Six In The Morning Thursday May 29

29 May 2014 Last updated at 08:32

Malaysia missing MH370 plane: 'Ping area' ruled out

The area where acoustic signals thought linked to the missing Malaysian plane were detected can now be ruled out as the final resting place of flight MH370, Australian officials say.

The Bluefin-21 submersible robot had finished its search of the area and found nothing, they said.

Efforts would now focus on reviewing search data, surveying the sea floor and bringing in specialist equipment.

Flight MH370 went missing on 8 March as it flew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Using satellite data, officials have concluded that the airliner, which had 239 people on board, ended its journey in the Indian Ocean, north-west of the Australian city of Perth.

Police officers accused as low-caste teenage girls are 'gang-raped and hung from a tree' in India

One constable reportedly took part in the attack and the other is accused of refusing to listen to the relatives of the two girls

ANDREW BUNCOMBE   

DELHI

 

Thursday 29 May 2014

Police are searching for a group of men accused of gang-raping and murdering two low-caste teenage girls and leaving their bodies in a tree. Reports say police officers may themselves have been involved in the attack.

Officers in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh say the two cousins were attacked, killed and their bodies discarded early on Wednesday morning. Relatives of the two girls – aged 14 and 15 - complained that police refused to register the case and that two constables may have had a role.

In the aftermath of the assault, the relatives of the two girls refused to allow police to collect the bodies from where they were left in a mango tree, by means of protest. Eventually, officers recovered the corpses and they were sent for post-mortem examination.

Snowden's Lawyer: 'Mutually Agreed Solution with US Would Be Most Sensible'

Interview Conducted by Hubert Gude and Jörg Schindler

Is it still possible that whistleblower Edward Snowden will testify in Berlin? His German attorney Wolfgang Kaleck, 53, says it is. In an interview with SPIEGEL, he also discusses negotiations over Snowden's possible return to the US.

SPIEGEL: Mr. Kaleck, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats, described Edward Snowden as a lawbreaker during recent discussions with United States government representatives in Washington. Did that surprise you?

Kaleck: It did not surprise me, but I do find it shocking. Edward Snowden is a whistleblower, someone who followed his conscience and went public with a scandal that is global in nature: the threat intelligence services represent to all Internet freedom. The issue should be approached with more seriousness.

European cities' sewer water exposes use of cocaine, cannabis, meth and ecstasy

By Ben Brumfield, CNN

 Imagine you could let your city urinate in a cup and submit the sample to a laboratory for drug testing. Would it pass?

Researchers in Europe did something similar with 42 major cities, and many of them failed.

Lab tests on sewage water to detect chemicals excreted after drug use turned up high levels of cannabis, cocaine, ecstasy, meth and other amphetamines.

The scientists' results, published this week in the journal Addiction, read like a top 10 list of European party capitals.

Abe to offer Japan as China counterweight, at Asian defence forum

 

By Hiroshi Hiyama2 hours ago

 Shinzo Abe will use a speech at an Asian defence forum this weekend to offer Japan as a counterweight to the growing might of China in a region increasingly riven by territorial disputes.

The Japanese prime minister will tell the so-called Shangri-La Dialogue that Tokyo and its partner the United States stand ready to jointly bolster security cooperation with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Sankei Shimbun newspaper reported.

He will stop short of singling out China, the paper added, but there will be little doubt about where he thinks the blame lies for the various escalating disputes in the South China Sea, and Japan's own battle with Beijing over East China Sea islands.

Activist Somaly Mam Resigns from Anti-Sex Slavery Foundation

BY GIL AEGERTER

Cambodian activist Somaly Mam resigned Wednesday from the eponymous foundation she helped start to fight global sex trafficking after an investigation of her personal history, the organization said.

“We have accepted Somaly’s resignation effective immediately,” said a statement from Gina Reiss-Wilchins, executive director of the Somaly Mam Foundation.

“While we are extremely saddened by this news, we remain grateful to Somaly’s work over the past two decades and for helping to build a foundation that has served thousands of women and girls, and has raised critical awareness of the nearly 21 million individuals who are currently enslaved today.”