Plane Down: Searchers found a 12-mile long oil slick between Vietnam and Malaysia today, indicating that a missing Malaysia Airlines jet went down yesterday in the Gulf of Thailand. The Boeing 777 carrying 239 people from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing was flying stable at 35,000 feet when it went off the radar. The plane sent out no distress call. Most of the passengers were from China, three from America.

Gas Bill Comes Due: Ratcheting up the pressure, Russia’s natural gas monopoly Gazprom threatened to turn off Ukraine’s gas if the country doesn’t pay its nearly $2 billion bill. Russian news outlets quoted Gazprom’s chief saying, “We cannot deliver natural gas for free.” Ukraine gets 60 percent of its gas from Russia, which shut off the supply briefly in January, 2009, causing a mess for Ukraine and European customers.

Russia wields a big club with its natural gas. Europe gets 40 percent of its natural gas from Russia, and 80 percent of that comes through a network of lines passing through Ukraine.

The Russian foreign minister also warned Secy. Of State John Kerry that any hastily applied sanctions against Russia “would inevitably backfire on the United States itself.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin was back in Sochi yesterday for the opening of the Paralympic games where he said, “I hope the Paralympics will at least cool off passions over Ukraine a little.”

From the Right: Bedrock Republicans at the Conservative Political Action Committee meeting in Washington elbowed each other to express disdain for President Obama and everything he stands for. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz sounded the battle cry once again to repeal Obamacare. Former UN Ambassador John Bolton expressed his admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin saying, “Vladimir Putin has a strategy and Obama has nothing. Putin has a growing defense budget and ours is shrinking.” New York’s pompous real estate magnate Donald Trump, stomped on “the late, great Jimmy Carter,” who is not dead.

Econ 101: In a sign of a changing retail world, Staples and Radio Shack this week announced the closing of hundreds of stores. The office supply chain is closing 225 stores, 12 percent of its North American shops, and the electronics retailer is closing 1,100 storefronts, 20 percent of its total. Staples said half its sales are online and they face stiff competition from Amazon and Wal-Mart. Big box electronic retailers like Best Buy are beating up Radio Shack.

Gun Runner: South African prosecutors this week portrayed blade runner Oscar Pistorius as a gun-toting hothead who never went anywhere without his pistol. Pistorius is on trial for murder in the shooting death of his girlfriend a year ago. One witness testified that Pistorius accidentally fired a gun in a restaurant and asked his friend to take the blame. A former girlfriend said Pistorius once got up in the middle of the night with his gun saying he had heard a suspicious noise. And the same girlfriend said that once, after Pistorius was admonished by a police officer for carrying a loaded gun in his car, minutes later fired a shot through the open sunroof as he was driving.

60: CBS News veteran Los Angeles Correspondent Bill Whitaker has been named a correspondent for 60 Minutes. Whitaker has reported from all over the world in 30 years at CBS. At age 62, Whitaker may be a little young for the job, but 60 Minutes is trying to attract a younger demographic.

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