The pilgrims crawled forward, some barely inching along the rough ground with hands, knees and elbows rubbed raw.

The procession of St. Lazarus is one of the largest yearly religious processions in officially secular Cuba and also one of the most colorful.

To show their devotion, thousands of Cubans walk for miles barefoot to the small church known as El Rincón — the corner in Spanish — on the outskirts of Havana ahead of December 17, the day when the saint is celebrated.

“It was a tradition of my father’s and I have followed it for 27 years since he passed away. Lazarus grants me what I ask for,” said pilgrim Fernando Valdez, after walking without shoes for more than five hours on broken roads.

In the New Testament, Lazarus was resurrected four days after his death by Jesus and became the patron saint of the poor and the sick. Many of the Cubans asking a wish from the saint wear clothing made from rough cloth sacks to represent poverty.

Other adherents take their shows of devotion to the extreme, crawling on their stomachs or facing backwards or sometimes with cinder blocks tied to their feet to further slow them down.

Blood stains the pavement in places and medics with the Red Cross apply bandages on scraped knees and hands and pass out water to exhausted pilgrims.

Open displays of religious belief have slowly grown over the years in Cuba, which changed its constitution in 1992 to transition from an officially atheist state to a secular one. A groundbreaking visit by Pope John Paul II six years later further helped restore rights for people of faith.

Still, a heavy police presence surrounded El Rincón during the pilgrimage and officials strategically placed large posters of former Cuban leaders Fidel and Raul Castro as well of the island’s current president Miguel Diaz-Canel outside the entrance to the church.

The complexity of Cuba was also on display as many of the pilgrims are believers in Santería, an offshoot of the Yoruba religion brought to Cuba more than 200 years ago by African slaves. Forced to convert to Catholicism, the slaves blended the two faiths into a syncretic religion that spread across the island and around the Caribbean.

Believers melded African deities like Babalú-Ayé, who both spread and healed sickness, with Catholic saints like Lazarus, who granted wishes for good health.

Already adept at surviving in the shadows and without central leadership, Santería in large part flourished after the crackdown on organized religion in Cuba following Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution.

Santería’s growth has presented a dilemma to the Catholic Church in Cuba which does not recognize the religion but, faced with often empty pews at services, cannot afford to turn away its followers.

At an outdoor mass held at El Rincón, Catholic priests told Santerîa followers they were welcome at the ceremony but should not ask the priests to bless their beads and idols.

Some priests appeared to pretend to not notice as Santería followers blew cigar smoke onto statues of St. Lazarus, who is represented walking on crutches and wearing a sack cloth.

But the acceptance only goes so far.

Many of the pilgrims voiced concern at Cuba’s worsening economic situation and expressed a wistfulness for the change in policy towards the communist-run government announced by then-President Barack Obama exactly 10 years ago to the day.

Many followers of St. Lazarus saw the announcement on the same day celebrating their deity as fortuitous timing. As the two Cold War-era enemies restored diplomatic ties, Cuba experienced a tourism boom and the island’s beleaguered economic fortunes briefly lifted.

But during his first term, then-President Donald Trump, a critic of what he called Obama’s appeasement of Cuba, reversed much of that opening. Many Cubans say a second Trump term — combined with their own government’s resistance to make meaningful economic reforms — could spell the worst crisis in their lives.

In 2024, Cuba has suffered island-wide rolling blackouts that lasted more than a week, hundreds of thousands of people emigrated from the island and the social safety net once provided by the government all but evaporated.

But as he rested from his pilgrimage, Valdez said he was sure St. Lazarus would once again steer him through the tough times ahead.

“To live, human beings need a reason,” he said. “Something that gives them light and for me it’s my faith. If not, you die.”

Former Syrian regime security forces have been handing in their weapons to the rebel-linked transitional government in the southern Syrian city of Latakia, according to video filmed by Agence France-Presse.

The footage, filmed earlier this week, shows long lines of men dressed in plain clothes as they wait to hand in their personal firearms to officials with the new Syrian government’s Ministry of Interior.

Officials are seen informally interviewing the men and taking their mugshots as they hand their weapons in, the AFP footage shows. Hundreds of various handguns and ammo can be seen piled high in the corners of the government office.

It comes as Syria’s new leadership, led by the group Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS), has been working to transfer power peacefully and gain international legitimacy.

