Australia said Thursday the hunt for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 will focus on the southern part of the existing search zone after new information suggested it "may have turned south" earlier than thought.

Malaysian police have arrested 44 Nepalese workers after some 500 migrant workers rioted, set fire to an electronics factory and attacked officers, a senior security official said Wednesday.

Mohamad Idris Samsuri, local police chief in southern Johor state said the workers initially went on strike early Tuesday to express their dissatisfaction over working conditions but their action subsequently turned violent.

Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has rejected offers of asylum abroad ahead of a final appeal in October on a sodomy conviction that could see him jailed, a political aide said Monday.

Chinese physics student Jimmy Wang had no interest in aviation until March 8, when Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 went missing with his 58-year-old father Wang Lijun aboard.

Millions of black-clad Malaysians fell silent Friday in tribute to their 43 countrymen killed in the MH17 disaster as the first remains were brought home and laid to rest amid deep sorrow and anger.

A plane carrying the bodies of 20 Malaysian victims of flight MH17, which crashed in Ukraine in July, took off from Amsterdam for Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, Dutch media reported.

There was no ceremony for the departure from Schiphol airport, local news agency ANP reported, with the plane to land in Malaysia on Friday, which has been declared a day of national mourning.

A Malaysian bank officer and her husband were charged Wednesday with forgery, theft and other offences after allegedly stealing more than $30,000 from the accounts of four people who were aboard missing flight MH370.

Nur Shila Kanan, who has worked for the Malaysian operations of British banking giant HSBC for 10 years, and her mechanic husband Basheer Ahmad Maula Sahul Hameed pleaded not guilty in a Kuala Lumpur court to a total of 16 charges, their lawyer Hakeem Aiman Affandi said.

Malaysian police have foiled plans for a wave of bombings drawn up by radical Islamic militants inspired by Iraq's extremist jihad group ISIL, a top counter-terrorism official said Tuesday.

Malaysian police have arrested a bank officer and her husband over allegations they stole more than $30,000 from the accounts of four passengers aboard missing flight MH370, an official said Friday.

The couple have been held in police custody since Thursday on suspicion of withdrawing 110,643 ringgit ($34,850) from the accounts of two Malaysian and two Chinese MH370 victims, said Zainuddin Ahmad, a district police chief in Kuala Lumpur.

Malaysia said Thursday that the remains of 16 victims aboard downed Flight MH17 will repatriated on August 22, declaring it a day of national mourning.

Coffins bearing the remains will arrive on a special flight and be received by the country's king, prime minister and other dignitaries to a minute of silence at Kuala Lumpur's main international airport, Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said in a statement.