World

THE HAGUE — World leaders called on countries on Tuesday to cut their use and their stocks of highly enriched nuclear fuel to the minimum to help prevent Al Qaeda-style militants from obtaining material for atomic bombs.

Winding up a third nuclear security summit since 2010, this one overshadowed by the Ukraine crisis, 53 countries — including the United States and Russia at a time of high tension between them — agreed much headway had been made in the past four years.

But they also underlined that many challenges remained and stressed the need for increased international cooperation to make sure highly enriched uranium (HEU), plutonium and other radioactive substances do not fall into the wrong hands.

The United States and Russia set aside their differences over Crimea to endorse the meeting’s final statement aimed at enhancing nuclear security around the world, together with other big powers including China, France, Germany and Britain.

US President Barack Obama said Ukraine’s decision at the first nuclear security summit in Washington in 2010 to remove all of its HEU was a “vivid reminder that the more of this material we can secure, the safer all of our countries will be”.

“Had that not happened, those dangerous nuclear materials would still be there now,” Obama told a news conference. “And the difficult situation we are dealing with in Ukraine today would involve yet another level of concern.”

At this year’s summit, Belgium and Italy announced that they had shipped out HEU and plutonium to the United States for down-blending into less proliferation-sensitive material or disposal. Japan said it would send hundreds of kilogrammes of such material to the United States.

Like plutonium, uranium can be used to fuel nuclear power plants but also provides the fissile core of a bomb if refined to a high level.

“We encourage states to minimise their stocks of HEU and to keep their stockpile of separated plutonium to the minimum level,” said the summit communique, which went further in this respect than the previous summit in Seoul in 2012.

A fourth meeting will be held in Chicago in 2016, returning to the United States where the process was launched by Obama.

Lacking security?

“We still have a lot more work to do to fulfil the ambitious goals we set four years ago to fully secure all nuclear and radiological material, civilian and military,” Obama said.

To drive home the importance of being prepared, the Dutch hosts sprang a surprise by organising a simulation game for the leaders in which they were asked to react to a fictitious nuclear attack or accident in a made-up state, officials said.

Analysts say that radical groups could theoretically build a crude but deadly nuclear bomb if they had the money, technical knowledge and fissile substances needed.

Obtaining weapons-grade nuclear material — HEU or plutonium — poses the biggest challenge for militants, so it must be kept secure both at civilian and military sites, they say.

Around 2,000 tonnes of highly-radioactive materials are spread across hundreds of sites in 25 countries. Most of the materials is under military control but a significant quantity is stored in less secured civilian locations, according to the Fissile Materials Working Group (FMWG).

Since 1991, the number of countries with nuclear weapons-usable material has roughly halved from some 50.

However, more than 120 research and isotope production reactors around the world still use HEU for fuel or targets, many of them with “very modest” security measures, a Harvard Kennedy School report said this month.

“With at least two and possibly three groups having pursued nuclear weapons in the past quarter century, they are not likely to be the last,” the report said.

Referring to a push to use low-enriched uranium (LEU) as fuel in research and other reactor types instead of HEU, the summit statement said: “We encourage states to continue to minimise the use of HEU through the conversion of reactor fuel from HEU to LEU, were technically and economically feasible.

“Similarly, we will continue to encourage and support efforts to use non-HEU technologies for the production of radio-isotopes, including financial incentives,” it said.

‘Dirty bomb’

An apple-sized amount of plutonium in a nuclear device and detonated in a highly populated area could instantly kill or wound hundreds of thousands of people, according to the Nuclear Security Governance Experts Group.

But a so-called “dirty bomb” is seen as a more likely threat than an atomic bomb: conventional explosives are used to disperse radiation from a radioactive source, which can be found in hospitals or other places that may not be very well secured.

In December, Mexican police found a truck they suspected was stolen by common thieves and which carried a radioactive medical material that could have provided such an ingredient.

In another incident that put nuclear security in the spotlight and embarrassed US officials, an elderly nun and two peace activists have admitted breaking into a Tennessee defence facility in 2012 where uranium for atomic bombs is stored.

The FMWG, an international group of over 70 security experts, said the summit had taken “moderate steps” towards stopping dangerous weapons-usable nuclear materials from going astray but that bolder and more concerted action is needed.

“Today’s nuclear security system — a hodgepodge of voluntary national pledges without global standards to lock down nuclear materials — needs more than just patching up to prevent a nuclear terrorist attack,” the FMWG said in a statement.

ARLINGTON, United States — The death toll from a devastating landslide in the US state of Washington rose to at least 14 Monday with over 150 more potentially missing, as the White House announced federal help.

