We just want to get along! Picture of Arab-Jewish American couple kissing sweeps the internet

As tensions escalate between Palestinians and Israelis in the Middle East, a pair of star-crossed lovers are determined to prove love is stronger than war.

Journalist Sulome Anderson, who is half Lebanese, kisses her Jewish boyfriend in a photograph posted on Twitter and Facebook spreading the message ‘Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies’. The kiss has been re-tweeted more than 2,000 times.

The modern-day Romeo and Juliet couple has encouraged others to post photos of their own mixed faith families on social media and stand up for peace in the war torn West Bank.

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Romeo and Juliet: Sulome Anderson, 29, kisses her Jewish boyfriend in this picture which has been shared more than 2,000 times on Twitter

Sharing the love: Another mixed-faith couple kiss as part of the social media campaign ‘Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies’

A mixed-faith family joins in with the social media campaign ‘Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies’

Sulome, 29, spends her time between New York, America, and Beirut, Lebanon, where her boyfriend Jeremy, who declined to give his surname, lives.

She told New York Daily News: ‘It’s not about being Jewish or Arab. Because when it comes down to it, we love each other, He makes me laugh and I feel safe when I’m with him. That’s what matters.’

But the love-match didn’t get off to the easiest start.

Jeremy, who has dual Israeli-American citizenship, comes from an Orthodox Jewish family which is supportive of the Israeli government, while Anderson is sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinian people.

Her father, Terry Anderson, who reported for Associated Press, was held captive for seven years by the militant group that would later become Hezbollah.

Jews and Arabs protest outside London’s Israeli Embassy

An image posted on Twitter under #jewsandarabsrefusetobeememies

Peace: A couple from Brooklyn, New York show that Jews and Arabs can live in harmony

A couple and a child join the Jews and Arabs Refuse To Be Enemies social media campaign by posting a photo

He was kidnapped in Beirut, thrown into the boot of a car, and held captive until he was released in 1991.

Sulome said: ‘We still don’t agree about everything, but we’ve found a way to communicate that isn’t angry.’

But not everyone agrees with their union and Sulome has received a backlash on social media.

She tweeted: ‘Being female feels pretty damn awful when publicly stating your opinion means u get called “b***” & “whore” by troglodytes on social media [sic]’

She added: ‘I believe in this message. This isn’t the kind of exposure I want or need-but I’ll deal w the snarky remarks if it means people will hear it [sic]’

Close friends Dania Darwish, 21, and Abraham Gutman, 23, joined the campaign but similarly experienced a retaliation.

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Abraham Gutman, 23, and Dania Darwish, 21, both students at Hunter College in New York, launched Facebook page ‘Jews and Arabs Refuse To Be Enemies’ which has more than 7,000 likes

 

Ms Darwich, of Syrian descent but living in Brooklyn, and Gutman, an Israeli from Tel Aviv, started Facebook group ‘Jews and Arabs Refuse To Be Enemies’, which has more than 7,000 likes.

Mr Gutman said: ‘We’re not asking everyone to agree and sing ‘Kumbayah, but we do want to have an underlying agreement of mutual respect.’

Ms Darwish added: ‘We’re not diplomats, we don’t have a solution to this conflict. But what we can do is create a platform where people can discuss divergent political ideas and not incite hate.’

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We just want to get along! Picture of Arab-Jewish American couple kissing sweeps the internet

Prominent Egyptians call for freedom of jailed journalist Abdullah Elshamy

133 prominent Egyptians have signed a letter urging the release of detained Al Jazeera reporter Abdullah Elshamy.

There has been global interest in the cases of Al Jazeera’s detained journalists for months, with support inside Egypt itself building in recent weeks.

TV presenter Amr Adeeb said last week that ongoing incarcerations were wrong and were doing harm to Egypt’s image.

The signatories of the letter include actors, artists, TV presenters, authors and politicians. These include Dr. Amr Hamzawy, a university professor, former parliament member and newspaper columnist; Reem Majid, a talk show host on ON TV; Khalid Ali, a humanitarian activist, lawyer and former presidential candidate; and Mariam Naoum, a renowned screenwriter whose artwork has been shown in festivals like Venice Film Festival, Dubai Film Festival and Brussels Film Festival.

According to Egyptian media reports, the letter says of Elshamy: “He is a journalist on Al Jazeera and was arrested on 14 August 2013, while he was covering the dispersal of the Rab’aa sit-in. On 21 January 2014, he started a hunger strike in protest against his unlawful detention without any charges or evidence. His detention is being renewed continually; last time was on 3 May 2014 when he got another 45 days of detention.”

The letter is addressed to the National Council for Human Rights. “The council was founded by law, with the first article stating that it aims to enhance human rights, embed them, create awareness of them, and contributing to their practice. We demand this is applied to Abdullah Elshamy and Mohamed Sultan’s [another separate detainee] cases specifically. It is important the council visits them with an independent physician, and urges the authorities to free them immediately, moving them to a hospital until this happens. Two young men who have not been charged, one of them not even referred to court, are about to die in Egyptian prisons, and we hold you and ourselves as higher than standing by and watching this happen. If serious actions to save them are not to be made, we will do everything we can to escalate this and get them freed.”

