Undersea search for MH370 to expand: Australia

Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200ER flight MH318 to Beijing sits on the tarmac as passengers are reflected on the glass at the boarding gate at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. PHOTO: REUTERS/ FILE

SYDNEY: Australia’s prime minister on Monday announced an expanded search across a huge swathe of seabed where Flight MH370 might have crashed seven weeks ago, admitting it is now “highly unlikely” that any surface wreckage will be found.

A massive hunt for the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 in the southern Indian Ocean has so far yielded nothing on the surface or below, baffling authorities who are struggling to explain the loss of the aircraft.

“I regret to say that thus far, none of our efforts in the air, on the surface, or undersea have found any wreckage,” Tony Abbott said.

“It is highly unlikely at this stage that we will find any aircraft debris on the ocean surface,” he added, noting that a surface area of more than 4,500,000 square kilometres had been scanned.

“By this stage, 52 days into the search, most material would have become water logged and sunk.”

Flight MH370 disappeared on March 8 carrying 239 people and is believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean off west Australia after mysteriously diverting from its Kuala Lumpur to Beijing journey.

Abbott said the search would now enter a new phase that would involve undersea efforts being ramped up, with authorities scouring the ocean floor over an area of nearly 60,000 square kilometres.

“If necessary, of the entire probable impact zone which is roughly 700 kilometres by 80 kilometres,” he said when asked when asked about the extent of the search area.

The search zone has been defined by analysis of satellite data, and was boosted by several detections of transmissions believed to have come from the plane’s black box recorders before their batteries died.

But a submersible Bluefin-21 scouring a 400-square kilometre zone centred around one of these transmissions has failed to yield results, prompting Abbott to announce an hugely expanded underwater search involving different technology, possibly a specialised side-scan sonar.

Abbott said the Australian government, in consultation with Malaysian authorities, was willing to engage one or more commercial companies to undertake this work which he estimated would cost some Aus$60 million and take six to eight months.

Up until now, the eight nations involved in the Indian Ocean search — Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Japan, Korea, United States, Britain and China — have been bearing their own costs, but Abbott said Canberra would ask for help in funding the next stage.

“We will be seeking some appropriate contribution from other nations involved; but we will ensure that this search goes ahead,” he said.

Australia is working closely with Malaysia and China, whose citizens made up two-thirds of those onboard the flight, and Abbott said this would continue but it could take weeks to set up the new phase.

In the meantime, the Bluefin-21 and several ships would maintain the search and a team of experts in Kuala Lumpur from Malaysia, China, Australia, Britain and the US would work on refining where to look.

“We are going to go back to that team of experts and ask them to reconsider exactly what they think is the most likely probable impact zone based on the data that we’ve got and their reflections that they have inevitably had over the last few weeks,” the prime minister said.

Abbott said authorities still had “a considerable degree of confidence” that the signals picked up were from the black box and said it would be a “terrible outcome” if nothing was ever sighted, given the importance of knowing what happened.

“The aircraft plainly cannot disappear, it must be somewhere,” he said. “We do not want this crippling cloud of uncertainty to hang over these families and the wider travelling public.”

The anguish of the families of those onboard has repeatedly spilled over into anger against the Malaysian government and airline for their handling of the unprecedented event.

Selamat Omar, a 60-year-old retiree whose 29-year-old son Khairul Amri Selamat was on the plane, said he was hopeful the search would bear fruit, but noted there were still many unknowns.

“It’s been nearly two months already, maybe it’s time to look at other aspects,” he said.

“If nothing is found in the water, then we look at other possibilities. With no sign of a crash, I have to think that my son could still be alive.

War-ravaged Syria may face worst wheat harvest in 40 years

Farmers plant wheat in eastern al-Ghouta, near Damascus December 26, 2013. PHOTO: REUTERS

AMMAN / ABU DHABI: War and drought have crippled Syria’s wheat crop, with some experts now forecasting output of the staple food could fall to around a third of pre-war levels, and possibly even below 1 million metric tons for the first time in 40 years.