The number of people unaccounted for after the killer mudslide, described as “like a small earthquake”, rose to 176, although many of those could be double-counted, emergency managers said.

“I’m very disappointed to tell you that we didn’t find any sign of any survivors,” said Snohomish County fire chief Travis Hots, after six more bodies had been found, adding to the eight already confirmed dead.

“The situation is very grim,” he added.

 ‘I believe in miracles’ 

Emergency management chief John Pennington added: “I’m a man of faith and I believe in miracles... but I think that we as a community are beginning to realise that... we are moving towards a recovery operation.”

“Most of us... believe that we will not find any individuals alive,” he added at an evening briefing.

The wall of mud, rocks and trees smashed into the rural town of Oso, northeast of Seattle in the northwestern US state on Saturday, destroying dozens of homes and part of a highway.

Some 100 emergency crew workers were searching for survivors in the field of mud and rubble about 1.6km square, and some four to six metres deep in areas.

 Mini hovercraft 

A total of 49 dwellings of various types in the area were hit by the devastating landslide, he said, adding that there were likely to have been more people at home on a Saturday than during the week.

Mini hovercraft were used to skate across the vast mudslide’s surface, while tracker dogs and helicopters were also being used.

Rescuers reported hearing voices calling for help on Saturday, but Hots said they “didn’t see or hear any signs of life” on Sunday.

Among the missing was a four-month-old baby and her grandmother, local media reported.

Oso resident Doug Dix, whose house was a couple of hundred yards from the slide, said he was working in his barn when he heard a huge rumbling noise.

 ‘Like a small earthquake’ 

“My first impression was I thought we were having a small earthquake. The barn was vibrating,” the semi-retired wildlife toxicologist told AFP.

“Then I went outside and it sounded to me like one of those twin-prop helicopters coming down... It was unbelievably noisy.” The noise went on for about a minute. “I was looking up in the air trying to find a plane crash,” he said.

Shari Ireton of the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office said the number of people reported unaccounted for could include double counting, as it was the result of combining a number of lists of people missing, not always with full names.

“Some of those could be overlapped,” she said.

Pennington added at the evening briefing: “The 176 names actually, as discouraging as that sounds, is exactly what we were looking for... which was information and data.”

“That number is about individual names reported. They’re not individuals that are deceased, they’re not individuals that are missing, they are 176 reports,” he said.

Obama pledges 

federal help 

President Barack Obama meanwhile declared an emergency in the Pacific coast state, opening the way for federal aid to add to local and state emergency resources.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency will help “save lives and to protect property and public health and safety, and to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in Snohomish County”, said the White House.

Washington state Governor Jay Inslee told reporters there is “a full-scale, 100 per cent, aggressive rescue effort” going on.

Workers ‘up 

to their armpits’ 

The stricken area was so unstable that some rescue workers “went in and got caught literally up to their armpits”, and had to be pulled out themselves, Inslee said.

Rain has been especially heavy in the Cascade Mountains region in the past weeks. The forecast is for more downpours throughout the week.

US Senator Patty Murray, from Washington state, called the mudslide a “devastating... disaster”.

“Dozens and dozens of families... do not know if their loved ones are still alive,” she said on the Senate floor in Washington.

LONDON — Air pollution kills about 7 million people worldwide every year, with more than half of the fatalities due to fumes from indoor stoves, according to a new report from the World Health Organisation (WHO) published Tuesday.

The agency said air pollution is the cause of about one in eight deaths and has now become the single biggest environmental health risk.

“We all have to breathe, which makes pollution very hard to avoid,” said Frank Kelly, director of the environmental research group at King’s College London, who was not part of the WHO report.

One of the main risks of pollution is that tiny particles can get deep into the lungs, causing irritation. Scientists also suspect air pollution may be to blame for inflammation in the heart, leading to chronic problems or a heart attack.

WHO estimated that there were about 4.3 million deaths in 2012 caused by indoor air pollution, mostly people cooking inside using wood and coal stoves in Asia. WHO said there were about 3.7 million deaths from outdoor air pollution in 2012, of which nearly 90 per cent were in developing countries.

But WHO noted that many people are exposed to both indoor and outdoor air pollution. Due to this overlap, mortality attributed to the two sources cannot simply be added together, hence WHO said it lowered the total estimate from around 8 million to 7 million deaths in 2012.

The new estimates are more than double previous figures and based mostly on modeling. The increase is partly due to better information about the health effects of pollution and improved detection methods. Last year, WHO’s cancer agency classified air pollution as a carcinogen, linking dirty air to lung and bladder cancer.

