Page 2 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
ASIA / PACIFIC
February 2, 2015
Pope to new cardinals: Just say no
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis is warning his new cardinals to keep the
partying to a minimum — and keep their egos in check — when they are formally
elevated at a Vatican ceremony this month. In a letter written to the 20 new
“princes of the church” published in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore
Romano, Francis warned the cardinals to avoid the type of ostentatious
festivities that “stun worse than grappa on an empty stomach.” Traditionally,
new cardinals are feted with lavish parties, often funded by well-meaning
parishioners, following the ceremony where they receive their red hats. Some of
the new cardinals hail from places that have never before had a “prince of the
church,” including Cape Verde, Myanmar, and Tonga. Others come from the
developing world, including Thailand, Panama, and Mozambique.
Malaysia to issue interim report on Flight 370 on March 7
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia’s civil aviation department
will release an interim report on the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines
Flight 370 on March 7, a day before the flight’s one-year anniversary. Deputy
transport minister Aziz Kaprawi says the report won’t have any conclusion on
what happened to the plane because the search is ongoing. Aziz said the report
will focus on investigations into the search for the plane, which is believed to
have crashed in the remote southern Indian Ocean. The plane disappeared
while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board. The
Australian coordinators of the search say the current phase could take
another year and there is still no guarantee of success. No debris has ever been
found.
15 officials in Tibet punished for helping Dalai Lama
BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese Communist Party agency says investigators have
found that 15 officials in Tibet joined underground Tibetan independence
organizations, provided intelligence to the Dalai Lama and his supporters, or
participated in activities harmful to China’s security. The publicizing of party
officials supporting Tibetan separatism is highly unusual and suggests
continuing unrest in the Himalayan region, which has prompted a heavy
security presence since a wave of rioting and protests against Chinese rule in
2008. A statement from the Communist Party Disciplinary Commission of
Tibet, on its website, says that the wrongdoing was uncovered last year during
an investigation and that the 15 officials received unspecified punishment. The
commission did not specify the groups the party members joined, intelligence
they provided, or give any other details.
Japan selling talking robots that won’t try to make sense
TOKYO (AP) — The scientist behind a new talking robot in Japan says people
should stop expecting robots to understand them, and instead try to chime in
with robotic conversations. Hiroshi Ishiguro’s 11-inch tall button-eyed Sota,
which stands for “social talker,” is programmed to mainly talk with a fellow
robot, and won’t be trying too hard to understand human speech — the major,
and often frustrating, drawback of companion robots. Sota, shown to reporters
at a Tokyo museum, goes on sale in July at under 100,000 yen ($850) each. Robot
maker Vstone simplified Ishiguro’s research for the mass-produced Sota. It
expects to sell 3,000 of them in the first year.
Phony Chinese bank cheated depositors out of $32 million
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese police have arrested five people in connection with a
phony bank that used bogus offices and tellers to bilk depositors out of $32
million. More than 200 customers were caught up in the scam based in the
eastern city of Nanjing, according to a statement on the local police’s microblog.
Most were business owners from the surrounding province of Jiangsu attracted
by promises of high interest rates on deposits, the statement said. Police said the
scammers filled their offices with all the accoutrements of a real state-owned
bank, including uniformed staff. The scam’s mastermind, identified by his
surname Liu, and four assistants, were in custody, including one woman who
had fled to the gambling enclave of Macau with the depositors’ funds, the
statement said. The scam was uncovered after an investor who had deposited $2
million complained to police when he was unable to collect interest or withdraw
his funds. Low rates of return in the formal financial sector have prompted many
Chinese to turn to unregulated or illegal investment schemes, often resulting in
massive losses and the arrests of the ringleaders. The police statement quoted
Liu as saying he knew the scheme was illegal, but had planned to invest and lend
the depositors’ funds in order to pay the high rates of interest promised.
However, he said much of the money was never recovered.