Agricultural experts, traders and Syrian farmers who talked to Reuters gave crop estimates ranging from one million metric tons to 1.7 million at best, a more pessimistic range than that given by the United Nations earlier this month.

Before the war, Syria produced around 3.5 million metric tons of wheat on average, enough to satisfy local demand and usually permit substantial exports, thanks in part to irrigation from the Euphrates river that waters its vast eastern desert.

The last time its wheat harvest failed to exceed one million metric tons was 1973, although catastrophic droughts have pushed the crop close to that level in 1989 and 2008.

“This year the maximum that Syria will reach in terms of local wheat production will not exceed 1 million metric tons,” a Middle East-based commodities trade source with knowledge of Syrian grain markets said.

“One of the main factors limiting production is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to produce it given the extent of the war. There is genuine fear on the ground in traditional production areas and the risks are high.”

The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) had cited an estimate of 1.7 million to two million metric tons for this year and said that rainfall relied on for crops in Syria’s northwestern region was less than half of the average since September.

“There are a host of factors, starting from the start of plowing to soil fertilization to harvesting and transport and marketing, and the whole process is disrupted, all is reduced to a minimum level,” Hillal Mohammad, a UN agricultural expert based in Amman, said.

Before the war, the Syrian government typically bought around 2.5 million metric tons of wheat each year to distribute to bakeries that feed the public subsidized bread, and to bolster its strategic reserve.

Government purchases of domestic wheat have declined and are expected to fall further as chaos caused by civil war and drought hurt the state’s ability to secure supplies.

Nearly a third of Syrians have either fled the country or are displaced within it, and swathes of territory are in the hands of rebels fighting to overthrow President Bashar al Assad, where the government food distribution system has crumbled.

The agriculture ministry told state media earlier this month that wheat was being grown on 1.2 million hectares of land but did not give an estimate of how much would be produced or bought by the government. Syria typically planted 1.7 million hectares before the war, according to the US Department of Agriculture.

Experts doubt the Damascus government’s ability to forecast figures accurately, citing the difficulty of gaining access to most crop growing areas.

“It’s difficult for agricultural officials in a country where state organs have effectively lost administrative control of large swathes of territory in the main grain producing Jazira area to assess the crop sown in these areas, let alone estimate production,” said an agricultural expert with close knowledge of Syria, who spoke on condition he not be identified.

Agriculture ministry officials declined to comment on the matter when contacted by Reuters.

Yusef Abu Ahmed, a farmer in Atma, a northern village near the Turkish border, said by telephone that the length of wheat stalks was about 20 centimeters compared with 80 centimeters in normal years.

Some farmers have pumped underground water to compensate for poor rain, but the high cost of diesel has limited that choice for others in the western agricultural belt of Idlib, Aleppo and Homs, where wheat production is mostly rain-fed.

“Our wheat straw will end up being used for grazing because of the poor rain this season,” said Ibrahim al-Sheikh, a 36 year-old farmer in the plains of Halazoun, in rebel held northwestern Syria.

Disruptions to state procurement

With drought hitting its rain-fed wheat crop in the west, the hope for Syria seems to lie in its irrigated crop lands in the east, which before the crisis constituted almost 60-70 per cent of the country’s total wheat production.

Some local farmers told Reuters they have sown large tracts of land using elaborate irrigation canals and dams that preceded the crisis, and have escaped widespread damage.

The agriculture ministry says it set aside 80 billion Syrian pounds ($539.88 million) to buy wheat and barley this season.

Still, even with the funds for procurement set aside and with irrigated lands escaping the drought, the government is not guaranteed to get its hands on the production.

“Even if there is production, marketing is severely disrupted,” the UN’s Mohamed said. “It’s getting worse for farmers getting seed and fertilizers etc, and for the state’s elaborate procurement system, with collection and gathering centers almost no longer functioning,” he said.

In many parts of Syria’s main eastern breadbasket area known as al-Jazira, which spans Hasaka, Deir al Zour and Raqqa provinces, the government is not in control. The area around the now rebel-held city of Raqqa alone produces around a quarter of the national harvest.

