U.S.: Satellite Images Show Russian Rockets Hitting Ukraine - by Scott Neuman

The U.S. State Department has released satellite images it says back up the assertion by Washington and Kiev that Russian forces are firing artillery into eastern Ukraine in support of separatists.

titled Evidence of Russian Shelling into Ukraine, released Sunday, blast marks from rocket launches in Russia and craters in Ukraine can be seen, the State Department says.

The document also shows "self-propelled artillery only found in Russian military units, on the Russian side of the border, oriented in the direction of a Ukrainian military unit within Ukraine."

It also states that: "Russia-backed separatists have used heavy artillery, provided by Russia, in attacks on Ukrainian forces from inside Ukraine."

The images are attributed to the U.S. Director of National Intelligence and were taken between July 21 and July 26, officials say — days after the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.

According to The Associated Press, they "claim to show multiple rocket launchers fired at Ukrainian forces from within Ukraine and from Russian soil. One image shows dozens of craters around a Ukrainian military unit and rockets that can travel more than 7 miles."

The release of the satellite images comes after , a charge that Kiev has made repeatedly and loudly in recent days.

It also comes as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry reportedly agreed in a telephone conversation Sunday on the importance of a cease-fire in eastern Ukraine, according to Reuters.

In a Russian Foreign Ministry statement carried by the news agency, Moscow describes the crisis in Ukraine as an "internal conflict."

Read more: U.S.: Satellite Images Show Russian Rockets Hitting Ukraine : The Two-Way : NPR

Netherlands mourns as bodies of MH17 plane crash victims are flown home - by Philip Oltermann

Ij the Netherlands a day of national mourning

As the first coffin was lowered from the planes on the runway, silence fell over Eindhoven military airport. The only sound came from a row of flags whipping in the wind at half mast.

Almost a week after Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot from the skies above Ukraine, 40 bodies arrived on Wednesday in the Netherlands, the country that bore the heaviest toll in the crash.

King Willem-Alexander, Queen Maxima and the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, joined about 1,000 relatives and friends of the victims, who gathered at the airport for a ceremony receiving the two military transport planes.

A lone trumpeter played the Last Post as troops in dress uniform saluted then carried the wooden caskets to a row of hearses. They drove from the airport under military police escort to an army barracks in the central city of Hilversum where forensic experts were waiting to begin the painstaking task of identifying the remains.
Crowds gathered on bridges along the 65-mile route to throw flowers on to the convoy of 40 hearses.

The Dutch government had declared a day of national mourning – the first since the death of Queen Wilhelmina in 1962 – and at 4.07pm a minute's silence was requested across the country.

Two-hundred and ninety-eight passengers and crew were killed when the Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpar was shot down last Thursday a week today. The Dutch victims numbered 193. In a nation of just 16 million, few have been unaffected by the disaster.

Read more: Netherlands mourns as bodies of MH17 plane crash victims are flown home | World news | The Guardian

Ukraine: Malaysia Airlines plane carrying 295 people shot down with missile launched from Russian made Buk launcher.near Ukrainee-Russia border

U.S. officials have confirmed to several media outlets that the Malaysia Airlines passenger plane that crashed near the Ukraine-Russia border Thursday was shot down by a surface-to-air missile.

The origin of the missile remained unclear and both government officials and pro-Russia separatists fighting in the region denied responsibility.

The number of fatalities in the crash was not immediately clear.

There were 295 people on board, 280 passengers and 15 crew members. Ukrainian authorities told U.S. Embassy officials that everyone on the plane was "believed dead" and that the aircraft debris was scatted over a 10-mile swath of land, ABC News reported.

Malaysia Airlines released a partial list, published by the Washington Post, of the nationalities for 233 of the plane's 280 passengers: 154 Dutch, 27 Australian, 23 Malaysian, 11 Indonesian, 6 British, 4 German, 4 Belgian, 3 Filipino and one Canadian. The airline said it did not yet know the nationalities of the remaining passengers yet. 

Every member of the 15-person crew was Malaysian, the airline said.

An aide to Ukraine's interior minister quoted by Interfax said the total number of dead in the crash was more than 300 and included 23 U.S. citizens.

Read more: Malaysia Airlines plane carrying 295 people shot down in missile strike near Ukraine-Russia border: U.S. official - Yahoo News

Airline Safety: 60% Say Air Travel Can Never Be Made Completely Safe from Terrorism

Most Americans don’t think the missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner was a victim of terrorism but also believe air travel can never be made completely safe from terrorists. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 26% of American Adults feel that terrorism is the most likely cause of the Malaysia Airlines crash.

Thirty-three percent (33%) think mechanical failure is the most likely cause, while nine percent (9%) feel it’s due to human error. Eleven percent (11%) attribute it to something else. Twenty-two percent (22%) are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

The survey of 1000 American Adults was conducted on March 11-12, 2014 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC.

Read more: 60% Say Air Travel Can Never Be Made Completely Safe from Terrorism - Rasmussen Reports™