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Cargo clue in Korea ferry sinking
5/6/2014 10:50:49 PM
- NEW: Loosely tied goods helped cause the ship to capsize, investigators say
- NEW: Ferry carried more than twice the cargo weight it was allowed, police say
- Diver dies during recovery operation Tuesday
- Not including the diver, the disaster's death toll rises to 267
Seoul, South Korea (CNN) -- The South Korean ferry disaster that killed more than 260 people last month was caused in part by excessive cargo and a failure to tie that cargo down properly, the joint police and prosecuting team investigating the disaster said Tuesday.
It marked the first time South Korean investigators said what they believe led to the April 16 sinking of the ferry Sewol, which was carrying 467 passengers and crew -- including more than 300 high school students on a field trip -- when it capsized.
Investigators said they've indicted four employees of the ferry's owner, Cheonghaejin Marine Co., in the last two weeks, including a senior executive Tuesday. Details about the charges weren't immediately available.
Authorities took aim at the cargo Tuesday, saying its weight was more than double the ship's limit.
The cargo wasn't tied properly -- and the loosely tied goods helped cause the ship to capsize, senior prosecutor Yang Joong-jin said.
"The lashing devices that should have held cargo goods steady were loose, and some of the crew members did not even know" how to use them correctly, Yang said.
Investigators had been probing the possibility the ship overturned because cargo shifted and forced the ship off balance.
At least 268 people died in the disaster, which happened while the ferry was traveling from Incheon to the resort island of Jeju, off South Korea's southwestern coast. Thirty-four people still are unaccounted for, according to the country's coast guard.
Officials: Firm got $2.9 million for extra cargo since '13
Tuesday's news came nearly a week after South Korean authorities searched Cheonghaejin Marine's offices as part of a criminal investigation.
This trip wasn't the first time the ferry had excess cargo, the joint investigation team said Tuesday.
Since the Sewol began the Incheon-Jeju route in March 2013, the ferry carried excess cargo 139 times, investigators said.
Cheonghaejin Marine earned an extra 62 million South Korean won ($62,000) for the excess cargo on the April 16 voyage, and nearly 3 billion South Korean won ($2.9 million) in extra profit for all of the excess cargo that the ferry carried since March 2013, investigators said.
Diver dies as search for bodies continues
The grim task of retrieving bodies from the sunken ferry was dealt a painful blow Tuesday when an experienced diver lost consciousness and died.
But the nearly 130 divers continued combing the ship despite the loss of their colleague, identified as Lee. His full name was not provided.
Five minutes into his dive, he apparently had problems with his oxygen supply.
"By the time his colleagues went to save him, Lee was unconscious and unable to breathe by himself," government spokesman Koh Myung-suk said.
Lee had been diving for 30 years, officials said.
Since the first day when many escaped the sinking ship, no one has been found alive.
Over the weekend, South Korean President Park Geun-hye visited the port where the rescue operation is based to console families and encourage divers.
Corralling the debris has been difficult for search teams.
Mattresses and clothing from the ship have been found up to 9 miles (15 kilometers) away from the accident site, said Park Seung-ki, a spokesman for the rescue operation.
Large stow and trawler nets will be set up around the sunken ship to catch items that may float away, he said. At the same time, some three dozen ships will be clearing an oil spill from the ferry, which is threatening the livelihood of the local fishermen.
Read: South Korean ferry survivors return to school after classmates' deaths
Read: The images that shocked a nation
Journalist Stella Kim reported from Seoul; CNN's Jason Hanna and Ed Payne wrote in Atlanta
Russia 'ups Pacific military flights'
5/6/2014 3:04:04 PM
- Russian bombers fly off Guam, California, general says
- Increases related to tensions in Ukraine, Air Force commander says
- Russians gathering intelligence, showing capabilities, general says
(CNN) -- Russia has stepped up military activity in the Pacific, including sending long-range bombers on flights off the coast of California and around the island of Guam, as tensions have risen in Ukraine, a top U.S. Air Force general said Monday.
"What Russia is doing in Ukraine and Crimea has a direct effect on what's happening in the Asia Pacific," Gen. Herbert "Hawk" Carlisle said in a presentation to the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
"They've come with their long-range aviation off the coast of California; they circumnavigated Guam," Carlisle said, showing a picture of a U.S. F-15 fighter "intercepting" a Russian Tu-95 "Bear" bomber off the Pacific island.
Guam is home to Andersen Air Force Base, which has been used by the U.S. military for flights of B-2 and B-52 bombers across the Pacific.
Flights around Japan and the Korean peninsula have also "increased drastically," as well as naval activity in that area, Carlisle said.
The Russian planes have stayed in international airspace, and such flights are not unusual, but the increase has U.S. commanders keeping a wary eye.
"It's to demonstrate their capability to do it; it's to gather intel" from U.S. military exercises with allies in the region, Carlisle said of the reasons for the Russian activity.
