North And South Korea Exchange Live Fire

South Korea says it has fired shells into North Korean waters in response to live fire drills carried out by Pyongyang.

Residents of South Korean islands on the front line were evacuated as both countries exchanged fire across their disputed western maritime border.

The South said the North fired more than 500 rounds during a three-hour long drill - 100 of which landed in its waters.

Seoul fired back some 300 rounds from its K-9 self-propelled howitzer batteries and scrambled F-15s on its side of the border in response to what it described as a "premeditated provocation".

Kim Min-seok, a defence ministry spokesman, said: "If the North takes issue with our legitimate returning of fire and uses it to make yet another provocation towards our sea and islands, we will make a resolute retaliation."

South Korea and the US conduct a military exercise in Pohang on Monday

The de facto maritime border between the two countries - the Northern Limit Line - is not recognised by Pyongyang. 

Anxious residents sought refuge in shelters on Yeonpyeong island, where in 2010, North Korean artillery killed four South Koreans.

One islander, Kang Myeong-sung, said he did not see any fighter jets but could hear the boom of the shells.

North Korea had announced it was going to conduct some military drills.

Sky's Asia Correspondent Mark Stone said: "These are worrying developments ... but no one has been injured, no one has been killed and indeed none of these rockets or missiles landed on any military installations or any land, so this is effectively both sides showing their strength."

It comes a day after North Korea warned it had not ruled out a fourth test of its nuclear deterrent in retaliation for the US conducting "madcap nuclear war" exercises in South Korea this month.

A South Korean Marine

Every year the US and South Korea conduct joint battle exercises involving some 12,500 US and as many as 200,000 South Korean troops.

Operation Key Resolve is a computer-simulated drill which plays out war-time scenarios that could result from a North Korean invasion of the South, while Operation Foal Eagle is a two-month air, sea and land field-training exercise.

The annual drills are regularly condemned by the North as preludes to a US invasion, though Washington insists the exercises are defensive.

Tensions in the area remain high after North Korea tested two missiles capable of hitting Japan last Wednesday.

Stone added: "This is the time of year when tensions on the peninsula always escalate - the South Koreans and the Americans have their own exercises, North Korea claims its can do its own thing and have its exercises.

"The thought always is, that every year, North Korea is becoming more and more technologically advanced - they have nuclear weapons."

The Korean War in the early 1950s did not end with a peace treaty, but an armistice, so technically both sides are still in a state of war.

18.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Turkish PM Says Foes 'To Pay Price' After Poll

Turkish Prime Minister Recip Tayyip Erdogan has declared victory in local elections which had become a referendum on his 12-year rule, and pledged enemies "will pay the price".

It follows a long and bitter campaign in which he branded critics "terrorists" and an "alliance of evil".

With nearly all the votes counted Mr Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP), in power since 2002, was leading the main opposition by 46% to 28%.

However, the vote for the capital Ankara promised to be much closer.

Supporters of the ruling AKP celebrate local election results in Istanbul

The strong showing for his ruling party at the polls comes despite Mr Erdogan being dogged by corruption allegations following a series of online leaks, and accusations of authoritarian control.

The Turkish authorities have come under fire for blocking access to the social networking site Twitter and YouTube.

Mr Erdogan has accused opponents of fabricating evidence in a bid to topple him, and social media of spreading misinformation.

Speaking at the party headquarters, Mr Erdogan said he would "enter the lair" of enemies.

He said: "They will pay for this. From tomorrow, there may be some who flee."

The election results could also pave the way for Mr Erdogan to run for the presidency in August.

The local elections were the first vote since anti-government protests last June, which were sparked by plans to bulldoze and redevelop an Istanbul park and grew into mass rallies against Mr Erdogan's rule.

Trouble flared again earlier this month after the death of a teenager who was hit in the head by a police tear gas canister during last year's demonstrations.

Under Mr Erdogan, Turkey had been held up as a model of a Muslim democracy, but the crackdown on protests has led to accusations of intolerance.

18.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Climate Change: 'We're All Sitting Ducks'

Flooding, droughts, heatwaves and wildfires will pose a massive threat to humans in the future as climate change worsens, a major United Nations report has warned.

The report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said the impact of global warming was already being felt and would increase with every additional degree that temperatures rose.

The world is in "an era of man-made climate change" and has already seen impacts of global warming on every continent and across the oceans, the report said.

