Malaysian police: Plane mystery may never be solved The Associated Press
Bakar told reporters. “At the end of the investigations, we may not even know the real cause. We may not even know the reason for this incident.” Police are also investigating the cargo and the food served on the plane to eliminate possible poisoning of passengers and crew, he said. The search for the plane began over the Gulf of Thailand and South China Sea, where the plane’s last communications were, and then shifted west to the Strait of Malacca, where it was last spotted by military radar. Experts then analyzed hourly satellite “handshakes” between the plane and a satellite and now believe it crashed somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean. A search there began just over two weeks ago, and now involves at least nine ships and nine planes.
U.S. asks Europe to wean off Russian gas By LORI HINNANT and RAF CASERT The Associated Press BRUSSELS – The United States on Wednesday called on Europe to wean itself from a dangerous dependency on Russian gas, saying it was time to stand together and bring an end to the Kremlin’s use of energy supplies as political leverage. Left unsaid was the European Union’s reluctance to follow the United States headlong into shale gas extraction, which has transformed the global energy scene and
turned the U.S. from importer into a nascent exporter or its refusal to fully re-embrace nuclear power in the wake of the Fukushima disaster in Japan. And even if it tried to become independent, it would take Europe years to develop promising sources, such as shale deposits in Ukraine and Poland – and with no guarantees of success. Europe’s reliance on Russia for a third of its energy needs has left the Kremlin in a position of power, emboldening it as it swept in to annex the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine last month, with lit-
tle more than diplomatic protest and a few sanctions in return. In his first interview since fleeing to Russia, Ukraine’s ousted president, Viktor Yanukovych, said Wednesday that he was “wrong” to invite Russian troops into Crimea and vowed to try to persuade Russia to return the coveted Black Sea peninsula. Yanukovych told The Associated Press and Russia’s state NTV television that he still hopes to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin to get the annexed region back.
AP photo
Fishing boats washed ashore by a small tsunami, sit in Caleta Riquelme, adjacent to the port, in the northern town of Iquique, Chile, after magnitude 8.2 earthqauke struck the northen coast of Chile on Wednesday.
Chile’s M8.2 quake causes little damage By LUIS ANDRES HENAO and LUIS HIDALGO The Associated Press IQUIQUE, Chile – Hardwon expertise and a big dose of luck helped Chile escape its latest magnitude-8.2 earthquake with surprisingly little damage and death. The country that suffers some of the world’s most powerful quakes has strict building codes, mandatory evacuations and emergency preparedness that sets a global example. But Chileans weren’t satisfied Wednesday, finding much room for improvement. And experts warn that a “seismic gap” has left northern Chile overdue for a far bigger quake. Authorities on Wednesday discovered just six reported deaths from the previous night’s quake. It’s possible that other people were killed in older structures made of adobe in remote communities that weren’t immediately accessible, but it’s still a very
low toll for such a powerful shift in the undersea fault that runs along the length of South America’s Pacific coast. “How much is it luck? How much is it science? How much is it preparedness? It is a combination of all of the above. I think what we just saw here is pure luck. Mostly, it is luck that the tsunami was not bigger and that it hit a fairly isolated area of Chile,” said Costas Synolakis, an engineer who directs the Tsunami Research Center at the University of Southern California. About 2,500 homes were damaged in Alto Hospicio, a poor neighborhood in the hills above Iquique, a city of nearly 200,000 people whose coastal residents joined a mandatory evacuation ahead of a tsunami that rose to only 8 feet. Iquique’s fishermen poked through the aftermath: sunken and damaged boats that could cost millions of dollars to repair and replace.
Egypt: Bombings outside of Cairo University bring escalation in campus wars By HAMZA HENDAWI and SARAH EL DEEB The Associated Press CAIRO – A series of three bombs went off Wednesday outside Cairo University, killing a police general and wounding seven people, introducing a new level of violence
to the almost daily battles at campuses fought by Egyptian police and students loyal to the ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. Universities have emerged as the main center of the campaign of protests by Morsi’s supporters against the military-backed government
that replaced him, because a fierce crackdown the past nine months has made significant rallies by Islamists in the streets nearly impossible. The result has been increasingly deadly clashes between protesters and security forces in and around the walled campus.
Wednesday’s blasts targeted a post of riot police deployed outside Cairo University in case of protests, in apparent retaliation for police assaults. That would be a significant escalation and raises the likelihood of a fierce response by security forces that would further push a spiral of violence.
A new group that first appeared in January, Ajnad Misr, or “Egypt’s Soldiers,” claimed responsibility for the bombing. In a statement, it said it was waging a campaign of retribution and that the slain police general had been involved in killings of protesters.
• Thursday, April 3, 2014
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – A police investigation may never determine the reason why the Malaysia Airlines jetliner disappeared, and search planes scouring the Indian Ocean for any sign of its wreckage aren’t certain to find anything either, officials said Wednesday. The assessment by Malaysian and Australian officials underscored the lack of knowledge authorities have about what happened on Flight 370. It also points to a scenario that becomes more likely with every passing day – that the fate of the Boeing 777 and the 239 people on board might remain a mystery forever. The plane disappeared March 8 on a flight to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur after its
transponders, which make the plane visible to commercial radar, were shut off. Military radar picked up the jet just under an hour later, on the other side of the Malay Peninsula. Authorities say that until then its “movements were consistent with deliberate action by someone on the plane,” but have not ruled out anything, including mechanical error. Police are investigating the pilots and crew for any evidence suggesting they may have hijacked or sabotaged the plane. The backgrounds of the passengers, two-thirds of whom were Chinese, have been checked by local and international investigators and nothing suspicious has been found. “Investigations may go on and on and on. We have to clear every little thing,” Inspector General Khalid Abu
WORLD | The Herald-News / TheHerald-News.com
By EILEEN NG and NICK PERRY
17