Search for missing Malaysian MH370 to be suspended: joint panel

Australian and Malaysian officials examine aircraft debris at the Australian Transport Safety Bureau headquarters in Canberra, Australia, July 20, 2016 after it was found on Pemba Island, located near Tanzania, in late June and was transported to Australia for examination. Photo: Reuters

Reuters, Kuala Lumpur

The hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 will be suspended if the aircraft is not found in an area now being searched, Malaysia, China and Australia said in a statement today.
The Boeing 777, with 239 aboard, disappeared in March 2014 while on a flight from the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, to Beijing.
Almost A$180 million ($135 million) has been spent since then on an underwater search spanning 120,000 square kilometers (46,332 square miles) in the southern Indian Ocean.
"In the absence of new credible evidence, Malaysia, Australia and China have collectively agreed to suspend the search upon completion of the 120,000 sq-km search," Malaysian transport minister Liow Tiong Lai told a news conference at which he read out the statement from him and his Chinese and Australian counterparts.
The families of those on board, most of whom were from China, have pressed hard for answers ever since the plane went missing, and they are likely to decry any suggestion the search will end.
Liow said the team was not "giving up on the search for MH370" even if the less than 10,000 square kilometers that remains to be searched did not come up with anything.
"Should credible new information emerge which can be used to identify the specific location of the aircraft, consideration will be given in determining next steps," the ministers said in the statement.

Investigators believe the plane was deliberately flown thousands of miles off course before crashing into the southern Indian Ocean off Australia.
Malaysian investigators said in 2015 there was nothing suspicious in the financial, medical or personal histories of pilots or crew.
PIECES OF WRECKAGE

A woman leaves a message of support and hope for the passengers of the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 in central Kuala Lumpur on March 16, 2014. Reuters file photo

Several pieces of aircraft wreckage have washed up on beaches in Africa and been positively identified as coming from MH370 but they shed little light on the mystery.
"While acknowledging the significance of the debris, ministers noted that to date, none of it had provided information that positively identified the precise location of the aircraft," the ministers said.
The search has lasted more than two years but has found no sign of the main wreckage.
Searchers at the Dutch company leading the underwater hunt for MH370 told Reuters they believed the plane may have glided down to the sea rather than dived, meaning they have been scouring the wrong patch of ocean.
That was the first time officials directly involved in the search have lent some support to contested theories that someone was in control during the flight's final moments.
The glide theory is not supported by the investigating agencies, which includes Boeing Co, France's Thales SA British satellite company Inmarsat PLC and officials from the United States, Britain and Australia.
Liow told the news conference there was not enough evidence to confirm a controlled ditching, and added that he was confident the search was in the right place.
He said all data and information collected from the flight, search and debris of MH370 would be released to the public.
"It is in a very big volume, so it will take some time," he said.

Fox News boss resigns amid sexual harassment charges

Roger Ailes, the long-time boss of Fox News,resigns after a number of female employees accused him of sexual harassment. REUTERS file photo

BBC Online

Roger Ailes, the long-time boss of Fox News, has resigned after a number of female employees accused him of sexual harassment.
The network's parent company, 21st Century Fox, announced his resignation.
The announcement does not mention the sexual harassment allegations, which have now come from multiple Fox presenters.
Executive chairman Rupert Murdoch wrote that Ailes has made a "remarkable contribution" to Fox News.
"We continue our commitment to maintaining a work environment based on trust and respect," Fox executives Lachlan Murdoch and James Murdoch said in the statement. "We take seriously our responsibility to uphold these traditional, long-standing values of our company."
Analysis: Nick Bryant, BBC News, New York
Roger Ailes has long been viewed one of America's most powerful conservatives. The one-time media consultant to Richard Nixon was the key figure in building the Fox News channel into a ratings, profits and, most important perhaps, political powerhouse.

