Monthly Archives: March 2014

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, centre, addresses the media. Photo: AP

Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian authorities have included parts of the Indian Ocean they see as Australia’s responsibility in a southern search corridor where the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 could have flown.

The country’s Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein says Australia is one of more than 15 countries where the plane may be including Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, China, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and France.

“Malaysian officials are requesting assistance from these countries,” he said. “Officials are also asking countries to provide further assistance in the search for the aircraft including satellite data and analysis, ground search capDiplomats from the countries were called to a briefing at a Kuala Lumpur hotel on Sunday to discuss how best to deploy assets along two designated search corridors.

“Both the northern and southern corridors are being treated with equal importance,” Mr Hishammuddin said.

On Sunday night, Chief of the Defence Force General David Hurley said Malaysian authorities had ‘‘re-tasked’’ one of the two  Australian aircraft involved in the search.   “Today one RAAF AP-3C Orion commenced searching the Indian Ocean to the north and west of the Cocos Islands,” General Hurley said.

“This aircraft is expected to recover to the Cocos Islands overnight and launch from that location on Monday to maximise mission time in the expanded search area.”

The second RAAF AP-3C Orion will continue to search west of Malaysia.

Authorities in Kuala Lumpur have broadened their investigations into the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 to engineers at the city’s international airport who had contact with the plane before its departure.

Forensic experts have seized a replica flight simulator from the home of the senior pilot of the missing Malaysia Airlines plane and have begun examining it, Mr Hishammuddin said late on Sunday.

Police have also spoken to the family of the veteran flyer Zaharie Ahmad Shah and searched the home of his 27 year-old co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid, he said.

But Mr Hishammuddin added: “we appeal to the public not to jump to conclusions regarding the police investigation.”

It has also emerged that the flight was close to running out of fuel at the time a satellite picked up its last confirmed signal at 8.11am on March 8 – seven hours and 31 minutes after take-off.

“It must have been almost flying on fumes,” a source in Kuala Lumpur with knowledge of the investigation said.

Airline officials said last week the Boeing 777 with 239 people on board had enough fuel to fly up to eight hours.

Investigators say that because of the imprecise satellite data picked up from the plane it might be anywhere in a number of countries covering thousands of square kilometres, from central Asia to Indonesia.

“The investigation team is making further calculations which will indicate how far the aircraft may have flown after this point of contact,” Malaysia’s Prime Minister, Najib Razak, said on Saturday.

Where a massive search effort involving 14 countries was concentrated for most of last week in the South China Sea, from where the $54 million plane vanished, planes and ships are  being redirected into two possible arcs or “corridors”.

A northern one stretches from northern Thailand through to the border of central Asian countries Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan and a southern one from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean.

The northern route could have taken the plane through countries including China, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The region includes countries with unstable governments, extremist groups and remote, mountainous areas.

Flying a southern corridor would have put the plane over the Indian Ocean, a vast expanse of water with thousands of square kilometres from land mass.

How a plane 74 metres long with a 61-metre wing span could go undetected while perhaps flying through countries that are highly militarised remains unexplained.

Mr Najib revealed that investigators believe with a “high degree of certainty” that one of the plane’s communications systems, the Aircraft and Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS), was disabled before the plane reached the east coast of Malaysia.

Shortly after, while the plane was flying over the South China Sea and the near the border with Vietnam’s air traffic control, someone on board switched off the aircraft’s transponder, which communicates location and altitude to civilian air traffic controllers.

The last contact with the plane was when Kuala Lumpur air traffic control told the pilots they were heading into air traffic control based in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.

“All right, good night,” the pilot responded.

Shutting down ACARS and the transponder would require the specialised knowledge of one of the world’s most sophisticated planes, indicating either a pilot or someone on board who had studied the plane’s systems. Turning off the transponder requires someone in the cockpit turning a knob with multiple selections to the “off” position while pressing down at the same time.

Disabling the information part of ACARS system requires hitting switches to make changes seen on a computer screen in the cockpit.

But there is another part of the ACARS system, experts say, that was critically not turned off. This involves picking up the carpet and going into an electronics bay beneath the cockpit.

Investigators have reached the conclusion the plane turned in the opposite direction from its flight path and flew west, back across peninsular Malaysia, because they traced “blips” from the ACARS transmitter on satellites that were sent out once an hour after the transponder was turned off.

