Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/284793
By Rob Griffith The Associated Press KUALA LUMPUR, MALAysiA » A French satellite scan- ning the Indian Ocean for remnants of a missing jet- liner found a possible plane debris field containing 122 objects, a top Malaysian of- ficial said Wednesday, call- ing it "the most credible lead that we have." Defense Minister His- hammuddin Hussein also expressed exasperation with the anger rising among missing passengers' rela - tives in China, who berated Malaysian government and airline officials earlier in the day in Beijing. About two- thirds of the missing are Chinese, but Hishammud - din pointedly said that Chi- nese families "must also un- derstand that we in Malay- sia also lost our loved ones" as did "so many other na- tions." Nineteen days into the search for Malaysian Air- lines Flight 370, the latest satellite images are the first to suggest that a debris field from the plane — rather than just a few objects — may be floating in the south - ern Indian Ocean, though no wreckage has been con- firmed. Previously, an Aus- tralian satellite detected two large objects and a Chi- nese satellite detected one. All three finds were made in roughly the same area, far southwest of Australia, where a desperate, multina - tional hunt has been going on for days. Clouds obscured the lat- est satellite images, but dozens of objects could be seen in the gaps, ranging in length from 3 feet to 76 feet. At a news conference in Kuala Lumpur, Hisham - muddin said some of them "appeared to be bright, pos- sibly indicating solid mate- rials." The images were taken Sunday and relayed by French-based Airbus De - fence and Space, a division of Europe's Airbus Group; its businesses include the operation of satellites and satellite communications. The company said in a statement that it has mobi - lized five observation satel- lites, including two that can produce very high resolu- tion images, to help locate the plane. Various floating objects have been spotted in the area by planes over the last week, including on Wednes - day, when the Australian Maritime Safety Author- ity said three more objects were seen. The authority said two objects seen from a civil aircraft appeared to be rope, and that a New Zea - land military plane spotted a blue object. None of the objects were seen on a second pass, a frustration that has been re - peated several times in the hunt for Flight 370, missing since March 8 with 239 peo- ple aboard. Australian officials did not say whether they re- ceived the French imagery in time for search planes out at sea to look for the possi- ble debris field, and did not return repeated phone mes- sages seeking further com- ment. It remains uncertain whether any of the objects seen came from the plane; they could have come from a cargo ship or something else. The search resumed Wednesday after fierce winds and high waves forced crews to take a break Tuesday. A total of 12 planes and five ships from the United States, China, Ja - pan, South Korea, Austra- lia and New Zealand were participating in the search, hoping to find even a single piece of the jet that could offer tangible evidence of a crash and provide clues to find the rest of the wreck - age. M a l ay si a a n nou nce d Monday that a mathemat- ical analysis of the final known satellite signals from the plane showed that it had crashed in the sea, killing everyone on board. The new data greatly re - duced the search zone, but it remains huge, estimated at 622,000 square miles. FLiGht 370 Satellite spots 122 objects in Malaysia jet search AssociAted Press A relative of one of the chinese passengers aboard the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 grieves aer being told of the latest news in Beijing, china, on Monday. By Amir shah Associated Press KABUL, AFGhAnistAn » The Afghan presidential cam- paign narrowed to a field of eight men Wednesday after the grandson of the coun- try's last king pulled out and endorsed a front-run- ner less than two weeks be- fore the vote. Mohammad Nadir Naim said he was withdrawing for the sake of national unity and throwing his support behind former Foreign Min - ister Zalmai Rassoul. Naim, grandson of Af- ghanistan's King Zahir Shah who died in 2007, spent most of his life in exile and was never considered a strong candidate in the race. He was the third candi - date to drop out, leaving eight contenders to succeed President Hamid Karzai, who is not running for the first time since the U.S.-led invasion that ousted the Tal - iban. Karzai is constitution- ally banned from seeking a third term. Rassoul; Abdullah Abdul- lah, who was Karzai's main rival in the disputed 2009 election; and Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, a well-known ac - ademic and former World Bank employee, are consid- ered the front-runners but nobody is expected to win a majority, meaning a run- off will likely have to be held. Afghan authorities are under pressure to prevent fraud from discrediting the credibility of the upcoming vote for a new president and provincial councils. There were widespread allega- tions of ballot stuffing and vote rigging five years ago. The new leader will guide the country after interna - tional combat troops with- draw by the end of this year, leaving the country's secu- rity to the Afghan govern- ment. AFGhAnistAn Presidential candidate field narrows to eight By Laura Mills The Associated Press s i M F E ROP OL , C R i M E A » Within days of Crimea being swallowed up by Russia, the lights began flickering out. Officials in the peninsula accused Ukraine of halving electricity supplies in order to bully Crimea, which voted earlier this month in a ref - erendum to secede and join Russia. "Cutting supplies is an at- tempt by Kiev to blackmail Russia through Crimea," Crimean Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov wrote on his Twitter account. Aksyonov's combative re - action reflects a sobering re- ality for Crimea: the strate- gic peninsula's overwhelm- ing reliance on electricity and water supplies from mainland Ukraine. The Kiev government, which has been unable to prevent the Rus - sian annexation, still wields a weapon it can use to bar- gain with its aggressive neighbor. Crimea currently gets about 80 percent of its elec - tricity and a similar share of its water needs from Ukraine. But Ukraine also needs to be careful not to hit Crime - ans too hard over electricity and water. It cannot afford to be seen hurting ordinary peo - ple as it argues that the re- gion remains part of its ter- ritory. A n a l y s t s s a y t h a t Ukraine will likely be able to charge higher prices for power and water supplies to Crimea, but won't get any le - verage on political and secu- rity issues. Ukrainian authorities have described power cut- offs to Crimea this week as simply the result of techni- cal maintenance and insist they would do nothing to harm residents. Russian officials have rushed to the rescue with hundreds of diesel gener - ators and started drafting plans to connect the region's electrical grid to mainland Russia, which is separated from Crimea by the Kerch Strait. They said a possible water shortage could be off - set by more efficient use of existing resources. T ho s e r e a s s u r a nc e s have provided little com - fort to Filipp Savchenko, the 29-year-old owner of a refrigeration and logistics business in Simferopol, the Crimean capital. Savchenko said Tuesday that the power had been out for two nights at his ware - house, where he stores about $9,000 of produce daily for his clients. "With the help of the gen - erators we have, we were able to survive," Savchenko said. "But if they turn (the elec- tricity) off in the future or for longer, we won't be able to cope. We'll lose our pro- duce and business owners will have legal issues with us." Regardless of the in - tention behind the recent blackouts, they have un- derscored Crimea's depen- dency on mainland Ukraine. They also highlight its lack of a real contingency plan if Kiev does decide to pull the plug. Russia's long-term projects could eventually snap Crimea's reliance on Ukraine for good, but that could take years. 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