China urged to re-look into passenger manifest

Minneapolis Lesbian Police Chief Dons Hijab for “Hijab Day”

When the left finally cracks up, the few survivors will have a really good laugh.

According to a Facebook post, Somali staffers that work at Minneapolis City Hall declared February 28 “Hijab Day” at City Hall and convinced the police chief and female city council reps to wear hijabs on the job.

Pictures include: Minneapolis police chief Janee Harteau (who recently married her favorite female sergeant – not very hijab like), city council members Elizabeth Glidden and Lisa Bender as well as other staffers.

There’s nothing like a lesbian feminist authority figure who boasts of being the first female police chief in Minneapolis donning a symbol of male ownership in a patriarchal tribal society to express the deep schizophrenia of the left in its enthusiastic enabling of Islamists.

But I’m sure now that Janee donned the hijab, she thinks everything is going to be okay. Spoiler alert; it’s not.

Two women accused of having a lesbian relationship have been sentenced to death by a court in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland in northern Somalia. In the first case of its kind in Somalia, a culturally conservative and Muslim nation, the two — whose names were not revealed — were found guilty of “exercising unnatural behaviour”.

The relationship between the two women was discovered after one of them sued her partner, who had lived in the United States, for infecting her with a sexually transmitted disease.

Hundreds packed the court in the northern coastal town of Boosaaso earlier this week to hear the case. They cheered as the judge handed down death sentences on the two women. The pair are reported to have been tried under Somali Criminal Punishment Law, which is loosely based on Islamic Sharia law.


Coming soon to Minneapolis…

Mystery surrounds co-pilot's final words

"All right, good night" were the last words from the cockpit of the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.

 

These words have come under intense scrutiny in the recent days over whether they were said by the pilot or someone who was not supposed to be in the cockpit.

 

However, Malaysian authorities said today preliminary investigations show that these last words were from co-pilot Fariq Ab Hamid (left).

 

"Initial investigations indicate that it was the co-pilot who basically spoke the last time, it was recorded on tape," MAS chief executive officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya told a press conference at Sama-Sama Hotel, KL International Airport.

 

This final conversation took place just 11 minutes before MH370 disappeared from Malaysian air traffic control radar at 1.30am on March 8.

 

Did something happen to the co-pilot in those 11 minutes or was the co-pilot part of something devious? [View timeline of final communication here]

 

These questions have prompted the international media to cast a spotlight on whether MH370's communication system, the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (Acars), was turned off before or after the final cockpit communication.

When was the Acars switched off?
 

Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said yesterday the Acars was turned off before the last cockpit communication with the control tower - now deduced to be with Fariq.

 

That statement, which was clarified to be inaccurate today, had raised questions as to why Fariq did not indicate anything amiss to the control tower, despite the Acars being turned off even though it should not have been.

 

Jauhari (right) said today it could not be established whether the Acars was turned off before or after Fariq's communication.

 

"The last Acars transmission was 1.07am. We don't know when the Acars was switched off after that but it was supposed to transmit every 30 minutes and the next transmission did not come through," he said.

 

That means the next Acars transmission - that did not take place - should have been at 1.37am.

 

This indicates the Acars could have been turned off at any time before or after 1.19am, but still between 1.07am and 1.37am, which is the time of the final communication with the control tower.

 

This latest information gives Fariq the benefit of the doubt, but does not shed light on what happened in the next crucial 11 minutes when the plane lost communication and deviated from its path.

Pilot was not a stand-in

The plane's transponder, a key communication device tracked by air traffic controllers, could not be picked up at 1.21am by Vietnamese air traffic controllers as scheduled.

 

Jauhari also denied that the pilot, Zaharie Ahmad Shah (left) was a last minute replacement for the flight.

 

"The roster used was according to schedule," he said.

 

Meanwhile, Hishammuddin who was also present at the press conference confirmed that pilot suicide was among several angles that are being investigated in investigation of the flight's passengers by the police.

 

However, he declined to state whether the investigation thus far found whether the pilot and co-pilot were suffering from any personal problems.

Only RoS can decide on MIC re-election’

Former MIC Youth chief says the MIC central working committee cannot decide not to hold a re-election.

PETALING JAYA: Only the Registrar of Societies (RoS) can decide on the party re-election and not the MIC central committee members, said former MIC Youth chief T Mohan.