IPCC chair Rajendra Pachauri said: "Nobody on this planet is going to be untouched by the impacts of climate change."

Experts are warning that in many cases, people are ill-prepared to cope with the risks of a changing climate.

Greenland is threatened by melting Arctic ice

The document, unveiled in Yokohama in Japan after a five-day meeting, gives the starkest warning yet by the IPCC of extreme consequences from climate change, and delves into greater detail than ever before into the impact at regional level.

The White House said it is taking the report as a call for action, with Secretary of State John Kerry saying: "Waiting is truly unaffordable. The costs of inaction are catastrophic."

Climate change could massively impact on world food production. Source: WRI

Food security will be hit by reduced yields in wheat, rice and maize crops, while climate change will also exacerbate existing health problems, and lead to more heatwave-related deaths, malnutrition and disease, the report said.

Increasing numbers of people are set to be displaced by extreme weather events, and the impacts of rising temperatures could contribute to a greater risk of violent conflicts by worsening problems such as poverty.

The report's publication has renewed calls from scientists and campaigners for action to cut greenhouse gases and to help vulnerable people adapt to "already-unavoidable impacts of climate change".

Air pollution in Beijing

Vicente Barros, co-chair of the IPCC study, from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, said: "We live in an era of man-made climate change.

"In many cases, we are not prepared for the climate-related risks that we already face. Investments in better preparation can pay dividends both for the present and for the future."

Princeton University professor Michael Oppenheimer, one of the main authors of the 32-volume report, warned: "We're all sitting ducks."

Risk of coastal and inland flooding in UK 'is set to increase'

Professor Sam Fankhauser, of the London School of Economics, who is a contributing author to the report, said: "In the UK and the rest of northern Europe, we will need to cope with increasing risks from coastal and inland flooding, heatwaves and droughts.

"The UK and all rich countries must also provide significant support to help poor countries, which are particularly vulnerable, to cope with the impacts of climate change."

The report is the second chapter of the fifth assessment by the IPCC, set up in 1988 to provide neutral, science-based guidance to governments.

Wildfires are projected to be an even bigger threat

The last overview, published in 2007, unleashed a wave of political action that strived but failed to forge a worldwide treaty on climate change in Copenhagen in 2009.

The latest report builds on previous IPCC forecasts that global temperatures will rise 0.3-4.8C (0.5-8.6F) this century, on top of roughly 0.7C since the Industrial Revolution.

Seas will rise by 26-82cm (10-32in) by 2100, it is predicted.

18.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Missing Plane: Busiest Day Yet In MH370 Search

Learning Lessons From Missing Flight MH370

Updated: 9:23am UK, Saturday 29 March 2014

By Ian Woods, Senior Correspondent

The small consolation that should come with every airline crash is that the knowledge gained from the tragedy should help prevent it happening again.

But if that were true, we might already know more about what happened to flight MH370.

After the Air France accident of 2009, in which 228 people died when their flight from Brazil plunged into the Atlantic, 120 representatives of the international aviation industry got together to recommend ways to make it easier to find aircraft which crash into the sea. 

None has been implemented.

They suggested that the flight data recorders - the black boxes - should have larger batteries so they would carry on transmitting a beacon for 90 rather than 30 days. 

But bigger batteries mean extra weight and extra cost for the airlines to install them.

They also suggested the recorders should be designed to break away and float to the surface, rather than sink to the sea floor along with the rest of the fuselage.

And that the frequency of the transmission should be altered to boost how far away it can be heard, beyond its current 2,000 metre maximum.

Salvage expert David Mearns, from Blue Water Recoveries, told Sky News: "If you reduce that frequency, the lower the frequency, the greater the range. 

"You go from 37.5khz , to say, 8.8khz as recommended, I think that would increase the range to over 10,000 metres.

"So that's a five times increase in your detectable range and that would help the teams out there now looking for these black boxes."

As for why the recommendations weren't acted upon? 

"It's a very big industry. It's an international industry," said Mr Mears.

"It takes a lot of time for these things to work themselves through the regulations; how they would operate, how the pilots would be trained to use them; they have to be implemented on the aircraft, so it takes years for these things to be done."

In an age when we can all track most passenger aircraft on our smartphones and computers, how can a plane still go missing? 

Most, but not all, areas of the world are now covered by the Acars ADS-B system, allowing them to be constantly tracked. Although smaller, older aircraft are not equipped.