One local resident from a farming family said the militant Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISSL) that governs Raqqa and its rural hinterland have told farmers they are free to dispose of their wheat as they choose, even selling it to Turkish traders.

Government officials do have good access to areas in Hasaka, Hama and some areas in the northeastern part of the country near the Kurdish-held Qamishli city, another agricultural expert said on condition of anonymity. But the situation in the country overall remains murky.

Saudi MERS deaths top 100 fuelling public fears

File phot of men wearing surgical masks as a precautionary measure against the novel coronavirus. PHOTO: REUTERS/FILE

JEDDAH: The MERS death toll in Saudi Arabia topped 100 on Sunday as the authorities scrambled to reassure an increasingly edgy population in the country worst-hit by the infectious coronavirus.

Public fears have been fuelled by a rapid rise in the number of fatalities from the respiratory infection, with 39 people dying this month — well over a third of the 102 deaths registered since the virus emerged in April 2012.

A nine-month-old infant was among eight new deaths from Middle East Respiratory Syndrome announced by the health ministry on Sunday.

It said the total number of cases diagnosed since the virus was first recorded in the kingdom has reached 339, representing the bulk of infections registered worldwide.

Among them were four medical staff at a single hospital in Tabuk in the northwest, two doctors — one Egyptian and one Syrian — and two Philippine nurses.

Panic over the spread of the virus among medical staff in the western city of Jeddah led to the temporary closure of a main hospital’s emergency room.

At least four doctors at Jeddah’s King Fahd Hospital resigned earlier this month after refusing to treat MERS patients for fear of infection.
Experts are still struggling to understand MERS, for which there is no known vaccine.

It is considered a deadlier but less-transmissible cousin of the SARS virus which erupted in Asia in 2003 and infected 8,273 people, nine percent of whom died.

Riyadh dismissed the health minister earlier this month without saying why, and Labour Minister Adel Fakieh, appointed acting health minister, promised “transparency” over MERS.

Ailing King Abdullah himself travelled to Jeddah on Thursday to reassure the public and demonstrate that “exaggerated and false rumours” about MERS are false, said his son, National Guard Minister Prince Mitab.

Fakieh said on Saturday that three specialised medical centres have been set up in Jeddah, Riyadh and Eastern Province.

But people are still not taking any chances.

“I’ve decided to keep my six-year-old daughter at home and not send her to school,” said Umm Muntaha. “Prevention is better than cure.”
Schools remain open despite rumours of possible closures, but many have asked parents to equip their children with face masks and disinfectants.

Pharmaceutical sources have already spoken of a shortage of masks in Jeddah because of rising demand.

“Demand for masks has grown 10 times during the past two weeks,” said one pharmacist in Jeddah, who has now run out of stock.
The health ministry has not taken any “additional measures” at airports apart from the “usual preventive measures”, a ministry official said.

MERS infections are rising steadily just months ahead of the annual Hajj pilgrimage to the Muslim sacred sites in Mecca and Medina, which this year comes in September.

Pilgrims continue to visit Mecca for umrah, the Hajj ministry has not yet taken any special MERS-related measures.

“We have not distributed masks and not taken any preventive measures,” ministry undersecretary Abdullah Marghalani said.
“We have not received any instructions about the virus and how to immunise umra pilgrims against it.”

MERS has not had any impact on the numbers of pilgrims, Marghalani told Al-Eqtisadiah daily, adding that some 3.8 million pilgrims have visited the country this year.

The World Health Organisation announced on Wednesday that it had offered to send international experts to Saudi Arabia to investigate “any evolving risk” associated with the transmission pattern of the virus.

The UN agency said the recent cluster of cases among health workers was a cause of concern as the virus had clearly been contracted from a human patient and not directly from an animal host.

A recent study said the virus has been “extraordinarily common” in camels for at least 20 years, and it may have been passed from the animals to humans and now evolved to make it transmissible from person to person

1,300 Muslims quit Bangui, deepening C.Africa's religious divide

A convoy of vehicles loaded with people and goods, carrying Muslims from the PK12 district, outside of Bangui, is seen before leaving the city on April 27, 2014. PHOTO: AFP

BANGUI: Some 1,300 Muslims fearing attack by mainly Christian militias left the Central African capital Bangui on Sunday under heavy guard, deepening the religious divide in the strife-torn country.

