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KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Another possible clue to the disappearance of a Malaysian jetliner has turned out to be unconnected to the plane.
Malaysian maritime officials had found some oil slicks in the South China Sea, and they sent a sample to a lab to see if the oil came from the missing plane. They say tests showed that the oil was not from an aircraft.
Earlier, searchers investigated a yellow object that looked like a life raft. It turned out to be trash covered with moss that was floating in the ocean.
Meanwhile, authorities in Thailand have been questioning the owners of a travel agency that sold one-way tickets to two men who are now known to have been traveling on the flight using stolen passports. Interpol says it's trying to determine their identities.
The police agency says it has a database of 40 million stolen or lost travel documents -- but that last year, more than a billion times, travelers boarded planes without their passports being checked against the database.
The plane was on a flight to Beijing when it disappeared over the weekend with 239 people on board.
%@AP Links
156-a-05-(Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, director general, Malaysia's Department of Civil Aviation, at news conference)-"from an aircraft"-Malaysian civil aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman says an oil slick found in the search for the missing plane is not related. (10 Mar 2014)
<<CUT *156 (03/10/14)££ 00:05 "from an aircraft"
149-a-17-(Greg Feith (fyth), former investigator, National Transportation Safety Board, in interview)-"of the airplane"-Former NTSB investigator Doug Feith says something kept both pilots of the missing Malaysia Airlines jet from calling for help. COURTESY: NBC's "Today" show ((mandatory on-air credit)) ((note cut length)) (10 Mar 2014)
<<CUT *149 (03/10/14)££ 00:17 "of the airplane"
APPHOTO XJAK103: An Indonesian Navy crew member scans the water bordering Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand during a search operation for the missing Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 near the Malacca straits on Monday, March 10, 2014. Dozens of ships and aircraft have failed to find any piece of the missing Boeing 777 jet that vanished more than two days ago above waters south of Vietnam as investigators pursued "every angle" to explain its disappearance, including hijacking, Malaysia's civil aviation chief said Monday. (AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara) (10 Mar 2014)
<<APPHOTO XJAK103 (03/10/14)££
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