China navy plane crashes on training mission: Xinhua

SHANGHAI: A Chinese navy plane crashed on a training mission over the eastern coastal province of Zhejiang, the official Xinhua news agency said Friday, but did not say if there were casualties.

The military plane crashed late Thursday night in a mountainous area near the city of Yiwu, it said.

Xinhua said the plane belonged to the navy´s East China Sea fleet while the military news channel of the Sina website quoted sources as saying the aircraft was a fighter-bomber JH-7 "Flying Leopard".

The fleet´s area of responsibility includes disputed islands in the East China Sea, according to state media, which Japan administers and calls the Senkaku islands but which China also claims and names the Diaoyu islands.

For more than a year since Tokyo nationalised some of the islands in September 2012, Chinese vessels and aircraft have regularly approached them, playing cat and mouse with the Japanese coastguard.

Search and rescue teams were looking for the crew of the crashed plane, Xinhua reported, but did not say how many people were on board. The JH-7 typically carries two.

 

Fabien Cousteau plans 31-day underwater mission

ISLAMORADA: Like viewers worldwide, Fabien Cousteau was entranced by his famous grandfather's films about marine life and human exploration underwater. Now he's adding to his family's sea stories with a 31-day underwater expedition in the Florida Keys.

Cousteau dove Sunday to Aquarius Reef Base, a school bus-sized laboratory 60 feet below the ocean's surface, a few miles off Key Largo. He plans to spend more than a month living underwater with a five-person crew, making a documentary and leading science experiments on the nearby coral reef.

Before their boat left an Islamorada dock Sunday morning, Cousteau and his crew said they would miss seeing the sun for more than month, but they weren't nervous about being isolated in the undersea lab.

"I imagine we'll want to stay down once we get comfy down there," Cousteau said. "We won't want to come back up to the surface because it's such a magical place."

The idea for "Mission 31" came to Cousteau two years ago when he visited Aquarius during a fundraising push to save the lab, which federal budget cuts had threatened to permanently close.

"It reminded me that I've always wanted to live underwater," Cousteau said Saturday at his training base in Islamorada.

"Mission 31" builds on the legacy of Conshelf II, the 30-day underwater living experiment in the Red Sea that Jacques Cousteau filmed in 1963 for his Oscar-winning documentary "World Without Sun."

The younger Cousteau can do something his grandfather could not: broadcast the entire adventure live online and communicate with the public through social media and video chats with classrooms on land.

"For the first time I'm able to invite the world on a Cousteau expedition in real time," said Cousteau, who has filmed documentaries on sharks and other marine life.

Jacques Cousteau was revered worldwide for exploring the ocean in a multitude of documentaries and books, as well as for pioneering the advanced scuba diving techniques used at Aquarius. While he developed underwater living experiments out of the belief that an overpopulated world might drive humans to live in the oceans, interest in the habitats waned through the decades until Aquarius was the last underwater research lab.

His grandson believes interest in the oceans is reviving as climate change threatens to disrupt life on land.

"Whether you care about economics, in your personal life or your business life, whether you care about your health or your child's health, whether you care about saving creatures, it all pertains to making sure that our oceans are healthy. And our oceans are not," Cousteau said.

Throughout the expedition, Florida International University and Northeastern University researchers will study the effects of climate change and pollution on the coral reef. The crew will experiment with new technology that uses sonar to create three-dimensional video images, allowing them to gather data and footage without lights that would disrupt the fish.

Diving with a Cousteau helps bring more attention to the scientific work being performed at Aquarius, said Andy Shantz, an FIU researcher who will spend half the month living and working at the base.

"These are really important issues and to be able to bring that out and get a bit of a spotlight on the research and the science behind it is awesome," Shantz said.

The 400-square-foot pressurized Aquarius lab has six bunk beds and allows scientists to live and work underwater and scuba dive for extended periods of time, without needing to return to the surface or decompress. It's owned by the U.S. government and operated by FIU.

Astronauts train at Aquarius to simulate living and working in outer space. The lab's technological edge doesn't extend to its kitchen area. "Unfortunately for me as a French person, the food also will be simulated. Freeze-dried, astronaut type of food, canned foods, things like that," Cousteau said, grimacing.

Cousteau plans to resurface July 2, at the end of the longest mission ever held at Aquarius since it began operations in 1993.

Mini-sub on second mission after first MH370 search aborted

PERTH: A mini-sub searching for missing Flight MH370 was again sweeping the Indian Ocean seabed Wednesday after drawing a blank on a first mission aborted at daunting depths in a laborious operation that could take months.

The unmanned submarine equipped with sonar gear was deployed Tuesday night after data analysis of the first failed foray produced nothing of interest, Australia´s Joint Agency Coordination Centre said.

After more than three weeks of hunting for black box signals, the autonomous sub had been deployed for the first time on Monday night from the Australian ship Ocean Shield, which has spearheaded the hunt for the Boeing 777 that vanished on March 8 with 239 people aboard.

"The autonomous underwater vehicle was again deployed last night (Tuesday) from ADV (Australian Defence Vessel) Ocean Shield," JACC said.

"The data from Bluefin-21´s first mission has been downloaded and analysed. No objects of interest were found," JACC said.

The US navy explained that the Bluefin-21 had automatically aborted after six hours upon breaching its maximum operating depth.

JACC added that it had "exceeded its operating depth limit of 4,500 metres (15,000 feet) and its built-in safety feature returned it to the surface".