WHO’s report noted women had higher levels of exposure than men in developing countries.

“Poor women and children pay a heavy price from indoor air pollution since they spend more time at home breathing in smoke, and soot from leaky coal and wood cook stoves,” Flavia Bustreo, WHO Assistant Director-General for family, women and children’s health, said in a statement.

Other experts said more research was needed to identify the deadliest components of pollution in order to target control measures more effectively.

“We don’t know if dust from the Sahara is as bad as diesel fuel or burning coal,” said Majid Ezzati, chair in global environmental health at Imperial College London.

Kelly said it was mostly up to governments to curb pollution levels, through measures like legislation, moving power stations away from big cities, and providing cheap alternatives to indoor wood and coal stoves.

He said people could also reduce their individual exposure to choking fumes by avoiding traveling at rush hour or by taking smaller roads. Despite the increasing use of face masks in heavily polluted cities such as Beijing and Tokyo, Kelly said there was little evidence that they work.

“The real problem is that wearing masks sends out the message we can live with polluted air,” he said. “We need to change our way of life entirely to reduce pollution.”

THE HAGUE/FEODOSIA, Crimea — US President Barack Obama conferred with major industrialised allies in the Group of Seven (G-7) on Monday on how to pressure Russia over its seizure of Crimea after Ukraine told its remaining troops to leave the region for their own safety.

Obama, who has imposed tougher sanctions on Moscow than European leaders over its takeover of the Black Sea peninsula, sought backing for his firm line at a meeting deliberately called to exclude Russia, which joined in 1998 to form the G-8.

“As long as the political environment for the G-8 is not at hand, as is the case at the moment, there is no G-8 — neither as a concrete summit meeting or even as a format for meetings,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said before the talks.

She said she did not expect the hour-long session of leaders of the United States, Japan, Canada, Germany, France, Britain and Italy, plus the European Union, to decide on new sanctions, although the leaders would discuss possible further measures to be taken if the situation escalates.

Since the emergency meeting held on the sidelines of a nuclear security summit in The Hague was announced last week, President Vladimir Putin has signed laws completing Russia’s annexation of the region.

Russian troops forced their way into a Ukrainian marine base in the port of Feodosia early on Monday, overrunning one of the last remaining symbols of resistance.

In Kiev, acting president Oleksander Turchinov told parliament the remaining Ukrainian troops and their families would be pulled out of the region in the face of “threats to the lives and health of our service personnel”.

That effectively ends any Ukrainian resistance, less than a month since Putin claimed Russia’s right to intervene militarily on its neighbour’s territory.

White House officials accompanying Obama expressed concern on Monday at what they said was a Russian troop buildup near Ukraine and warned that any further military intervention would trigger wider sanctions than the measures taken so far.

Russia-Ukraine talks

In what has become the biggest East-West confrontation since the Cold War, the United States and the European Union have imposed visa bans and asset freezes on some of Putin’s closest political and business allies. But they have held back so far from measures designed to hit Russia’s wider economy.

“Europe and America are united in our support of the Ukrainian government and the Ukrainian people,” Obama said after a meeting with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. “We’re united in imposing a cost on Russia for its actions so far.”

He also discussed the crisis at a meeting in The Hague with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has voiced support for Ukraine’s sovereignty but refrained from criticising Russia. The West wants Beijing’s diplomatic support in an effort to restrain Putin.

Moscow formally annexed Crimea on March 21, five days after newly-installed pro-Moscow regional leaders held a referendum that yielded an overwhelming vote to join Russia. Kiev and the West denounced the annexation as illegal.

In one sign of a possible easing of tension, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov agreed to hold a first meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, Andriy Deshchytsya on the sidelines of the nuclear security summit, a Russian diplomatic source said.

The first 50 out of 100 observers dispatched by the pan-European OSCE security watchdog arrived in Ukraine on Monday to monitor potential trouble spots and report back to the 54-nation organisation. Russia relented late last week and agreed on a mandate after prolonged wrangling, but the monitors will not be allowed to enter Crimea.

Further costs

Western officials are now focused less on persuading Putin to relinquish Crimea — a goal that seems beyond reach — than on deterring him from seizing other parts of Ukraine.

White House Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters Obama hoped the G-7 leaders would foreshadow “what economic sanctions Russia would be faced with if it continues down this road”.

Another G-7 official said the main point of the G-7 meeting was “to show the isolation of Putin”. The leaders were also expected to cancel plans for a G-8 meeting at the Russian Olympics site in Sochi, for which preparations were frozen after Moscow seized Crimea, he said.