The blips don’t contain any messages or data but the satellite can tell in a broad way what region the blips are coming from.

From the point where the transponder was turned off, Malaysian air force radar showed that an aircraft which was believed – but not confirmed – to be MH370 did turn back.

“It then flew in a westerly direction back over peninsula Malaysia before turning north-west,” Mr Najib said.

“Up until the point at which it left military primary radar coverage, these movements are consistent with deliberate action by someone on the plane,” he said.

Malaysia Airlines said that tracing a plane from satellite data was unprecedented for the aviation industry.

“There has never been a case in which information gleaned from satellite signals alone could potentially be used to identify the location of a missing commercial airliner,” the airline said.

While dozens of planes and ships were criss-crossing the South China Sea, and while rumours and misinformation swirled around the investigation for days, the airline and Malaysian authorities kept secret the existence of the satellite data indicating the plane had turned back.

“Given the nature of the situation and its extreme sensitivity, it was critical that the raw satellite signals were verified and analysed by the relevant authorities so that their significance could be properly understood,” the airline said after it had briefed relatives in Kuala Lumpur and Beijing on Saturday.

“This naturally took some time, during which we were unable to publicly confirm their existence,” the airline said. “We were well aware of the ongoing media speculation during this period and its affect on the families of those on board … their anguish and distress increases with each passing day, with each fresh rumour and with each false or misleading media report,” it said.

“Our absolute priority at all times has been to support the authorities leading the multinational search for MH370 so that we can finally provide answers which the families and the wider community are waiting for.”

Mr Najib also conceded authorities had not been transparent about what was known despite Malaysia’s Defence Minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, repeatedly telling media briefings “we have nothing to hide”.

“There has been intense speculation,” Mr Najib said on Saturday. “We understand the desperate need for information on behalf of families and those watching around the world.”

“But we have a responsibility to the investigation and the families to only release information that has been corroborated … our primary motivation has always been to find the plane.”

Mr Najib said the search was not called off in the South China Sea until Saturday, despite the existence of the satellite data indicating the plane had flown on for hours because it could not be confirmed.

He said he was briefed on the “new information” on Saturday morning.

The maximum range of a Boeing 777-200ER is 14,305 kilometres, prompting wild speculation about where it could be and the motivation for the disabling of the plane’s communications and veering it far off its flight path.

Even hours before Mr Najib’s announcement, media mogul Rupert Murdoch tweeted “maybe no crash, effectively hidden, perhaps northern Pakistan, like Bin Laden”.

It is not clear exactly how much fuel the plane was carrying. It would have been enough to reach its scheduled destination Beijing, a flight of five hours and 50 minutes, plus considerable reserve for safety reasons.

Mr Najib has urged caution about describing what happened as a hijack but did not provide any other explanation.

“I wish to be very clear: we are still investigating all possibilities as to what caused MH370 to deviate from its original flight path,” he said.

Mr Najib said the search for MH370 had clearly entered a new phase.

“Over the last seven days, we have followed every lead and looked into every possibility,” he said. “For the families and friends of those involved, we hope this new information brings us one step closer to finding the plane.”

source: smh.com.au

Liverpool arrive at Old Trafford with a double-digit lead over Manchester   United for the first time since 1991.

Brendan Rodgers has the facts. “If you look at the last 38 games – from the   last 10 of last season and the 28 this season – we would be 12 points ahead   of Manchester   United with 91 goals opposed to 64,” the Liverpool   manager says. “Over the period of time, including Fergie’s time as well,   we’ve shown progress.”

Η Μάντσεστερ Σίτι έπαιζε με 10 παίκτες από το 10′ αλλά νίκησε με 2-0 την Χαλ και απέκτησε προβάδισμα για τίτλο, καθώς με γκολάρα του Ντελφ η Άστον Βίλα νίκησε την Τσέλσι. Στο 93′ η Έβερτον, περιπετειώδη νίκη η Φούλαμ.

H Μάντσεστερ Σίτι πήρε σπουδαία νίκη με 2-0 επί της Χαλ μέσα στο “KC Stadium”, αν και έπαιζε με 10 παίκτες από το 10ο λεπτό λόγω αποβολής του αρχηγού της, Βενσάν Κομπανί.