A Syrian rebel-linked government leader, Mohammad Al-Bashir, has been appointed as the country’s caretaker prime minister for the next three months, during which his government will oversee Syria’s transition to a new government, he announced in a televised address last week.

Ministers of the former HTS-linked Salvation Government, as well as Assad-era civil servants, will continue to serve as ministers in the caretaker government until March 1, 2025, Al-Bashir said.

Meanwhile, HTS leader Abu Mohammad al-Jolani – the de facto leader of the country – said on Thursday that Syria is not a threat to the world and called for the lifting of international sanctions.

In an interview with the BBC in Damascus, Jolani said the “sanctions must be lifted because they were targeted at the old regime. The victim and the oppressor should not be treated in the same way.”

Jolani, who now goes by his real name Ahmad al-Sharaa, is an internationally sanctioned former jihadist, and HTS is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, the United Nations and other governments.

“We have not committed any crimes that justify calling us a terrorist group. in the last 14 years, we haven’t targeted any civilians, or civilian areas, or civilian targets.” Jolani claimed in the BBC interview. “I understand some countries will be worried by that designation, but it’s not true.”

Jolani also sought to alleviate concerns that Syria’s new government could replicate the Taliban’s model in Afghanistan. He highlighted the differences between the culture and societies of Afghanistan and Syria, and he stressed that the new government in Damascus would respect Syrian culture.

He pointed to his support of women in education and stressed the importance to “have dialogues and make sure everyone is represented.”

Earlier this week, Jolani secured a meeting in Damascus with Geir Otto Pedersen, the UN special envoy for Syria, who said the international community will “hopefully see a quick end to sanctions, so that we can see really a rallying around building up Syria again.”

The US, the European Union and the UK have also established contact with the rebel groups ruling the country, along with Qatar and Turkey.

Syrian state media has reported that other cities in Syria, such as Daraa, have implemented similar schemes for returning weapons.

Upon receiving the firearms, the new authorities issued former Syrian regime forces a temporary card that will give them freedom to circulate in Syria’s “liberated” areas, while their “legal proceedings are completed,” according to a notice posted outside the government office, which can be seen in the AFP video. The notice gave no further details about the “legal proceedings.”

The Assad regime, and the Syrian forces that served his government, were responsible for many atrocities as it cracked down on political dissent, including torture and ill-treatment of prisoners. Assad infamously used chemical weapons in rebel areas, killing dozens of civilians, to the horror of the international community.

More than 306,000 civilians in Syria were killed between the outbreak of the civil war in 2011 and March 2021, according to the most recent estimate by UN Human Rights.

A horrifying, monthslong mass rape and drugging trial concluded in France Thursday, with Dominique Pelicot and 50 other men all found guilty of the rape or sexual assault of his former wife Gisèle Pelicot.

Dominique Pelicot, 72, who solicited dozens of strangers to rape Gisèle while she was unconscious, received the maximum sentence of 20 years for aggravated rape. Forty-eight other men on trial were found guilty of aggravated rape, with two guilty of sexual assault.

The trial – which has shocked France and has pushed the country to examine a culture struggling with pervasive misogyny and systemic sexual assault – has galvanized women to demand a change in the way it approaches gender-based violence.

They were able to do so because of the unusual decision Gisèle Pelicot took in waving her anonymity to make the trial public – an act many have called heroic. For months, Gisèle faced her abusers in court, allowing the world to see the horrors that she’d endured by her husband and dozens of other rapists for over a decade.

Under French law, Gisèle could have asked for the trial to be kept behind closed doors. Instead, she asked for it be held in public, saying she hoped it would help other women speak up and show other victims of sexual assault and rape that they have nothing to be ashamed of.

Speaking after the verdicts were handed down outside the courtoom in Avignon, southern France, Gisèle underscored her solidarity with other sexual assault survivors.

“I think of all the unknown victims of stories which often unfold in the shadows. I want you to know we share the same fight,” she said.

The 72-year-old also stressed that she “had never regretted” decision to go public, saying the messages received from supporters gave her the “strength” needed to keep going.

While Dominique Pelicot received the maximum sentence allowed in France for aggravated rape, others who visited the Pelicot home multiple times, like Romain V., and Charly A., recieved 15- and 13-year-old sentences respectively. Many of the other rapists received shorter sentences than prosecutors expected – including a few who walked free with suspended sentences.