Persuading Europeans to sign on to tougher sanctions could be difficult for Obama. The EU does 10 times as much trade with Russia as the United States, and is the biggest customer for Russian oil and gas. The EU’s 28 members include countries with widely varying relationships to Moscow.

Central and east European countries that were once under Moscow’s domination and have joined the EU in the last decade are mostly urging caution due to the risk to their economies.

But German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the EU’s most powerful leader, has taken a tough line with Putin and supported EU moves to reduce the bloc’s long-term dependence on Russian energy.

Little resistance

The seizure of Crimea has been largely bloodless, apart from one Ukrainian soldier and one pro-Moscow militia member killed in a shoot-out last Tuesday. Ukraine’s troops left behind in Crimea have been besieged inside bases while offering little resistance.

In Feodosia, Ukrainian troops hugged each other in farewell after their base was overrun. Some chanted “Hurra! Hurra!” in defiance. One marine in full uniform who declined to identify himself wept and blamed the government in Kiev for the chaotic end to the stand-off.

“Yesterday we had an agreement: we would lower our flag and the Russians would raise theirs. And this morning the Russians attacked, firing live ammunition. We had no weapons. We did not fire a round,” said one marine, Ruslan, who was with his wife Katya and nine-month-old son.

Although Russian forces have not entered other parts of Ukraine, NATO says they have built up at the border. The Western military alliance also fears Putin may have designs on a part of another former Soviet republic, Moldova.

Despite the disruption to East-West relations, Washington wants other diplomatic business with Moscow to continue.

US Secretary of State John Kerry also held talks with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, after meeting the head of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. The OPCW is overseeing the destruction of Syria’s toxic stockpile in action sponsored jointly by Washington and Moscow.

Russia hit back symbolically at Canada, announcing personal sanctions against 13 Canadian officials in retaliation for Ottawa’s role in Western sanctions so far. It has already taken similar measures against senior US Congress members but not yet European officials.

Western governments are struggling to find a balance between putting pressure on Putin, protecting their own economies and avoiding triggering a vicious cycle of sanctions and reprisals.

Rutte, who is making his residence available to Obama and the other G-7 leaders for the talks on the sidelines of a nuclear security summit, said the West might want to move slowly.

“Russia has an economy that is highly focused on oil and gas,” Rutte told Reuters. “If it came to putting in place sanctions, that would hurt Russia considerably. So in my view we should do everything to prevent that.”

US officials say any further sanctions will need to be carefully calibrated to avoid bans on entire sectors, such as oil or metals, that could affect the global economy.

PARIS — France’s ruling Socialists on Monday responded to a stinging electoral setback by unveiling plans to block a potential breakthrough by the far-right National Front (FN) in nationwide local elections.

In a vote widely expected to trigger a far-reaching Cabinet reshuffle by President Francois Hollande, the anti-immigration FN is on track to take control of up to 15 towns across the country following a better-than-expected showing in Sunday’s first round of voting.

Candidates from Marine Le Pen’s FN will contest second round, runoff votes this coming Sunday in an unprecedented 315 municipalities and are well-placed to win more than a dozen of them having already claimed one mayor’s seat, in the depressed former mining town of Henin Beaumont, by claiming an overall majority at the first attempt.

In a bid to reduce the impact of the FN’s surge, the Socialists announced they would be joining forces with the Greens and the Communist Party to present joint lists where it can reduce the chances of an FN win in the second round.

Party first secretary Harlem Desir, a veteran anti-FN campaigner, also announced that the PS would stand down its candidate in the southern town of St Gilles to give the mainstream centre-right a better chance of defeating the FN candidate who topped the first round poll.

Pundits were unanimous in portraying the FN’s success and an unusually high abstention rate as a sign of the electorate’s anger, exasperation and disillusionment with Hollande’s administration, which has appeared rudderless at times as it grapples with a stagnating economy and record unemployment.

“The economic crisis has exacerbated a search for authority and there has been a general hardening of attitudes towards foreigners throughout French society, which the National Front has benefited from,” said Nonna Mayer, a political analyst at the CNRS think tank.

PM out, president’s ex in? 

Hollande is expected to announce significant changes to the government line-up in the aftermath of the election debacle with lacklustre Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault’s position widely thought to be on the line.

Popular Interior Minister Manuel Valls is tipped to replace Ayrault while the president’s former partner, Segolene Royal, is expected to be brought back from the political wilderness.

