Electric motorcycles ride to rescue in fuel-short Cuba

Yahoo – AFP, Carlos BATISTA, November 8, 2019

Electric motorcycle riders have come to the rescue of Cuban passengers
delayed by fuel shortages (AFP Photo/YAMIL LAGE)

Havana (AFP) - It is rush hour in Havana and the queue at the bus stop is longer than ever. Then a fleet of electric motorcycles appears, beeping their horns.

Surprised and relieved, passengers jump on the backs of the 50 or so electric mopeds.

It is a new solution for Cubans struggling with fuel shortages driven by US sanctions that have curbed oil imports.

Cuba has long been known for the classic American cars that people here lovingly maintain decades after they stopped being built.

But urban transport on the communist island is evolving.

The bikes' horns beep and some of the riders play reggaeton music -- but, being electric, their motors make hardly any noise.

A Chinese-made electric motorcycle costs between $1,800 and $2,300 in Cuba. A basic petrol-powered bike on the island can cost up to six times that.

Authorities estimate there are 210,000 electric motorcyles in use in Cuba 

(AFP Photo/YAMIL LAGE)

Volunteer riders

The electric bikes -- with a maximum speed of about 50 kilometers (30 miles) per hour -- were first licensed for import in 2013.

They have multiplied in the streets since then -- and have come into their own with the recent fuel shortages.

"I really like this initiative, it helps a lot with the economy," says passenger Yanet Figueroa, 42, sitting on the back of one of the bikes.

"It really helps people who have great need of it."

Cuba plunged into a fuel crisis in September after Washington imposed restrictions on fuel shipments from Cuba's top ally Venezuela.

Cuba had to make do in September with just 30 percent of its usual fuel supply and the level has still not recovered -- it is forecast to reach no more than 80 percent this month.

With the public transport network badly hit, President Miguel Diaz-Canel has called on drivers to pick up passengers voluntarily.

The owners of electric bikes known as "motorinas" answered the call.

"We have volunteered to do this as a service to society," says one of the drivers, Javier Capote, 33.

"It is going very well. We are very happy about it."

The president himself during a televised address mentioned "those famous... what do you call them, the bikes? The 'motorinas', that have come out to help."

Mechanics have work to do servicing Cuba's fleet of electric motorcycles

(AFP Photo/YAMIL LAGE)

Electric bike era

Cuban authorities estimate there are 210,000 electric motorcycles currently in use on the island.

That figure is expected to rise as the government in late October began to sell them with the price capped at $1,700.

Those who make a living servicing the bikes are pleased by that move as it will bring down costs.

"It seems like a very good idea to us mechanics," says one, Enrique Alfonso, 47, in his workshop.

He recalls the economic crisis of the 1990s that followed the end of cheap imports from the Soviet Union.

"That was the era of (affordable) Chinese bicycles. Now we are in the era of electric motorcycles," he says.

"With everything that is going on the country, they have become obtainable for a lot of people."

Members of the Electric Motorcycles of Cuba club ride passengers home

(AFP Photo/YAMIL LAGE)

Accidents

The electric bikes had a mixed reception at first. Silent and often inexpertly ridden, they are often involved in accidents in a country that already suffers from thousands of crashes a year.

Officials say that of the 7,000 road accidents recorded so far this year, a third have involved electric motorcycles.

Authorities have responded by insisting riders have a license and register their vehicles.

The flourishing of electric bikes follows several years of gradual opening-up of Cuba's state-run economy. It has also coincided with a digital mini-revolution.

Thanks to the availability of 3G-standard internet connections since last year, riders can network more easily.

The 3G connections helped spawn the Electric Motorbikes of Cuba online group, a club with more than 80 members.

It started out as a club for enthusiasts seeking to have "healthy fun and share the passion we all have for electric motorcycles and road safety," says its president Osdany Fleites, a 37-year-old taxi driver.

"The motorcycles do not pollute the environment, they do not make a noise," he says.

Now the club has evolved to have an environmental and "social purpose."

Along with another club, Eracing, its members take part in rescuing bus passengers stuck due to the fuel shortages.

They have also taken part in environmental clean-up jobs, helping eradicate an infestation of troublesome giant snails in Havana, donated blood and visited children in a cancer ward.