Με αυτό το προβάδισμα όχι απλά διατηρήθηκε σε τροχιά τίτλου, αλλά απέκτησε και πλεονέκτημα, καθώς η Τσέλσι έχασε με 0-1 στην έδρα της Άστον Βίλα και την πλησίασε στους 6 βαθμούς, αλλά με 3 ματς λιγότερα (αν τα πάρει πάει στο +3 δηλαδή η ομάδα του Μάντσεστερ).

Tο πόδι του στην Αυστραλία πάτησε ο Σωτήρης Κυργιάκος και η υποδοχή που του επιφύλαξε η νέα του ομάδα, Σίδνει Ολίμπικ στο αεροδρόμιο ήταν ενθουσιώδης.

Σε ένα από τα επικρατέστερα σενάρια, δηλαδή στην αεροπειρατεία, φαίνεται πως καταλήγουν οι αρχές της Μαλαισίας, οι οποίες συνθέτουν με προσοχή τα κομμάτια του παζλ για τη μυστηριώδη εξαφάνιση του Boeing 777 το περασμένο Σάββατο.

Ακριβώς μία εβδομάδα μετά τη μυστηριώδη εξαφάνιση του αεροσκάφους, ο πρωθυπουργός της χώρας Νατζίμπ Ραζάκ σε δηλώσεις του δεν άφησε πολλά περιθώρια για νέα σενάρια, χωρίς ωστόσο να παραδεχθεί επίσημα όσα άφησε να εννοηθούν.
Την ίδια ώρα, αξιωματούχος της κυβέρνησης, σύμφωνα με διεθνή μέσα, σε δήλωσή του off the record φέρεται να επιβεβαίωσε τις υπόνοιες του πρωθυπουργού λέγοντας πως το σενάριο της απαγωγής είναι αδιαμφισβήτητο.
Οι δηλώσεις του πρωθυπουργού
Ο Νατζίμπ Ραζάκ ανακοίνωσε σήμερα ότι σταματούν οι έρευνες των αρχών για τον εντοπισμό του Μπόινγκ 777, που αγνοείται από την περασμένη εβδομάδα στη Θάλασσα της Νότιας Κίνας, προκειμένου όλες οι δυνάμεις που μετέχουν στην επιχείρηση να επικεντρωθούν σε άλλες ζώνες, κυρίως στον Ινδικό Ωκεανό, με βάση τα στοιχεία που προέκυψαν από τις επικοινωνίες του αεροσκάφους με τα ραντάρ και τους δορυφόρους.