Some gasped inside the courtroom as Jacques C, who was handed a 5-year suspended prison sentence, was read out.

Dominique Pelicot’s lawyer, Beatrice Zavarro told reporters Thursday that his legal team is considering lodging an appeal, but has not yet made a decision, adding that she felt her client had been made the scapegoat of the trial.

But evidence shows how central Dominique was in orchestrating the crimes.

He recruited the men to rape his then wife on the now-defunct Coco.fr “dating site” for years, using the chatroom called “without her knowledge,” where he would exchange pictures of an unconscious Gisèle before moving to Skype and text messages to arrange the meeting with his accomplices.

Gisèle testified that she was completely unaware of her husband’s actions. Over time, the frequent sedation and sexual abuse began to take a physical toll. Her husband accompanied her on several doctor’s visits during which she complained about memory loss and pelvic pain, according to court documents.

It was only after Dominique was arrested in a local supermarket in September 2020 for filming up the skirts of female customers, for which he was convicted, that his web of crimes came to light. Pelicot received an eight-month suspended prison sentence for this offense.

Whilst investigating the upskirting, police officers confiscated his hard drive, laptop and phones and found hundreds of images and videos of Gisèle being raped, opening one of the worst sex offense cases in modern French history.

Towards the beginning of the trial, Gisèle questioned her rapists, many of whom said they thought that a husband’s consent sufficed.

“Rape is rape,” she said in court in November. “When you walk into a bedroom and see a motionless body, at what point (do you decide) not to react…why did you not leave immediately to report it to the police?”

She said she would never forgive her former husband.

The trial has concluded. But its outcome has left many angry and disillusioned, including the children of Dominique and Gisèle Pelicot. They say such sentencing fails to acknowledge the gravity of the rapists’ crimes and underscores France’s substandard approach to tackling sexualized violence.

“We have a really problematic justice system when it comes to trying cases of this nature. Women in France simply don’t trust the French justice system,” she said, pointing to the fact that only 10% of victims of rape even report the crime to the justice system. And of those reports, only 1 to 4 percent end up with a conviction.

Swedish police said on Thursday they had boarded the Yi Peng 3 vessel, which is at the center of an investigation into Baltic Sea cable breaches, at the invitation of the Chinese authorities.

The Chinese bulk carrier is wanted in Sweden for questioning over a breach of two undersea fiber-optic cables in November, and has been stationary in waters nearby for a month while diplomats in Stockholm and Beijing discussed the matter.

Investigators quickly zeroed in on the ship, which left the Russian port of Ust-Luga on November 15, and a Reuters analysis of MarineTraffic data showed that the vessel’s coordinates corresponded to the time and place of the breaches.

Swedish police said on Thursday they participated on board the Yi Peng 3 as observers only, while Chinese authorities conducted investigations.

“In parallel, the preliminary investigation into sabotage in connection with two cable breaks in the Baltic Sea is continuing,” the police said in a statement.

The actions taken on board the ship on Thursday were not part of the Swedish-led preliminary investigation, the police added.

Danish authorities are facilitating the visit to the bulk carrier, which is anchored in the Kattegat strait between Denmark and Sweden, police said.

The Baltic Sea cables, one linking Finland and Germany and the other connecting Sweden to Lithuania, were damaged on November 17 and 18, prompting German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius to say he assumed it was caused by sabotage.

The breaches happened in Sweden’s exclusive economic zone and Swedish prosecutors are leading the investigation on suspicion of possible sabotage.

Western intelligence officials from multiple countries have said they are confident the Chinese ship caused the cuts to both cables. But they have expressed different views on whether these were accidents or could have been deliberate.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has urged the ship to return to Sweden to aid the investigation.

The was no immediate response from the Chinese foreign ministry outside of business hours on Thursday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had a tart response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annual year-end news conference Thursday, hurling a rude epithet at the Kremlin leader in comments online.

During the press conference, Putin boasted about the capability of the Oreshnik, a new nuclear-capable ballistic missile that Russia recently fired at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro. He also repeated an earlier threat to strike Ukraine again with the missile, suggesting that it be fired at Kyiv as a test of Western-supplied air defense equipment.

