Your morning five: Malaysian jetliner still missing

We tell you five things you need to know this morning.

1. Nobody can find Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. A yellow life raft that may have come from the jetliner that disappeared from radar screens three days ago turned out to be unconnected. A pair of passengers who’d boarded the plane on stolen passports are fuelling speculation that MH370 was hijacked. Forty ships from nine nations are combing waters off the coast of Vietnam and Malaysia for any wreckage.

2. Brian McKeever wins gold. The Paralympics are McKeever’s playground. The visually impaired cr0ss-country skier and biathlete from Calgary struck gold twice in 2002, twice more in 2006, thrice again in 2010, and now at least once in Sochi. He came back from fourth in today’s 20-kilometre race, guided by Erik Carleton and Graham Nishikawa​. McKeever, who fought off a virus for the past week, still stands a shot at another couple of first-place finishes in Sochi.

3. Ali Mustafa died in a Syrian air strike. Mustafa, 29, was a Toronto-born photographer who spent considerable time in the Middle East. He died when a government aircraft dropped a bomb on Aleppo. Maher Azem, who organized a vigil in remembrance of Mustafa, said the photographer was working to help the Syrian people—and, as he attempted to assist those caught in an initial air strike, died in a second attack.

4. Grain farmers are anxious about paying bills. Agriculture Gerry Ritz spent weeks claiming the government was frustrated about grain not getting to market because of logjams on the country’s railways. Last week, Ritz forced railways to put more cars on the tracks, but farmers are worried that substantial movement is still weeks away. Applications for cash advances, a measure the opposition urged the feds to bolster, are on the rise. Ritz may not be finished announcing help for farmers.

5. Kim Jong Un swept the polls. The North Korean dictator won every vote cast in an election, perhaps the the world’s most predictable, that sends Un to the Supreme People’s Assembly. Anyone who didn’t want to elect Un in his district on Mount Paekdu would have had to vote in a separate booth, a show of dissent that’s not exactly popular among the people. The elected assembly meets rarely and doesn’t wield much power, but Un’s win adds another line to his somewhat unique résumé.