Other signatories of the letter include poet Tamim AlBarghoothy; TV presenter Dina And ElRahman; actress Basma; lawyer and political activist Ziyad AlEleemy; screenwriter Azza Shalaby; journalist Naglaa Bedair, and writer and publisher Mohamed Hashem.

Separately, it has been reported in Egyptian media that humanitarian activist Dr. Aida Seif AlDawla and Dr. Layla Sowaif, a professor in the faculty of science in Cairo University, have announced they are on hunger strike in solidarity.

Al Jazeera spokesperson Osama Saeed commented: “We value each and every initiative supporting freedom for Abdullah and his right to proper medical care. The support Abdullah is getting from Egyptian society is noble, significant and is growing day-by-day. We reiterate our call to free Abdullah because journalism is not a crime.”

The Egyptian authorities have not provided access to Elshamy to verify reports he ended his hunger strike. His family and solicitor have expressed concern about his health and of what may have happened to him since he was placed in solitary confinement two weeks ago.

Four Al Jazeera journalists are being detained in Egypt in total. Al Jazeera English’s Peter Greste, Baher Mohammed and Mohammed Fahmy have been in captivity since 29 December 2013.

Prominent Egyptians call for freedom of jailed journalist Abdullah Elshamy

The week in 36 photos

A woman flees as a riot police officer beats her with a baton Tuesday, May 20, in Nairobi, Kenya. Hundreds of Nairobi University students took to the streets and faced riot police as they protested against a proposed increase in school fees.

The week in 36 photos

Secret evidence finally aired in Al Jazeera English trial

The evidence hitherto withheld by the Egyptian prosecutor in the trial of the three Al Jazeera English journalists has finally been aired in court.

The prosecutor had previously tried to charge the defence $170,000 to access it, but they were forced to exhibit the supposedly incriminating material at today’s hearing.

The result was more bizarre scenes in court though. Among the items shown to the judge and the court were BBC podcasts and a song by Australian artist Goyte.

Under cross-examination, the official said to have put together the evidence admitted that a clearly edited photo of Mohammed Fahmy, which was put on the court’s big screen by the prosecution, was not something he had seen before.

Al Jazeera spokesperson Osama Saeed said, “The charges against our journalists are absurd; there is not a shred of evidence against them. The whole world can see that and we look forward to the day, hopefully very soon, when they will be free and back doing the jobs they have always carried out with the utmost of integrity.”

The trial was adjourned till 1 June 2014. Peter Greste, Baher Mohammed and Mohammed Fahmy have been held in captivity since 29 December 2013. Abdullah Elshamy of Al Jazeera Arabic has been held even longer, since 14 August 2013.

Secret evidence finally aired in Al Jazeera English trial

Minister shot himself after loosing election

Blantyre – In a bizarre turn of events, Deputy Local Government Minister Godfrey Kamanya shot himself dead early on Thursday after losing Tuesday’s parliamentary elections, police and family members have confirmed.

“We received a report at around 4 a.m. (local time) this morning that Hon. Kamanya had shot himself, as for the reasons he has left a suicide note,’’ PANA quoted Lilongwe Police Officer-in-Charge Richard Luhanga as saying.

He, however, refused to disclose the contents of the suicide note, saying: “Family members can disclose that.’’

Kamanya’s close friend and cabinet colleague, Transport Minister Ulemu Chilapondwa, also confirmed the suicide.

“His wife called my wife telling her we should rush to the house because Mr Kamanya had shot himself. This was around 3.30 a.m.,’’ he said.

Chilapondwa said when they arrived at the house they found that Kamanya had locked himself in a spare bedroom.

“We forced the door open because we hoped he might still be alive and we wanted to rush him to hospital.

“But when we broke down the door we found him lifeless,’’ he said.

Chilapondwa also confirmed the presence of a suicide note. (PANA/NAN)

 

Minister shot himself after loosing election

Sudan order to hang 8 months pregnant Christian woman for apostasy ‘outrageous’—UN

(AFP) – UN rights experts voiced outrage Monday at a Sudanese court order to hang a heavily pregnant Christian woman for marrying a Christian man and refusing to renounce her faith.

Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag, a 27-year-old who is eight months pregnant with her second child, was convicted last week under the Islamic sharia law that has been in force in Sudan since 1983 and makes conversions of faith punishable by death.

“This outrageous conviction must be overturned and Ms. Ibrahim must be immediately released,” insisted the UN experts on a range of issues, including on the human rights situation in Sudan, violence against women, minorities and the freedom of religion or belief.

They stressed in a statement that under international law, “the death penalty may only be imposed for the most serious crimes, if at all.”

“Choosing and/or changing one’s religion is not a crime at all. On the contrary, it is a basic human right,” they said.