VIDEO: 🇨🇺 Electric motorcycles are providing a new solution for #Cubans struggling with fuel shortages driven by US sanctions that have curbed oil imports https://t.co/VhwAuWCCIS pic.twitter.com/9fAmyc0W57

— AFP news agency (@AFP) 8 november 2019

Cathay Pacific shares plunge after China warning on protests

Yahoo – AFP, August 12, 2019

Cathay Pacific shares plunge after China warning on protests

Hong Kong (AFP) - Shares in Hong Kong's flagship carrier Cathay Pacific plunged more than four percent on Monday, after Beijing banned airline staff supporting Hong Kong protesters from flights going through the mainland.

Cathay shares lost 4.37 percent to HK$9.85 by the break in Hong Kong, with the carrier's parent company Swire Pacific Ltd. plunging 5.26 percent to HK$77.50.

The nosedive comes as the airline is caught up in pro-democracy protests that have rocked Hong Kong for more than two months.

On Friday, Beijing's aviation regulator ordered Cathay to submit a list of the identities of staff working on flights to the mainland or passing through its airspace.

It warned any staff members involved in "illegal protests" would be banned from such flights.

Cathay's CEO Rupert Hogg said in a message to staff on Saturday that the airline was obliged to comply with the new rules set out by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

"Cathay Pacific Group's operations in mainland China are key to our business. In addition to flying in and out of mainland China, a large number of our routes both to Europe and to the USA also fly through mainland China airspace," Hogg wrote.

"We are therefore legally required to follow CAAC regulations and, as is the case with any notices issued by any regulatory authority having jurisdiction over us, we must and will comply."

Cathay appears to have become a target of Beijing's ire after some of its crew joined protests and media reported one of its pilots had been charged with rioting.

The carrier's chairman John Slosar has defended his staff's right to freedom of thought, saying "we certainly wouldn't dream of telling them what they have to think about something".

But Hogg cautioned staff about their behaviour.

"Though people may share different views, it is essential that we all respect each other, our customers and members of the public," he wrote.

Cathay has suspended a pilot who has been accused of rioting after allegedly participating in the Hong Kong protests.

And it said Saturday that it had fired two airport ground staff, without specifying why. Local media reported that they were accused of leaking the travel details of a Hong Kong police football team that was travelling to the mainland.

European alliance to invest up to 6 bn euros in electric car batteries

Yahoo – AFP, May 2, 2019

EU political leaders have long called for a coordinated effort for homemade batteries
that would free carmakers from relying on China (AFP Photo/Manjunath Kiran)

European governments and companies will form an alliance for developing next-generation batteries for electric vehicles, investing five to six billion euros ($5.6 to $6.7 billion) in the project, the French and German finance ministers said Thursday.

France's Bruno Le Maire said a maximum of 1.2 billion euros in public subsidies would be granted to the alliance, at a press conference with his German counterpart Peter Altmaier.

"Other member states have already expressed interest in joining this project," Le Maire said, including Italy, Belgium, Poland, Austria and Finland.

He said at least four billion euros would come from private companies, citing automaker PSA and the French battery maker Saft, a unit of French oil giant Total.

"Today we are seeing more interest than ever" in the project, Altmaier said, adding that 35 companies had already pledged to sign up, including Europe's biggest automakers.

Political leaders across the European Union have long called for a coordinated effort for home-made batteries that would free carmakers from having to rely on Chinese batteries as the industry shifts away from combustion engines.

A pilot factory with around 200 employees will be opened in the coming months in France, with a goal of opening two production sites, in France and Germany, that would generate 1,500 jobs at each.

European automakers have been ramping up electric vehicle production after years of scandals over diesel pollution and as tougher rules on cutting carbon emissions come into force.

But EU carmakers buy cells from foreign manufacturers, mostly in Asia, which they use to build the high-capacity batteries needed to power electric vehicles.

Germany and France in particular have been pushing for a pan-European consortium to develop new battery technologies that would be built domestically, along the lines of the European aircraft manufacturer Airbus.

Related Article:

Dutch firm agrees €1.6bn battery plant in China during premier’s visit

Ethiopian Airlines Boeing crashes killing all 157 on board

Yahoo – AFP, Michael Tewelde in Bishoftu with Chris Stein in Addis Ababa, March 10, 2019

Red cross teams work through the debris after an Ethiopia Airlines flight to Nairobi
crashed shortly after take-off from Addis Ababa, killing all 157 on board (AFP Photo/
Michael TEWELDE)

Bishoftu (Ethiopia) (AFP) - A Nairobi-bound Ethiopian Airlines Boeing crashed minutes after takeoff from Addis Ababa Sunday, killing all eight crew and 149 passengers on board, including tourists, business travellers, and "at least a dozen" UN staff.

