Best Aircon Temperature For Night Sleeping (Updated)

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Best Aircon Temperature

In Singapore, the temperature always remains high; humidity never allows you to feel comfortable. In fact, many times, you can’t even sleep properly unless you have an Aircon in your home that can maintain the temperature for you. But if you want to get better sleep at night, you need to get an Aircon temperature at an optimum level.

That also means you need to find the best Aircon temperature for night sleeping. Experts recommend that 25 degrees is the best Aircon temperature for night sleeping and suggest you set your Aircon as well on this temperature.

Sure, you may ask what is so special about 25 degrees centigrade and why this is the best Aircon temperature for night sleeping. If you have these questions, then here is an answer for you.

25 degree temperature at night

Experts researched and found that if you set Aircon temperature between 23 to 24 degrees C and keep the air humidity level at 60 percent or close to that, it will give you a very comfortable environment. At this temperature, your body’s internals neither feels very cold nor does it feel hot.

That means you will have the utmost comfort and help you get a comfortable sleep without any issue. If you keep the temperature lower than this, you would feel cold, and coldness can induce your urination. That means you would have to go to the bathroom again and again for urination, and that would disturb your sleep.

But if you will set your Aircon temperature at 25 degrees C, you would not feel either much cold, or you would have for the urination in a quick time. Other than this, if you get comfortable to sleep, you don’t wake up again and again at night, then you would have a more refreshed condition in the morning, and you would be able to have the much better working capability well in in the next day work. 

Save electricity

Save electricity on aircon

Aircon consume a lot of electricity, and if you can set the Aircon temperature at 25 degrees C, you can save at least 20% money as well in the cooling. Energy experts already proved this fact that if you increase the temperature of AC only by 2 degrees, then it can slash up to 30% electricity bill.

That means reducing the Aircon temperature further than 25 degrees C will not only affect your sleep, but it will affect your pocket as well. So, if you want to have a perfect sleep and don’t want to have a hole in your pocket because of your comfortable sleep, keeping this temperature would be a good idea for you.

In this way, you would not only save money for yourself, but you would save nature as well. That makes it one more reason to set the Aircon temperature at 25 degrees C during your sleep instead of choosing any lower temperature compare to this one.

Lesser load on your aircon

When you run your Aircon at lower temperatures, it will have to work harder to reach that temperature. Most of the Aircon does not take many loads to reach the given temperature, but going any further low than this causes extra load on the Aircon.

Sometimes, the Aircon temperature may not reach there at all, and if it reaches there, it needs to struggle very hard to maintain that temperature. If you set a lower cut off temperature, then your Aircon compressor will keep flipping in on and off situation.

On the other hand, if you set a slightly higher temperature for the Aircon, you would have fewer worries about the cut-off. It will cut off in a good interval, and it will not create any problem for you either.

You don’t have to deal with the cut off the sound and the frequency interval that you may need to face; you set the aircon temperature at a very lower rate. 

Save money on aircon

It will save you money

If you are consuming less electricity during your sleep, then you automatically save money. That is no brainer, and I should not talk about that with you in any manner. But that is not the only way of saving money by setting your

Aircon temperature at a slightly higher position. When you set the temperature at a higher setting, it gets a lesser load the Aircon system problems to your Aircon. You ignore to consider that while using the Aircon, but if you checked it carefully, you would realize how much money you can save just by increasing the Aircon temperature during your sleep.

If we talk about the reasons or benefits that can encourage you to choose this temperature during your sleep instead of choosing a lower one.

Here, some people can also claim that increasing Aircon temperature can affect their sleep as they are habitual to that particular lower temperature. Ideally, it should not make any difference to you in anyways. However, you may have a mental blockage that may restrict you from sleeping properly with a sudden increase in temperature.

If that is the case, then I would suggest you increase the temperature gradually. For example, if you sleep at 18 degrees C temperature, you should not instantly set it to 25. Instead of that, you should first make it 19 degrees for a couple of days.

After that, you can make it 20, then 23, and then 25. If you did that gradually, you would not face any trouble sleeping, and you would be able to get over your mental blockage. 

If we talk about the perfect Aircon temperature to sleep at night, then 25 degrees C is the only suggestion you would get from experts. Some people can also increase this number by one degree, and some can reduce it by one degree. They may have this opinion based on their experience, but this is certain they would remain close to that number, which explains my point as well for the same.

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Delta variant threatens Asean-5 recovery

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IN the first half of 2021, Asean-5 countries, comprising Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines experienced strong, export-driven growth. However, renewed lockdowns amid significant outbreaks of Covid-19 Delta variant cases have dampened business sentiment and consumer spending in this region.

 

According to the Institute of International Finance (IIF), recovery will likely slow markedly in the second half of 2021 for Asean5.

“Given the rising number of Covid-19 infections, renewed pandemic containment measures, and the slow pace of vaccinations, authorities in Asean-5 countries have been revising down official growth forecasts,” IIF said.

The IIF said it would likely cut its gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast for region.

In May, it forecast a GDP growth of 5.2% for 2021 and 5.4% for 2022.

Against the backdrop of current economic challenges, the IIF said it expected Asean-5 central banks to maintain their accommodative monetary policy stances well into 2022.

“Most of the countries are still experiencing inflation within the respective target ranges, except for the Philippines,” the IIF said.

“Fiscal policy will also continue to be supportive. While Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam have announced fiscal consolidation plans, the pace of adjustment will be modest,” it added.

The IIF noted that due to their economic structure, Asean-5 countries benefitted strongly from the global demand recovery, with exports up sharply in the first half of 2021, particularly in the area of electronic appliances (Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand) and commodities (Indonesia and Vietnam).

“Looking ahead, the next stage of the global recovery will likely benefit services rather than goods and, thus, provide less of a boost to Asean-5 economies,” it said.

“Furthermore, the recovery in tourism in the five countries has been slower than our already-cautious forecast in the spring, with the Delta variant posing a new challenge to the sector,” it added

 

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The Asian financial crisis – 20 years later

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East Asian Economies Remain Diverse

 

It is useful to reflect on whether lessons have been learnt and if the countries are vulnerable to new crises.

IT’S been 20 years since the Asian financial crisis struck in July 1997. Since then, there has been an even bigger global financial crisis, starting in 2008. Will there be another crisis?

The Asian crisis began when speculators brought down the Thai baht. Within months, the currencies of Indonesia, South Korea and Malaysia were also affected. The East Asian Miracle turned into an Asian Financial Nightmare.

Despite the affected countries receiving only praise before the crisis, weaknesses had built up, including current account deficits, low foreign reserves and high external debt.

In particular, the countries had recently liberalised their financial system in line with international advice. This enabled local private companies to freely borrow from abroad, mainly in US dollars. Companies and banks in Korea, Indonesia and Thailand had in each country rapidly accumulated over a hundred billion dollars of external loans. This was the Achilles heel that led their countries to crisis.

These weaknesses made the countries ripe for speculators to bet against their currencies. When the governments used up their reserves in a vain attempt to stem the currency fall, three of the countries ran out of foreign exchange.

They went to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for bailout loans that carried draconian conditions that worsened their economic situation.

Malaysia was fortunate. It did not seek IMF loans. The foreign reserves had become dangerously low but were just about adequate. If the ringgit had fallen a bit further, the danger line would have been breached.

After a year of self-imposed austerity measures, Malaysia dramatically switched course and introduced a set of unorthodox policies.

These included pegging the ringgit to the dollar, selective capital controls to prevent short-term funds from exiting, lowering interest rates, increasing government spending and rescuing failing companies and banks.

This was the opposite of orthodoxy and the IMF policies. The global establishment predicted the sure collapse of the Malaysian economy.

But surprisingly, the economy recovered even faster and with fewer losses than the other countries. Today, the Malaysian measures are often cited as a successful anti-crisis strategy.