"We relate a lot of that to what's going on in the Ukraine," he said.
Pro-Russian separatists have taken control over swaths of Ukraine near its borders with Russia.
Ukraine's government and many in the West believe that the separatists are backed by Russia and fear that Russian President Vladimir Putin is fomenting trouble to increase his influence in the region.
Unrest has simmered in Ukraine since street protests forced out pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych in February. The interim government scheduled presidential elections this month, but pro-Russian activists in the eastern part of the country refuse to accept Kiev's authority.
Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine this year after sending troops into the region.
Since the Ukraine crisis began, the U.S. and its NATO allies have moved some troops, aircraft and ships closer to the area as a signal of alliance solidarity.
The Russian bomber flights are not unique to the Asia Pacific region. In late April, fighter jets from the Netherlands intercepted two Tu-95s that had flown a half-mile into Dutch airspace. The Dutch F-16s escorted the Russian aircraft out of Dutch airspace without incident.
Nigeria defends its kidnap response
5/7/2014 12:36:08 AM
- NEW: The father of two missing girls says there has been no sign of Nigerian military
- NEW: "We have never seen any military man there," the father says
- Nigeria's President is not "taking this as easy as people all over the world think"
- Nigerian village residents say armed men took eight more girls late Sunday
CNN anchor Isha Sesay will be live from Abuja on CNN International, Monday to Thursday at 5, 7, 8.30 and 9 p.m. CET.
Abuja, Nigeria (CNN) -- Nigeria defended its response to the kidnapping of hundreds of schoolgirls by the terror group Boko Haram, even as details emerged Tuesday about a second mass abduction, adding to a growing global outrage over the fate of the children.
President Goodluck Jonathan has been under fire over accusations the government initially ignored and then later downplayed the abduction of the girls, who have become the focal point of a social media campaign demanding their safe return.
"The President and the government (are) not taking this as easy as people all over the world think," Doyin Okupe, a spokesman for Jonathan told CNN.
"We've done a lot -- but we are not talking about it. We're not Americans. We're not showing people, you know, but it does not mean that we are not doing something."
In detailing the government's response, two special battalions have been devoted to the search for the missing girls, Okupe said. That includes 250 locations that have been searched by helicopters and airplanes.
It was unclear whether these were additional troops being dispatched or were forces already in place. More troops, he said, are also on the way.
But the father of two of the schoolgirls taken by Boko Haram told CNN there has been no sign of the military in the days and weeks following the abduction.
He accused the government of "playing" with the parents of the missing girls, treating them as "fools."
"Had there been these military men who went into the bush to rescue our daughters, we would have seen them," said the father, who declined to be identified for fear of reprisals by the government and the terror group. "...We have never seen any military man there."
U.S. offer of military help
In a sign that Nigeria may be bowing to international pressure and outrage, the government announced the creation of an information center dedicated to answering questions and providing daily updates about rescue efforts, Okupe said.
Nigeria's President also accepted an offer of U.S. military support in the search for the girls.
"So what we've done is — we have offered, and it's been accepted — help from our military and our law enforcement officials," U.S. President Barack Obama told NBC News on Tuesday. "We're going to do everything we can to provide assistance to them."
That help includes the creation of a "coordination cell" to provide intelligence, investigations and hostage negotiation expertise, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. The cell will include U.S. military personnel, she said.
The joint coordination cell will be established at the U.S. Embassy in the capital of Abuja, and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the work is expected to begin immediately.
But even as the help was offered to Jonathan, new details were emerging about the abduction of at least eight girls between the ages of 12 and 15, who were snatched Sunday night from the village of Warabe.
The village is located in the rural northeast, near the border of Cameroon, an area considered a stronghold for Boko Haram, a group that U.S. officials say has received training from al Qaeda affiliates.
Villagers in Warabe told CNN that gunmen moved from door-to-door late Sunday, snatching the girls and beating anybody who tried to stop them.
The latest abductions come amid international outcry over the April 14 kidnapping of more than 200 girls. According to accounts, armed members of Boko Haram overpowered security guards at an all-girls school in Chibok, yanked the girls out of bed and forced them into trucks. The convoy of trucks then disappeared into the dense forest bordering Cameroon.
Boko Haram: A bloody insurgency, a growing challenge
'Western education is sin'
Boko Haram translates to "Western education is sin" in the local Hausa language, and the group has said its aim is to impose a stricter enforcement of Sharia law across Africa's most populous nation, which is split between a majority Muslim north and a mostly Christian south.
The United States has branded Boko Haram a terror organization and has put a $7 million bounty on the group's elusive leader, Abubakar Shekau.
In recent years, the group has stepped up its attacks, bombing schools, churches and mosques.
