MH370: Oil Slick Is Not From Missing Plane

An oil slick found in the Indian Ocean did not come from the missing Malaysian passenger plane, preliminary analysis has found.

Two litres of oil were found by Australian vessel Ocean Shield in the area where four "pings", possibly from the missing plane's black box recorder, were detected last week.

They were immediately taken for tests to determine whether they could be a clue to the location of flight MH370, which vanished while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8.

The plane was carrying 239 people, most of them Chinese nationals, when it disappeared.

A map showing the position of Ocean Shield

Sky News correspondent Nick Martin, in Perth, Australia, said: "The discovery of an oil slick near to the search area was one of the 'promising leads' authorities spoke of.

"If analysis had shown it to be engine oil from the plane it would have been the first real, tangible sign of missing MH370.

"This is yet another investigative avenue closed.

"Malaysia Airlines had flown a sample of the engine oil it uses in its 777 fleet to Perth to compare it with that of the material discovered in the Indian Ocean."

The search for the missing plane has lasted for weeks

Meanwhile, officials have denied reports efforts to find the plane are winding down, and say the search will continue over the weekend.

The unmanned submarine Bluefin-21, currently tasked with mapping the ocean floor for wreckage, completed its first full mission overnight.

The submersible spent 16 hours on the ocean floor and has mapped a total area of 90 sq km, according to a spokesman for the Joint Air Coordination Centre (JACC) in Perth, western Australia.

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Oscar Pistorius Murder Trial Evidence 'Wrong'

Oscar Pistorius was "wrong" in his version of events about what happened on the night he shot dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, the prosecution has claimed.

During cross-examination by lawyer Gerrie Nel, forensic expert Roger Dixon appeared to contradict what the athlete told the court about the position of a magazine rack in the bathroom.

In a graphic photograph showing a pool of Ms Steenkamp's blood around the toilet bowl, the witness, whose expertise was heavily criticised by Mr Nel during questioning on Wednesday, pointed out a rectangular-shaped mark.

Mr Nel, who grilled Pistorius for five days, is quizzing a forensic expert

He said this shows the magazine rack was in the position it appeared in in a police photograph, something Pistorius, who claims police officers moved objects in his house, rejects.

Mr Nel told Mr Dixon: "Remember when I asked whether the accused's version was correct? You have now showed us the accused's version was wrong."

The claim was made on the 25th day of Pistorius' trial - the last before a two-week break for the Easter holidays.

As Mr Nel continued his attempt to identify inaccuracies in the defence case, Mr Dixon admitted he did not measure the angles of any specific bullet holes in the bathroom door.

At one point the witness picked up one of Pistorius' prosthetic legs, on which traces of varnish were found.

He revealed he did not check whether the varnish - apparently from the door the 27-year-old kicked down to reach Reeva Steenkamp - could have come from contact with other doors in the house.

Pistorius covered his ears as the court heard about Ms Steenkamp's injuries

Mr Dixon was previously branded "irresponsible" by Mr Nel, who accused him of addressing the court without having properly read a post-mortem report about Ms Steenkamp's death.

Pistorius, 27, admits shooting his partner but denies a charge of premeditated murder, claiming he mistook her for an intruder.

The athlete lowered his head and clasped his hands around his ears as further details about Ms Steenkamp's injuries were read to the court.

Ms Steenkamp was shot dead at Pistorius' home on Valentine's Day last year

Mr Dixon said the shock of the first bullet fired through the bathroom door may have caused her to twist and fall.

He told the court a further bullet hit Ms Steenkamp's head as she slumped to the floor, hitting her back on the magazine rack as she did so.

On Wednesday, Mr Dixon said a bullet that struck the model's arm caused such serious damage it was like "an instant amputation".

The day began with a stark warning from Judge Thokozile Masipa to people watching the case in an adjoining 'overspill' room, who she said clamber over benches and "cheer, boo and do what they like".

"Something disturbing has come to my attention," she said.

