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An international effort is continuing throughout the night to try to locate an airliner¹ thatdisappeared on a flight from Malaysia to China. A Vietnamese plane has reportedly seen atleast one object in the South China Sea off the country's coastline. But there is noconfirmation that it is wreckage² from the missing flight. Johnathan head reports from KualaLumpur.

Two days after flight MH370 vanished from radar³ screens, the Malaysian authorities still havevery little information about its fate. The Boeing 777 was flying at cruising altitude in goodweather, and was no radio communication from the pilot to suggest anything had gonewrong. The possibility that the plane may have turned back before it disappeared hasprompted them to extend the search area. But no wreckage has yet been found. The focus ofthe investigation⁴ has turned instead to the discovery that two of the passengers were travellingon stolen passports, according to Malaysia's transport minister Hishamudin Hussein.

The International Police Organization Interpol said it was too early to speculate about apossible link between the stolen passports and the plane's disappearance⁵.

The German Chancellor⁶ Angela Merkel has told the Russian President Vladimir Putin that sheconsiders the forthcoming referendum in Crimea illegal. The vote scheduled for the 16th ofMarch will be on whether Crimea should join Russia. She made the comments to Mr.Putin in atelephone conversation involving the two leaders and the British Prime Minister DavidCameron.

The former jailed Russian oil tycoon⁷ in critic of President Putin Mikhail Khodorkovsky hasaddressed a rally in the Ukrainian capital Kiev. He told the tens of thousands of people gatheredin Independence Square that the Kremlin was lying to its own people by portraying⁸ theprotesters in Kiev as near fascists⁹. There were rallies in several cities across Ukraine throughoutthe day, most parts are peacefully. But in Sevastopol in Crimea, ethnic¹⁰ Russians beat up somepro-Ukrainian demonstrators. Ben Brown was there.

First, they attacked the driver of a white van, smashing his windscreen. He tried to drivethrough the mob to get away but crashed and was attacked again. Another Ukrainian wasdragged into some bushes, kicked, beaten and lashed¹¹ with a Cossack's whip, we werethreatened too by the Russians but managed to run away before they attacked us as well. Itwas a terrifying moment, and a glimpse of the abyss that Crimea now teeters over.

The Pakistani army has set an urgent relief team to the drought-stricken dessert region ofThar in the country's southern province of Sindh. Doctors of the district's main hospital sayalmost 30 children have did from malnutrition¹² just this month. Thousands of families have leftthe area in search for food and water. The Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has assuredthe provincial¹³ authorities the Federal Government's full support.

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The Maldives Supreme¹⁴ Court has sentenced all the members of the country's electioncommission to six months in prison for disobeying orders. The sentences come at a time whenthe commission is supported to be organizing parliamentary elections. From Colombo here'sCharles Haviland.

The four members of the Maldives elections commission were given six months' jail sentencessuspended for three years for disobeying orders. The commission's president Fuwad Thowfeekand his deputy have been stripped of their membership of the body. Mr. Thowfeek hadcriticized the supreme court last October after it annulled¹⁵ a presidential election deemed freeand fair by hundreds of observers. The commissioners¹⁶ were brought to trial a few days agounder new rules that allow the supreme court to initiate¹⁷ proceedings¹⁸, prosecute¹⁹ and passjudgement.

Pope Francis has taken more than 18 members of the Vatican's bureaucracy to a modestcountryside retreat for a week of pray for Lent. Before setting off, the Pope said Lent was atime to resist worldly temptations like economic comfort and concentrate on life essentials.From Rome here's David Willey.

It's Lent, a time of prayer and fast in preparation for Easter. And each year, the Pope and histop advisers²⁰ normally cancelled all their public engagements and spent a week in.. inside theVatican. But this year, Pope Francis decided²¹ to move the whole Roman leadership of the CatholicChurch out of the open hills near Rome for their week of what they called spiritual exercises.They traveled on an ordinary pilgrim coach and another mini bus.

There are reports that a group of Syrian nuns²² kidnapped last year have been released. Thenuns were taken by unidentified gunmen from their convent in an ancient town of Maaloula lastDecember after it was taken over by Islamist rebels. It's not clear where the nuns are at themoment, but it's reported that a convoy²³ is taking them to Damascus.