Ethiopia declared a national day of mourning for Monday amid a global stream of condolences for loved ones, many of whom gathered in tears at Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).

"The House of People’s Representatives have declared March 11, 2019, a national day of mourning for citizens of all countries that have passed in this tragic accident," Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's office said on Twitter.

Identities of the victims from 35 countries started to emerge as foreign governments and the United Nations reacted with shock.

"Deeply saddened by the news this morning of the plane crash in Ethiopia, claiming the lives of all on board. My heartfelt condolences to the families and loved ones of all the victims — including our own @UN staff — who perished in this tragedy," tweeted UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

The passengers included "at least a dozen" UN-affiliated staff headed for an annual assembly of the UN Environment Programme, which opens in Nairobi Monday with some 4,700 heads of state, ministers, business leaders, senior UN officials and civil society representatives, a UN source told AFP.

Some of the UN staff were from the World Food Programme and UN refugee agency (UNHCR), the agencies said.

Rescue teams collect bodies at the crash site of an Ethiopia Airlines plane which 

came down near the capital Addis Ababa, killing all 157 on board (AFP Photo/

Michael TEWELDE)

Wife, son, daughter dead

Slovak MP Anton Hrnko was among the bereaved.

"It is with deep sorrow that I announce that my dear wife, Blanka, son Martin and daughter Michala, died in the air disaster in Addis Ababa this morning," he wrote on Facebook.

Flight ET 302 ploughed into a field 60 kilometres (37 miles) southeast of Addis Ababa on what the airline's CEO Tewolde GebreMariam labelled a "very sad and tragic day".

An eyewitness told AFP the plane came down in flames.

"The plane was already on fire when it crashed to the ground. The crash caused a big explosion," Tegegn Dechasa recounted at the site, littered with passenger belongings, human remains, and airplane parts around a massive crater at the point of impact.

"The plane was in flames in its rear side shortly before the crash. The plane was swerving erratically before the crash."

The Boeing 737-800MAX was brand new, delivered to state-owned Ethiopian Airways on November 15, said the carrier, Africa's largest.

The plane is the same type as the Indonesian Lion Air jet that crashed in October, 13 minutes after takeoff from Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board.

A Chinese group look at the arrivals panel in Nairobi airport as they await information 

on the Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa which crashed Sunday with the loss 

of 157 lives. (AFP Photo/Yasuyoshi CHIBA)

'Devastating'

Ethiopian Airlines said the plane had taken off at 8:38 am (0538 GMT) from Bole International Airport and "lost contact" six minutes later.

It came down near Tulu Fara village outside the town of Bishoftu.

The carrier, which changed its logo on Twitter to black and white from its trademark green, yellow, and red, said "there are no survivors".

"We can only hope that she is not on that flight," Peter Kimani, who had come to fetch his sister at Nairobi's JKIA, told AFP after news of the disaster reached those waiting in the arrivals hall.

Loved ones were later brought to the onsite Sheraton Hotel where they were debriefed and offered counselling. Journalists were not allowed in, but could hear sobbing from inside.

Ethiopian Airlines said Kenya had the largest number of casualties with 32, followed by Canada with 18, Ethiopia nine, then Italy, China, and the United States with eight each.

Britain and France each had seven people on board, Egypt six, and Germany five, according to the airline. France's government later said there were eight French victims though there was no explanation for the discrepency.

Twelve countries in Africa and 14 in Europe had citizens among the victims.

African Union commission chief Moussa Faki Mahamat spoke of "utter shock and immense sadness", while Mahboub Maalim, executive secretary of the IGAD East African bloc, said the region and the world were in mourning.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada and his British counterpart Theresa May both described the news as "devastating".

The scene of devastation where the Nairobi-bound Ethiopia Airlines plane came

down (AFP Photo/Michael TEWELDE)

Sympathy messages also came from the governments of Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Britain, Germany, France and the United States.

Pilot had 'difficulties'

GebreMariam said the plane had flown in from Johannesburg earlier Sunday, spent three hours in Addis and was "despatched with no remark", meaning no problems were flagged.

Asked if the pilot had made a distress call, the CEO said "the pilot mentioned that he had difficulties and he wants to return. He was given clearance" to turn around.

Ethiopian and American investigators will probe the crash, said GebreMariam.

For one family member in Nairobi there was a happy ending.

