BEIJING — The second "black box" from a China Eastern Boeing 737-800 was found Sunday, raising hopes that it might shed light on why the passenger plane nosedived into a remote mountainous area in southern China last week, killing all 132 people on board. Firefighters taking part in the search found the flight data recorder on a mountain slope about 40 meters (130 feet) from the point of impact and 1.5 meters (5 feet) underground, state media said. Experts confirmed it was the second black box. The impact of the crash created a 20-meter- (65-foot-) deep pit in the side of the mountain and scattered debris widely. Searchers had been looking for the data recorder after finding the cockpit voice recorder four days ago. The two black boxes should help investigators determine what caused the plane to plummet from 29,000 feet (8,800 meters) about one hour into the flight and shortly before it would have begun its descent. The remote setting and rainy and muddy conditions have complicated the search for the black boxes and wreckage. Images posted by CGTN, the international arm of CCTV, showed an official holding an orange cylindrical object on site with the words "FLIGHT RECORDER" and "DO NOT OPEN" written on it. It appeared slightly dented but intact. The search was paused Sunday afternoon for a three-minute moment of silence for the 123 passengers and nine crew members. Emergency workers took off their helmets and police and soldiers their caps. Standing in groups in formation, they bowed their heads as sirens blared. Flight MU5735 crashed Monday en route from the city of Kunming in southeastern China to Guangzhou, a major city and export manufacturing hub near Hong Kong. An air traffic controller tried to contact the pilots several times after seeing the plane's altitude drop sharply but got no reply, officials have said. The cockpit voice recorder, also an orange cylinder, was found two days later on Wednesday. It has been sent to a Beijing lab for examination and analysis, and the flight data recorder was also being sent to the Chinese capital for decoding.
Search teams have been combing the site outside the city of Wuzhou for days with shovels and other hand tools. Construction excavators have been brought in to remove earth and clear wider passageways to the site, and pumps are being used to drain collected water from the rain. Officials said monitors have been installed to detect possible landslides from the rain and search activity that could endanger the workers. Officials announced late Saturday that there were no survivors. DNA analysis has confirmed the identities of 120 of the people on board, they said. Searchers have found ID and bank cards belonging to the victims. The Boeing Co. said in a statement that a Boeing technical team is supporting the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and the Civil Aviation Administration of China, which will lead the investigation into the crash. China Eastern, one of China's four major airlines, and its subsidiaries have grounded all of their Boeing 737-800s, a total of 223 aircraft. The carrier said the grounding was a precaution, not a sign of any problem with the planes.
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This photo shows a charter fishing boat, right, operated Enchanter Fishing Charters, at the Mangonui Wharf in Mangonui, New Zealand, Monday, March 21, 2022. Multiple people were confirmed dead and a few people missing after a boat operated by Enchanter Fishing Charters sank in stormy weather off the New Zealand coast, police said on Monday. Several people were rescued after the boat carrying 10 people got into trouble and set off a distress signal on Sunday night off North Cape on the northern coast, triggering a major search and rescue operation. (David Fisher/New Zealand Herald via AP) WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- Rescuers on Monday were continuing to search for one person still missing a day after a chartered fishing boat carrying 10 people sank in a storm off the New Zealand coast. A helicopter rescued five people from the sea, and four bodies have been recovered.
The 17-meter (56-foot) boat got into trouble and its emergency beacon was activated at 8 p.m. Sunday off North Cape on the northern coast. A helicopter became the first search and rescue vehicle to reach the remote location at 11:40 p.m., said Nick Burt, spokesman for Maritime NZ’s Rescue Coordination Center. “The weather really hampered the response from the aircraft. There was thunderstorms, dangerous flying conditions, so that was the earliest we could get to the scene," Burt said. The boat was confirmed sunk at 2:30 a.m., he said. Weather conditions were more favorable for the search Monday, with a navy patrol boat coordinating, helicopters in the air and ground crews scouring the shoreline, Burt said. Two bodies in the water were recovered by helicopter on Monday morning, and another two were recovered by search vessels, police said. The five people rescued by helicopter were admitted to Kaitaia Hospital and later discharged. Luis Fernandes, a meteorologist with New Zealand’s weather agency MetService, said gale-force winds had whipped up rough seas around North Cape at the time the alarm was raised. But conditions eased in the area later in the night as the search began and the storm system moved south, he said. The fishing boat had left the northern port of Mangonui on Thursday, the Stuff news website reported. On board were the captain, a crew member and eight passengers from Auckland, New Zealand’s most populous city, Stuff said. The captain was among with survivors, the website said. No one else has been identified. - ABC News Police believe that one man is responsible for a recent string of shootings targeting people experiencing homelessness in New York City and Washington, D.C. The suspect is believed to have carried out five shootings, two of them fatal, in the month of March, police said.
