do they stay there or move out to the periphery where they are on? >> all right. thanks everyone for a great discussion. >> widening the search. malaysia steps up efforts to find a missing passenger plane. we are live from kuala lumpur. >> this is al jazeera america, live from doha. also ahead on the program. a moment of silence in japan. marking the third anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami that killed 18,000 people.

crimea's new army agrees to employ a russian commander in chief - taking the region further away from ukraine. >> venezuela people struggling to find the medicine they desperately need - another reason to protest. >> malaysia has doubled the area, searching to find a passenger plane that disappeared on saturday. the 239 people on board flight mh370 left kuala lumpur bound for beijing, but disappeared over the south china sea. the search area expanded into a 200km radius from where the plane made contact. a massive area in the western side of malaysia and the mainland, in case the plane dried to turn around.

malaysian authorities have given more information about the two stolen passports used to board the aircraft. >> scott heidler has more. >> for the first time details about the two men who travelled with the stolen passports. >> we looked at the footage of the video and the photograph. it is confirmed that they are not eastern-looking men. >> and the malaysian police inspector general said they identified one of the two men, and he's not malaysian. the investigation on the ground continues, so, too, does the search at sea. search and recovery operations entered a third day with dozens of ships and aircraft from nations near and far. with no definitive evidence, there's no answers to what happened to the flight from kooum tuala lumpur to beijing.

>> it's unprecedented. it is mistifying. we increasing efforts to do what we have to do. malaysia airlines is helping us. all agencies are helping out. all the experts around the world. >> we are going to take you to a live news event from kuala lumpur, where the malaysian civil aviation spokesperson is speaking. let's listen in to what they are saying. [ speaking foreign language ]

. >> a second officer [ inaudible ] once he was satisfied with the description. the subject [ inaudible ] on 7 march 2014, friday. [ inaudible ] the subject then produced his austrian passport, together with a boarding pass to fly. [ inaudible ] was in order

[ inaudible ] >> the subject arrived on friday [ inaudible ] at 21 hours, and presented himself at [ inaudible ] to the officer on duty. the subject produced his passport number 1831957 and claimed that he had arrived by phuket. [ inaudible ] by verifying [ inaudible ] in the passport were male.

originally [ inaudible ] he was satisfied with [ inaudible ] the subject presented himself on 7 march 2014, friday, [ inaudible ] the subject produced passport ya31987 together with (inaudible) 370. after variation the [ inaudible ] was in order, and [ inaudible ] the subject was then allowed to continue his journey, and

[ inaudible ] based on the department of immigration. in conclusion i would like to reflect that [ inaudible ] verification of the two subjects. thank you. . >> thank you. thank you. [ inaudible ] i know [ inaudible ] inspector general of police, everyone is wondering

[ inaudible [ inaudible ] . >> master of ceremony, and members of media. upon the knowledge of missing plane we started investigation. we appointed the director of the investigation department to help the team of investigators. we are are looking into four areas. one is hijacking; two, sabotage; three, psychological problem of the passengers and the crew; and, four, personal problem among the passengers and the crew. we are have been talking to - we have been going through all the passenger manifests. we have communicated with our

count counterparts from at least 14 countries of which most of the passengers come from and also from other parts of the world. and we have been exchanging information and intelligence. in fact, this afternoon a team of officers from the public security office of china [ inaudible ] and we have discussion with them. and, in fact, the public security office supplied us with the photographs of all 153 chinese passengers and we are going through the profile of all passengers and crews of this missing plane, and we have - we are also going through all the

video footage, the whole day, from the 7th and the 8th in the area. and we are checking with all our - our brother officers from other departments on the background of all officers. to date we have uncovered two passengers travelling on a stolen passport. okay. we have identified one of them, as i have mentioned yesterday, that we have identified one of them. and this one identified by the name of bouri mour mohammad

mehrdad. he is 19 years old. and he is an iranian. we believe that he is an iranian. we have been checking his background. we have also checked him with other police organization on his profile, and we believe that he is not likely to be a member of any federation. and we - we believe that he is trying to migrate to germany. on the other person, which is -

which travel on the stolen passport. we are still conducting our investigation on - on this point. >> thank you, chief. okay. [ inaudible ] and i would appreciate if one question, please. >> reporter: [ inaudible ] >> passport austria.