Royal, the mother of Hollande’s four children, is a longstanding Socialist Party heavyweight who was reportedly left out of the current government on the insistence of the woman who replaced her as the president’s girlfriend, Valerie Trierweiler. That is no longer an issue as Hollande and Trierweiler separated in January following the revelation of his affair with actress Julie Gayet (who is friendly with Royal).

“Francois Hollande must draw the conclusions from a vote that is clearly addressed to him,” the left-leaning Liberation daily said, describing the results as a “slap” in the face for the embattled president, currently the most unpopular leader in recent French history.

“The record figures of the National Front and the rise in the number of abstentions are... symptoms of an ailing democracy,” it said.

Record low turnout 

Voter turnout on Sunday was just over 61 per cent of the electorate: respectable in most countries but a record low in France.

The main opposition centre-right UMP Party and allies took 47 per cent of the vote nationwide, while the Socialists and allies took 38 per cent. The FN accounted for 5 per cent of votes cast nationwide but was only fielding candidates in a small number of selected municipalities.

Le Pen’s party scored far better in a number of mid-sized towns in the southeast of the country, traditionally fertile ground for the far-right, and in several depressed pockets of northern France, as well as claiming nearly a quarter of the votes cast in France’s second city, Marseille.

“Punished,” was the Le Parisien daily’s verdict on Hollande’s first electoral test since taking power two years ago after unseating the UMP’s Nicolas Sarkozy.

Socialist MPs appealed to supporters to make sure they turned out for the second round.

National Assembly Speaker Claude Bartolone said they should resist Marine Le Pen’s attempts to transform the image of the FN, which remains tainted by association to its founder, her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, a veteran Holocaust denier with multiple convictions for racism.

“The FN still puts forward the same arguments of hatred and division,” Bartolone said.

Marine Le Pen claimed the FN’s success marked an end to two-party politics in France.

In a reference to the cronyism that has marked the party’s previous attempts to manage towns, she vowed that her followers would run model administrations.

“We will lower taxes in all the cities managed by us,” Le Pen said.

In Paris, the UMP was encouraged by an unexpected lead won by former Sarkozy minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, who is competing against Socialist candidate Anne Hidalgo. The outcome sets the scene for a nail-biting runoff to decide who will be the French capital’s first ever female mayor.

LOS ANGELES — More than 100 people are still unaccounted for after a devastating landslide in the northwestern US state of Washington, while eight people are so far confirmed dead, officials said Monday.

The number reported missing or unaccounted for rose dramatically from 18 to 108 after the massive landslide slammed “like a freight train” into a mountainside in Snohomish County.

“We’re still in rescue mode here, but the situation is very grim,” said Snohomish County fire district chief Travis Hots.

“We’re holding out hope that we’ll find people that are still alive, but we haven’t found anyone alive since Saturday.”

Emergency management chief John Pennington stressed that 108 is the number of reported missing or unaccounted for, not necessarily actually missing after the disaster on Saturday.

But he said there were a total of 49 dwellings of various types in the area hit by the devastating landslide and that there were likely to have been more people at home on a Saturday than during the week.

“To date there are 108 reports of names of individuals who are either unaccounted for or missing,” he said. “This doesn’t mean that there are 108 injuries, or 108 fatalities, it’s 108 reports,” he told reporters.

“It was Saturday, and it was probably a higher number than you would see during a weekday,” he said.

The wall of mud, rocks and trees smashed into the rural town of Oso, northeast of Seattle, destroying houses and part of a highway.

The field of rubble is about 2.4 kilometres across and some four to six metres deep in areas, The Seattle Times reported.

Rescuers reported hearing voices calling for help on Saturday, but Hots said they “didn’t see or hear any signs of life” on Sunday.

Among the missing was a four-month-old baby and her grandmother, local media reported.

Washington state Governor Jay Inslee, who declared a state of emergency for the area, told reporters there is “a full-scale, 100 per cent, aggressive rescue effort” going on, adding that helicopters, hovercrafts and rescue personnel had rushed to the scene.

The muddy area was so unstable that some rescue workers “went in and got caught literally up to their armpits” and had to be pulled out themselves, Inslee said.

 ‘Like a freight train’ 

People injured in the landslide include a six-month old infant and an 81 year-old man, both hospitalised in critical condition at a Seattle hospital, local media said.

“It sounded like a freight train,” landslide witness Dan Young told Komo4News. “In just 35 to 45 seconds it was over.”

Young’s home survived but is flooded. “It’s much worse than everyone’s been saying,” a firefighter who did not want to be named told The Seattle Times.

“The slide is about 1.6km wide. Entire neighborhoods are just gone. When the slide hit the [Stillaguamish] river, it was like a tsunami.”

