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Against the backdrop of Russia’s takeover of Ukraine’s Crimean region, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Saturday a key message he will deliver to leaders in Tokyo this weekend is that the U.S. is strongly committed to protecting Japan’s security. Hagel said it is understandable for nations to be concerned as they watch the events unfold in Ukraine, where Russian troops are still massed along the border. The issue reverberates in Asia where China, Japan and other nations are locked in bitter territorial disputes, including over disputed islands in the East China Sea. …

Scientists say man-made climate change has fundamentally altered the currents of the vast, deep oceans where investigators are currently scouring for the missing Malaysian Airlines flight, setting a complex stage for the ongoing search for MH370. If the Boeing 777 did plunge into the ocean somewhere in the vicinity of where the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean, the location where its debris finally ends up, if found at all, may be vastly different from where investigators could have anticipated 30 years ago.

<p>ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff has obtained a letter that an oil rig worker in Vietnam wrote to his employer claiming he saw Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 go down in flames.</p> <p>Mr. Woodruff tweeted an image of the letter saying, “Oil rig worker claims in employer confirmed letter-he saw the plane go down. Vietnamese say they found nothing.”</p>

Oil Rig Worker Thinks He Saw Malaysia Air Flight 370 Go Down In Flames The Wire ABBY OHLHEISER, THE WIRE MAR. 12, 2014, 12:13 PM In yet another odd twist to the mysterious story of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, a New Zealand man working on an oil rig in the South China Sea has come forward to say he believes he saw the airplane on fire right around the time it disappeared. Mike McKay, a worker on the "Songa Mercur" drilling platform, sent an email to his bosses detailing his version of events. McKay said that he "observed the plane...

Search teams are scouring waters off both sides of the Malaysian peninsula, amid confusion over a missing Malaysia Airlines plane's last known location. Malaysia's air force chief has denied reports that the plane was tracked to the Malacca Strait in the west. Vietnam has despatched a plane to investigate an eyewitness report of a possible object burning in the sky east of Vietnam. --SNIP-- On Wednesday, Malaysia's air force chief Rodzali Daud denied remarks attributed to him in local media that a missing Malaysia Airlines plane was tracked by military radar to the Malacca Strait, far west of its planned...

ABC's Bob Woodruff has shared an email from an oil rig worker stationed near the coast of Vietnam that alleges to have witnessed the missing jet go down in flames. "The timing is right," writes Mike McKay. "While I observed the burning (plane) it appeared to be in ONE piece." McKay's employer has confirmed that the letter is not a hoax. "From when I first saw the burning (plane) until the flames went out (still at high altitude) was 10-15 seconds," he writes. "There was no lateral movement, so it was either coming toward our location, stationary (falling) or going...

Chinese officials may have satellite images of debris that could be from the Malaysia Airlines 777 jet that's been missing for five days. According to CNN, China's State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense announced the find. The satellite images were taken on Sunday, March 9. CNN Senior Producer Vaughn Sterling reports that the images show three objects, sized 13x18 meters, 14x19 meters, and 24x22 meteres. The Boeing 777 took off from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Friday, and was headed for Beijing, with 239 people on board. So far, a massive search including dozens of ships and...

Call off the search for Flight 370! Former Hole singer Courtney Love is pretty sure she has found the location of the missing Malaysian plane over a patch of ocean off the coast of Vietnam by using satellite images and even posted its co-ordinates on Facebook and Twitter with a helpful diagram (below). “I’m no expert but up close this does look like a plane and an oil slick,” she said. “[It's] like a mile away Pulau Perak, where they ‘last’ tracked it 5°39’08.5″N 98°50’38.0″E but what do I know?” Flight 370 vanished early March 8 while flying from Kuala...

Courtney Love may have helped solve the missing Malaysian plane mystery, having posted an image and geographical co-ordinates on her Facebook page. Flight number MH370 has been missing since 8 March 2014, with searches for the aircraft having proven fruitless in the days since. The search was recently expanded, but ten days later, there are still no clues as to the fate of the plane or its 239 passengers. However, Courtney Love may have solved the mystery, posting a photo on Facebook, which she seems to believe shows the location of the missing plane - sadly after crashing in the...

The Chinese government has released satellite images showing "a suspected crash area at sea," including "three suspected floating objects," near the flight's planned path. Taken Sunday morning but not made public until today, the blurry shots are located northeast of Kuala Lumpur, south of Vietnam, in what may be the most promising lead thus far, on the fifth day of a frustrating, otherwise fruitless search.