"Given the similarity in the modus operandi of the perpetrator, common circumstances involved in each shooting, circumstances of the victims and recovered evidence, the New York City Police Department (NYPD), the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia (MPD) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) will jointly investigate these offenses," the NYPD and MPD announced Sunday in a joint statement. The first three shootings took place in Washington, D.C., over the course of the last two weeks. A man who who was sleeping on the street was shot in the early morning of March 3. He was taken to the hospital and treated for injuries that were not life threatening, police said. A similar incident happened again on March 8, and again, the victim's injures were not life threatening. At around 3 a.m. the following day, a MPD officer noticed a tent fire. After the fire was extinguished, the remains of another victim were found and an autopsy revealed the cause of death to be multiple gunshot and stab wounds, police said. Two more victims were shot Saturday in New York City. The first, a 38-year-old man, was shot in the arm at around 4:30 a.m. The second victim was discovered around 5 p.m. after police responded to a call about a person suffering from gunshot wounds to the head and neck. That victim was pronounced dead at the scene police said, adding that witnesses in the area said they had heard gunshots about 11 hours earlier. "Our homeless population is one of our most vulnerable and an individual praying on them as they sleep is an exceptionally heinous crime," NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said in a statement Sunday. "We will use every tool, every technique and every partner to bring the killer to justice." Another person experiencing homelessness was found dead in New York City on Sunday, CBS New York reports, but it is unclear at this time if that death is related to the five shootings. Police released images of the suspect taken from surveillance video and encouraged anybody who could identify him to contact MPD or the NYPD. Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser and New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Sunday asked "everyone in our cities to look at the images of the suspect and report any information, however small, that may be useful." "As our law enforcement agencies work quickly with federal partners to locate the suspect, we are also calling on unsheltered residents to seek shelter," the mayors said in a joint statement. "Again, it is heartbreaking and tragic to know that in addition to all the dangers that unsheltered residents face, we now have a cold-blooded killer on the loose, but we are certain that we will get the suspect off the street and into police custody." - CBS News Russia's military said it would cease fire and open humanitarian corridors in several Ukrainian cities Monday – yet continued to pound residential areas of battered cities with rocket attacks. A third round of talks were planned for Monday after two previous negotiations proved fruitless. Russia is demanding that Ukraine halt its military activity, change its Constitution to include neutrality so it can't join the EU or NATO, recognize Crimea as Russian territory and recognize independence of the separatist regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday. Russia had promised a cease-fire to allow safe passage for evacuees from the capital of Kyiv, the southern port city of Mariupol, and the cities of Kharkiv and Sumy. Some of the evacuation routes, however, would funnel civilians toward Russia or its ally Belarus, a plan that Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk called unacceptable. U.K. Europe Minister James Cleverly agreed, saying that "evacuation routes into the arms of the country that is currently destroying yours is nonsense,” Ukraine Defense Secretary Aleksey Danilov said Russia "violates the agreements reached, blocks the opening of green corridors, does not allow humanitarian supplies –but at the same time tries to create a false picture of a 'joyful meeting' of the occupiers by local residents." Latest developments: ►President Joe Biden will discusses the latest developments in a secure video teleconference today with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. ►The International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said he is "extremely concerned" that Russian forces are beginning to assert authority over operation of Zaporizhzhya nuclear plant, Ukraine’s largest, that they seized last week. ►The death toll of the conflict has been difficult to measure. The U.N. human rights office said at least 364 civilians have been confirmed killed since the Feb. 24 invasion, but the true number is probably much higher. ►Netflix said Sunday that it’s suspending service in Russia, joining the growing list of companies shunning the country. Earlier in the day, TikTok and American Express said they would suspend operations in the country, which followed announcements by Visa and Mastercard Saturday. TikTok also said it will start labeling content from accounts used by state-controlled media. Quick links: GET UKRAINE UPDATES:We'll email you the latest news once a day VISUALS:Mapping and tracking Russia's invasion of Ukraine Biden to confer with France, Germany and England on UkraineBiden, who will confer via video teleconference Monday with the leaders of France, Germany and England, has worked for weeks in close consultation with European allies over how to respond to Russia’s aggression. Macron, pressing ahead with diplomatic efforts to end the war, spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday, their fourth conversation since Russian forces attacked Ukraine on Feb. 24. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will go to Paris on Tuesday to hear from Macron, who holds the European Union's rotating presidency. Russian and Ukrainian officials planned to meet Monday for a third attempt at negotiations. While Russia announced it would cease fire and open humanitarian corridors to allow civilians to leave Ukraine, it has continued to attack some Ukrainian cities. – Maureen Groppe EU official warns refugee total could reach 5 millionThe number of refugees who have fled Ukraine surpassed 1.7 million on Monday, and an EU official warned the number would likely reach 5 million. More than 1 million have crossed the border into Poland, according to the U.N. refugee agency. EU foreign affairs policy chief Josep Borrell called on mobilizing “all the resources” of the bloc of 27 nations to help countries welcoming the refugee. "If they continue to bomb Ukrainian cities in an indiscriminate manner, we can expect 5 million migrants," EU foreign affairs policy chief Josep Borrell said. "Not migrants, we can't call them migrants. These are exiled people." 