The IMF itself has changed a little. It now includes some capital controls as part of legitimate policy measures.

The Asian countries, vowing never to go to the IMF again, built up strong current account surpluses and foreign reserves to protect against bad years and keep off speculators. The economies recovered, but never back to the spectacular 7% to 10% pre-crisis growth rates.

Then in 2008, the global financial crisis erupted with the United States as its epicentre. The tip of the iceberg was the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the massive loans given out to non-credit-worthy house-buyers.

The underlying cause was the deregulation of US finance and the freedom with which financial institutions could devise all kinds of manipulative schemes and “financial products” to draw in unsuspecting customers. They made billions of dollars but the house of cards came tumbling down.

To fight the crisis, the US, under President Barack Obama, embarked first on expanding government spending and then on financial policies of near-zero interest rates and “quantitative easing”, with the Federal Reserve pumping trillions of dollars into the US banks.

It was hoped the cheap credit would get consumers and businesses to spend and lift the economy. But instead, a significant portion of the trillions went via investors into speculative activities, including abroad to emerging economies.

Europe, on the verge of recession, followed the US with near zero interest rates and large quantitative easing, with limited results.

The US-Europe financial crisis affected Asian countries in a limited way through declines in export growth and commodity prices. The large foreign reserves built up after the Asian crisis, plus the current account surplus situation, acted as buffers against external debt problems and kept speculators at bay.

Just as important, hundreds of billions of funds from the US and Europe poured into Asia yearly in search of higher yields. These massive capital inflows helped to boost Asian countries’ growth, but could cause their own problems.

First, they led to asset bubbles or rapid price increases of houses and the stock markets, and the bubbles may burst when they are over-ripe.

Second, many of the portfolio investors are short-term funds looking for quick profit, and they can be expected to leave when conditions change.

Third, the countries receiving capital inflows become vulnerable to financial volatility and economic instability.

If and when investors pull some or a lot of their money out, there may be price declines, inadequate replenishment of bonds, and a fall in the levels of currency and foreign reserves.

A few countries may face a new financial crisis.

A new vulnerability in many emerging economies is the rapid build-up of external debt in the form of bonds denominated in the local currency.

The Asian crisis two decades ago taught that over-borrowing in foreign currency can create difficulties in debt repayment should the local currency level fall.

To avoid this, many countries sold bonds denominated in the local currency to foreign investors.

However, if the bonds held by foreigners are large in value, the country will still be vulnerable to the effects of a withdrawal.

As an example, almost half of Malaysian government securities, denominated in ringgit, are held by foreigners.

Though the country does not face the risk of having to pay more in ringgit if there is a fall in the local currency, it may have other difficulties if foreigners withdraw their bonds.

What is the state of the world economy, what are the chances of a new financial crisis, and how would the Asian countries like Malaysia fare?

These are big and relevant questions to ponder 20 years after the start of the Asian crisis and nine years after the global crisis.

But we will have to consider them in another article.

By Martin Khor Global Trend

Martin Khor (director@southcentre.org) is executive director of the South Centre. The views expressed here are entirely his own.
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Chinese satellite images show possible MH370 floating objects

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<<Video: Chinese officials have released satellite images of possible crash site of the missing images

Chinese officials have released satellite images of possible crash site of the missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner. The State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence announced the discovery on Wednesday, saying pictures obtained on Sunday showed three suspected floating objects. They measured 13 by 18 meters, 14 by 19 meters and 24 by 22 meters.

The objects were observed in waters between Malaysia and Vietnam. All previous reports of debris since Flight MH-370 disappeared have proved to be unrelated to the plane. Some 10 Chinese satellites have been used to help the search and rescue operation.

 Criticism mounts of ‘chaotic’ search for plane

A well-known Malaysian ëbomohí (shaman), Ibrahim Mat Zin offering to locate the missing plane using a spiritual method and prayers, arrives in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday. Malaysia faced a storm of criticism over contradictions and information gaps in the hunt for a missing airliner. Photo: AFP

China urged Malaysia on Wednesday to release “authoritative and detailed” information about the missing Malaysian plane through a unified channel in a timely manner, amid criticism of Malaysia for their confused reaction.

Expressing appreciation for Malaysia’s sincere attitude and active efforts, Guo Shaochun, leader of the Chinese government joint work team, urged Malaysia to listen seriously and respond quickly to the reasonable appeals of the missing passengers’ relatives.

“China asks for a unified channel on the Malaysian side to release authoritative and detailed information on the issue in a timely manner,” said Guo at a meeting in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.

Malaysian air force Chief General Rodzali Daud Wednesday denied a local media report that quoted him as saying that the missing MH370 was last detected at 2:40 am Saturday by the air force in the vicinity of Pulau Perak in the Strait of Malacca before the signal disappeared.

Rodzali said that the radar tracking was at 2:15 am and to the northwest of Penang Island on Malaysia’s west coast, adding that it was an “unidentified object.”

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang also said Wednesday that information about the missing plane was “chaotic.”

He urged Malaysia to take primary responsibility in communication and coordination in the joint search efforts, and “give the passengers’ relatives and the international community an answer as soon as possible.”

The successful boarding of two Iranian citizens using stolen passports and the released photos showing them photoshopped on to the same lower body drew criticism of the Malaysian government.

“It has badly damaged its national image. Rumors could easily grow under such circumstances, as could fear. This may turn out to be a fiasco for Malaysia in handling the crisis at the present stage,” Steven Dong, a professor from the Communication University of China in Beijing, told the Global Times. He added that the country’s aviation management system was also flawed, with passengers reportedly allowed into the cockpit.

Uncertainty has allegedly halted Vietnam’s search mission, which was then denied by Vo Van Tuan, deputy chief of staff of the Vietnamese army. The Vietnam Ministry of Transport on Wednesday also criticized the slack response of Malaysia.

Malaysia said 42 ships and 39 aircraft have been deployed so far in the search, with India, Japan and Brunei joining the multinational hunt for the missing plane.

China’s third military aircraft arrived in the Gulf of Thailand on Wednesday to join its eight vessels in the black box signal probe, with more ships expected.

One of China’s satellites detected objects suspected to be floating materials, Chinese authorities said.

Meanwhile, a badly damaged raft was found by local fishermen near the west coast of Malaysia and villagers on the east side of the country reported to police they heard a loud noise that sounded like the fan of a jet engine around 1:20 am on Saturday, according to local media.

Zhuang Guotu, dean of the Research School of Southeast Asian Studies at Xiamen University, told the Global Times that it may not be fair to overly blame Malaysia, whose administration efficiency is at the intermediate level within Asia.

“We have seen its immediate response to the search for the plane after it went missing. It is understandable that people get anxious when little progress has been made, but Malaysia is a developing country with limited manpower,” Zhuang noted.

– Contributed by Jiang Jie Global Times

 China forces to search 19,768 sq km for missing jet
 (updated by 11:50 on March 13)

11:43     China forces to search 19,768 sq km for missing jet 11:22      [Photo]Chinese satellite finds debris at suspected missing plane site

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•  MH370 deepens mystery: 
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•  Tracking the mysterious MH370: 2 impostors on board, plane missing 50 min not 2 hrs after take off… 
•  Terrorist attack on missing MH370 not ruled out

MH370 mystery: missing plane’s pilot joked with female passengers in cockpit at 30,000ft, focus shift to Thai gangs

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Criticised for contradictory statements, slow reactions and a lack of information, the “incompetence” of Malaysian authorities in communicating effectively during a crisis on the scale of its missing jet is painfully evident, analysts say.

Last radio transmission from the cockpit of missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 was ‘Alright, good night’ as the plane switched from Malaysian to Vietnamese airspace 

Fariq Abdul Hamid invited two women into the cockpit of a of Malaysian airlines flight

A CO-PILOT at the controls of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 invited a Melbourne tourist and her friend into the cockpit where he smoked, took photos and entertained the pair during a previous international flight. 
 