Khalid Ali Abdulrahman was waiting for his son who works in Dubai and feared the worst when a security official told him the plane had crashed.

"I was shocked, but shortly after, my son contacted me and told me he is still in Addis and did not board that flight. He is waiting for the second one which has been delayed."

#UPDATE Ethiopia declared a national day of mourning for Monday after a plane crash killed 157 people, as identities of the victims from 35 countries started to emerge https://t.co/MtNim4E75T pic.twitter.com/YDmO4lrrvX

— AFP news agency (@AFP) 10 maart 2019

#UPDATE Airlines in Ethiopia, China and Indonesia ground Boeing 737 MAX 8 jets as investigators recover the black boxes from a brand-new passenger jet that crashed outside Addis Ababa a day earlier, killing all 157 people on board https://t.co/RxqDN1EZAI

— AFP news agency (@AFP) 11 maart 2019

Related Article:

All 189 on board crashed Indonesian jet feared dead

China's Hainan province to end fossil fuel car sales in 2030

Yahoo – AFP, March 6, 2019

Beijing announced plans in 2017 to phase out petrol vehicles across the

nation (AFP Photo/STR)

China's southern Hainan island will end sales of fossil fuel-only cars in 2030, officials said, becoming the first province to announce a target end date for a transition away from gas guzzlers.

Beijing announced plans in 2017 to phase out petrol vehicles across the nation, but it did not set a date, as the country aims to cut pollution and reduce its dependence on imported oil.

Starting in 2030, sales of fossil fuel cars will be prohibited in Hainan, the provincial government said Tuesday, with officials saying they aim to hit President Xi Jinping's goal for the island to become a "civilised ecology test zone."

Known as China's Hawaii thanks to its resorts and tropical beaches, Hainan is set to become the country's largest free trade zone.

It also hopes to serve as a test area for some of Beijing's ambitious policies like fostering hi-tech industries and attracting international tourist dollars.

China remains at the forefront of the electric car revolution, with hundreds of homegrown electric automakers sprouting and ample government subsidies to push consumers into new energy vehicles.

New energy vehicles include fully electric cars, as well as plug-in hybrids and fuel cell vehicles, the government said.

Hainan will start its replacement policy by requiring 100 percent of retired government cars, public buses and taxis to be replaced with new energy vehicles. That will then extend to tourist buses, rental cars and light trucks.

The government said the ban on private fossil fuel vehicles will ensure consumers replace gas guzzlers with greener cars by 2030.

It also laid out plans to build a larger electric charger and fuel cell filing network.

Sidestepping trade war, Musk breaks ground on Tesla Shanghai plant

Yahoo – AFP, Dan Martin, 7 January 2019

The plant will eventually have an annual production capacity of 500,000 vehicles,
Tesla says

Tesla boss Elon Musk presided Monday over the ground-breaking for a Shanghai factory that will allow the electric-car manufacturer to dodge the China-US tariff crossfire and sell directly to the world's biggest market for "green" vehicles.

The plant in a Shanghai suburb is Musk's biggest overseas move yet and will eventually have an annual production capacity of 500,000 vehicles, Tesla says, dramatically increasing the California-based company's output.

"China is becoming the global leader in electric vehicle adoption, and it is a market that is critical to Tesla's mission to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy," Musk said, according to a statement released by the manufacturer.

Musk had hinted recently at an upcoming Shanghai trip to break ground for the plant but Monday's event was not publicly announced until the Tesla CEO broke the news in a series of tweets earlier in the day.

In typically iconoclastic style, the 47-year-old Musk changed his Twitter profile picture around the time of the ceremony to one showing his face with an exaggerated handlebar moustache drawn on it.

Tesla boss Elon Musk (L with Shanghai Mayor Ying Yong) said China is becoming

the global leader in electric vehicle adoption

The Shanghai government later posted photos on social media showing Musk and officials from Tesla and the city on a large stage at a launch ceremony at the site, located on Shanghai's distant outskirts.

No investment figures were given but the cost of the project has been estimated by analysts at up to $5 billion.

The Shanghai venture comes as US companies face pressure from President Donald Trump to keep manufacturing jobs at home, and as Beijing and Washington wage a trade spat that has seen both sides levy tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of products.

Slowing down

Analysts say production in China would allow Tesla to side-step such measures, which have already caused a spike in the price of the cars the company now imports to the Chinese market.

