The search for MH370 enters its 27th day today, with time running out and still no sign of the missing aircraft.

Somewhere in the depths of the Indian Ocean - perhaps between two to four kilometres below - a faint acoustic beacon marking the location of MH370’s black box is running dry on batteries.

It is only certified to last 30 days - perhaps a little more in practice - before in runs out.

Regulations that mandate 90-day batteries do exist, drawing from lessons learnt from the 2009 search for Air France Flight 447 in the Atlantic.

However, these will not come into effect for some years and only in certain jurisdictions.

Meanwhile, the Perth-based Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) said 237,000 square kilometres have been searched yesterday, with nothing to show for it.

Today's search yields no sightings

10.58pm: There has been no sighting of any object in the search area today, said the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC).

JACC in a statement today said the search area is being continually adjusted, and today it moved north, whereby at the end of the day, ten aircraft and nine ships were involved in search activities.

"Three aircraft searched in the southern search area of 248,000 square kilometres, 1,700km west north west of Perth.

"The Royal Navy hydrographic ship, HMS Echo, also operated in the northern area, searching for sonic transmissions from the flight data recorder.

"One alert was experienced, but discounted. False alerts may be experienced from biological sources, such as whales or interference from shipping noise," said the statement.

According to the statement, the weather in the search area was fair, with visibility of approximately 10 kilometres.

Rosmah cries 'spontaneously' with kin

8.08pm: Rosmah Mansor sheds tears when meeting the family of a passenger who boarded the missing Malaysia Airlines (MAS) aircraft, Bernama reports tonight.

Earlier today, she cried spontaneously when Danica Weeks, 37, shed tears while sharing the latter's story on the fate of her husband Paul Weeks, a New Zealander onboard the ill-fated plane that disappeared on March 8.

Rosmah immediately hugged Danica and tried to console her during the hour-long meeting attended by the couple's two sons - Lincoln, three-years-old, and Jack, one-year-old.

Rosmah was seen cuddling Jack as she arrived for the meeting in Perth at 10am.

"You are drinking milk. Can I have some milk?" she asked Jack as she cuddled the baby in her arms.

Speaking to the media later, Rosmah said she hoped Danica could be strong as the Malaysian and Australian governments as well as other countries were searching for the plane.

"I asked her to be strong and to remember all the good deeds of her husband and share it with her kids so that they have good memory of their father," she said.

Rosmah and Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak are in Perth to visit the team searching the Indian Ocean for Flight MH370.

Minister: Time for a better crisis management team

5.47pm: The MH370 crisis has the Human Resources Ministry recognising the importance of strengthening its crisis management team, Bernama reports.

It quotes minister Richard Riot calling for the creation of an immediate mechanism involving skilled officials tasked with facing any crisis situation which may arise.

"In the event of a crisis, they will work out the strategies, including maintaining close ties between the organisation, media and the public," he says.

He adds that ministry officials should aware and able to identify early signs of potential crisis.

Migrate, Isma tells critics of gov't MH370 handling

4pm: Certain quarters, such as those from opposition parties DAP and PKR, are labelled “traitors” by Muslim NGO Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma) for allegedly tarnishing the government’s image and inciting the anger of families affected by Flight MH370.

“If true, I consider them (DAP and PKR) traitors to the country, they should be stripped of their citizenship and advised to migrate to a country they like,” its vice-president Abdul Rahman Mt Dali says in a statement.

Read full story here .

MH30 media centre to remain till April 7

2.15pm: The Transport Minister is ceasing operations of the MH370 media centre at the Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC), effective Tuesday, April 8.

In a statement, the ministry says the decision was reached during the Technical Task Force meeting today.

“All press releases (if any) from April 8, 2014 onwards will be emailed directly to the media via email addresses which have been provided to the media centre. In any occasion there is a need for a press conference, the media will be invited with due notice,” the statement reads.

April 8 is exactly one month after Flight MH370's mysterious disappearance and a day after the plane's black box's battery is expected to run dry, causing it to cease emiting 'pings'.

Even so, acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein and Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak has repeatedly vowed that search will not stop even after this point.

They assured that there are other means to employ to locate the black box, and are consulting French experts involved in the two-year search for Air France Flight 447, which went down in the Atlantic Ocean in 2009.

Kidnapping unrelated to MH370

2pm: Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak says the government "does not rule out the possibility" that yesterday's kidnapping of a Chinese tourist and a hotel staff in Semporna, Sabah, is a deliberate act aimed at souring ties between China and Malaysia.

