Twelve days after the disappearance of Malaysia Airline Flight 370, relatives of the Chinese passengers threaten hunger strike due to the unambiguous statements made by the authorities.
International
EU imposes sanctions after Crimea moves to join Russia
(Reuters) – The European Union is to impose sanctions including asset freezes and travel bans on 21 officials from Russia and Ukraine after Crimea applied to join Russia on Monday following a weekend referendum, Lithuania’s foreign minister said. Crimea’s leaders declared a Soviet-style 97-percent result in favor of seceding from Ukraine in a vote condemned as illegal by Kiev and the West. After a meeting lasting around three hours, the EU’s 28 foreign ministers agreed […]
Crimeans vote over 90 percent to quit Ukraine for Russia
(Reuters) – Russian state media said Crimeans voted overwhelmingly to break with Ukraine and join Russia on Sunday, as Kiev accused Moscow of pouring forces into the peninsula and warned separatist leaders “the ground will burn under their feet”. With over half the votes counted, 95.5 percent had chosen the option of annexation by Moscow, the head of the referendum commission, Mikhail Malyshev, said two hours after polls closed. Turnout was 83 percent, he added […]
‘Good night’: Haunting final contact from missing Malaysian jet
(Reuters) – The last words from the cockpit of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 – “all right, good night” – were uttered after someone on board had already begun disabling one of the plane’s automatic tracking systems, a senior Malaysian official said. Both the timing and informal nature of the phrase, spoken to air traffic controllers as the plane with 239 people aboard was leaving Malaysian-run airspace on a March 8 flight to Beijing, could […]
Indian court grants stay of execution for New Delhi gang rapists
Indian’s Supreme Court has granted two young men convicted of a fatal gang-rape a stay of execution. The attack on a 23-year-old student in 2012 shocked the country, triggering street demonstrations and tougher laws. In an emergency court session held on Saturday, two Supreme Court judges ordered the hangings of two of the four convicts to be put on hold, after the men’s lawyers appealed. “The court issued instructions for holding a detailed hearing before […]
North Korea fires 10 short-range missiles: Yonhap
(Reuters) – North Korea fired 10 short-range missiles into the sea off the east of the Korean peninsula on Sunday, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported, citing unidentified government officials in South Korea. Yonhap said the missiles flew for 70 km (45 miles) before splashing into the sea. North Korea is not banned from short-range missile launches under U.N. sanctions and frequently tests its arsenal. The North has toned down its bellicose rhetoric towards the South, although it has […]
Japanese parents of North Korea abductee meet granddaughter
(Reuters) – The parents of a Japanese girl who was abducted by North Korea more than three decades ago met their child’s daughter for the first time last week, Japan’s Foreign Ministry said on Sunday. North Korea admitted in 2002 that it had kidnapped 13 Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s to help train spies and said eight of them had died, including Megumi Yokota, who was abducted in 1977 on her way home […]
Investigators look for motive in Malaysia plane disappearance
(Reuters) – Police are combing through the personal, political and religious backgrounds of pilots and crew of a missing Malaysian jetliner, a senior officer said on Sunday, trying to work out why someone aboard flew the plane hundreds of miles off course. No trace of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200ER has been found since it vanished on March 8 with 239 people on board, but investigators believe it was diverted by someone who knew how […]
India scours jungle islands for lost Malaysian jetliner
(Reuters) – Indian aircraft on Friday combed Andaman and Nicobar, made up of more than 500 mostly uninhabited islands, for signs of a missing Malaysia Airlines (MASM.KL) jetliner that evidence suggests was last headed towards the heavily forested archipelago. Popular with tourists and anthropologists alike, the islands form India’s most isolated state. They are best known for dense rainforests, coral reefs and hunter-gatherer tribes who have long resisted contact with outsiders. The search for lost […]
Lost airliner was diverted deliberately: Malaysian PM
(Reuters) – A missing Malaysian airliner was likely to have been deliberately steered to a course that could have taken it anywhere from central Asia to the southern Indian Ocean, Malaysia’s prime minister said on Saturday. Minutes after Malaysian leader Najib Razak outlined investigators’ latest findings about flight MH370, police began searching the house of the aircraft’s 53-year-old captain for any evidence that he could have been involved in foul play. The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200ER vanished […]
Exclusive: Radar data suggests missing Malaysia plane deliberately flown way off course – sources
(Reuters) – Military radar data suggests a Malaysia Airlinesjetliner missing for nearly a week was deliberately flown hundreds of miles off course, heightening suspicions of foul play among investigators, sources told Reuters on Friday. Analysis of the Malaysia data suggests the plane, with 239 people on board, diverted from its intended northeast route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and flew west instead, using airline flight corridors normally employed for routes to the Middle East and Europe, […]
MH370 search widened to the Indian Ocean
Malaysian officials have officially expanded the search for missing flight MH370 to the Indian Ocean. However, officials declined to comment on US reports that the plane had flown on for hours after losing contact. “The aircraft is still missing, and the search area is expanding,” said Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein on Friday during a press conference in Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur. “Together with our international partners, we are pushing further east into the South China […]
