World 12 Ashburton Guardian
www.guardianonline.co.nz
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
■ AUSTRALIA
In brief
Search area ‘new to man’ By Margie Mason Search crews were last night for the first time sending a robotic submarine deep into the Indian Ocean to try to determine whether underwater signals detected by sound-locating equipment are from the missing Malaysian jet’s black boxes, the leader of the search effort said. The Bluefin 21 autonomous sub can create a three-dimensional sonar map of the area to chart any debris on the seafloor. The move comes after crews picked up a series of underwater sounds over the past two weeks that were consistent with an aircraft’s black boxes, which contain flight data and cockpit voice recordings. The devices have beacons that emit “pings” so they can be more easily found, but the beacons’ batteries last only about a month, and it has been more than a month since the plane vanished. “We haven’t had a single detection in six days, so I guess it’s time to go under water,” Houston said. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott raised hopes last week when he said authorities were “very confident” the four underwater signals that have been detected are coming from the black boxes on Flight 370, which disappeared March 8 during a flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing. But Angus Houston, the head of a joint agency coordinating the search, warned that while the signals are a promising lead, the public needs to be realistic about the challenges facing search crews, who are contending with an extremely remote, deep patch of ocean - an area he dubbed “new to man.” “I would caution you against raising hopes that the deployment of the autonomous underwater vehicle will result in
The UN’s top human rights official has condemned the “rampant use of torture” in detention facilities in Syria. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay says her office has documented a “broad pattern of torture and ill-treatment” in government facilities and some run by rebel groups. Pillay said in a statement yesterday that the report draws on detailed testimony from victims and witnesses. The abuses include rape, beatings and burnings, sometimes leading to death. Pillay’s office has documented widespread abuses by the government and rebel groups in Syria’s three-year civil war, prompting calls for war crimes inquiries. - AP
Prosecutor on attack
Sgt. Trent Wyatt, a crew member of a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3 Orion, looks out in the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 over the Indian Ocean. AP PHOTO
the detection of the aircraft wreckage. “It may not,” Houston said. “However, this is the best lead we have, and it must be pursued vigorously. Again, I emphasise that this will be a slow and painstaking process.” The Ocean Shield has been dragging a U.S. Navy device called a towed pinger locator through the water to listen for any sounds from the black boxes’ beacons. Over the past 10 days, the equipment has picked up four separate signals. The Bluefin sub takes six times longer to cover the same area as the ping locator, and the two devices can’t be used at the same time. But it has been 38 days since the plane disappeared, and search crews haven’t picked up any new sounds since Tuesday, suggesting that the devices’ bat-
teries may now be dead. That is why officials will now begin using the Bluefin, Houston said. The submarine will take 24 hours to complete each mission: two hours to dive to the bottom, 16 hours to search the seafloor, two hours to return to the surface, and four hours to download the data, Houston said. In its first deployment, it will search a 40-square-kilometer (15-square-mile) section of seafloor. Meanwhile, officials were investigating an oil slick not far from the area where the underwater sounds were detected, Houston said. Crews have collected a sample of the oil and are sending it back to Australia for analysis, a process that will take several days. The oil does not appear to be from any of the ships in the area, but Houston cautioned
against jumping to conclusions about its source. A visual search for debris on the ocean surface was continuing over 47,600 square kilometers (18,400 square miles) of water about 2200 kilometers (1400 miles) northwest of the west coast city of Perth. A total of 12 planes and 15 ships would join the two searches. But Houston said that the visual search operation would be ending in the next two to three days. Officials haven’t found a single piece of debris linked to the plane, and Houston said the chances that any would be have “greatly diminished.” “We’ve got no visual objects,” he said. “The only thing we have left at this stage is the four transmissions and an oil slick in the same vicinity, so we will investigate those to their conclusion.” - AP
■ SOLOMON ISLANDS
Aid to stricken Solomons increased New Zealand will send a portable bridge and two teams of doctors to Solomon Islands as part of its latest aid package for the flood-damaged region. The new health and engineering support would increase New Zealand’s aid contribution to the Solomons to $2.6 million. More than 50,000 people have been affected by flooding in the region last week, which was followed by two major earthquakes.
Torture ‘rampant’
Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully said New Zealand was deploying 10 health personnel to the Solomons today including doctors, nurses and support staff. “The main hospital in Honiara is stretched after the recent flooding and there is a very serious risk of waterborne disease spreading around the capital,’’ he said. New Zealand would also ship a Bailey bridge to Honiara to
maintain a link between the airport and the city centre. “The Mataniko Bridge was damaged in the initial flooding and the Bailey bridge from the New Zealand Transport Agency will help ensure transport links are maintained while it is repaired,’’ Mr McCully said. At least 21 people have been killed by the flooding. No major damage was caused by the earthquakes.
Mr McCully said that the Solomon Islands Government had asked for more help to assist with the “exhausted resources they have within their health system to deal with people who are caught up, particularly in the evacuation centres”. Details were still being finalised, but Mr McCully said that New Zealand was looking to send two teams of 10 staff. - APNZ
The chief prosecutor in the murder trial of Oscar Pistorius yesterday accused him of tailoring his version of how he killed his girlfriend to fit evidence at the scene, exhaustively listing alleged inconsistencies in the athlete’s account of the fatal shooting of Reeva Steenkamp. The court temporarily adjourned after the double-amputee runner started to sob while testifying about the moments before he killed Steenkamp in his home in the early hours of February 14, 2013. Just over an hour later and after court resumed, Pistorius again broke down when replying to a question on why he had opened fire, causing a second adjournment. The prosecution has said Pistorius’ account of a mistaken shooting is a lie. Nel opened the fourth day of cross-examination by alleging that Pistorius had “concocted” his account of the shooting. - AP
Police building seized Pro-Russian separatists yesterday seized a police building in yet another city in Russianleaning eastern Ukraine, defying government warnings that it was preparing to act against the insurgents. Dozens of angry men hurled rocks, smashed the windows and broke into a police station in the city of Horlivka not far from the border with Russia, while hundreds of onlookers cheered them on. Thick white smoke rose from the entrance to the building, from which the insurgents hoisted the Russian flag. The events in Horlivka were the latest sign of trouble in Russian-speaking eastern and southern regions, in which proRussian gunmen have seized or blocked government buildings in at least nine cities demanding closer ties with Russia. - AP
Dead babies found Utah police responded to a tip that led to a grim discovery over the weekend, with seven dead infants found at their mother’s home. A woman identified by local media as Megan Huntsman, 39, was arrested early yesterday and booked into the Utah County Jail on murder charges. Pleasant Grove Police officers had “responded to the residence and observed the body of a newborn infant that appeared to be full term,” a statement said. “A search warrant was obtained for the residence and during the execution of the warrant, officers discovered six additional infant bodies. Each infant was found packaged in separate containers.” - AP