«Τερματίζουμε τις επιχειρήσεις μας στη Θάλασσα της Νότιας Κίνας και επανεξετάζουμε την ανάπτυξη των δυνάμεών μας» στα δυτικά της Μαλαισίας, ανέφερε.
Ο Ραζάκ τόνισε ότι από την πορεία που ακολούθησε η πτήση ΜΗ370 συμπεραίνεται ότι επρόκειτο για μια σκόπιμη ενέργεια κάποιου που το οδήγησε πάνω από τη Μαλαισία και προς τα δυτικά. Ωστόσο, ο Μαλαισιανός πρωθυπουργός απέφυγε να κάνει ευθέως λόγο για κατάληψη του αεροπλάνου από αεροπειρατές. «Παρά τις αναφορές των μέσων ενημέρωσης για αεροπειρατεία, θέλω να καταστήσω απολύτως σαφές ότι ερευνούμε ακόμη όλες τις πιθανότητες για το τι οδήγησε την πτήση ΜΗ370 στο να παρεκκλίνει της πορείας της» τόνισε σε συνέντευξη τύπου που παραχώρησε στην Κουάλα Λουμπούρ.
Οι ερευνητές έχουν επιβεβαιώσει ότι το αεροπλάνο που εντοπίστηκε από στρατιωτικά ραντάρ ήταν πράγματι το Μπόινγκ 777 της Malaysian Airlines. Το σύστημα ηλεκτρονικών αναφορών του αεροπλάνου είναι σχεδόν βέβαιο ότι απενεργοποιήθηκε από κάποιον προτού φτάσει στην ανατολική ακτή της Μαλαισίας.
Ο πρωθυπουργός, που έκανε λόγο για πρωτόγνωρο περιστατικό, τόνισε ότι οι έρευνες για τον εντοπισμό του θα επικεντρωθούν πλέον στον Ινδικό Ωκεανό, αφού το αεροπλάνο φαίνεται πως ακολούθησε μια πορεία προς τα δυτικά. Όπως είπε, η τελευταία επικοινωνία του με δορυφόρο έγινε 6 ώρες αφότου χάθηκε το στίγμα του από τις οθόνες των ραντάρ. Σύμφωνα με αυτά τα δορυφορικά δεδομένα, το Μπόινγκ μπορεί να ακολούθησε δύο αεροδιαδρόμους: είτε της Βόρειας Ταϊλάνδης μέχρι τα σύνορα του Καζακστάν και του Τουρκμενιστάν είτε, νοτιότερα, εκείνον της Ινδονησίας προς τον νότιο Ινδικό Ωκεανό. «Με βάση αυτά τα νέα δεδομένα οι ερευνητές προσπαθούν να υπολογίσουν πόσο μακριά θα μπορούσε να είχε φτάσει στο διάστημα αυτό» πρόσθεσε.
Ο Ραζάκ, αφού ευχαρίστησε τις 15 χώρες που συμμετέχουν στις έρευνες και εξέφρασε τη συμπαράστασή του στις οικογένειες των 239 επιβατών και μελών του πληρώματος που αγωνιούν για απαντήσεις, είπε ότι η Malaysian Airlines έχει αναλάβει να ενημερώσει τους συγγενείς, ενώ ο υπουργός Εξωτερικών της Μαλαισίας επικοινωνεί με τις κυβερνήσεις των χωρών που είτε είχαν πολίτες τους στο αεροπλάνο είτε βοηθούν στον εντοπισμό του.
Όπως είπε, στις έρευνες συνδράμουν μεταξύ άλλων 43 πλοία και 58 αεροπλάνα. Στο μικροσκόπιο βρίσκονται ακόμη τόσο τα μέλη του πληρώματος όσο και οι επιβάτες της πτήσης MH370.
Υπενθυμίζεται ότι η πτήση ΜΗ370, με αρχικό προορισμό το Πεκίνο, χάθηκε μία ώρα μετά την απογείωσή της από την Κουάλα Λουμπούρ τη νύχτα της περασμένης Παρασκευής προς Σάββατο.

Πηγή: madata.gr

SEPANG, Malaysia — Prime Minister Najib Razak of Malaysia announced on Saturday afternoon that Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 left its planned route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing as the result of deliberate action by someone aboard.

Mr. Najib also said that search efforts in the South China Sea had been ended, and that technical experts now believed that the aircraft could have ended up anywhere in one of two zones — one as far north as Kazakhstan in Central Asia, and the other crossing the southern Indian Ocean.

That conclusion was based on a final signal from the plane picked up on satellite at 8:11 a.m. on March 8, nearly seven hours after ground control lost contact with the jet, he said.

While Mr. Najib said that investigators had not ruled out alternatives to hijacking, his remarks represented official confirmation that the disappearance of the Boeing 777-200 a week earlier had not been an accident. He noted that one communications system had been disabled as the plane flew over the northeast coast of Malaysia and that a second system, a transponder aboard the aircraft, had stopped broadcasting its location, altitude, speed and other information at 1:21 a.m. while the plane was one-third of the way across the Gulf of Thailand from Malaysia to Vietnam.

Mr. Najib’s news conference came a day after American officials and others familiar with the investigation told The New York Times that Flight 370 had experienced significant changes in altitude after it lost contact with ground control, and altered its course more than once as if still under the command of a pilot.

Military radar data subsequently showed that the aircraft turned and flew west across northern Malaysia before arcing out over the wide northern end of the Strait of Malacca, headed at cruising altitude for the Indian Ocean.

The Seventh Fleet of the United States Navy said in a statement on Saturday that its search for the plane now encompassed the Strait of Malacca and beyond to the Bay of Bengal — an enormous area. But Mr. Najib said that representatives of many more governments across the region had been contacted, since the plane might have been flying for many hours after it left Malaysian airspace.

The flight had been scheduled to land at 6:30 a.m. in Beijing that day, so the latest time given by Mr. Najib — 8:11 a.m. — could have been toward the very end of the plane’s fuel.

By noting that investigators had not yet concluded that the episode was a hijacking, Mr. Najib seemed to leave open the possibility that the cockpit crew might have chosen to take the aircraft to an unknown destination. He declined to take any questions, and a spokesman said that technical experts would hold a separate news conference to answer questions later in the day. But officials later said that the second news conference had been canceled.

