08/03/2014 BBC Weekend News

Good afternoon. Search and rescue teams from Vietnam, Malaysia and

Singapore are conducting a major joint operation to try to find a

missing airliner with 239 people on board. The Malaysian Airlines Boeing

777 was travelling between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing when it

disappeared from air traffic control radar screens two hours after taking

off. It was flying over the South China Sea at the time. Jonathan Head

is in Kuala Lumpur. Well, it's now been 20 hours since

Flight MH370 departed from this airport en route for Beijing and

then simply vanished somewhere over the South China Sea. The search

operation has been ramped up through the day with many ships and planes

now involved are scouring the sea. Night has fallen and it could be

many hours before any good information is given to the families

who are waiting for news of the fate of the plane. There is flash

photography in this report. The missing plane, a Boeing 777, has

an outstanding safety record. There are more than 900 in service and it

is a workhorse of the airline industry. So the disappearance of

this aircraft, Flight MH370, has baffled the authorities here in

Malaysia. There has been a steady stream of relatives in and out of

the area set aside for them at Kuala Lumpur airport, but no answers yet.

It was a similarly sombre scene at Beijing airport. Most of the 227

passengers on board were from China. But for hours, there was

little the airline could tell them. The authorities have actively

activated the search and rescue team. Our team is currently calling

the next passengers through. The Malaysia Prime Minister came to

offer his sympathies to the families and to let them know what the

authorities are doing. Singapore and Vietnam also helping. Nine ships and

70 aircraft have been involved in the search out in the South China

Sea, trying to find those first vital clues to what happened.

Well, in the long history of Malaysia Airlines, it's never had an

accident involving a plane this big before. It's a big blow to the

airline, and a big blow to Boeing, whose 777 is a very safe aircraft.

They are hoping that perhaps they'll get some clues but remember, we've

seen other crashes before that have happened, other accidents that have

happened, over large areas of open water with no clue given as to what

went wrong. It could take a very long time before they finally

uncover what actually went wrong with this flight.

A man and a woman from Blackpool have appeared in court charged in

connection with the death of a two-year-old girl. Barry Jones and

Michelle King, who were remanded in custody, are accused of causing or

allowing the death of Sophie Jones, who died on Tuesday. Toxicology

tests confirm the toddler had ingested methadone.

A scheme which allows people to ask the police if their partner has a

history of domestic violence has been extended across all forces in

England and Wales. The initiative, Clare's Law, was named after Clare

Wood, who was murdered by her partner in 2009. But the domestic

violence charity, crew refuge says it will make little difference as

most perpetrators aren't known to the police.

The Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, has strongly hinted

that the personal tax allowance is to rise in this month's budget to

?10,500. He was speaking at the Liberal Democrats' spring conference

in York. Our political correspondent Vicki Young is there now. Vicki,

what more can you tell us? There is a battle for ownership of this

tax-cutting policy within the coalition. The Lib Dems are very

keen for voters to low it was in their manifesto and was their idea.

They say they've had to bring the Tories kicking and screaming to

agree to this over the last few years. It comes in the context of

the upcoming budget in around ten days and speaking to people

privately here, it does seem that another rise, maybe ?500, of the

personal allowance could be on the cards. Speaking to Tory ministers in

the last few days, they say the Conservative party is well-known to

be the tax-cutting party and they say they want to help workers as

much as anyone to keep as much of their money as they can. The Lib

Dems also say that in the longer term, in the next parliament, they

would like to see the personal allowance go up to ?12,500 and,

crucially, they say this would form a key part of negotiations for any

future coalition so the question now is whether another party, like

Labour or the Tories, would go along with that policy.

The foreign ministers of Ukraine and Russia have both said they're open

to talks over the crisis in Ukraine. But the interim government in Kiev

has insisted that European observers must be allowed into Crimea - where

Russian forces have taken control. The United States says it believes

Moscow has 20,000 troops in the region.

Britain has won its first medal of the Winter Paralympics in Sochi.

Jade Etherington, with her guide Caroline Powell, took silver in the

women's downhill skiing for visually-impaired athletes. From

Sochi, Nick Hope reports. The downhill course in Sochi has

been much criticised. A lack of snow source competitors withdraw while

others described conditions as awful. So Jade Everington and her

guide Caroline Powell knew the odds were stacked against them. Jade has

a form of glucose work, which means you only has 7% vision. She said

Woodward performed superbly throughout her run. They finished

2.7 seconds behind their Slovakian opponent, who claimed gold. She took

a tumble in the excitement of the moment. Luckily, she wasn't hurt and

was able to celebrate her momentous achievement soon after. It hasn't

really sunk in yet but hopefully, later on today when we actually get

the medal, it will. I'm just really excited. I'm an official proud

Paralympian now so it's a great feeling! Downhill silver for

Everington was a great early birthday present for the skier, who

turns 23 on Sunday. She will now want to build on the success in her

next four events. That's it for now. Our next bulletin

on BBC One will be at the earlier-than-usual time of 4.25pm

this afternoon. Now it's