The young mother was found guilty of apostasy, or publicly renouncing Islam — a faith she never professed — and sentenced to hang after she refused to “return” to the Muslim religion.

Ishag, who was born to a Christian mother and Muslim father, was also sentenced to 100 lashes for “adultery”, for living with the Christian man she has been married to since 2012.

Under Sudan’s interpretation of sharia, a Muslim woman cannot marry a non-Muslim man and any such relationship is regarded as adulterous.

The UN experts said that the right to marry and found a family was a fundamental human right, and voiced particular concern that the heavily pregnant Ishag was being held with her 20-month-old son in “harsh conditions” at the Omdurman’s Women Prison near Khartoum.

“The imposition and enforcement of the death penalty on pregnant women or recent mothers is inherently cruel and leads to a violation of the absolute prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,” they warned.

They called on Sudan to repeal all discriminatory laws, adding there was a “pressing need to address the pattern of discrimination, abuse and torture as well as the subjugation and denigration of women in the country.”

Sudan has an Islamist government but, other than floggings, extreme sharia law punishments have been rare.

If the death sentence is carried out, Ishag will be the first person executed for apostasy under the 1991 penal code, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, a British-based campaign group, said last week

 

Sudan order to hang 8 months pregnant Christian woman for apostasy ‘outrageous’—UN

Senegal rape: 11-year-old girl denied abortion gives birth to twin boys

The 10-year-old girl who was raped but unable to terminate her pregnancy due to Senegal’s ban on abortion has given birth to twin boys.

In an interview with the Senegalese women lawyers’ association, the girl, who has just turned 11, was asked whether she was pleased that the rapist – her neighbour – was in police custody. “No,” she answered. “I want him to be killed because he has stopped me from going to school.”

The girl gave birth in the seventh month of her pregnancy, on 21 February. The babies spent a week in an incubator and are understood to be in good health.

“I did not realise I was pregnant. My mother saw my body changing and because I was vomiting she took me to the hospital. In the last few months my head ached and I could hardly stand up.”

Asked what she remembered about the birth she said: “Nothing. I woke up and I realised I was not pregnant any more, and I saw the twins.

“The twins are fine, but they want a lot of breastfeeding, and I do not have enough milk. My mother buys milk at the pharmacy. We are able to buy it, thanks to donations from generous people and a pharmacist who is being very kind,” she said.

The girl’s mother, who sells vegetables at the market, said she had approached a female community leader for advice after doctors confirmed the pregnancy. Her moves to approach the state prosecutor were supported by legal volunteers. The rapist was swiftly taken into police custody, where he awaits trial.

“Towards the end of the pregnancy she could not get up on her own at night and often panicked. Her father, from whom I am divorced, blames me. He says I have not brought her up properly, that’s why it happened. When I told him on the phone that the twins had been born he said, ‘I hear what you say’. Since then he has neither phoned nor come to see us.”

She asked the lawyers’ association to support the girl financially to allow her to continue her education. However, she said her daughter would need to change schools to avoid being bullied by other pupils.

Describing the rape, the 11-year-old said: “My mother had gone to work. There was no one around in my place. I was playing with my friends and I suddenly wanted to go to the toilet. He found me in the toilet and closed the door.”

She said he threatened to kill her if she told anyone of her ordeal. “Afterwards, I had pain at the bottom of my stomach. I could not even walk properly but I forced myself to hold myself well as I was afraid he would kill me.”

She added that the man raped her a second time in the same toilet. “This time he said he would kill not only me but my mother if I told anyone.” (Guardian)

Senegal rape: 11-year-old girl denied abortion gives birth to twin boys

#SaveAbdullah: Egyptians speak out for detained Al Jazeera journalists

• #SaveAbdullah campaign launched to hospitalize and save life of hunger striking journalist

• Human rights activist calls for release

• TV anchor says the case is doing harm to Egypt

Prominent Egyptians have begun to call for the release of Al Jazeera’s journalists detained in their country.

The interventions come as Abdullah Elshamy was moved by the Egyptian authorities to an unknown location. Earlier his lawyer had asked the authorities to transfer him to hospital within 48 hours amid growing concerns for his life. He has been on hunger strike since 21 January 2014.

Hoda AbdelMoneim, head of AlHorreya Observatory for Detainees Rights, said today, “Abdullah Elshamy is asking for his rights in a fair trial. He is detained unlawfully and no charges have been filed against him, although Article 10 of the Declaration of Human Rights states that every individual has the right to be submitted to a fair independent court.”

She also urged civil society, in a press release today, to pressure for the release of Elshamy to save his life after he exceeded 110 days of hunger strike.

Tests on Elshamy’s blood and urine conducted in a private laboratory have indicated his life is in serious danger. Medical experts state that he is now suffering kidney dysfunction, severe anemia and low red blood cell count.

After the results, his family tweeted: “Put @abdallahelshamy in your prayers. He’s between God’s hands and could lose his life anytime.”

