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Supreme Court Strikes Down Aggregate Campaign Contribution Limits - Wall Street Journal Posted: 02 Apr 2014 08:51 AM PDT WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court struck down caps on aggregate political contributions Wednesday, the latest in a string of decisions rolling back campaign finance regulations that the court's majority conservative justices believe infringe on First Amendment rights. The 5-4 ruling threw out the limits, currently $123,200, on what any individual can give to federal candidates over a two-year election cycle. The plurality opinion, by...

Powerful earthquake strikes off Chile, triggers tsunami - CNN Posted: 02 Apr 2014 08:37 AM PDT Chilean President Michelle Bachelet speaks in Santiago on Wednesday, April 2, after a magnitude-8.2 earthquake struck off the coast of northern Chile. The quake triggered small landslides, prompted evacuations of coastal areas and generated a tsunami. At least six people were reported dead. HIDE CAPTION Earthquake off Chilean coast Earthquake off Chilean coast Earthquake off Chilean coast Earthquake off Chilean coast Earthquake off Chilean coast Earthquake off Chilean coast Earthquake off Chilean coast Earthquake off Chilean coast Earthquake off Chilean coast Earthquake off Chilean coast Earthquake off Chilean coast Earthquake off Chilean coast Earthquake off Chilean coast Earthquake off Chilean coast << < 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 > >> STORY HIGHLIGHTS President: "The country has faced these first emergency hours very well" 5 deaths reported, interior minister says Chilean authorities asked coastal residents to evacuate (CNN) -- A mighty 8.2-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of northern Chile late Tuesday, triggering small landslides, cutting power and generating a tsunami. Four men and one woman died -- two who suffered heart attacks and three who were crushed, said Interior Minister Rodrigo Penailillo. About 300 prisoners escaped from the northern port city of Iquique in the immediate aftermath, he said. The quake struck about 8:46 p.m. local time, some 60 miles northwest of Iquique. It had a depth of 12.5 miles, the U.S. Geological Survey said. Chile's National Emergency Office asked coastal residents to evacuate. "The fact is, we will know the extent of the damage as time goes by and when we inspect the areas in the light of day," Chile's President Michelle Bachelet said early Wednesday. "The country has faced these first emergency hours very well." Residents in the port city of Antofagasta walked calmly through the streets to higher ground as traffic piled up in places. "Many people are fearful after experiencing the powerful earthquake in 2010, so they immediately fled for higher ground when they heard the tsunami warning," said Fabrizio Guzman, World Vision emergency communications manager in Chile. "There have been multiple aftershocks and communications have been cut off in many of the affected areas. So people are waiting in the dark hills not knowing what is to come, and hoping they will be able to return to their homes safely." The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued several tsunami warnings, but canceled all of them by early Wednesday. Tsunami watches, which initially extended as far north as Mexico's Pacific coast, were called off as well. Tsunami waves of more than 6 feet generated by the earthquake washed ashore on the coast of Pisagua, according to Victor Sardino, with the center. Iquique, with a population of more than 200,000, saw 7-foot waves. Danger averted An earthquake of the scale that struck Tuesday night is capable of wreaking tremendous havoc. So, if the initial reports stand, Chile may have dodged a major catastrophe. Landslides damaged roads in some regions. Power and phone outages were reported in others. Chile is on the so-called "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines circling the Pacific Basic that is prone to frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. On March 16, a 6.7-magnitude earthquake struck 37 miles west-northwest of Iquique. A 6.1-magnitude hit the same area a week later. About 500 people were killed when an 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck Chile on February 27, 2010. That quake triggered a tsunami that toppled buildings, particularly in the Maule region along the coast. According to researchers, the earthquake was violent enough to move the Chilean city of Concepcion at least 10 feet westward and Santiago about 11 inches to the west-southwest. This was big but a bigger one awaits, scientist says 'No hazards' to U.S. coastline The U.S. National Tsunami Warning Center worked Tuesday to determine the level of danger for Alaska, Washington, Oregon and California, as well as Canada's British Columbia. Gerard Fryer, a geophysicist with the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, told CNN there is "clearly not going to be any hazards to the coastline of North America." The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami warning for Hawaii, saying strong currents may pose a hazard to swimmers and boaters. What you need to know about earthquakes Measuring the magnitude of earthquakes The place where two earthquakes hit every hour CNN's Erica Harrington, Dave Alsup and Greg Botelho contributed to this report. 0 Comments » SHARE THIS Print Email More sharing

