Fourth ship to join search for missing Malaysian airliner

CANBERRA, Australia – A fourth ship with specialized underwater sonar equipment will join the search for a Malaysia Airlines jet 10 months after it vanished under mysterious circumstances, an Australian official said Monday.

The ship Fugro Supporter was on its way to the search area after conducting trials off the Indonesian island of Bali, Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said in a statement.

“Fugro Supporter has been equipped with a Kongsberg HUGIN 4500 autonomous underwater vehicle,” the statement said. “The AUV will be used to scan those portions of the search area that cannot be searched effectively by the equipment on other vessels.”

Not a single trace of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has been found since the Boeing 777 vanished with 239 people aboard on March 8 last year during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

The jetliner veered sharply off course and flew for hours with its communications systems disabled before disappearing.

Three ships – two provided by a Dutch contractor and one from Malaysia – have already been scouring 60,000-square-kilometre (23,000-square-mile) area of the Indian Ocean about 1,800 kilometres (1,100 miles) west of Australia.

Since October, the ships have searched more than 12,000 square kilometres (4,600 square miles) of the seafloor with towed sonar equipment – or one-fifth of the highest-priority search zone.

Martin Dolan, chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, the agency leading the search, said the unmanned submarine equipment would be used to take a second, closer look at difficult seabed terrain where towed sonar was less thorough.

“Because the terrain remains complex, there’s a possibility that there’ll be some areas that we can’t do with the towed sonar, and so we’re getting an autonomous underwater vehicle as the alternative option,” Dolan said. “We think we’ve got pretty good coverage already, but this will give us a 100 per cent guarantee.”

The underwater drone moves slower than the towed sonar equipment and will not hasten the search, which is expected to end around May if nothing is found earlier, Dolan said.

No additional equipment will be needed to ensure a thorough search of the mountainous terrain, which ranges from 600 metres (2,000 feet) to 6.5 kilometres (4 miles) deep, he said.

The Fugro Supporter is jointly funded by the Australian and Malaysian governments. It is expected to join the search in late January, Truss said.

Source: http://globalnews.ca/

29 arrested over Malaysia `birthday orgy`

Colombo: Hundreds of lawyers in Sri Lanka today took to street, demanding resignation of Chief Justice Mohan Peiris, who was appointed by former president Mahinda Rajapaksa after the impeachment of the country's first woman top judge allegedly out of personal vendetta.


Peiris, a confidante of Rajapaksa, was inducted in office in January 2013 after the impeachment and sacking of his predecessor Shirani Bandaranayake on corruption charges despite protests by rights groups, citizens, clergy and lawyers.

Bandaranayake's removal was pronounced unlawful by courts and also condemned by international community. It was cited even in the UN Human Rights Council resolutions adopted against the Rajapaksa administration.
She had denied all the charges against her and alleged that she had been sacked by Rajapaksa "through improper procedure due to personal vendetta".

Several lawyers had vehemently protested against the sacking of Bandaranayake and vowed not to cooperate with Peiris.

"We want him to go with dignity," Upul Jayasuriya, the Chairman of the lawyers' body, Bar Association of Sri Lanka said today.

"We will give him time until tomorrow to resign, if he did not we shall be back here protesting tomorrow," Sunil Watagala, a lawyer said.
In the run up to the January 8 presidential election, the joint opposition had pledged to restore Bandaranayake in her position as the 43rd Chief Justice.


Kuala Lumpur : Police in mainly Muslim Malaysia arrested 29 people including two auxiliary police officers in a raid on an birthday party which they said Monday had turned into a drug-fuelled orgy.

Officers were called to a hotel in the town of Klang near the capital Kuala Lumpur early Sunday after a complaint about noise in one of the rooms.

Ten women and 19 men were arrested while drugs including heroin, ecstasy and ketamine were impounded, police said.

"We suspect it to be a sex orgy cum birthday party," said North Klang police chief Mohamad Shukor Sulong.

A police officer involved in the investigation told AFP on condition of anonymity that all 29 were ethnic Malays, who belong to the multi-cultural country`s Muslim majority, and ranged in age from 20 to 35.

"They brought girls, drugs and beer to celebrate the birthday party," the officer said.

Premarital sex and lewd behaviour are deeply frowned upon in Malaysia, which has traditionally practised a relatively moderate brand of Islam yet remains conservative on sexual issues.

Muslims who are merely caught alone in a secluded place with a member of the opposite sex who is not a relation can face up to two years` jail and a fine.

Muslims make up more than half the country`s nearly 30 million people.

Three die in Nigeria suicide bombings

At least three people have been killed and dozens more injured in twin suicide bomb attacks in Nigeria.

Eyewitnesses say two female militants detonated their explosives in a crowded marketplace in Yobe state.

It comes after a bomb strapped to a girl killed at least 19 people on Saturday - and amid reports that up to 2,000 people were killed by Boko Haram in a series of "massacres" over the past week.

UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has condemned the recent attacks.

Africa’s most populous country is due to hold elections next month even though Boko Haram extremists hold large swathes of territory in the north-east.

Mr Ban’s office said in a statement that he was appalled by reports that hundreds of civilians were slaughtered in an assault around Baga town in Borno state, near Nigeria’s border with Chad. Some reports put the death toll as high as 2,000.

Mr Ban’s office also cited reports that extremists used a 10-year-old girl as a suicide bomber to kill 19 people at a market in Maiduguri, also in Borno state, on Saturday.

