Daily Archives: March 30, 2014

Wing Commander Rob Shearer looks through binoculars on the flight deck of a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3K2 Orion aircraft during a search for the missing MH370 jet over the southern Indian Ocean. (Reuters photo)

Ten ships and as many aircraft will search a swathe of the Indian Ocean west of Perth on Sunday, trying again to find some trace of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 after more than three weeks of fruitless and frustrating hunting.

Numerous objects have been spotted in the two days since Australian authorities moved the search 1,100 km (685 miles) after new analysis of radar and satellite data concluded the Boeing 777 travelled faster and for a shorter distance after vanishing from civilian radar screens on March 8.

However, none has been confirmed as coming from Flight MH370 and time is running out to find any debris, work out a likely crash zone and recover the aircraft’s “black box” voice and data recorders before batteries pinging their location die.

An Australian navy ship fitted with a sophisticated US black box locater and an unmanned underwater drone is due to leave later on Sunday. But the ADV Ocean Shield will take days to reach the search zone, an area the size of New Mexico some 1,850 km (1,150 miles) to the west of Perth.

Malaysia says the plane, which disappeared less than an hour into a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, was likely diverted deliberately. Investigators have determined no apparent motive or other red flags among the 227 passengers or the 12 crew.

Weather threatens expanded search
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said aircraft from China, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and the United States would be searching on Sunday.

“Weather in the search area is forecast to worsen today with light showers and low cloud, though search operations are expected to continue,” AMSA said in a statement.

Both a Chinese ship and an Australian navy vessel picked up objects yesterday but nothing has been linked to Flight MH370. The Chinese navy vessel Jinggangshan, which carries two helicopters, reached the new search area early on Saturday where it was expected to focus on searching for plane surfaces, oil slicks and life jackets in a sea area of some 6,900 sq km, state news agency Xinhua reported.

The search, being coordinated by Australia, has involved unprecedented cooperation between more than two dozen countries and 60 aircraft and ships but has also been bedevilled by regional rivalries and an apparent reluctance to share potentially crucial information due to security concerns.

Family protests
The Malaysian government has come under strong criticism from China, home to more than 150 of the passengers, where relatives of the missing have accused the government of “delays and deception”.

More than 20 Chinese relatives staged a brief protest on Saturday outside the Lido hotel in Beijing where families have been staying for the past three weeks, demanding evidence of the plane’s fate.

The peaceful protest came just days after dozens of angry relatives clashed with police after trying to storm the Malaysian embassy.

Many of Saturday’s protesters carried slogans demanding the “truth” about their lost loved ones.

“They don’t have any direct evidence,” said Steve Wang, who had a relative on the flight. “(Their conclusion) is only based on mathematical (analysis) and they used an uncertain mathematical model. Then they come to the conclusion that our relatives are all gone.”

Malaysia’s acting transport minister Hishammuddin Hussein said his country was committed to seeing the investigation through to its final conclusion.

“What they want from us is a commitment to continue the search, and that I have given, not only on behalf of the Malaysian government but the so many nations involved,” he told reporters in Kuala Lumpur after speaking with families on Saturday.

For more than a week, the international effort had been scouring seas 2,500 km (1,550 miles) southwest of Perth, where satellite images had shown possible debris from Flight MH370.

That search zone has now been abandoned. In the first week of the search, Vietnamese, Chinese and Malaysian ships and planes concentrated their efforts in the South China Sea.

The shift north of the search was based on painstaking analysis of Malaysian military radar data and satellite readings from British company Inmarsat.

source: hindustantimes.com

PERTH, Australia: A warship with an aircraft black box detector was set to depart Australia to search for the missing Malaysian jetliner, a day after ships plucked objects from the Indian Ocean to determine whether they were related to the missing plane.

None were confirmed to be from the plane, leaving searchers with no sign of the jet three weeks after it disappeared.

Twenty-nine Chinese family members, seeking answers from Malaysia’s government as to what happened to their loved ones, arrived in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, said Malaysia Airlines commercial director Hugh Dunleavy.

Two-thirds of the 229 passengers aboard Flight 370 were Chinese, and their relatives have expressed deep frustration with Malaysian authorities since the plane went missing.

It could take days for the Australian warship, the navy support ADV Ocean Shield, to reach the search zone, which shifted northeast Friday to an area roughly the size of Poland.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority, which oversees the search, said the ship will depart Perth on Sunday for the zone, about 1,850 kilometres (1,150 miles) to the west.

