DAY 72

Latest developments:

Ex-M'sian PM Mahathir adds CIA to his suspect list
Families say MAS pulled the lifeline
Australia's first book on MH370 says it was shot down into South China Sea
China to send pandas to Malaysia this week
Movie on MH370 being sold in Cannes

To recap, the search for MH370 has entered a hiatus as investigators are pressed to relook at the satellite data which points to its final resting place in the Indian Ocean before diving deeper and wider for an even more expensive search operation.

Meanwhile, the rumours and theories capture the media's imagination about what actually happened as no debris, no proof found after over 10 weeks of searching.

Dr Mahathir adds CIA to his suspect list

6pm:

Casting doubt that MH370 landed in the sea, Malaysia's ex-premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad today adds US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as a possible suspect.

He writes that with the help of Boeing technology, US or "certain parties" could have hijacked the plane via remote control.

Citing a 2006 article on flightglobal.com by John Croft, Mahathir ( right ) notes that CIA could activate an "uninterruptable" autopilot if terrorists attempted to take a Boeing plane by force.

"It is a waste of time and money to look for debris or oil slick or to listen for "pings" from the black box. This is most likely not an ordinary crash after fuel was exhausted. The plane is somewhere, maybe without MAS markings.

"Someone is hiding something. It is not fair that MAS and Malaysia should take the blame."

He then alleges that the media "will not print anything that involves Boeing or CIA."

Families say MAS pulled the lifeline

5pm : Family members of the MH370 crew say that MAS pulled away all comfort services to the grieving as soon as they learned that the families had engaged a foreign law firm for legal assistance.

Speaking to reporters in Subang today, about six of these family members say that caregivers, who were their “lifeline” ended financial help, flight transportation and updating them on the latest news of the search operations in the south Indian Ocean.

Read more of the story here .

Australia's first book on MH370

2pm :

Australia has published a first English-language book on MH370 to go on sale Monday in bookstores in Sydney.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the book titled 'Flight MH370: The Mystery' by author journalist Nigel Cawthorne, records "the events, emotions and theories unfolding on the backdrop of fruitless searches."

Cawthorne says in the introduction that "almost certainly" relatives will never be sure what happened to their loved ones.

It doesn't claim to have any answers but to some extent supports the theory that the aircraft may have been accidentally shot down during a joint Thai-US military exercise in the South China Sea.

Searchers were then possibly led in the wrong direction to cover up the mistake, the book suggests.

China to send pandas to Malaysia

1pm: In a sign that frosty ties between China and Malaysia after MH370 may be starting to warm up again, China has agreed to send a pair of pandas over.

The giant pandas Fu Wa and Geng Yi will arrive via MASkargo and will be on loan to Malaysia's zoo for 10 years, according to The Star .

The pandas were originally to come last month but were held back after a series of misfortunes in Malaysia involving Chinese nationals, including the 153 of them onboard MH370.

Movie on MH370 being sold in Cannes

12pm: It's not a Hollywood production, but a movie about the Malaysian plane tragedy is in the works.

Rupesh Paul Productions is promoting 'The Vanishing Act' among buyers at the Cannes Film Festival.

A poster for it promises to tell "the untold story" of the missing plane. But in an interview with Associated Press (AP) on Friday, the associate director of the movie, Sritama Dutta, said the only similarities between the thriller and the real-life disaster is that a plane is missing.

The promotional trailer of the low-budget production features MAS planes. Watch it here .

Paul hopes to shoot the film in India and the United States and plans a worldwide release in September.

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 that the plane intentionally turned back shortly after cutting communications with tower controllers for unknown reasons and, based on satellite data, have estimated its last position to be in the south Indian Ocean.
Australia leads the search in the south Indian Ocean. As of March 30, the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) is tasked with overseeing the operations, led by retired air marshal and former defence chief Angus Houston.
The autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) Bluefin-21 was deployed on April 14 to conduct an undersea search where the Australia Defence Vessel Ocean Shield had picked up two pings similar to black boxes on April 5 and two more on April 8 but failed to reacquire them again with the pinger locator.
However, by April 28, with no sign of the wreckage, authorities announced that the search will move on the next phase, which will focus on a larger and deeper area of the sea floor, while the aerial search will cease as it is highly unlikely any floating debris will be found at this stage.