The sub was undamaged and had to be re-programmed, said US Navy Captain Mark Matthews.

"In this case the vehicle´s programmed to fly 30 metres over the floor of the ocean to get a good mapping of what´s beneath," he told CNN from Perth after the aborted dive.

"It went to 4,500 metres and once it hit that max depth, it said ´This is deeper than I´m programmed to be´, so it aborted the mission."

Hope JI Amir will carry forward Munawar’s mission: TTP letter

PESHAWAR: Geo News has got hold of a letter from the Pakistani Taliban addressed to the newly elected Amir of Jamat-e-Islami (JI) Maulana Sirajul Haq which stresses that an armed struggle is a must to enforce an Islamic system in the country.

“Our destination is the same but the difference is in the modus operandi to achieve it,” said the letter from Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Mohmand Agency head Umer Khalid Khurasani addressed to JI Amir.

It further said ‘it is hoped that you (Sirajul Haq) would carry forward the mission of Syed Munawar Hassan without making any compromise’.

 

Restrictions, poor equipment hinder Darfur peace mission: Ban

KHARTOUM: Restrictions by Sudan's government and the inadequate equipment of some peacekeepers in the Darfur region are hindering their ability to protect civilians and aid workers while violence increases, the UN chief says.
Ban Ki-moon made the comments in a review of the African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) which the UN Security Council ordered last July, according to a copy received Sunday by AFP.
He also called on the Security Council to endorse a set of measures, to be implemented over 12 months, "so that UNAMID can more effectively assist the many civilians affected by violence, insecurity and deprivation in Darfur".
While UNAMID has "some impact" in protecting civilians and aid delivery, "its effectiveness is seriously constrained by access restrictions and mobility constraints and shortfalls in the operational capabilities of several troop and police contingents," Ban's report says.
The six-year-old mission with more than 19,000 soldiers and police is one of the world's largest peacekeeping operations.
But the dynamics of Darfur's 11-year-old conflict, where clashes between rebels and government forces continue sporadically, have changed recently, prompting the review.
"Eleven years since the rebellion began, the situation in Darfur remains deeply troubling," Ban said.
Over the past two years, Sudan's deteriorating economy has led to worsening crime and intercommunal clashes, the report says, adding that some cash-poor paramilitaries have joined the tribal fighting over gold and other resources.
UNAMID itself has increasingly become a victim of the region's violence.
"In 2013, UNAMID suffered 19 attacks, resulting in 16 dead and 27 injured and a significant loss of vehicles, weapons and ammunition," Ban says.
The UN says 380,000 people were uprooted in Darfur in 2013 -- more than in any year since 2004 at the height of the conflict.
Fresh fighting has forced thousands more to flee their homes, the UN said last week, putting further pressure on an already stretched aid system dealing with almost two million displaced.

UN envoy cuts short Crimea mission

SIMFEROPOL: UN special envoy to Crimea Robert Serry cut short his mission to the region Wednesday after unidentified gunmen threatened him and ordered him to leave, an assistant travelling with him told AFP.
Serry, who had been sent to assess the situation in the disputed Black Sea peninsula for UN chief Ban Ki-moon, was confronted by gunmen outside the Ukrainian naval headquarters in Crimea's capital Simferopol.
After he was prevented from returning to his vehicle, he dropped into a cafe to use a telephone to alert the mission of the incident, and an angry group of pro-Russian activists briefly blocked his exit, the aide said.
Serry then left on foot for his hotel after his safety was assured, and he was driven to the airport where he was in a lounge waiting for a flight. "He's fine. The self-defence militias in Simferopol have guaranteed his security," Serry's assistant told AFP by phone from the car.
"He wants to fly to Kiev but there is no ticket for him yet. He is hoping that he can leave Crimea without further incident," she said. Serry himself would not speak on the phone. UN deputy secretary general Jan Eliasson said: "He is in good shape physically but he feels threatened."
Serry, a former Dutch ambassador to Kiev who was travelling with a UN colleague, was accosted by gunmen outside the naval headquarters on Wednesday and warned "he should leave Crimea," according to the United Nations.
Serry had arrived only Tuesday in the tense Crimean peninsula, which has come under de facto control by Russian forces. He had already aborted a trip to Crimea last week, saying tensions made it impossible to visit the peninsula.

Ishaq Dar stresses Pakistani Mission abroad to bring foreign investment

ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister, Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar Monday emphasized upon the Pakistani Missions abroad to draw attention of the investors to Pakistan where huge potential is available for foreign investment.

This he said while speaking with Pakistan's Ambassador designate to Qatar, Shehzad Ahmad who called on him here.

The Finance Minister said that there is huge potential of foreign investment in Pakistan particularly in economy, energy and infrastructure sectors.

"We have introduced a very robust economic revival programme which includes public private partnership on the basis of Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model", he added.

The Minister said that the new initiatives will be instrumental for economic rebuilding. Important initiatives include deregulation, undertaking structural reforms to improve management of public finances and making Pakistan an attractive investment destination.

He said that Qatar has expertise in energy sector and the Ambassador should encourage the potential investors from Qatar on opportunities available in the Country.

The Ambassador designate briefed the Minister on his plans to represent Pakistan effectively in Qatar. The Ambassador assured the Finance Minister that he will work hard to enhance existing cooperation between the two countries.

He also thanked the Finance Minister for his Ministry's commitment and support to provide assistance in attracting foreign investment in the Country.