As well as premeditated murder, Pistorius, who won two gold medals at the Paralympic Games in London in 2012, denies two further counts related to shooting a gun in public on separate occasions prior to the killing.

The trial is scheduled to resume on May 5.

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Snowden Questions Putin During TV Phone-In

Fugitive whistleblower Edward Snowden has asked Russian President Vladimir Putin a question on government surveillance during a televised phone-in show.

It is the first known direct contact between the pair since Russia granted the former US spy agency contractor asylum last year.

He submitted his question in a video clip, wearing a jacket, open-collar shirt, and speaking in front of a dark background.

He asked: "Does Russia intercept, store or analyse, in any way, the communications of millions of individuals?"

Putin, a former spy during Soviet rule, joked: "You are an ex-agent. I used to have ties to intelligence."

He then answered Snowden's question, saying Russia regulates communications as part of criminal investigations, but "on a massive scale, on an uncontrolled scale we certainly do not allow this and I hope we will never allow it".

Mr Snowden also recently appeared at the SXSW festival by videolink

He said the Russian authorities needed consent from a court to conduct such surveillance on a specific individual "and for this reason there is no (surveillance) of a mass character here and cannot be in accordance with the law".

Snowden was offered refuge in Russia after he disclosed widespread monitoring of telephone and internet data by the United States and fled the country.

Putin's refusal to hand Snowden over to the United States, where he is wanted on espionage charges, added to strained ties between the two countries.

Snowden was granted asylum for at least a year.

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Ferry Disaster: Parents Hire Own Rescue Boats

Parents of missing teenagers aboard the stricken ferry off the coast of South Korea have been hiring rescue boats to join the search overnight.

Many relatives stared out to sea, huddled in blankets, sobbing, as hopes their loved ones would be found alive faded.   

Others expressed their anger, claiming that the rescue operation was botched and choosing instead to go searching themselves. 

Nearly 340 of those aboard the Sewol ferry are believed to have been from the same high school near the capital Seoul, on their way to Jeju island for a field trip.

Relatives are angry that the school initially said all had been rescued

Rescue operations went on through the night, under the light of flares, but divers suspended attempts to find survivors inside the submerged ship until daylight.

"My tears have dried up," said a mother in Jindo, a town near the site of the disaster where many families have gathered.

"I am holding on to hope. I hope the government does everything to bring these kids back to their mothers."

At the dockside in Jindo, women sat and stared out at the black, calm sea before them.

The father of one missing child could not bear to wait.

Divers have suspended searches inside the boat until daylight

He and 10 other parents paid 61,000 won (£35) each to hire a boat to take them to the scene, along with a local reporter and a diver.

"There was no rescue operation going on," he said on his return to Jindo.

"We clearly saw there is none. What they were doing at the time was stopping the oil spill. I'm extremely angry.

"The media says the rescue operation is still going on. It's all a lie. It makes me so furious."

Anger was also aimed at the school, which at one point mistakenly announced that all 338 students and teachers on the field trip had been rescued.

Relatives huddled under blankets waiting for news

Adding to the misery, the Ministry of Security and Public Administration initially reported that 368 people had been rescued and that around 100 were missing.

It later described those figures as a miscalculation, turning what had at first appeared to be a largely successful rescue operation into a potentially major disaster.

For many parents, the agonising wait began at Danwon High School in Ansan, a Seoul suburb, where they gathered in the morning after news of the ferry disaster broke.

Park Seong-ho, father of a missing 17-year-old boy, said: "I have to go now.

"It's as if the world is falling apart. I really want to go now to see my son."

Hopes of finding the teenagers alive faded overnight

Jeong Kyung-mi, mother of another 17-year-old from the school, was more fortunate. She received a text message from her son saying he had been rescued.

"When I heard the news, it felt like my heart had stopped beating," she said.

Parents fought their way on to coaches provided to take them to Jindo, where some were reunited with their children.

Survivors there huddled on the floor of a gymnasium, wrapped in blankets and receiving medical aid.