Mohan said since more than 50 reports had been lodged with the RoS on irregularities in the CWC and division elections, only the registrar could decide now.

“It is unlawful for CWC members to dismiss appeals made by party members and leaders who now want a re-election.

“The letter from MIC president G Palanivel and CWC are their personal views and the final say is with the RoS,” he said in the statement.

He said only the RoS could decide if a re-election was warranted or not.

Mohan was commenting on an announcement by the party secretary-general last week that the party had dismissed all petitions calling for a re-election following alleged vote manipulation and voting irregularities at the party polls late last year.

Disgruntled leaders and members have been asking the party leadership to hold a re-election, claiming that the MIC polls, held on Nov 30, 2013 in Malacca, was marred with irregularities.

“We do not care about the party’s stand. The RoS is investigating party leaders and election committee personnel. Let them decide on whether a re-election is needed or not,” said Mohan.

He said Palanivel did not want to hold the party elections last year but was forced to do so by the RoS.

“The RoS intervened once and there is no reason why they cannot intervene again. Just hold a re-election and clear the air once and for all,” he added.

Dr Mahathir warns Malaysia to prepare for another financial crisis

(Bernama) - Malaysia needs to be ready to face another world financial crisis which was expected in the face of escalating prices and reduced purchasing power.

Former prime minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed (pic), said the country should formulate strategies based on past experiences and find the causes of the crisis.

“With current and past financial crises, we should dissect them and in turn get ideas on how to prepare ourselves to overcome them,” he told a media briefing after the Perdana Leadership Foundation International Roundtable on Surviving the Next Global Financial Crisis in Kuala Lumpur today.

He said the first stage would involve understanding the mechanics and once it was achieved, the crisis could be dealt with.

“I am a former doctor and the way we should approach it, should be like a doctor,” he said.

Meanwhile, the roundtable discussed ways to overcome a financial crisis and the findings will be forwarded to the government.

The roundtable is organised by the Perdana Leadership Foundation and sponsored by YTL Corp, Malaysia Airlines, Buna Puri, Westports, AmBank, UEM and Bank Rakyat.

The participants include Senator Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar (Minister in Prime Minister’s Department – Economic Planning Unit), Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar (Khazanah Nasional managing director), Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop (Khazanah Nasional deputy chairman), Tan Sri Azman Hashim (AmBank chairman), Tan Sri Francis Yeoh (YTL managing director), Tan Sri Sabbaruddin Chik (Bank Rakyat chairman), Tan Sri Azman Yahya (Symphony Life chairman/group chief executive officer), Tan Sri Jawhar Hassan (ISIS chairman), and, Datuk Mohaiyani Shamsudin (Maybank Asset Management).

Meanwhile, Dr Mahathir said he was saddened by the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines MH370 since March 8.

“It is strange that it can’t be detected through satellite with 20 nations assisting in the search and rescue operations,” he said.

China Presses Claim on MH370 Search

Troubling noises in the press about a special right for Beijing to lead the way, not Malaysia

The hunt for MH370 looks like becoming another wedge to be used by China to claim hegemony in Southeast Asia. A signed commentary on March 17 by the editor of the South China Morning Post, Wang Xiangwei makes it abundantly clear that Beijing is not just frustrated by Malaysia’s failure to find the plane but insists on its right to take a lead.

The article is headed: “Is Malaysia fit to lead search for flight 370?” and concludes with the following demand: “It is time for Beijing to step up and lead the operation using its influence to press the relevant nations to work more closely to solve the mystery”.

This is arguably not just the work of a columnist writing nonsense off the top of his head. Wang not only has very good connections in Beijing. He began his career on the state-owned China Daily and was a member of the China People's Political Consultative Committee of Jilin Province.

His commentary coincides with a bristling editorial in the state-owned news agency Xinhua, which said the delay in providing information on what appears to be the true course of the airplane instead of a possible location somewhere in the South China Sea “a huge waste of valuable time and resources.”

It went on to say that “due to the absence — or at least lack — of timely authoritative information, massive efforts have been squandered, and numerous rumors have been spawned, repeatedly wracking the nerves of the awaiting families. Given today’s technology, the delay smacks of either dereliction of duty or reluctance to share information in a full and timely manner. That would be intolerable.”