Japan nuclear plant worker dies after falling into tank
TOKYO (AP) — A worker at Japan’s wrecked nuclear power plant died after
falling into a water storage tank, the latest in a growing number of accidents at
the site due to efforts to clean up the mess from the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
The operator of the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant said the worker, 55, died of
multiple injuries after falling through an opening atop a 33-foot high tank. He
was one of three men inspecting the tank. Tokyo Electric Power Co., which
operates the plant, says the cause of the accident is under investigation.
Currently, the plant’s decades-long decommissioning involves nearly 7,000
workers. The number of injuries between April and November totalled 40 last
year, compared to 12 a year earlier, underscoring growing concern about sloppy
safety measures.
RE-CREATING THE CRASH. Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee investigator Ertata Lananggalih
holds a model plane as he explains the movement of AirAsia Flight 8501 before it crashed into the Java Sea on December
28, 2014, during a press conference in Jakarta, Indonesia. Indonesian investigators announced that the co-pilot of the
crashed AirAsia jet was in control of the plane when he struggled to recover the aircraft as stall warnings sounded. (AP
Photo/Dita Alangkara)
Indonesian investigators say
crashed jet was flown by co-pilot
By Niniek Karmini
The Associated Press
AKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesian
investigators have announced that the
co-pilot of the crashed AirAsia jet was in
control when he struggled to recover the
aircraft as stall warnings sounded.
The Airbus A320-200 crashed into the Java
Sea on December 28, 2014, halfway from
Indonesia’s city of Surabaya to Singapore. All
162 people on board were killed.
Chief investigator of the National Transpor-
tation Safety Committee Marjono Siswosu-
warno said the cockpit voice recording indi-
cated that the co-pilot, French national Remi
Emmanuel Plesel, was flying the plane while
Indonesian captain Iriyanto was monitoring.
Iriyanto, who like many Indonesians uses a
single name, was a former fighter pilot with
more than 20,500 flying hours, while less
experienced Plesel had about 6,000 hours.
Siswosuwarno said the black boxes
retrieved from the seabed provided a pretty
clear picture of what went wrong in the last
moments of AirAsia Flight 8501, as the plane
was struggling to recover and stall warnings
sounded until the end of the recording.
“However, we are still examining many
other things on the issues,” Siswosuwarno told
a news conference.
Another investigator, Ertata Lananggalih,
said that based on the voice recorder, the
captain was monitoring and communicating
with air traffic control (ATC) while Plesel was
flying the plane. “But it is normal practices,
both pilots can exchange their roles with each
J
other,” said Lananggalih.
Investigators concluded that the plane was
in airworthy condition prior to the crash.
Both flight and cockpit data recorders
showed the jet was stabilized cruising at a
height of 32,000 feet before the pilot contacted
ground control saying they were turning left,
and a minute later sought permission to climb
to 38,000 feet. The ATC at Jakarta’s Sukarno-
Hatta airport asked them to stand by.
Siswosuwarno said the weather satellite
images at the time showed a formation of
storm clouds reaching up to 44,000 feet. He
added that flight data showed the jet was in a
dangerously fast climb and stalled before
going down slowly into the last position of
24,000 feet high recorded on the radar.
He said investigators were still looking into
whether turbulence or updrafts contributed to
the plane’s drastic climb as repeated stall
warnings were heard clearly on the cockpit
recording within four minutes until the end of
the recording since the plane reached more
than eight degrees of its pitch angle.
Indonesia minister of transportation
Ignasius Jonan has said previously that radar
data showed the Airbus A320 was climbing at
an abnormally high rate, about 6,000 feet a
minute before it disappeared.
“In many cases, the engine is not strong
enough to fly in this high angle,”
Siswosuwarno said.
Indonesian rescuers have retrieved 72
bodies, with the last two found drifting late
last month off Sulawesi island. Unconfirmed
reports said another body was discovered
about 620 miles east of the crash scene.
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77.475
4056.9
6.2506
2.0387
7.7519
61.87
12672
27497
117.49
8108.5
3.6295
99.002
101.08
2.6004
44.113
69.467
3.7615
1.3542
1093.7
132.17
31.526
32.76
21317