Prior to his dramatic and embarrassing downfall, Ailes was said to be one of the few employees that Rupert Murdoch actually feared. But it was the media mogul's admiration for his long-time lieutenant and ideological soul-mate that came through in the warm statement released by Fox News Channel's parent company, 21st Century Fox.
"His grasp of policy and his ability to make profoundly important issues accessible to a broader audience stand in stark contrast to the self-serving elitism that characterises far too much of the media," said Rupert Murdoch, in a tribute that did not touch upon the allegations of sexual harassment against the former news chief. Noticeably, it was left to Murdoch’s sons, Lachlan and James, to point out that the company is committed "to maintaining a work environment based on trust and respect."
I'm told by a source close to the company that the Murdochs wanted to move quickly, a lesson learnt from the handling of the phone hacking scandal.
It's also measure of the importance that Murdoch attaches to the Fox News channel that he is personally taking over as chairman and acting CEO after losing one of the central figures in his global media empire. What makes Ailes’ departure all the more dramatic is that it should happen on the final day of the Republican convention at a time when a deeply divided conservative movement was already in such a state of flux.
Ailes, 76, said he was stepping down because he had become a "distraction".
"I will not allow my presence to become a distraction from the work that must be done every day,” Ailes wrote in a letter to Rupert Murdoch.
He has run Fox News since it launched in 1996 and is credited with reshaping the American media and political landscape.
A veteran of Republican political campaigns, he turned the cable news network into a ratings leader and an influential force in the Republican Party.
"Rupert Murdoch is a conservative, but the Republican intensity, the conservative passion including the viciousness toward the Democrats that we now see against Hillary Clinton and has been going on against Obama all these years, all that is Roger Ailes,'' Paul Levinson, communications professor at Fordham University, told the AP news agency.
Less than two weeks ago former presenter Gretchen Carlson sued Ailes for sexual harassment and wrongful termination, claims he denies.
Carlson, who worked for the network for 11 years, alleges that he proposed having a sexual relationship with her and he instructed her to turn around in his office so he could look at her backside.
Ailes also allegedly called her a "man hater" and that she needed to "get along with the boys".
A report in New York magazine, citing anonymous sources, said lawyers for 21st Century Fox gave Ailes a deadline of 1 August to resign or face being fired.
Further allegations surfaced in US media that Ailes sexually harassed another Fox News presenter, Megyn Kelly, about 10 years ago, claims he has also denied.

Pakistan celebrity Qandeel Baloch's parents speak of pain

BBC Online

The parents of Pakistani social media celebrity Qandeel Baloch have spoken of their closeness to her and their bitterness towards their son, who has confessed to murdering her last week.
Qandeel's mother, Anwar Azeem, told BBC Urdu that her daughter had shared all her sorrows and secrets with her.
Her father, Muhammad Azeem, said his son should be "shot on sight".
Her mother said her son lost his mind because of taunts about his sister's frank and often risque posts online.
More than 500 people, almost all of them women, die in Pakistan every year at the hands of relatives who believe shame has been brought on their family.
Qandeel became a household name in Pakistan after posting sometimes raunchy photographs, comments and videos on social media sites, on which she had hundreds of thousands of followers.

The 26-year-old was well aware of the opposition she faced in the conservative Muslim country but was unapologetic.
Her brother Waseem has said he drugged and then strangled her to death last Friday "for dishonouring the Baloch name".
In their first interview with international media, Baloch's parents said they had also been drugged on the night of the murder.
"My husband and I fell deeply asleep. We had drunk milk, it had been mixed with sedatives," mother said.
"In the morning, I called Qandeel for breakfast... but she didn't get up."
READ ALSO: Pakistani star killed 'by brother for honour'
She found her daughter's body and found that "her whole face was covered in bruises, her tongue was black, her lips was black", and started crying, she said.
"We were mother and daughter, sharing all our sorrows and secrets. She used to tell me: 'Your daughter is working hard, she'll go far,'" she added.
But, Qandeel's brothers "always had hatred in their hearts", her mother said. "Before, they didn't care much. But recently, things got worse, people... poisoned their minds."
'She must have called out'
Azeem said his daughter had been his "best friend", but described his son as "crazed".
"I say he should be shot on sight! He suffocated my little one," he added. "We were drugged, asleep upstairs. She must have called out to us."
Earlier this week, the Punjab provincial government also became a complainant in the murder case, designating it a crime against the state.
The rare move effectively prevented members of Qandeel's family from legally forgiving her brother - a common legal loophole that sees many so-called "honour killings" go unpunished.
An anti-honour killings bill to close the loophole nationwide has been bogged down in the Pakistani parliament.
But, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's daughter said on Wednesday that the ruling party hoped to present it before a joint session of parliament within weeks.