One woman lay on a bed shaking uncontrollably, while a man across the room wailed loudly as he spoke on his mobile phone.

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Iran Murder Victim's Mother Stops Hanging

A convicted killer due to be hanged for murder has been spared after the victim's mother had a last-minute change of heart.

Balal was to be hanged for murder Pic: Arash Khamooshi /Isna

The 18-year-old victim's parents were expected to kick away the chair supporting the condemned man, named as Balal, at the public execution and send him to his death. 

But once he was blindfolded and the noose put around his neck, she instead slapped his face and said she forgave him.

Pic: Arash Khamooshi /Isna

As she climbed up to the gallows, Samereh Alinejad asked the large crowd that had gathered to watch the execution whether they knew "how difficult it is to live in an empty house".

The father of the victim, Abdolghani Hozzeinzad, then removed the noose from around the man's neck as the convict's own mother ran up to embrace the woman who had saved her son.

The victim's mother slaps the killer Pic: Arash Khamooshi /Isna

The two women stood and sobbed in each other's arms.

Mrs Alinejad told Shargh newspaper: "I am a believer. I had a dream in which my son told me that he was at peace and in a good place.

The victim's parents remove the noose. Pic: Arash Khamooshi /Isna

"After that, all my relatives, even my mother, put pressure on me to pardon the killer.

"The murderer was crying, asking for forgiveness. I slapped him in the face. That slap helped to calm me down."

Balal stabbed the victim in a brawl. Pic: Arash Khamooshi /Isna

Mr Hozzeinzad explained more about the dream.

"Three days ago my wife saw my elder son in a dream telling her that they are in a good place, and for her not to retaliate," he said.

The killer's mother embraces Mrs Alinejad. Pic: Arash Khamooshi /Isna

"This calmed my wife and we decided to think more until the day of the execution."

 The The The victim died seven years ago after being stabbed in a street fight by Balal in the small town of Royan, in the northern province of Mazandaran.

The victim's mother speaking after the pardon. Pic: Arash Khamooshi /Isna

After he was spared, Balal said the "slap was the space between revenge and forgiveness".

"I've asked my friends not to carry knives ... I wish someone had slapped me in the face when I wanted to carry one," he said in a TV interview.

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X-Men Director Accused Of Teen Sexual Assault

X-Men director Bryan Singer has been accused of drugging and raping a teenage boy in the late 1990s, according to a lawsuit filed in a US court.

It is alleged the 48-year-old used his influence, as well as a range of drugs and alcohol, to force sex on the boy.

Michael Egan, 31, is seeking unspecified damages and a trial after allegations of wide-ranging abuses at California and Hawaii house parties beginning in the late 1990s, according to the civil action filed in a Hawaii federal court.

Singer's lawyer, Marty Singer, has dismissed the claims as "absurd" and "completely without merit," according to The Hollywood Reporter.

He said: "We are very confident that Bryan will be vindicated in this absurd and defamatory lawsuit."

The suit says Singer met Egan at "notorious parties" in Encino, California, around 1998.

"The parties were typically sordid and featured sexual contact between adult males and the many teenage boys who were present for the parties," the lawsuit said.

Egan, from Nevada, moved to the Los Angeles-area when he was 14 or 15 with aspirations to become an actor.

He was reportedly threatened by Singer and other men who allegedly told him they "controlled Hollywood and would destroy his hopes and dreams of an acting career if he did not keep them happy," the lawsuit said.

The suit says Egan, then 17, was flown to Hawaii on at least two roughly week-long trips in 1999 where Singer allegedly provided him with drugs and booze and assaulted him in a number of non-consensual sexual acts.

Egan's lawyer was due to give a news conference later on Thursday.

Singer has directed three X-Men films as well as The Usual Suspects, Valkyrie and Jack The Giant Slayer.

His new X-Men film Days Of Future Past opens next month.

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Obama Raises Spectre Of War With Russia

When it comes to relations between countries, Winston Churchill famously said, it's better to "jaw jaw than war war".