Elon Musk said Tesla's Shanghai plant would suppply China with 'affordable 

versions' of its Model 3

But construction of the plant -- the subject of stop-start negotiations between Tesla and Shanghai for well over a year -- gets under way just as the outlook for China's consumer market has turned worrisome.

Apple sparked global alarm over the prospects for the world's second-largest economy last week when it cut its revenue forecast, citing slowing demand in China and the trade war.

Domestic and foreign automakers have been racing to grab shares of China's electric-vehicle sector -- already the world's biggest and expected to continue to grow as the Chinese government pushes clean technologies.

But the pace of growth is expected to slow along with China's economy.

The Shanghai factory will be Tesla's first production line outside the United States.

Musk tweeted earlier Monday that Tesla was "aiming to finish initial construction this summer, start Model 3 production end of year & reach high-volume production next year".

A US-made Tesla Model 3 now starts at around $50,000 but Elon Musk says he 

aims to get that down to $35,000

The Shanghai plant would supply the "Greater China region" with "affordable versions" of the Tesla Model 3 -- the carmaker's first mid-price, mass-market vehicle -- and its planned Model Y, Musk tweeted.

The Model S, Model X and "higher cost versions" of the 3 and Y would continue to be made in the United States for the global market, including China, he added.

Despite its relative affordability compared to other Tesla models, the price of a US-made Model 3 now starts at about $50,000, but Musk has said he aims to get that down to $35,000. He provided no price figures for China-made cars.

China typically requires foreign automakers to forge joint ventures with domestic firms when establishing manufacturing plants, which means sharing profits and technology with local partners.

But Tesla has said its Shanghai plant will be "wholly-owned" by the company.

Dutch firm agrees €1.6bn battery plant in China during premier’s visit

DutchNews, October 17, 2018

Mark Rutte and Li Keqiang at the Netherlands and China CEO Business Forum in
The Hague. Photo: Abdullah Asiran / Anadolu Agency via HH

Dutch company Lithium Works has signed a deal to build a massive battery factory in China together with Chinese firm Zheijiang Jiashan. The factory will cover a 60 hectare site on the Yangtze delta and will cost €1.6bn to set up, the Volkskrant reported on Wednesday. 

The two companies will each contribute around 25% of the cost, with the rest coming from banks, the Volkskrant said. Lithium Works, which currently has two small factories, one in Hengelo and one in China, says the new plant should be operational in 2021. 

Company chairman Kees Koolen told the paper that he is pleased to work with the Chinese because the deal and the permits could be agreed in 100 days. ‘In the Netherlands, it takes me eight years,’ he said. 

The signing ceremony took place during the visit to the Netherlands by Chinese premier Li Keqiang which ended on Tuesday afternoon. 

During the visit Li told reporters that if companies are convinced China has stolen their intellectual property that they should make a formal complaint to him, via employers organisation VNO-NCW. 

Employers leader Hans de Boer said the commitment by the Chinese to do ‘all they can’ to protect intellectual property is the most important aspect of Li’s visit to the Netherlands, the Financieele Dagblad reported. 

Trade

According to national statistics office CBS, trade between the two countries is increasing. The Netherlands exported goods worth €11bn to China last year and imported €36bn worth of Chinese products. 

Other deals signed during the visit include an agreement that KLM will maintain 138 aircraft motors belonging to Chinese airline Xaimen, a joint venture between ING and the Bank of Beijing and a deal between Shell and Chinese oil and gas giant CNCP.

In total, the deals agreed are worth up to €8bn, Nu.nl said.

Singapore Airlines bans lion bones in cargo

Yahoo – AFP, September 21, 2018

Singapore Airlines says it has banned lion bones as cargo on its planes
(AFP Photo/GREG BAKER)

Singapore (AFP) - Singapore Airlines said Friday it has stopped accepting lion bones for cargo after the carrier was singled out in a report for transporting the animal parts from South Africa.

Campaigners have long called for a ban on the controversial trade in big cat bones, which are sought after for medicine and jewellery in Southeast Asia.

Singapore Airlines was the sole carrier importing lion bones from South Africa to Southeast Asia last year, according to a report released in July by the non-profit EMS Foundation and animal rights group Ban Animal Trading.

At least 800 lion skeletons had been exported with the blessing of the South African government in 2017, the report said, making it the world's largest exporter of lion bones.

The airline told AFP it had stopped accepting lion bones as cargo, but did not say when the policy had come into effect.

"Singapore Airlines does not accept the carriage of lion bones as cargo following a review which took into account increasing concerns around the world," the company said in an email.