“Let them propose … some kind of technological experiment – a kind of high-tech duel of the 21st century, let’s say,” Putin said. “Let them determine some target to be hit, for example in Kyiv, they concentrate all their air and missile defense forces there, and we will strike there with the Oreshnik. And we’ll see what happens.”

He added: “We are ready for such an experiment. In any case, we don’t rule it out. We will conduct such an experiment, such a technological duel, and see what happens. It’s interesting.”

Zelensky posted an excerpt of those remarks on X, commenting in English: “People are dying, and he thinks it’s ‘interesting’… Dumbass.” He also posted a similar comment in Ukrainian.

Putin appeared to make similarly glib remarks about the war in Ukraine at the beginning of his comments Thursday, intimating that war was making life more interesting.

“You know, when everything is calm, measured, stable, you get bored. Stagnation. You need some action. As soon as the action starts, everything whizzes past your head: seconds, bullets. Unfortunately, bullets are whistling now.”

Putin’s marathon year-end news conference on Thursday consisted of a public Q&A session combined with a public phone-in. The event is staged annually by Putin as a way to show his sweeping control of all aspects of the country.

Russia’s war on Ukraine was a major topic, with Putin keen to emphasize Russia’s recent gains in grinding war of attrition. He also said while he had not spoken to US President-elect Donald Trump in over four years, he was “ready” for potential talks with him, amid expectation that the new administration in Washington will push for a negotiated end to the war in Ukraine.

“You asked what we can offer, or what I can offer to the newly elected President Trump when we meet,” Putin said in response to a question from NBC’s Keir Simmons. “First of all, I don’t know when we will meet. Because he hasn’t said anything about it. I haven’t spoken to him at all in over four years. Of course, I am ready for this at any time, and I will be ready for a meeting if he wants it.”

Asked whether Russia would be in a weaker negotiating position because of recent setbacks in Syria and on the battlefield in Ukraine, Putin replied, “You said that this conversation will take place in a situation when I am in some weakened state… And you, and those people who pay your salaries in the US, would very much like Russia to be in a weakened position.”

Pakistan on Thursday denounced new US sanctions on the country’s ballistic missile program as “discriminatory” that put the region’s peace and security at risk.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry warned in a statement that the sanctions “have dangerous implications for strategic stability of our region and beyond.”

It also cast doubt on US allegations that targeted businesses were involved in weapons proliferation because previous sanctions “were based on mere doubts and suspicion without any evidence whatsoever.”

It also accused the US of “double standards” for waiving licensing requirements for advanced military technology to other countries.

The sanctions freeze any US property belonging to the targeted businesses and bar Americans from doing business with them.

The US State Department said one such sanctioned entity, the Islamabad-based National Development Complex, worked to acquire items for developing Pakistan’s long range ballistic missile program that includes the SHAHEEN series of ballistic missiles.

The other sanctioned entities are Akhtar and Sons Private Limited, Affiliates International and Rockside Enterprise.

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Wednesday on X that the US had “been clear and consistent about our concerns” over such weapons proliferation and that it would “continue to engage constructively with Pakistan on these issues.”

The sanctions were also opposed by the party of Pakistan’s imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Zulfiqar Bukhari, a Khan’s spokesman, took to the social platform X to criticize the administration of US President Joe Biden, saying “we strongly oppose US sanctions on the National Development Complex and three commercial entities.”

The latest US sanctions came months after similar measures were slapped on other foreign entities, including a Chinese research institute, after the US State Department accused them of working for the National Development Complex, which it says was involved in the development and production of Pakistan’s long-range ballistic missiles.

Analysts say Pakistan’s nuclear and missile program is primarily aimed at countering threats from neighboring India.

Security expert Syed Muhammad Ali called the sanctions “short sighted, destabilizing and divorced from South Asian regional strategic realities.”

Pakistan became a declared nuclear power in 1998, when it conducted underground nuclear tests in response to those carried out by its rival and neighbor India. The two sides regularly test-fired their short, medium and long-range missiles.

The two South Asian rivals have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir since gaining independence from Britain in 1947. The disputed Himalayan region is split between them and claimed by both in its entirety.

At least 35 children were killed and six others critically injured in a crowd crush at a funfair in southwest Nigeria on Wednesday, police said.

Eight people have been arrested for their alleged involvement in the incident at the Islamic school in the city of Ibadan, an Oyo state police spokesperson said in a statement Thursday.