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Ryan Unveils House GOP Budget Claiming Balance - ABC News Posted: 01 Apr 2014 08:52 AM PDT House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan unveiled an updated Republican budget plan Tuesday that would slash $5.1 trillion in federal spending over coming decade and promises to balance the government's books with wide-ranging cuts in programs like food stamps and government-paid health care for the poor and working class. Ryan's plan would also cut Pell Grants for low-income students and pensions for federal workers, while steering away from cuts to benefits for senior citizens, at least in the short term. The proposal would reprise a voucher-like Medicare program for future retirees that would be the basis for GOP claims that the measure would drive down government debt over the long term. It also relies on unofficial scorekeeping help from the Congressional Budget Office, reflecting the beneficial effects of deficit cuts on long-term economic growth and tax revenues. The plan should skate through the Budget Committee on Wednesday but faces challenges on the floor next week since it endorses a bipartisan pact — negotiated by Ryan and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray, D-Wash., in December — to increase agency operating budgets this year and next. Many conservatives who opposed the pact last year would have to reverse course and embrace them as part of the GOP budget. Democrats who helped pass the Ryan-Murray pact in December will oppose the GOP plan. The legislation promises to serve more as a political and policy statement by House Republicans than a realistic attempt to engage President Barack Obama and Democrats, who control the Senate, in any serious effort to further cut the deficit. Election-year politics are in play, for starters, as are entrenched differences over spending and taxes. At issue is the arcane congressional budget process, which employs a non-binding measure known as a budget resolution to set forth goals for future taxes, spending, and deficits. But follow-up legislation is usually limited to one-year appropriations bills rather than more difficult measure to deal with the government's long-term fiscal challenges, which are fueled by spiraling health care costs and the retirement of the baby boom generation. Ryan's budget brings back a now-familiar list of spending cuts to promise balance, including $2.1 trillion over 10 years in health care subsidies and coverage under the Affordable Care Act, $732 billion in cuts to Medicaid and other health care programs, and almost $1 trillion in cuts to other benefit programs like food stamps, Pell Grants, and farm subsidies. While repealing the benefits of "Obamacare," Ryan would preserve its tax increases and cuts to providers, including cuts to private insurers under the Medicare Advantage program. Republicans have attacked Democrats for the Medicare cuts used to finance the new health care law. "By cutting wasteful spending, strengthening key priorities, and laying the foundation for a stronger economy, we have shown the American people there's a better way forward," Ryan said in a statement. As in the past, Ryan has steered clear of cuts to Social Security and promises steady increases for veterans. But he faced a more challenging task to promise to balance the budget by decade's end than he did last year because the CBO projects lagging revenue estimates.

Malaysian credibility in jet hunt questioned again after latest blunder - CBS News Posted: 01 Apr 2014 09:18 AM PDT Last Updated Apr 1, 2014 11:30 AM EDT KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- It may mean little to investigators that the last words air traffic controllers heard from the lost jetliner were "Good night, Malaysian three-seven-zero," rather than "All right, good night." But to Malaysian officials whose credibility has been questioned almost from the beginning, it means a great deal. Malaysian officials said more than two weeks ago that "All right, good night," were the last words, and that the co-pilot uttered them. They changed the account late Monday and said they are still investigating who it was that spoke. The discrepancy added to the confusion and frustration families of the missing already felt more than three weeks after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared, and as of Tuesday officials had not explained how they got it wrong. "This sort of mistake hits at the heart of trust in their communications. If Malaysia is changing what the pilot said, people start thinking, 'What are they going to change next?" said Hamish McLean, an expert in risk and crisis communication at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia. "Information in a crisis is absolutely critical. When we are dealing with such a small amount of information its needs to be handled very carefully," he said. Authorities have been forced on the defensive by the criticism, the most forceful of which has come from a group of Chinese relatives who accuse them of lying about - or even involvement in - the plane's disappearance. In part responding to domestic political criticism, defense minister Hishammuddin Hussein has taken to retweeting supportive comments on Twitter. He has twice in recent days proclaimed that "history would judge us well" over the handling of the crisis. The government's opponents disagree. Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang said the correction set off a "medley of shame, sadness and anger" and strengthened the case for creating an opposition-led parliamentary committee to investigate the government's performance in the search. The communications skills of any government or airline would have been severely tested by the search for the Boeing 777-200 and its 239 passengers and crew. So far not a scrap of debris has been found. "There has been very little to tell and a lot of unanswered questions," said Andrew Herdman, director-general of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines. "There is frustration on the lack of new information, frustration over progress with investigations and the search. That frustration is being channeled to the Malaysian authorities but I think it's a bit premature to use that to reflect adversely on how they are