The ship will be fitted with a black box detector — the U.S. Navy’s Towed Pinger Locator — and an unmanned underwater vehicle, as well as other acoustic detection equipment.

Ships from China and Australia on Saturday scooped up items described only as “objects from the ocean,” but none were “confirmed to be related” to Flight 370, AMSA said.

A Chinese Ilyushin IL-76 plane spotted three floating objects, China’s official Xinhua News Agency said, a day after several planes and ships combing the newly targeted area, which is closer to Australia than the previous search zone, saw several other objects.

Meanwhile, a Chinese military plane scanning part of the search zone spotted several objects floating in the sea Saturday, including two bearing colours of the missing jet.

The search shifted northeast Friday to a new part of the ocean that is roughly the size of Poland.

It was not immediately clear whether those objects were related to the investigation into what happened to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing, and officials said the second day of searching in the new area ended with no evidence found of the jet.

The three objects spotted by the Chinese plane were white, red and orange in color, the Xinhua report said. The missing Boeing 777’s exterior was red, white, blue and gray.

Investigators have been puzzled over what happened to Flight 370, with speculation ranging from equipment failure and a botched hijacking to terrorism or an act by one of the pilots.

The latter was fuelled by reports that the pilot’s home flight simulator had files deleted from it, but Acting Malaysian Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said checks, including one by the FBI, had turned up no new information.

“What I know is that there is nothing sinister from the simulators, but of course that will have to be confirmed by the chief of police,” Hussein said.

Newly analysed satellite data shifted the search zone on Friday, raising expectations that searchers may be closer to getting physical evidence that the plane crashed into the Indian Ocean.

That would also help narrow the hunt for the wreckage and the plane’s black boxes, which could contain clues to what caused the plane to be so far off-course.

The newly targeted zone is nearly 1,130 kilometres (700 miles) northeast of sites the searchers have crisscrossed for the past week.

The redeployment came after analysts determined that the Boeing 777 may have been traveling faster than earlier estimates and would therefore have run out of fuel sooner.

The new search area is closer to Perth than the previous one, with a flying time of 2 1/2 hours each way, allowing for five hours of search.

AMSA said 10 planes are scheduled to join the search today. The first aircraft, a Chinese Ilyushin IL-76, left Perth air force base and the remainder would take over throughout the morning.

The Australian navy supply ship HMAS Success, which is to store wreckage, and three Chinese ships reached the search area Saturday. A further six ships should arrive in the area on Sunday, AMSA said.

All ships in the search area are being tasked to locate and identify the objects sighted by aircraft over the past two days.

Weather in the search area is forecast to worsen Sunday with light showers and low cloud, though search operations are expected to continue, AMSA said.

Malaysia Airlines’ commercial director, Hugh Dunleavy, said in Beijing late Saturday that around 40 to 45 Chinese relatives of passengers on the missing plane would fly to Kuala Lumpur early Sunday morning.

If investigators can determine that the plane went down in the newly targeted search zone, recovery of its flight data and cockpit voice recorders could be complicated.

Much of the sea floor in the area is about 2,000 meters (6,600 feet) below the surface, but depths may reach a maximum of up to 6,000 meters (19,685 feet).

The hunt for the plane focused first on the Gulf of Thailand, along the plane’s planned path. But when radar data showed it had veered sharply west, the search moved to the Andaman Sea, off the western coast of Malaysia, before pivoting to the southern Indian Ocean, southwest of Australia.–AP

source: nst.com.my

Read more: MH370 Lost in Indian Ocean: Black box detector joins search – Latest – New Straits Times http://www.nst.com.my/latest/font-color-red-mh370-lost-in-indian-ocean-font-black-box-detector-joins-search-1.539685?cache=03#ixzz2xPqK9RYW

An object floats in the southern Indian Ocean in this picture taken from a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3K2 Orion aircraft searching for missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 Photo: Jason Reed/ Getty

Terrorist theories grow as it is confirmed that international security services are involved in the search for missing flight MH370.

David Silva, right, scores for Manchester City against Arsenal in the Premier League game at the Emirates Stadium. Photograph: Carl Recine/Action Images

When the story comes to be told of an open and increasingly difficult-to-predict title race, Manchester City may look back and reflect that this was a particularly useful day. Yet, for now, they also know it could have been much better considering the rewards that would have followed if they had managed to hold on to David Silva’s first-half goal.