Rain has been especially heavy in the Cascade Mountains region in the past weeks. The forecast is for more downpours throughout the week.

Patty Murray, who represents Washington in the US Senate, gave assurances that federal resources would be made available, as she offered thanks to rescue workers and her prayers to the families of the ravaged community.

KUALA LUMPUR — A new analysis of satellite data indicates the missing Malaysia Airlines plane crashed into a remote corner of the Indian Ocean, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said Monday.

The news is a major breakthrough in the unprecedented two-week struggle to find out what happened to Flight 370, which disappeared shortly after takeoff from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew aboard on March 8.

Dressed in a black suit, Najib announced the news in a brief statement to reporters late Monday night, saying the information was based on an unprecedented analysis of satellite data from Inmarsat.
He said the data indicated the plane flew "to a remote location, far from any possible landing sites."

"It is therefore with deep sadness and regret that I must inform you that, according to this new data, Flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean."

He said Malaysia Airlines has informed the families of passengers of the plane's fate.

Selamat Omar, the father of a 29-year-old aviation engineer who was on the flight, said some members of families of other passengers broke down in tears at the news.

"We accept the news of the tragedy. It is fate," Selamat told The Associated Press in Kuala Lumpur.

Selamat said the airline hasn't told the families yet whether they will be taken to Australia, which is coordinating the search for the plane. He said they expect more details Tuesday.

A multinational force has searched a wide swath of Asia trying to find the plane.

KIEV — Ukraine’s Western-backed leaders voiced fears on Sunday of an imminent Russian invasion of the eastern industrial heartland following the fall of their last airbase in Crimea to defiant Kremlin troops.

Saturday’s takeover involving armoured personnel carriers and stun grenades provided the most spectacular show of force since the Kremlin sent troops into the heavily Russified peninsula three weeks ago before sealing its annexation Friday.

Alarm about a push outside Crimea by Moscow’s overwhelming forces — now conducting drills at Ukraine’s eastern gate — were fanned further Sunday by a call by its self-declared premier for Russians across the ex-Soviet country to rise up against Kiev’s rule.

The interim leaders in Kiev fear that Russian President Vladimir Putin — flushed with expansionist fervour — is developing a sense of impunity after being hit by only limited EU and US sanctions for taking the Black Sea cape.

“The aim of Putin is not Crimea but all of Ukraine... His troops massed at the border are ready to attack at any moment,” Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council chief Andriy Parubiy told a mass unity rally in Kiev.

Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsya reaffirmed that message in an interview broadcast on Sunday on a top US political talk show.

“We do not know what Putin has in his mind and what would be his decision. That’s why this situation is becoming even more explosive than it used to be a week ago,” Deshchytsya told ABC’s “This Week”.

Europe’s most explosive crisis in decades will dominate a nuclear security summit opening in The Hague on Monday that will include what may prove to be the most difficult meeting to date between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

The encounter comes with Russia facing the loss of its coveted seat among the G-8 group of leading nations and US financial restrictions imposed on the most powerful members of Putin’s inner circle for their decision to resort to force in response to last month’s fall of Ukraine’s pro-Kremlin regime.

‘Call to fight’ 

One of the biggest tests facing the besieged interim leaders in Kiev now comes from restless Russians who have been stirring up violent protests and demanding their own secession referendums in the southeastern swaths of Ukraine.

The region’s mistrust of the new team’s European values lies from cultural and trade ties with Russia that in many cases are centuries old — a fact seized upon on Sunday by Crimea’s Russia-backed Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov.

He said in an impassioned address he posted on Facebook and read out on local TV that Crimea began facing a “sad fate” the moment three months of deadly protests involving a mix of nationalist and pro-Western forces toppled the pro-Kremlin regime in Kiev.

“But we resisted and won! Our motherland — Russia — extended her hand of help,” said Aksyonov. “So today, I appeal to you with a call to fight.”

“I call on you to resist the choice made for you by a bunch of political mavericks who are being financed by oligarchs.”

Aksyonov said he was “deeply convinced” that the future of southeastern Ukraine “rested in a close union with the Russian Federation — a political, economic and cultural union”.

Stun grenades 

Crimea’s authorities estimate they together with the Kremlin’s forces control at least half of Ukrainian bases on the Black Sea peninsula and about a third of its functioning naval vessels.

Ukraine’s acting Defence Minister Igor Tenyukh on Sunday lamented that his navy officers appeared too ready to surrender to Kremlin-backed militias and Russia’s Black Sea Fleet that has made Crimea its home since the 18th century.