>> okay, so we are watching a news conference from malaysian civil aviation authorities, and the latest to come out of that is that they are looking into four possible reasons for the disappearance of flight mh370. they mentioned hijacking, sabotage, psychological problems among the passengers, or maybe personal problems. of course, most of the passengers on board were chinese, and they said that a team of officers from china had visited them, supplied them with photographs of all 153 chinese passengers that were on board the plane. they also said that they are going through all the footage that they have, that they are

doing, checking the background of all passengers on board. they also spoke about the two passengers that are known to have been travelling on stolen passports. let's go back to the news conference and listen in again now. >> all passengers that check in and did not board. everybody who booked this flight boarded the plane. >> okay. questions. >> reporter: [ inaudible ] [ laughs ] >> i'm sorry, i can't tell you why. >> reporter: [ inaudible ]

>> that was before the 28th, i say. when he came in on the 28th, when he came in on the 28th, his biometric was taken with the stolen passport. okay. >> reporter: [ inaudible ] [ laughs ] there's person check in and boarding. you say that [ inaudible ] >> i say... >> reporter: i mean that it's

still [ inaudible ] >> everybody that booked the flight boarded the plane. so there is nobody who who booked the flight who did not board the plane. >> reporter: [ inaudible ] possibility that this two imposters are involved in passport stealing syndicate >> we are looking into it. we are investigating it. it's too early to come to a conclusion. >> reporter: and the two passports [ inaudible ] >> we are looking into it and working with our counterparts. >> reporter: [ inaudible ] >> we are still investigating.

>> reporter: [ inaudible ] >> all right that is the malaysian civil aviation news conference in kuala lumpur. let's go to our correspondent scott heidler who is standing by in the malaysian capital. scott, the representative there saying that one of the passengers that was travelling on what we now know was a stolen passport, ruling out - rather saying it's not likely that he's any member of a terrorist organization, and we know more about one of these passengers. >> absolutely. he identified him as an iranian gentleman, 19 years old. it's interesting, because they got biometric material from him, that's how they identified him. another investigating the second person, the second man that boarded the aircraft with a

stolen passport. the gentleman who has been speaking and who we were listening to is the inspector general of the police and he made a statement monday evening that they identified one of these two, and didn't give information other than he was not a malaysian. none were asian, from the head of the civil aviation. more detail from one of these two from the inspector-general of police. overnight, it's tuesday afternoon. overnight from monday to tuesday we are getting reports coming out of the united states, and recently from police in thailand where the tickets are purchased, that they are starting to point the finger away from terrorism to human trafficking. that's what the police general said, this 19-year-old iranian man, was trying to immigrate to germany. he was travelling from a stolen passport from an austrian

gentleman. it appears in this case that this was not anything tied to terrorism. we can probably assume because the two gentlemen were travelling together, that's going be the case with the second. we can't quirm it, they are not confirming it because the investigation is going on. >> absolutely. and the police representative again saying there that it is still too early to come to any conclusions. >> absolutely, yes, because there's a lot they need to go through. closed-circuit television footage. they said through check-in, all the way through until the gentlemen boarded the plane, they needed to go through the footage carefully. because of that, the fingerprint most likely that they were able to identify the one man as a 19-year-old iranian. >> every day we have spoken out in front of the press conference, it's been two

things - what's happened to the missing plane and would are the two gentleman that boarded the plane without passports. that part of the mystery has been taken care of. i imagine the shift will be back towards finding the aircraft. there are some investigations going on. interpol, the international police organization, they are looking through everyone. if you have two people who travel on stolen passports, who knows who else is on it. at this stage it's looking like a question of human trafficking, people trying to emigrate to other countries, and not terror related. >> that's scott heidler in kuala lumpur. >> meanwhile some of the relatives of the chinese passengers arrived. most of the 239 people on board the flight mh370 were not