There are new regulations being introduced around the world compelling airlines to fit them in all passenger aircraft. 

But in some places the deadline is 2020.  

Mikael Robertsson, the founder of Flightradar24.com, told Sky: "Maybe authorities in these countries don't want to rush or I guess it costs quite a lot of money for airlines to upgrade their equipment on board."

In any case, it appears the system on MH370 was switched off. 

One current 777 pilot told Sky he could not think of a good reason why he would do such a thing. 

And with so many flights criss-crossing vast expanses of water, knowing the plane's last position is crucial to a swift recovery. 

Mr Robertsson said: "I think this is something that should be discussed: How much pilots should be able to turn off, and how easy it should be to turn some systems off?"

The backgrounds of the pilots have been scrutinised to assess the likelihood of criminal or suicidal behaviour. 

Professor Robert Bor is a clinical psychologist who has studied those who fly, and was specifically asked to review an incident involving an American Jet Blue pilot who had a psychotic episode while flying from New York to Las Vegas.

Captain Clayton Osbon left the cockpit and screamed at passengers before being subdued by some of those on board. 

His co-pilot landed the plane safely in Texas. 

Prof Bor and others concluded there were no warning signs beforehand which could have prevented the incident.     

"Every year an airline pilot will have at least two formal medical checks which address not just their physical health but their mental health. Every time they are doing the job they are scrutinised by people."

Pilot suicide is not unheard of, and is considered the most likely explanation for the crash of an Indonesian SilkAir flight in 1997. 

The pilot was heavily in debt - 104 passengers and crew were killed.

Airlines may also be studying how Malaysia Airlines has handled the disaster from a public relations perspective. 

The families of the passengers have gone from grieving to protesting, angry at being kept waiting for news, furious about misinformation, and the final indignity - some of them were told the plane had crashed by text message. 

Crisis management expert Raine Marcus told Sky News: "The communications with the families didn't inspire trust from the beginning.

"If you don't build up trust and goodwill right from the beginning, that has a direct impact afterwards on communications with the families and also directly on your business."

In the months and years ahead, as details emerge of what happened to MH370, there will undoubtedly be calls for lessons to be learned.

And in the meantime millions of us will continue to fly, hoping that our flight will not be one of the very rare ones, which does not have a safe landing.

18.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Missing Plane Families Demand Malaysia Apology

Learning Lessons From Missing Flight MH370

Updated: 9:23am UK, Saturday 29 March 2014

By Ian Woods, Senior Correspondent

The small consolation that should come with every airline crash is that the knowledge gained from the tragedy should help prevent it happening again.

But if that were true, we might already know more about what happened to flight MH370.

After the Air France accident of 2009, in which 228 people died when their flight from Brazil plunged into the Atlantic, 120 representatives of the international aviation industry got together to recommend ways to make it easier to find aircraft which crash into the sea. 

None has been implemented.

They suggested that the flight data recorders - the black boxes - should have larger batteries so they would carry on transmitting a beacon for 90 rather than 30 days. 

But bigger batteries mean extra weight and extra cost for the airlines to install them.

They also suggested the recorders should be designed to break away and float to the surface, rather than sink to the sea floor along with the rest of the fuselage.

And that the frequency of the transmission should be altered to boost how far away it can be heard, beyond its current 2,000 metre maximum.

Salvage expert David Mearns, from Blue Water Recoveries, told Sky News: "If you reduce that frequency, the lower the frequency, the greater the range. 

"You go from 37.5khz , to say, 8.8khz as recommended, I think that would increase the range to over 10,000 metres.

"So that's a five times increase in your detectable range and that would help the teams out there now looking for these black boxes."

As for why the recommendations weren't acted upon? 

"It's a very big industry. It's an international industry," said Mr Mears.

"It takes a lot of time for these things to work themselves through the regulations; how they would operate, how the pilots would be trained to use them; they have to be implemented on the aircraft, so it takes years for these things to be done."

In an age when we can all track most passenger aircraft on our smartphones and computers, how can a plane still go missing? 

Most, but not all, areas of the world are now covered by the Acars ADS-B system, allowing them to be constantly tracked. Although smaller, older aircraft are not equipped.

There are new regulations being introduced around the world compelling airlines to fit them in all passenger aircraft. 

But in some places the deadline is 2020.  