But tensions have shot up as a result of Barack Obama's jawing.

For the first time in decades an American president has raised the prospect of war with Russia.

"What I have said consistently is that each time Russia takes these kinds of steps that are designed to destabilise Ukraine and violate their sovereignty, that there are going to be consequences."

He went on: "Not only have Russians gone into Crimea and annexed it in illegal fashion ... but what they have also done is supported, at minimum, non-state militias in southern and eastern Ukraine."

Mr Obama added: "They are not interested in any kind of military confrontation with us, understanding that our conventional forces are significantly superior to the Russians."

The US president is not an accomplished speaker off the cuff. On his last trip to Israel and the Palestinian Territories, the complexities of the problems there made his statements at press conferences halting to the point of incoherence.

Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine

His boast of military superiority to a proud and often petulant nuclear power could conceivably be put down to an unguarded moment in an interview with CBS.

Such language was to be avoided, Churchill knew, because a nuclear power had the trump card of annihilation.

MAD - Mutually Assured Destruction - usually kept the tone and language of international affairs reasonably civil.

Russia has been pumping out absurd, but widely believed agitprop.

The Kremlin's agents have painted a picture of the east of Ukraine's Russian-speaking populations as victims of ethnic cleansing by Nazi groups who have taken over Kiev like an infestation of zombies from the Third Reich.

In eastern Ukraine many believe that Mr Obama and the Europeans are in league with these dark forces.

Vladimir Putin has reassured them that their most paranoid fantasies are entirely correct.

Ukraine, he insists, is on the brink of a civil war. On the brink of an "abyss".

The feeble new government in Kiev has failed to reach out to the nervous citizens of the east.

John Kerry (L) and Sergei Lavrov meeting in Geneva

Serhiy Taruta, the embattled governor of the province of Donetsk Oblast has told Sky News that the Kiev government that appointed him had failed to win the trust of its eastern population.

Pronouncements that Russians would need visas to enter the country and even an early, failed attempt to ban Russian as an official language have meant that Mr Putin's seeds of fear have fallen on fertile ground.

The reaction from the West after the Russian seizure and annexation of Crimea has become increasingly strident amid relatively mild economic sanctions.

Nato has upped the ante, increasing the number of ships in the Baltic and sending more naval assets to the eastern Mediterranean.

Such moves confirm in the minds of conspiratorial Russians that the West is trying to move its war machine closer to Moscow.

This is not the case. No one in Europe or Nato wants a conflict with Russia, a valuable trading partner  with a massive nuclear arsenal.

But Mr Obama's loose jaw has raised the spectre of what was once simply impossible. War.

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Ferry Disaster: Desperate Texts During Sinking

Teenagers on the stricken South Korean ferry sent heartbreaking messages to their families as it capsized and sank.

Mobile phone footage and messages from passengers suggest they were advised to stay where they were as they vessel listed severely to one side.

But the advice may have effectively sealed the fates of many of those on board, making escape impossible as the ferry sank into the icy depths.

One 18-year-old student messaged his mother on the KakaoTalk messaging app at 9.27am (00.27am GMT)  - shortly after the ferry sent its first distress call.

He wrote: "Mum, I'm sending this because I might not be able to say it later. I love you."

Seven minutes later his mother - unaware of the trouble the vessel was in - replied: "Why? ... I thought you don't check your KakaoTalk messages.

"Me too son... I love you."

There are reports that the young man involved may be one of the lucky 179 survivors rescued before the ship capsized and went under the water.

The search has been hampered by high winds and choppy sea conditions

Another student sent a series of messages to friends in a theatre club just after 9am.

He wrote: "Hey really seriously.

"Love you all for real.

"Looks like we really are gonna die.

"No really the ship's tilting.

"You guys really.

"If I've wronged any of you. Forgive me."

A female passenger, also 18, messaged her father at around 10am (1am GMT) as the ship started to sink.

She wrote: "Dad don't worry too much. I am wearing a life vest and am with other girls."

