[naviga:h3]Hunt for Malaysian jet will come to end[/naviga:h3]

PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia — The more than two-year-hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 will be suspended once the current search area in the Indian Ocean has been completely scoured, the three countries conducting the operation announced today, possibly ending all hopes of solving aviation's greatest mystery.

Some families of the lost plane's 239 passengers and crew were angry over the decision to stop what is already the most expensive search in aviation history, having cost $135 million. Others continued to hold out hope.

“In the absence of new evidence, Malaysia, Australia and China have collectively decided to suspend the search upon completion of the 120,000-square-kilometer (46,300-square-mile) search area,” Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said after a meeting with his Australian and Chinese counterparts.

There are fewer than 3,900 square miles left to be searched. In a statement read by Liow, the ministers acknowledged that “the likelihood of finding the aircraft is fading.”

[naviga:h3]Prosecutor: France truck driver had help[/naviga:h3]

PARIS — The truck driver who killed 84 people on a Nice beachfront had accomplices and appears to have been plotting his attack for months, the Paris prosecutor said Thursday, citing text messages, phone calls and video of the attack on the phone of one of five people facing terror charges.

The prosecutor said five people were handed preliminary terrorism charges Thursday night for their alleged roles in helping 31-year-old Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel in the July 14 attack.

Prosecutor Francois Molins' office, which oversees terrorism investigations, opened a judicial inquiry Thursday into a battery of charges for the suspects, including complicity to murder and possessing weapons tied to a terrorist enterprise.

Details about the investigation came as France's interior minister faced criticism that a faulty security plan may have opened the way for the truck attack.

The prosecutor said the investigation made “notable advances” since the Bastille Day attack by Bouhlel, a Tunisian who had been living legally in Nice for years. Bouhlel was killed by police after mowing down people who had come for holiday fireworks.