Mikael Robertsson, the founder of Flightradar24.com, told Sky: "Maybe authorities in these countries don't want to rush or I guess it costs quite a lot of money for airlines to upgrade their equipment on board."

In any case, it appears the system on MH370 was switched off. 

One current 777 pilot told Sky he could not think of a good reason why he would do such a thing. 

And with so many flights criss-crossing vast expanses of water, knowing the plane's last position is crucial to a swift recovery. 

Mr Robertsson said: "I think this is something that should be discussed: How much pilots should be able to turn off, and how easy it should be to turn some systems off?"

The backgrounds of the pilots have been scrutinised to assess the likelihood of criminal or suicidal behaviour. 

Professor Robert Bor is a clinical psychologist who has studied those who fly, and was specifically asked to review an incident involving an American Jet Blue pilot who had a psychotic episode while flying from New York to Las Vegas.

Captain Clayton Osbon left the cockpit and screamed at passengers before being subdued by some of those on board. 

His co-pilot landed the plane safely in Texas. 

Prof Bor and others concluded there were no warning signs beforehand which could have prevented the incident.     

"Every year an airline pilot will have at least two formal medical checks which address not just their physical health but their mental health. Every time they are doing the job they are scrutinised by people."

Pilot suicide is not unheard of, and is considered the most likely explanation for the crash of an Indonesian SilkAir flight in 1997. 

The pilot was heavily in debt - 104 passengers and crew were killed.

Airlines may also be studying how Malaysia Airlines has handled the disaster from a public relations perspective. 

The families of the passengers have gone from grieving to protesting, angry at being kept waiting for news, furious about misinformation, and the final indignity - some of them were told the plane had crashed by text message. 

Crisis management expert Raine Marcus told Sky News: "The communications with the families didn't inspire trust from the beginning.

"If you don't build up trust and goodwill right from the beginning, that has a direct impact afterwards on communications with the families and also directly on your business."

In the months and years ahead, as details emerge of what happened to MH370, there will undoubtedly be calls for lessons to be learned.

And in the meantime millions of us will continue to fly, hoping that our flight will not be one of the very rare ones, which does not have a safe landing.

18.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

North Korea Threatens New Nuclear Test

North Korea has warned it has not ruled out a test of its nuclear deterrent in retaliation for the US conducting "madcap nuclear war" exercises in South Korea this month.

A statement issued via the country's state news agency KCNA said it was unacceptable the UN Security Council condemned North Korea's military exercises while ignoring simultaneous drills by the US.

"It is absolutely intolerable that the UN Security Council - turning a blind eye to the US madcap nuclear war exercises - 'denounced' the Korean People's Army's self-defensive rocket launching drills and called them a 'violation of resolutions' and a 'threat to international peace and security'," the statement said.

The country's foreign ministry added it would respond with an "appropriate step" involving "more diversified nuclear deterrence" used for hitting medium and long-range targets "with a variety of striking power".

Replicas of North and South Korean missiles in Seoul

Every year the US and South Korea conduct joint battle exercises involving some 12,500 US and as many as 200,000 South Korean troops.

Operation Key Resolve is a computer-simulated drill which plays out war-time scenarios that could result from a North Korean invasion of the South, while Operation Foal Eagle is a two-month air, sea and land field-training exercise.

The annual drills are regularly condemned by the North as preludes to a US invasion, though Washington insists the exercises are defensive.

North Korea conducted its third nuclear test in February 2013 and claims to have made progress securing a functioning atomic arsenal, though experts note it is unlikely the country possesses warheads capable of reaching the US.

US and South Korean ships conduct exercises in 2009

Tensions have increased in recent weeks after North Korea tested its medium-range rocket capability by firing two Rodong Missiles into the sea off the east coast last week, a move condemned by the UN Security Council.

It was also reported that a Chinese passenger plane also crossed the path of a ballistic North Korean missile during a test launch.

The China Southern Airlines flight was flying from Narita airport in Tokyo to the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang as the rocket was in the course of descending, according to South Korea's defence ministry.

It said the civilian plane, which had 220 passengers on board, "passed as the ballistic missile (from North Korea) was in the course of descending".

Qin Gang, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said China had contacted the North Korean side to convey its deep concern.

18.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Missing Plane Hunt: Three More Objects Spotted

Learning Lessons From Missing Flight MH370

Updated: 9:23am UK, Saturday 29 March 2014

By Ian Woods, Senior Correspondent

The small consolation that should come with every airline crash is that the knowledge gained from the tragedy should help prevent it happening again.