In a worrying lapse of security, it’s been revealed pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid and his colleague broke Malaysia Airline rules when they invited passengers Jonti Roos and Jaan Maree to join them in the cabin for the one-hour flight from Phuket to Kuala Lumpur.

Ms Roos, who is travelling around Australia, told A Current Affair she and Ms Maree posed for pictures with the pilots, who smoked cigarettes during the midair rendezvous.

“Throughout the entire flight they were talking to us and they were actually smoking throughout the flight which I don’t think they’re allowed to do,” Ms Roos said.

 Pilot previously entertained passengers in cockpit

Happy snap … Jonti Roos and Jaan Maree with co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid, right, in December 2011. Picture: A Current Affair. Source: Supplied
 

“At one stage they were pretty much turned around the whole time in their seats talking to us.

“They were so engaged in conversation that he took my friends hand and he was looking at her palm and said ‘your hand is very creased. That means you’re a very creative person’ and commented on her nail polish.”

Mr Hamid identified the South African nationals as they waited in the boarding queue at Phuket airport in December 2011.

As they took their seats on the aircraft, an air steward approached the women and invited them to join the pilots in the cockpit.

Despite pictures exposing the gross misconduct of the distracted pilots, Ms Roos said she wasn’t concerned for her safety.

“I did feel safe. I don’t think there was one instance where I felt threatened or I felt that they didn’t know what they were doing,” she said.

The whole time I felt they were very friendly. I felt they were very competent in what they were doing.

Not camera shy … Jonti Roos and Jaan Maree in the cockpit of a Malaysia Airlines flight from Phuket to KL in December 2011. Picture: A Current Affair. Source: Supplied
 

“We wished they (would) stop smoking because it is such a confined space. But you can’t exactly tell a pilot to stop smoking.”

The plucky pilots reportedly wanted Ms Roos and Ms Maree to change their travel arrangements and extend their stay in Kuala Lumpur and join them on a night on the town.

Ms Roos said she was shocked to learn Mr Hamid was at the helm of the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines flight.
“I thought it was crazy. I was just completely shocked. I couldn’t believe it,” she said.

“When I saw all his friends and family posting on his wall my heart really broke for them and my heart broke for the family of the passengers. It’s just a really sad story.”

Malaysia Airlines issued a statement about the incident late last night.

“Malaysia Airlines has become aware of the allegations being made against First Officer, Fariq Ab Hamid which we take very seriously.” the statement said.

“We are shocked by these allegations.

“We have not been able to confirm the validity of the pictures and videos of the alleged incident.

“As you are aware, we are in the midst of a crisis, and we do not want our attention to be diverted.

“We also urge the media and general public to respect the privacy of the families of our colleagues and passengers. It has been a difficult time for them.

“The welfare of both the crew and passenger’s families remain our focus. At the same time, the security and safety of our passengers is of the utmost importance to us.”

Special access … Jaan Maree in the cockpit of a Malaysia Airlines flight in December 2011. Picture: A Current Affair. Source: Supplied
 

POLICE RELEASE IDENTITY OF ONE STOLEN PASSPORT HOLDER

One of the men travelling with a stolen passport on the Malaysia Airlines flight that mysteriously disappeared has been identified as a 19-year-old Iranian seeking asylum in Europe.

This comes as police downplayed the possibility of terrorist involvement in the disappearance of MH370 — giving four areas of investigation: hijack, sabotage, psychological or personal problems among the passengers and crew.

Malaysian police tonight said the man was Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad, and intelligence suggested he was not likely to be a member of any terrorist group.

Malaysia’s Inspector General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar, said Mehrdad was travelling on a stolen Austrian passport and was planning to meet up with his mother in Frankfurt.

The second passenger using a stolen passport has not been identified yet.

Revealed … a Malaysian police official displays photographs of the two men who boarded the Malaysia Airlines MH370 flight using stolen European passports to the media. Source: AFP
 

However, he said police were still considering all possibilities in terms of criminal involvement in the plane’s disappearance, when asked whether police thought the revelation made them consider terrorism less likely in the case.

DID FLIGHT MH370 STALL BEFORE CRASHING?
 
“At this moment, I would not say less likely. Same weightage to all until we finish our investigations,” Khalid said.

He also contradicted an earlier statement made by Malaysia’s aviation chief that five people did not board the plane, saying they did not exist and everyone who booked a seat was on the flight.

FISHERMAN SAW ‘LOW FLYING LIGHTS’ 

Authorities are also investigating several reports of locals claiming to have seen the lights of a low-flying aircraft in an area off the Malaysian coast, just below the Malay-Thai border.

It is this area which is now included in the widened search area for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.

A fisherman who was in his boat at sea, says that at about 1.30am he saw the lights of a low-flying aircraft in the area of Kuala Besar.

Azid Ibrahim told The Star newspaper in Malaysia that the plane was flying so low that the lights were “as big as coconuts”.

And another man, about 30km south of Kota Bharu, is reported to have seen “bright white lights” from what he thought was a fast-descending aircraft at about 1.45am on Saturday morning.

He has since reported what he saw to authorities after seeing the lights from his home that evening.

THE CONSPIRACY THEORIES OF MISSING FLIGHT MH370
 
DESPERATE SEARCH FOR MALAYSIA AIRLINES FLIGHT MH370
 
Malaysia Airlines said in a statement that the search and rescue teams (SAR) have expanded the scope beyond the flight path to the West Peninsular of Malaysia at the Straits of Malacca. The authorities are looking at a possibility of an attempt made by MH370 to turn back to Subang.

The search sphere now includes land on the Malaysian peninsula itself, the waters off its west coast and an area to the north of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, an area far removed from flight MH370’s scheduled route.

The news of the search being widened comes as Hong Kong’s Civil Aviation Department said it had received a report from the crew of a Cathay Pacific plane flying from Hong Kong to Kuala Lumpur at about 3pm Saturday that more debris was spotted near Vung Tau, off southeast Vietnam, The South China Morning Post reports.

It is not known if the debris is from the missing Malaysia Airlines aircraft.

Prayer … Students in East China pray for the passengers from the missing Malaysia Airlines plane. Picture: Twitter Source: Supplied
 

As the search for the missing Boeing 777 continues into its fourth day, it also emerged that the aeroplane underwent maintenance on February 23, 12 days before it went missing bound for Beijing, China.

“The maintenance was conducted at the KLIA hangar and there were no issues on the health of the aircraft,” Malaysia Airlines said. Its next check was due on June 19.

In limbo … Sarah Nor, 55, the mother of 34-year-old Norliakmar Hamid, a passenger on the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. Source: AFP
 

FINGERPRINTS BEING ANALYSED BY FBI

In other news, fingerprints from the mystery passengers travelling on missing Flight MH370 with stolen passports are being analysed by the FBI as it emerged they were reportedly Iranians looking for a new life in Europe.

The men are believed to have bought the fake travel documents because they were “looking for a place to settle” and it is thought their plane tickets were purchased in Thailand by an Iranian middleman known as “Mr Ali”.

The news came as officials reacted with scepticism to a claim of responsibility for the plane’s disappearance from a previously unheard of Chinese terror group.

 
READ MORE: SHADOWY GROUP CLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY
 
With authorities still scratching their heads about exactly what has happened to the Malaysia Airlines flight and conflicting information deepening the anguish of relatives, much of the focus of the investigation has fallen on those on board.

Director-general of Malaysia’s Department of Civil Aviation, Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, revealed late last night that the two men travelling on stolen passports were not Asian-looking as had been earlier speculated.