The event’s main sponsor is among those detained, police said.

According to local radio station Agidigbo FM, the organizers of the event – identified as the Women in Need of Guidance and Support (WING) – expected to host 5,000 children under the age of 13 at the free event, where they could win prizes like scholarships.

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu expressed his condolences through a statement from his spokesperson, state news agency NAN News reported.

“In this moment of mourning, President Tinubu stands in solidarity with the affected families and offers prayers that the Almighty God will grant peace to the souls of those who have departed in this unfortunate event,” the statement said.

The president also urged the Oyo State Government to take necessary steps to prevent a similar tragedy from occurring, according to NAN.

Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde said it was “a very sad day.”

“We sympathise with the parents whose joy has suddenly been turned to mourning due to these deaths,” Makinde posted on Facebook.

“I want to reassure our people that anyone directly or remotely involved in this disaster will be held accountable. Please remain calm as the security agencies investigate this unfortunate incident.”

The case has been transferred to the homicide section of the state’s criminal investigation department, police said.

“The Oyo State Police Command sympathizes with all the families and loved ones affected by the tragedy and assures the good people of the state that justice will be served accordingly,” the police spokesperson said.

Nigeria, a West African nation home to more than 236 million people, has seen several deadly crowd crushes in recent years.

In February, the Nigeria Customs Service confirmed that an unspecified number of people were trampled to death during a crowd surge as they waited for discounted rice at its office in Lagos, the country’s largest city.

Many children were among 30 people killed in a crowd crush at a church event in the southeastern city of Port Harcourt in 2022, according to police and security officials.

Ahmad Morjan was desperate to hug his mother for the first time in more than 13 years but, when he reached the door of his childhood home, he found her head to the ground, kneeling in prayer.

Morjan immediately dropped to his knees too and cried “Oh God!” in gratitude for a reunion he believed might never happen.

For a moment, the two remained prostrated before finally embracing and weeping with joy.

The poignant moment, shared on social media, is one of countless homecomings seen across Syria in the wake of its sudden liberation from the Assad dynasty’s rule. A trickle of those forced out of the country by the conflict are returning to what remains of the lives they lived before they fled.

Syria’s 13-year civil war forced 6 million people to become refugees and saw 7 million become internally displaced, according to the United Nations.

Of those who fled the country, one million are expected to return in the first six months of 2025, the UN’s refugee agency said Tuesday, as it appealed for donors to help support their humanitarian needs.

Many have longed to return for years, but in the immediate aftermath of a sudden rebel takeover, not all are keen to hurry back to an unstable country with an uncertain future.

‘It was pure joy’

When the uprising against Assad began in the spring of 2011, Morjan, then an 18-year-old high school student, picked up a camera and started filming the massive demonstrations that rocked his city, Aleppo.

In 2012, Aleppo was split in two – Free Syrian Army rebels wrested control of the eastern portion of the city, while the rest, including Morjan’s neighborhood, remained under government control.

Morjan, hunted and afraid, said he decided to cross battle lines and flee into opposition territory, leaving his family behind.

He threw himself into his work at an activist-run media network, while Syrian troops encircled and besieged the enclave, eventually cutting it off from food, water, medicine, and basic supplies. Barrel bombs, crudely made explosive devices packed into oil barrels and dropped from helicopters, pummeled the quarter of million people trapped in the hellscape.

The international community condemned what it called the “kneel or starve campaign” but, ultimately, Assad got his surrender.

In December 2016, rebel forces and civilians withdrew from the city under an evacuation agreement, and government forces re-established control.

“We are leaving with our dignity,” Morjan said in a video he filmed of the exodus and posted online at the time. “We are leaving with our heads held high, and we will return one day.”

Morjan made his way to Turkey, home to more than 3.2 million Syrian refugees, where he started a family, found a job, and built a life. But Syria was never far from his mind.

On the night that rebels took control of Aleppo this month, on their march to reach the capital and ultimately overthrow Assad, Morjan called his mother and vowed he would return now that his city was “liberated.”

“I cannot describe the feeling of returning home after 13 years of exile,” Morjan said.

“When I finally reached the front door, my legs would no longer carry me. We were so happy and overwhelmed that my mom and I both kneeled and prayed. It was pure joy.”