“Abdullah is running out of time. We demand that he is admitted to an independent hospital immediately. With experts saying he may die in few days, every journalist, every organization and every human has to do something to save this 26-year-old journalist,” said Al Jazeera spokesperson Osama Saeed.

Al Jazeera English’s detained trio are meanwhile due back in court on Thursday, 15 May 2014. In recent days, TV presenter Amr Adeeb called for the release of Al Jazeera’s staff, saying that press freedoms have to be upheld. Adeeb hosts a daily talk show “Al Qahera Al Youm” (Cairo Today) on the “Al Youm” (Today) channel. Speaking live on his show, he said, “I am against jailing any journalist based on his work, regardless of what he reports. And this case is causing us embarrassment globally. In every interview with any Egyptian official on a foreign platform, a question about it is asked. I am totally against this attitude, because if I approve of it, I might be doing some work in Doha and get arrested and can’t say a word. Whatever was being reported and sent by these guys [Al Jazeera’s journalists] – and I know many of you will be against what I am saying, and you also know that I have never been on good terms with Al Jazeera – but there are regulations all over the world: journalists and reporters have immunity, even if you do not like what they report or find it harmful. And if journalists are being jailed because they report in a way that does not appeal to governments, you would find half the journalists of the world in jail!”

#SaveAbdullah: Egyptians speak out for detained Al Jazeera journalists

Thousands protest against unemployment in Italy

TURIN (AFP) – Scuffles broke out between police and hundreds of protesters in Turin at one of several rallies against unemployment and austerity in Italy for May Day.

Activists lobbed smoke bombs at police, who charged against demonstrators in the northern industrial city, which has been badly hit by a painful two-year recession.

A few protesters were seen being detained.

Thousands of people also took part in a peaceful demonstration called by the main trade unions in Pordenone, near Venice, where the closure of a nearby washing machine plant owned by Sweden’s Electrolux has put 1,300 jobs at risk.

“We always hear talk about cuts in Europe instead of investment in labour,” Susanna Camusso, leader of Italy’s biggest union, the CGIL, said at the rally.

Although Italy’s monthly unemployment rate went down slightly to 12.7 percent in March, from 13 percent in February, it was 0.7 of a percentage point higher than in March 2013, according to official data released Wednesday.

Italy began growing again in the fourth quarter of 2013 after its worst recession since World War II, but the government is forecasting the economy will grow by just 0.8 percent this year.

Speaking at an event in Rome, the Italian President Giorgio Napolitano said there was a “labour emergency” and called for “maximum reaction in terms of reforms and public policy”.

He also paid tribute to several business owners and workers in Italy who have committed suicide in recent years because of the acute economic crisis.

At the Vatican, Pope Francis also had a May Day message.

In a tweet from his account, @pontifex, he wrote: “I ask everyone with political responsibility to remember two things: human dignity and the common good”.

 

Thousands protest against unemployment in Italy

Moves to issue death certificate to Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 relatives cause anger

Africanspotlight – Relatives of flight MH370 passengers have denounced the Malaysian government’s suggestion that it would soon look into issuing death certificates for those on board despite no proof yet of what happened to the plane.

The statement, issued in response to a weekend briefing that Malaysian officials gave to families in Kuala Lumpur, also called for a review of satellite data that Malaysia says indicates the plane probably crashed somewhere in the Indian Ocean.

“We, the families of MH370, believe that until they have conclusive proof that the plane crashed with no survivors, they have no right to attempt to settle this case with the issuance of death certificates and final payoffs,” said the statement by the “United Families of MH370″.

In Sunday’s briefing, a Malaysian official said the government would look into a timetable for issuing death certificates for passengers on the Malaysia Airlines flight. The documents are required for families to seek insurance payments, settle debts and address a range of other issues.

Deputy Foreign Minister Hamzah Zainudin also asked relatives in the meeting to submit a proposal for government financial assistance for families.

But relatives, who have repeatedly accused the government and national airline of botching a response to the plane’s disappearance and withholding information, said Malaysian authorities were playing an agonising “cat and mouse game” over the fate of their loved ones.

“WE ARE IN UTTER OUTRAGE, DESPAIR AND SHOCK!” the statement said, using bold capital letters.

The Boeing 777 went missing on March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people aboard.

Australia is leading the hunt for MH370, which is believed to have crashed into the Indian Ocean after veering sharply from its route for no apparent reason. No debris has yet been found from the plane.

The aerial search for wreckage of the airliner was suspended yesterday due to a tropical cyclone, but 10 ships will continue their work.

Demanding hard evidence, some vocal relatives have repeatedly said they were not convinced by Malaysia’s conclusions about data analysis conducted by British satellite communications firm Inmarsat.

“They have failed to share why they would accept a single source [Inmarsat] for analysis, utilising a never before attempted method, as their sole grounds for determining that the plane is under the water and all lives lost,” the families said. The statement said they wanted an independent peer review, but this was rejected on grounds Inmarsat’s data was protected for privacy reasons.

In Sunday’s meeting “not a single one of our questions was answered”, it added.

