Ocean search for Malaysian airliner finds 2nd shipwreck
Ocean search for Malaysian airliner finds 2nd shipwreck
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The undersea search for the Malaysian airliner that vanished almost two years ago has found a likely 19th century shipwreck deep in the Indian Ocean off the west Australian coast, officials said Wednesday.
A sonar search for the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 found what appeared to be a man-made object on Dec. 19, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said in a statement.
A follow-up investigation using an underwater drone captured high-resolution sonar images on Jan. 2 that confirmed that the find was a shipwreck, said the bureau, which is running the search for the Boeing 777 which vanished on March 8, 2014.
The Shipwreck Galleries of the Western Australian Museum conducted a preliminary review of the images and advised that the wreck was likely to be a steel or iron ship dating from the turn of the 19th century, the bureau said.
The bureau on Thursday corrected the potential age of the wreck to the middle of the 19th century or later.
US Navy sailors released unharmed by Iran in less than a day
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — It turned out to be the international crisis that wasn’t.
Less than a day after 10 U.S. Navy sailors were detained in Iran when their boats drifted into Iranian waters, they and their vessels were back safely Wednesday with the American fleet.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry tapped the personal relationship he has formed with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif in the three years of negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, speaking with him at least five times by telephone. Kerry credited the quick resolution to the “critical role diplomacy plays in keeping our country secure and strong.”
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter thanked Kerry after the sailors’ release and couched the incident in humanitarian terms, noting that “the U.S. Navy routinely provides assistance to foreign sailors in distress.”
For Tehran, the Americans’ swift release was a way to neutralize a potential new flashpoint days before it was expected to meet the terms of last summer’s nuclear deal, which will give Iran significant relief from painful economic sanctions.
Louisiana theater shooter’s journal calls US a ‘filth farm’
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The mentally unstable gunman who shot up a Louisiana movie theater last summer left a rambling, hate-filled journal in which he called the U.S. a “filth farm,” railed against women, gays and blacks, and thanked a man accused of killing nine churchgoers in South Carolina for his “wake up call.”
The hand-written, 40-page journal released Wednesday doesn’t explain why John Russell Houser decided to kill two people and wound nine at a screening of “Trainwreck” last July 23. He didn’t say a word as he opened fire, killing Jillian Johnson, a 33-year-old musician and business owner, and Mayci Breaux, a 21-year-old student. He died from his own gun before anyone could question him.
But the contents suggest Houser expected to die, and knew others would read the words he left in his room at a Motel 6. Shortly before the shooting, Houser wrote on the last page that he was leaving the journal “in hopes of truth, my death all but assured.”
Houser, a 59-year-old drifter, also shared his “random thoughts” on politics, the news media, the presidential race, the Ten Commandments, his favorite movies and music and his view of the future.
“If you have not stood against filth, you are now a soft target,” he wrote on the lined pages of the notebook.
Istanbul suicide bomber registered as refugee before attack
ISTANBUL (AP) — The suicide attacker who detonated a bomb that killed 10 German tourists in the heart of Istanbul’s historic district had registered as a refugee just a week earlier, Turkish officials said Wednesday, raising questions over whether extremists are posing as asylum-seekers to inflame anti-immigrant sentiment in Europe.
Turkish authorities identified the assailant in Tuesday’s attack as a Syrian man who was born in 1988, and said he was affiliated with the Islamic State group. Turkish media, including some close to the government, identified him as Nabil Fadli and said he was Saudi-born. The extremist group has not so far claimed the attack.
Meanwhile, Turkish police arrested five people suspected of direct links to the bomb attack which took place just steps from the historic Blue Mosque in Istanbul’s storied Sultanahmet district. The suspects were not identified.
The bomber had recently entered Turkey, authorities said, and Interior Minister Efkan Ala confirmed reports he had registered with an Istanbul branch of the Migration Management Authority, providing fingerprints that allowed officials to quickly identify him. Ala said the bomber wasn’t on any Turkish or international watch lists for IS militants.
“This person was not someone who was being monitored,” Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said. “It is a person who entered normally, as a refugee, as an asylum-seeker.”