There are two dangerous implications in Wang’s column and the Xinhua editorial. The first is that because the majority of passengers were Chinese nationals and ethnic Chinese from Malaysia, this gives the Beijing government a special claim to lead the search. This sounds very much like old-fashioned race-based claims to be the protector of Chinese everywhere.

The Chinese did this once before, on the Mekong River in October of 2011, when eight gunmen stormed two Chinese cargo ships in an attempt to hijack about 900,000 amphetamine pills worth more than US$3 million, murdering the Chinese crew of the two vessels. The Chinese reaction was immediate. First they suspended all shipping on the Mekong, then sent more than 200 border police to join patrols looking for the culprits – whom the patrols eventually caught, They were later executed. It was the first such joint deployment into Southeast Asia, and was regarded as a troubling expansion of China's growing role in regional security.

This is also strikingly similar to Russia’s current claims to the right to defend the interests of ethnic Russians not merely in areas where they are a majority – Crimea and eastern Ukraine – but in other countries which were once part of the Soviet Russian empire and still have significant Russian minorities remaining from colonization under both the tsars and the commissars.

The second is Wang’s words “press the relevant nations to work more closely.” Which, one wonders, are the relevant nations supposed to share their data not with Malaysia but with China? Is this a demand on Vietnam? On India? On Thailand? How much data has China itself provided to Malaysia?

China’s one known contribution to date has been a report that one of its satellites found wreckage in the South China Sea. This turned out to be embarrassing and false and made life even more difficult for an already confused Malaysia. The satellite sighting, of “three suspected floating objects” in the South China Sea required a helicopter search that turned out to be ordinary flotsam.

Beyond that, China’s contribution to the search has been minimal compared with that of the US if only for the reason that it has little naval or air capability to the west and south of Malaysia. As far the possibility that the plane headed northwest, across Thailand, Myanmar and perhaps even China itself toward Kazakhstan, one would assume that China has its own radar data. Is it sharing that with anyone?

China may be able to lean on Thailand and Myanmar, who probably have scant data anyway, but does Beijing really believe that India, for instance, would open up its military surveillance capability by telling China everything it knows?

If any country other than Malaysia should coordinate the search it should be the US simply because it has the most and most sophisticated air, naval and satellite resources. But would India and China be happy with that?

The very fact that Beijing through its mouthpiece Wang Xiangwei feels entitled to demand leadership displays an attitude of mind which should make Southeast Asia shiver. That is an attitude which will not go away whether or not the plane is ever found and the mystery of its disappearance resolved.

Meanwhile, in the western press…

The dangerous assumptions of the Chinese form a useful contrast to the vacuity and irresponsibility of much western media coverage. The once-respected British newspaper The Guardian retailed a story first put out by a British tabloid that the pilot was a “political extremist” follower of Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.

The story was unsourced, suggesting it was one of innumerable plot theories peddled on Twitter but nonetheless widely picked up, for example by television stations in Hong Kong. Perhaps this one was put out by UMNO loyalists eager to further tarnish opposition leader Anwar. But its dissemination by the Guardian showed the depths to which British journalism has sunk.

The Guardian also carried a report on MH 370 datelined “Songkhla,” omitting to tell its readers that this is a moderate size town in southern Thailand far from sources of MH 370 news – which probably explains why the story read like a brief rehash of wire services.

Numerous foreign media took the Malaysian military to task for not noticing the westward turn of MH 370 till days afterwards. But do small countries like Malaysia with constant heavy commercial traffic really need to spend huge resources constantly monitoring every aircraft in their airspace?

Malaysia is not threatened militarily by anyone – other than by China with its claims over Malaysian islands in the South China Sea – so one would hardly expect it to use radar to constantly closely monitor all air traffic, especially late at night when many flights leave KL for northeast Asia and Europe.

There could quickly be international incidents if Malaysia – or others – scrambled interceptor fighters every time an insufficiently identified plane showed up on the radar. Malaysia certainly badly mishandled the information that it eventually received from its military after data had been reviewed, but the fact is that Southeast Asia has long been at peace and no country is on alert for enemy aircraft.