Moves to issue death certificate to Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 relatives cause anger

Australia ‘very confident’ signals are from missing Malaysian flight MH370

PERTH, Apr 11 – Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced Friday he was “very confident” that a series of signals detected in the remote Indian Ocean were from the black box of missing Malaysian Flight MH370.

Malaysia flight search

The comments came as the Australian-led operation raced to gather as many signals as possible to determine an exact resting place for the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 before sending down a submersible to plumb the depths.

“We have very much narrowed down the search area and we are very confident the signals are from the black box,” Abbott said in Shanghai.

He said he did not want to reveal any more before he briefed the Chinese leadership later in the day. Two-thirds of the 239 people onboard Flight MH370 were Chinese.

But he elaborated on his confidence.

“It’s been very much narrowed down because we’ve now had a series of detections, some for quite a long period of time,” he said of the search.

“Nevertheless, we’re getting to the stage where the signal from what we are very confident is the black box is starting to fade.

“We are hoping to get as much information as we can before the signal finally expires.”

The ping-emitting beacons on the flight’s data and cockpit voice recorders are expected to fade as days go by, more than a month after the plane vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

The Perth-based Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) said Friday that initial analysis had determined that a fifth signal picked up on Thursday afternoon by a P-3C Orion surveillance plane did not appear linked to aircraft beacons.

The acoustic data was “unlikely to be related to the aircraft black boxes” JACC chief Angus Houston said. “Further analysis continues to be undertaken.”

The Orion was flying close to the area where two signals were detected at the weekend and two more on Tuesday by Australian ship Ocean Shield.

The vessel is dragging a US Navy “towed pinger locator” to listen for emissions from black boxes.

“Today Ocean Shield is continuing more focused sweeps with the towed pinger locator to try and locate further signals that may be related to the aircraft’s black boxes,” Houston said.

“It is vital to glean as much information as possible while the batteries on the underwater locator beacons may still be active.”

He added that a decision to deploy a submersible sonar device “could be some days away”.

- Still no debris spotted -

Despite Abbott’s statement, Houston noted: “On the information I have available to me, there has been no major breakthrough in the search for MH370.”

JACC said the search area for Friday had been further reduced to two zones totalling 46,713 square kilometres (18,06 square miles).

The core of the search is now 2,312 kilometres (1,436 miles) northwest of Perth.

Friday’s weather forecast in the search zone was for 10-15 knot southerly winds with isolated showers, seas swells of one to 1.5 metres (three to five feet) and visibility of five kilometres during the showers.

No floating debris from the Malaysia Airlines aircraft has yet been found, JACC said, despite the massive multinational air and sea operation.

JACC says the high-tech underwater surveillance is intended to define a reduced and more manageable search area in depths of around four kilometres (2.5 miles).

Houston has stressed the need to find the wreckage and urged repeatedly against unduly inflating hopes, for the sake of the families of missing passengers and crew who have endured a month-long nightmare punctuated by a number of false leads.

No other ships are being allowed to sail near the Ocean Shield as it must work in an environment as free of noise as possible.

But JACC announced that up to 12 military aircraft, three civil aircraft and 13 ships would join Friday’s hunt.

JACC says it should not be long before a US-made autonomous underwater vehicle called a Bluefin-21 will be sent down to investigate, but has cautioned that it will have to operate at the very limits of its capability given the vast depths involved.

Numerous theories have been put forward to explain MH370′s baffling disappearance.

They include a hijacking or terrorist attack, a pilot gone rogue or a sudden catastrophic event that incapacitated the crew and left the plane to fly for hours until it ran out of fuel.

Australia ‘very confident’ signals are from missing Malaysian flight MH370

Jet’s disappearance ‘deliberate’, Malaysia says

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) – A missing Malaysian airliner was apparently deliberately diverted and flown for hours after vanishing from radar, Prime Minister Najib Razak said Saturday, stopping short of confirming a hijack but taking the “excruciating” jet drama into uncharted new territory.

Najib said investigators believed “with a high degree of certainty” that Malaysia Airlines flight 370′s communications systems including its transponders were manually switched off.

He said the plane also veered westward in a fashion “consistent with deliberate action” after dropping off primary radar.

But a grave-looking Najib told a highly anticipated press conference watched around the globe that he could not confirm rising suspicions that the plane had been forcibly taken over.

“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,” he said.

“We realise this is an excruciating time for the families of those on board,” Najib said. He did not take questions.

The investigation data appeared to cast aside a host of theories attempting to explain the plane’s disappearance, which has transfixed the world and left the families of the 239 passengers and crew distraught, enraged and baying for information that authorities have not been able to provide.

-’Excruciating time’-

Previous theories swirling around MH370 included a sudden mid-air explosion, catastrophic equipment or structural failure, or a crash into the South China Sea.

At the same time, the announcement opened a whole new avenue of speculation including an attempted 9/11-style attack, enhancing the intrigue surrounding one of the biggest enigmas in modern aviation history.