But it is the abductions of girls that has spawned the biggest outrage, with a #BringBackOurGirls campaign that initially began on Twitter and then quickly spread with demonstrators taking to the streets over the weekend in major cities around the world to demand action.
6 reasons why the world should demand action
On Tuesday, the United Nations human rights chief blasted Boko Haram, saying the group's claim of slavery and sexual slavery of girls are "crimes against humanity."
"The girls must be immediately returned, unharmed, to their families," U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said in a news release.
'I abducted your girls'
A man claiming to be Shekau appeared in a video announcing he would sell his victims. The video was first obtained Monday by Agence-France Presse.
"I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market, by Allah," he said, according to a CNN translation from the local Hausa language. "There is a market for selling humans. Allah says I should sell. He commands me to sell. I will sell women. I sell women."
In the nearly hourlong, rambling video, Shekau repeatedly called for an end to Western education.
"Girls, you should go and get married," he said.
Pillay, along with three other African United Nations women leaders, sent a letter reminding the Nigerian government of its "legal responsibility to ensure that girls and boys have the fundamental right to education and to be protected from violence, persecution and intimidation," according to her statement.
In the United States, all 20 women serving in the Senate signed a bipartisan letter calling on Obama to take action.
"More can be done by this administration. I would like to see special forces deployed to help rescue these young girls. Some of these girls are as young as nine years old," Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine told CNN. "...They're being sold into slavery, forced into marriages, required to convert. This is just horrible."
More than 355,000 people, including celebrities and lawmakers, to date have signed a change.org petition that calls upon the world to act to save the girls.
The petition calls on Jonathan and the government "to ensure all schools are safe places to learn, protected from attack."
'You can never rule out surprise'
Nigerian Minister of Information Labaran Maku told CNN that despite international reaction and media reports, there have been some successes in combating Boko Haram.
But when asked about bombings in Abuja, which came the same day as the mass abduction of schoolgirls, he said: "In the case of insurgency and guerrilla warfare, you can never rule out surprise here and there."
He also declined to agree that misinformation released by the military in the aftermath of the April kidnapping added to the growing outrage.
First, the military said all the girls had been released or rescued. But after the girls' families began asking where their daughters were, the military retracted the statement.
"When they made that statement, it was based on a report they received," the minister said.
Nigeria's finance minister said Monday that her country's government remains committed to finding the girls but should have done a better job explaining the situation to the public.
"Have we communicated what is being done properly? The answer is no, that people did not have enough information," Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told CNN's Richard Quest.
What's at stake in war against girls' kidnappers?
CNN Freedom Project: Ending Modern-Day Slavery
CNN's Isha Sesay and Vlad Duthiers reported from Abuja, and Chelsea J. Carter reported and wrote from Atlanta. Journalist Aminu Abubakar contributed to this report from Nigeria, and CNN's Ashley Fantz, Dana Ford and Nana Karikari-apau contributed from Atlanta.
Video of stowaway's jump from plane
5/7/2014 12:49:06 AM
- NEW: The teenager could face a criminal trespass charge, a misdemeanor
- He survived a nearly five-hour flight from California to Hawaii
- The teen endured subzero temperatures at oxygen-depleted heights
- He told investigators that he was trying to get to Somalia to see his mother
(CNN) -- The video is grainy and shot from far away, but there's no mistaking what it shows: someone jumping out of a plane's wheel well.
The Hawaii Department of Transportation on Tuesday released surveillance video taken at Kahului Airport, on the island of Maui, on April 20. It shows a stowaway climbing out of a plane and walking around a tarmac.
The teenager, 15-year-old Yahya Yusuf, survived the nearly five-hour flight from San Jose, California. He told authorities that he crawled into the wheel well of the Hawaii-bound Boeing 767 and lost consciousness when the plane took off.
He endured subzero temperatures at oxygen-depleted heights as high as 38,000 feet, authorities believe.
The teen told investigators he was trying to get to Somalia to see his mother and had no clue which plane went where, a law enforcement official told CNN. He is said to have hopped a fence at San Jose International Airport shortly after 1 a.m. April 20 and stayed on the grounds for six hours without getting caught.
The teen spent time recovering at a hospital in Hawaii. As of the weekend, he was in the custody of the Santa Clara County Child Protective Services, in California, according to San Jose police spokesman Albert Morales.
The spokesman said investigators are looking to talk to the teen, who could face charges.
"We are undetermined on whether or not charges will be filed. We want to interview him as to what was the situation that prompted him to get on the plane. We have to conduct a thorough interview and get the information from the juvenile himself. If in fact it is determined that there was a criminal offense, it will be criminal trespass, which is a misdemeanor in California," Morales said.
If found guilty, the teen could receive a citation and a fine, Morales said.
Teen jet stowaway 'a good kid' but struggling, dad says
CNN's Mayra Cuevas, Joe Sutton and Greg Morrison contributed to this report.
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