Relatives of passengers have been desperately hoping for good news

A few minutes later, as the situation deteriorated, she added: "I can't. It's too tilted. Can't move ... it's more dangerous if I move."

Her distraught father wrote back, urging her to try to get out, but it was already too late.

"Dad, I can't. The ship is too tilted. The hallway is crowded with so many people," she responded in a final message.

At 9.23am a 16-year-old called Kim Woong-Ki texted his older brother saying: "Brother, I'm riding a ship to Jeju Island and the ship hit something and it can't move."

After he was asked how bad the damage was, he said: "I don't know about that, since I'm inside. I don't have good coverage and just now the Coast Guards arrived."

The teenager's brother replied: "The rescue will arrive soon. Don't panic. Be calm and strong. You just need to move quickly as instructed. When you have coverage contact me again."

An icon on the brother's phone shows that his last message was not read and Kim was listed among almost 290 unaccounted for.

Some parents managed a last, traumatic phone call with their children as they tried to escape.

"He told me the ship was tilted over and he couldn't see anything," one mother recalled of a panicked conversation with her student son.

"He said 'I haven't put on the life jacket yet', and then the phone went dead," the mother told the Dong-A Ilbo newspaper.

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Ferry Disaster: Hopes Of Finding Survivors Fade

Rescue teams are battling bad weather conditions as they search for around 290 people who remain missing after a South Korean ferry capsized and sank.

Nine people have already been confirmed dead and the death toll is expected to increase sharply in what could be the country's worst maritime accident in two decades.

The dead include a female teacher, a female member of the crew and three male school students, while the majority of those who remain unaccounted for are from the same school field trip.

Many of those on board the ferry were school students

So far 179 people have been rescued - among them Kwon Ji-yeon, a six-year-old girl whose parents are still on the missing list.

Strong currents and bad visibility hampered the search as rescue teams hammered on the Sewol's hull, hoping in vain for a response.

The ferry's captain, 69-year-old Lee Joon-seok, faces a criminal investigation, a coastguard official told Reuters, amid unconfirmed reports that he was one of the first to jump to safety 

The ferry got into trouble on its journey to Jeju

A man identified by broadcaster YTN and news agency Yonhap as Mr Yoon has appeared on television, his face covered by a grey hoodie.

"I'm really sorry and deeply ashamed," he said, as he was being questioned at the Mokpo coastguard.

Video footage has emerged showing passengers in life jackets as the boat began to sink and of a tannoy message asking people to stay where they are as it would be dangerous to move.

South Korean President Park Guen-hye surveys the search area from a ship

Crew member Oh Yong-seok, 58, said the captain waited about 30 minutes before ordering the evacuation because officers on the bridge were trying to stabilise the vessel after it started to list.

By the time the evacuation order was made, it was impossible for crew to reach passengers because the ship was tilted at such an acute angle.

"We couldn't even move one step. The slope was too big," said Oh, who escaped with about a dozen others, including the captain.

Passenger Koo Bon-hee, 36, told reporters many people were trapped inside by windows that were too hard to break.

Distraught relatives wait for news in a gym on Jindo Island

Distraught family members are gathered on the quay of Jindo Island, huddled in blankets against the cold as they wait for any news.

"If I could teach myself to dive, I would jump in the water and try to find my daughter," Park Yung-suk told the Reuters news agency.

Some relatives have turned their anger on the government and coast guard, shouting at officials: "The weather's nice, why aren't you starting the rescue?"

The ship set sail from the port of Incheon on Tuesday carrying 475 passengers, nearly 340 of them teenagers and teachers from the Danwon school near the capital Seoul.

Coast Guard and rescue teams searching for missing passengers

Its destination, along a well-travelled route, was Jeju island around 60 miles (100km) south of the Korean peninsula.

It is not clear why the 6,586 tonne vessel, which was built in Japan 20 years ago, sank in apparently calm waters.

However, some survivors spoke of hearing a loud noise before disaster struck.