doing." Still, the government's handling of information has at times fed perceptions that it was holding back. From the first day of the search, crews were looking far to the west of the plane's last point of contact with air-traffic controllers, but it took about a week for officials to explain that radar had detected the plane in the area. "There are some things that I can tell you and some things that I can't," Malaysia's civil aviation chief said cryptically in the early days of the search. "That was a terrible, terrible response," said Lyall Mercer, the principal of Australian-based Mercer PR, a public relations company. "It says to the families that 'we know things that we are not going to share' and that 'something else is more important than you'." The piece of information that families most want to hear - whether their relatives are alive or dead - has remained impossible to say with finality, creating a dilemma for the government. On March 24, it tried to address that. Malaysia Airlines officials met families in Kuala Lumpur and Beijing and sent a text message to others saying "we have to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH370 has been lost and that none of those on board survived." At a news conference half an hour later, Prime Minister Najib Razak was less direct. He said with "deep sadness and regret" that the plane's last known position was "a remote location, far from any possible landing sites," and that the flight "ended" in the southern Indian Ocean. Sarah Bacj, a 48-year-old American expatriate teacher whose boyfriend, Philip Wood, was on the flight, said the decision by Malaysia Airlines to inject some certainty into the fate of the passengers was a mistake. Until then, she said she thought the Malaysian government had acted responsibly, but the text message "totally violated my trust." "I fell off the cliff," Bacj said. "The way the text message came, I expected proof. That they had found the bodies, or that they had found confirmed wreckage, or something ... but they didn't actually tell us anything at all. The only thing they did was make a judgment statement about evidence - unconfirmed evidence, mind you." The final words from the cockpit, and who said them, are of interest not only because there are few other clues to the disappearance, but because the communication occurred just a minute before the plane's transponders were shut off. The words were in English, as aviation communications are around the world. PR experts and professionals said the important thing now is to try and give the families as much information as possible, before the media gets hold of it, and to keep paying attention to them even when the media gaze had drifted. On Tuesday, the Malaysian government announced that technical experts from Malaysia, China and Australia would brief the families in a closed-door session in Kuala Lumpur. Meanwhile, the three-week hunt for Flight 370 has turned up no sign of the Boeing 777. The race to find debris from the plane before the black box stops sending out a "ping" signal ramped up this week, and the pressure is on. Capt. Mark Matthews, head of the U.S. Navy's Salvage Operations, who is in Perth to help with the search, told CBS News' Holly Williams that if no confirmed debris from the jetliner is found before an American Towed Pinger Locator reaches the sprawling search zone, "we would be depending on luck." If the black box pinger goes silent -- which should happen when the batteries die in one or two weeks -- Matthews said it will become "much more difficult to find, and much more time consuming to do those searches." Australia said Tuesday that it would deploy a modified Boeing 737 to act as a flying air traffic control center over the Indian Ocean, to prevent a mid-air collision among the aircraft searching for the missing jetliner. An air force E-7A Wedgetail equipped with advanced radar was to be deployed "in the near future" to monitor the increasingly crowded skies over the remote search zone, said Angus Houston, who heads the joint agency coordinating the multinational search effort. At a news conference in Perth, Houston, the former Australian defense chief, called the search effort the most challenging one he has ever seen. The starting point for any search is the last known position of the vehicle or aircraft, he said. "In this particular case, the last known position was a long, long way from where the aircraft appears to have gone," he said. "It's very complex, it's very demanding." "What we really need now is to find debris, wreckage from the aircraft," he said. "This could drag on for a long time." The search zone area has shifted as experts analyzed Flight 370's limited radar and satellite data, moving from the seas off Vietnam to the waters west of Malaysia and Indonesia, and then to several areas west of Australia. The current search zone is a remote 98,000 square mile that is a roughly 2 1/2 hour flight from Perth. © 2014 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Federal site crashes as healthcare enrollment deadline looms - Boston.com Posted: 31 Mar 2014 08:19 AM PDT Midnight tonight marks the end of Obamacare's first open enrollment period, but those looking to sign up on deadline day may experience a slower than normal process, if they're able to sign up at all. The federal government's healthcare website, Healthcare.gov, went down for a few hours Monday morning, and delays continued after it came back up. A message appearing to users in the early hours initially indicated that it was out of service for maintenance issues, but a later message indicated the site was experiencing heavy traffic. Users were directed to a virtual waiting room where they would be told when they could begin the process. The site received about 2 million visitors a day over the weekend, an increase of about half million from the previous week, the AP reports. This is not the first time there have been problems with the site. The launch of the site in October 2013 was hampered with many technical issues, which may have contributed to the low initial enrollment rate. Six million people have already signed up for health coverage under the Affordable Care Act. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, which is responsible for implementing the law, anticipates at least 7 million will be enrolled by the deadline. Although March 31 is the last official day to sign up, millions of Americans may be eligible for extensions. The federal government will accept paper applications until April 7 for those who couldn't finish enrollment because of technical glitches, natural disasters, domestic abuse, or other reasons depending on their circumstance or state rules. 10 simple things to explain the Affordable Care Act. © Copyright 2014 Globe Newspaper Company.

MH370: Hopes dashed as orange objects turn out to be fishing equipment - CNN Posted: 31 Mar 2014 09:05 AM PDT STORY HIGHLIGHTS NEW: Malaysian officials: Final tranmission was "Good night Malaysian three seven zero" Officials had earlier said the transmission was, "All right, good night" United States sending pinger locator to sea, but it's of no use until search area is narrowed Australian Prime Minister vows to keep looking, says effort is just ramping up Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (CNN) -- Potential leads on the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 keep coming. So do the setbacks and frustrations. Monday's search ended without finding anything significant, Australian officials said. Four orange objects spotted by search aircraft and earlier described as promising turned out be nothing more than old fishing gear, they said. Underscoring the difficulty of the search, U.S. Navy officials loaded underwater locating gear aboard an Australian naval support vessel and set out to sea Monday evening, but won't be able to make use of the equipment until searchers narrow the search zone. U.S. Navy Cmdr. William Marks told CNN's "State of the Union" that his team needs a conclusive piece of debris to narrow down the search area before deploying the equipment. "We have to be careful not to send it in the wrong place," he said. "But we also wanted to get it out there as close as we can to what we believe is the right place." The gear includes a pinger locator that's towed behind a ship and scans for the sound of the locator beacon attached to the plane's flight data recorder. Also on board is a remotely operated submersible that can look for wreckage on the ocean floor. It will take the ship, the Ocean Shield, three days just to get to the search zone, leaving precious little time to locate the plane's flight data recorders before the batteries on its locator beacon run out. The batteries are designed to last 30 days; the plane has been missing 23 days. Under favorable sea conditions, the pingers can be heard 2 nautical miles away. But high seas, background noise, wreckage or silt can all make pingers harder to detect. In this case, searchers barely know where to look at all. "We are searching a vast area of ocean, and we are working on quite limited information," Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott told reporters Monday. "Nevertheless, the best brains in the world are applying themselves to this task. ... If this mystery is solvable, we will solve it." And he vowed to keep looking. "The intensity of our search and the magnitude of our operations is increasing, not decreasing," he said. Ten aircraft and 11 ships scouted more than 98,000 square miles (254,000 square kilometers) of Indian Ocean on Monday looking for the missing plane, Malaysia's acting Transportation Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said Monday. Flight 370 vanished March 8 while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. A new Australian Joint Agency Coordination Center is being formed to synchronize search efforts among Australian agencies and other countries taking part in the search, Hishammuddin said. And Malaysia will ask the United States about the possibility of deploying more military assets, he said. New details on handoff On Monday, Malaysia's Transport Ministry said the final voice transmission from the cockpit of Flight 370 was "Good night Malaysian three seven zero." That's a departure from earlier language in which Malaysian authorities said the final transmission was "All right, goodnight." The new language is routine and is not a sign of anything untoward occurring aboard the flight, said CNN aviation analyst Mary Schiavo. But she said it does raise questions about how Malaysian officials have handled the investigation. "Well, it speaks to credibility issues, unfortunately," she said. Get up to speed Relatives' demands Family members of people on board Flight 370 have accused Malaysian officials of giving them confusing, conflicting information since the plane vanished more than three weeks ago. On Monday, dozens of Chinese family members visited a Kuala Lumpur temple. They chanted, lit candles and meditated. "Chinese are kindhearted people," said Jiang Hui, the families' designated representative. "But we can clearly distinguish between the good and evil. We will never forgive for covering the truth from us and the criminal who delayed the rescue mission." Jiang asked Malaysia to apologize for announcing March 24 that the plane had crashed, despite the lack of any "direct evidence." At the daily press briefing, Hishammuddin responded, saying Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak had not used the word "crash" or mentioned a lack of survivors in his announcement that the plane's flight had "ended" in the southern Indian Ocean. And, he said, Malaysian authorities were not hiding anything