He said they had passed through all “security protocols” before boarding the flight, which disappeared with 239 passengers on board, including six Australians, in the early hours of Saturday en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Under pressure … an official in Malaysia is besieged by journalists. Source: AP
 

“We have looked at the footage of the video and the photographs and it is confirmed now that they are not Asian-looking men,” Mr Rahman told a press briefing in Kuala Lumpur.

“They have gone through screening, their baggage has been screened, their cabin baggage has been screened and they complied fully with the protocols of immigration security.”

READ MORE: TEARS FLOW FOR MISSING AUSSIES
 
The CCTV footage in question has reportedly been given to international security agencies and is expected to be released publicly at some stage.

He said authorities were now investigating the possibility of a stolen passport syndicate but he would not be drawn on what the mystery men looked like.

Initial reports that Mr Rahman had implied the men looked like African-Italian soccer star Mario Balotelli were clarified by Malaysia this afternoon.

Officials pointed out that Mr Rahman was actually saying a person’s appearance is not necessarily a reliable indicator of their nationality, using the footballer as an example.

Balotelli is Italian, having been born in Italy to Ghanaian parents.

Unwitting example … AC Milan footballer Mario Balotelli. Source: AFP
 

Two European names were on the passenger list for the missing flight but neither Christian Kozel, an Austrian, nor Luigi Maraldi from Italy, ever boarded the plane — instead two passengers used their passports, which had been stolen from the men in separate incidents in Thailand.

LOOKING FOR A NEW LIFE

A man who says he is a friend of the two unidentified passengers has now told how they were Iranian nationals who travelled to Kuala Lumpur from Tehran several days ago.

According to London’s Daily Telegraph, the unnamed friend told BBC Persia that the pair bought the stolen passports in the Malaysian capital as well as tickets to Amsterdam via Beijing.

The BBC’s Bahman Kalbasi Source: Supplied
 

One of the men wanted to eventually end up in Frankfurt, where his mother lives, while the other wanted to travel to Denmark.

BBC Persia’s UN correspondent Bahman Kalbasi said he was told the pair were “looking for a place to settle”.

READ MORE: RELATIVES CALL MOBILES OF PASSENGERS

Malaysia and neighbouring Thailand, where the passports were originally stolen, ho
st large and established Iranian communities.

Earlier, the Financial Times reported that the duo’s tickets had been arranged for by an Iranian known only as “Mr Ali”. According to Thai police, his full name is Kazem Ali.

A travel agent in Thailand told the newspaper that Mr Ali first asked her to book cheap tickets to Europe for the pair on March 1.

The tickets expired before Mr Ali called her again last Thursday to rebook them on the missing Malaysia Airlines flight. A friend of Mr Ali’s paid cash for the tickets.

Benjaporn Krutnait, owner of the Grand Horizon travel agency in Thailand, said she had known the Iranian for about three years and he had booked tickets through her agency before.

There is no evidence Mr Ali knew the two men were travelling on stolen passports and, according to NBC News, he has come forward to authorities after learning they were under suspicion.

He is currently believed to be in Iran.

Authorities have made no comment on these reports but Thai police are thought to have visited two Pattaya travel agencies on Monday, who are believed to be involved in selling the tickets.

ANALYSING THE INTELLIGENCE

Malaysian authorities have released thumbprints of the pair that were taken at the airport check-in at Kuala Lumpur to intelligence and law enforcement agencies around the world.

“They will compare that to what we have in our terrorist databases. These are lists of people on no-fly lists, people with possible terrorist connections, people we have reasons to be suspicious of,” US lawmaker Peter King told CNN.

“We have these listings, and those names and those biometrics will be compared to those.” Images of the men has also been shared.

READ MORE: WHY THE BLACK BOX WON’T HELP
 
There has been no further update on the five passengers who checked in for flight MH370 but didn’t board the plane. They had their luggage removed from the hold.

Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said they were being investigated but he didn’t say whether this was suspicious.

Aviation industry figures said five passengers failing to board an international flight was not unusual.

Searching … Indonesian Navy pilots looking for the missing plane. Source: AP
 

“To have that many people — five to 10 — as no-shows is relatively common, particularly if they are connecting from elsewhere,” they said.

They said a passenger’s failure to board can simply be the result of a late connecting flight, a missed connection or simply changing their mind. If anything, they said it was an increasing problem due to the popularity of online check-in, which allows a passenger to register their intention to board the flight up to several days ahead.

While there has been a claim of responsibility of some kind for the disappearance of the flight by a shadowy group called the Chinese Martyrs’ Brigade, officials are sceptical and have said it could be a hoax.

The group — unheard of before now — on Sunday sent an email to journalists across China that read: “You kill one of our clan, we will kill 100 of you as payback,” but the message provided no other details.

Prayers … candles are lit in Kuala Lumpur to send a message of hope. Source: AP
 

CRIMINAL HUB FOCUS

Thailand’s role as a hub for criminal networks using false documents is now in the spotlight after the stolen passports sparked fears of a terror attack.

The revelation has triggered a probe by Malaysian authorities, who are working with other intelligence agencies including the FBI.

READ MORE: DAUGHTER’S TWEETS TO MISSING FATHER
 
“Thailand has been used by some international terrorist groups as a zone of operation, to raise funds or to plan attacks,’’ said Rommel Banlaoi, an analyst on terrorism in South-East Asia.

In 2010, two Pakistanis and a Thai woman were arrested in Thailand on suspicion of making false passports for al Qaeda-linked groups, as part of an international operation linked to the 2008 attacks in Mumbai and the Madrid train bombings in 2004.

In shock … relatives of passengers from the missing flight in Beijing. Source: AFP
 

But Banlaoi stressed that the false passports used on the Malaysia flight “could also be linked to other criminal activities, like illegal immigration’’.

“Thailand is a destination for international crime organisations who use it to secure travel documents, financial documents,’’ a Thai intelligence source said.
READ MORE: STOLEN PASSPORTS REVEAL SECURITY LOOPHOLE
 
“It’s not just linked to terrorism but to other crimes. It’s a complex network, connected to other networks.’’

TRACKING STOLEN PASSPORTS TRAIL

The intricate web of clues surrounding the stolen passports includes Thais and foreigners, passport thieves, counterfeiters, intermediaries and clients, Banlaoi said.

Thai police have announced an investigation into a possible passport racket on the resort island of Phuket — Maraldi’s passport was stolen there in 2013 and Kozel’s on a flight from Phuket to Bangkok, according to authorities in Vienna.

Message of hope … a poster carrying words of support for the passengers. Source: AFP
 

Flight information seen by the AFP news agency shows that two tickets in Kozel and Maraldi’s names were issued in Pattaya, a beach resort south of Bangkok, on March 6, 2014, and were paid for in Thai baht.

READ MORE: PASSENGER LIST A RICH HUMAN TAPESTRY
 
Geographically well-placed and with a major international airport, Thailand is best known for being a hub for drug and wildlife trafficking, including elephant ivory from Africa.

But it also supplies documents to illegal immigrants moving within or passing through the region.

The route of the two unknown MH370 passengers — from Kuala Lumpur via Beijing then on to Europe — was “a typical path’’ for illegal immigrants, one diplomatic source said, adding that a large proportion of passports stolen from tourists in Thailand were then used for illegal immigration.

“They (the passports) are genuine, so they find someone who looks like the owner, or they falsify the first page,’’ the source said.

The ease with which police officials can be paid off also helped the industry to thrive.

“The police can turn a blind eye if you have the money,’’ he added.

New scope … Mr Rahman briefs the media with the latest. Source: Getty Images
 

SEARCH PROVES FRUITLESS

The search effort for the missing plane, involving at least 34 aircraft and 40 ships from several countries, has been widened to a 100-nautical mile (185-kilometre) radius from the point the plane vanished from radar screens between Malaysia and Vietnam early Saturday with no distress signal.

READ MORE: THE CONSPIRACY THEORIES
 
Despite their best efforts, search teams have so far failed to find any trace of actual debris.