But despite this happiness his return was fraught, he said, with the knowledge that ex-government forces and shadowy former intelligence officers lurked in the city’s streets. Morjan enjoyed a home-cooked meal, laughed, and chatted with loved ones all evening, then left again first thing in the morning.

Now he is back in Gaziantep, preparing to move permanently back to Aleppo with his wife, who’s also from Syria, and their two young daughters, both born in Turkey, in the next few months.

He knows it will be dangerous and difficult to eke out a living in a country where 90% of the population lives below the poverty line, according to the UN, but he said it’s worth it.

“I am optimistic about the future, and I have huge hope that the country will be better than before,” Morjan said. “All our efforts, all the blood that was shed for the revolution, will be the seeds that sow a new Syria.”

Revenge killing fears

Hussam Kassas pleaded with his Bedouin smugglers to let him die in the desert. It was a 13-hour walk out of Syria and across the Jordanian border to safety, back in early 2016, but he couldn’t take another step.

Only two months prior, he had undergone surgery to remove shrapnel from his knees, the lingering aftermath of a barrel bomb blast that had torn through his legs.

The human rights activist made it to Jordan and, years later, the United Kingdom granted him and his wife student visas. The young family arrived in Manchester in August 2023, and quickly applied for asylum. Kassas could finally imagine a safe and stable future, but his relief was short-lived.

His application, along with that of tens of thousands of other asylum-seekers across Europe, is now suspended.

The governments of the UK, Austria, Germany, Greece and Sweden and others have announced a pause in the processing of all Syrian asylum requests to allow authorities to reassess the situation on the ground now that the threat of Assad is gone.

But new risks are emerging. The United States, UN, and several countries consider the main group now governing Syria, Hayat-Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, a designated terrorist organization. In the wake of the rebels’ lightning advance on the capital, more than a million people fled their homes; most are now internally displaced, according to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.

UNHCR has said the suspensions are acceptable, as long as no asylum-seekers are forcibly returned to Syria and that they continue to enjoy protections wherever they reside.

Kassas says he fears retribution if he returns to Syria.

He worked as a paramedic and human rights defender in his home province of Daraya, a Damascus suburb, during the civil war. His job was to document potential war crime violations by any party to the conflict – rebel, government or otherwise – and report the cases to international agencies, a role he says puts him at particular risk.

“I do not want my family, my sons, to become the victims of a revenge killing,” Kassas said. “Just because the Syrian president fled the country, that doesn’t mean his soldiers and secret service officers suddenly become peaceful angels.”

He welcomed a second son, born in England, two weeks before his dream of a Syria free of Assad came true.

But that dream has turned into a nightmare for his family. Both his right to work and right to rent permits are set to expire next month, and he worries he could lose his job and his apartment in Manchester if they are not renewed, with his asylum application on hold. He feels under threat, again.

“I chose to take the risk of being a human rights defender and an activist, and I was willing to sacrifice myself to build a better country,” Kassas said. “But I will not let my wife and kids pay for the decisions that I made.”

Malaysia has agreed in principle to resume the search for the wreckage of missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370, its transport minister said on Friday, more than 10 years after it disappeared in one of the world’s greatest aviation mysteries.

MH370, a Boeing 777 carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew, vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014.

Transport Minister Anthony Loke said the proposal to search a new area in the southern Indian Ocean came from exploration firm Ocean Infinity, which had also conducted the last search for the plane that ended in 2018.

The firm will receive $70 million if wreckage found is substantive, Loke told a press conference.

“Our responsibility and obligation and commitment is to the next of kin,” he said.

“We hope this time will be positive, that the wreckage will be found and give closure to the families.”

Malaysian investigators initially did not rule out the possibility that the aircraft had been deliberately taken off course.

Debris, some confirmed and some believed to be from the aircraft, has washed up along the coast of Africa and on islands in the Indian Ocean.

More than 150 Chinese passengers were on the flight, with relatives demanding compensation from Malaysia Airlines, Boeing, aircraft engine maker Rolls-Royce and the Allianz insurance group among others.

Malaysia engaged Ocean Infinity in 2018 to search in the southern Indian Ocean, offering to pay up to $70 million if it found the plane, but it failed on two attempts.

That followed an underwater search by Malaysia, Australia and China in a 120,000 square kilometer (46,332 sq mile) area of the southern Indian Ocean, based on data of automatic connections between an Inmarsat satellite and the plane.