MH370: Australian Parliament observes a minute's silence

Australian prime minister Tony Abbott. - EPA

CANBERRA: The Australian Parliament observed a minute's silence Thursday ahead of the first anniversary on March 8 of the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 with 239 passengers and crew while on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

In the presence of the Malaysian High Commissioner to Australia, Datuk Zainal Abidin Ahmad, and representatives of countries involved in the search for the aircraft, prime minister Tony Abbott said he could not promise the search would maintain its intensity of the past year.