China's State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense announced the discovery, including images of what it said were "three suspected floating objects and their sizes." The images in the Strait of Malacca were captured on March 9 -- which was the day after the plane went missing -- but weren't released until Wednesday.

<p>MILAN (AP) — Foreign ministry officials in Rome and Vienna confirm that names of two nationals listed on the manifest of the missing Malaysian airlines flight match passports reported stolen in Thailand.</p> <p>Italy's Foreign Ministry said Saturday that an Italian man whose name was listed as being aboard is traveling in Thailand and was not aboard the plane.</p>

Why is the US helping China look for oil in the South China Sea? By Adam Pasick @adampasick January 27, 2014 Stormy weather ahead? National Science Foundation   Political tensions in the South China Sea have seldom been higher, with China’s  “marine identification zone” deemed a provocative threat to peace by neighboring countries and the United States. The vast area, variously claimed by China, the Philippines, Vietnam, and other southeast Asian countries, is hotly contested in part because it is thought to hold vast reserves of oil and natural gas. + It’s easy, then, to foresee some sticky scenarios emerging from...

China Is Playing 'Chicken' With US Warships In The South China Sea GlobalPost Benjamin Carlson, GlobalPost Jan. 30, 2014, 7:51 AM HONG KONG — As anyone who has seen “Rebel Without a Cause” knows, playing chicken is dangerous for California teenagers in hot-rods. But playing chicken with warships, cruisers, and fighter jets — well, that’s just another level of crazy. Unfortunately, vessels from the US military and from other countries increasingly find themselves in such high-stakes confrontations on the East Asian seas, where China has adopted a strategy of making rivals flinch or risk collision. Just this week, Chinese sailors...

Following Japan's proclamations that it will take over another 280 'disputed ownership' islands, it appears the increasingly dis-approved of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's path of militarism and provocation is working. As China Daily Mail reports, citing experts, China intends to take back Zhongye Island - 'illegally' occupied by the Philippines, according to the Chinese. The Chinese navy has drawn a detailed combat plan to seize the island and the battle will be restricted within the South China Sea. Philippines military is building up on the island and the Chinese see as 'intolerable' the "arrogance" relying on US support.

Japanese paratroopers recaptured an island from an enemy in a wargame as its Defense Minister vowed to defend a disputed East China Sea territory. China’s ships sailed near the contested islets as Beijing reportedly expanded its air defense zone. Tokyo’s military on Sunday held a military drill dubbed “Island Defense,” in which the country’s elite airborne troops simulated the retaking of a remote island from an enemy nation. The plot for the annual drill, which took place at an exercise field east of Tokyo, stayed the same for the second year in a row as the dispute over the group...

The government will nationalize about 280 islands whose ownership is unknown out of the about 400 remote islands that serve as markers for determining Japan’s territorial waters, the state minister for oceanic policy and territorial issues has announced. Under the plan, announced Tuesday, the government will complete its search for the islands’ owners by June. Islands whose owners have not been tracked down by then will be registered on the national asset ledger. The move aims to clarify the government’s intention to protect territories and territorial waters by designating remote islands as “important national territories,” and to reinforce the management...

China's official media pointedly said Friday that Japan is the "prime target" of Beijing's newly declared air control zone over the East China Sea, warning that China is willing to engage in "a protracted confrontation with Japan." China's declaration of its Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), announced last week, has sparked strong resistance from Japan, the United States, South Korea and other neighboring Asian nations. The new zone partly overlaps those of South Korea and Japan. The U.S. flew two B-52 bombers through the Chinese zone without informing China this week. South Korea and Japan followed suit. In response, China...

Four vessels from the Indian Navy’s Eastern Fleet, on operational deployment to the South China Sea and the Western Pacific, made a port call here today.Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Fleet, Rear Admiral P. Ajit Kumar, who is officially in the country with the vessels for the second time, said he was looking forward to enhance ties with the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN).< He said a Passage Exercise (Passex) had been planned with the RMN, adding that it would immensely contribute to furthering peace and maritime security in the region. “The spectrum of this exercise encompasses both conventional war fighting drills...

Several countries have overlapping territorial claims to portions of the South China Sea, which stretches from Singapore in the southwest to Taiwan in the northeast. The Spratly Islands and Paracel Islands are two of the most contested areas (see dark blue islands on map above). However, unlike other parts of the South China Sea, these areas have not been assessed to hold large (conventional) resources of oil and natural gas. Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, ownership of habitable islands can extend the exclusive access of a country to surrounding energy resources. EIA's analysis shows...