by declining to release some details of the missing flight. Some details are part of ongoing investigations into what happened to the plane, he said. "We are not hiding anything. We are just following the procedure that is being set." he said. He described a meeting Saturday between Malaysian authorities and Flight 370 relatives as "the most difficult meeting I've ever attended." "The families are heartbroken. For many, the strain of the past few weeks has been unbearable," he said. He said Malaysia will hold a high-level briefing for families where experts will explain some of the data and methodology used to guide the search. He also said authorities have discussed with the families what happens if they are unable to find debris from the missing plane. But he declined to discuss it with reporters Monday, saying "to be fair to the families, that is something I would not want to share with the public at the moment." Beijing has also publicly slammed Malaysia's efforts to find the Boeing 777. Of the 239 people aboard the jetliner, 154 were Chinese. But Malaysia says it's done its best with what it has. "History will judge us as a country that has been very responsible," Hishammuddin said. Flight attendant's husband has no answers for children CNN's Dana Ford, Mitra Mobasherat, Kyung Lah, Yuli Yang and Paula Hancocks contributed to this report. KJ Kwon reported from Kuala Lumpur; and Faith Karimi wrote from Atlanta. 0 Comments » SHARE THIS Print Email More sharing

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Malaysia flight MH370: Chinese families vent anger - BBC News Posted: 30 Mar 2014 08:44 AM PDT 30 March 2014 Last updated at 16:09 The BBC's Jennifer Pak: "Family members have come here for answers" Relatives of Chinese passengers from the missing Malaysian plane have vented their anger at government officials, after arriving in Kuala Lumpur. Chanting "Tell us the truth", they said they wanted the Malaysian prime minister to apologise for what they regard as misleading statements. Eight ships and nine planes searched around 252,000 sq km (97,000 sq miles) of ocean for debris on Sunday. The Beijing-bound plane disappeared on 8 March with 239 people on board. International investigators have concluded that, based on satellite data, the missing Boeing 777 crashed somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean. The search zone shifted on Friday after further analysis. But while aircraft continue to spot debris in the water, nothing recovered by ships has so far been verified as being from the plane. Some relatives of the 153 Chinese passengers on board Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 have refused to accept the Malaysian account of events and blame the authorities. On Sunday, several dozen family members travelled from Beijing. After landing in Kuala Lumpur they held a news conference at a hotel holding up banners that read "We want evidence, truth, dignity" in Chinese, and "Hand us the murderer. Give us our relatives," in English. Their designated representative, Jiang Hui, said they wanted the Malaysian government to apologise for the initial handling of the disaster, as well as for Prime Minister Najib Razak's earlier statement that indicated the plane had crashed with no survivors. He said the conclusion had been announced "without direct evidence or a sense of responsibility". He said the group wanted to meet airline and government officials face to face - although he stopped short of saying that these included Mr Najib, as some relatives had earlier suggested. None of the objects retrieved by Haixun 01 or HMAS Success is thought to be from the missing plane Before the relatives travelled to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said the search for survivors would continue. "The hardest part of my job is to see the families," he said. "I've always said we are hoping against hope that we will find survivors." On Sunday, Malaysian officials cancelled their daily update on the search for a second day. The objects recovered by Australian naval ship HMAS Success and China's Haixun 01 on Saturday had been examined and were thought to be fishing equipment and other flotsam, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (Amsa) said in a statement. The BBC's Jon Donnison explains how a "towed pinger locator" is used An Australian vessel carrying a US device known as a "towed pinger locator" is due to join the search in the coming days. The device is designed to detect any ultrasonic signals - "pings" - from flight recorders and can operate up to a depth of about 6,000m. But the search area is huge - covering some 319,000 sq km (123,000 sq miles) - and time is running short. The flight recorders' batteries are expected to run out in about a week's time. The current search area is about 1,100km (700 miles) north-east of the previous zone. Officials said the focus changed after radar data showed the plane had been travelling faster than previously thought, thus burning more fuel and reducing the distance the aircraft could have travelled. Various theories about what went wrong have been suggested - including the captain hijacking his own plane. The speculation was fuelled by reports that files had been deleted on the pilot's home flight simulator. However on Saturday Malaysia's transport minister said investigators had found "nothing sinister" from the simulator. Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 vanished less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur. The airliner diverted off course and lost contact with air traffic controllers between Malaysian and Vietnamese air-traffic control areas. Are you in the region? Email us at haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk adding 'Malaysia Airlines' in the subject heading and include your contact details. Or send your thoughts using the form below.