36 hours with a team building a field hospital in UkraineUSA TODAY spent 36 hours with a team of overseas nurses, engineers and logistics personnel invited by Ukraine's authorities to build a field hospital for emergency and specialized trauma care in Lviv. It is being established to serve an expected wave of people – military and civilian – impacted by Russia's assault on Ukraine as Moscow counters resistance to its invasion with more firepower. The location of the planned hospital is on the fringes of Lviv in western Ukraine – identified as a potential capital if Kyiv falls to the Kremlin. "I've set up hospitals in war zones, and we've deliberately marked ones that have been bombed and we've left them unmarked and gotten bombed," said Ken Isaacs, the American who is leading the effort to construct the hospital. "When an airplane wants to bomb you, they bomb you." Read more here. – Kim Hjelmgaard and Jessica Koscielniak Russia snubs UN court hearings in case brought by UkraineRussia has snubbed a hearing at the United Nations’ top court into a legal bid by Kyiv to halt Moscow’s devastating invasion of Ukraine. A row of seats reserved for Russian lawyers at the International Court of Justice was empty Monday morning as the hearing opened. The court’s president, American judge Joan E. Donoghue, said Russia’s ambassador to the Netherlands informed judges that “his government did not intend to participate in the oral proceedings.” The hearing went ahead without the Russian delegation. The International Court of Justice is opening two days of hearings at its headquarters, the Peace Palace, into Ukraine's request for its judges to order Russia to halt its invasion. Ukraine is scheduled to present its arguments Monday morning and Russia has the opportunity to respond on Tuesday. A decision is expected on the request within days, though that does not mean Russia would abide by any order the court might issue. Blinken travels to Baltic statesBlinken has begun a trip to the three Baltic states that are increasingly on edge as Russia presses ahead with its invasion of Ukraine. The former Soviet republics of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are all members of NATO and Blinken aims to reassure them of the alliance’s protection. Since the invasion of Ukraine last month, NATO has moved quickly to boost its troop presence in its eastern flank allies. Blinken’s Baltic tour opened Monday in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, where support for Ukraine’s resistance to the invasion government is palpable with signs of solidarity with Ukrainians in many businesses and on public buildings and buses. New Zealand will rush through a new law to sanction Russia. New Zealand's government said Monday that it plans to rush through a new law that will allow it to impose economic sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. Unlike many countries that have already introduced sanctions, New Zealand's existing laws don't allow it to apply meaningful measures unless they're part of a broader United Nations effort. Because Russia has U.N. Security Council veto power, that has left New Zealand hamstrung. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the new legislation would allow it to target people, companies and assets connected to those in Russia associated with the invasion, including oligarchs. It would allow New Zealand to freeze assets and stop superyachts or planes from arriving. The bill will be specific only to the Ukraine invasion but could allow New Zealand to impose sanctions on countries seen to be helping Russia, such as Belarus. Australian missiles on the ground in UkraineAustralia’s prime minister has described Russia and China’s closer relationship as opportunistic rather than strategic. Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Monday labeled the alliance an “Arc of Autocracy” and said Russia and China would prefer a new world order to the one that has been in place since World War II. Morrison has criticized Beijing’s failure to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s expansion of trade in Russian wheat while other countries are imposing sanctions. Australia last week promised Ukraine $50 million in missiles, ammunition and other military hardware to fight Russian invaders. Morrison said on Monday: “Our missiles are on the ground now.” Oil prices rise as Rep. Pelosi urges banning imported Russian oilThe price of oil surpassed $10 a barrel as shares fell sharply Monday. Brent crude oil surged more than 12% during the day in Asia, while benchmark U.S. crude gained about $10 at more than $125 a barrel. The effects of rising gas prices have been mounting across the world and in the U.S., where the national average price for gas has topped $4 a gallon for the first time in over a decade. U.S. futures also fell, and the contract for the benchmark S&P 500 was down 1.6% and that for the Dow industrials fell 1.3%. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said Sunday evening that Congress is exploring “strong legislation” that would ban the import of Russian oil and energy products into the U.S. If passed, the legislation would almost certainly affect oil and gas prices worldwide. Russia doesn't export much oil to the United States, but it's just enough that the threat of banning its crude from American shores is driving gas prices and leaving some regions – notably the West Coast – facing the prospect of less crude to process at refineries and making costs even higher at the pump, experts say. – Celina Tebor and Craig Harris OIL FROM RUSSIA:How much oil does the US buy from Russia? Not much, but gas prices are rising amid Ukraine invasion GAS PRICES ARE RISING:What can Biden do to lower costs at the pump amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine? Biden administration requests $10B in support for Ukraine The Biden administration has requested $10 billion in humanitarian, military and economic support for Ukraine, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced Sunday. Biden has strongly affirmed that he will not send U.S. troops to fight in Ukraine, but the funds, which will be part of the federal government’s omnibus funding legislation, will likely provide military equipment and support U.S. allies who are supplying airplanes to Ukraine, a news release from Pelosi said. She also said the U.S. House of Representatives is exploring “strong legislation” that would ban the import of Russian oil and energy products into the U.S., repeal normal trade relations with Russia and Belarus and take the first step in denying Russia access to the World Trade Organization. - USA Today
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