“You know that in recent days, we have had our ships blockaded and seized even though our commanders had the authorisation to use force,” Tenyukh told reporters in Kiev.

“Unfortunately, the commanders made decisions on the spot. They chose not to use their weapons in order to avoid bloodshed.”

The Ukrainians’ refusal to engage Russian forces has led to a domino-like fall of their bases across the rugged peninsula of two million people.

The most dramatic episode of Russia’s excursion so far saw crack forces on Saturday break into the Belbek airbase near the main city of Simferopol after an armoured personnel carrier blasted through the main gate.

Two more armoured personnel carriers followed and gunmen stormed in firing automatic weapons into the air. An AFP reporter heard stun grenades before the situation calmed and the gunmen lowered their weapons.

Several unarmed soldiers began singing the Ukrainian national anthem during the ensuing lull.

Ukraine’s interim President Oleksandr Turchynov said Sunday that the Russian forces had also captured the base commander and demanded his immediate release.

Bid to ‘splinter Europe’ 

Russia’s diplomatic isolation is now growing as quickly as the reemergence of an ideological divide that appeared to have been bridged with the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall.

The foreign minister of Germany — whose economic power is playing a decisive role in forging Europe’s response to Putin’s increasingly belligerent stance — warned after talks with Ukraine’s leaders that the continent’s future was at stake.

The show of diplomatic solidarity may play an important psychological role in Kiev as it faces new pressure from Russia that include open threats to throw Ukraine’s wheezing economy into convulsion by raising its gas rates and demanding colossal payments for disputed debts it could ill afford.

Yet both the United States and Europe have thus far limited their retaliation against Putin to targeted travel and financial sanctions that concern officials but do not impact the broader Russian economy.

Washington’s steps have been more meaningful because they hit what US officials call a Putin “crony bank” as well as oligarchs who are believed to be closest to the Russian strongman and — in one case — actually running a joint business with him.

Leading EU nations such as Britain and Germany — their financial and energy sectors intertwined with Russia’s — have questioned why they should suffer most in case of an all-out trade war.

ANKARA — Turkey’s defiant Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan launched a fierce new attack on social media on Sunday, just hours after the president voiced hope the government would soon lift its controversial ban on Twitter.

The conflicting comments from Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul underscore what appears to be a growing gulf between the two men just a week before crucial local elections.

The Twitter ban has been condemned by critics as a bid to muzzle a widening corruption scandal dogging the government and has drawn strong rebukes from rights groups and Turkey’s Western allies.

“I believe this problem will be over soon,” Gul told reporters before leaving for a visit to the Netherlands.

“This is of course an unpleasant situation for such a developed country as Turkey, which has weight in the region and which is negotiating with the European Union.”

The ban was implemented Thursday shortly after Erdogan threatened to “wipe out” Twitter.

On Sunday, Erdogan also took aim at popular Facebook and YouTube which he had previously threatened to ban after the local polls are held on March 30.

“I cannot understand how sensible people still defend Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. They run all kinds of lies,” he said at an election rally in the northwestern province of Kocaeli.

“I am obliged to take measures in the face of any attack threatening my country’s security even if the world stands up against us.”

The government on Saturday accused Twitter of being “biased and prejudiced” and said the US-based social media giant had failed to abide by hundreds of court orders to remove content deemed illegal.

Erdogan and his Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) have been rocked by a corruption scandal that has ensnared members of the political and business elite.

The AKP is also struggling to shake off the after-effects of mass anti-government protests last year that were organised partly on Twitter, prompting Erdogan to label the site a “menace”.

“Blocking access to Twitter is the work of a government which is losing its self-confidence and strength,” veteran journalist Kadri Gursel wrote in the Milliyet newspaper.

Social media networks have been flooded almost daily with recordings allegedly depicting Erdogan talking with his son about hiding vast sums of money and interfering in court cases, business deals and media coverage.

Erdogan has dismissed most of the recordings as “vile” fakes concocted by his political rivals, including US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, once a staunch ally.

Erdogan’s office says his opponents used Twitter to carry out “systematic character assassinations”.

Erdogan, who has been in power for 11 years, is accused of ruling the aspiring EU member with increasing authoritarianism and imposing his conservative values on society.

The government has also come under fire for curbs on the judiciary and the Internet and for jailing more reporters than any other country, including serial offenders Iran, China and Eritrea.

Douglas Frantz, assistant secretary of public affairs at the US State Department, described the Twitter ban as “21st-century book burning”.

“A friend like Turkey has nothing to fear in the free-flow of ideas and even criticism represented by Twitter. Its attempt to block its citizens’ access to social media tools should be reversed,” he wrote in an official blog.