But if that were true, we might already know more about what happened to flight MH370.

After the Air France accident of 2009, in which 228 people died when their flight from Brazil plunged into the Atlantic, 120 representatives of the international aviation industry got together to recommend ways to make it easier to find aircraft which crash into the sea. 

None has been implemented.

They suggested that the flight data recorders - the black boxes - should have larger batteries so they would carry on transmitting a beacon for 90 rather than 30 days. 

But bigger batteries mean extra weight and extra cost for the airlines to install them.

They also suggested the recorders should be designed to break away and float to the surface, rather than sink to the sea floor along with the rest of the fuselage.

And that the frequency of the transmission should be altered to boost how far away it can be heard, beyond its current 2,000 metre maximum.

Salvage expert David Mearns, from Blue Water Recoveries, told Sky News: "If you reduce that frequency, the lower the frequency, the greater the range. 

"You go from 37.5khz , to say, 8.8khz as recommended, I think that would increase the range to over 10,000 metres.

"So that's a five times increase in your detectable range and that would help the teams out there now looking for these black boxes."

As for why the recommendations weren't acted upon? 

"It's a very big industry. It's an international industry," said Mr Mears.

"It takes a lot of time for these things to work themselves through the regulations; how they would operate, how the pilots would be trained to use them; they have to be implemented on the aircraft, so it takes years for these things to be done."

In an age when we can all track most passenger aircraft on our smartphones and computers, how can a plane still go missing? 

Most, but not all, areas of the world are now covered by the Acars ADS-B system, allowing them to be constantly tracked. Although smaller, older aircraft are not equipped.

There are new regulations being introduced around the world compelling airlines to fit them in all passenger aircraft. 

But in some places the deadline is 2020.  

Mikael Robertsson, the founder of Flightradar24.com, told Sky: "Maybe authorities in these countries don't want to rush or I guess it costs quite a lot of money for airlines to upgrade their equipment on board."

In any case, it appears the system on MH370 was switched off. 

One current 777 pilot told Sky he could not think of a good reason why he would do such a thing. 

And with so many flights criss-crossing vast expanses of water, knowing the plane's last position is crucial to a swift recovery. 

Mr Robertsson said: "I think this is something that should be discussed: How much pilots should be able to turn off, and how easy it should be to turn some systems off?"

The backgrounds of the pilots have been scrutinised to assess the likelihood of criminal or suicidal behaviour. 

Professor Robert Bor is a clinical psychologist who has studied those who fly, and was specifically asked to review an incident involving an American Jet Blue pilot who had a psychotic episode while flying from New York to Las Vegas.

Captain Clayton Osbon left the cockpit and screamed at passengers before being subdued by some of those on board. 

His co-pilot landed the plane safely in Texas. 

Prof Bor and others concluded there were no warning signs beforehand which could have prevented the incident.     

"Every year an airline pilot will have at least two formal medical checks which address not just their physical health but their mental health. Every time they are doing the job they are scrutinised by people."

Pilot suicide is not unheard of, and is considered the most likely explanation for the crash of an Indonesian SilkAir flight in 1997. 

The pilot was heavily in debt - 104 passengers and crew were killed.

Airlines may also be studying how Malaysia Airlines has handled the disaster from a public relations perspective. 

The families of the passengers have gone from grieving to protesting, angry at being kept waiting for news, furious about misinformation, and the final indignity - some of them were told the plane had crashed by text message. 

Crisis management expert Raine Marcus told Sky News: "The communications with the families didn't inspire trust from the beginning.

"If you don't build up trust and goodwill right from the beginning, that has a direct impact afterwards on communications with the families and also directly on your business."

In the months and years ahead, as details emerge of what happened to MH370, there will undoubtedly be calls for lessons to be learned.

And in the meantime millions of us will continue to fly, hoping that our flight will not be one of the very rare ones, which does not have a safe landing.

18.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Missing Jet: Learning Lessons From Tragedy

By Ian Woods, Senior Correspondent

The small consolation that should come with every airline crash is that the knowledge gained from the tragedy should help prevent it happening again.

But if that were true, we might already know more about what happened to flight MH370.

After the Air France accident of 2009, in which 228 people died when their flight from Brazil plunged into the Atlantic, 120 representatives of the international aviation industry got together to recommend ways to make it easier to find aircraft which crash into the sea. 