“The investigation team is making further calculations, which will indicate how far the aircraft may have flown after the last point of contact,” Mr. Najib said, reading a statement in English. “Due to the type of satellite data, we are unable to confirm the precise location of the plane when it last made contact with a satellite.

“However, based on this new data, the aviation authorities of Malaysia and their international counterparts have determined that the plane’s last communication with a satellite was in one of two possible corridors: a northern corridor stretching approximately from the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to northern Thailand, or a southern corridor stretching approximately from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean,” he said. “The investigation team is working to further refine their information.”

The northern arc described by Mr. Najib passes through or close to some of the world’s most volatile countries that are home to insurgent groups, but also over highly militarized areas with robust air defense networks, some run by the U.S. military. The arc passes close to northern Iran, through Afghanistan and northern Pakistan, and through northern India and the Himalayan mountains and Myanmar. An aircraft flying on that arc would have to pass through air defense networks in India and Pakistan, whose mutual border is heavily militarized, as well as through Afghanistan, where the United States and other NATO countries have operated air bases for more than a decade.

Air bases near that arc include Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, where the U.S. Air Force’s 455th Air Expeditionary Wing is based, and a large Indian air base, Hindon Air Force Station.

The southern arc, from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean, travels over open water with few islands stretching all the way to Antarctica. If the aircraft took that path, it may have passed near Australia’s Cocos (Keeling) Islands. These remote islands, with a population of fewer than 1,000 people, have a small airport. To the east of that route is Western Australia.

The Indian Ocean, the third-largest in the world, has an average depth of more than 12,000 feet, or more than two miles.

Mikael Robertsson, a co-founder of Flightradar24, a global aviation tracking service, said the way the plane’s communications were shut down pointed to the involvement of someone with considerable aviation expertise and knowledge of the air route, possibly a crew member, willing or unwilling.

The Boeing’s transponder was switched off just as the plane passed from Malaysian to Vietnamese air traffic control space, thus making it more likely that the plane’s absence from communications would not arouse attention, Mr. Robertsson said by telephone from Sweden.

“Always when you fly, you are in contact with air traffic control in some country,” he said. “Instead of contacting the Vietnam air traffic control, the transponder signal was turned off, so I think the timing of turning off the signal just after you have left Malaysian air traffic control indicates someone did this on purpose, and he found the perfect moment when he wasn’t in control by Malaysia or Vietnam. He was like in no-man’s country.”

The signs thus indicated involvement of the crew, Mr. Robertsson said, but he stressed that those signs were not definitive, nor did they prove whether any involvement was willing or coerced.

The possible northern corridor of the missing flight described by Mr. Najib bristles with military radar, making it more likely that the plane either went south or, if it did fly north, did not make it far, Mr. Robertsson said.

“I don’t really think that the aircraft could have flown so far over the land, because it would need to pass over so many countries that someone should have picked it up,” Mr. Robertsson said. “If they had taken the northern corridor, they could have gone down before they reached land, so it’s also possible.”

The disappearance of the jet has mesmerized many in China, partly because nearly two-thirds of the 239 people aboard were Chinese citizens. After Mr. Najib’s statement Saturday, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanded to know more, and said that China was sending technical experts to Malaysia.

“We ask that the Malaysian side provide even more comprehensive and accurate information,” the spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement on the ministry’s website. “We urge that based on the new circumstances, Malaysia further expand and clarify the scope of the search and intensify search efforts, and we ask that Malaysia call on even more countries to become involved in the search.”

Huang Huikang, China’s ambassador to Malaysia, sat impassively in a light gray suit in the front row of Mr. Najib’s news conference, at an airport hotel here on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur.

According to a person who has been briefed on the progress of the investigation, the two “corridors” described by Mr. Najib were derived from calculations made by engineers from the satellite communications company Inmarsat, which were provided to investigators. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the search operation remain confidential.

The satellite communications box fitted on the plane is of an older generation and is not equipped with a global positioning system, the person said. But investigators have managed to calculate the distance between the “ping” from the plane and a stationary Inmarsat-3 satellite orbiting above the Equator and over the Indian Ocean. The satellite can “see” in an arc that stretches to the north and south of its fixed position, but without GPS it can only say how far away the ping is, not where it is coming from, the person said.

“Imagine a torch beam coming from a satellite going left and right,” the person said, referring to a flashlight beam. “It is the maximum arc in the two directions that is being calculated.”