Piled along with their possessions aboard 18 articulated lorries, the refugees left around midday accompanied by a large contingent of African peacekeepers, headed for the relative safety of the north.

Many could be seen raising their arms in celebration as the lorries picked up speed, finally leaving the rundown PK-12 ghetto on the outskirts of the capital Bangui behind them.

One of them told AFP before leaving that 10 of his 12 children had been killed by militiamen in the central-west city of Bossembele, and that he had seen people “blown apart by grenades”.

The Muslims had been stranded in PK-12 for five months as transport failed to materialise and amid debate over whether the mass exodus of Muslims from the capital would make peace even more elusive.

PK-12 is completely surrounded by a hostile mainly Christian community, and the Muslims had come under frequent attack.

Residents said 22 people had died since December, of whom 18 were victims of violence. Countless others have been wounded by bullets, grenade shrapnel and machetes.

Several small mounds atop newly dug graves in the area attested to their claims.

Just after the convoy set off, hundreds of youths descended on the ghetto to snatch items abandoned by the Muslims such as clothes and the corrugated iron roofs under which they had sheltered.

Tens of thousands have already fled northwards, almost emptying the south of the country to join those of their own faith, already strongly represented in the north. Others have crossed borders into Chad and Cameroon.

They are escorted by soldiers from France’s Operation Sangaris and troops of the multinational African mission MISCA, who together form a peacekeeping force of more than 7,000 men.

The sectarian violence erupted in the former French colony after mainly Muslim rebels of the Seleka alliance seized power for 10 months in March last year and rogue elements carried out terrible atrocities against civilians.

Mostly Christian communities then formed “anti-balaka” vigilante forces to wreak brutal revenge against Muslims, usually targeting innocent people.

Today, extremists of the Seleka alliance, which was officially dissolved by its leader Michel Djotodia before he stepped down as president in January, actively encourage de facto partition.

Dire warnings

Last week, Reconciliation Minister Antoinette Montaigne warned that the exodus would undermine peace efforts.

“I decided to join the debate because nobody has shown concern for the vital stakes of reconciliation,” Montaigne said, warning that uprooting communities on religious and ethnic grounds could cause “cultural and sociological imbalances”.

A government official who requested anonymity added: “In two or three years, we’ll find ourselves with the north of the country controlled by the ex-Seleka. The civilian authorities will then have difficulties.”

Some Christian communities are equally “at risk”, yet have been largely abandoned, he said.

But Emmanuelle Schneider of the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said that the stark choice for the Muslims at PK-12 was either to move them or “let them die”.

Relocating people is based on “the principle of the humanitarian imperative … to save lives”, she said.

The religious aspect of the conflict is an alarming development in the poor, landlocked nation, where minority Muslims for decades lived peacefully with Christians who form about 80 percent of a population of 4.6 million, even through coups, misrule, army mutinies and strikes.

On Sunday a teenager waved his arm towards a mosque in PK-12, saying: “I want to destroy all that.”

An African peacekeeper said the departing Muslims had booby-trapped the mosque against intruders, planting explosives at key locations.

A few thousand Muslims remain in Bangui, mainly in the PK-5 neighbourhood known for its diversity.

Meanwhile, more than 10,000 Muslims are trapped in the southern town of Boda, completely surrounded by Christian residents who strongly back the anti-balaka forces.

Departure April 30: Nawaz to talk business, security during UK tour

Nawaz Sharif's visit to London will aim at discussing the five strands of the ESD with David Cameron. PHOTO: ONLINE

ISLAMABAD: With the ground laid in the recently held Enhanced Strategic Dialogue meeting, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will be departing for the British Isles on April 30 to meet with his counterpart David Cameron with business investments in Pakistan and the security outlook at the top of the agenda.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nawaz is travelling to the UK on the invitation of British premier David Cameron.