Manuel Pellegrini’s team forfeited the chance to replace Chelsea at the top of the Premier League during a second half in which Mathieu Flamini’s equaliser will be celebrated by everyone connected with Liverpool, who are suddenly looking at the table in a new position of strength.

For Arsenal, the solitary point probably confirms what most people already suspected, namely that there is only a very faint chance they can catch and overhaul the three teams above them.

City are in a much stronger position, two points behind Chelsea with two games in hand, but the gap to Liverpool will be four if Brendan Rodgers’s team beat Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday. More than ever, it looks as if the pivotal game will also be at Anfield, when City are the opponents on 13 April.

Pellegrini will just have to hope his team can play more like they did here in the first half, and less like they did after the interval. For the first time, perhaps, there were signs of weariness. Yet Arsenal deserve great acclaim for their perseverance and left the pitch to rich applause.

Arsène Wenger has had to make do with a considerable injury list, but his team showed real personality to emerge with something and that is worth noting at a time when they are often accused of lacking mental strength.

City started just where they had left off against Manchester United, pressing their opponents back and moving the ball swiftly, in telling areas of the pitch. Yet here, too, was further evidence of the vulnerabilities that have left Arsenal coming up short. Silva’s goal was the product of Lukas Podolski losing the ball – and, in a flash, the entire team suddenly looked susceptible to the speed with which their opponents poured forward.

It was the same theme in the 6-0 defeat by Chelsea and, again, their full-backs, Kieran Gibbs and Bacary Sagna, were caught hopelessly out of position.

Silva led the City charge, breaking through the middle, with options either side. He chose Edin Dzeko, running into the left-hand side of the penalty area, leaving the striker to find the angle to beat Wojciech Szczesny. His shot came back off the post and Silva, following in, was rewarded for his anticipation, tucking the rebound into an unguarded net.

Silva, always on the move and so difficult to mark, was the outstanding player in that first half, but the speed and directness of Jesús Navas created plenty of issues for Gibbs – and Pablo Zabaleta’s overlapping runs from the right full-back position were another feature.

City looked stronger, physically, and when they did lose the ball, there was something to admire about their appetite to win it back.

By half-time, there was also a reasonable case that Arsenal should have been a man down. Tomas Rosicky’s attempt to win a penalty from Zabaleta’s non-challenge – fishing out his foot to try to initiate contact – did not deceive the referee, Mike Dean, and surely merited a yellow card. Rosicky was booked for a later challenge on Gaël Clichy and should probably consider himself a lucky man.

Arsenal’s style means they will always have a lot of the ball. They just did not make enough use of it before the interval. Mathieu Flamini was offside when he bounced Podolski’s cross past Joe Hart, shortly before Silva’s goal, but there were not many other times when the away team’s goalkeeper seemed exposed.

Mikel Arteta rarely dominates these big matches and, though Yaya Touré was unusually subdued, Silva was always finding little pockets of space to weave his magic.

It was not until the early parts of the second half that Arsenal began to play with the dynamism that was evident earlier in the season. Now they started to move the ball with greater purpose. Santi Cazorla – a prominent figure in the shift of pattern – brought the first real save from Hart.

Then, a few minutes later, Arsenal worked the ball from one side of the pitch to the other, in front of the penalty. Not once did a City player try to intercept the ball and Flamini was free, close to the penalty spot, to sweep in Podolski’s left-wing cross.

City had lost their control and, suddenly, this did not look like an Arsenal side missing half a team’s worth of Wenger’s first-choice players. The volume had gone up several notches and Podolski – with a clear sight at goal –would have turned it even higher if his shot had not flicked off Hart’s legs and ricocheted wide.

A minute before the equaliser, Per Mertesacker almost put through his own goal and there were still sporadic moments when City threatened to get behind the home defence. Yet this was a laboured finish from City and, ultimately, a more profitable day for Liverpool than for anyone else.

source: theguardian.com

With all three of the Premier League’s title contenders visiting Selhurst Park in Crystal Palace’s final four home games, the need for the Eagles to nab a first point of the season against the top six was greater than ever.

Thanks to a John Terry own goal they nabbed all three and Tony Pulis – the man Jose Mourinho had tipped to win Manager of the Year pre-match – looks ever-closer to completing his miracle job in SE25.

Mourinho brought in Fernando Torres for Samuel Eto’o up front and opted for a robust midfield of David Luiz and Nemanja Matic to combat the physicality of Palace’s consonant-hungry and rippling duo; Mile Jedinak and Kagisho Dikgacoi.