However, Chinese ambassador to Malaysia Huang Huikang says otherwise, assuring that the kidnapping is not related to missing flight MH370.

Even so, he tells reporters that the Malaysian government can intensify security measures in the country to ensure that tourists can be a safe when travelling in Malaysia.

Meanwhile, MCA president Liow Tiong Lai says the incident could have taken place when armed personnel patrolling the resort were changing shift.

We will not give up search, Najib tells families

12.06pm: Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak holds a joint press conference with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott in Perth. However, the two did not take any questions from assembled reporters.

Here are some of the highlights from their press conference:

Abbott says the SAR is the most difficult search ever undertaken, but assures the "best brains in the world" are working on small pieces of available information to "put the jigsaw together".

He says Australia owes it to the families of those on board Flight MH370, to Malaysia, China and their governments as well as to the citizens of the "wider world" to continue with search efforts.

Najib assures that Malaysia will continue to work with Australia to draw out a comprehensive agreement on the search.

He says the disappearance of Flight MH370 is "without precedent; so too is the search".

He says Australia has proven itself to be an "invaluable friend" and thanks the efforts of the search crew involved, saying their courage is "greater than the task at hand".

Promises families that Malaysia will not give up search for the plane.

Time running out: Three days to trace black box

11.11am : There are just three days left for search teams to find the plane before the black box battery runs out and it ceases to emit 'pings'.

The black box emits one 'ping' per second for 30 days, which can be picked up by sonar and acoustic-locating equipment.

However, Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein has vowed that search for the missing plane will not stop even after the black box battery runs out after the 30 days.

Hishammuddin says there are other means investigators and search parties can employ to locate the black box.

M'sia-Australia cooperation 'first class'

10.36am: Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) chief Angus Houston describes the cooperation with Malaysia as 'absolutely first class'.

“The two search and rescue agencies are working very well together. The two accident investigation organisations are working very well together and the military cooperation is seamless,” he tells the Australian-based ABC Radio National in an interview.

The retired Australian Defence Force chief also describes the search as the most "complex and challenging" he has ever seen in his career.

Read the full ABC interview transcript here .

Meanwhile, online news portal Perth Now quotes Houston at a briefing to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and Australian counterpart Tony Abbott as saying it is only "right and proper" for Australia to provide all necessary assistance to Malaysia, as "we're good mates".

US spends US$3mil on SAR to date

9.54am: Reuters reports that the US military has spent more than US$3.3 million (RM10.8 million) in aiding search efforts.

Quoting Pentagon spokesperson Army Colonel Steve Warren, the report says the funds were used to pay for ships and helicopters, to fly out the Navy’s P-8 Poseidon aircraft as well as to equip the search with underwater search equipment, a towed pinger locator and Bluefin-21 autonomous underwater vehicle to aid in locating the black box.

Read the full Reuters report here .

PM to observe SAR ops

9.10am: Bernama reports that Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak has arrived in Perth at 11pm yesterday to begin his two-day visit and have a first-hand look at the search and recovery operations.

Among the delegation accompanying him is wife Rosmah Mansor, Foreign Minister Anifah Aman, Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) director-general Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, and Air Force chief Rodzali Daud.

Acting Transport Minister and Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein is still attending the United States-Asean Defence Forum in Hawaii, which started on Tuesday and ends later today.

Australia continues to refine search area

8am: According to the Joint Action Coordination Centre (JACC), search operations have resumed today, involving eight planes and nine ships scouring 223,000 square kilometres of ocean.

This area is 1,680 kilometres from Perth, slightly to the west of yesterday’s search area and overlapping large portions of it.

“The weather forecast for today's search is fair, with visibility approximately 10kilometres, however the southern area may experience some isolated showers.

“The Australian Transport Safety Bureau continues to refine the area where the aircraft entered the water based on continuing ground-breaking and multi-disciplinary technical analysis of satellite communication and aircraft performance, passed from the international air crash investigative team comprising analysts from Malaysia, the United States, the UK, China and Australia,” it says in a statement.

The JACC is tasked with overseeing the search and recovery operations at the south Indian Ocean, off Western Australia.

Background:

The Beijing-bound Boeing 777-200ER aircraft went missing not long after taking off from KL International Airport in the early hours of March 8, with 12 crew members and 227 passengers.
Authorities have determined the plane intentionally made a turn-back and altered its course shortly after cutting communications with tower controllers for unknown reasons.

Its whereabouts is now narrowed to the southern Indian Ocean after employing "new analysis" methods to deduce the location based on six pings the aircraft sent out to British satellite communications provider Inmarsat's satellite.