Flight MH370: lost jet exposes gaps in Malaysia's defences

Allies and neighbours concerned after prime minister discloses flight MH370 crossed its territory without being picked up by military radar

Cabin crews of Vietnam Air Force are seen onboard a flying AN-26 Soviet made aircraft during a search operation for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 plane Photo: AP

 

Malaysia has rejected questions over its air defence systems following the seizure and disappearance of flight MH370 and claimed the lessons learned from the crisis could “change aviation history”.

The disclosure by Prime Minister Najib Razak that the Malaysia Airlines plane was seized shortly after taking off from Kuala Lumpur, turned around over the South China Sea and flew back over Peninsular Malaysia without alerting the country’s defence forces has caused alarm among neighbours and allies.

After the September 11 2001 attacks on the United States, air defences across the world were tightened and new procedures adopted to speed the detection of rogue aircraft and intercept them before they could be used as weapons of terrorism.

But the apparent failure of Malaysia, which has a defence agreement with Britain, to notice that the plane had changed direction, fallen off the radar and then flown towards and through its air space has identified serious loopholes in its air defences.

Most countries with advanced air forces would detect an incoming hostile aircraft 200 miles from shore and scramble fighter jets to challenge it.

There has been strong criticism of the failure in China, India and in private by Western diplomats and defence analysts.

A Western security source said while the current focus is on helping Malaysia locate the missing plane, “there are a lot of questions – how did it get to the point where it came back and went wherever? You would have thought [planes] would have been scrambled and the Malaysians would have acted.”

Sugata Pramanik, an Indian air traffic controllers’ leader, said a plane can “can easily become invisible to civilian radar by switching off the transponder ... But it cannot avoid defence systems.”

One senior Indian Navy commander, Rear Admiral Sudhir Pillai, however said his country’s military radars were occasionally “switched off as we operate on an 'as required’ basis”.

The Royal Malaysian Air Force is widely respected and has a fleet of Sukhoi S30 and F16 fighter jets and does regular training exercises with their British, Australian, New Zealand and Singapore counterparts.

Malaysia’s Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein however dismissed the concerns and said the disaster was an “unprecedented case” with lessons for all.

“It’s not right to say there is a breach in the standard procedures ... what we’re going through here is being monitored throughout the world and may change aviation history,” he said.

His comments were supported by Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, Malaysia’s Director General of Civil Aviation, who said “many will have lessons to learn from this. I’ve been in aviation for 35 years and I’ve never seen this kind of incident before”.

Neither elaborated on the loopholes exposed beyond Malaysia by the seizure of MH370 and stressed that Kuala Lumpur would not focus on the issue until it had found the aircraft and its passengers on crew.

Anifah Aman, Malaysia’s foreign minister, told The Telegraph the world was “missing the point” by focusing on security implications and that he still hoped for a 'miracle’ in finding the passengers and crew alive.

“The focus must be on finding the plane. I don’t want to support any of the theories at this juncture. This involves a lot of lives. My worry is where is the plane and what little chance that people are safe so that they can come back ... we believe in miracles and like to think they’re safe and can return to their families,” he said.

The prime minister confirmed on Saturday that the Boeing 777 had been flown from close to Vietnamese air space over the South China Sea, back across the Malaysian peninsula to the Strait of Malacca, close to Penang, and then took two possible navigational corridors.

Search operations, now including 25 countries, are now focused on a northern corridor from the Turkmenistan-Kazakhstan border to northern Thailand and a southern sector from Indonesia to the vast southern Indian Ocean.

The investigation into what happened to the plane is now based on four theories – all of which follow from Mr Najib’s acceptance on Saturday that the plane had been deliberately seized or hijacked.

Police Inspector General Khalid Abu Bakar said those who had taken the plane were either hijackers, saboteurs, someone with a personal vendetta or a psychological problem.

His investigation had been launched under a Malaysian law which covers terrorism offences, he said.

Until now the government has been reluctant to refer to the seizure as a hijacking or act of terrorism because they have yet to find any evidence on the motive of whoever seized the plane on Saturday March 8th.

The minister and the police chief’s comments however marked a freer use of the terms following the prime minister’s confirmation that the plane had been deliberately taken and re-routed.

Malaysia has not suffered terrorism on the scale of neighbours Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines, although several Malaysian nationals are known to have received training from al-Qaeda.

