KIEV, Ukraine — The world rushed Thursday to help Ukraine, with the International Monetary Fund pledging up to $18 billion in loans, the U.N. condemning the vote that drove Crimea into Russian hands and the U.S. Congress backing even harsher sanctions against Russia.

Yet even with such intensive help to prop up the teetering economy, Ukraine's prime minister warned of painful times ahead from economic reforms that were sure to drive up energy prices.

PERTH, Australia — The search area for the lost Malaysian jetliner moved 680 miles to the northeast on Friday, as Australian officials said a new analysis of radar data suggests the plane had flown faster and therefore ran out of fuel more quickly than previously estimated.That means searchers have concluded that hundreds of floating objects detected over the last week by satellite, previously considered possible wreckage, weren't from the plane after all.

TOKYO — Japanese household spending fell 1.5 percent in February from a year earlier, suggesting consumers are tightening belts ahead of an April 1 hike in the country's sales tax.The government also reported Friday that core consumer prices rose 1.3 percent in February, though a large share of the increase was due to rising energy costs.Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is striving to spur inflation to pull Japan out of a two-decade economic slump. The strategy hinges on getting consumers and businesses to make purchases sooner rather than later. But so far wages have not risen, and the rising cost of living is triggering more belt-tightening.