Ukraine crisis: US and Russia set for Paris talks - BBC News Posted: 30 Mar 2014 08:46 AM PDT 30 March 2014 Last updated at 16:54 Mr Kerry abruptly diverted his flight on Saturday to attend the talks in Paris Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has set out demands for a neutral and federal Ukraine, ahead of crisis talks with his US counterpart in Paris. Sunday evening's meeting with Secretary of State John Kerry was hastily arranged after President Vladimir Putin phoned Barack Obama on Friday. Russia has annexed Crimea and there are reports of thousands of Russian troops massed close to Ukraine's borders. Ukraine denounced Mr Lavrov's remarks as a demand for "full capitulation". Mr Lavrov has categorically denied any plans for an invasion. But he has stressed Moscow will protect the rights of ethnic Russians and Russian speakers, after pro-EU protests in Kiev led to the ousting of Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovych. He had faced months of protests after pulling out of an association deal with Brussels. Hours before the Paris talks were due to take place at the Russian ambassador's residence, Mr Lavrov told Russian state TV that Ukraine should come up with a new constitution "providing for a federal structure" and neutrality. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov: "We have absolutely no intention of, or interest in, crossing Ukraine's borders" The Russian foreign minister said Moscow, the US and European Union should act as a support group for Kiev to begin a nationwide dialogue that did not involve the "armed radicals". Moscow claims that fascists have taken power in Ukraine, jeopardising the safety of Russian speakers. In an interview on Saturday, he said Russia had been deceived after being promised "there would be no movement of Nato military infrastructure closer to our borders". The Ukrainian foreign ministry said it deeply regretted Mr Lavrov's "patronising" remarks. "At the point of its automatic rifles, this aggressor demands only one thing - Ukraine's full capitulation, its split and the destruction of Ukrainian statehood," said a statement carried by Interfax-Ukraine news agency. Nato's outgoing Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen warned on Sunday that Russia's government was "[flouting] the principle that every state is sovereign and free to choose its own fate". Mr Putin is also thought to be demanding that Washington accepts Crimea's independence from Ukraine. Separately, Moscow is keen to tackle the issue of Trans-Dniester, a pro-Russian separatist region of Moldova on the south-western border of Ukraine. It accuses Ukraine and Moldova of "blockading" the area while the EU and the US stay silent. US officials are divided over whether Mr Putin is seeking to ease tensions or is still planning further military action, BBC Paris correspondent Christian Fraser reports. The Pentagon believes Moscow has massed tens of thousands of troops close to Ukraine's eastern border. Food, medicines and a field hospital are said to be among the supplies moved into position, officials say, which would not be necessary for any spring military exercise. Russia has said it has no intention or interest in invading predominantly Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine UK Defence Secretary Philip Hammond told the BBC: "Everybody is concerned. We are concerned that there might be a further incursion in the territory of a sovereign nation." The diplomatic push was initiated by President Putin, who spoke to President Obama for an hour late on Friday. The next day, the US secretary of state abruptly diverted his flight from Saudi Arabia to Paris for Sunday's meeting. "We are getting closer in our positions," Mr Lavrov said on Saturday. The White House, in its statement after Mr Putin's phone-call, said President Obama made clear that a de-escalation of the crisis could only take place "if Russia pulls back its troops and does not take any steps to further violate Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty". People in the Crimean capital Simferopol have been celebrating the change of the clocks to synchronise with the time in Moscow As the rest of Europe put clocks forward by one hour on Sunday, Crimea aligned its time with Moscow, jumping two hours ahead. Hundreds of people waving flags greeted the time change in the capital, Simferopol. Voters in the mainly pro-Russian peninsula backed leaving Ukraine for Russia in a referendum a fortnight ago. But the vote has been condemned as illegal by Kiev and the UN General Assembly.