But based on what is already known about the flight’s trajectory, investigators are strongly favoring the southern corridor as the likely flight path, the person said. “The U.S. Navy would not be heading toward Kazakhstan,” the person said.

Radar signals recorded by the Malaysian military appeared to show that the missing airliner climbed to 45,000 feet, above the approved altitude limit for a Boeing 777-200, soon after it disappeared from civilian radar and turned sharply to the west, according to a preliminary assessment by a person familiar with the data.

The radar track, which the Malaysian government has not released but says it has provided to the United States and China, showed that the plane then descended unevenly to 23,000 feet, below normal cruising levels, as it approached the densely populated island of Penang.

There, officials believe, the plane turned from a southwest-bound course, climbed to a higher altitude and flew northwest over the Strait of Malacca toward the Indian Ocean.

An officer from the Australian Maritime Safety Authority’s Rescue Coordination Center, which oversees searches for missing ships and planes in seas under Australian responsibility, said the center had not started a search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane, and could not do so unless the scope of the search was narrowed to a more specific point that fell under Australia’s responsibility.

He also said the center could act only if Malaysia, which has been leading the search, made a request. “It’s still half the Indian Ocean,” he said, “so where do you start at this point?”

source: nytimes.com

Σοκ προκάλεσε στην Καλιφόρνια η είδηση οτι 18χρονος πατέρας έκοψε τη μύτη του παιδιού του επειδη δεν σταματούσε να κλαίει.

Ο Τζόσουα Κούπερ, κρατείται στη φυλακή της κομητείας Σολάνο με την κατηγορία της παιδικής κακοποίησης, σύμφωνα με την εφημερίδα San Francisco Chronicle.

Ο νεαρός πατέρας ενοχλημένος απο το συνεχές κλάμα του μωρού δάγκωσε τη μύτη του. Το μωρό, μεταφέρθηκε σε σοβαρή αλλά σταθερή κατάσταση στο νοσοκομείο, όπου οι γιατροί διαπίστωσαν ότι λείπει το ένα τρίτο της μύτης του ενώ έχει υποστεί κάταγμα κρανίου.

Η αστυνομία στην έκθεση της ανέφερε ότι ο Τζόσουα Κούπερ κακοποίησε το μωρό του καθώς απελπίστηκε από το συνεχές κλάμα του βρέφους.

Περισσότερα: Έκοψε τη μύτη του μωρού επειδή δεν σταματούσε το κλάμα! | E-Radio.gr Daily

Βέρα, το σύμβολο της αγάπης και της δέσμευσης ανάμεσα σε ένα ζευγάρι. Όμως πώς ξεκίνησε αυτή η παράδοση;

Το έθιμο αυτό μας πάει πίσω 4.800 χρόνια, στην Αρχαία Αίγυπτο. Εκεί χρησιμοποιούσαν καλάμια και αγριόχορτα για να φτιάξουν τη βέρα. Ο κύκλος της βέρας ήταν η αιωνιότητα, ένα σχήμα χωρίς αρχή και τέλος.

Έπειτα η βέρα έγινε από δέρμα και οστά. Όσο πιο ακριβό ήταν το υλικό, τόσο μεγαλύτερη η αγάπη που έδειχνε ο δωρητής στον παραλήπτη.

Το έθιμο υιοθέτησαν και οι Ρωμαίοι, όμως με άλλο συμβολισμό. Τότε η βέρα δεν συμβόλιζε την αγάπη του συζύγου προς τη γυναίκα του, αλλά ότι εκείνη ήταν πλέον ιδιοκτησία του. Οι βέρες ήταν σιδερένιες και λέγονταν «Annulus Pronubus». Στην Πομπηία έχουν βρεθεί τέτοια δαχτυλίδια, που έχουν και επιγραφές. Οι πιο συνηθισμένες ήταν οι: «Ama me», δηλαδή  «αγάπα με».

Το δαχτυλίδι αρραβώνων γεννήθηκε μετά τον 13ο αιώνα, όταν ο πάπας Ιννοκέντιος είπε πως πρέπει να υπάρχει μια περίοδος ανάμεσα στον αρραβώνα και το γάμο. Η βέρα λειτουργούσε ως δήλωση πως ο συγκεκριμένος άνθρωπος έχει δοθεί σε κάποιον και θα υπάρξει σύντομα γάμος.