EMS Foundation director Michele Pickover said her organisation had sent the report to the airline and "appealed to them to immediately stop its involvement in this terrible trade".

"I believe that once they were informed about what this trade entails they took the correct and logical decision not to support it," she told AFP.

South Africa has been sending lion bones to Southeast Asia since at least 2008 and it was likely that Singapore Airlines had been transporting them since that year, Pickover added.

Lion bones and other body parts are highly sought after in parts of Southeast Asia -- particularly Laos, Thailand and Vietnam -- for use in jewellery and for their supposed medicinal properties.

In Vietnam, lion bone is cooked and turned into balm while claws and teeth were used as body ornaments, the report said.

While trade of body parts from wild lions is banned, international treaties allow the sale of parts taken from lions bred in captivity.

Anger as MH370 report offers no new clues to aviation's greatest mystery

Yahoo – AFP, M. Jegathesan, 30 July 2018

Sarah Nor, the mother of a passenger on MH370, weeps as she arrives for
the final investigation report

Investigators said Monday they still do not know why Malaysia's Flight MH370 vanished four years ago in aviation's greatest mystery, sparking anger and disappointment among relatives of those on board.

In a long-awaited report the official investigation team pointed to failings by air traffic controllers, said the course of the Malaysia Airlines plane was changed manually, and refused to rule out that someone other than the pilots had diverted the jet.

But after years of fruitless searching for the Boeing 777 that disappeared in March 2014 with 239 people aboard, the report offered nothing concrete to grieving relatives of passengers and crew hoping for some sort of closure.

"The team is unable to determine the real cause for the disappearance of MH370," concluded the largely technical 400-page report, noting that investigators were hindered in their probe as neither the plane's wreckage nor its black boxes had been found.

Investigators said the plane was airworthy and the pilots were in a fit state to fly, and dismissed the theory that the plane had been taken over remotely to foil a hijacking.

Relatives who were briefed at the transport ministry in the administrative capital Putrajaya before the report's public release expressed anger that there was nothing new in the document, with some storming out of the briefing as frustration boiled over.

"It is so disappointing," said Intan Maizura Othman, whose husband was a steward on MH370, which had been flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing carrying mostly mainland Chinese passengers when it vanished.

"I am frustrated. There is nothing new in the report."

She said the meeting between relatives and officials descended into a "shouting match" as anger mounted.

G. Subramaniam, who lost a son on the flight, added that "unsatisfactory responses left many angry".

Largest hunt in history

The disappearance of MH370 triggered the largest hunt in aviation history. But no sign of it was found in a 120,000-square kilometre (46,000-square mile) Indian Ocean search zone and the Australian-led hunt was suspended in January last year.

Copies of the MH370 safety investigations report are seen on the floor 

during a media briefing

US exploration firm Ocean Infinity resumed the search in a different location at the start of this year on a "no find, no fee" basis, using high-tech drones to scour the seabed. But that search was also called off after failing to find anything.

Only three confirmed fragments of MH370 have been found, all of them on western Indian Ocean shores, including a two-metre wing part known as a flaperon.

Malaysia's new government, which took power in May, has said the hunt could be resumed but only if new evidence comes to light.

Transport Minister Anthony Loke insisted Monday that "the aspiration to locate MH370 has not been abandoned and we remain ever-hopeful that we will be able to find the answers we seek when the credible evidence becomes available".

One area that came in for criticism in the report by the 19-member team, which included foreign investigators, was air traffic control.

It said both Malaysian air traffic control and their Vietnamese counterparts failed to act properly when the Boeing jet passed from Malaysian to Vietnamese airspace and disappeared from radars.

Air traffic controllers did not initiate emergency procedures in a timely fashion, delaying the start of the search and rescue operation, it said.

However it played down concerns about the pilot and first officer, saying neither appeared to have suffered difficulties in their personal lives that could have affected their ability to fly.

"We did not find any change to their behaviour, everything was normal," Kok Soo Chon, head of the investigation team, told a press conference.

The report also said the plane was airworthy and did not have major technical issues, with Kok saying it had been diverted from its intended flight path manually.

Intervention by a third party could not be ruled out, the report said, but also added there was no evidence to suggest the plane was flown by anyone other than the pilots.

Graphic on the debris so far discovered from Malaysia Airlines MH370 that went missing in 2014 with 239 people on board pic.twitter.com/7Y0IgMl6c8

— AFP news agency (@AFP) July 30, 2018