Frustrated Turks have been able to access the site by tweeting via text message or tweaking their computers’ Internet settings. Methods include changing their domain name system (DNS) settings or going online via a virtual private network (VPN).

But since Saturday there have been unconfirmed reports that the government is trying to block access to lists of alternative DNS numbers.

Gul, a frequent social media user, took to Twitter on Friday to denounce the ban, becoming the highest level leader to circumvent the block, along with some ministers.

The president, who hails from Erdogan’s AKP, has emerged as a more conciliatory leader than the Turkish premier.

But he also drew criticism last month for signing a controversial AKP-sponsored law to tighten government control over the Internet.

PERTH, Australia — The sighting of a wooden pallet and other debris that may be linked to a Malaysian passenger jet raised hopes Sunday of a breakthrough in the international search for the missing plane.

The sense that the hunt was finally on the right track after more than two weeks of false leads and dead ends was reinforced by new French satellite data indicating floating objects in the southern search area.

Australian officials said the pallet, along with belts or straps, was spotted Saturday in a remote stretch of the Indian Ocean that has become the focus of the search — around 2,500 kilometres southwest of Perth.

“It’s still too early to be definite,” Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott told reporters during a visit to Papua New Guinea.

“But obviously we have now had a number of very credible leads and there is increasing hope — no more than hope, no more than hope — that we might be on the road to discovering what did happen to this ill-fated aircraft.”

Australian and Chinese satellite images have picked up large objects floating in the inhospitable region, and Malaysia’s transport ministry said Sunday that France had provided similar data “in the vicinity of the southern corridor”.

The Malaysian statement gave no details of the French satellite data.

But France’s foreign ministry said it came in the form of satellite-generated radar echoes, which contains information about the location and distance of the object which bounces a signal back.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) confirmed that the pallet and other debris marked the “first visual sighting” since Australian, New Zealand and US spotter planes began scouring the area on Thursday.

Wooden pallets are quite common in aircraft and ship cargo holds.

The objects were spotted by observers on one of the civilian aircraft taking part in the search.

An air force P3 Orion aircraft with specialist electro-optic observation equipment was diverted to the same location, but only reported sighting clumps of seaweed.

“That’s the nature of it,” AMSA aircraft operations coordinator Mike Barton said.

“You only have to be off by a few hundred metres in a fast-travelling aircraft.”

Sunday’s search involving four military and four civilian aircraft plus an Australian warship ended with “no sightings of significance” but would resume Monday, AMSA said.

Sunday’s search covered 59,000 square kilometres.

More ships, planes 

China has dispatched seven ships to the hunt for the plane, adding to British and Australian naval ships involved.

“Obviously the more aircraft we have, the more ships we have, the more confident we are of recovering whatever material is down there,” Abbott said.

AMSA said Chinese and Japanese planes would join Monday’s operation.

If the plane did crash in the ocean, investigators are hoping to identify the impact site before the plane’s black box stops emitting tracking signals — usually after 30 days.

The flight recorder will be crucial in solving the mystery of what caused the Boeing 777 with 239 passengers and crew aboard suddenly to veer off course over the South China Sea en route to Beijing.

Satellite and military radar data suggest the plane backtracked over the Malaysian peninsula and then flew on — possibly for hours — either north into South and Central Asia, or south over the Indian Ocean.

The question of what happened on board has become a topic of unbridled speculation, with Malaysian investigators standing by their assessment that the plane was deliberately diverted by someone on board.

Three scenarios have gained particular traction: hijacking, pilot sabotage, or a sudden mid-air crisis that incapacitated the flight crew and left the plane to fly on auto-pilot for several hours until it ran out of fuel and crashed.

A ‘humanitarian’ exercise 

The long, largely fruitless search for the aircraft has been especially agonising for the relatives of the 227 passengers — two-thirds of whom were Chinese — and 12 crew.

Their grief and frustration boiled over Saturday at a hotel in Beijing when police had to restrain angry family members confronting Malaysian officials whom they accused of withholding information.

After a similar meeting on Sunday, some relatives said they were still dissatisfied.

“I’m so furious,” said one woman. “I watch the television everyday. Very often I feel like I’m about to go insane. My emotions are all over the place. I asked the Malaysians to give the answers and they said they couldn’t.”

Although the plane’s disappearance is already the subject of a criminal investigation, Abbott stressed that the search was essentially a “humanitarian” exercise.

“We owe it to the almost 240 people on board the plane, we owe it to their grieving families, we owe it to the governments of the countries concerned, to do everything we can to discover as much as we can about the fate of MH370,” he said.