Laboratory analysis of oil samples from slicks spotted in the days after the disappearance showed they were not from the Malaysia Airlines jet but were a type of fuel used by ships, the Maritime Enforcement Agency said in Kuala Lumpur.

The area became a focus for frantic international search efforts for the Boeing 777 after large tongues of oil were found in the water on Saturday, hours after the plane dropped off the radar.

In a day of conflicting information which deepened relatives’ anguish, initial reports of debris off southern Vietnam were ruled out, before an aircraft spotted another object which appeared to be a life raft.

Malaysia said it was sending ships to investigate the raft sighting, but a Vietnamese vessel that got there first found only flotsam in the busy shipping lane.

Vigil … people in Kuala Lumpur are praying for a miracle. Source: AFP
 

“When we reached the site we recovered only a mouldy cable reel cover,’’ Vietnamese army deputy chief of staff Vo Vo Tuan said.

“I think there was only one suspect floating object there,’’ he said, conceding the amount of rubbish floating in the sea made it hard to be “100 per cent sure’’ the ship had reached the location of the reported raft.

Boeing has joined an official US team investigating the disappearance, saying it would act as technical adviser to the US National Transportation Safety Board team already in South-East Asia to offer assistance.

A satellite imaging company from the US has even asked for public help in analysing high-resolution images for any sign of the missing airliner.

Passport fears … a passenger checks in at a Malaysia Airlines counter in Beijing. Source: AP
 

‘BERMUDA TRIANGLE STUFF’

Central Queensland University aviation expert Ron Bishop said the continuing lack of debris from the jet pointed towards the aircraft hitting the water intact.

He said that if the aircraft broke up at a cruising altitude, he would expect evidence of items from the plane floating over a 15-20km expanse of ocean.

“If it exploded midair, all the seat cushions would float, paper, magazines, anything made out of paper or wood would float,” he said.

“If it impacted the water in one piece, it possibly impacted at a high speed that drove everything into the water and meant that nothing floated out. And if it did, it would just be small stuff.”

“It could be like the Titanic and drill right into the water.”

He said this might have trapped any remaining oil within the aircraft. However, if it did leak out, it could easily be carried away on the current, leaving little trace of the aircraft.

“It’s pretty spooky when this happens and is particularly upsetting for the families who just want to know what occurred,” he said.

“It becomes like Bermuda Triangle stuff.”

While suggesting it was very unlikely the Boeing 777 crashed on land, Mr Bishop said it was possible.

—AFP with wires/http://www.news.com.au/http://www.telegraph.co.uk

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•  Terrorist attack on missing MH370 not ruled out

Terrorist attack on missing MH370 not ruled out

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Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, the chief of Malaysia’s civil aviation, said hijacking has not been ruled out as a cause of the plane’s disappearance. He told the BBC that what happened to the jet remains “a mystery”. No sightings of debris from the plane in the seas south of Vietnam have been confirmed.

Terrorism has not been ruled out as a possible cause. Counter-terrorism agencies and the FBI are involved in the operation. It emerged that two passengers who boarded the flight were using passports stolen in Thailand some years back.

The passports were Italian and Austrian. The passengers travelling with them had bought their tickets at the same time from China Southern Airlines which shared the flight with Malaysia Airlines, had consecutive ticket numbers and were both booked on the same onward flight from Beijing to Europe on Saturday. The news emerged when the real owners of the passports were reported safe and sound and not on any flight.

Ronald Noble, the secretary general of Interpol, said in a statement that while it was too soon to speculate on any connection between the theft and the plane’s disappearance, it was “clearly of great concern that any passenger was able to board an international flight using a stolen passport listed in Interpol databases”.

The passengers on the flight were of 14 different nationalities. Two-thirds were from China, while others were from elsewhere in Asia, North America and Europe.

Five passengers booked on the flight did not board, and their luggage was consequently removed.

China has sent a team of government officials to Kuala Lumpur to look into the case.

Malaysian King Abdul Halim Mu’adzam Shah offered his condolences to the passengers.

He said he and the Queen “would like to express our sympathy to the passengers and crew, especially to their family”.

However, relatives waiting for news are getting increasingly frustrated, saying they are not getting information on time and that no government officials have visited them, the BBC’s correspondent in Beijing adds.

– http://paper.standartnews.com/

China deploys satellites for search operation

China has sent nine vessels to join the search and rescue operation for the plane. The first Chinese…

Two Chinese working groups in Malaysia

Two teams of officials sent by the Chinese government are now in Kuala Lumpur. A delegation from the…

China goes all-out to search for missing jet

 

Terror group Chinese Martyrs Brigade claims missing flight was ‘payback’, officials label it hoax 

A SHADOWY group called the Chinese Martyrs’ Brigade claimed responsibility for the disappearance of Flight MH370 — but officials were sceptical and said the claim could be a hoax.

The group — unheard of before now — on Sunday sent an email to journalists across China that read: “You kill one of our clan, we will kill 100 of you as pay back,” but the message provided no details of what brought the flight down.

Malaysian Defense Minister Hishamuddin Hussein told reporters he doubted the claim’s legitimacy.

“There is no sound or credible grounds to justify their claims,” he said, according to Malaysian news reports.

Other officials said the claim could be a hoax aimed at increasing ethnic tensions between Uighurs and Han Chinese in the wake of the March 1 knife attacks in the south-western city of Kunming that left 29 people dead and about 140 others injured.

The message was delivered through an encrypted, anonymous Hushmail service that is virtually impossible to trace, they said.

GHOST FLIGHTS: THE PLANES THAT DISAPPEARED

No lead: Officials said the oil slicks discovered by Vietnamese search aircraft were not aircraft fuel. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

 

Investigators also said Monday that debris spotted from the air that was originally believed to be from the plane turned out to be a large cable spool unconnected to the aircraft.

They also said an oil slick discovered in the region was not connected to the flight.

Investigators suspect the vanished Malaysian airliner may have been blown out of the sky — just like the jumbo jet that rained deadly wreckage onto Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988.

A senior official involved in the probe of its disappearance said the evidence so far “appears to indicate that the aircraft is likely to have disintegrated at around 35,000 feet,” Reuters reported.

Asked if that suggested a bomb blew up the Boeing 777, the source said there was no evidence yet of foul play, but noted the closest parallels to the plane’s disappearance early Saturday over the South China Sea were the 1980s bombings of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie and Air India Flight 182 off the coast of Ireland.

Although the source added that the flight, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, could have broken apart due to mechanical failure, Malaysian officials have not ruled out a hijacking.

Chinese officials arrive in Malaysia to aid the search. Picture: Getty Images Source: Getty Images

 

Meanwhile, Hussein said authorities have surveillance video of the two passengers who boarded the plane using stolen passports.

Rahman, the civil aviation chief, said officials had reviewed surveillance tape of the plane’s boarding and are now saying the pair were not Asian, as they had originally indicated.

“We confirmed now they are not Asian-looking males,” Rahman said, adding that one of the men was black.
One had been identified, officials said, though they refused to release a name or nationality.

Malaysian Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the other passenger also appeared to be Asian, and blasted the border officials who let them through while carrying passports from Austria and Italy.

“Can’t these immigration officials think? Italian and Austrian [passport holders] but with Asian faces,” Hamidi fumed.

Five booked passengers failed to show up for the flight, according to The Wall Street Journal.

– http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates

Possibilities:

 

Passenger Manifest

More > > 

 

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MH370 deepens mystery !

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Four names on manifest considered suspect on plane disappearance

<  Video Flight MH370 was bound for Beijing with 239 people on board, including 154 from China. It has lost c…

Missing Malaysia Airlines plane ‘may have turned back … – YouTube

► 5:10► 5:10

 

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Military radar indicates that the missing Boeing 777 jet turned back before vanishing, Malaysia’s air force chief said Sunday as authorities were investigating up to four passengers with suspicious identifications who may have boarded the flight.