State broadcaster YTN quoted investigation officials as saying the ship was off its usual course after being hit by strong winds, which caused containers stacked on deck to shift.

The registered owner of the ship, Chonghaejin Marine Co Ltd, has offered an apology but declined to comment further.

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Ukraine Detains '10 Russian Security Agents'

Putin Finds Time For A Laugh During Phone-In

Updated: 1:39pm UK, Thursday 17 April 2014

By Ian Woods, Senior News Correspondent

Even in the midst of a crisis, with Russia on the brink of a conflict with Ukraine, there was a chance for some Vladimir Putin humour.

About a quarter of the way through his marathon question-and-answer session, with more than two million phone calls, emails and texts logged, came a question from a pensioner about his plans to push beyond Russia's borders.

"Does the President want to take Alaska as well?"

Mr Putin laughed and said: "What do we want with Alaska? We have enough cold territory."

Sarah Palin can sleep easier in her bed. The former vice-presidential candidate once said her expertise in foreign affairs came from having the Russians as her neighbours.

The exchange lightened the mood of a television marathon which was dominated by Ukraine and Crimea.

The Direct Line with Putin is an annual event in Russia and this was his 12th.

But it was pointed out that in his previous five-hour long session last year, he had not mentioned annexing Crimea as one of his policies.

Mr Putin said it was never a plan. He was simply responding to the wishes of the people of Crimea, he claimed.

The questions about the takeover of Crimea were not all supportive of the President.

Many Russians fretted about the cost to the economy and some wondered whether it would change the character of Crimea.

They were reassured it would not and that no social programmes would be cut to pay for Crimea's return to Kremlin control.

But the questions from an outside broadcast in the Crimean port of Sevastopol were unmistakably in support of Mr Putin.

At one point the crowd who had gathered to take part in the show chanted: "Russia, Russia."

Mr Putin said the situation had allowed Russians to rediscover patriotism.

As for the situation in eastern Ukraine, Mr Putin's answers were familiar.

He denied the Russian military had crossed the border in support of ethnic Russians.

He questioned the legitimacy of the interim government in Kiev, as well as the presidential elections on May 25, which are designed to confer legitimacy on the winner.

He said that when candidates from the East were being beaten up, it could never be a fair election.

And he attacked Nato expansion, saying: "When people move towards our borders, it makes us take steps to respond."

One of the questions came from a former member of the Berkut, the now disbanded Ukrainian special police force, who said he had confronted protesters in Kiev and some of his colleagues had been injured.

He called the deposed President Viktor Yanukovych a "slacker and a traitor" for not ordering tougher action.

Mr Putin defended his former ally, saying the two of them had discussed the dilemma and Mr Yanokovych had been unwilling to sign an order to open fire on his own citizens.

After three hours, just when you thought it might be getting a little boring, up popped a special guest via video-link from an undisclosed location.

Former NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden had been invited to ask a question, which he did so in English, though the President confessed he found it hard to understand his American accent.

Snowden, who was granted in asylum in Russia after fleeing the United States to leak the secrets of America's mass electronic eavesdropping programme, asked if Russia had a similar programme.

Mr Putin, a former KGB officer, spoke to him as one professional to another. And, of course, he said such an operation was impossible because Russian agencies were strictly controlled.

It was an impressive performance from the Russian president, talking fluently and peppering his answers with statistics.

He was supremely confident, as well he might be.

His opinion poll ratings are rising. The number of Russians who say they totally trust Mr Putin has increased from 7% to 16%, and the number of those who are "more likely to trust him" has grown from 50% to 55% over the past year.

The number who say they do not trust him is down from 35% a year ago to 20% now, and 37% of the 1,600 people questioned said they like and even admire him.

But even after the hours of answers, the West is still unsure about Mr Putin's ultimate goal.

How far does he want to push his luck, knowing the response from Europe and America will be limited to diplomatic and economic posturing?

Perhaps we will find out the answer to that question at next year's marathon phone-in.

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