India troops seeking jet rest at island base as Malaysia silent

PORT BLAIR (India), March 17 — As the sun set over Port Blair in the Andaman Sea during the past week, runway lights glowed to guide Indian aircraft searching for the missing Malaysian passenger jet back to land.

For the past two days, however, the headquarters of India’s search operations for the plane in the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands have been quiet as officials await new coordinates from Malaysia. Many of the 2,000 military officers stationed on the islands stayed home to celebrate the holiday of Holi, which marks the start of spring, by smearing coloured powder on each other’s faces.

“Our hands are tied until the Malaysians come back to us with coordinates,” Harmit Singh, spokesman for the Indian military in Port Blair, said today. “Until then, we just sit, wait and try to enjoy Holi.”

Indian officials had deployed ships and long-range aircraft from the island chain to search for Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 across 250,000 square kilometres (96,500 square miles), an area about the size of the UK Shifting the search further into the Indian Ocean may prove much more difficult.

“The Indian Ocean is daunting,” V.S.R. Murthy, the coast guard’s commander for the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, said in an interview on March 15. “There is a massive amount of sea that will need to be searched, which will require many more planes, ships.”

British prison

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands were used by British rulers to hold and hang criminals in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and later to imprison Indian freedom fighters. The islands officially became an Indian union territory in 1947 when the country won independence from the British.

India maintains a military presence in the island chain, seeking to counter Chinese maritime power as well as prevent attacks by pirates in key shipping routes. The archipelago of about 527 islands not far from Thailand, Myanmar and Indonesia also attracts tourists seeking pristine beaches.

India is among 25 countries that Malaysia is asking to help find the 777-200 wide-body Boeing Co aircraft carrying 239 people that disappeared on March 8. Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said it’s possible the plane might’ve travelled in a corridor reaching into the southern Indian Ocean as it continued flying for almost seven hours after its last contact with air-traffic controllers.

Southern assets

The Indian search fleet includes P8I long-range maritime patrol, C-130J Hercules and Dornier planes, according to the nation’s government. Naval warships INS Saryu and INS Kesari were also assigned to the task, it said in a March 15 statement.

India has no naval assets permanently stationed near or below the equator, the area where the new search may take place, according to Pradeep Kaushiva, a former Indian vice admiral who spent 40 years in the navy and specialises in electronic warfare.

“We are entering a new more daunting, more difficult search for something that we don’t even know is there,” he said. “It’s very much a search for a needle in the haystack.” — Bloomberg

Lawyers pass resolution to prohibit retired judges from litigating in court

The Malaysian Insider (Used by permission)
BY JENNIFER GOMEZ

The Malaysian Bar passed a resolution at its annual general meeting today that retired higher court judges be prohibited from representing clients in court.

It also called on the government not to bring into force the amendments to the Prevention of Crime Act 1959 and instead to repeal them, citing objectionable features such as detention without trial and a suspected person not having the right to apply for a judicial review unless on grounds of procedure.

During the passing of the bill in Parliament last year, opposition MPs objected to the amendments, arguing that the changes proposed were similar to the repealed ISA.

In its resolution passed today, the Bar called on the government to engage all relevant stakeholders, including the Bar, in meaningful dialogue on measures to combat serious and organised crime.

A total of four resolutions were passed while two were rejected by the 1,219 members who attended the AGM today.

Members of the Bar also expressed concern over the sentencing of Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim for sodomy and veteran lawyer Karpal Singh for sedition.

Bar president Christopher Leong, in a press conference after the AGM, said that of concern was the lack of time given to Anwar to mitigate before sentencing, while in Karpal's case, the deputy public prosecutor's (DPP) submissions before sentencing were of grave concern.

"In her submissions, the DPP had said that if the court did not impose a heavy sentence on Karpal, it would be deemed as an insult to the institution of Rulers.

"Karpal’s obvious medical condition and disability were not relevant to the DPP, when we all know that he is paralysed and unable to fend for himself," he said, referring to Deputy Public Prosecutor Noorin Badaruddin.

Leong said that despite this, the DPP had strenuously pressed for a custodial sentence, when the reality was that for Karpal – who is 74 years old and wheelchair-bound – going to jail would have been a “death sentence” for him.

"Who is going to look after him in prison?" Leong said.

He said that there were international guidelines which provide for standards of professional conduct for all public prosecutors.