Η πέτρα, που συχνά κοσμεί το δαχτυλίδι των αρραβώνων, είναι ιδέα του Μαξιμιλιανού των Αψβούργων. Το 1477 προσέφερε στην αγαπημένη του ένα διαμαντένιο δαχτυλίδι – το πρώτο καταγεγραμμένο μονόπετρο.

Το 860 μ.Χ. ο πάπας Νικόλαος έκανε υποχρεωτική τη χρυσή βέρα για το γάμο.
Πηγή: E-Radio.gr

Flights continue … A Boeing 737-800 aircraft operated by Malaysian Airlines is prepared for take off at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in Sepang, Malaysia. Photo: Bloomberg

The missing Malaysia Airlines jet had its communication devices switched off and was deliberately flown back on its original course, the Malaysian Prime Minister, Najib Razak, said on Saturday.

But he stopped short of confirming media reports citing Malaysian officials stating that it was hijacked.

“Despite media reports that the plane was hijacked I wish to be very clear that we are still investigating all possibilities,’’ he said.

He said the plane’s last known communication was at 8.11am on the day it disappeared – more than six hours after its last reported position in the South China Sea.

Dato’ Sri Najib named two possible “corridors’’ thousands of kilometres from the original search locations, in official statements that serve to further deepen the mystery surrounding the disappearance of MH370.

Mr Najib described how ‘‘primary radar data’’ showed how the plane turned from its north-easterly course, flew west back over Malaysia, then turned north west after reaching the Straits of Malacca on the country’s west coast.

‘‘These movements are consistent with deliberate actions by someone on the plane,’’ Mr Najib said said.

‘‘The aircraft could now be in one of two possible corridors. A northern corridor stretching  approximately from the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to northern Thailand.

“Or, a southern corridor stretching approximately from Indonesia to southern Indian ocean.”

source: smh.com.au

THE Prime Minister of Malaysia has given a lengthy update into missing Flight MH370.

With the plane still missing, and no information on where it is, Prime Minister Najib Razak said investigators were concluding the plane had been hijacked by someone on board the plane – someone experienced with flying.

From the radar evidence coming to light, he said the search window extended into flight corridors which stretched from Kazakhstan to southern Thailand and the southern Indian Ocean.

He said: “As of today, 14 countries, 43 ships and 58 aircraft are are involved in the search.

“At every stage we acted on the basis of verified information and we followed every credible lead. Sometimes these leads have led nowhere.” – Attributed to…

“It is widely understood that this has been a situation without precedent. We have conducted search operation over land in the South China Sea, the Straits of Malacca, the Andaman Sea and the Indian Ocean.

“At every stage we acted on the basis of verified information and we followed every credible lead. Sometimes these leads have led nowhere.”

The primary radar data showed the aircraft proceeding on the flight path which took it to an area north of the straight – Straits of Malacca. Given this credible data which was subsequently corroborated with the relevant international authorities, we extended the area of search to include the Straits of Malacca and later to the Andaman Sea.

“Based on new data the aviation authorities of Malaysia and their international counterparts have determined that the plane’s last communication with the satellite was in one of two possible corridors. The northern corridor stretching approximately from the border of Kazakhstan and Turk man Stan to southern Thailand or the southern corridor stretching across from Indonesia to southern Indian Ocean. The investigation team is working to further refine the information.

“Despite media reports that the plane was hijacked, I wish to be very clear, we are still investigating all possibilities as to what caused MH370 to deviate from its original flight path.

Meanwhile an extraordinary claim has suggested the jetliner may have flown off the west coast of Australia.

Regarding the Australian connection, a source cited by Bloomberg news agency, said the last satellite transmission from the airliner has been traced to the Indian Ocean off Australia, somewhere to the west of Perth.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said it had no reliable information to indicate MH370 may have approached Australia.

A spokesman said: “AMSA has not received reliable information indicating that Malaysian Airlines’ flight MH370 may have approached Australia or entered the Australian search and rescue region.

“The Bloomberg report will be passed to coordinating authorities for their assessment in the context of all of the other information they have available to them,” he said.

If the search does move to Australian waters, it will be coordinated by AMSA.

Earlier, an American official told The Associated Press that investigators are examining the possibility of “human intervention’’ in the plane’s disappearance, adding it may have been “an act of piracy.’’

