris he believes perfectly matched the dimensions of the missing plane. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said yesterday that the seabed search would be expanded to a much larger area and would involve commercial contractors specialised in deep ocean search and may take six to eight months if weather conditions permit. Autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) Bluefin-21 would continue its mission in adjacent areas. Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vanished mysteriously about an hour after taking off for Beijing from Kuala Lumpur shortly after midnight on March 8. The Boeing 777-200ER was scheduled to land in Beijing the same morning. The 227 passengers on board included five Indians, 154 Chinese and 38 Malaysians. — IANS
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Rebels storm govt buildings in Ukraine
Luhansk (Ukraine), April 29 Meanwhile, Russian share prices rose in relief at the mildness of the newly announced US and European sanctions over Moscow's involvement in the crisis, which amounted mainly to adding a small number of names to existing blacklists while putting off threats to take more serious measures. Demonstrators smashed their way into the provincial government headquarters in Luhansk, Ukraine's easternmost province, which abuts the Russian border, and raised separatist flags over the building, while police did nothing to interfere. As night fell, about 20 rebel gunmen opened fire with automatic weapons and threw stun grenades at the headquarters of the region's police, trying to force those inside to surrendertheir weapons, a Reuters photographer at the scene said. "The regional leadership does not control its police force," said Stanislav Rechynsky, an aide to Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, referring to events in Luhansk. "The local police did nothing." The rebels also seized the prosecutor's office and the television centre. The operation in Luhansk appears to give the pro-Moscow rebels control of a second provincial capital. They already control much of Donetsk province, where they have declared a referendum on secession for May 11.
— Reuters
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Obama warns China against using force
Manila, April 29 Obama used an address to US and Filipino troops in Manila to again voice concern over the increasingly tense maritime rows between China and US allies in the region, an issue that has dominated his four-nation trip. "We believe that nations and peoples have the right to live in security and peace, to have their sovereignty and territorial integrity respected," Obama said. "We believe that international law must be upheld, that freedom of navigation must be preserved and commerce must not be impeded. We believe that disputes must be resolved peacefully and not by intimidation or force." The Philippines has been embroiled in one of the highest-profile territorial disputes with China, over tiny islets, reefs and rocks in the South China Sea. China claims nearly all of the South China Sea, which is believed to contain huge deposits of oil and gas, even waters and formations close to its neighbours. The Philippines and the United States signed an agreement yesterday that will allow a greater US military presence on
Filipino bases. "No potential aggressor can be under the illusion that either of them stands alone. In other words, our commitment to defend the Philippines is ironclad. The United States will keep that commitment because allies will never stand alone." said Obama.
— AFP
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Pak PM office, Prez House power to be cut
Islamabad, April 29 The power supply to Parliament Lodges and the official residence of the Chief Justice was also ordered to be disconnected. Minister of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali issued the order and said electricity connections to all institutions and individual consumers who have not paid their bills will be disconnected. "I have issued orders that the electricity supply to Parliament Lodges, Parliament House and President's Secretariat should be disconnected immediately for non-payment of millions of rupees of bills," he said. Ali said the campaign against electricity defaulters and power thieves had begun on the directives of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and action would be taken against those usurping the rights of the people. Giving details of the dues owed to the Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO), the Minister told reporters that the Prime Minister's Secretariat owed Rs 6.2 million in dues whereas the residence of the Chief Justice of Pakistan owed a bill of Rs 1.1 million. He said the Capital Development Authority, Islamabad's civic agency which is responsible for paying government offices' bills, owed Rs 360 million while the Parliament Lodges owed Rs 200 million to the IESCO. Ali said in the public sector, the Sindh government was a defaulter of Rs 56 billion and added that 5,000 connections, which the provincial government had failed to acknowledge, were disconnected in Sindh.
— PTI
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Firing drills escalate tension between Koreas
Seoul, April 29 North Korea conducted similar drills in late March, firing more than 500 artillery rounds near the Northern Limit Line (NLL), a disputed maritime border that has been the de facto sea border since the 1950-53 Korean war. More than 100 rounds landed south of the border during that drill, prompting South Korea to fire hundreds of rounds back into the North's waters. The latest round of firing began in mid-afternoon. No rounds appeared to have landed south of the NLL border, a military official from the South said. It came hours after the North notified South Korea of the areas near populated South Korean islands where it would conduct the exercise. The Northern Limit Line is an extension of the land border between the two Koreas, stretching into the sea west of the Korean
peninsula. — Reuters
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’84 riots: US court dismisses lawsuit against Congress
New York, April 29 Judge Robert Sweet granted a motion by the Congress party to dismiss the 1984 lawsuit filed by Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), ruling that the rights group cannot be a plaintiff and individual plaintiffs are not "legal representatives". "No further amendment is permitted and case is dismissed," Sweet said in his order yesterday, ruling that SFJ failed to show sufficient "touch and concern" to the US. SFJ said it would challenge the order in an appeals court on the grounds that the case sufficiently "touches and concerns" the US and SFJ has "institutional standing" to seek "declaratory judgment" for the 1984 violence against Sikhs. It has time till May 23 to file its appeal. Congress party’s attorney Ravi Batra said the judge has ruled that SFJ and other named plaintiffs in the case lack legal standing to file such a case. The court dismissed the case also for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and barred SFJ from filing any additional amendment of the complaint, as it would be futile. Batra said the rule of law has reigned supreme with the dismissal of the case. The US Supreme Court established the precedent that events occurring entirely on foreign soil by and between foreigners, without touching or concerning the US, would not be heard in US courts, said Batra. — PTI
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59 killed in Syria, watchdog to probe chlorine claims 36 Thai senators indicted over charter amendment Sherpas leave Mt Everest base camp 2 women among 10 held in Malaysia terror plot Gunmen storm Libyan Parliament, disrupt PM poll London commuters face disruption due to Tube strike London tube strike: Commuters board an underground train at King’s Cross station in London on Tuesday.
Reuters
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