The revelations add to the uncertainties surrounding the final minutes of flight MH370, which was carrying 239 people when it lost contact with ground controllers somewhere between Malaysia and Vietnam after leaving Kuala Lumpur early Saturday morning bound for Beijing.

A massive international sea has so far turned up no trace of the plane, which lost contact with the ground when the weather was fine, the plane was already cruising and the pilots didn’t send a distress signal — unusual circumstance for a modern jetliner operated by a professional airline to crash.

Air force chief Rodzali Daud didn’t say which direction the plane might have taken or how long for when it apparently went off route.

“We are trying to make sense of this,” he told a media conference. “The military radar indicated that the aircraft may have made a turn back and in some parts, this was corroborated by civilian radar.”

Malaysia Airlines Chief Executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said pilots were supposed to inform the airline and traffic control authorities if the plane does a U-turn. “From what we have, there was no such distress signal or distress call per se, so we are equally puzzled,” he said.

Authorities were checking on the suspect identities of at least two passengers who appear to have boarded with stolen passports. On Saturday, the foreign ministries in Italy and Austria said the names of two citizens listed on the flight’s manifest matched the names on two passports reported stolen in Thailand.

Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said that authorities were looking at two more possible cases of suspicious identities. He said Malaysian intelligence agencies were in contact with their international counterparts, including the FBI. He gave no more details.

“All the four names are with me and have been given to our intelligence agencies,” he said. “We are looking at all possibilities”.

View gallery  

A Chinese relative of passengers aboard a missing Malaysia Airlines plane, center, cries as she is e …>>

A total of 22 aircraft and 40 ships have been deployed to the area by Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, China and the United States, not counting Vietnam’s fleet.

Two-thirds of the jet’s passengers were Chinese. The rest were from elsewhere in Asia, North America and Europe.

After more than 30 hours without contact with the aircraft, Malaysia Airlines told family members they should “prepare themselves for the worst,” Hugh Dunleavy, the commercial director for the airline told reporters.

Finding traces of an aircraft that disappears over sea can take days or longer, even with a sustained search effort. Depending on the circumstances of the crash, wreckage can be scattered over many square kilometers (miles). If the plane enters the water before breaking up, there can be relatively little debris.

A team of American experts was en route to Asia to be ready to assist in the investigation into the crash. The team includes accident investigators from National Transportation Safety Board, as well as technical experts from the Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing, the safety board said in a statement.

A Chinese relative of passengers aboard a missing Malaysia Airlines plane cries as she leaves a hotel

Malaysia Airlines has a good safety record, as does the 777, which had not had a fatal crash in its 19-year history until an Asiana Airlines plane crashed last July in San Francisco, killing three passengers, all Chinese teenagers.

Investigators will need access to the flight data recorders to determine what happened.

Aviation and terrorism experts said revelations about stolen passports would strengthen speculation of foul play. They also acknowledged other scenarios, including some catastrophic failure of the engines or structure of the plane, extreme turbulence or pilot error or even suicide, were also possible.

Jason Middleton, the head of the Sydney-based University of New South Wales’ School of Aviation, said terrorism or some other form of foul play seemed a likely explanation.

“You’re looking at some highly unexpected thing, and the only ones people can think of are basically foul play, being either a bomb or some immediate incapacitating of the pilots by someone doing the wrong thing and that might lead to an airplane going straight into the ocean,” Middleton said. “With two stolen passports (on board), you’d have to suspect that that’s one of the likely options.”

This screengrab from flightradar24.com shows the last reported position of Malaysian Airlines flight >>

Just 9 percent of fatal accidents happen when a plane is at cruising altitude, according to a statistical summary of commercial jet accidents done by Boeing. Malaysia Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said Saturday there was no indication the pilots had sent a distress signal.

The plane was last inspected 10 days ago and found to be “in proper condition,” Ignatius Ong, CEO of Malaysia Airlines subsidiary Firefly airlines, said at a news conference.

By EILEEN NG and CHRIS BRUMMITT – Brummitt reported from Hanoi, Vietnam.

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Tracking the mysterious MH370: 2 impostors on board, plane missing 50 min not 2 hrs after take off…

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Missing MAS flight: Two passengers using passports stolen in Thailand

PETALING JAYA: The mystery of the missing MH370 deepened when it was reported that there were two impostors on board, both with passports that were stolen in Thailand.

Italian Luigi Maraldi, whose name is on the manifest, was not on the missing MH370 flight. Someone else had used his passport to board the plane.

According to news reports from Italy which quoted its Foreign Ministry, Luigi Maraldi’s passport was stolen last August while he was in Thailand.

Maraldi, 37, is now in Thailand.

According to Italian newspaper La Repubblica, Maraldi returned home after his passport was stolen and had a new one issued.

When officials heard of the missing plane, they went to his parents’ home but they said their son was alive and well in Thailand, and had called to say he was fine.

“I am fine, I was not on the flight,” he told his parents.

Meanwhile, London’s Daily Mirror reported that a second passenger was also using a stolen passport.

Austrian Christan Kozel has been confirmed as safe and well by authorities.

He told Austrian newspaper De Standard that his passport was stolen when he visited Thailand two years ago.

It is still unclear as to who had travelled on MH370 under the two names. – The Star/Asia News Network

Tracking firm: Plane missing about 50min after departure

PETALING JAYA: Sweden-based flight tracking service FlightRadar24 was the first to report that Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 had disappeared from radar about 50 minutes of departure, and not two hours as initially stated.

“Flight #MH370 took off from Kuala Lumpur at 1641 UTC time (12.41am local time) and disappeared from www.flightradar24.com at 1720 UTC time (about 1.21am local time) between Malaysia and Vietnam,” said the company’s chief executive officer Fredrik Lindahl in an e-mail response to The Star.

Flight MH370, on a B777-200 aircraft, departed Kuala Lumpur at 12.41am on March 8. It was expected to land in Beijing at 6.30am the same day.

“Also, based on our data, there is no doubt that the last reported position of MH370 is about 150km northeast of Kuala Terengganu.

“We have good radar coverage in the area the flight went missing and the last signal was received from an altitude of 35,000 feet,” said Lindahl.

MAS group chief executive officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya had initially said at a press conference at 11am yesterday that the Subang Air Traffic Control had lost contact with the plane around 2.40am.

However, Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) director-general Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Rahman clarified later in the evening that contact was lost at 1.30am.

Meanwhile, aviation website The Aviation Herald stated that the plane was last regularly seen at 1.22am about halfway between Kuala Lumpur and Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City.

“The aircraft was spotted over the Gulf of Thailand about 260 nautical miles north northeast of Kuala Lumpur and 120 nautical miles northeast of Kota Baru 50 minutes into the flight.

“This was followed by anomalies in the radar data of the aircraft over the next minute. Although these may be related to the aircraft, it could also be caused by the flight leaving the receiver range,” it stated.

The website also reported aviation sources in China as saying that radar data suggested a steep and sudden descent of the flight, during which time the aircraft had changed track from 24 degrees to 333 degrees.

– The Star/Asia News Network

No sign of Malaysia Airline wreckage; questions over stolen passports

Traces of oil may be clue in plane search

No Sign Of Malaysia Airline Wreckage Questions Over Stolen …

► 5:56► 5:56

www.youtube.com/watch?v…‎YouTube

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: “We have not been able to locate anything,” an airline official says
• U.S. law enforcement sources say both passports were stolen in Thailand
• One of the two stolen passports is listed in Interpol’s database, sources say
• Vietnamese searchers spot oil slicks in the South China Sea

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (CNN) — There were few answers Sunday about the fate of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, a day after contact was lost with the commercial jetliner en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

An aerial search resumed at first light, with aircraft searching an area of the South China Sea for any sign of where the flight may have gone down, Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, the director general of civil aviation in Malaysia, told reporters

“We have not been able to locate anything, see anything,” Rahman said. “There’s nothing new to report.”