As it happened, they needn’t have just been worried about those two as Palace put in a feisty performance full of the fight and gusto you’d expect from a Pulis outfit.

Wingers Yannick Bolasie and Jason Puncheon were both booked in the early stages for crunching challenges as Palace looked to win the ball back high up the pitch and those cautions somewhat stifled the hosts’ ability to pressure Chelsea.

As the first half wore on, the visitors should have gained increasing control. Instead, they became evermore disjointed and resorted to trying to hit Palace on the counter-attack with long, raking passes.

The Eagles grew in confidence and should have scored when Bolasie somehow failed to convert Puncheon’s drilled cross. They were then somewhat questionably denied a penalty when England defender Gary Cahill uprooted Cameron Jerome, but continued to press on and most notably tested Petr Cech from a Jedinak free-kick on the half-hour mark.

With the verve and skill of Andre Schurrle and Eden Hazard always likely to cause problems for Pulis’ men, Chelsea’s counters audibly set the boisterous home crowd on edge, but some solid defending saw Palace through to the break well worth the 0-0 scoreline.

Mourinho sought to give his side more control by introducing Oscar for David Luiz at the break, but the Eagles continued to threaten and should have taken the lead when Cameron Jerome glanced the ever-troublesome Bolasie’s dangerous cross agonizingly across goal.

But the winger continued to threaten and his intervention changed the game when John Terry diverted a looping 56th-minute cross past his own keeper at the near post.

Selhurst erupted, as parts of Liverpool and Manchester surely did, and a smouldering Jose Mourinho acted quickly to address what could have been a critical blow to his side’s title chances.

The ineffective Frank Lampard was replaced by Mohamed Salah as the Portuguese attempted to inject some dynamism to his floundering attack, and Chelsea moved onto their third tactical system of the day.

Yet the hosts failed to get a grip on the game and could so easily have fallen two goals behind when Cameron Jerome’s strong running created a chance for Jason Puncheon, whose left-footed snapshot dribbled narrowly wide of the post with Cech beaten.

Finally the title-contenders began to grow into the game, but clear chances were difficult to come by as a clearly irritated Mourinho began to miserably patrol his technical area.

His final change was to throw on Demba Ba for the increasingly anonymous Schurrle, while Pulis attempted to shut up shop by replacing the potent attacking threat of Yannick Bolasie with Duracell bunny Stuart O’Keefe.

Chelsea’s desperation converted itself into chances, but in Julian Speroni they found a man in sensational form, particularly in saving from Hazard’s point-blank effort in the 73rd minute.

With the Blues pushing up, Palace began to create their own openings, Jerome clattering the post having bettered Cech in a one-on-one before Joe Ledley’s volley bounced inches past the far post.

For all Palace’s energy, the visitors’ body language told a story of a team who knew that they could be about to suffer a season-defining defeat. All sloped shoulders and furious hand gestures while Mourinho, hands in pockets, appeared angrily resigned to the result.

This frustration boiled over when the Portuguese snapped at a ball-boy in the closing stages, something for which he quickly apologised, but he was ultimately helpless as the final whistle blew on Chelsea and possibly their title chances.

source: mirror.co.uk

Η Εσπανιόλ λίγο έλειψε να κάνει την ζημιά στην Μπαρτσελόνα, αλλά ένα χέρι στην περιοχή έδωσε την λύση και με πέναλτι του Μέσι οι “μπλαουγκράνα” νίκησαν με 1-0.

H Μπαρτσελόνα δυσκολεύτηκε πολύ στο ντέρμπι με την Εσπανιόλ στο “Κορνεγιά Ελ-Πρατ”, αλλά έχοντας την τύχη με το μέρος της νίκησε με 1-0 χάρη σε εκτέλεση πέναλτι του Λιονέλ Μέσι, ο οποίος έφτασε τα 23 γκολ στο πρωτάθλημα.

Στο 76ο λεπτό λοιπόν μετά από προσπάθεια του Νεϊμάρ στην περιοχή η μπάλα χτύπησε σε χέρι αμυντικού, αν η απόσταση ήταν περίπου μισό μέτρο ο διαιτητής δεν το θεώρησε ακούσιο και έδειξε την βούλα του πέναλτι (δεν το θεώρησε ακούσιο ή απλά έκρινε πως προφανώς αλλοίωσε την φάση και δεν γινόταν να μην το δώσει).