chinese. let's go to rob mcbride. there are families that have stayed behind, haven't they? >> that's right. the majority of relatives, in fact, are staying in beijing. six or so people put their names forward saying they want to travel to kuala lumpur to be closer to the search area. we expect the others to travel in the next day or so. the majority. 200 plus, come along to this hotel to get a news briefing that they can. most of those said there's not much point in travelling down there until they get confirmation of what is happening with the aircraft. they are more at home here with language problems and all the rest. most are staying put, waiting for more information and probably the latest information from the news briefing in kuala lumpur. while it downplays the

possibility of terrorism or a terrorist connection, it doesn't get us closer to the possible cause of the disappearance in solving the mystery. if anything, adding to the frustration for families. >> some frustration on the part of chinese authorities, it seems. there has been criticism from them of malaysian authorities. >> that's right. i mean, we don't know how much this is a public show of support and solidarity with the relatives, or whether the chinese authority accepts that malaysia is doing what it can. they have called for a stepping up of the measures taken. they, themselves have been allocating more resources. they have been hearing 10 satellites such as weather tracking. they are signed to a search

operation. giving the increased area that we are looking at, satellites will be - we are, every few hours, are getting another report about a possible sitting of debris -- sighting of debris, and certainly all the extra resources will help. >> thank you very much for that. that's rob mcbride joining us from beijing. let's go to other news, and commemorations are taking place across japan to mark the anniversary of the 2011 earthquake. the emperor and prime minister abe attended the main ceremony in tokyo. sirens sounded at the moment the quake struck. the magnitude 9 tremor caused a tsunami, causing a melt down at the fukushima nuclear plant. over 18,000 people were killed in the disaster. >> al jazeera uncovered evidence

that suggests libya was not behind the bombing of pan am flight 103 over the town of lockerbie 25 years ago. 259 passengers and 11 on the ground died when the plane exploded over a small scottish town. two years after the attack two libyans were charged. in 2001, one of them, abdel baset al-megrahi, former libyan intelligence agent was found guilty of bombing. he insisted he was innocent and was released on compassionate grounds because he had terminal cancer. >> 25 years after the lockerbie bombing which shocked the world, al jazeera uncovered new evidence casting doubt over the trial and evidence on what was the biggest mass murder. documents obtained and verified

by legal experts point to the involvement of armed secret service, armed groups, pflpgs. according to al jazeera's investigation, a meeting took place between the four parties in malta nine months before the bopping of the pan am flight. the purpose - to discussion american and israeli targets, to attack and blow-up. >> let me tell you what was said at the meeting. in essence, they were recruiting support. "we are all going to help each other." some may do something, "but we'll all join together and have a campaign against israeli and american targets. we want to ipp flict maximum damage. we are not sure how. our targets could be gathering in public place, it could be buildings, trains, aeroplanes.

>> but it was three months after the meeting when the u.s. navy shot down an iranian passenger plane killing 290 civilons, including 60 children that the plan for the lockerbie bombing was hatched. according to the person working for the secret service, but defected, tehran was adamant that a revenge attack had to be executed and quickly. >> the iranian decided to retaliate. the decision was made by the whole system in iran, and the - and then confirmed by the ayatollah commeny. the target was to copy happen. minimum 290 dead. that's the target of the iranian decision makers.

>> the theory that the pflpgc br involved in the bombing of the flight over lockerbie was not new. many at the time believed there was sufficient evidence pointing the finger at the palestine group. what is new is the evidence that links iran's secret service with the attack. >> i wondered whether the truth about lockerbie will come out. so many people at such a high level had a stake in abdel baset al-megrahi's guilt. we're talking about president said of the united states, secretaries of state, heads of the federal bureau of investigation. brish prime ministers. that's what makes this case so difficult. >> before i die, this is the truth. >> the only person to have been convicted of the bombing - a libyan agent by the name of abdel baset al-megrahi, is now dead. with the emergence of new evidence, it could mean that the perpetrators of a horrific

attacks in scottish history is alive and

didn't take back the cars and warn the public. after 13 deaths later the gm recall is the inside story. >> hello, i'm ray suarez. general motors has issued a recall of more than 1.5 million older compact dollars. this news go much he