The Nation Newspaper

Tag: MALAYSIA

  • Malaysia: Missing Flight 370 update

    The race against time continues for search crews as the black boxes from missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 near the end of their one-month battery life.

    It has been one month since the plane vanished into the Indian Ocean, and in some regards, authorities know as little about the crash as they did the night of March 7. After reports that crews were hearing faint pinging sounds similar to those produced by a black box, an extensive search has been unable to locate any wreckage from the missing plane, and if the batteries die, the sounds will no longer be produced.

    If that happens, locating the plane will become a nearly impossible task.

     

  • Flight MH370 crashed in south Indian Ocean, says Malaysia PM

    Malaysia’s Prime Minister has announced that the missing flight MH370 crashed in the southern Indian Ocean.

    Najib Razak said this was the conclusion of fresh analysis of satellite data tracking the flight.

    Malaysia Airlines had told the families of the 239 people on board, he said.

    The BBC has seen a text message sent to families by the airline saying it had to be assumed “beyond reasonable doubt” that the plane was lost and there were no survivors.

    There were 227 passengers on flight MH370, many of them Chinese.

    Relatives of those on board who listened to the announcement at a Beijing hotel wept with grief, and some were taken away on stretchers by medical teams, news agencies reported.

    Flight MH370 disappeared after taking off on March 8 from Kuala Lumpur.

    A big international search operation has been taking place in the southern Indian Ocean, along the southern arc or corridor of the plane’s possible route, more than 1,500 miles (2,500km) off the south-west coast of Australia.

    In the past day, both Australian and Chinese air force crews have reported spotting debris.

    The unidentified objects have been seen in separate parts of the vast search area, in some of the world’s most treacherous and remote waters.

    The revelation by Prime Minister Najib Razak came at a late-night news conference in Kuala Lumpur.

    It was based on new analysis by British satellite firm Inmarsat, which provided satellite data, and the UK’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB).

    The firms “have concluded that MH370 flew along the southern corridor, and that its last position was in the middle of the Indian Ocean, west of Perth,” Mr Razak said.

    “This is a remote location, far from any possible landing sites. It is therefore with deep sadness and regret that I must inform you that, according to this new data, flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean.”

    Mr Razak appealed to the media to respect the privacy of the families of the passengers and crew, saying the wait for information had been heartbreaking and this latest news harder still.

    The text message sent to families by Malaysia Airlines announcing the loss of the plane said: “Malaysia Airlines deeply regrets that we have to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH370 has been lost and that none of those on board survived… we must now accept all evidence suggests the plane went down in the Southern Indian Ocean.”

    Selamat Omar, the father of a 29-year-old aviation engineer who was on the flight, said some family members of other passengers broke down in tears at the news.

    “We accept the news of the tragedy. It is fate,’’ Selamat told Associated Press in Kuala Lumpur.

    The Malaysian prime minister said Inmarsat had been able to shed further light on the plane’s flight path by performing further calculations on the MH370 data “using a type of analysis never before used in an investigation of this sort”.

    According to Inmarsat, this involved a totally new way of modelling, which was why it took time.

    The company told the BBC the new calculation involved crunching far more data, which included what other aircraft were doing at the time.

    Inmarsat gave the AAIB the new data on Sunday, it said, which had to be checked before it could be made public.

    Officials said earlier that the plane automatically sent an hourly “ping” – a brief signal – to the Inmarsat satellite even after other communication systems on the plane shut down.

    Initial analysis showed the location of the final “ping” was probably along one of two vast arcs running north and south.

  • Breaking: Missing plane lost, families told

    Breaking: Missing plane lost, families told

    Malaysian Airlines says it now has to assume “beyond any reasonable doubt” that missing flight MH370 has been lost and there are no survivors.

    The announcement came in a text message, seen by the BBC, that was sent to families of those on board.

    Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, with 239 people on board, went missing after taking off from Kuala Lumpur 8 March.

    The announcement came as a search effort in the southern Indian Ocean completed a fifth day of operations.

     

  • Missing Malaysian plane: Police quiz families of pilot, co-pilots

    The families of the pilot and co-pilots of a missing Malaysian jetliner were among more than 100 people interviewed by investigators, seeking clues about the disappearance.

    A senior Malaysian official said this on Monday.

    “We can confirm that the police have interviewed more than a hundred people, including families of both the pilot and co-pilot,’’ Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said.

    Investigators intensified their focus on passengers and crew of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH 370 after Prime Minister Najib Razak said the disappearance of the plane appeared to be a “deliberate” act.

