Investigators trying to find the missing Malaysian jetliner have received belated help from Thailand, whose military said it took 10 days to report radar blips that might have been the plane “because we did not pay attention to it”.

Angry relatives of passengers on missing Flight MH-370 are threatening to go on hunger strike if they do not get more information from authorities in Malaysia.

Even before someone at the controls calmly said the last words heard from the missing Malaysian jetliner, one of the Boeing 777’s communications systems had already been disabled, authorities said yesterday, adding to suspicions that one or both of the pilots were involved in the disappearance of the flight.

The missing Malaysian airliner was deliberately diverted and continued flying for more than six hours after losing contact with the ground, Malaysia’s leader said.

Missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 may have been flying for more than five hours after it disappeared, sources have said.

Malaysian investigators are becoming increasingly certain that the missing plane turned back across the country after losing communications, and that someone with aviation skills was responsible for the unexplained change in course.

Malaysian officials have confirmed the search for the missing passenger jet has been expanded into the Indian Ocean.

Satellite images on a Chinese government website show suspected debris from the missing Malaysia Airlines plane floating off the southern tip of Vietnam, China’s Xinhua News Agency has said.

Malaysian authorities have defended their handling of the hunt for the missing Boeing 777 – even as they acknowledged they are unsure which direction the plane was travelling in when it disappeared.

A British man who has cycled, roller-bladed, and pedalled a boat in a bid to travel around the world on human power parked his kayak in Singapore today, marking the completion of two thirds of his expedition, which has so far lasted 11 years.

The rapid economic ascent of China and India is fuelling Asia’s growth, but Islamist terrorism remains a threat to stability in the region, Singapore’s leader has said.

Poverty, profits and old farming traditions combined to spark massive Indonesian fires that have choked parts of Malaysia, in what officials describe as Southeast Asia’s worst ecological crisis in years.

Workplaces were closed in two regions under a state of emergency, as Malaysia’s leader called on mosques to hold special Friday prayers for rain to rid the country of hazardous haze from Indonesian forest fires.

Pirate attacks on ships worldwide fell 23% in the first quarter because of stricter policing in India, Malaysia and the Philippines, the International Maritime Bureau said. But crew deaths jumped fivefold.