News in Brief

Date: 22 June 2016 - 19:52

News ID: ۲۸۰۸۵

SYDNEY (AFP) - A piece of debris that washed up on an island off Australia’s south coast was not from missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, officials said Wednesday as they confirmed there are no plans to extend the underwater search for the plane.
The item was found earlier this month among seaweed and driftwood and resembled part of a plane, with the words "Caution No Step” visible, according to footage on Australia’s Channel Seven.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), which is coordinating the search, examined the debris and dismissed it as being from the jet that vanished in March 2014 with 239 people on board.
"Information received from the manufacturer indicates the item is not consistent with the manufacturing specifications of a Boeing commercial aircraft,” the bureau said in a statement.
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LOS ANGELES (TIME) — Two wildfires that together burned 7 square miles and drove several hundred people from their homes in foothill suburbs of Los Angeles were growing fast and surging closer to each other.
Aggravated by triple-digit heat that hastened similar fires from the Pacific Coast to New Mexico, the two blazes erupted Monday near Azusa and Duarte and gave a big scare to homeowners before burning mostly away from the cities and toward the Angeles National Forest.
Charlie Downing, out of breath and with his shirt off because of the heat, said when he first smelled fire and felt heat that he ran outside of his house in Duarte and was astonished by size and nearness of the flames.
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CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — A senior U.S. diplomat was in Venezuela on Tuesday to meet with officials to jumpstart dialogue between the normally hostile governments as the socialist-run nation is torn apart by daily food protests and a campaign to oust President Nicolas Maduro.
Thomas Shannon, a career diplomat with extensive experience in Latin America, flew to Caracas after weeks of looting and hunger riots in Venezuela. The riots led to hundreds of arrests and several deaths.
State Department spokesman John Kirby said Shannon, who now serves as undersecretary of state for political affairs, hoped to foster dialogue about the social, economic and political challenges facing the oil-rich country. He was to meet with leading opposition figures and was also expected to meet with Maduro and other government representatives.
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CANBERRA (Dispatches) - A huge snake that has lived in the roof of an Australian home for 10 years has tried to upgrade to the master bedroom.
Trina Hibberd, from Mission Beach in Queensland, woke on Monday to find the 5.2m scrub python named Monty stretched from her lounge room to her bedroom.
Monty managed to turn on a light and knock over a lamp before snake-catcher Dave Goodwin arrived.
Mr Goodwin induced the snake to wrap around his forearm before capturing it inside a plastic home-brewing jug.
He told the BBC the 40kg snake was "choking [his] arm to death” before he transferred it into the tub.