  • Malaysia prepares for deep-sea search for flight recorders

    Malaysia is preparing to conduct deep-sea searches to recover the flight data and voice recorders of the missing Malaysia Airlines jet.

    Transport minister Hishammuddin said on Thursday this would be if it was confirmed that the plane crashed at sea.

    “The next step is to actually find the black box,” he said, if two objects spotted by Australia in the southern Indian Ocean are confirmed to be from flight MH370.

    There are two objects spotted by Australia that appeared to be part of the plane that disappeared while en route to Beijing on March 8.

    “Deep searches and surveillance is something that we are already looking into,” he added, noting that not many countries had such capability to detect pings or signals from the recorders.

  • Missing plane: Pilot’s last recorded words gave no hint of danger

    The last recorded words by the pilot of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 gave no hint that anything was wrong with the jetliner that disappeared from radar, a recent report said.

    An air traffic controller told the pilot, “we have to hand you over to Ho Chi Minh City,’’ a Malaysian Civil Air Department representative said, referring to air traffic control in Vietnam.

    The pilot responded, “All right, good night’’.

    The Malaysian authorities revealed that exchange in a briefing for Chinese media, and the Chinese press relayed that information.

    The source said Flight MH370 never made contact with air traffic control in Ho Chi Minh City and what happened to the plane and its 239 passengers has baffled searchers.

    The conversation details emerged as officials announced they are expanding the search to cover 27,000 nautical miles over two separate areas, 14,440 square nautical miles in the South China Sea on the plane’s designated route as well as 12,425 square nautical miles in the Strait of Malacca, which is hundreds of miles to the west of the plane’s flight path.

    Authorities ran down another lead this week, but came up empty.

    Also the report says that a New Zealand man working on an oil rig had emailed authorities after he said he spotted a burning object in the water east of Vietnam on Saturday morning, the day the plane disappeared.

    Vietnamese officials reportedly sent a plane to the area to investigate the man’s claims, but the search was fruitless, naval officer Le Minh Thanh told journalists.

    Malaysia’s Acting Transport Minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, said in a media briefing on Wednesday that the search now includes 42 ships and 39 aircraft.

    “We will never give up hope,’’ he said.

    Malaysia is seeking to bring in more experts, officials from the plane’s manufacturer Boeing, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, National Transportation Safety Board and Rolls Royce, which built the plane’s engines to analyse civil and military data.

    The search now includes 12 countries – India, Japan and Brunei

    Hussein defended the rescue efforts against rising complaints of confusion, calling the search strategy “very consistent’’.

    “It’s only confusion if you want it to be seen as confusion,” he said.

    Five days into the search, authorities have not ruled out any possible cause, including mechanical failure, pilot error, sabotage or terrorism.

    “Until wreckage or debris is found and examined, it will be very hard to say what happened.

    Vietnam had, however, scaled down its search to a “less intensive” format, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told journalists at a recent media briefing.

     

  • Missing jet: Japan to dispatch transport aircraft to help Malaysia

    Japan will dispatch Air Self-Defence Force (ASDF) transport aircraft to join the international massive hunt for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, local media reported on Tuesday.

    Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera told reporters on Tuesday that an advance team of four ASDF staff would leave for Kuala Lumpur later in the day.

    He said the Japanese government would decide what activities the aircraft would engage in after the team reports back.

    Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshihide Suga, said the Malaysian government requested Tokyo on Monday to aid the search for the missing plane.

    “We will take into account what is expected (by Malaysia) and do whatever we can in response to the request,’’ the top government spokesman said in a news conference on Tuesday.

    The Boeing 777 aircraft suddenly vanished from radar early on Saturday morning while carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

    Among the passengers were 154 Chinese.

    Dozens of ships and planes from around 10 countries are scouring the waters around Flight MH370’s last known location, but no solid clues have been found so far.

  • Nigerian student shot dead in Malaysia

    Nigerian student shot dead in Malaysia

    A Nigerian student in Malaysia has reportedly been shot dead.

    The young man identified as Adelabu Tunde was killed by a Malaysian police on Thursday — he was until his death a student of Lagenda University, Nilai, Malaysia, The Nation has learnt.

    According to a source, the victim who hailed from Ekiti State was shot in the head en route home from school.

    The source said: “Police were raiding in another apartment when Tunde and his friends were coming back from school then the police car followed them. He ran and got shot in the head by a police man.”

    The source argued that “he was not fighting, but was shot by the police who came for extra pocket money. The police left the scene as soon as he was shot”, the witness submitted.

    The friends of the late Tunde called on the Federal Government to make sure that justice is prevailed and his murderers are brought to book.

    The University’s authority could not be reached to confirm the incident.