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Magnitude 5.1 earthquake strikes Los Angeles area, second this month, could ... - New York Daily News Posted: 29 Mar 2014 09:02 AM PDT BLAINE OHIGASHI,/AP Merchandise is strewn across the floor in a La Habra Walgreens following a 5.1 earthquake centered near La Habra Friday night March 28, 2014. (AP Photo/The Orange County Register, Blaine, Ohigashi) REUTERS/Gene Blevins News cameraman Juan Guerra records a video of a fallen brick wall after a magnitude 5.1 earthquake in Fullerton, Calif., on Friday.  Jae C. Hong/AP Larry Van Osten (right) talks on the phone as he and other residents stand outside their condo complex during a power outage caused by an earthquake on Friday, Mar. 28, 2014, in Buena Park, Calif. USGS/EPA epa04145233 A shake map released by the US Geological Survey (USGS) on 29 March 2014 shows the location and intensity of a 5.1 Richter scale earthquake 2.4 km north-west of Brea in Orange County, California, USA. No immediate damage has been reported. About an hour earlier, a 3.6 quake hit the nearby city of La Habra, USGS reported on 29 March. EPA/USGS HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY Rod Veal/The Orange County Register via AP A car sits rolled over in the wake of Friday night's earthquake on Carbon Canyon Road in Brea, Calif., near Olinda Village. Mark Rightmire/The Orange County Register via AP Police and work crews close off the area as water bubbles up through the pavement along Gilbert St. in Fullerton, Calif., on Friday night following a magnitude 5.1 earthquake. Previous Next Enlarge More than 100 aftershocks have rattled Southern California since a 5.1 magnitude earthquake jolted the area Friday night. Scattered, minor damage and injuries were reported as the U.S. Geologoical Survey warned the seismic shift could foreshadow a bigger temblor. "There could be even a larger earthquake in the next few hours or the next few days," seismologist Lucy Jones said at a media briefing. Friday's event followed a ground-shaking event earlier this month. "Tonight's earthquake is the second in two weeks, and reminds us to be prepared," Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said. It struck at 9:09 p.m. and was centered near La Habra in Orange County — about 30 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles — at a depth of about 5 miles. It was felt as far south as San Diego and as far north as Ventura County, according to citizen responses collected online by the USGS. Broken glass, gas leaks, water main breaks and a rockslide were reported near the epicenter, according to authorities. Eyewitness photos and videos show bottles and packages strewn on store floors. Southern California Edison reported power outages to about 2,000 customers. Public safety officials said crews were inspecting bridges, dams, rail tracks and other infrastructure systems for signs of damage. The Brea police department said a rock slide in Carbon Canyon area caused a car to overturn, and the people inside sustained minor injuries. Callers to KNX-AM reported seeing a brick wall collapse, water sloshing in a swimming pool and wires and trees swaying back and forth. One caller said he was in a movie theater lobby in Brea when the quake struck. "A lot of the glass in the place shook like crazy," he said. "It started like a roll and then it started shaking like crazy. Everybody ran outside, hugging each other in the streets." A helicopter news reporter from KNBC-TV reported from above that rides at Disneyland in Anaheim — several miles from the epicenter — were stopped as a precaution. Hall of Fame announcer Vin Scully was on the air calling the Angels-Dodgers exhibition game in the sixth inning at Dodger Stadium. "A little tremor here in the ballpark. I'm not sure if the folks felt it, but we certainly felt it here in press box row," Scully said. "A tremor and only that, thank goodness." Tom Connolly, a Boeing employee who lives in La Mirada, the next town over from La Habra, said the magnitude-5.1 quake lasted about 30 seconds. "We felt a really good jolt. It was a long rumble and it just didn't feel like it would end," he told The Associated Press by phone. "Right in the beginning it shook really hard, so it was a little unnerving. People got quiet and started bracing themselves by holding on to each other. It was a little scary." Friday's quake hit a week after a pre-dawn magnitude-4.4 quake centered in the San Fernando Valley rattled a swath of Southern California. That jolt shook buildings and rattled nerves, but did not cause significant damage. Southern California has not experienced a devastating earthquake since the 1994's  6.7 magnitude quake in Northridge, which killed 57 people, severed freeways and caused $25 billion in damages. Preliminary data suggest Friday night's 5.1 magnitude earthquake occurred near the Puente Hills thrust fault, which stretches from the San Gabriel Valley to downtown Los Angeles and caused the 1987 Whittier Narrows earthquake, seismologist Lucy Jones said. "It's a place where we've had a lot of earthquakes in the past," she said. The 5.9 Whittier Narrows quake killed eight people and caused $360 million in damage. ON A MOBILE DEVICE? Click here and here to see the videos.

