By Eveline Danubrata and Nguyen Phuong Linh KUALA LUMPUR/PHU QUOC, Vietnam (Reuters) - Malaysia's military has traced what could have been the jetliner missing for almost five days to an area south of the Thai holiday island of Phuket, hundreds of miles from its last known position, the country's air force chief said on Wednesday. After a series of at times conflicting statements, the latest revelation underlined that authorities remain uncertain even where to look for the plane, and no closer to explaining what happened to Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 or the 239 people on board. The flight disappeared from civilian radar screens shortly before 1:30 a.m. on Saturday, less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur, as it flew northeast across the mouth of the Gulf of Thailand bound for Beijing. Malaysian air force chief Rodzali Daud told a news conference that an aircraft was plotted on military radar at 2:15 a.m., 200 miles northwest of Penang Island off Malaysia's west coast.

By Andrew Osborn and Alastair Macdonald SEVASTOPOL/KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine's government appealed for Western help on Tuesday to stop Moscow annexing Crimea but the Black Sea peninsula, overrun by Russian troops, seemed fixed on a course that could formalize rule from Moscow within days. With their own troops in Crimea effectively prisoners in their bases, the new authorities in Kiev painted a sorry picture of the military bequeathed them by the pro-Moscow president overthrown two weeks ago. The prime minister, heading for talks at the White House and United Nations, told parliament in Kiev he wanted the United States and Britain, as guarantors of a 1994 treaty that saw Ukraine give up its Soviet nuclear weapons, to intervene both diplomatically and militarily to fend off Russian "aggression".

By Martin Santa and Luke Baker BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union member states have agreed the wording of sanctions on Russia, including travel restrictions and asset freezes against those responsible for violating the sovereignty of Ukraine, according to a draft document reviewed by Reuters. The seven-page document describes in detail the restrictive measures to be taken against Moscow if it does not reverse course in Crimea and start to engage with international mediators on efforts to resolve the crisis. If approved by EU foreign ministers at a meeting on Monday, they would be the first sanctions imposed by the European Union against Russia since the end of the Cold War, marking a severe deterioration in East-West relations. The measures are being coordinated with the United States, Switzerland, Turkey, Japan and Canada, an effort to ensure the sanctions net is as tight and effective as possible.

By Chuck Mikolajczak NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were little changed on Wednesday, as equities recouped much of their earlier declines amid signs of progress in diplomatic attempts to ease tensions surrounding Ukraine. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in London on Friday ahead of a referendum Sunday on whether the Ukraine's Crimean peninsula will join Russia or go independent. "People are just kind of reassessing, they are looking at that headline and thinking maybe it is not going to turn out to be a disaster in Russia and Ukraine," said Ken Polcari, Director of the NYSE floor division at O'Neil Securities in New York.

U.S. fourth-quarter growth is likely to be revised higher after services industry data on Wednesday suggested a much stronger pace of consumer spending than the government had previously assumed, JPMorgan economist Daniel Silver said. The government last month slashed its gross domestic product estimate for October-December quarter to a 2.4 percent annual pace from a previously reported 3.2 percent rate. Silver, at JPMorgan in New York, said the quarterly services survey, from which government's estimates for services consumption and intellectual property products are derived, showed a much more robust pace of consumer spending in the fourth quarter than the government's estimated 2.6 percent rate.

By Edward Krudy NEW YORK (Reuters) - The average bonus on Wall Street jumped 15 percent last year to the highest level since the 2008 financial crisis and was the third largest on record, New York State's budget watchdog said on Wednesday. The cash bonus pool swelled to $26.7 billion in 2013, pushing the average cash bonus to $164,530, a post-2008 high, according to the New York state comptroller's annual estimate. The increased payouts came as Wall Street posted a fifth consecutive year of profits after record losses during the financial crisis. "Wall Street navigated through some rough patches last year and had a profitable year in 2013.

NEW YORK (AP) — CBS says it's renewing its hit comedy "The Big Bang Theory" for three more years.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Bill Maher took advantage of pal Jay Leno's Television Academy Hall of Fame induction to offer a spirited attack on what Maher called undeserved "bad publicity" for the former "Tonight Show" host.

NEW YORK (AP) — Since being cast in the film adaptation of "Fifty Shades of Grey," Jamie Dornan, who plays the S&M-loving billionaire Christian Grey, has largely stayed out of the public eye.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Jonathan Martin has had Jim Harbaugh's support all along, from his early college days at Stanford to the offensive tackle's tumultuous year in which he accused a Dolphins teammate of bullying, and even in a formal NFL investigation into the situation in Miami.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Stars forward Rich Peverley remained hospitalized Tuesday in Dallas, undergoing heart tests after collapsing on the bench during a game that was postponed a night earlier.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — The wife of former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky says she "definitely" believes her husband is innocent despite being convicted of sexually abusing 10 boys and that the victims' financial gain was at play.

President Barack Obama will seek to increase the number of people who earn overtime pay by updating regulations that exempt broad swaths of supervisors, managers and office workers from making overtime, a White House official said on Wednesday. On Thursday, Obama will ask the Labor Department to look at regulations for overtime, and whether to hike the salary threshold above which employers are not required to pay overtime. It is another in a series of populist measures Obama is promoting ahead of November midterm elections as Democrats try to appeal to voters and keep control of the Senate. Obama has been campaigning to boost the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour from $7.25, a measure that stands little chance of passing Congress.

The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee will vote on Wednesday on legislation addressing the Ukraine crisis that contains sanctions and IMF reforms, a senior member of the committee said. Senator Bob Corker, the top Republican on the committee, told reporters on Wednesday he expected the panel would pass the bill, sending it for a vote in the full Senate. He also said it contained aid for Ukraine and backing for a $1 billion loan guarantee.

By Richard Cowan and Jason Lange WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Wednesday approved Federal Reserve Governor Sarah Bloom Raskin to be the No. 2 official at the Treasury Department, backing a critic of Wall Street to help coordinate an overhaul of financial regulations. The Senate approved the nomination by voice vote. Raskin, who was a state banking supervisor before she joined the Fed, is expected to play a central role in the roll-out of regulations aimed at preventing a repeat of the 2007-09 financial crisis. Her departure from the central bank opens yet another seat on the Fed's board for President Barack Obama to fill.