None has been implemented.

They suggested that the flight data recorders - the black boxes - should have larger batteries so they would carry on transmitting a beacon for 90 rather than 30 days. 

Some have said black boxes should be made to float to the surface

But bigger batteries mean extra weight and extra cost for the airlines to install them.

They also suggested the recorders should be designed to break away and float to the surface, rather than sink to the sea floor along with the rest of the fuselage.

And that the frequency of the transmission should be altered to boost how far away it can be heard, beyond its current 2,000 metre maximum.

A new area is being searched after analysis of MH370 data

Salvage expert David Mearns, from Blue Water Recoveries, told Sky News: "If you reduce that frequency, the lower the frequency, the greater the range. 

"You go from 37.5khz , to say, 8.8khz as recommended, I think that would increase the range to over 10,000 metres.

"So that's a five times increase in your detectable range and that would help the teams out there now looking for these black boxes."

Change takes 'years' in the airline industry, says David Mears

As for why the recommendations weren't acted upon? 

"It's a very big industry. It's an international industry," said Mr Mears.

"It takes a lot of time for these things to work themselves through the regulations; how they would operate, how the pilots would be trained to use them; they have to be implemented on the aircraft, so it takes years for these things to be done."

In an age when we can all track most passenger aircraft on our smartphones and computers, how can a plane still go missing? 

Most, but not all, areas of the world are now covered by the Acars ADS-B system, allowing them to be constantly tracked. Although smaller, older aircraft are not equipped.

There are new regulations being introduced around the world compelling airlines to fit them in all passenger aircraft. 

Planes spotted two objects in the new search area

But in some places the deadline is 2020.  

Mikael Robertsson, the founder of Flightradar24.com, told Sky: "Maybe authorities in these countries don't want to rush or I guess it costs quite a lot of money for airlines to upgrade their equipment on board."

In any case, it appears the system on MH370 was switched off. 

One current 777 pilot told Sky he could not think of a good reason why he would do such a thing. 

And with so many flights criss-crossing vast expanses of water, knowing the plane's last position is crucial to a swift recovery. 

The backgrounds of the Malaysia Airlines pilots have been scrutinised

Mr Robertsson said: "I think this is something that should be discussed: How much pilots should be able to turn off, and how easy it should be to turn some systems off?"

The backgrounds of the pilots have been scrutinised to assess the likelihood of criminal or suicidal behaviour. 

Professor Robert Bor is a clinical psychologist who has studied those who fly, and was specifically asked to review an incident involving an American Jet Blue pilot who had a psychotic episode while flying from New York to Las Vegas.

Captain Clayton Osbon left the cockpit and screamed at passengers before being subdued by some of those on board. 

His co-pilot landed the plane safely in Texas. 

Prof Bor and others concluded there were no warning signs beforehand which could have prevented the incident.     

Captain Clayton Osbon had a psychotic episode in the cockpit

"Every year an airline pilot will have at least two formal medical checks which address not just their physical health but their mental health. Every time they are doing the job they are scrutinised by people."

Pilot suicide is not unheard of, and is considered the most likely explanation for the crash of an Indonesian SilkAir flight in 1997. 

The pilot was heavily in debt - 104 passengers and crew were killed.

Airlines may also be studying how Malaysia Airlines has handled the disaster from a public relations perspective. 

The families of the passengers have gone from grieving to protesting, angry at being kept waiting for news, furious about misinformation, and the final indignity - some of them were told the plane had crashed by text message. 

Pilot suicide is the suspected cause of the 1997 SilkAir flight crash

Crisis management expert Raine Marcus told Sky News: "The communications with the families didn't inspire trust from the beginning.

"If you don't build up trust and goodwill right from the beginning, that has a direct impact afterwards on communications with the families and also directly on your business."

In the months and years ahead, as details emerge of what happened to MH370, there will undoubtedly be calls for lessons to be learned.

And in the meantime millions of us will continue to fly, hoping that our flight will not be one of the very rare ones, which does not have a safe landing.

18.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Putin Calls Obama Over Ukraine Diplomacy

Russia Feeling The Pinch Of Western Sanctions

Updated: 11:11pm UK, Friday 28 March 2014

By Sam Kiley, Foreign Affairs Editor

Russia's foreign minister came close to quoting Marx, not Karl, Groucho, in his reaction to the blackballing of Russia from the G8 community of rich nations by the remaining members of the G7.