Ukraine crisis: Russia vows no invasion - BBC News Posted: 29 Mar 2014 09:06 AM PDT 29 March 2014 Last updated at 15:26 Russian troops are already in full control of Crimea Moscow has no intention of sending troops into Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said. His comments came after the US and Russian presidents discussed a possible diplomatic solution to the crisis. The US-backed plan calls for Russia to halt to its military build-up on the border with Ukraine and withdraw its troops in Crimea to their bases. US Secretary of State John Kerry is trying to set up talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Reports say Mr Kerry was flying home from the Middle East on Saturday when he abruptly changed travel plans. He instructed his plane to fly to Paris, where he is expected to meet Mr Lavrov early next week. Tensions over Ukraine rose following the overthrow of pro-Kremlin Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in February, following months of street protests. Moscow later intervened in Crimea, a predominantly ethnic Russian region of Ukraine where its troops are stationed, saying the takeover in Kiev was a pro-fascist coup. Russia then annexed Crimea after the region held a referendum which backed joining the Russian Federation. Western countries condemned the vote as illegal and imposed sanctions on members of Mr Putin's inner circle. Meanwhile Ukraine's interim authorities have been pressing ahead with elections due in May. On Saturday boxer and opposition leader Vitaly Klitschko pulled out of the race for president. He announced he was supporting billionaire Petro Poroshenko saying: "The only chance of winning is to nominate one candidate from the democratic forces." Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has also said she will stand. 'Diplomatic means' In an interview with state TV channel Rossiya 1 on Saturday, Mr Lavrov said: "We have absolutely no intention of - or interest in - crossing Ukraine's borders." Sergei Lavrov: "We have no intention of crossing Ukraine's borders" He added that Russia was ready to protect "the rights of Russians and Russian-speaking people in Ukraine, using all available political, diplomatic and legal means". After the interview was broadcast, it emerged Mr Lavrov had spoken by phone to Mr Kerry, in a conversation that Russian officials said was initiated by the US. That call followed an hour-long phone discussion late on Friday between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Barack Obama. Mr Putin had contacted President Obama, according to US officials. "President Obama underscored to President Putin that the United States continues to support a diplomatic path... with the aim of de-escalation of the crisis," the White House said in a statement. "President Obama made clear that this remains possible only if Russia pulls back its troops and does not take any steps to further violate Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty." President Putin welcomed military leaders to the Kremlin on Friday The US proposal, developed in consultation with Ukraine and other European countries, includes halting the military build-up near Ukraine's border, the deployment of international monitors in Crimea to protect the rights of Russian speakers, and the return of Russian troops there to their bases. The Kremlin said that the Russian president had drawn Mr Obama's attention to "the continued rampage of extremists" in Kiev and various regions of Ukraine. It said these individuals were "committing acts of intimidation towards peaceful residents, government authorities and law enforcement agencies... with impunity". Russia's reported troop movements near Ukraine's eastern border - described by Nato as a "huge military build-up" - has triggered fears that Mr Putin's interest in Ukraine is not limited to Crimea. The BBC's North America Editor, Mark Mardell, said Friday night's phone call could indicate tentative progress towards a diplomatic solution - just when fears were growing in the West that Russia could be about to stage an invasion of eastern Ukraine.

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