介绍:
China to continue offering adequate resources for MH370 search -- ambassador
China has vowed to continue to provide adequate resources for the search of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.
Chinese ambassador to Australia Ma Zhaoxu made the statement after Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced that the search is entering a new phase.
At a press conference in Canberra, Abbott said it is now highly unlikely that any debris will be located on the ocean surface.
"By this stage, 52 days into the search, most material would have become water-logged and sunk. With the distances involved, all of the aircraft are operating at close to the limit of sensible and safe operation. Therefore, we are moving from the current phase to a phase which is focused on searching the ocean floor over a much larger area."
Abbott said the new phase of the search would involve commercial contractors with additional sonar mapping equipment.
Australia, China and Malaysia would share the estimated cost of some 60 million US dollars.
Search coordinator Angus Houston says it would take four weeks for search contractors to deploy towed sonar devices and in the interim the robotic submersible Bluefin-21 would continue to search.
Bad weather stymies search for missing in sunken ferry
Bad weather has halted search operations for more than 100 passengers still missing from the deadly ferry disaster in South Korea.
Only one body was retrieved over the weekend, leaving the death toll unchanged at 188 and the number of the missing at 114.
Earlier, President Park Geun-hye accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Chung Hong-won over criticism of the government response to the disaster.
Obama: new sanctions on Russian individuals, companies
US President Barack Obama says the U.S. will announce more economic sanctions targeting Russian individuals and corporations in response to Moscow's actions in the Ukraine crisis.
On a visit to the Philippines, Obama pointed to Russia's failure to uphold agreements aimed at cooling the crisis in Ukraine.
However, he also acknowledged that the sanctions might not affect the decisions taken by Russian president Vladimir Putin with regard to Ukraine.
The sanctions are expected to target high-technology exports to the Russian defense industry and companies controlled by those closest to President Putin.
Obama arrives in Philippines for state visit
US President Barack Obama is visiting the Philippines on the final leg of his four-nation Asia tour.
He has held talks with President Benigno Aquino III.
Ahead of his arrival, the two countries signed a 10-year military cooperation deal, allowing a bigger US military presence in the South East Asian nation.
Syria's Assad to run for presidential election
Syria's President Bashar al- Assad has registered his candidacy for the June 3 presidential race.
He is widely expected to win a fresh 7-year term.
The vote will be the first to take place under new legislation, which states that candidates must have lived in Syria for 10 years prior to the election.
Such provisions bar opposition figures to enter the bid, as a significant part of them went in exile long before the conflict began three years ago.
Death toll rises to 17 as tornadoes strike central, south U.S.
The worst tornado outbreak of the year has struck several small towns across the central United States, killing at least 17 people.
Scores of homes and businesses have also been damaged or destroyed.
At least 16 were killed when twisters stuck near Little Rock, Arkansas.
Smaller tornadoes were also reported in Nebraska, Illinois, Missouri and Mississippi.
Egypt sentences 683 MB members to death
Egyptian state TV says a court has sentenced 683 members of the Muslim Brotherhood to death over assaulting and murdering police last year.
The Minya Criminal Court accused the defendants, including Brotherhood chief Mohamed Badie, of involvement in murdering policemen in the Upper Egyptian province.
Earlier this year, the same court sentenced 37 Brotherhood members and supporters to death and ordered life imprisonment of nearly 500 others in a similar case related to last year's violence in the town of Matay in Minya.
The violence erupted following the ouster of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi by the military last July.
IMF raises China growth outlook
The International Monetary Fund has raised its economic growth outlook for China this year by 0.3 percentage points to 7.5 percent.
The IMF says Beijing needs to make more progress in rebalancing the economy toward self-sustaining growth based on domestic consumption and away from reliance on investment.
It notes that there are some burgeoning signs that consumption is set to play a larger role in the Chinese economy.
The IMF also suggests that efforts to cool down credit growth, raise the cost of capital, and dampen investment growth should continue.
Malicious driver kills several in SE China
A driver has killed several people after he rammed his car into roadside pedestrians in southeast China's Fuzhou City.
Local media say five people have been killed, including primary school students.
The driver was reportedly leaving a courthouse after a divorce case.
He was forced to stop the vehicle after it was badly damaged, before being subdued by police.