"We believe that these may not have been completely observed and so members at the AGM had requested overwhelmingly that the Bar Council make representations to the AG to  investigate the DPP immediately.

"And if thought fit, to take disciplinary action against her according  to the rules governing her appointment in service and according to law," he added.

A resolution was also passed on environment and climate change, which urged the government to ensure the effective enforcement of environmental laws.

Leong told reporters that on his recent drive from Kuala Lumpur to Putrajaya, he saw a number of open burning sites emitting thick smoke, adding that despite their visibility, enforcement agencies had obviously not acted against the polluters.

Leong was returned as president while Steven Thiru was returned as deputy president of the Bar at the AGM.

Asked whether a Royal Commission of Inquiry was needed on the missing MH370, Leong said that it was premature at this point, adding that what was important now was the search and rescue mission.

He said that they observed a minute of silence at the start of the AGM for the passengers and crew onboard and their families. – March 15, 2014.

M'sia Will Not Withhold Any Information On MH370 - Hishammuddin

KUALA LUMPUR, March 17 (Bernama) -- Acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Haishammuddin Tun Hussein today denied an allegation that Malaysia has held back information about the missing Flight MH370's movements.

"For the families, I understand that every day prolongs the anguish. I understand because Malaysia, too, is missing its sons and daughters. There were 50 Malaysians on board the plane.

"Our priority has always been to find the aircraft. We would not withhold any information that could help. But we also have a responsibility not to release information until it has been verified by the international investigations team," he told a press conference, near here today.

He said the responsibility was not only to the families and to the investigation, but also the search and rescue operation and it would be irresponsible to deploy substantial assets merely on the basis of unverified and uncorroborated information.

"As soon as the possibility emerged that the plane had carried out an air turn back to the Straits of Malacca, we expanded our search to that area.

"I would like to reiterate the United States investigating team's statement about that decision, based on the information and data given by the Malaysian authorities, that there are reasonable grounds to deploy resources to conduct search on the western side of peninsular Malaysia," he said.

Hishammuddin said the search efforts to the northern and southern corridors were mobilised as soon the new satellite information as to the possible last known whereabouts of the aircraft were verified.

Over the past 48 hours, he said, Malaysia had been working on the diplomatic, technical and logistical requirements of the search for MH370 and continued to lead the overall co-ordination of the search effort.

He said the number of countries involved in the search and rescue (SAR)operation has increased to 26.

"During the last 24 hours, the Prime Minister (Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak) has spoken to the Prime Minister of Australia (Tony Abbott) and the Premier of China (Li Keqiang).

"The Foreign Affairs Ministry has sent diplomatic notes to all countries involved in the SAR operation, including two groups - countries in the search corridors and countries from which we are seeking assistance and expertise," Hishammuddin said.

For countries in the search corridors, he said, Malaysia requested radar and satellite information as well as specific assets for the SAR operation.

"We are asking them to share their land, sea and aerial search and rescue action plans with the Rescue Co-ordination Centre here in Malaysia so that we can co-ordinate the search effort.

"We have asked for regular updates, including daily reports on both search activities and details of any information required from Malaysia," he said.

As the co-ordinating authority, he said, Malaysia was gathering all information as part of the on-going operation and was not at liberty to reveal information from specific countries.

Hishammuddin said SAR operations in the northern and southern corridors had already begun and countries, including Malaysia, Australia, China, Indonesia and Kazakhstan.

"The Royal Malaysian Air Force and the Royal Malaysian Navy have deployed assets to the southern corridor. Two Malaysian ships have been deployed - the offshore patrol vessels KD Kelantan and KD Selangor," he said, adding that the deployment also included a Super Lynx helicopter.

Australia had already moved a P-3 Orion aircraft to region of the Cocos and Christmas Islands, with the Australian prime minister confirming that it would send an additional two P-3 Orions and a C-130 Hercules while a US P-8 Poseidon aircraft would be travelling to Perth today to help with the search, he said.

He said yesterday, experts from the Civil Aviation Administration of China joined the investigations team and officials from the French Office of Investigations and Analysis for the Safety of Civil Aviation joined the team today.

Flight MH370, carrying with 227 passengers and 12 crew, disappeared about an hour after leaving the KL International Airport at 12.41 am on March 8. It was scheduled to arrive in Beijing at 6.30 am on the same day.