No ‘smoking gun’ in probe into pilots of MH370, reports CNN

Investigations into the pilot and co-pilot of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has not turned up any "smoking gun", a US official close to the probe told CNN.

This includes an ongoing FBI review of the hard drives retrieved from the homes of both Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah and first officer Fariq Abdul Hamid, and a flight simulator from the pilot's home.

"They have accessed the data," the official said. "There is nothing that's jumping out and grabbing us right now."

A Malaysian government official told CNN law enforcement analyst Tom Fuentes yesterday that authorities have found nothing negative in 19 days of investigating the two pilots that has led to any motive, be it political, suicidal or extremist.

It reported that authorities have also so far found nothing suspicious in the investigations into the 10 other crew members and the 227 passengers.

The plane's disappearance 20 days ago appears to have stumped American investigators who say that there are "counterarguments to every theory right now".

122 objects spotted in search area in the Indian Ocean, says Hishammuddin

New satellite images provided by Airbus Defence and Space have shown 122 potential objects in the southern Indian Ocean where search efforts for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 are now being focussed, said Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein (pic).

"The new images were received from France and taken on March 23," he told reporters at the Putra World Trade Centre today.

"The images were given to the Malaysian Remote Sensing Agency (MRSA) who then passed it to the Australian authorities."

"MRSA analysed the images and - in one area of the ocean measuring some 400 square kilometres - were able to identify 122 potential objects."

Hishammuddin said some of the objects were a metre in length while others were as much as 23 metres in length, adding that some of the objects appeared to be bright, possibly indicating solid materials.

He, however, cautioned that none of the objects had been identified yet nor could it be linked to MH370 before verification. – March 26, 2014.

Australia says ‘throwing everything we have’ to solve MH370 puzzle

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott today vowed to find the wreckage of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 which authorities now believe is lying in the Indian Ocean, some 2500 km southwest of Perth.

"We owe it to the families, we owe it to an anxious world to do everything we can to finally locate some wreckage and to do whatever we can to solve the riddle of this extraordinarily ill-fated flight," the BBC quoted Abbott as saying.

Australia has been at the forefront of the international search mission. To date, 26 countries are involved in this search operation which is being coordinated by Malaysia.

"There's a terrible trauma involved - there's the uncertainty, there's the anguish. It's just an unspeakable time for these people and if they want to come to Australia we'll make them welcome and we'll do everything we can to assist," Abbott said, referring to the families of the 239 passengers and crew on board the flight.

Abbott was earlier quoted in an AFP report saying that the search would continue until there was no hope of finding anything.

Military thought flight MH370 turn back was ordered by Subang, deputy minister tells parliament

The military did not respond when it saw an unidentified flight on its military radar as they had assumed that the air traffic control in Subang had ordered the plane to do a turn back, deputy Defence Minister Datuk Abdul Rahim Bakri told Parliament today.

"It was detected by our radar, but the turn back was by a non-hostile plane and we thought maybe it was at the directive of the control tower," he said in winding up points raised by MPs on the King's royal address.

It had been reported earlier that a non-hostile aircraft flew right across the country's air space in the early hours of March 8.

Malaysia has come under severe criticism after it was revealed that the military radar tracked an unidentified craft - now confirmed to be Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 - but did not take any action.

In an earlier report, the British Broadcasting Corporation had said this raised questions about security gaps while a former British Royal Air Force pilot and aerospace analyst Andrew Brookes had said that the government and air force will have some serious matters to address.

Abdul Rahim, however, dismissed criticism that delays in disclosing military radar data might have hampered the search for the missing jet, saying that there was a need to corroborate the information it received with other agencies investigating the case such as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB).

Mother of MH370 passenger holding on to hope son still alive

A mother of a Chinese passenger on board the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines MH370 has not given up hope of seeing her son back home, safe and sound.

In a tearful interview with China Central Television (CCTV), Liu Guiqui - the mother of MH370 passenger Li Le - said her heart broke when she learnt of the news of the missing plane on March 8.

"Our driver went to the airport to pick up my son. But he (the driver) told us, he never arrived. I was confused and wondered what happened. I asked MAS and they said the plane never took off.

"I switched on the television and was watching CCTV, where I saw reports the plane was missing. When I realised it wasn't a mistake, I was heartbroken," she said, adding that she kept telling herself that Li Le would be alright.

Liu was one of several family members of Chinese passengers on the missng jetliner who had burst into the media briefing room at the Sama-Sama Hotel in Sepang last week, demanding answers from authorities.

"I needed to ask the Malaysian politicians what happened to my son. How is it that we have no information?

"At that stage, the plane had been missing for 12 days. I can't understand why there hasn't been any news. I'm going to go crazy," she told CCTV.

Malaysia says evidence of final ‘ping’ from MH370 at 8.19am

Satellite data that confirmed Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, missing for more than two weeks, had crashed in the Indian Ocean included a final electronic signal at 8.19am (Malaysian time) on March 8, that is still being investigated, Malaysian acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said today.

"There is evidence of a partial handshake between the aircraft and ground station at 0019 UTC (GMT)," Hishammuddin told a news conference.

"At this time, this transmission is not understood and is subject to further ongoing work."

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said on Sunday that groundbreaking satellite-data analysis by the British company Inmarsat had revealed that MAS flight MH370, which vanished while flying to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur on March 8, had crashed thousands of kilometres away in the southern Indian Ocean.

Preliminary analysis of the satellite "pings" had only been able to place the plane's final position in one of two vast arcs stretching from the Caspian Sea to the southern Indian Ocean. – March 25, 2014.