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Today's MH17 news in less than five minutes.

List of Australians on board flight MH17 is released.

The names of the 36 Australian citizens and residents, who were among the total of 298 passengers and crew on board flight MH17, have now been released.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said, “we bleed for them, we grieve for them and we will do everything we can.”

The ABC has released a full list of those so far known to be on board. That can be accessed here. 

Ukraine says it has “compelling evidence” Russian rebels were behind MH17 tragedy.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) said MH17 was shot down by a Buk antimissile system which had been recently transferred from Russia to Ukraine.

SSU Head, Vitalii Naida, said, “The SSU conducts investigative actions and receives irrefutable evidence that Russian citizens were involved in the act of terrorism.”

International condemnation of Russian President Vladimir Putin continues.

Many are calling for Vladimir Putin to be banned from attending the G20 summit in Brisbane later this year, unless he fails to support an international investigation into the reasons behind the shooting down of flight MH17.

There is also growing resentment towards him as it is believed he helped supply the rebels with the air missiles thought to have brought the plane down.

Yesterday, during a meeting between G20 economic ministers, protestors with signs like “Stop Putin” were rife.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten also declared his party would support Putin being banned from entering the G20 Summit if he failed to co-operate in international investigations surrounding the shooting down of flight MH17.

Pilots’ group president says MH17 pilot was flying lower than planned to avoid storms.

Nico Voorbach, the president of the European Cockpit Association, has said that MH17 pilots may have been trying to avoid thunderstorms brewing in the South of Ukraine.

This theory has been proposed after it was discovered MH17 was flying many miles north of the flight plan usually taken along the same route.

However, Malaysian Airlines director of operations Izham Ismail has said there were no reports from the pilot to suggest weather conditions factored into the decision to fly at a lower altitude.

Reports emerge from the crash site.

Witnesses on ground in east Ukraine where MH17 crashed have described the crash site as “grim” and with “bodies scattered everywhere”.

John Wendle told ABC News that Ukrainian emergency services were on site and that “rebel fighters had secured the area”.

He added, “there are a number of emergency vehicles that have turned up and the Ukraine emergency services are here.”

Rescue workers with flashlights are also searching the area, looking for victims body parts.

Noah Sneider, a writer and journalist based in Ukraine, tweeted: “At crash site of #MH17. Bodies everywhere, organs splayed out. Too gruesome to post photographs. This is an absolute disaster. #ukraine”.

Abbott pledges recovering Australian bodies is a top priority.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott told ABC’s Insiders program that his government’s priority is to recover the bodies of the 36 Australian citizens and residents whose lives have been “snuffed out” after they were killed on board flight MH17.

“The grim truth is that not all of the bodies will be intact. I hate to say it, this is a horrible business,” he said.

“My fear is that Russia will say the right thing, but that on the ground interference with the site, interference with investigators, interference with the dignified treatment of bodies will continue”. 

Malaysia ‘deeply concerned’ crash site has been tampered with.

Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai has called for the crash site of MH17 to be better secured after claims key evidence had been removed emerged.

“The integrity of the site has been compromised and there are indications that vital evidence has not been preserved in place. Interfering with the scenes of the crash risks undermining the investigation itself,” he said.

Julie Bishop heads to US to support international investigation into MH17 tragedy.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop is set to travel to the United States. She will be launching a lobbying offensive at the UN in New York, calling on the Security Council to back a binding resolution on the investigation.

However, what will come of this is unknown as Russia has the power to veto any resolution.

Though Vladimir Putin, Russian President, initially condemned the West for assuming Russian-armed separatists shot down the plane, it is now hoped he will support a multi-national investigation into the plane’s demise.

Singapore Airlines comes under fire for insensitive tweet after MH17 incident .

Singapore Airlines has had to issue an apology after posting a tweet that read, “customers may wish to note that Singapore Airlines flights are not using Ukraine airspace”.

Numerous Malaysians and others around the world blasted the tweet as insensitive and offensive. Others have however leapt to its defence citing the airline’s declaration as a fact necessary to ease the worries of current flyers.

Yesterday, Singapore airlines issued an apology that read:

“We are aware of that our Facebook and Twitter update on Friday morning may have come across as insensitive to some. The post was in response to many requests from our customers who had asked for information about our flight routes for their upcoming flights with us.

“We recognise that the information could have been better communicated and we sincerely apologise if it had offended our customers and anyone else in the online community.”

 

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Top Comments

V! 10 years ago

“bodies scattered everywhere” and “At crash site of #MH17. Bodies everywhere, organs splayed out"

Do we really need such detail? Nobody wants to read this about their loved ones. Those poor families must be horrified :-(


Julie Julie 10 years ago

Don't believe what you read/see!

V! 10 years ago

I make a habit of believing what I don't read and don't see.