The closest things to clues in the search for the missing jetliner are oil slicks in the Gulf of Thailand, about 90 miles south of Vietnam’s Tho Chu Island — the same area where the flight disappeared from radar early Saturday morning. A Vietnamese reconnaissance plane, part of a massive, multinational search effort, spotted the oil slicks that stretch between six and nine miles, the Vietnam government’s official news agency reported.

Malaysian authorities have not yet confirmed the Vietnamese report, Rahman said.

The reported oil discovery has only added to a growing list of questions about the fate of the plane carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members: What happened to the plane, why was no distress signal issued, and who exactly was aboard?

Passenger manifest questioned

Bits and pieces of information have begun to form, but it remains unclear how they fit into the bigger picture, if at all.

Photos: Malaysia airliner loses contact

Map: Malaysia airliner lost contact

Traces of oil may be clue in search

Quest: I flew with missing first officer

Quest: Odd to lose contact while cruising

 

For instance, after the airline released a manifest, Austria denied that one of its citizens was aboard the flight. The Austrian citizen was safe and sound, and his passport had been stolen two years ago, Austrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Weiss said.

Similarly, Italy’s foreign ministry confirmed none of its citizens were on Flight 370, even though an Italian was listed on the manifest.

On Saturday, Italian police visited the home of the parents of Luigi Maraldi, the man whose name appeared on the manifest, to inform them about the missing flight, said a police official in Cesena, in northern Italy.

Maraldi’s father, Walter, told police he had just spoken to his son, who was fine and not on the missing flight, said the official, who is not authorized to speak to the media. Maraldi was vacationing in Thailand, his father said.

The police official said Maraldi had reported his passport stolen in Malaysia last August and had obtained a new one. But U.S. law enforcement sources told CNN that both the Austrian and Italian passports were stolen in Thailand.

“No nexus to terrorism yet,” a U.S. intelligence official said, “although that’s by no means definitive. We’re still tracking.”

Rahman, Malaysia’s top civil aviation official, declined to answer questions Sunday about the stolen passports, and how people using them managed to get past security and on to the plane.

“This is part of the investigation,” Rahman said at a news conference.

The U.S. government has been briefed on the stolen passports and reviewed the names of the passengers in question but found nothing at this point to indicate foul play, said a U.S. law enforcement official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Of the two passports in question, the Italian one had been reported stolen and was in Interpol’s database, CNN Law Enforcement Analyst Tom Fuentes said, citing sources at Interpol.

Additionally, no inquiry was made by Malaysia Airlines to determine if any passengers on the flight were traveling on stolen passports, he said. Many airlines do not check the database, he said.

During the news conference in Kuala Lumpur, Rahman declined to say whether the airline or Malaysian authorities had checked the database.

Not ruling anything out

Malaysian authorities reiterated during a news conference that they are not ruling anything out regarding the missing aircraft.

The Boeing 777-200ER departed Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 12:41 a.m. Saturday in good weather, and it was expected to land in Beijing at 6:30 a.m., a 2,300-mile (3,700-kilometer) trip.

Air traffic controllers in Subang, outside Kuala Lumpur, lost contact with the plane about 1:30 a.m., Rahman said. Earlier, the airline said the jetliner lost contact at 2:40 a.m.

The pilots did not indicate to the tower there may be a problem, and no distress signal was issued, the airline said.

It may be days, possibly weeks or months, before authorities can offer any firm answers.

It took five days for authorities to locate the wreckage of Air France Flight 447 when it crashed June 1, 2009, in the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 228 on board.

It took four searches over the course of nearly two years to locate the bulk of Flight 447’s wreckage and the majority of the bodies in a mountain range deep under the ocean.

If Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went down in the Gulf of Thailand, the recovery may be a bit easier because it is a relatively shallow area of the South China Sea, according to marine officials.

China, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia were conducting search and rescue operations south of Tho Chu island in the South China Sea, according to the airline and reports from Xinhua, China’s official news agency. Ships, helicopters and airplanes are being utilized.

The USS Pinckney, a destroyer conducting training in the South China Sea, is being routed to the southern Vietnamese coast to aid in the search, the U.S. Navy said. The United States is also sending a P-3C Orion surveillance plane from Japan to provide long-range search, radar and communications capabilities, the Navy said.

Meanwhile, the Chinese Coast Guard has ordered on-duty vessels to aid in the search, Xinhua reported, citing government officials. China also sent a diving and salvage team to the area where the airplane is suspected to have gone down, the news agency reported.

Because of the Americans aboard the flight, the FBI has offered to send a team of agents to Malaysia to support the investigation into the disappearance if asked, a U.S. official familiar with the issue told CNN on condition of anonymity. Earlier, an official had said FBI agents were heading to the area.

The FBI is not ruling out terrorism or any other issue as a possible cause in the jetliner’s disappearance, the official said.

Officials appeared resigned to accepting the worst outcome.

“I’d just like to say our thoughts and prayers are with the bereaved families,” Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said during a news conference.

Grief, especially in China

The plane carried 227 passengers, including five children under 5 years old, and 12 crew members, the airline said. At the time of its disappearance, the Malaysia Airlines plane was carrying about 7.5 hours of fuel, an airline official said.

Among the passengers there were 154 people from China or Taiwan; 38 Malaysians, and three U.S. citizens.

Relatives of the Chinese citizens on board gathered Saturday at a hotel complex in the Lido district of Beijing as a large crowd of reporters gathered outside.

“My son was only 40 years old,” one woman wailed as she was led inside. “My son, my son. What am I going to do?”

Family members were kept in a hotel conference room, where media outlets had no access. Most of the family members have so far refused to talk to reporters. The airline said the public can call 603 7884 1234 for further information.

In Malaysia, the families and loved ones of those aboard the flight were gathered at the Everly Hotel in Putrajaya, south of Kuala Lumpur, according to Bernama, the Malaysian national news agency.

Twenty of the passengers aboard the flight work with Freescale Semiconductor, a company based in Austin, Texas. The company said that 12 of the employees are from Malaysia and eight are from China.

The airline’s website said the flight was piloted by a veteran.

Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah, a 53-year-old Malaysian, has 18,365 total flying hours and joined Malaysia Airlines in 1981, the website said. The first officer is Fariq Ab Hamid, 27, a Malaysian with a total of 2,763 flying hours. He joined Malaysia Airlines in 2007.

Still an ‘urgent need’ to find plane

“The lack of communications suggests to me that something most unfortunate has happened,” said Mary Schiavo, former inspector general of the U.S. Department of Transportation, in an interview with CNN International.

“But that, of course, does not mean that there are not many persons that need to be rescued and secured. There’s still a very urgent need to find that plane and to render aid,” she said.

Malaysia Airlines operates in Southeast Asia, East Asia, South Asia, the Middle East and on the route between Europe and Australasia.

It has 15 Boeing 777-200ER planes in its fleet, CNN’s Richard Quest reported. The missing airplane was delivered to Malaysia Airlines in 2002.

Part of the company is in the private sector, but the government owns most of it.

Malayan Airways Limited began flying in 1937 as an air service between Penang and Singapore. A decade later, it began flying commercially as the national airline.

In 1963, when Malaysia was formed, the airline was renamed Malaysian Airlines Limited.

Within 20 years, it had grown from a single aircraft operator into a company with 2,400 employees and a fleet operator.

If this aircraft has crashed with a total loss, it would the deadliest aviation incident since November 2001, when an American Airlines Airbus A300 crashed in Belle Harbor, Queens, shortly after takeoff from JFK Airport. Killed were 265 people, including five people on the ground.

– Contributed by Chelsea J. Carter and Jim Clancy, CNN

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 Malaysia plane carrying 239 people missing, crashed off Vietnam? Malaysian minister denies crash report!