    The parents of the deceased according to our source had been informed of the unfortunate demise of their child.

  • Nigeria, Malaysia, others plan N468b non-interest bonds

    Aconsortium of central banks of emerging economies from Africa, Middle East and Asia under the auspices of International Islamic Liquidity Management Corporation (IILM) is set to issue Sukuk bonds of about $3 billion to develop cross-border market for alternative finance instruments.

    The IILM is owned by central banks and monetary agencies including Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Indonesia, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mauritius, Qatar, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Saudi-based Islamic Development Bank.

    The $3billion issuance programme came on the heels of the successful launch of the corporation’s maiden issue last week. IILM issued a $490 million dollar-denominated Sukuk to The Sukuk was auctioned to seven leading financial institutions including Kuwait Finance House, Europe’s KBL Private Bankers, Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank), National Bank of Abu Dhabi, Qatar National Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and AlBaraka Turk. The Sukuk was priced at 30 basis points over the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR).

    The success of the $490 million Sukuk, which had received a high A-1 credit rating from Standard & Poor’s, underpinned the $3 billion issuance programme.

    Established in 2010, IILM is an international financial institution charged with creation and issuance of short-term Shari’ah-compliant financial instruments to facilitate effective cross-border Islamic liquidity management.

    By creating more liquid Shari’ah-compliant financial markets for institutions offering Islamic financial services (IIFS), IILM aims to enhance cross-border investment flows, international linkages and financial stability.

    Nigeria is working to develop a domestic alternative finance market. It has issued regulatory rules for Sukuk and other Shariah-compliant products. Sukuk is an alternative finance instrument premised on Islamic asset finance principles. Unlike interest-paying conventional bond issue, Sukuk makes returns to the investors through sharing of profit or cash flow from the underlying asset with them in addition to redemption of the principal upon maturity.

    The Nation recently reported exclusively that Nigeria’s first Sukuk bond issue has secured regulatory nod and is ready for the market.

    Managing Director, Chapel Hill Denham, Mr Bolaji Balogun, a major party to the Sukuk, confirmed the regulatory approvals and preparedness of the parties to launch the first-ever Islamic bond issue in the Nigerian market.

    He said the Sukuk, being issued by the Osun State Government, will seek to raise N10 billion in its debut issue with further issuances building on the market response.

    Director, Securities and Investment Services, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ms Mary Uduk, also confirmed the Osun State Sukuk as Nigeria’s first Sukuk noting that the apex capital market regulator had worked in earnest to provide regulatory framework that makes the emergence of the Sukuk possible.

    SEC’s Rules on Sukuk Issuance in Nigeria underline that Sukuk shall be structured as Sukuk Ijarah – leased contract; Sukuk Musharakah– sharing contract; Sukuk Istisnah– exchange contract; Sukuk Murabahah– financing contract; and any other form of contract that may be approved by the Commission.

    According to the rules, eligible issuers of Sukuk include public companies including Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs), State Governments, Local Governments, and Government Agencies as well as multilateral agencies.

    The rules stipulate that any issue, offer or invitation of Sukuk by a public company which is capable of being converted or exchanged into equity with the intention of being listed shall be subjected to the additional requirements stipulated in the listing requirements of a securities exchange.

    The global market for Sukuk issuances has continued to grow with more than $26.6 billion issued during the second quarter of this year to bring total issuance for the first half ended June 30, this year to $61.2 billion.

    The Global Sukuk Report by the Malaysia International Islamic Financial Centre (MIFC) indicated the primary Sukuk market in 2013 has shown great resilience, recording month-on-month growth since January 2013, except in June, which saw a noticeable slow down.

    According to the report, the Malaysian market recorded $18.4 billion worth of Sukuk papers in second quarter of 2013 while Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE) witnessed $4.5 billion and $1.4 billion respectively.

    “Aside from government issued Sukuk, the primary Sukuk market witnessed a number of issuances in the power and utilities, industrial manufacturing and financial services sectors in second quarter 2013, totalling $2.1 billion, $2.0 billion and $1.8 billion respectively. Government issuances, which made up 65.6 per cent of the market in first half 2013, were up 10.8 per cent year-on-year while power and utilities Sukuk, accounting for 13.6 per cent of the market, were up 90.5 per cent over the period,” the report noted.

    Global outstanding Sukuk reached $245.3 billion by the end of first half of this year, rising by seven per cent from $229.3 billion recorded by the end of last year. This year’s first half performance represented an increase of 16.4 per cent on comparable period of 2012.

    Malaysia has the largest secondary Sukuk market with $148.2 billion, about 60.4 per cent of the global market size as at end of first half. IILM is based in Malaysia.