The 9/11 hijackers turned off the transponders of three of the four planes that were commandeered. Transponders transmit data on a plane’s location to air traffic controllers.

Final satellite communication with the Boeing 777, scheduled to fly from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, came more than six-and-a-half hours after it vanished from civilian radar at 1:30am on March 8, Najib said.

That is around the time Malaysia Airlines has said the plane would have run out of fuel.

Najib said investigators had concluded the plane was indeed diverted to the west from its original flight path, and as a result search operations in the South China Sea were being called off.

But the new search zone is impossibly large — Najib said the plane could be anywhere from Kazakhstan to the southern Indian Ocean.

Earlier, a senior Malaysian military official had told AFP that investigators believe the plane was commandeered by a “skilled, competent and current pilot” who knew how to avoid radar.

The official stopped short of specifying whether a hijacker or member of the crew was suspected.

-’Something beyond 9/11′-

As the search for the plane continues, investigators will focus on who would have diverted it and why.

Malaysian security officials were already embarrassed by revelations that two Iranian men had managed to board the plane using stolen European passports.

It could also bring new attention on Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, and his First Officer Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27.

Malaysian reporters told AFP they witnessed police enter Zaharie’s house on Saturday. They said police spent two hours there. Police declined comment to AFP.

An Australian television station had days earlier broadcast an interview with a young South African woman who alleged Fariq and another pilot colleague invited them into the cockpit of a flight he co-piloted in 2011 — a breach of post-9/11 security rules.

Gerry Soejatman, a Jakarta-based independent aviation analyst, told AFP the new information makes a motive in a possible terror conspiracy “extremely difficult to understand.”

“If that was deliberate, we may be dealing with something beyond the mission planning for 9/11,” he said.

Dozens of ships and aircraft from 14 countries have been deployed across the entire search zone since MH370 went missing.

-’A conspiracy from the beginning’-

The Malaysian leader’s remarks did little to ease the nerves of anguished relatives gathered at a hotel in Beijing. Most passengers were Chinese.

“I feel (Malaysia Airlines) has been playing a role in the incident,” said Wen Wancheng, whose son was aboard.

“I feel the incident has been a conspiracy and a deal from the beginning,” he said, adding he still maintains hope his son is alive.

Malaysia Airlines defended its handling of the crisis, saying it has “shared all available information with the relevent authorities”.

“This is truly an unprecedented situation, for Malaysia Airlines and for the entire aviation industry,” it said in a statement.

Even with attention now firmly on the Indian Ocean, the search parameters pose enormous logistical challenges in locating the plane or its black box.

“Wind and sea conditions are definitely going to play a very big part if there is wreckage and if it happens to be in the Indian Ocean. It is an immense area,” said Greg Waldron, Asia managing editor for aviation industry magazine FlightGlobal.

The plane has one of the best safety records of any jet, and the airline also has a solid record.

Malaysia has not been the target of any notable terror attacks, but terror analysts say it is home to several individuals alleged to be operatives of militant Islamic groups such as the Al-Qaeda linked Jemaah Islamiyah.

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Jet’s disappearance ‘deliberate’, Malaysia says

Officials deny report that Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 kept flying for hours

(CNN) – Yet another conflicting storyline emerged overnight in the perplexing disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 nearly six days ago.

After search crews failed to find any trace of debris suggested by Chinese satellite photographs, Malaysian officials on Thursday denied a newspaper report that suggested the plane may have kept flying for four hours after its last reported contact.

The officials acknowledged the search for the jetliner, which disappeared early Saturday, is becoming harder and harder.

The report from The Wall Street Journal said U.S. aviation investigators and national security officials were basing their belief that the missing plane kept flying on data automatically transmitted to the ground from the passenger jet’s engines.

But Malaysia’s acting Transportation Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said at a news conference that the report, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter, was “inaccurate.”

The news came after Vietnamese and Chinese search crews found nothing where Chinese satellite photographs released Wednesday showed large floating objects in the South China Sea.

The spot is between Malaysia and Vietnam and not far from the plane’s expected flight path.

China’s State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense described the images as showing “a suspected crash site.”

But Chinese authorities later said the release of the satellite images was a mistake and that they didn’t show any debris relating to the plane, Hishammuddin said.

Engine data controversy

The Malaysian denial of the Wall Street Journal piece is the latest in a series of conflicting accounts involving crucial details such as the plane’s route, when it vanished and other issues.

The Wall Street Journal report said the plane’s engines have an onboard monitoring system supplied by their manufacturer, Rolls-Royce PLC. The system “periodically sends bursts of data about engine health, operations and aircraft movements to facilities on the ground,” the newspaper said.

Malaysia Airlines sends its engine data live to Rolls-Royce for analysis, the report said, and that data is now being analyzed to figure out the flight path of the missing plane after contact was lost with its transponder, a radio transmitter in the cockpit that communicates with ground radar.