Cost of vehicle ownership in Malaysia

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MALAYSIA is perceived to be one of the costlier countries in the region when it comes to vehicle prices. But industry observers believe that this is compensated by the fact that the country’s fuel prices are heavily subsidised, and that it also enjoys the lowest interest rates in South-East Asia.

“One should not compare vehicle cost of ownership in the region purely based on the price of the car alone,” says Malaysian Automotive Association president Datuk Aishah Ahmad.

According to data by the Malaysia Automotive Institute (MAI), the average interest rate in Malaysia for a loan tenure of between 60 months and 108 months is between 2.5% and 3.6% – which is the lowest in Asean.

Interest rates in Vietnam is the highest, which has a flat rate of 16% per annum for loans that range between 12 months and 60 months.

“Given the fact that Malaysia’s interest rates are the lowest in the region, as well as the fact that fuel prices are subsidised, the total cost of vehicle ownership is one of the lowest in Asean,” says MAI chief executive officer Madani Sahari. The cost of interest rates used in MAI’s calculations is over 5 years.

The MAI is the think-tank for the Malaysian automotive industry.

Madani notes also that the price of subsidised RON 95 in Malaysia was one of the lowest in the region at RM1.90 per litre. Comparatively, the cost for the fuel in Thailand is RM3.80 per litre, Indonesia (RM3.35 per litre), Singapore (RM5.10 per litre), Vietnam (RM3.60 per litre) and the Philippines (RM3.20 per litre).

“In terms of road tax, we are also quite competitive in Asean. Malaysia is still cheaper compared with countries such as Thailand and Indonesia and comparative to Vietnam and the Philippines,” he says.

Perusahaan Otomobil Kedua Sdn Bhd managing director Datuk Aminar Rashid Salleh says Malaysians are blessed to have their fuel subsidised.

“We have low fuel prices and interest rates. All of these factors have contributed to Malaysia’s low cost of vehicle ownership.”

Madani points out that over a five-year period, the average road tax and insurance in Malaysia was among the lowest in the region, costing RM1,990 and RM15,310 respectively.

The five-year cost of road tax and insurance in Singapore was the highest at RM13,779 and RM39,806 respectively, compared with Indonesia (RM9,186 and RM22,965), Thailand (RM2,297 and RM33,682) and the Philippines (RM1,531 and RM14,238).

When comparing vehicle prices, especially those of popular international marques such as Toyota, Honda and BMW, Madani points out that prices in Malaysia were still lower compared with countries such as Singapore and Vietnam.

According to data from the MAI, a 1.5-litre Toyota Vios (as at September 2012) costs RM87,313 in Malaysia but costs RM88,456 and RM303,136 in Vietnam and Singapore respectively. The Vios is cheapest in the Philippines at RM60,271.

A brand new 1.5-litre Honda City meanwhile retails for RM88,443 locally and costs RM106,090 and RM295,800 in Vietnam and Singapore respectively and lowest in the Philippines at RM61,472.

The BMW 3 series, a popular premium model that is represented in most Asean countries, costs RM238,800 in Malaysia. It costs RM248,200 and RM541,200 respectively in Vietnam and Singapore. It costs the least in Indonesia, retailing at RM191,900.

However, when taking into account the vehicles’ selling price, down payment and loan repayment (including interest rates), road tax and insurance, as well as the fuel prices of the different countries, the total vehicle cost of ownership for a 1.5-litre Toyota Vios is RM130,382, which is the second lowest in the region after Philippines, where the total vehicle cost of ownership is RM128,933.

Total vehicle cost of ownership for the Toyota Camry (2.5-litre) in Malaysia is also second lowest in the region at RM243,182. The total vehicle cost of ownership for the Toyota Altis (1.8-litre) in Malaysia is however the cheapest in the region at RM163,973.

After the Philippines, Malaysia also boasts the second lowest total vehicle cost of ownership for the Honda City (1.5-litre), Civic (1.8-litre) and Accord (2.4-litre) models in the region. Malaysia also has the lowest total vehicle cost of ownership for the BMW 3 series.

By EUGENE MAHALINGAM eugenicz@thestar.com.my

World Competitive Rankings defy logic

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The WEF may have its own method of measuring the competitiveness of each country but its rankings defy the stark reality of what is going on in the world.

BANGKOK: The World Economic Forum (WEF) has just issued its Global Competitiveness Index 2012-2013 rankings.

Thailand’s competitiveness ranking has improved slightly to 38th spot this year, while Switzerland has edged out Singapore to become the most competitive nation on earth.

The WEF has its own formula in ranking the competitiveness of each country. However, the WEF’s ranking does raise some eyebrows.

According to the WEF, Spain is more competitive than Thailand because its overall ranking is 36th. This ranking is questionable.

Spain is planning to seek a full bailout from the European Union. The European Central Bank is about to monetise its debt. It has received €100bil (RM393.7bil) in bailout funds already. Some €75bil (RM295.3bil) in deposits have fled the Spanish banking system.

Spain is in a similar situation to Thailand in the first part of 1997 before Thailand sought a bailout from the International Monetary Fund. By this measure, Spain should not get a ranking higher than Thailand.

Switzerland, ranked No.1, will not enjoy its position as an oasis of peace and prosperity in Europe for too long in the event of a euro implosion. Swiss banks’ assets, which are tied to the European banking crisis, are more than 300% of the country’s GDP.

The United States has slipped to 7th in the rankings. The US economy is in big trouble. Some 46 million Americans are on food stamps. There are 10 million Americans unemployed, including another 12 million who are doing odd jobs.

Some 18 million American households are having a tough time making ends meet. The banking system is in shambles. The US national debt has hit US$16tril (RM49.7tril), or about 100% of the GDP. The budget deficit is chronic. The country is years away, if ever, from being able to balance its budget.

Most important, the Federal Open Market Committee will meet on Sept 12 to determine whether it will go ahead with a bond-buying programme, or QE3, to further prop up the financial system. US finances are in very bad shape indeed.

Japan is ranked in 10th spot. Does it deserve this position? The whole world knows that Japan has the world’s largest public debt at more than US$12tril (RM37.3tril), or 230% of its GDP. Japan’s debt is largely financed by domestic bonds. But with an ageing society, Japan will face higher interest costs from its borrowing, which will put the health of its finances into further question.

The Japanese economy is far from recovering from its crisis of the 1990s. Japan is facing sluggish growth and also high energy costs in the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster.

Its export sector is feeling the pinch from the strong yen. If the consumer markets in Europe or US were to slacken even more, Japan’s export machines will wobble. Foreign exchange earnings will plunge, while domestic demand has been in a weak state all along.

Saudi Arabia, ranked at 18th, is the world’s largest oil exporter. But a Citibank report issued last week said Saudi Arabia might have to import energy by 2030 if the current pace of domestic consumption and exports continues.

Israel is ranked 26th, though it is facing off against Iran in the Middle East. A war could break out between the two countries at any time, given the tensions between their leaders.

China is ranked 29th, although it is the richest country in terms of foreign exchange reserves. Its reserves stand at US$3tril (RM9.3tril). China is the world’s production factory. Its economy is the world’s second largest after the United States. It is improving fast in technology and innovations.

Moreover, China is also building up its military and has nuclear weapons in store. Apparently, China does not deserve this relatively low ranking.

This also applies to other Brics countries such as Russia (67th), Brazil (48th) and India (59th). How is it possible that the Philippines musters at 65th, two notches higher than Russia, which is still a superpower, rich with resources? The Philippines is vulnerable to food price increases and also to natural disasters.

The WEF may have its own method of measuring the competitiveness of each country. But its rankings defy common sense and the stark reality of what is going on in the world.

From a group of leading Asian newspapers working towards improving coverage of Asian affairs
http://www.asianewsnet.net/