Source: http://www.breakingnews.ie/

Paris shooting suspect's wife 'arrived in Syria from Turkey'

The common-law wife of one of the perpetrators of last week’s terrorist rampage in France crossed into Syria from Turkey on January 8, Turkey’s foreign minister said today.

Mevlut Cavusoglu told the state-run Anadolu news agency that Hayat Boumedienne arrived in Turkey from Madrid on January 2, ahead of the attacks, and stayed at a hotel in Istanbul.

He said Turkish authorities established that she had crossed into Syria on Thursday, the day her husband shot a policewoman dead on the outskirts of Paris and a day after the massacre at satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

Meanshile, French security forces are mobilising in their search for what the prime minister called a “probable” accomplice to three days of bloodshed and terror around the capital.

Manuel Valls said the search is urgent because “the threat is still present” after the attacks that left 17 people dead – journalists at Charlie Hebdo, hostages at a kosher supermarket and three police officers. All three attackers died in nearly simultaneous raids by security forces on Friday.

Video emerged yesterday of one of the assailants explaining how the attacks would unfold and police want to find the person who filmed and posted the video.

Mr Valls told BFM television today that France is at war against “terrorism, against jihadism, against radical Islam”.

Source: http://www.breakingnews.ie/

Sentencing for Australian in Java delayed

AN Indonesian court has delayed sentencing an Australian man over a package of drugs police found in his home, because of his illness.

ANDREW Roger, 52, has been in Indonesian custody for eight months after marijuana, crystal meth and various pills were seized in the raid in Surabaya, East Java.

Prosecutors argued the former Darwin resident should serve 16 years from a maximum 20 years, because of the quantity and variety of drugs involved.

Roger's lawyers argued he needed rehabilitation for proven marijuana dependance that had spanned 35 years of his life.

He was due to be sentenced on Monday but Roger told the court he felt so unwell, he couldn't focus on the proceedings.

He said medications he needed were out of stock at the prison where he's remanded.
The sentencing was delayed to Wednesday.

In court last week, the waste management contractor pleaded to be spared from prison.
He said a 16-year term amounted to a life sentence because of his age and poor health.
When Roger was arrested, he was being treated for injuries from a motorbike crash that almost claimed his leg.

He has told the court he also suffers anxiety, panic and insomnia if he doesn't smoke pot.
A father of adult children and grandfather, Roger said his months in jail had been hell.
"The mental effect and terror of this has been incredible," he said.

Source: http://www.news.com.au/

Taxi strike has widened to Nanjing

High franchise fees, competition from private cars top grievance list
Taxi drivers in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, joined a strike that has swept the country since Thursday afternoon demanding a reduction of the monthly franchise fees paid to taxi companies, which eat up a large share of their revenues.
On Thursday, hundreds of taxis were parked near Nanjing's two railway stations, the long-distance bus station and the airport. Many taxis on the road refused to carry passengers.
On Friday, the city's transportation system was affected at peak times, with many striking taxi drivers suggesting through ride-hailing Internet apps that their colleagues participate.
Workers at the railway stations and the airport asked passengers to switch to buses or subway trains.
Liu Xingyou, a taxi driver, said that he has to pay 7,000 yuan ($1,130) to his company every month, and he only earns about 12,000 yuan.
"But I also need to pay for the natural gas, which is more than 3,000 yuan a month," the 56-year-old said. "I get up before 6 am every morning and sit for about 14 hours a day, only to get 2,000 yuan a month. That's unbearable."
According to Nanjing's transport department, the city now has about 11,700 taxis. Drivers of some new models of vehicles are required to pay a franchise fee of 9,000 yuan a month. Drivers in Beijing and Guangzhou pay about 4,000 or 5,000 yuan.
Licenses for taxi companies have been largely frozen since the early 1990s. Big taxi companies operating today generally got their licenses earlier. They collect fixed fees from individual taxi drivers across the country.
Some drivers also complained that a city's charging standards, low fuel surcharge allowances, five-hour double-billing during peak hours and the new ride-hailing apps have greatly hurt their incomes.
"We hope that the fuel surcharges can be raised, the double-billing hours extended to 24 hours and the ride-hailing apps that allow private cars to enter the market banned," Liu said.
On Sunday, taxi drivers in Shenyang, Liaoning province, went on strike, demanding that all private cars be prohibited from acting as taxis.
On Thursday, China's Ministry of Transport issued a regulation allowing only licensed taxis to offer services through the apps.
The ministry said that while innovations are welcomed, the ride-hailing apps should be covered by the country's transport regulations and do not provide a platform for private car owners to enter the taxi business.
Some local governments have put forward similar rules.
This week, Beijing and Shanghai decided to fine drivers 30,000 yuan to 100,000 yuan if they use a private car as a taxi. In December, the Shanghai government detained and fined 12 private car drivers
The transportation department in Zibo, Shandong province, banned the use of the Didi Zhuanche service, which enables the use of private cars.
In October, the transportation departments of Shenyang and Nanjing began fining car owners for acting as taxis.
Zhu Pingdou, vice-president of app maker Didi Dache, said the company "felt sorry" that the Zhuanche service had been banned.
"The service has provided a solution to many cities' traffic problem," Zhu said. "Maybe it should not be simply banned; it provides convenience to passengers."

Source: http://m.chinadaily.com.cn