But Malaysia Airlines Chief Executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said Thursday that Rolls-Royce and Boeing have reported that they didn’t receive transmissions of any kind after 1:07 a.m. Saturday. Air traffic controllers lost contact with the plane shortly afterward, around 1:30 a.m.

Erin Atan, a spokeswoman for Rolls-Royce in Asia, declined to comment on the matter, telling CNN it was “an official air accident investigation.”

Malaysian officials said they had consulted with the makers of the plane and its engines, who told them that no transmissions of any kind were received from the plane after air traffic controllers lost contact with it.

The report threatened to open the door to a fresh round of theories about what has become of the plane, which vanished while flying over Southeast Asia on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Four more hours in the air could have put the plane many hundreds of miles beyond the area currently being searched.

But one aviation industry observer expressed skepticism about the report even before the denials by officials.

“I find this very, very difficult to believe,” Tom Ballantyne, chief correspondent for the magazine Orient Aviation, told CNN. “That this aircraft could have flown on for four hours after it disappeared and not have been picked up by someone’s radar and not have been seen by anyone, it’s almost unbelievable.”

Search getting harder

The mystery over the fate of the passenger jet, a Boeing 777-200, and the 239 people it was carrying has so far left government officials and aviation experts flummoxed.

“With every passing day the task becomes more difficult,” Hishammuddin said Thursday.

Searchers have already been combing a vast area of sea and land for traces of the plane. But so far, with the search well into its sixth day, their efforts have been fruitless.

Malaysian officials say they are still trying to determine if a radar blip detected heading west soon after the plane lost contact was in fact the missing jet.

If it was, the plane would have been hundreds of miles off its original flight path and headed in the wrong direction. Malaysian officials say they have asked U.S. experts to help them analyze the radar data.

Meanwhile, India is joining the multinational search, dispatching two of its naval ships off the remote Andaman and Nicobar islands, a military spokesman told CNN on Thursday.

Last known words

Also on Thursday, a Malaysian aviation official told CNN that the last known words from the flight crew of the missing plane were “All right, good night.”

Malaysian civil aviation officer Zulazri Mohd Ahnuar said he couldn’t confirm which member of the flight crew sent the message, which was transmitted from the plane back to Malaysian flight controllers as the aircraft transferred into Vietnamese airspace early Saturday.

For the families of those on board the missing plane, the wait for news is tortuous.

Danica Weeks is trying to keep it together for her two young sons, though the possibility of life without husband Paul, who was on the plane, is sometimes overwhelming. She’s clinging to hope even though, as Weeks told CNN’s Piers Morgan, it’s “not looking good.”

“Every day, it just seems like it’s an eternity, it’s an absolute eternity,” Weeks said from Australia. “We can only go minute by minute … and hope something comes soon.”

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Officials deny report that Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 kept flying for hours

Oscar Pistorius vomits in court as pathologist gives harrowing account of Reeva Steenkamp’s injuries

Oscar Pistorius repeatedly vomited in the dock today as the pathologist who carried out the post-mortem on Reeva Steenkamp gave a graphic account of her injuries.

Oscar Pistorius vomiting in Court

The Paralympian retched into a bucket numerous times as Professor Gert Saayman gave harrowing testimony about the multiple bullet wounds he admits inflicting on his girlfriend.

Prof Saayman told the court how Miss Steenkamp was struck four times – on the top right of the head, in the right elbow, in the right hip and also in the webbing of her left hand.

He said the bullets used were designed to ‘expand and mushroom’ to cause maximum damage.

The model and law graduate sustained injuries from fragments from the bullets, door and from her own bone, he added.

He said Miss Steenkamp had been wearing grey Nike shorts and a sleeveless black vest at the time.

As the details were read out, the court was forced to adjourn twice as Pistorius broke down, his shoulders visibly shaking.

The judge questioned whether he was well enough to stay in court, but his lawyer Barry Roux insisted the athlete wanted the evidence to continue as a break would not help his state of mind.

After lunch, his vomiting intensified and could be heard through the courtroom, according to reporters present in the trial.

Earlier, Judge Thokozile Masipa had banned live broadcasting and tweeting of evidence by Prof Saayman, head of the forensic medicine department at the University of Pretoria, because of the nature of his evidence.

She announced the ban after prosecutor Gerrie Nel, supported by chief defence lawyer Barry Roux, said Prof Saayman’s testimony would have an ‘explicitly graphic nature’ and should not be shown around the world.

‘It’s not a question of press freedom,’ Mr Nel said.

Prof Saayman said the ‘very personal nature’ of his autopsy findings as well as graphic details about the injuries could ‘compromise the dignity of the deceased’ as well as harm her friends and family, if they are broadcast.

‘It goes against the good morals of society for us to make information of this nature available’ in a way that children and other unsuspecting people might be exposed, Saayman said in the witness box.

Proceedings can be partly televised and the audio can be broadcast in its entirety under a judge’s pre-trial order which sought to balance the right to a fair trial with the intense public interest in the Pistorius case and the principle of open justice.

Under the order, some witnesses can choose not to be shown on television.