"The G8 is an informal club, with no formal membership, so no one can be expelled from it. If our western partners believe that such format is no longer needed, so be it," said Sergei Lavrov.

"We aren't clinging to that format and we won't see a big problem if there are no such meetings for a year, or a year-and-half."

So there.

Well, not quite.

Russia may be trying to shrug off the limited sanctions the international community imposed in response to the Crimean annexation – but the cat-like claws of asset freezes and visa bans are already digging into the Russian economic body.

Andrei Klepach, Russia's deputy economics minister, has been an Eeyore ever since the Crimean adventure got under way.

This week he warned that capital flows out of Russia for the first quarter of this year were likely to soar to $70 billion (£42.4bn) - that's $7bn more than the total outflow from Russia last year.

He had already warned of declining growth, pressure on the Rouble and growing inflation.

"Capital outflow was already significant before this, and, of course, growing tensions and cooling relations make it even worse," said Klepach.

He hasn't joined the triumphalist parades and Soviet-style Putin praise parties which have gummed up local TV channels since the Crimea was taken from Ukraine.

Putin's move on the Peninsula might have been a strategic plan. Or a visceral response to the revolution in Kiev which seemed to drag the country, finally, away from the Russian sphere of influence.

He may have calculated on the loyalty of the oligarchs closest to him. Some of whom have, indeed, said they see the sanctions imposed on them as a badge of honour.

But investors want money, not medals.

So already, according to the Financial Times, companies which left profits in Russia to be used for future investment are now repatriating them fast.

They are fearful that their assets could be confined to Russia if a trade war breaks out in earnest.

Russia's economic position has also been weakened with China.

Putin has been looking to expand trade with the Asian giant - and especially to secure a deal to supply it with more oil and gas.

He's expecting, perhaps, to ink such an agreement in May.

But it had been negotiated before the West decided to start seeking alternatives to Russian gas, which supplies around a third of Europe's needs.

Now the Chinese can drive a harder bargain because they are not an additional buyer - but an alternative one of Russian fossil fuels.

Vladimir Putin's foreign minister may agree with Groucho's principal that "I don't care to belong to any club that will have me as a member".

But in the long term, Russia's economy will cool as it presses its face against the G7 club window.

18.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Ukraine: Crimea Bases Under Russian Control

Russia has announced all military bases in Crimea are under its control and Ukrainian troops have left the region.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu added the country's president, Vladimir Putin, would hand over the military vessels and airplanes of Ukrainian forces that have changed sides and joined Moscow.

The region voted overwhelmingly to join Russia in a hastily-arranged referendum earlier this month.

Vladimir Putin signs a bill confirming the annexation of Crimea

US President Barack Obama has urged Russia to pull its forces back from Ukraine's border amid the biggest crisis in relations between the West and Russia since the end of the Cold War.

"You've seen a range of troops massing along that border under the guise of military exercises. But these are not what Russia would normally be doing," he told US television network CBS.

Russia was accused of invading Crimea in the aftermath of the removal of President Viktor Yanukovych, but Mr Putin called the soldiers who took over Ukrainian bases there "self-defence forces".

US President Barack Obama

However, on Friday the Russian leader said the action in Crimea had showed the new capacities of the Russian army.

"The recent events in Crimea were a serious test," he said at a televised military ceremony.

"They demonstrated the new capacities of our armed forces in terms of quality and the high moral spirit of the personnel."

Ukraine shares a vast border with Russia

It is the first time Mr Putin has confirmed the direct involvement of the Russian army in the seizure.

He went on to thank the "commanders and servicemen of the Black Sea Fleet and other units deployed in Crimea for their restraint and personal courage".

On Friday Mr Yanukovych said every region of Ukraine should hold a vote to decide whether to break away like Crimea.

Armed men, believed to be Russian, sit in an armoured vehicle in Crimea

He said he would not recognise a presidential election planned for May 25 and called instead for nationwide referendums.

"As president who is with you in thought and soul, I ask every single sensible citizen of Ukraine not to let yourselves be used by the imposters.

"Demand a referendum on determining the status of every region in Ukraine," he added in a statement quoted by Russia's ITAR-TASS news agency.

Mr Yanukovych faced months of mass protests over his decision to spurn a European Union trade deal in favour of closer ties with Moscow.

Related Stories

18.46 | 0 komentar | Read More