Thai coup leader General Prayut Chan-O-Cha named prime minister

(AFP) - Thailand's junta-picked national assembly on Thursday chose coup leader General Prayut Chan-O-Cha as prime minister in a one-horse race that entrenched the military's hold on power.

Nobody in the rubber-stamp legislature opposed the selection of the 60-year-old army chief, who ousted an elected government in a bloodless takeover on May 22.

The move by the top general to shed his uniform and take the premiership is seen as cementing the military's control of the politically turbulent nation.

Malaysia Missing Jet Was Diverted, Open Criminal Inquiry - Officials

The search for Malaysia Flight 370 turned into a criminal investigation on Saturday, after the country declared that the plane had been deliberately diverted and then flown for as long as seven hours toward an unknown point far from its scheduled route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Malaysian PM Najib Razak said on Saturday afternoon that he would seek the help of governments across a large swath of Asia in the search for the plane, which has been missing for a week and had 239 people on board.

Malaysian authorities has released a map showing that the last satellite signal received from the plane, sent from a point somewhere along one of two arcs spanning large distances across Asia.