Earlier today, Judge Thokozile Masipa extended that order, saying ‘private witnesses are more vulnerable than public figures’ and that still photographs of witnesses who requested some discretion cannot be published or disseminated for the duration of the trial, even if they were obtained from sources outside the courtroom.

The new ruling followed the publication in a South African media outlet last week of a photo of a witness whose image was lifted from a publicly accessible website.

Pistorius, the first amputee to run in the Olympics, is charged with premeditated murder over Ms Steenkamp’s death.

The 27-year-old claims the killing was accidental because he thought his girlfriend was a dangerous intruder in a toilet cubicle in his home.

Before today’s adjournment, a security guard who said he spoke with Pistorius soon after the shooting on Valentine’s Day last year was questioned by the defence about his recollection of the sequence of events that night.

The sequence is important for the defence because, if it can prove that Pistorius called security first, it could support the contention that he was seeking help as quickly as possible.

The guard, Pieter Baba, had recalled a conversation with the double-amputee runner, who killed Ms Steenkamp in his home in the early hours of February 14 2013.

Mr Baba testified on Friday that he called Pistorius and was told on the telephone that ‘everything is fine’.

He said Pistorius called him back moments later, did not speak and was crying, and the second call then ended.

Mr Baba said he was responding to neighbours’ reports of gunshots coming from Pistorius’s home after 3am. He drove with a fellow guard to Pistorius’s villa and made the call from outside the house.

Mr Baba’s statement that he called Pistorius first could back the prosecution’s case that the killing was premeditated, and that Pistorius was trying, at least initially, to conceal what he had done.

Today, however, Mr Roux said call records showed that Pistorius called security first, but could not speak because he was ‘indeed crying’.

‘I’m the one who called him first,’ Mr Baba insisted.

‘His call was first and your call was second,’ countered Mr Roux, saying he had documents, including one from the police, which showed his assertion to be true.

‘I put proof in front of you that Mr Pistorius called first,’ Mr Roux said. He said Pistorius had called before the guards went to his house.

‘If Mr Pistorius called me first, then I would have known that something was wrong at his house,’ Mr Baba replied, repeating his version.

On Friday, his ex-girlfriend told the court about an occasion when Pistorius shot through a car sunroof at a traffic light after a confrontation with police.

The Olympian was furious after an officer took his Glock pistol and emptied its chamber after the car – in which Pistorius was a passenger – was pulled over for speeding, the court heard.

Samantha Taylor, a model who was also a passenger in the car, said the police had spotted his gun lying on the car seat and told him it ‘couldn’t just stay there’.

She added: ‘Oscar got angry. He shouted at the policeman because he was not allowed to touch his gun.’

After the confrontation with officers was over, the car pulled away and Pistorius re-loaded the weapon, letting off a shot through the sunroof around 15 minutes later.

The driver of the car was Darren Fresco – the friend pressured by Pistorius to take the blame in another shooting incident that was relayed to the court earlier in the week.

Miss Taylor told Pretoria High Court that the double amputee carried a gun ‘all the time’ during their relationship, which began when she was 17.

He kept one under his bed and on the floor with his prosthetic legs at night, she added.

Miss Taylor painted a picture of a man who was frequently angry, raised his voice, kept multiple mobile phones and was unfaithful.

The witness wept repeatedly as she described their turbulent romance, which began in 2011 and ‘ended when he cheated on me with Reeva Steenkamp’ – the girlfriend he is alleged to have shot on Valentine’s Day last year.

Her evidence about the shooting incident in the car relates to firearm offences that Pistorius has denied, which are in addition to the murder charge he is facing.

Miss Taylor described another incident in which Pistorius had brandished a gun to threaten the driver of a car that he believed was following them home.

‘When we arrived at his estate, he jumped out of the car with his gun and held it to someone’s window and then they drove away,’ she said.

During cross examination, the double amputee’s lawyer, Barry Roux, put it to Miss Taylor that Pistorius could sound like a woman when he raised his voice in anxiety.

She disagreed and told the court that she had heard the athlete shout at her ‘sister, best friend, another friend, and his best friend’ and ‘he never sounded like a woman’.

The trial continues. (0)

Oscar Pistorius vomits in court as pathologist gives harrowing account of Reeva Steenkamp’s injuries

EU to sanction Russia over Ukraine

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius yesterday in Paris warned Russia of rapid European sanctions if attempts to reach a diplomatic solution to end Ukraine’s crisis failed.

EU leaders

He said that EU leaders could impose sanctions on Moscow today during a crisis meeting on Ukraine.

Fabius said the sanctions might  include restrictions on visas and the assets of individuals and existing discussions on economic ties with Russia.

“Let’s start to initiate the path of dialogue, but at the same time tomorrow there is an EU summit and sanctions could be voted tomorrow if there is no de-escalation,” he said.

“I expect and hope that Russia will tell us that there is a prospect for dialogue with a contact group,” he added. (0)

EU to sanction Russia over Ukraine