Apart from his meeting with Cameron, Nawaz is due to hold meetings and engagement with key British Secretaries of State, select chief executives and investors from the financial and energy sectors and the Pakistani diaspora. Nawaz will aslo address an investment conference.

According to the foreign office, Nawaz’s primary focus in these meetings will be to apprise them on improving business environment in Pakistan.

The prime minister’s visit will also focus on the Enhanced Strategic Dialogue (ESD) which had been initiated in 2011. The ESD identifies five strands of cooperation, which include: trade and business relations, financial, macro-economic stabilisation and development cooperation; education and health; defence and security and lastly, cultural cooperation.

The second round of the ESD was held on March 13, 2014, in which the advisor to prime minister Sartaj Aziz had participated. That was followed by the visit of UK National Security Advisor Sir Kim Darroch to Pakistan in early April.

This will be Nawz’s second tour of the UK, having visited last October during which he took part in trilateral talks with Afghanistan.

Message delivered: Nawaz wants to strengthen political, security, trade cooperation with Iran

Advisor to Prime Minister Sartaj Aziz (L) in a meeting with the Iranian President Dr Hassan Rouhani. PHOTO: PID

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif sent a letter to the Iranian President Dr Hassan Rouhani on Monday underscoring the desire to strengthen relations with Iran in all areas of bilateral cooperation and particularly in political, security and trade domains.

According to a statement issued by the foreign office, the advisor to prime minsiter on national security and foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz delivered the message to Rouhani during his visit to Tehran on Monday.

The visit comes weeks before Nawaz is due to visit Iran to help smooth ties with the western neighbour.

According to the statement, the advisor conveyed a message of friendship, brotherhood, harmony and cooperation to Dr Rouhani on behalf of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, underscoring the desire to strengthen relations with Iran in all areas of bilateral cooperation and particularly in political, security and trade domains.

Pakistan and Iran need to work together for stability, peace and development of the region, and unity of Ummah, Aziz said.

During the meeting Aziz hoped that bilateral relations and cooperation would gain strength during the tenure of President Rouhani and the new government of Pakistan.

Rouhani said that he was looking forward to Nawaz’s visit which would help pave the way for enhanced cooperation and further cementing the brotherly relationship between Iran and Pakistan.

Iran considers Pakistan an important neighbor and brotherly country and both the countries need to utilise substantial potential for the benefit of two countries and its peoples, said Rouhani.

Earlier, the Aziz met Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif. Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, who is in Tehran for bilateral political consultations, was also present at the meeting.

They exchanged views covering the whole range of issues of bilateral interest.

Green technology the next big thing

An initial investment of up to Rs150 million in a hydro-electric reactor power plant may just be the solution. PHOTO: FILE

FAISALABAD: After suffering from an energy crisis for years, it is high time the country finds a solution to its needs.

An initial investment of up to Rs150 million in a hydro-electric reactor power plant may just be the solution. The technology is environment-friendly and can fulfill industrialist’s energy requirements without interruption for years.

The hydro-electric reactor is a wind-energy based technology, which converts ambulant air from the atmosphere into a 250 mile-per-hour hurricane-force wind. The pressurised air is then used to drive a series of internal turbines to generate electricity.

“It is more affordable than solar power-based energy plants which is dependent on sunlight to operate,” said Tariq Noorani, chief executive officer at Noorani (Pvt) Limited while speaking to The Express Tribune. “The technology also does not use any fossil fuel to generate electricity.”

In order to operate mills with energy requirement of one megawatt, the cost of plant falls between Rs100-150 million. It is a one-time investment, after which the hydro-electric reactor plant provides electricity to the entire mill free of cost.

Millers pay electricity bills to the tune of millions per month and yet face energy shortages and green technology sounds like the best bet to provide free electricity to the millers.

“The cost of the plant is equal to one or two year electricity bill of their mills,” says Noorani.  “It uses only air to create electricity. Air goes into the system and only air comes out of the power plant back into the atmosphere. There are no harmful emissions.”

To operate, the plant needs continuous electricity for 30 minutes. After the stipulated time, the hydro plant has the capacity to generate electricity for commercial purposes.