Malaysia's transport minister said Saturday his government remains committed to solving the mystery of flight MH370, but added it remained unclear what the next steps would be if the deep-sea search now under way comes up empty.

Liow's comments, made on the eve of the tragedy's anniversary, echoed comments made recently by Australian officials who have raised doubts about an open-ended search for the aircraft, believed by experts to have gone down in the southern Indian Ocean.

The hunt for Flight MH370 has failed to turn up any debris, but its unprecedented scale in one of the world's remotest locations has provided valuable lessons for future search and rescue missions.

The Malaysia Airlines plane disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, with mourning families and friends of the 239 people on board still waiting to hear what happened 12 months later.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Thursday suggested the search for missing Flight MH370 may be scaled back, while expressing hope the jet would be found a year after it vanished.

The Malaysia Airlines plane disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014 with 239 people on board. No trace has been found despite a massive surface and underwater hunt.

Chinese businessman Li Hua suffered a stroke, has considered suicide, and his wife has been hospitalized with heart trouble, all since their daughter went missing on flight MH370.

A. Amirtham, a retired Malaysian clinic worker, suffers fainting spells and a lack of sleep and appetite over the disappearance of her only son Puspanathan. 

The first of around 500 relatives of those killed in the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine visited the wreckage at a Dutch airbase on Tuesday, investigators said.

The wreckage was brought to the Gilze-Rijen base in the northern Netherlands late last year as part of a probe into what exactly shot down the Boeing 777 in July, killing all 298 people on board.

The intensive underwater hunt for missing plane MH370 has so far turned up just a few shipping containers -- and no sign of the jet, the head of the Australian agency leading the search said Tuesday.

The plane vanished a year ago Sunday carrying 239 people en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and is believed to have gone down in one of the deepest and most remote areas of ocean far off the Western Australia coast.

The wife of Malaysia's prime minister, who is widely mocked over reports of her taste for luxury, drew fresh scorn on Tuesday after she complained about the rising cost of house calls from hairdressers and tailors.

Rosmah Mansor, 63, is a controversial figure in Malaysia, where she is routinely portrayed by critics as out of touch with ordinary citizens struggling to make ends meet.

Grieving Chinese relatives of MH370 passengers blasted Malaysia Airlines on Friday, detailing a long list of complaints and traumas they said were suffered as a result of the flight's mysterious disappearance 11 months ago.

The 21 family members arrived in Malaysia last week from China to demand authorities cancel a declaration that the plane's 239 passengers and crew were presumed dead, and voiced discontent over the airline's responses to questions they submitted on a litany of issues.

Around a dozen people were wounded when a car bomb detonated by remote control ripped through a karaoke bar in Thailand's Muslim-majority deep south on Friday, officials told Agence France Presse. 

The blast, which occurred after Friday prayers and also destroyed several houses in the provincial capital of Narathiwat, comes as the Thai junta seeks negotiating partners to restart peace talks with insurgents.

Chinese relatives of MH370 passengers gathered outside the Malaysian prime minister's office Wednesday to demand his government rescind its declaration that all on board the plane were presumed dead.

"We want an explanation from (Prime Minister Najib Razak). And we want him to cancel the declaration that the incident was an accident," said Kelly Wen, a Chinese national whose husband was on the Malaysia Airlines flight.