The Boeing 777’s communication with the ground was severed under one hour into its flight on March 8 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Malaysian officials have said radar data suggest it may have turned back and crossed back over the Malaysian peninsula westward, after setting out toward the Chinese capital.

The Malaysian official said only a skilled aviator could navigate the plane the way it was flown after its last confirmed location over the South China Sea, and that it appeared to have been steered to avoid radar detection. The official said it had been established with a “more than 50 percent’’ degree of certainty that military radar had picked up the missing plane after it dropped off civilian radar.

The New York Times reported that radar signals recorded by the Malaysian military appear to show the plane ascending to 45,000 feet and making a sharp turn to the right not long after it disappeared from civilian radar.

Forty-five thousand feet is above the approved altitude limit for a Boeing 777-200.

The information comes from “a preliminary assessment by a person familiar with the data”, the paper said.

HOW COULD MALAYSIA AIRLINES’ FLIGHT MH370 BE STOLEN?               

The same data suggests the plane descended to 23,000 feet as it approached the Malaysian island of Penang, but then re-ascended and flew northwest over the Straits of Malacca.

CNN is reporting that authorities think the plane may have gone in one of two directions after it passed through the Straits of Malacca: either northwest, towards the Bay of Bengal and the coast of India, or southwest, out into the expanse of the Indian Ocean.

FIVE THINGS ABOUT INDIA’S ANDAMAN ISLANDS               

The reports are the strongest suggestion yet that the plane was being piloted after the last known contact was made with air traffic control, at 1.07am, when the plane was flying over the Gulf of Thailand.

The Wall Street Journal earlier today quoted aviation industry experts who said it was looking like the plane was the victim of sabotage, based partly on two of the disabling of the plane’s internal systems.

The paper quoted Richard Healing, a former member of the US National Transportation Safety Board, who said: “Increasingly, it seems to be heading into the criminal arena”.

“The emphasis is on determining if a hijacker or crew member diverted the plane,” he said.

The Star Malaysia reported that security checks are being made by intelligence agencies into the profiles of the crew and the passengers.

Indian navy ships supported by surveillance planes and helicopters scoured Andaman Sea islands for a third day today without any success in finding evidence of the missing jet, an official said.

V.S.R. Murthy, a top Indian coast guard official, said the search has been expanded farther west into the Bay of Bengal.

Nearly a dozen ships, patrol vessels, surveillance aircraft and helicopters have been deployed but ”we have got nothing so far,’’ Murthy said.

Bangladesh also joined the search effort in the Bay of Bengal with two patrol aircraft and two frigates, said Mahbubul Haque Shakil, an aide of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Seeing no headway, Malaysian authorities suggested yesterday a new search area of 9,000 square kilometers to India along the Chennai coast in the Bay of Bengal, India’s Defense Ministry said in a statement.

Yesterday, India used heat sensors on flights over hundreds of uninhabited Andaman Sea islands that stretch south of Myanmar, covering an area 720 kilometers long and 52 kilometers wide. Only 37 of 572 are inhabited, with the rest covered in dense forests.

The island chain has four airstrips, but only the main airport in Port Blair can handle a large commercial jet.

Acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said Malaysia was sharing information with foreign agencies and confirmed that agents were examing the activities and backgrounds of the pilots and crew. further checks are also being made on all passengers.

“I cannot confirm that there was no hijacking,” he said overnight.

Investigators are examining the possibility the plane’s disappearance was “an act of piracy”, another US official said yesterday.

The official, who wasn’t authorised to speak publicly, told AP news agency overnight while other theories are still being looked at key evidence for “human intervention” in the plane’s disappearance is that contact with its transponder stopped about a dozen minutes before a messaging system quit.

The official said it was also possible the plane may have landed somewhere.

It has been suggested the plane may have continued to fly on for around four hours after it lost contact with ground control.

A P-8 Poseidon aircraft and a guided missile destroyer, the USS Kidd, were due to aid the international hunt for the jet as the search effort extended further west, Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steven Warren said overnight.

The Kidd was preparing to search the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal, he said.

“The P-8 will be searching a much larger search area … the southern portion of the Bay of Bengal and the northern portion of the Indian Ocean”.

The Boeing 777 vanished off radar early last Saturday over the South China Sea.

Its fate has vexed investigators and Malaysia authorities have dramatically expanded the scope of the search.

source: news.com.au